{"id":41744,"date":"2022-03-08T15:34:28","date_gmt":"2022-03-08T22:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/here-are-colorados-top-10-consumer-complaints-in-2021\/"},"modified":"2022-03-08T22:34:28","modified_gmt":"2022-03-08T22:34:28","slug":"here-are-colorados-top-10-consumer-complaints-in-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/here-are-colorados-top-10-consumer-complaints-in-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Here are Colorado\u2019s top 10 consumer complaints in 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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The La Plata County Sheriff\u2019s Office is warning residents that scammers posing as representatives for the Dish Network are calling residents and pretending to update receivers remotely, while asking for personal information. Residents should hang up and alert the Dish Network\u2019s fraud line.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In observance of National Consumer Protection Week, which runs from March 6 through March 12, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser\u2019s office released a list of the most common types of consumer complaints in the state.<\/p>\n

Weiser, a Democrat, encourages people to file complaints<\/a> about product or quality issues, incorrect billing, false advertising, deceptive business practices and more. Complaints help the attorney general\u2019s office identify common violations and hold bad actors accountable.<\/p>\n

Consumers filed 13,970 complaints and inquiries with the Consumer Protection Section in the Colorado Department of Law, representing a 15.1% increase from 2020. Here are the topics that Colorado consumers had the most to complain about in 2021:<\/p>\n

1. Retail sales: 1,266 complaints<\/div>\n

This category includes complaints related to unauthorized memberships or subscriptions, service and delivery issues, and subscription or membership cancellation issues.<\/p>\n

One example of a retail sales issue: When the pandemic hit, international ticket reseller StubHub initially refused to provide refunds for canceled events. The company eventually cooperated with the attorney general and provided $3.12 million in ticket refunds to nearly 8,700 Colorado consumers, according to a September statement from Weiser\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

2. Unemployment scams: 995 complaints<\/div>\n

The \u201cchallenging nature of collaboration\u201d between state, local and national law enforcement agencies can present a difficulty in prosecuting unemployment fraud, Weiser said during a virtual news conference Monday. It can also be difficult to track down perpetrators who live outside the U.S., he added.<\/p>\n

Still, the Colorado Unemployment Fraud Task Force that Weiser launched one year ago has referred 17 criminal cases for prosecution to Colorado\u2019s district attorneys, Weiser\u2019s office and the U.S. attorney\u2019s office, according to a Friday statement<\/a>. The amount of unemployment benefits that were allegedly stolen through those 17 fraud cases totaled more than $300,000.<\/p>\n

3. Automotive sales and services: 758 complaints<\/div>\n

Given the soaring prices of used cars<\/a> and supply issues with auto parts, Weiser\u2019s office is seeing more complaints related to vehicle purchases, service and repair, and rentals.<\/p>\n

Whenever there\u2019s a tough supply and demand issue, Weiser said, \u201cSometimes people will try to pull a fast one, and that\u2019s something that we don\u2019t stand for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other top complaints<\/div>\n

The other top seven complaint categories in 2021 included product warranties and business support services; home and commercial building repairs; vacation and travel; debt collection; health care; internet and phone services; and real estate sales.<\/p>\n

The top financial issues<\/a> Colorado consumers reported to the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2021 included incorrect information on credit reports and credit reporting agencies failing to fix problems, according to a Monday statement from The Colorado Public Interest Research Foundation, or CoPIRG. Part of the nonprofit\u2019s mission is to protect consumers in the financial marketplace.<\/p>\n

On Monday, CoPIRG released a guide to finding mistakes<\/a> on your credit report and step-by-step instructions<\/a> for using credit freezes to protect against identity theft.<\/p>\n

How to file a consumer complaint<\/div>\n

Before filing a complaint about a company or individual with Weiser\u2019s office, consumers are encouraged to keep a record of all interactions with the company or individual they plan to report. Next, Weiser\u2019s office says, take some time to objectively evaluate the situation \u2013 separating facts from emotions \u2013 to understand the problem and what resolution you are seeking.<\/p>\n

Before reporting the problem, Weiser\u2019s office recommends one more step: reaching out to the company or seller. Send the complaint to a salesperson or customer service representative, and if that doesn\u2019t work, try the management team or corporate offices.<\/p>\n

Finally, visit coag.gov\/file-complaint<\/a> to file a complaint online. Report scams, fraud and price gouging to the attorney general\u2019s consumer protection team, Stop Fraud Colorado, by calling (800) 222-4444 or visiting StopFraudColorado.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The attorney general\u2019s office has also developed a resource guide<\/a> with information for consumers, including the relevant federal authorities who can help with certain issues.<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Newsline, visit www.coloradonewsline.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

13,970 complaints and inquiries were filed last year<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[488,120,94,2336,4360,4020,4093,4031,168,1503],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-41744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-civil","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-state-government","tag-colorado-state-officials","tag-consumer-confidence","tag-consumer-goods","tag-consumer-issue","tag-consumers","tag-crime","tag-fraud"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41744"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=41744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}