Focus on LifeSmarts: Countdown to St. Louis! – National Consumers League

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As we get closer to this year’s National LifeSmarts Championship event, which will take place in St. Louis, MO, April 25-28, we thought it might be a good time to showcase the real-life lessons LifeSmarts offers its participants.

First up: Health and Safety

As the economy worsens, you or someone you know may have difficulty paying medical bills. In LifeSmarts, teen participants learn that it pays to shop around and compare many different options before selecting what to purchase. Good consumers also know that the prices of certain items are negotiable – like new and used cars, houses, and consumer items bought through online auctions.

What you may not know is that many doctors have some flexibility with the rates they charge and may be able to offer reduced fees depending on your circumstances. Check out this recent New York Times article “Bargaining Down the Medical Bills” to find out more about negotiating fees with doctors and to read some helpful tips.

Are You a Locavore? – National Consumers League

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by Mimi Johnson

The First Family is one step closer to being locavores, after recently planting a *vegetable garden on the lawn of the White House. There has not been a garden of its kind at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue since Eleanor Roosevelt planted a victory garden during World War II. Sustainable agriculture, proponents say, is good for your health, as well as the health of the environment. First Lady Michelle Obama said she hoped this garden will help educate children about healthful, locally grown fruit and vegetables, and that they will “begin to educate their families and that will, in turn, begin to educate our communities.” In an age of convenience and attempts to save time, we all too often forget the satisfaction (and importance) of fresh foods. We too hope that this garden plants seeds of prevention in the minds of millions of Americans.

Even technology is getting into the game. With the Locavore 1.0 application, iPhone users can locate local, seasonal food and farmers’ markets across the country.

As the weather becomes warmer and the days longer, you might consider planting a few herbs or vegetables yourself. If your thumbs are not too green, consider taking a trip to your local farmers’ market … in addition to getting some good eats, you’ll also help support local businesses.

 

*Links are no longer active as the original sources have removed the content, sometimes due to federal website changes or restructurings.

NCL survey: consumers demanding more from their DVD collections – National Consumers League

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April 6, 2009

Near-unanimous agreement: Consumers believe backing up DVD content is a Right; many bothered by inability to do so

Contact: 202-835-3323, media@nclnet.org

Washington, DC—Americans’ attitudes towards DVDs are evolving and driving expectations about their use, according to a new survey released today by the National Consumers League. The Opinion Research Corporation survey of 1,000 consumers, aged 18-64, who own a personal computer, conducted March 11-16, finds that—amidst a backdrop of a slowing market and troubled economy, when consumers’ satisfaction may be more important than ever—Americans are overwhelmingly interested in the ability to copy or back up their DVDs to their computers and laptops.

With 69 percent of respondents reportedly watching DVDs on their computers, and with more than a third saying they’ve had to repurchase lost or damaged DVDs in the past, consumers are resoundingly interested in the ability to back-up their DVD content. According to the survey, 90 percent (and 93 percent of those with children in the household) agree that DVD owners should be able to copy a DVD to their computer in the same way that they save music from a CD.

For years, consumers have been able to freely copy and back up the content on their compact disc (CD) collections to their hard drives and other devices. Given the growing availability of affordable hard drives capable of storing the contents of multiple DVDs, NCL wanted to examine whether the expectation of freedom of usage from the CD market is translating to the consumer DVD market. 

Consumers currently have limited options for saving the contents of most commercial DVDs to their computers, whether for back up purposes or simply so that they can easily access their DVD library without carrying around the actual discs.  Some “expanded” editions of DVDs, which are usually sold at an additional cost, come with the ability to save an additional copy to a computer.  NCL, the nation’s oldest consumer advocacy group, commissioned the study to examine consumers’ opinions related to the entertainment content stored in their DVD collections.

