TheBuzz
TheBuzz
Complaining is free, or
at least it shouldn’t cost $4.95The Better Business Bureau accepts and investigates consumer complaints for free.
Government regulatory agencies do the same thing.
The people behind www.consumerprotectionagency.us want you to spend $4.95 of your hard-earned money via credit card (don't forget those interest charges) to file your consumer complaint with the BBB; and the bureau is complaining about that.
The BBB's complaint took the form of an international alert, as the Web site was said to be misleading the public in "masquerading as a consumer protection agency," according to a BBB statement.
"The site is a business and is not affiliated with the BBB," the statement continued.
"There is no need for consumers to use third parties or pay a fee in order to file a complaint with the BBB," said Ken Hunter, president and chief executive officer of the Council of Better Business Bureaus.
Consumers may file complaints for free via the bureau's Web site at www.bbb.org, or mail them for the cost of a first-class postage stamp, which for a while at least is less than $4.95.
Attempts to load the Web site yesterday resulted in connection failures.
The URL consumerprotectionagency.us is registered to Online Application Corp. of Forest Hills, N.Y., according to an online domain registry search at Network Solutions Inc.
The registry record was created, meaning the domain was registered, on July 8, 2002; it expires July 7, 2004.
TheBuzz's call to the phone number given for Online Application Corp. was received by the answering service for a company belonging to an Alexander Kleyman; the service did not know the nature of Kleyman's business and had no knowledge of consumerprotectionagency.us but took the phone message and asked about the weather in Hawaii.
The technical contact for the "consumerprotection" domain is listed as VeriSign Inc., of which Network Solutions is a subsidiary, but a representative said consumerprotectionagency.us is hosted by unrelated domain servers.
Attempts to connect to those servers were unsuccessful.
The bottom line of the matter appears to be "Let the complainer beware."
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com