Have a consumer gripe? Join the club!

Pam, I feel your pain. Remember, I run a Toy Test every year. You’d think these things were expensive antiques they way they are secured in the package.

In its March issue, Consumer Reports gives out its annual Oyster Awards for “hard-to-open packages."

The magazine says some popular dolls have as many as 50 twists, ties and tapes “that shackle the dolls to their plastic and cardboard prison.”

Madeline in Ottawa, Canada has another packaging gripe. She’s fed up with those plastic packages that are almost impossible to open without tools.

“This is crazy,” she writes. “Why do manufacturers insist on packaging everything as if it were meant to be protected from the air for a thousand years?”

Another problem, once you get the package open you have to be really careful not to cut yourself on the sharp plastic edges.

There are two major reasons for all of this overly-protective packaging. Many of these products have to withstand shipping from overseas and manufacturers are trying to deal with an ever-growing shoplifting problem. But still, things have really gotten out of hand.

Gripe: Hotel charges
Ann wants to know why pricey hotel chains insist on charging their customers for Internet access, while inexpensive hotels are happy to provide the service for free. “$30 for 24 hours of high-speed Internet service sounds like a scam to me,” she writes, “when I can get a whole month of it at home for $49.”

I don’t think I’d call it a scam, but it sure is annoying. I think they do it because they can. The people staying at the pricier hotel can afford to pay the tab or they’re traveling on an expense account and therefore are less likely to complain. Also, it’s a great way to generate extra revenue without raising the room rate.

By the way, they do the same thing with telephone service. At a mid-level hotel I get free local calls, but at the upscale place they want to ding me 50 cents or more for a local call. Some hotels even charge to make 800-number calls from the room! Not me; I use my cell phone.

Gripe: Poor customer service
Matt in Georgia has had it with “walking into a business and being totally ignored while you stand at the counter and witness the help whining to each other about personal issues … pathetic!”

It sure is. My pet peeve is when the person at the register takes a phone call while I’m waiting to pay. Why is the person on the phone more important than me? Excuse me — I was there first! And I have money in my hand. Put the @#$@% caller on hold and talk to them after you’ve taken care of me.

Gripe: Complicated electronics
Christine in New Mexico can’t understand why manufacturers ignore adults 40 and older. She wants “simpler electronics” that have fewer features.

“We only want our cell phones to make and receive calls,” she writes. “Address books are nice. But we don’t want to play games, have 40-million ring tones, or play music.”

Christine also hates the instruction booklets that come with so many electronic products. The print is so small, and the directions are so complicated. “It requires a Master’s Degree,” she says, to figure out how to work your digital camera!

Do you have a pet peeve?   Share it here.

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