“Clearly, advances in technology have left consumers expecting a great deal of freedom when it comes to movies that they’ve purchased,” said Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director. “Consumers’ attitudes towards saving content have been shaped by their ability to freely copy the contents of their CD collections to their computers and iPods. Our survey shows that they are eager to have that same ability with their DVDs and are frustrated that the market has not adapted to meet that desire.”

Survey Highlights: DVDs are in widespread use beyond the TV set

More than a third (35 percent) of consumers surveyed reported owning more than 50 DVDs, with the average household owning 78 DVDs, but consumers are no longer exclusively using a conventional television-and-DVD-player configuration:

  • 69 percent of respondents—and 74 percent of those with children—reported that they (or members of their family) use a computer to watch DVDs.
  • Nearly a third of respondents (31 percent) use a portable or in-car DVD player regularly. For respondents with children in the household, portable DVD players are even more common, with 40 percent reporting regular use.
  • More than a third (38 percent) of respondents reported that they have had to repurchase at least one DVD because it was lost or damaged. For respondents with children in the household, this number increased to 45 percent.

“Consumers are taking their DVDs on the road with them,” said John Breyault, NCL’s Vice President for Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud. “With the growth in popularity and affordability of hand-held and car-based DVD players and video-capable MP3 players, when and where consumers watch movies has changed dramatically.”

Survey Highlight: Consumers indicate a high desire to copy DVDs
While the majority of consumers (82 percent) have never saved a copy of a purchased DVD to their computers’ hard drives, and a small number (4 percent) has tried and failed, respondents demonstrated overwhelming interest in being able to do so:


  • Nearly all (90 percent; 93 percent with kids in the house) say DVD owners should be able to copy a DVD to their computer in the same way that they save music from a CD.
  • Half of those surveyed (51 percent) were bothered that they can’t save most DVDs to their hard drives without cracking the encryption or purchasing an expanded version of the DVD; these numbers were higher among those respondents with children in the household (56 percent) or between the ages of 25 and 34 (67 percent). In this age group, 92 percent think they should have this right.
  • Nearly half (46 percent) of those who said they should be able to save a copy of a DVD onto their hard drive have had to repurchase DVDs due to loss or damage.

Survey Highlight: The economy and the DVD Market – Is there a further slow-down ahead?

While the great majority of consumers (89 percent) are satisfied with the value they are getting out of the DVDs they purchase, many reported that the economy has changed their DVD buying habits:

  • More than half of respondents (55 percent) said that they are currently purchasing fewer DVDs than they did a year ago.
  • Four in ten (41 percent) said they expect to purchase fewer DVDs one year from now.
  • However, 41 percent said the ability to save a copy of their DVDs to their computer or laptop would make their DVD collections more valuable, and 40 percent said it might cause them to buy more DVDs.

Click here for complete survey results, including an executive summary and a copy of the questionnaire. The National Consumers League thanks RealNetworks for the unrestricted educational grant that made this survey possible.

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About the National Consumers League

Founded in 1899, the National Consumers League is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Its mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. NCL is a private, nonprofit membership organization. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.

Survey Methodology

1,000 online surveys were administered to adults 18-64, who personally own a desktop or laptop computer, between Wednesday, March 11th and Monday, March 16th, 2009.  Data was then weighted to better represent the national Internet population.  Variables included in the weighting are gender, region, age, and race.

About Opinion Research Corporation

Opinion Research Corporation, an infoGroup company, has offered innovative solutions to the toughest market research challenges of clients worldwide since 1938. Since the 1960s, ORC has conducted CARAVAN®, the USA’s longest continuously running consumer omnibus. In addition, the firm has been conducting national, speech reaction, state and flash/overnight polls for CNN since April 2006. To learn more, visit www.opinionresearch.com.

DVD Copying Is In the Public Interest – National Consumers League

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By John Breyault, NCL VP of Public Policy, Fraud and Telecommunications

Consumers have an average of 78 DVDs in their collections and are frustrated that for the most part, they are limited to only using the physical discs, according to NCL’s *new survey on DVD usage.

