She is the perfect image of a grandmother, which she happens to be. But at 72, Virginia Knauer is also hard-driving in her role as a presidential adviser dedicated to protecting consumers, especially the elderly.
As director of the Office of Consumer Affairs, she goes from one end of the world to the other warning against rip-offs. Her battle cry: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Knauer is incensed over mail rackets, travel scams, hucksters using the telephone, door-to-door shysters and more.
She thinks she is making progress in consumer protection, but maintains that much remains to be done as new marketing techniques emerge, such as direct selling by television.
”It certainly is an invasion of privacy as far as I`m concerned,” she says of unsolicited mail and telephone calls to consumers. Many callers present dubious, if not outright fraudulent, offers of goods and services, using special mailing lists to target potential buyers of medical, financial and legal advice.
”I was shocked to find out that even state motor-vehicle offices sell those mailing lists,” Knauer says.
In the interview, Knauer ticked off areas in which consumers, particularly those over 50, should exercise caution.
– Unsolicited or junk mail and catalogues. ”I find that major catalogue companies (with) a national reputation are reliable when describing their products and returning unsatisfactory products.” What unscrupulous vendors want is your credit-card number or cash for goods that never come or turn out to be shoddy.
Knauer warns of ”travel clubs” that offer cut-rate deals on airline and cruise-line tickets for a ”membership” fee. ”They get you to sign up, but when you`re ready to travel and call them, they don`t have anything available.”
– Telemarketing fraud, including investments and money deals made exclusively by telephone. ”They are among the most serious telephone solicitations that have caused a lot of grief even among sophisticated consumers-people from the business world, professional people, retired people with a nest egg or pension.”
Using banks of telephones, high-pressure salesmen lure investors with
”once-in-a-lifetime” investment opportunities on everything from hog-belly futures to newly discovered oil, diamond or gold lodes that need investment capital immediately.
– Remodeling scams. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that Americans spent more than $91 billion on remodeling projects last year. Most consumers spend less time choosing someone to remodel a kitchen than they do selecting a car, even though the remodeling expense is greater. Knauer says the National Association of Home-Builders Remodelers can advise consumers about getting bids, checking credentials and obtaining references.
– Suspect newspaper ads. ”We have been working with the American Newspaper Publishers Association urging them to screen troublesome ads on such things as health frauds and miracle cures,” Knauer says. ”When the Council of Better Business Bureaus, working with the Federal Communications Commission, did a survey, it was appalling how few newspapers said they had any screening of these ads. Television is able to do it, why not the newspapers?”
Questionable ads include those inviting people to make hundreds of dollars a week by stuffing envelopes at home or to buy $1,000 knitting machines to turn out products that the company promises to sell-but then rejects as inferior. Advertising work-at-home schemes ”constitute the largest amount of fraudulent advertising in America,” she says.
– Home equity loans. ”They make the ads so seductive-use the money as you wish, go on a cruise, buy a car,” Knauer says. ”But if a medical or other expensive emergency comes up, you can lose your home.”
Knauer is no newcomer to consumer affairs. President Reagan appointed her to her present post in 1981. In 1969 President Nixon appointed her special assistant for consumer affairs, a job she held until 1977.
Between White House assignments she was president of a consulting firm specializing in consumer issues.
And those grandchildren? She has three granddaughters, one by her son Wilhelm, a Philadelphia judge who died last year of cancer, and two by her daughter Valerie. Knauer`s husband died in 1976 of Parkinson`s disease. –
TIPS FOR THE SMART CONSUMER
Here are useful consumer pamphlets and publications you can send for free of charge:
– ”Consumer`s Resource Handbook” (1986 edition). Ninety-one pages explaining how to be a smart consumer and how to handle a complaint. Lists telephone numbers of major sources of help, including Better Business Bureaus, state and local consumer-protection offices, small-claims courts, occupational and professional licensing boards, military commissary and exchange contacts, federal information centers and services for handicapped persons.
– ”Before You Say Yes.” Fifteen questions to turn off an investment swindler.
– ”Telemarketing Fraud.” How to protect yourself from the deceptive peddling of goods and services over the telephone.
– ”Investors` Bill of Rights.” Honesty in advertising, investment risks, access to funds.
– ”Choosing a Credit Card”
– ”Increasing Customer Satisfaction.” Why unhappy customers don`t complain.
These may be obtained from the Office of Consumer Affairs, 1725 Eye St., N.W., Suite 1003, Washington, D.C. 20201.
The Consumer Information Center of the U.S. General Services Administration also offers a Consumer Information Catalog that lists many free or inexpensive pamphlets.
The free catalogue with order forms can be obtained from S. James, Consumer Information Center-D, P.O. Box 100, Pueblo, Colo. 81002.
