RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Stephen Levins, acting director of the state Office of Consumer Protection, said the leading source of complaints to his office are for people who ordered merchandise online but didn't receive the goods.

Keeping a lookout

From bidding on the Net
to hiring a home contractor,
it's a real jungle for consumers

Where to get help

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By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com

Maybe it's a natural outcome of Hawaii's isolation from the rest of the country. Whatever the reason, transactions through the Internet bring by far the highest number of complaints to the state Office of Consumer Protection.

But statistics at another state consumer-oriented agency, the Regulated Industries Complaint Office, show Hawaii much like the rest of the country, with disputes with contractors such as roof-repair businesses ranking in the top spot.

"RICO deals with home improvement much more than we do," said Stephen H. Levins, the Office of Consumer Protection's acting director.

Both agencies said Hawaii is about the same as any place else in the way consumers are treated. The state has a good body of consumer protection laws and proven violations can bring legal cases and fines ranging from $500 to as much as $10,000 per violation, Levins said.

The simplest rule to follow is that if a business transaction smells bad, walk away from it, Hawaii's consumer watchdogs say. If a deal sounds too good to be true, it likely is. One basic policy is to check with others before doing business with anyone. Ask a contractor, for example, to refer you to others the business has done work for and check with agencies such as OCP, RICO and the Better Business Bureau of Hawaii.

A few simple checks might save a lot of heartache and financial loss, the regulators said.

Jo Anne Uchida, RICO director, said looking just at the number of complaints or violations doesn't necessarily tell the story.

In the 12 months through June 30, for example, her office -- the investigating arm of the state professional and business licensing division -- had 348 complaints about contractors.

But Hawaii has nearly 8,000 active licensed contractors, another 1,200 holding licenses but describing themselves as inactive and an unknown number of door-to-door peddlers of home-improvement services who don't have licenses.

The 348 complaints included licensed and unlicensed contractors.

There may be a lot of complaints against one industry but you have to look at the number of businesses in that field, Uchida said.

For example, there were 140 complaints against cosmetologists in the past fiscal year. State statistics show Hawaii has nearly 4,700 licensed cosmetologists.

Whatever the percentages, Hawaii has its share of scams hurting consumers and the agencies say it is wise to be alert.

A national survey by the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators and the Consumer Federation of America, reported last week, showed dissatisfaction with home-improvement deals as the leading consumer issue.

Next came gripes about car-sales tactics, followed by sales of household goods.

In Hawaii, complaints to the consumer protection office were led by gripes about Internet transactions.

"Probably the vast majority of these are from people who ordered merchandise through online auction sites and they don't get the goods," said consumer protector Levins.

"Typically what we do is, if a consumer in Hawaii is victimized by someone on the mainland, we will work with mainland consumer offices to try to rectify it, and if it is a mainland complaint about a Hawaii business we try to resolve it locally," Levins said.

So far this year, his office has had 164 complaints about Internet deals, 85 about credit cards, 44 about computers and software, 42 about phones and pagers, 23 about automobile repairs or parts and 21 about mail-order deals.

The beefs over credit cards are either about wrong charges or misunderstandings about interest rates, including shocks from customers who agreed to a no-interest credit card deal only to find that after a short promotional period the interest quickly hit double digits.

Telemarketing complaints are low, only 15 this year, but that is probably because people who are taken in by pitches over the telephone are often too embarrassed to complain, Levins said.

"We know for a fact that a lot of people who are victimized by telemarketing scams won't complain and a lot of these are through illegal lotteries. Participating in a lottery in Hawaii is illegal so if you lost $100 or $200 in a lottery you are not going to complain," he said.

At the Regulated Industry Complaints Office, complaints about contractors and cosmetologists were followed by real estate businesses with 107 complaints, massage providers with 106, medical providers with 89 and the motor vehicle repair business with 82 complaints in a year.

Uchida said that only 11 of the cosmetology cases and 10 of the massage cases involved licensed practitioners. In both fields, the number of cases was boosted by her office's work with police in their prosecution of unlicensed activity, she said.

Consumer complaints in Hawaii are rising fast, said the Better Business Bureau of Hawaii, which reports a 400 percent rise in inquiries about businesses in the past 12 months.

Anne Deschene, the bureau's president, said a lot of that is because access has improved. "The primary reason is access," she said. The bureau has an interactive Web site that makes it easy for consumers to see if businesses are legitimate, she said.

The telephone calls to the BBB haven't let up at all, she said, so it is clear that "people know that they need to make some distinction about companies they choose to work with," she said.

People should check with at least three people before picking someone to provide them with services, perhaps regulatory agencies and former customers, Deschene said. In addition, the trade or professional organization the business belongs to can often provide information.

At the Office of Consumer Protection, Levins said the first thing to do is try to work out differences with the provider.

"If you have a problem with a merchant, first of all the obvious thing is to try to resolve it with the merchant," he said. If that doesn't work, contact OCP and the office will have one of its eight investigators look into the matter, Levins said.

"If appropriate, we will intervene. We could take legal action, such as a lawsuit," he said.

But try the merchant first, he said.

"Merchants want to have happy customers and they will try to resolve it," he said. "There are obvious cases where a consumer has just been defrauded by someone and it is a waste of time to try to deal with the business.

"That's the time to bring in the OCP or a law enforcement agency," Levins said.

Consumers don't always get smart, he said. Education about the ubiquitous Nigerian funds scam has been widespread. It should be obvious that someone in a foreign country who wants your bank account and credit card numbers so you can share in millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains is scamming, he said.

"I can't believe that people don't know about this," he said.

But if you do get scammed by the Nigerians, he said, don't think about traveling there to try to get your money back -- you'll be nabbed on arrival as a co-conspirator.

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Consumer help: On the Web www.state.hi.us/dcca/ocp The state Office of Consumer Protection has links to other consumer organizations and helpful tips. www.state.hi.us/dcca/rico The Regulated Industries Complaint Office has links to useful phone numbers. www.hawaii.bbb.org The Better Business Bureau of Hawaii. Check on companies, see links to other consumer organizations. www.nacaanet.org National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators. National survey information and other contacts. www.consumerfed.org Consumer Federation of America. Has information on a variety of consumer topics. By telephone: 587-1234 "Consumer Dial" at the state Department of Commerce & Consumer Affairs. Push-button menu of consumer topics. 587-3222. State Office of Consumer Protection and Regulated Industries Complaint Office. Top tirades The top industries that consumers complained about in 2001, according to an annual survey of consumer protection agencies conducted by the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators and the Consumer Federation of America: 1. Home improvement 2. Household goods 3. Auto sales 4. Auto repair 5. Credit/lending 6. Business practices 7. Services 8. Telecommunications 9. Collections (tie) 9. Pyramids and business opportunities (tie) 9. Recreation and vacations (tie) Source: Associated Press