Buyer beware; 6; A Look at the Inside

Buyer beware. The past and present by word of the bewildered consumer shoppers in the modern marketplace look for the Best Buy the safest product and find a perplexing jumble of goods. The consumer's choice is the story behind this program series buyer beware. What makes a home for Walt or the complex arrangement of furniture appliances and other individually chosen I don't know. Consumers may spend more time and energy and money on furnishings for their home than any other category of their budget. Let's look on the inside and learn what consumers may discover about their homes. Oh there it goes again. It isn't even worth it to start watching a show on TV anymore. And they were just about to find the missing man and oh mom can we

get a new TV. Well Judy I wish we could but we haven't finished paying off this one. And I don't know what's the matter with that I just had the repairman I would charge an outrageous amount to fix it too. It has been estimated that more families own black and white television sets than own vacuum cleaners and all of these viewers are especially disturbed to find that the quality of repair work may be far from satisfactory. The attorney general's office in the state of Illinois finds this category of complaint one of the most common. Investigation has uncovered shocking evidence of deliberate fraud statewide. Consumers have been overcharged for repairs charged for nonexistent parts and parts not installed and replacement of parts which were not defective in the first place. Investigators from the attorney general's office rented 40 television sets which were certified to be in good working order by a highly qualified expert. This expert

then inserted one or two defective tubes which resulted in the disablement of the set. Both sound and picture. I repaired charge for this problem would be expected to run up to $15 in cost when the sets were handled by repair men visiting the homes of residents of several communities in the state. Fraud was often the outcome. One firm claimed that it had repaired the tuner but an examination of luminous ink showed that the tuner screws had not even been removed. Unnecessary act to reach the tuner for cleaning one of the most flagrant violations was for a job costing $46. The repairman allegedly replaced six tubes repaired the tuner and installed several minor parts. An examination showed clearly that nothing had been done to the set. How can the owner of a television set or any other appliance be sure that he is

getting charged fairly. In many states repairmen are licensed to work on TV's cars or other home appliances. States certify their capability to fix these items and check regularly that excessive charges are not made. In California for example. Representatives of the state government check regularly on the quality of television repair work. But in states not so protected consumers should deal with local firms and ask for complaints filed at the Better Business Bureau or Chamber of Commerce. These agencies are supported by reputable businessmen who do not appreciate the bad name given to their line of work by bunco men. Another perplexing problem faces the consumer about to invest part of his income in a new appliance.

Where to buy what model to get. Several independent agencies offer help. Consumers Union and consumers research test the latest models of appliances and offer advice on those which will serve best at the least cost. For example a recent issue of Consumer Reports magazine rated black and white television sets their prices ranged from eighty nine dollars to one hundred nineteen dollars a model which was the most expensive was rated fairly low in overall quality is set selling for $89 was check rated or given a very high mark by tests. In this particular case high cost did not accompany high quality. Another concern of today's shopper is for safety. Consumers Union runs regular test for the safety of home furnishings and includes this in its rating system. A recent analysis of television sets showed that the problem of excessive radiation for example was not present in the latest

models. Electrical appliances are the special concern of Underwriters Laboratories incorporated. This group's mark of approval is noted by many consumers on today's toasters radios and I try to governs in other electrical items. The letters you well mean a great deal of testing and research. Robert Van Brunt manager of public information at Underwriters Laboratories describes the process of testing manufactured products products generally in the electrical field which are submitted to us by manufacturers are tested in one of our five laboratories across the country in the United States here. We think it's products to meet our recognized safety standards. To be sure it will. The highest practical level of product safety to the consumer.

If a product meets see in our laboratories we then have our field inspectors names over 500 of them in the country. They then follow up in the factory to see that the actual production of that product meets our requirements just as the original model that we tested in our laboratory. And if a product has met our requirements in our laboratories and then our field inspectors find it that same way why then it's eligible to get the familiar you will label which most people are very familiar with. Such thorough study of electrical appliances in the past as uncovered needs for more safe products. UL and other concerned groups have played a role in the development of say for electrical goods. Mr. Van Brunt outlines a few improvements made in the past several years in terms of safer design. Our testing work is done particularly on electrical products for two. Reasons one

