Happy new year to my readers. I hope you exercise your consumer rights in 2012.

You have the right to safety, to choose, to be informed and to be heard, according to the original consumer bill of rights put forth by U.S. President John Kennedy in 1962.

Four more rights were added in 1985 by the United Nations: The right to redress or remedy. The right to environmental health. The right to service. The right to consumer education.

So, what happened in the past year? We had a victory for consumer activism with Open Media’s petition campaign to get the CRTC to review its decision on usage-based billing. The CRTC said smaller Internet service providers could charge customers as they liked.

We also had some losses. TD Bank pulled out of the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI),following RBC’s lead. Now Canada’s two biggest banks can use their own hand-picked mediator for banking complaints — and the federal government has done nothing to stop them.

The Supreme Court of Canada turned down a national securities regulator, saying it was unconstitutional. However, the court may have opened the door to more federal-provincial cooperation in this area, says Ermanno Pascutto of FAIR.

Is customer service getting any better? I’ve seen little improvement. I’m busier than ever helping readers with consumer complaints.

In fact, the Air Miles decision to date-stamp its points with a five-year limit is a step backward and makes Aeroplan’s seven-year expiry date look good in comparison. (Air Canada tweeted my column about the change.)

CBC Television ran a documentary on Customer (Dis)Service last year. And this week (Jan. 6), CBC Marketplace will launch its new season with a one-hour look at Canada’s Worst Retail Customer Service. (I’ll be on the show, giving my views of the three retail chains with the worst service.)

I’m also tackling this topic in a new book, called 99 Ways to Fight Back: How to Hang on to Your Money and Protect Yourself from Corporate Trickery. It’s going to be pubshed by Wiley in the next year or so.

Since I’m still writing, I’d love to get your stories. How do you get through to large corporations? How do you reach a decision-maker who can resolve your complaint?

How effective are social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, in communicating with companies and spreading the word to other consumers? Do you use social media? Do you find they work?

Musician Dave Carroll, famous for his YouTube protest, United Breaks Guitars, will be on the CBC Marketplace show on Jan. 6. He’s written a new ode to consumer activism that he’ll sing on the show.

Talking about social media, check out my story on the Zellers coupon fiasco and Zellers’ Facebook page. I think this is one huge corporate mistake we’ll be talking about for months to come.

Thanks for all your comments on the blog. I expect the total number of comments to get close to, or surpass, the 10,000 mark this year.

Let’s keep talking about consumer rights (and yes, consumer responsibilities) and the progress we’re making in getting our voices heard and our issues taken seriously.

Last Friday, we learned that Canada’s two telecom giants were buying a majority stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. Media coverage was sympathetic.

CEOs George Cope of Bell and Nadir Mohammed of Rogers said they were avid sports fans and weighed the chances of the Leafs finally winning a Stanley Cup. (The Rogers CEO hoped the Blue Jays would win the World Series at the same time.)

What about fairness? Isn’t it anti-competitive to have the two rivals team up to gain a stranglehold on sports ownership and broadcasting rights? Can the CBC hang on to Hockey Night in Canada once Bell-owned CTV muscles into its territory?

It’s good to hear that the Competition Bureau will review the deal before it’s approved. Commissioner Melanie Aitken is a tiger when it comes to anti-competitive behaviour.

I don’t like the deal because I think this duo has too much power already. I didn’t see many mainstream media commentators take this stand, but did find some sympathy among bloggers such as Medium Close Up.

This concentration of power will be bad for everyone. While Bell and Rogers are busy divvying up the nation, they leave little room for their competition. This means they can do with sports content what they have done with mobile technology and cable and satellite delivery. They can control access and they can control price.

All you have to do to see the future is to look at what these to companies have done in the past. Canadians pay among the highest rates in the world for mobile service and internet access, and Bell and Rogers continually strive to keep competition out through influence on government and regulatory bodies and with unfair discount practices that disappear when the competition is wiped out.

What do you think? Should the federal government stand up to these corporate bullies? Is it time to take a stand against a homegrown media and telecommunications cartel?

Let’s not treat this as a done deal. Let’s discuss what it means to consumers before it’s too late.

