Category Archives: Latest In Consumer News
Exploding Air Bags: Takata Recall Now Totals 34 Million Vehicles
by Jerry Hirsch and Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times
The auto industry is seeing increasingly large recalls as manufacturers share parts across their own models and use components from the same suppliers. NHTSA said there were 803 vehicle recalls last year involving 63.9 million vehicles. Last year’s tally included two of the 10 largest vehicle recalls in history and involved double the record number of cars set in 2004. … “It’s fair to say this is probably the most complex consumer safety recall in U.S. history,” [said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony] Foxx. Read More ›
Utilities Agency Reforms Still Pending
by Jeff McDonald, San Diego Union-Tribune
More than eight months later, no employee discipline beyond [chief of staff Carol Brown’s resignation] has been made publicly known, and some of those involved in questionable communications have been promoted. New commission president Michael Picker, a former aide to Gov. Jerry Brown whose nomination is pending Senate approval, has engaged in backchannel communications himself, as reported by U-T San Diego in March. … The commission is still evaluating the 65,000 or so PG&E emails to figure out which employees may have violated rules against inappropriate communications. Any discipline is likely to be kept confidential, [an agency spokeswoman] said. Read More ›
American Chemistry Council Lied About Lobbying Role On Flame Retardants, Consultant Says
by David Heath, The Daily Beast
The American Chemistry Council has long maintained that it had nothing to do with an enormously successful but deceitful lobbying effort in state capitals to defend the use of potentially ineffective and toxic flame retardants in furniture. Now, in a rare breaking of ranks, a top industry consultant is discrediting that story. … He stepped up to a microphone at a California State Senate hearing to announce his support for a bill [CFC-co-sponsored SB 763] requiring labeling of children’s products containing the chemicals. Read More ›
Verizon And Sprint To Pay $158 Million To Settle Mobile Cramming Case
by Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times
Verizon Communications Inc. and Sprint Corp. have agreed to pay a combined $158 million, including at least $120 million in consumer refunds, to settle federal and state investigations into allegations mobile customers were improperly billed for premium text messages. The so-called cramming of unauthorized charges onto customers’ bills involved one-time fees of 99 cents to $4.99 for third-party text-messaging services and monthly subscriptions to those messages that cost $9.99 to $14 a month, federal regulators said Tuesday. Customers complained that they never authorized the charges, according to the Federal Communications Commission. Read More ›
Banks Continue To Improve Consumer Safeguards, But Progress Isn’t Coming Fast Enough
by Ashlee Kieler, The Consumerist
Opening a checking account with a bank is a rite of passage of sorts for many consumers, but the plethora of small-print disclosures, fees and other services are enough to confuse even the most seasoned account holder. While banks attempted to simplify their practices over the years, a new Pew Charitable Trusts report shows that some banks – and regulators – have a long way to go before they’re truly doing everything they can to protect consumers. Read More ›
70 Million Americans Report Stolen Data
by Donna Tapellini, Consumer Reports
While some of those incidents may have resulted from stolen credit cards or other crimes, many stemmed from data breaches. And, as a slew of widely reported breaches last year showed, not only online shoppers are at risk. According to Consumer Reports’s survey, 79% of those notified of a data breach were told by a brick-and-mortar store or a financial institution. Just eighteen percent said the problem originated with an online retailer. Read More ›
Bill Would Let Companies Secretly Record Some Phone Calls
by Kathleen Pender, San Francisco Chronicle
A bill that would let companies secretly record phone calls with current or former customers for up to 20 seconds was approved by the Assembly Committee on Public Safety Tuesday. … The mockup of the bill that was passed, however, does not say that companies could only record nonconfidential information in the first 20 seconds without consent. [Consumer Federation of California Executive Director Richard] Holober sees no reason companies ever need to secretly record anything. A caller needing a 20-second preamble could simply identify himself or herself, state the nature of the call, request permission to record and then start the recording, he said. Read More ›
Firms Could Record Some Phone Calls Without Consent Under California Bill
by Sharon Bernstein, Reuters
The bill was opposed by numerous advocates for consumers and seniors, including the Consumer Federation of California and the American Civil Liberties Union. “At a time when consumers are more and more concerned about businesses invading their privacy, it is wrong to be considering rolling back an important privacy law,” said Richard Holober, executive director of the Consumer Federation of California, testifying against the bill on Tuesday. Read More ›
Calif. ‘Secret’ Phone Call Recording Bill Advances
by Kurt Orzeck, Law 360
The Consumer Federation of California on Tuesday said its executive director, Richard Holober, told the committee that AB 925’s provision for “secret recordings” would allow companies to manipulate business calls through serial phone calls, effectively defeating the purpose of the notification. The consumer group, along with the American Civil Liberties Union, California Nurses Association, California Federation of Teachers and other organizations, wrote in an Apr. 27 letter to the Assembly committee that the bill “would sacrifice well-established privacy interests. … AB 925 would eliminate an important and non-burdensome privacy protection.” Read More ›
L.A. Sues Wells Fargo, Alleging ‘Unlawful And Fraudulent Conduct’
by E. Scott Reckard, Los Angeles Times
The civil complaint, filed Monday in state court in Los Angeles by City Atty. Mike Feuer, says the largest California-based bank encouraged its employees to engage “in unfair, unlawful and fraudulent conduct” through a pervasive culture of high-pressure sales. Employees misused customers’ confidential information and often failed to close unauthorized accounts even when customers complained, the suit alleges. … In addition to charging fees on unwanted accounts, San Francisco-based Wells Fargo harmed customers by placing them into collections based on unauthorized withdrawals and reported damaging information on their credit reports … Read More ›
Editorial: Phone Privacy Under Assault
by the Editorial Board, San Francisco Chronicle
“This call may be recorded … ” Businesses don’t just offer the message as a courtesy to their customers – obtaining “two-party consent” before recording a phone conversation had been the law of the state for more than two decades. However, that law would be weakened considerably under Assembly Bill 925, authored by Assemblyman Evan Low, D-San Jose. … An aide to Low suggested Monday that the bill would be amended to meet some of the concerns, Better yet, it needs to be scrapped. Read More ›
Uber Ride Takes Violent Turn
by Hannah Albarazi, Bay City News
The passenger told the driver he would like to get out of the car but the driver refused to stop and continued driving. At Pier 30, just past the passenger’s requested destination, the passenger managed to open the car door and attempted to run away, but the driver allegedly chased after him on foot, police said. When the driver caught up to the passenger, he kicked him and then robbed him of his cellphone and debit card, police said. When the driver caught up to the passenger, he kicked him and then robbed him of his cellphone and debit card, police said. Read More ›
Corinthian Closing Its Last Schools; 10,000 California Students Displaced
by Chris Kirkham, Los Angeles Times
“This has really exposed the shortcomings of federal and state oversight, and the accreditation system,” said Pauline Abernathy, vice president of the Institute for College Access & Success. “The fact that a school could be allowed to get so big and so reliant on taxpayer funding — and to harm so many students without action being taken sooner — really exposes the need to reform the system at all levels.” Read More ›