is of course safety from electrical shock electrical accidents and also any fires that might be caused from a like current. There has been a very high high level of safety in this country achieved through this work by ourselves and all of the official inspectors throughout the country. Some of the more recent safety advances have been made particularly in home appliances will be familiar to some and some of them are rather new and you may not have seen them yet. But for example we now require that the power cord on cooking appliances and a cooking appliance. A good example would be a percolator must not be over 2 feet long so the cord will not be coming tangled with a drawer that might be open or closed or the child might pull the appliance off the counter. So this is one of the more recent advances on automatic washing machines we are going to require that there be a switch on the door or Illiad

so that if the door is open while the automatic washer is doing is in a dinning bin dry cycle it will automatically shut off immediately. This is so that a housewife or a child can open the door while it spinning rapidly in there. Another fan is on the waffle irons or sandwich grills which most people are familiar with. There are many of them the grill can be removed for cleaning. And we are now instituting a safety policy that if this element of the heating element underneath must not be exposed it can be either for a burn or like a metal protector that over the electric unit underneath. Another appliance has received attention from private agencies and from the federal government.

Numerous accidents led to the deaths of children trapped in refrigerators. Pressure exerted on the federal level brought about a mandatory safety standard for refrigerator doors. The Congress acted on advice from the National Bureau of Standards. Malcolm Jensen acting deputy director of the Institute for Applied Technology at outlines their research. We developed a standard in with industry cooperation developed a magnetic catch so that these could be opened from the inside perhaps of interest to your listeners is that in order to determine what little people really would do and could do once or entrapped in a refrigerator we got daughters and sons of staff members and we built a refrigerator with mirrors and said that we could see from the outside with the light to go on. Often it was infrared light so the children were actually in darkness and it was motion picture chemical or motion picture so really we really could watch it

happen. Then when the catches were developed we tested these and other childrens. What you repeated to test of course is made it to a certain extent invalid. So we get week coverage educator doors and incidentally the department and the administration have recommended to the Congress this year an amendment to that statute which would bring in also household freezers and household refrigerator freezer combinations which are presently not covered affray diggers and professor of law at Indiana University has been particularly concerned about product safety and has followed the accident rates associated with different appliances. He responds to the work done on refrigerators. I understand since the adoption of safety devices required since 1958 so far as I know there hasn't been a death. Resulting from the use of a. A refrigerator manufactured since that time the problem there has persisted because of the persistence of

the rice bags are still being used or their older refrigerators since the late 40s the industry had experimented with all sorts of devices. They found that interior latches were no good they did find out that these magnetic doors that will you do about a 15 pound pressure will work pretty raw and so technologically I think we solve that problem. The industry has never been able to come up with anything that would go back in anything that was practical and economical. Go back and make over a repaired jast and the refrigerator so we're still getting some deaths there now. The approach has been pretty marginal in that case is to try to educate people about the dangers and to neutralize the danger after they're through with their refrigerators. Some states it was requiring that refrigerators that have been put out of U.S. discarded have to have the doors removed which of course was a good part of the problem. I think this

said the danger fortunately is phasing out as even as the refrigerators go out of use. But consumers today look beyond the problems of safety. They are concerned with the cost of their purchase. Malcolm Jensen shares that concern. I like to use example of a refrigerator because I can think of things that the average listener or the average reader will easily bring his mind to. We buy a refrigerator perhaps watch twice the most three times in our lifetime. When we buy we can look at the advertisement in the newspapers or magazines or television on the radio. We can talk to a neighbor of a neighbor has flown recently or a relative. We ducked a sales clerk who might well be a barber during the daytime and some refrigerator a night. We can't rely on our own experience like we can we buy bread or canned peas or frozen vegetables. We know about what it's supposed to do but we don't know yet how it's supposed to do it or

what the levels of quality are. Now I think of these kinds of things for example. Refrigerator sold today are either normal frosting refrigerators they never tell you that or their automatic defroster for educators or there are no defrost refrigerators. The average consumer has no way of knowing what to convenience of the no defrost vs. the oh to make tea for us or what to cost in power usage and what the maintenance probability might be. We know because we're beginning to be concerned about noise nice pollution and its effect on you and me. Refrigerators do make a certain amount of noise but we have no way of measuring it. Nor do we know that what noise level should be acceptable in our home and are not enough air to cause problems. We know the refrigerator supposed to freeze things but nobody has told us what is reasonable and how quick it should freeze. How many ice cubes or how many actual pounds or square foot of area. How quick it should recover once you replace the ice cubes with water. We know they're supposed to keep

