The State of the Union for Consumers

Comcast, one of the nation’s largest cable companies, is experimenting with technology that would monitor who is watching television.

Health insurance companies rifle through garbage and stalk people in order to find the tiniest excuse to decline insurance claims.

Customer service is generally provided by people thousands of miles away, in other countries, where operators are trained to listen for keywords and read scripts instead of fully comprehending the trouble the caller is experiencing.

Online music, videos, and games purchased by customers are usually crippled with anti-piracy digital rights management software. Sony even sold CDs with rootkit software that silently installed itself on computers, much the same way a virus would, and with similar consequences for the unsuspecting buyer.

From privacy to poor customer service, the state of the United States for consumers is not looking good.

Banks can charge hidden fees only disclosed in 6-point font somewhere in the paperwork they ask customers to sign.

Companies sign people up for free trials and automatically begin charging them for the service after the trial period, neglecting to ask whether the service should continue or not.

Cell phone companies require long contracts and charge early termination fees for customers who want to get a better deal somewhere else.

Sprint recently ended many consumers’ contracts early because they called technical support too often – it was cheaper to “fire” their customers than to provide them with help.

CEOs of large companies make millions of dollars for running their companies into the ground or, in Best Buy’s case, firing the most knowledgeable, skillful staff to hire cheaper, less-trained labor.

These are just a few of the ridiculous situations modern American consumers find themselves facing. From illogical and unhelpful customer support to outright fraud, from large corporations to fly-by-night companies like North Dakota’s own WebSmart fiasco, the litany of abuses committed against consumers (and employees) is endless.

It’s time for people who spend a buck to be treated fairly and with respect. Some companies manage to do this and many more claim to, but it’s time fair and enforceable consumer protections are put into law.

Sure, we have a mish-mash of federal and state laws encompassing everything from meat safety to toy recalls, but currently the Consumer Product Safety Commission employs a mere 90 inspectors. They cover thousands of products across the country. Just 90 people.

The Senate recently passed a law to grant the CPSC more funding and more enforcement powers (Senators Conrad and Dorgan both voted for the bill), but does it go far enough?

It’s not just a matter of protecting children from toys with lead, or making sure the meat we buy from the market is fresh and untainted. It’s a matter of ensuring fairness and honesty on the part of the huge businesses that control so much of our lives.

President John F. Kennedy outlined four basic rights, later expanded to six, which became known as the Consumer Bill of Rights:
The Right to Be Safe
The Right to Choose Freely
The Right to Be Heard
The Right to Be Informed
The Right to Education
The Right to Service

People generally assume these fairly obvious and self-explanatory rights, but they were only recognized in the ‘50s and ‘60s. And the mess of laws oftentimes leaves massive cracks for consumers to fall through.

Until we have comprehensive consumer protection legislation that stops large companies from abusing their customers, the best weapon available to consumer advocates is bad publicity.

The internet is the great equalizer between faceless corporate power and the individual consumer. Web sites like The Consumerist (consumerist.com) teach people how to avoid scams, get their problems solved, and even how to take companies like Best Buy and Verizon to small claims court (it’s easier than it sounds).

The negative press that results from the stories people write about their experiences on Web sites usually leads to results, even if the people have been stymied by every other option available to them through a company’s official channels.

We’re a fairly easy-going bunch in North Dakota. We play fair and expect the same. And while that’s usually the case, there are many things we could and should do to prevent the victimization of consumers, whether it’s a bank refusing to recognize a case of credit card fraud or debt collectors illegally harassing people at work.

The North Dakota legislature could be a national leader by promoting laws banning early termination fees for cell phone contracts or by putting into law opt-in requirements for trial offers.

Everybody runs into bad customer service at some point. It’s a fact of life. But we can do something about the most egregious cases. North Dakotans don’t have to put up with lousy service, whether it’s cell phones or health insurance. We have the right and the responsibility to tell companies how they can and can’t treat us. It’s time we stand up for ourselves and demand to be treated fairly.