Consumer

The Office of the People's Counsel has recently revamped its website to help Marylanders keep track of upcoming hearings of the state's top utility regulator. The People's Counsel represents consumer interests in utility matters at hearings before the Maryland Public Service Commission and the Maryland General Assembly. The redesigned site, at http://www.opc.state.md.us , also offers tips for consumers with brochures about shopping for an electricity supplier, getting help paying utility bills and more.

Cut by the Ravens in early April, linebacker and special teams standout Brendon Ayanbadejo still hasn't ruled out playing in the NFL during the 2013 season. He works out daily and keeps himself ready in case a team calls and the situation is right. But right now, the 36-year-old is far too busy with other endeavors to be consumed with whether his 10-year NFL career is over.   “There's not anything that I have to do right now so If the football angle has exhausted itself because there's no more options in football, then that will come to a close on its own and then there will be a point where I have to announce my retirement.

The Maryland Insurance Administration, a state regulatory agency, offers a variety of consumer materials on all types of insurance products from annuities to title insurance and health, auto and homeowners insurance. Trained staff will be available in the coming weeks in Harford County to answer consumer questions. "A key aspect of the Maryland Insurance Administration's mission involves educating the citizens of our state about the choices available to them as consumers of insurance products," Therese M. Goldsmith, Maryland Insurance Commissioner, said in a press release.

Take a line-by-line look at your cellphone bill - all dozen or so pages. See a $9.99 charge for horoscopes, flirting tips or some such thing that you didn't request? If so, you've been crammed. Once only a big problem with landline telephones, cramming - the placement of unauthorized charges on phone bills by outsiders - is gaining a foothold in the mobile-phone marketplace, regulators and consumer advocates say. Indeed, some landline crammers have migrated to wireless schemes as consumers switch to smartphones.

Marquis Jones remembers Peter Holland clearly. He's the lawyer whose work, with his law clinic students, led to the dismissal of a claim against her - a credit card debt she said she knew nothing about. "If it hadn't been for Peter and his team, I have no idea what would have happened," the Severn woman recalled, saying a debt-buying company had the wrong person and claimed it served the legal papers on her spouse. She's not married. But unlike Jones, most of those who've benefited from Holland's consumer advocacy never met him. Few of them know that in December he will receive an award for his legal work from the Maryland Legal Services Corp.

I wrote this open letter to Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Benjamin Cardin and U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, pointing out what I consider to exemplify the sort of spending that has contributed significantly to the pending insolvency of our wonderful country. I asked them to do whatever possible to cease such profligate spending. Several days ago, I received in the mail a slick, cosmetically impressive and expensively produced 80-page pamphlet entitled "Read Up! How to be an Informed Consumer.

If you as a consumer get defrauded or harmed in dealing with a business, you have some peace of mind in knowing that you are safeguarded by a number of consumer protection laws. You also have allies in various state agencies that can help fight for your rights. But if you as a small-business person get defrauded or harmed by another business, you have to fend for yourself. State consumer laws don't cover business-to-business transactions. This hard truth whacked Diane Geslois after she tried to open an indoor flea market in a building that once housed Seidel's Bowling Center in Baltimore's Gardenville community.

Get a credit card, buy a car, or sign up for a cell phone plan, and chances are, if you're unhappy with your transaction, you won't be telling your story to a judge. Many consumer contracts include mandatory arbitration clauses that force individuals to go through arbitration, instead of civil court, if a dispute arises. Some of these clauses also ban customers from joining class action lawsuits. For years, consumer advocates have claimed these clauses are unfair. Now Congress is considering a blanket negation of pre-dispute mandatory arbitration agreements.

The Internet is perhaps the only place where first-class fliers are treated like second-class citizens. A report issued last month by Consumer WebWatch, a division of Consumers Union, said that people who spent the most money on airline fares must at times overcome serious technology failures in their quest to book premium tickets. According to Forrester Research, an Internet consulting firm, nearly 19 percent of Americans who booked tickets online last year bought domestic business or first-class tickets.

The Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Maryland, a non-profit group that helps people straighten out their finances, is expanding its suburban operations by opening offices in Owings Mills and Columbia."