things cool but nobody has told us about the thermal transmission. Moving the cold air from the inside out or the hot air from the outside in. Each one of these scenes can be quantified to use a modern bureaucratic word which means being given numbers by a test. I'm going to Vance that it will be possible to devise test methods to identify the significant characteristics of the use the hazard level and build a product to put numbers of levels and then at the end consumer make a choice and convinced also that it will be possible for the government to shift publications that give helpful information on the selection and use of sophisticated high technology products that identifying brand names without using proprietary information. But simply what you should know about it. One if you're going to selected two if you're going to use it. Such a coding system is particularly attractive to Ralph Nader. He feels

even more strongly about its advantages. The consumer can have information so he can compare competing products. He's not going to make an intelligent choice rather than exercising his sovereignty over the producers by rejecting the poor bargain and accepting the better so our consumer products must be so sure and with enough information in intelligible form given to consumers so they can choose and not not be diverted into style and emotion aggression. Basically messages have very little to do with the product that's being sold. Another concept which is often misinterpreted by today's shopper is warranty. They rely on the terms of the statement and find when the item fails that fine print limits the responsibility of the seller. Often the only

thing that the buyer can count on is the good nature or reputation of his local businessman who provided the item for sale. Some consumers may therefore prefer to pay more and have reliable service performed under the conditions of the guarantee. Rather than buying at a lower price and getting no response to complaints after purchase. Certainly consumers expect an appliance to serve its stated purpose. Joseph do Frayne in the bureau of deceptive practices at the Federal Trade Commission agrees there is an army war. Our experience is that when you get this piece of paper scroll work around some very formal looking language the caption guarantee or some such designation indicating it's providing you with. The way it means to ensure that your washing machine in fact washes and in fact does

not make you more of a limitation to the fight that you might have. But for that whether it's under current president reactivated a task force or clients warranties which will report last January they're in the process of considering what more should be done about this problem. Nationwide homeowners must also spend a large amount of income on home furnishings such as sofas beds dining tables and crib when they purchase these items they find a few standards and minimal information from independent agencies. So many brands are offered at so many prices that comparison is indeed difficult. Shoppers are often misled and even the victims of fraud without the slightest suspicion they may spend thousands of dollars without checking at the local Better Business Bureau or even

talking with friends about nearby stores dissatisfied consumers often contact the attorney general's office in the state of Illinois with their problems. George M. Schaefer assistant attorney general and chief of consumer protection relates his experiences here. I think generally speaking it probably is because people although they want a particular appliance they really don't stop to consider what type of an appliance they need or what size of an appliance a need or how much they can afford to pay for the particular appliance they have in mind when I need a new refrigerator so they rush out and the first glib salesman that gets a hold of them. Of course there's nothing wrong with it they want a refrigerator and he is in the business of selling refrigerators. Before they know what they have purchased a refrigerator that couldn't possibly perhaps fit in their house trailer are perhaps as much too large perhaps they cost as much outside of their of their budget. I think

in most instances except for you in mass production of course you know you realize we all do that there are just units manufactured not on purpose. It just happens that that aren't workable. We get into that type of a situation. I believe the popular name is lemon. And there are lemons but considering the number of units that our society our industrial society can produce I like the lemons are probably an extremely small percentage of production. But people just don't do enough investigation before they buy things a woman will go out and buy a car put that in one light looks beautiful and she thinks wonderful that will fit in my home to perfection with my furniture. They come and install it move the furniture back in and that doesn't in any way because of the difference of lighting at the at the carpet store and the difference in lighting and perhaps their living room. But there's such a great difference. I don't think this is fraud. This is the consumer will always have to protect himself. There is no

better insurance and protection for the consumer than his own. Why is buying and his own investigation. Many shoppers ask why can't I get more help in buying these expensive items for my home. How can I investigate Malcolm Jensen of the National Bureau of Standards explains why federal help is so limited. Traditionally. The gunman has attended to those things that relate directly to the welfare and the health of our people. The government is given reveled relatively little attention to the economic welfare of the individual. You're aware of the hazardous substance act that covers those things that could be deemed to be of a hazardous nature of their soul for household use. This is you know was amended just before the first sections of the Congress closed to include toys as hazardous substances because there was a sizable amount of testimony of little children and I could be heard that are being heard by the