For years, consumers have enjoyed to the freedom to copy their compact disc collections for back up purposes or transfer the content of those discs to their computers for personal use. Many consumers have spent years building up vast collections of CDs, so this ability is a welcome way to extend the lives of their collections and listen to their library on different platforms, such as iPods or personal computers.

A confluence of factors led to our interest in the DVD copying issue. The dramatically lower cost of hard drive space, the promulgation of portable video-viewing devices, including in-car players, video-capable personal music devices, and ultraportable laptop computers and the wide availability of DVD-RW drives are all technological advances that have made copying DVD content to hard drives practical for consumers. Our goal in surveying consumers on this issue was to see if these greater technological capabilities, combined with years of expectations related to content use (from the CD market) have translated into greater consumer desire to copy DVDs.

Our survey of consumer attitudes towards DVD copying largely validated our hypothesis. Some of the highlights from the survey results include:

·        90% (93% of households with children) of consumers believe that DVD owners should be able to copy a DVD to their computer in the same way that they save music from a CD.

·        69% of respondents reported watching DVDs on their computers (74% in households with children)

·        31% of consumers use a portable or in-car DVD player regularly, a figure which rises to 40% for households with children.

·        More than one-third (38) of respondents have had to repurchase at least one DVD because it was lost or damaged.

·        41% of respondents said that the ability to copy a DVDs to their hard drives would make their DVD collections more valuable and 40% said that it might cause them to buy more DVDs.

For more information on the new survey, *click here.

 

*Links are no longer active as the original sources have removed the content, sometimes due to federal website changes or restructurings.

Ag Secretary Hears Consumer Groups’ Concerns – National Consumers League

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by Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

Consumer and food safety groups recently had the chance to sit down with new Agriculture Secretary, *Tom Vilsack. During the campaign, the Secretary had made some important pro-consumer statements, including supporting the creation of a single agency for food safety—something consumer groups have spent a decade working for. After a rash of recalls on everything from contaminated spinach, raspberries, beef, peanut butter, pet food and just this week, pistachios contaminated with salmonella, it has become clear that our food safety system is in need of an overhaul.

Gathering in a beautiful, old conference room in the Agriculture Department’s Whitten Building on the National Mall, the consumer groups and Vilsack, former governor of Iowa, talked about his principles of governing: transparency, participation, and collaboration. He also talked about his close relationship with the incoming Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, current Governor of Kansas. In her role as head of HHS, Sebelius will oversee the work of the Food and Drug Administration and it’s important that these two food safety watchdogs can work together.

The FDA oversees the safety of 80 percent of our food supply, including produce, while the Department of Agriculture regulates 20 percent, including meat, poultry, and eggs. Altogether *20-some separate federal agencies have some responsibility for food safety. Funding for FDA, however, has so diminished in recent years that imported fruits and vegetables have about a 1 percent chance of getting inspected at the border. Domestic produce farms and growers are likely to be inspected only once every 5 years.

Vilsack mostly listened as our consumer groups—including Nancy Donley of S.T.O.P. (Safe Tables Our Priority), whose only child died from eating a fast food hamburger infected with E. coli and has been a food safety activist ever since—talked about including consumer representatives in the Food Safety Working Group, which President Obama has pledged to create, and other issues.

For me, the importance of this meeting lay in the Secretary of Agriculture looking around the table at the 17 people in our meeting who represent the interests of millions of consumers. After this discussion, I think Secretary Vilsack better understands who we are and that consumer groups will need to have a seat at the table—and will play a critical role—in the new Administration’s initiatives on food safety and consumer protection.

 

*Links are no longer active as the original sources have removed the content, sometimes due to federal website changes or restructurings.

Turn the Tables on Scammers this April Fool’s Day – National Consumers League

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By John Breyault

The first day of April often brings with it a raft of pranks, jokes, and other silliness. Unfortunately, scammers consider every day to be April Fool’s Day – and the joke’s on unwary consumers.

