STATEWIDE REPORT ON CONSUMER COMPLAINTS FOR 2002

Denver— As part of National Consumer Protection Week, February 2-8, Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar today announced the 2002 Colorado Top Ten Consumer Complaints List.

The 2002 Colorado Top Ten Consumer Complaint List is comprised of information gathered through a number of sources, including the Colorado Consumer Line. The Colorado Consumer Line (1-800-222-4444) is a statewide partnership between the Attorney General’s Office, the Better Business Bureaus serving Colorado and AARP ElderWatch to better help Coloradans resolve the thousands of consumer complaints filed annually and to improve consumer services. Consumers may also get these services online at www.ago.state.co.us by clicking on “Colorado Consumer Line.”

This year’s Top Ten List includes the following most complained about industries:

• Telephone Companies
• Television--Cable and Satellite
• Automobile Dealers-new and used
• Printing/Copying/Typesetting Companies
• Collection Agencies
• Moving/Storage Companies
• Magazine Sales by Mail
• Auto Repair
• Telephone Solicitations
• Buying Clubs/Group Purchasing

"The information gathered by the Colorado Consumer Line provides my Office with an excellent overview of the volume and types of issues that concern consumers from around the State," Attorney General Salazar said. "Consumer complaints are one source of information I use in determining where to focus investigations and prosecutions."

Last year, the Colorado Attorney General’s Office initiated an investigation of Qwest’s marketing and customer service practices based on receipt of hundreds of consumer complaints. As part of the investigation, the Attorney General’s Office reviewed over 1,000 consumer complaints. Under a settlement announced in July, Qwest was required to pay $1 million in fines and attorney fees to the State of Colorado, and pay restitution to residential, wireless telephone, and DSL consumers with complaints which established deceptive telephone sales practices. The Attorney General's Office continues to monitor Qwest's compliance with the terms of the settlement through independent third-party monitoring of telephone sales and customer service calls.

The Colorado Attorney General's Office is one of the lead states involved in a multistate consumer protection investigation of EchoStar. This investigation includes reviewing consumer complaint data.

Additionally, after investigating complaints, the Attorney General's Office sent 42 cease and desist letters to unlicensed collection agencies, issued 15 letters of admonition, fined 3 collection agencies a total of $47,430 in administrative fines, obtained a court decision enjoining one company from contacting Colorado consumers without a collection agency license, and obtained a favorable decision from the Colorado appellate courts that a company engaged in indirect collection activity was subject to Colorado’s collection laws. When no legal action is taken, consumers are provided with information about their rights under the collection laws.

While not in the Top 10, complaints concerning consumer credit transactions involving finance companies, mortgage companies that make second mortgages, and retail merchants that finance the goods and services they sell are also significant. Disputes alleging billing errors generated the most frequent complaints in 2002. This was also the case in 2001. Based on the consumer complaints, lenders and creditors refunded $255,968 to Colorado consumers in overcharges of financing fees. In addition, consumer complaints contributed to the Attorney General’s decision to file a multi-state lawsuit against Household International, resulting in a consent judgment in which $8.5 million in consumer refunds will be issued in 2003 to 4,400 Colorado residents.

The Colorado Consumer Line and the services offered by the BBBs reported more than 20,000 consumer complaints closed in 2002, and almost 1 million Better Business Bureau reliability reports requested over the telephone or through the Bureaus’ websites. The Colorado Consumer Line received more than 49,000 calls in 2002.

The Better Business Bureaus participating in the Colorado Consumer Line are the Denver/Boulder BBB; Four Corners/Western Slope BBB in Farmington, New Mexico; Mountain States BBB in Fort Collins; BBB of the Pikes Peak Region in Colorado Springs; and Southern Colorado BBB in Pueblo. AARP ElderWatch is based in Denver.