Southwest Airlines was fined $150,000 Wednesday for failing to respond to consumer complaints in a timely fashion, the Department of Transportation announced. Federal enforcement officers found that the Dallas-based airline did not answer "a large number" of disability-related and other consumer complaints filed on its website from June 2011 through January 2012. Further, the agency said, when the airline did respond, it was late and it did not include information specifically required by transportation department regulations.

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. said Thursday that energy prices will rise $6 a month for the typical residential electricity customer who doesn't use an outside power supplier, the first jump in energy prices in four years. That rise in costs, running from June through next May, comes on top of a distribution-rate increase approved in February. The state calculated that distribution rise at $3.33 a month for the average residential electricity customer, though BGE said typical customers - halfway between the biggest and smallest power-users - would pay $2.66 a month extra.

Consumer advocates say they didn't get everything on their wish list during the latest meeting of the General Assembly, but the session produced several victories for Maryland consumers. For example, Marylanders would find it easier to buy auto coverage from a state insurance fund, foster children would gain protection from identity thieves and debtors would be less likely to be jailed under bills recently passed by lawmakers. Gov. Martin O'Malley is expected to sign these and other consumer-friendly bills next month.

It isn't hard to recognize an example of false economy in the average household budget. The vegetable gardener who spends $500 on supplies to produce $12 in produce, the inexpensive home repair that falls apart in a month or the avid shopper who saves $5 online but pays an extra $20 in shipping and handling. Yet for some reason many of us are blind to the false economy of providing gasoline at the cheapest price possible regardless of its impact on our lives and society. To put it bluntly, humans have been subsidizing the cost of gas by accepting - without direct charge - the air pollution gas-burning vehicles generate.

When a warrant for his arrest arrived at his mother's house, Bryan Bookman went to the district court in Essex to clear up the matter. "That's when I was handcuffed and shackled, right on the spot, like I was a common criminal," said Bookman, who didn't have the money to post bail and spent the night in the Baltimore County Jail in Towson. His crime? Failure to show up in court for a small claims case. Debtors' prison, where people are incarcerated for owing money, seems like something out of another century.

The National Mortgage Settlement's relief is not reaching enough Maryland homeowners and is not as effective as it could be in keeping people in their homes, the Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition said Tuesday. “The number of Maryland families facing new foreclosures continues to dwarf those getting help under the settlement,” said Marceline White, the group's executive director, in a statement. Between March 1, 2012 and the end of last year, about 14,200 homeowners received assistance through the settlement, intended to resolve accusations by 49 states and the federal government that five major mortgage servicers abused borrowers during the foreclosure process.

WASHINGTON -- A group representing some of the nation's largest computer makers issued modest guidelines yesterday that are meant to help its members better protect the privacy of consumers' personal data.But some privacy advocates questioned how effective the new rules would be, since they were strictly voluntary and would not be enforced.The Information Technology Industry Council, whose members include household names like IBM Corp. and Compaq Computer Corp., said its members should clearly tell individuals how personal data they collect will be used or disclosed.

Need to use an ATM? Go to a bank and stay away from stand-alone automated tellers. That's what consumer advocates are telling customers in the wake of the latest fraud, in which a phony ATM in a New York convenience store left victims' wallets thousands of dollars lighter. Advocates say independent automated teller machines, which are not run by banks, are not licensed or regulated and are therefore far riskier to use. "This is a glaring loophole in the law, which has enabled scams like this to happen," said Russ Haven, legislative counsel at the New York Public Interest Research Group.

When Maryland utilities replace their gas pipelines, customers have had to fork out extra money afterward — not during. But that's poised to change. Both chambers of Maryland's General Assembly, citing safety concerns, approved measures this month that would make it easier for utilities to add infrastructure surcharges of up to $2 a month to natural-gas customers' bills. It's the latest push in a tug of war over the best and fairest way to replace the nation's aging utility infrastructure, the price tag for which has been estimated in the trillions of dollars.

Attorneys General in Maryland and 29 other states have reached a $29 million settlement with Toyota Motor Corp. designed to strengthen protections for consumers impacted by safety defects and prevent miscommunication over faulty equipment. Toyota had failed to warn consumers in a timely manner about known problems with unintended acceleration caused by sticky accelerator pedals and floor mat pedal entrapment, according to a complaint filed Thursday by the Maryland AG's Consumer Protection Division.