Turning Up Heat for Missing Oven Booklet

Question: I recently bought $3,000 worth of appliances from Pacific Sales in Torrance. One of my purchases, a Tappan O’Keefe & Merritt combination oven/microwave, arrived without an instruction manual, which I need for the microwave. The wall adapter for the unit was also missing.

Pacific Sales suggested I call Tappan. Tappan told me that I should get a book from Pacific Sales, because it would take six to eight weeks for me to get one through the mail, and they could pull one from a unit in storage and then replace it with a new order.

I called Pacific Sales back and was told that the missing booklet was Tappan’s fault, and while Pacific Sales would order me one, it would also take six to eight weeks to arrive. They would not pull a leaflet from another unit.

Shouldn’t a customer expect to receive instructions on a purchase that has automatic starts/stops, microwave settings, no directions on what power setting is for defrosting and different settings, such as Cook One and Cook Two? So far I have been able to guess at a few things, but I would like to fully use what I purchased.

--J.E.

Answer: I can’t say I blame you. It’s a bit like going to the hospital with a broken leg and having the emergency-room crew hand you a pair of splints.

Spokespersons for Tappan (a subsidiary of the Electrolux Group in Columbus, Ohio) are quick to admit that the instruction manual should have been enclosed with the microwave and are at a loss to explain why it wasn’t. They’ll be happy to send you a replacement--and it won’t take six to eight weeks because it will be mailed first class. But they need to know the model number, which they were prepared to get from you.

If you haven’t heard from them, you might give Tappan’s public relations manager, Paul Hellinger, a call at (614) 272-4135, and be prepared to give him the model number. (And also mention the missing wall adapter, which I neglected to bring to his attention.)

John Zorich, sales manager at Pacific Sales, doesn’t know who gave you short shrift when you called “because for 28 years we’ve bent over backwards to be helpful in cases like this.”

At the same time, however, Zorich concedes that there is a hesitancy--not only with Pacific Sales but with other distributors as well--to break open a carton for any reason. The store immediately loses control over all the contents of the carton once it has been opened, and the dealer has no real defense against claims (like yours) when missing parts or booklets, or what-have-you, are reported by customers.

Also, if someone in the store “borrows” the instruction manual from another carton to oblige you, who is going to be responsible for replacing it when Tappan does send the replacement?

“The trouble is,” Zorich adds, “the customer expects the merchandise to be new, and when you give him a carton that’s been opened, he’s got a right to question whether it really is new.”

Q: Both J.C. Penney and Sen. David Roberti (D-Los Angeles) sent me birthday greetings. Where did they get information on my birth date? Do I want a card from a department store asking me to buy goods from them--on my birthday?--D.T.

A: We live in an increasingly inquisitive society, and you may have noticed that you can hardly make application for a dog license without having to provide your own name, address, birth date, shirt size and puppy-chow preference. Why so much information is required for such mundane purposes remains a mystery.

Both J.C. Penney and state Sen. Roberti go to the same public-record sources for their information, according to the senator’s press secretary, Steve Glazer. The most reliable: the voter registration files, where your birth date is a must piece of information to establish the fact that you, sure enough, are old enough to vote.

And in this computer age, shuffling out the names of everyone with the same birth date--and living in the right congressional or marketing area--is a piece of cake. Of all the direct-mail pitches we receive, receiving birthday salutations strikes us as being one of the more palatable ones.

Q: Some time ago, The Times printed an article about a “reverse-annuity mortgage” available to senior citizens who find it necessary to increase their income without moving from their homes during their lifetime. I have been unable to obtain information about it by calling L.A. financial institutions. Who can I contact for further information on this type of mortgage?--G.J.

A: The reverse-annuity mortgage (RAM) is one of those ideas that has been kicking around for years, is almost universally regarded as “great,” and has still fallen flat on its face. As early as 1981, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, the governing agency of the savings and loan industry, gave the S&Ls; the go-ahead to experiment with the concept. The (simplified) concept: An elderly couple who either owns their home outright (or, at least, has a big, big equity in it) signs the house over to a financial institution, but retains physical possession of it until both parties go to that great condominium in the sky. In the interim, the couple collects a monthly annuity based on a formula that hinges on their respective ages and the value of the house.

Upon their death, the financial institution takes over ownership of the house. Simple, right?

Right. Except that the FHLBB’s OK came just as the money crunch hit, interest rates went through the ceiling and the S&Ls; couldn’t see laying out good money on a monthly basis for 8, 10 or 15 years before their investment earned them a dime.

Once the money situation eased up two years later, a New Jersey-based mortgage banker (American Homestead Mortgage) began marketing a RAM program through cooperating banks and S&Ls; in five Northeastern states and Ohio. Plans to branch out to California got down to the wire in 1985 before the bank involved went through an internal upheaval, and the RAM program, in the process, went down the drain.

So to answer your question: The only RAMs currently being written in California (as far as we can discover) are coming out of the universities and a few philanthropies, which, unlike commercial banks and S&Ls;, have a great deal of patience and aren’t beholden to stockholders when they unproductively tie up money for 10 or 15 years. Although it’s on a small scale, Pepperdine, USC and UCLA, for example, are all involved. You should contact either the school’s real estate department or its division of “planned giving.” The terminology and the lines of responsibility vary from school to school.

Don G. Campbell cannot answer mail personally but will respond in this column to consumer questions of general interest. Write to Consumer VIEWS, You section, The Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053.