Firm Probed for ‘Invoice’ Mailings
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service says it is investigating a Los Angeles office equipment company that sent schools, businesses and charities solicitations that looked like bills for repair contracts.
Postal inspectors said Integrated Design Products labeled the statewide mailings as “invoices” for service contracts on binding machines and laminators. In small type, the solicitation noted that the agreement was optional.
Vincent Frick, owner of IDP, said the word invoice appeared on the solicitations due to a printing error and that the problem has been corrected.
“I know that’s a no-no,” he said. “It’s a big mistake, and apology letters have gone out.”
Postal authorities said complaints about IDP surfaced in April and are continuing. The regional office of the Better Business Bureau in Cypress said it began receiving complaints in February and that IDP has not responded to its inquiry.
Among those receiving the solicitation was World Emergency Relief of Carlsbad. Rev. Joel MacCollam, an Episcopal minister and World Relief president, said he received an “invoice” offering him a “special rate for being a nonprofit organization” of $369 for repair and service to a binding and laminating machine. MacCollam said World Emergency Relief doesn’t own such a machine.
MacCollam said that when he called IDP to complain about the solicitation, he was answered with an obscenity. He said he has received no apology letter.
MacCollam said he believes some organizations probably paid the amount listed on the solicitation. “We have the advantage of being in a six-room suite, so we know what equipment we’ve got,” he said.
But Frick said customers are contacted with follow-up phone calls, preventing people from paying for a service they don’t need.
Frick’s company has other problems. General Binding Corp. has filed a copyright infringement suit against IDP in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. GBC wants IDP to stop offering a toll-free number that incorporates the letters GBC, among other things. Frick says he is being picked on because his company competes with GBC for equipment repair business.
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Arbitration score cards: Are new car owners who arbitrate disputes over automobile defects getting a raw deal? Depends on how you interpret the numbers.
Motor Voters, a consumer organization, said arbitration panels in California last year awarded refunds or replacement cars to less than 40% of complainants, too low in Motor Voters’ opinion. But the state agency charged with overseeing arbitration programs says the statistic is misleading.
Auto manufacturers in California run their own arbitration programs, and results are reviewed annually by a unit of the state Department of Consumer Affairs. However, Motor Voters is sponsoring legislation that would institute state-run arbitration programs. A bill calling for state-run arbitration authored by Assemblywoman Jackie Speier (D-Burlingame) could reach the Assembly floor for a vote as early as next week.
Results of arbitration programs vary by manufacturer. According to Motor Voters, Ford owners who arbitrated their disputes fared best in 1993, with 39% of them receiving either a refund or a replacement vehicle. Motor Voters said 12% of Toyota owners who arbitrated disputes received a refund or a new vehicle, the lowest percentage. The Toyota program has been discontinued.
But Peter Brightbill, the state official charged with overseeing the manufacturer-run arbitration programs, said Motor Voters failed to count consumers who received free auto repairs. Had Motor Voters done so, the percentage of consumers receiving some form of compensation from arbitration boards last year would have risen to 63%, Brightbill said.
While agreeing that existing arbitration programs aren’t perfect, Brightbill said win-lose records alone do not reflect fairness. He said manufacturers settle many complaints about defects before they reach arbitration, but those settlements are not reflected in the arbitration statistics.
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Memorial Day notes: The American Automobile Assn. is predicting a 1% drop in Memorial Day trips in California and 10 other western states from a year ago, a result of the sluggish economy and iffy weather. That contrasts with an expected 1% increase in Memorial Day travel nationwide. AAA blames the modest increase on bad weather in the East and South.
People driving to their destinations this weekend will enjoy lower gasoline prices than last year. The national average at the pump last week was about $1.141, nearly 4 cents lower than a year ago, according to analyst Trilby Lundberg.
The Lundberg Survey found that in Los Angeles last week, the average price of unleaded regular was just over $1.14, down 8 cents from a year ago. In San Diego, the average price of unleaded regular last week was slightly more than $1.19, down 3 cents. The Lundberg Survey checks prices at 10,000 U.S. gas stations every two weeks.