This year, we urge consumers to turn the tables on scam artists and get educated about new scams. Scammers frequently tailor their scam’s pitches to an approaching holiday or significant event. For example, every year around the December holidays, we see an increase in *charity scams. Similarly, we expect an upswing in reports to NCL’s Fraud Center about scams related to Tax Day as we approach April 15.

Tax Day scams come in many forms, so consumers should be sure to be on the lookout for them. Some of the more common variants include:

  • Phishing Scams – The victim receives an email, fax or phone call, purportedly from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or state taxation authority, asking for personal information necessary to process a refund. Consumers who fall victims lose their personal information, which the scammer can use to commit identity theft or drain a bank account (if a bank account number is provided to the scammer). The reality is that the IRS and state taxation authorities will never contact filers in this way to obtain additional information. Consumers should avoid giving any personal information out when they receive such calls and do not click on links in such emails, even if they have an IRS logo (phishers are experts at making “official-looking” emails). For more information on IRS phishing scams, visit *the agency’s official site.
  • Home-Based Business Tax Schemes – Promoters of home-based business opportunities (many of which are just masked *pyramid schemes) sometimes claim that such businesses can be used to avoid paying taxes by listing most, if not all, personal expenses as tax-deductible business expenses. Consumers falling victim to such schemes could be liable for back-taxes owed, IRS penalties, and even imprisonment. Click *here for more information.
  • Abusive Return Preparers – Tax season is a stressful time for many consumers. Difficult-to-understand forms, complicated calculations, and the ever-looming April 15th deadline lead millions of consumers to use tax preparers, most of which are reputable businesses. Unfortunately, abusive return preparers can hit unsuspecting consumers with a double-whammy. First, these scammers often charge outrageous fees and skim profits off the top of consumers’ refunds. Second, such returns often incur the wrath of the IRS. Since the consumer is ultimately responsible for his or her own return, they could be liable for IRS penalties. *Click here for tips from the IRS for choosing a reputable tax preparer, and always check out the business with your local *Better Business Bureau.
  • Refund Anticipation Loans – While not technically a scam, refund anticipation loans (known as RAL’s in industry jargon and often advertised as “rapid refund” loans) are used to get cash to consumers in as little as 24-48 hours after a return is filed. What is generally not well disclosed to consumers is that such “refunds” are actually loans from the tax preparer, often with hefty fees and even heftier interest rates (over 700% in some cases!). And, for consumers whose tax refunds are unexpectedly withheld from the government, they are still obligated to repay the loan, at the exorbitant interest rate. Such loans are often targeted at low-income and immigrant communities, preying on unfamiliarity with the tax system. For more information on RAL’s, click here.

Consumers who believe that they’ve been the victim of tax scams can file a complaint with NCL’s Fraud Center by using our online complaint form. These complaints are shared with more than 90 federal, state and local law enforcement and consumer protection agencies in the U.S. and Canada.

*Links are no longer active as the original sources have removed the content, sometimes due to federal website changes or restructurings.

GAO Finds Major Lapses at the Wage and Hour Division – National Consumers League

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By Reid Maki, Director of the Child Labor Coalition

The tip call came into the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) *Wage and Hour Division (WHD) hotline: children were illegally working during school hours in a meatpacking plant in Modesto, CA, and they were operating dangerous equipment like meat grinders and circular saws. The caller was forced to leave a message because the hotline operators did not answer. What happened next? What did the people tasked with protecting child workers from dangerous and illegal activities? Nothing. For four months after the message was left, no action was taken. No one even responded to the call. And the call was not even logged into the Department of Labor case system. It just fell through the cracks. And apparently it wasn’t an isolated case.

