Shady car dealers, shoddy home-repair jobs and credit card fees top the list of complaints people have about their interactions with businesses in 2014.
The North American Consumer Protection Investigators, an association of government consumer protection investigators, on Wednesday released its survey of the most plaguing customer complaints. Each year, the group asks consumer agencies about what they hear from consumers.
Here are the topics that frustrated consumers this year:
1. Auto
Car buyers were sold a few lemons. Complaints about false advertising and vehicles that break down shortly after purchase as well as disputes over leasing and towing were the most common complaints in 2014.
2. Home Improvement & Construction:
Need to build a porch? Replace your cabinets? Fix your plumbing? Prepare for delays, because faulty home fixes and complaints of unmet promises came flooding in last year.
3. Credit & Debit
Hidden fees and billing disputes from credit card companies stirred up customers last year, too. Mortgage fraud and predatory lending -- loans with large or rapidly increasing interest rates -- also raised red flags.
4. Retail Sales + Utilities
A 12-pack of soda doesn't always ring up at the shelf price, and shoppers took notice. Misleading advertisements and defective merchandise were common problems reported to consumer agencies. Other retail-related complaints included failed deliveries and issues with rebates, coupons and gift cards.
Complaints about utilities tied for fourth. Service disruptions and billing disputes with cable, satellite, Internet, electric and gas suppliers came pouring in last year.
5. Services
People who hired lawyers, real estate brokers and other service people had grievances about their help not having proper licenses, misrepresenting their service or doing shoddy work.
6. Landlords & Tenants
Renters reported nightmares like poor living conditions and landlords that didn't do repairs and used illegal eviction tactics.
7. Solicitations
Telemarketers and door-to-door salesmen were unwelcome. People told consumer agencies they violated do-not-call listings and offered goods and services that turned out to be misrepresented.
8. Health Services + Internet Sales
Practitioners without licenses, misleading claims and unmet expectations were common complaints for health care customers.
Many online shoppers were disappointed in the products they received. Others said their purchases were never delivered.
9. Fraud
Fake sweepstakes, lotteries, work-at-home offers and other get-rich-quick schemes led to a slew of complaints last year.
10. Household Goods
If you sent in a piece of furniture or an appliance for a fix up, you may have seen it come back with minimal improvements. Household goods also didn't work as advertised or were never delivered.
Those complaints round out the list of criticisms most-often heard by consumer agencies.
What was the most outrageous of the complaints the agencies heard? Debt collection.
"Problems in that category run the gamut from callers trying to get consumers to send money to satisfy loans that don't really exist to abusive practices to collect debts that consumers legitimately owe," according to the NACPI press release.