structure in the composition of toys. The nearest the government has come to being uncertain about the economics of consumers are the airbag Labeling Act. That attempted to provide a system by which consumers could be informed about the packages or purchase of the marketplace. The Truth in Lending Act the tries to provide the consumers information about what he is paying for money that he is borrowing or charge accounts. I think inevitably that the social well-being of the people is going to receive more attention of legit legislate tours not only in Washington but in state capitals and even among the county and city jurisdictions. Because our world has become so sophisticated it's a world of technology now where we used to know pretty well what we're buying or at least we used to have an intelligent experienced sales clerk to buy it from. Now we go to the counter we buy it ourselves we depend among ourselves for a value determination. And people simply are not able you or I or anyone else to exercise your rational value judgment. When we look at

the needs of things we know what they're supposed to do but we really don't know how they're supposed to do it. So values. So to answer your questions there are no standards and the quality of drapes or the quality of a chair there will be standards and safety characteristics of toys of their soul for the children. There will I'm confident be standards that relate directly to quality and durability and not only to safety but to hazard levels. Even now the private industry is making an attempt to help the perplexed consumer by providing exact and complete information. Mr Jensen has special enthusiasm for efforts of businessmen to guide the owner and purchaser of home furnishings. But industry is far ahead on industrial products. What they are and consumer products but there have been people and I will use a trade name the whirlpool people have devised a information system on their products. They say that they want to consumer to be able to make an intelligent choice I have no opportunity to analyze it.

But I'm convinced because there are responsible people industry people are that they're making a real attempt to bring the proper information to consumers. Sears Roebuck attempts very hard to do this as you know the Federated Stores in the Midwest at least around Ohio Senate is an example of what they call their Tell tag system. It's information on a product. So there have been there identifiable directions that the industry is taking. The real question is whether they're there broad enough and they're fast enough and whether some government leadership might provide sooner a more effective system of communication between industry and the king and the household consumer. The cornerstone to purchases of household goods however is the aware consumer. No matter what the product there are dangers and citizens must be educated about these hazards. Such problems income push the refrigerator the stove the electric heater and even the on board unsafe products may be

found indoors or outside F3 Dickerson of Indiana University puts this situation into perspective. I think we have to measure safety in terms of what. What you might call reasonable consumer expectations we can expect in this world and completely safe products. I think a safe product is one. That has the least number of inherent dangers and whose remaining dangers are sufficiently known to the consumer so that he can cope with them. A good example is the parasite and cook pork at trick analysis virus which is a fairly serious danger which. Most housewives know about I understand and take two precautions that they will by cutting at least a hundred and thirty seven degrees Fahrenheit. They may not know that particular figures but at least they know enough. To cook the pork thoroughly. And

similarly with a butcher knife. There are inherently dangerous. And legal contemplation they're not unreasonably dangerous because I think it's common knowledge among consumers that you have to be careful. Yet another consideration is primary to safe use of household goods F3 Dickerson notes that things are not always used as intended. For example what are the hazards of children's toys. I think. The National Product Safety and there's some instances where there were toy stoves. Designed I don't know whether intentionally but the design such that certain parts of them are heated to 600 degrees which is pretty high even for a rough child less sort of thing should not be permitted. Flammable clothing has had a rather were the history of cowboy suits all sorts of

clothes costumes and so on which if brought in or a spark or fire likely become a torch a lot of kids have burned up this way. Well then there are simple mechanical effects. Many of these toys are in the inherently dangerous category I would say baby guns darts fireworks and things of that sort. They carry a high potential for injury and should not receive. Seems to me many of these should be consider as dangerously defective if sold directly to children at least shelter in a very tender years. These things may be alright if sold to parents or to do precautions. Buyer beware. Still a by word of the consumer. Shoppers search for

information and protection to buy the best for the least. Our next program will follow a couple through the perplexing maze of the fine print on insurance policies. Consumers ponder if I die on the next program for Buyer beware. This is the national educational radio network.