Show BETTY FURNESS THE PRESIDENTS CONSUMER AFFAIRS SPECIALIST TELLS SHOPPERS WHAT THEY High Prices Repair Gyps AirN dur Mies Fwimm sales Not without ehoekiof him out We’ve all heard stories of slick salesmen whoVe unloaded shoddy foods or foods that never arrived on unsuspectinf consumers Of all of these swindles the racket is the worst Perhaps the man may offer you a special factory deal a barfain price or some similar gimmick Often halfway throufh his work he will "discover" somethinf else that needs fix-iat an additional "barfain" price When he’s through it may turn out you’ve paid an exorbitant sum for shoddy improvements you really may not have needed in the first place Or he may quickly sell the contract you’ve signed to someone else When you complain these new people tell you they’re not responsible No doubt there are shady businessmen whom you have to telephone yourself or see in their own offices But the people seem to have the most offenders That’s why before you aifn anythinf you should double-checwith the Better Business Bureau and also compare prices with the established business people in your area first door-to-do- or hit-and-r- un nt nf door-to-do- or k What cm HJa I da if I tMafc I've beea — WnMCOTs take advantafe of it Briefly it requires finance people com- panies banks and other lenders to tell borrowers and credit customers of the cost of their loans You can see in a moment what the credit costs are and you can do comparison shoppinf The bill also redollars-and-ce- nti stricts famishment of waves for Jebts and makes extortion by loan sharks a Federal offense sapsrwaihol I sMI sm so many Bwid vises of Ike seine Iking that I feel I need a slide-rul- e la cheese Whet's ye-ia-e aaf No wonder you’re confused We know that there are 57 sixes of tooth- paste SO sixes of hair spray and 200 sixes of paper towda The bill hopea to end this chaos The bill calls for voluntary standards to be set by business When it was passed tiro industries— the instant-coffe- e and instant-potat- o peo— ple volunteered immediately to fet to work on settinf their standards There are indications that other industries will follow suit The fovemment would prefer voby business luntary But if it fails to act then the bill calls for the Secretary of Commerce to advise Confress at the end of a year as to whether new legislation is Tnith-in-Packafi- nf self-refulati- on needed You should contact your local district attorney or the Better Busi- ness Bureau You may not be able to vet your money bad but at least you can help protect other people from the same frauds by alertinf authorities The way the law stands now these people can go on doinf business even if you or the fovemment has broufht action afainst them We have asked Confreas to five the Federal Trade Commission new powers that will enable it to stop the swindles immediately rather than havinf to wait while court action is pendinf Gmwm nnm 4i Ml Inf Mrik Im HMBAaa ainuln mmw "Trvtfc-in-liiMliiv- f1 Wifi Hris make shopping mmmAw Simple yes Safe no Whether it will be safe or not depends on whether Family Wtakly Juna II JMI to aspect from Ike mannfactorer ef product? I think the consumer should be told what a product will do what it contains how kmf it will last end what it coats to operate You should be told all the do’s and don’ts that to into usinf the product For example the refriferator people will tell you the total cubic footage of the refriferator but this doesn’t take into account the special features that may take up some of this space I think they should tell you the actual usable capacity We’re workinr with industry to fet them to provide this sort of reasonable information They tend to hesitate especially about giving the life expectancy of a product because this does depend on who uses the product how they use it and where they use It But I think an educated guess based on average usage would be reasonable Why cmI I aver key mm appliance end expect it to lesl el lead entfl —I — —M nr ig I've W That’s one of the most common complaints— and a fair one The President has instructed me the chairman of the FTC and the Secretaries of Commerce and Labor to work with industry on solving this The major problem seems to be that although almoat every appliance cornea with a warranty or a guarantee they’re written in such complicated language that consumers can’t understand them What we need are guarantees that are simply written that say what they mean and mean what they say They should tell you exactly what parts are guaranteed and for how long They should state who’s responsible—the store or the manufacturer They should tell you what the limitations are such as accident misuse fire flood or act of God A e company remajor washing-machin- cently has dime it simplified just this and to boot the warranty into a letter that anyone can understand We’re hoping that other manufacturers will follow their lead Whoa aiy aspksw came heme from Vietnam he ievad Ifcal his aatoiewr-mcpremium had been raised became he'd keen eel of Ike cavalry Is Ihisfairf No it’s not We are now unde- rtaking a major survey of auto insurance and there seem to be a lot of things that need looking into The time lag between filing a claim and getting action is often terribly long Some people are not paid enough for damages and injuries and others |