The call was fictitious—a test being conducted by the Government Accountability Office, a government agency that frequently evaluates federal programs, and the Modesto case was fabricated to see how Wage and Hour would respond. The GAO presented its findings on Wednesday, March 25 at a hearing before the House Education and Labor Committee that raises a lot of concerns about the effectiveness of the DOL between July 2008 and March 2009 when the research was conducted. Last September, Sally Greenberg of the National Consumers League testified before Education and Labor’s Subcommitee on Workforce Protections, and asked for increased WHD enforcement, including a doubling of the number of WHD investigators.

Of the 10 fictitious calls GAO made to test WHD responses to possible workplace violations (mostly involving lost wages), WHD successfully investigated only one of the cases! Five of the cases were not even recorded into the WHD database of cases. In one case, the WHD investigator lied about a company’s profitability and claimed he was unable to investigate the case. In two of the cases, WHD recorded the cases as successfully resolved because the worker had been paid lost wages when no money had been actually paid. In one case, a caller left seven messages asking for help and none were returned. Some calls went straight to messages saying the office was closed when it was supposed to be open. In several cases, WHD investigators attempted to dissuade complaint filers by telling them that they faced an 8-10 month backlog or that they may be fired by their employer for filing a complaint.

Among the problems GAO found in the investigation:

  • The pre-recorded message at one WHD regional office hotline had a 23-second gap of silence before it went to voicemail. Customers with complaints thought they were disconnected and often hung up.
  • In WHD’s southeast division, which recorded 57 percent of the conciliations during fiscal year 2007, there was a policy of not recording unsuccessful conciliations in the WHD Database.
  • Staff in one field office said that they were required to drop a case if there were three unanswered phone calls made to an employer under investigation.
  • In 150 test calls, more than half went directly to voicemail with no phone calls ever returned.

GAO investigators also analyzed WHD records in 115 conciliated cases and 115 non-conciliated cases between October 1, 2006 and September 31, 2007 and found numerous flaws. Gregory Kutz, managing director of forensic audits and special investigations, told committee members that the system did not work for 19 percent of the complainants in the non-conciliated cases they looked at. In other words, one in five people who deserved help didn’t get it.

“This investigation clearly shows that the Department of Labor has left thousands of actual victims of wage theft who sought federal government assistance with nowhere to turn,” concluded investigators in their written report.

The one bright spot: GAO found that cases that were correctly entered into the system and acted upon were often resolved satisfactorily—even among nonconciliated cases, they found that 81.2 percent had been investigated and resolved appropriately.

The GAO felt that most WHD investigators were dedicated to their work and they did help recover an estimated $200 million in back wages. The GAO suggests that training and better tools—computers, databases, and software—might help eliminate some of the case failures. More investigators might help they said. The intake system certainly needs to be overhauled and all valid complaints must be entered into the WHD’s database, they maintained. They also suggested looking at expanding the current two-year stature of limitations on wage theft.

We’d like to point out that these alleged abuses occurred during the last administration and with a new WHD under Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, who has a reputation as a friend of workers, we are hopeful that the system will be corrected. She has already called for hiring 250 new investigators. The GAO report suggests however that much work needs to be done.

 

*Links are no longer active as the original sources have removed the content, sometimes due to federal website changes or restructurings.

Wisconsin Cracking Down on Dangerous Traveling Sales Crews – National Consumers League

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Breaking news from Wisconsin, as reported by the Associated Press: state lawmakers moved Tuesday to approve the nation’s toughest regulations on companies that use traveling crews to sell products. The bill is expected to be signed into law, and this would put Wisconsin at the head of the pack for protecting kids from predatory traveling sales crews.

This is an issue that’s close to our heart at NCL, which operates the Child Labor Coalition. Working on a Traveling Sales Crew is one of the most dangerous jobs out there for kids, as we’ve reported annually in our Five Worst Teen Jobs. In 2008, Traveling Sales Crews was listed as the second most dangerous job.

Traveling sales might be a legitimate career choice for grown-ups, but our advice for parents is that they should not allow their children to take a sales job that requires them to travel. The dangers are just too great. Without parental supervision, teens are at too great a risk of being victimized by exploitative crew leaders, the dangers of the road, and more.

