Top 10 complaints made to state and local consumer agencies in 2020, according to an annual survey by Consumer Federation of America. Auto: Misrepresentations in advertising or sales of new and used cars, deceptive financing practices, defective vehicles, faulty repairs, car leasing and rentals, towing disputes. Home improvement/construction: Shoddy work, failure to start or complete the job, failure to have required licensing or registration. Landlord/tenant: Unhealthy or unsafe conditions, failure to make repairs or provide promised amenities, deposit and rent disputes, illegal eviction tactics. Credit/debt: Billing and fee disputes, mortgage problems, credit repair and debt relief services, predatory lending, illegal or abusive debt collection tactics. Services: Misrepresentations, shoddy work, failure to have required licensing or registration, nonperformance. Utilities: Complaints about gas, electric, water, and cable billing and service. Retail Sales: False advertising and other deceptive practices, defective merchandise, problems with rebates, coupons, gift cards and gift certificates, failure to deliver. Travel: Misrepresentations about cost, amenities or other parts of travel packages, failure to provide promised services, disputes about refunds. (Tie) Health products/services: Misleading claims, unlicensed practitioners, failure to deliver, billing issues. Internet Sales: Misrepresentations or other deceptive practices, failure to deliver online purchases. (Tie) Pandemic: Price gouging, refunds for canceled events and travel, financial issues, problems getting repairs and other services, “self-help” evictions, scams, and other complaints stemming from the pandemic. Fraud: Bogus sweepstakes and lotteries, work-at-home schemes, grant offers, fake check scams, imposter scams and other common frauds. Household Goods: Misrepresentations, failure to deliver, repair issues in connection with furniture and major appliances.
It's also an amalgam of six pretty different kinds of complaint. Funny, could say the same thing about most of the—um, groups?—in the list.
Each of the 10 listed are in that same format... The point is more people have auto related consumer complaints more than any other type of complaint category, which makes our daily volunteer labors at Priuschat all the more important.
Surprisingly - horrific renters didn't make the list. What homeowner doesn't love going into their rental condo or single family residence, where deadbeat renters haven't paid for months - only to find all the doors are broken off the hinges, toilets & sinks beaten to pieces, dog crap in the carpet .... breakers stolen out of the service panel, and from our own experience, negligently burn down your rental house. .
I think when they chose the Top 10, they meant by number of reports. I'm guessing while that's a horrific experience, it's not one that's been reported in the same kind of numbers. Add to the list of reasons for lease agreements to insist tenants carry adequate insurance.
Renters Insurance ..... we insist - always. Thus - our renters got comped for new clothes - appliances - place to live - furnature etc. Bonus; they did a go fund me which net'ed them over $19,000 after folks saw pic's of OUR house. Insult to injury, State Farm, carrying both our policy and their policy couldn't determine who was at fault - despite our complaints of their fire pit placed UNDER the wooden deck - & their mother in law dumping fire pit coals into the trash can. So our property manager gave them back they're $5,000 deposit. State State Farm couldn't find fault Had the renters accidentally dumped 5 gallons of paint down the carpeted stairs, we wouldn't have to prove fault. You pretty much understand where such negligence came from. The rental we replaced out of the ashes? it has fire sprinklers so the worst any renter can do to our replacement house - is smoke damage. Hopefully. .
When I left the submarine service in the early 90s, vowing NEVER to have ANYTHING to do with the USN EVER again.....I had a brief dalliance with the real estate market being, at first, a "male secretary" and then as a 'first responder' for rental issues. If I could go back in time, other than buying a ton of bitcoin, I would have just started a lawn care business. If theists out there ever wonder if GOD has a sense of humor...all they have to do is use the word "never." (I retired as a Navy Chief in 2012. Remarried. Did a second tour in submarines. Bought an iPhone. Voted for a Republican. ...and a Democrat. etc.....) So...I'm NOT going to say that I will NEVER rent a house......BUT...... Landlords, tenants fill courts as eviction moratorium ends - ABC News
Remember all the times underpaid workers sweated the details to do everything pefectly and didn't have any pressure to cheat the deal somewhere? Me either.
