A A

From our president: The last laugh

Consumer Reports magazine: October 2012

In October 1962, exactly 50 years ago, we ran a short piece about United Salt of Houston. The company had been convicted of claiming its expensive “sea salt” would cure or prevent a host of diseases as varied as cancer and insanity. Seems as long as there are consumers, there will be rip-offs. (For more, read Protect yourself from the latest scams.) Our Consumerist website is also tracking gotchas. Here are a few that our editors found:

Less isn’t actually less

Those of us watching our sodium intake might have cheered the Campbell’s tomato soup-can label proclaiming “25% less sodium.” But the small print was a big letdown; the company meant less sodium than the average of regular condensed soup, not less than the previous version of Campbell’s tomato soup. The district attorneys of two counties in California thought that misled consumers, and they settled with the company (which didn’t admit liability) for almost $174,000.

Flights of fancy

Treating airline passengers fairly, the government says, includes telling them up front how much their tickets will cost. Spirit Airlines had some trouble with that last November when it tweeted $9-each-way airfares. Customers had to follow the link, then another link, to finally find out how much they’d have to pay once taxes and fees boosted the price and that a round-trip ticket was required. Bad Spirit, said the Department of Transportation, and slapped the carrier with a $50,000 fine.

Driving a hard bargain

If you owe more on your car than it’s worth, you might jump at a car dealer’s offer to pay off that old loan if you buy a new car from them. Five dealerships around the country made that grand gesture, then recouped the money they spent by slipping the cost into buyers’ monthly payments—plus interest. Not so fast, said the Federal Trade Commission. It told the dealers to stop the misrepresentations, start making clear disclosures to customers, and file compliance reports for 20 years.

Jim Guest

President

Editor's Note: This monthly letter to subscribers from Consumer Reports President Jim Guest highlights the critical consumer issues behind our current reports. See archived letters.