In May 2008, the Spokane, WA police investigated a 16-year-old’s claim that she was held as a captive worker by a traveling sales crew. She escaped after the crew leaders beat up her boyfriend because he wasn’t selling enough magazines.

Traveling sales companies often charge young workers for expenses like rent and food, requiring them to turn over any money they make from selling magazines or goods – which are sometimes scams against consumers based on products that don’t exist. When they try to quit or leave the crew, they are told they are not free to go. Not all sales jobs are on the avoid list. Teens considering a sales job that does involve door-to-door activity can check out these resources for determining whether it’s a good opportunity or one to run from.

Prof to Head Health IT – National Consumers League

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by Mimi Johnson, NCL Health Policy Associate

The Obama Administration will announce its pick for the *National Coordinator for health information technology later today. David *Blumenthal, a professor at Harvard Medical School and director of the Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital will oversee the nearly *$20 billion dollars from the economic stimulus package to build *health IT. Dr. Blumenthal worked for Senator Ted Kennedy’s Senate Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research in the 1970s, and we are optimistic that his knowledge of and history in health policy will help move this country towards significant health reform.

The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC), within the Department of Health and Human Services, will work to use the stimulus money to provide incentives and reimbursements for the use of “hardware, software, integrated technologies or related licenses, intellectual property, upgrades, or packaged solutions sold as services that are designed for or support the use by health care entities or patients for the electronic creation, maintenance, access, or exchange of health information.” According to the ARRA, “the National Coordinator may provide financial assistance to consumer advocacy groups and not-for- profit entities,” which should provide for a stronger consumer voice as the various health IT provisions are implemented. The ONC is establishing an HIT Policy Committee , on which a handful of consumer advocates will serve.

Still, billions of dollars are not the silver bullet to improving health care. In a *report last week, the difficulties of adopting health IT were discussed. Doctors struggle to make the transition – especially those in small practices. The National Consumers League will continue to work to ensure that the expansion of health IT will work to help improve quality and access for patients, as well as reduce disparities.

 

*Links are no longer active as the original sources have removed the content, sometimes due to federal website changes or restructurings.

CFA Hosts 2009 Consumer Assembly – National Consumers League

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By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

The Consumer Federation of America held its 2009 Consumer Assembly this past weekend. CFA was formed in the 1970s by consumer leaders like *Rhoda Karpatkin of Consumers Union who felt that consumer organizations needed a kind of federation on the model of the AFL-CIO to speak with one voice on the broad swath of consumer issues across the nation. The National Consumers League held a seat during the first years of CFA’s activism.

Last week’s consumer confab comes amidst recent seismic changes in Washington. We have a new Administration that is more consumer-friendly, a new Congress that promises to be more inclined to support pro-consumer legislation, and a newly invigorated consumer movement that has never worked so hard in its life! The CFA gathering featured appearances by key congressional figures including: House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA), talking about Obama’s intention to make the private health insurance companies part of our system of providing health care to all; Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), lamenting the lack of a Chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission; and product safety and Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-CT), reiterating the importance of the consumer voice as we see the nation’s financial service industry in a free-fall.

Reform is very much on the agenda on the range of consumer issues from food safety to health care to eradicating lead in children’s toys, to overhauling our financial service industry and tightening up our securities markets. This is a unique moment in history for consumer groups. NCL is supporting tighter regulation of financial services, a cap of 36 percent cumulative on interest consumers may be forced to pay, crackdown on payday lending, requiring the Cost Approach when evaluating a home’s worth, a consumer advisor to the President with an office in the White House, and vigorous enforcement of the laws from the FDA to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Though there are some awesome challenges, I believe this is a great time for consumers. As the President’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has been known to say, “Never let a crisis go to waste.” I hope consumer groups take his advice!

 

*Links are no longer active as the original sources have removed the content, sometimes due to federal website changes or restructurings.