Home contracting complaints top Westchester’s list
-
- March
- 3
The Westchester County Department of Consumer Protection recovered a record $975,000 in restitution for consumers in 2007, up 36 percent, as the department focused on complaints involving home contractors.
Complaints about home improvement and repair work topped the department’s “Top 10� list of more than 1,300 consumer grievances for 2007. Contracting complaints logged in at 362, slightly less than the 370 complaints logged for 2006, although the department was able to recover more money on contracting complaints last year, spokesman John Gaccione said today.
“We did shift some resources and put more emphasis on it,� he said.
Last year Consumer Protection ran an undercover sting operation for the first time, with county police posing as homeowners and contacting unlicensed contractors to seek bids for repair work. The department recently seized a vehicle from an unlicensed contractor, using a new county law allowing for the impounding of such equipment.
In descending order, the other nine subjects of consumer complaints were automobile dealers, furniture stores, food stores (pricing, scanner accuracy, outdated merchandise, rain checks), department stores, professional services, utilities, manufacturers (consumer products), wireless phones, and appliance stores.
To file a consumer complaint, call (914) 995-2155 or log onto the department’s Web site, www.westchestergov.com/consumer.
This entry was posted
on Monday, March 3rd, 2008 at 5:10 pm by Jerry Gleeson.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Share and Enjoy: 
| 
Print
| 
Email