When buying a newly built house, you get a new home warranty to cover problems arising in the first few years. At least that’s the case in many Canadian provinces.

Yes, you do have to pay for the warranty, but it’s a measure of protection that you don’t get when buying an older house. And with the Ontario plan, you even get compensation for extraordinary delays in taking possession of the property.

Still, I often hear complaints about Tarion Warranty Corp., the non-profit corporation that administers the Ontario plan. I wrote a column recently that talked about the inadequate heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems installed in some newly built houses.

I asked readers to tell me if they had faced similar issues — or any others involving quality of construction — when buying their dream homes.

How easy was it to get their repairs done under warranty? How satisfactory were their dealings with Tarion? What reforms would they like to see?

Many new home buyers, as well as people working in the HVAC trades, told me about problems they had encountered with HVAC systems and overall building standards.

I’ll give you some of their comments below.

I got lots of feedback to a recent column about Rogers not delivering the speeds that Internet customers were paying for.

This happens to some people when they upgrade to a more expensive service.

Congestion occurs if you have lots of heavy Internet users in your area or outdated equipment. Service providers use this as an excuse to get out of delivering the high speeds you expect.

But if the network isn’t adequate to handle the demand, that’s a concern for users. The problem has been around for a long time, judging by this CBC Marketplace report, but it’s no better four years later.

There’s also the issue of throttling and “traffic shaping,” which should be carried out according to the rules. The Canadian Gamers Organization just learned that its complaint about Rogers unduly restricting access to online services will go to the CRTC’s enforcement division for further action. (See Open Media’s report.)

David T. lives in Waterloo, Ont. He feels trapped dealing with Rogers Internet because there’s no real competition. Bell offers slower DSL service, so there’s not much room for poor network management.

He contacted his local TV stations about the slow speeds, but found they had no interest in covering the story. Then, he realized they’re owned by Rogers and Bell.

It’s newsworthy, in his view, because many people in the Kitchener-Waterloo area are posting comments at Rogers’ own website and at DSL Reports.

Here’s what he said in a series of emails:

I thought if I could get local media to report on this issue — Rogers Extreme Plus and Ultimate subscribers getting 1 Mbps after 5 pm, every night for two weeks — people might just fight for better service and more competition.

There’s no agency that deals with extremely slow speeds or failure to deliver speeds. I feel the media are my only option.

This is getting surreal. It’s like this big elephant in the room that Rogers oversells bandwidth in crowded areas and does nothing for months.

If people were getting 2 per cent of their electricity, gas or water at night, they would not be quiet about it.

Rogers is so horrible and time-wasting to deal with, most people just don’t bother.

I guess there is nothing a cable internet subscriber can do to get even 20 per cent of his or her advertised speed at night from Rogers. Hell, I’d take a reliable 10 per cent at this point.

People don’t seem to grasp that if you’re on an uncongested node, your service is great, but if you are on a congested node like mine where they oversold, you’re screwed.

It should be regulated, much like a bank that must have a set reserve amount for all its loans and leverages. Rogers should be required to upgrade, then go on an adding blitz.

I referred David T. to Rogers a few times. He finally says his Internet speed is back to normal. Here are some other complaints I’ve received below. Please chime in with your own experiences.

Did I last update this blog in August? Where did September go? Thanks for continuing to post your comments here and checking to see what others are writing.

Here’s a recent post about car leasing from Sarah, who asks about an ethical issue. I thought I’d bring it your attention and get your comments about it.

I leased a car and I’m at my end of lease. I had the inspector come to my house and watched him do the inspection.

Long story short, he was VERY lazy and missed something that I know is a major repair. (it’s a convertible and the top won’t go down! He was so lazy he didn’t even TRY IT!)

The leasing company told my husband not to mention it and only to repair this item if the inspector catches it.

Am I only responsible for the items he listed on his report? Or am I at risk of being billed for this after the fact, even though I was not told to fix it?

This is my first lease and I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to pay the $1,500 to fix it if I don’t have to.

Kerry has a complaint about a car rental, where a large damage charge was added to her bill after she returned the vehicle. This is a cautionary tale.

Attached is a bill for repairs to a car I rented 14 MONTHS after it was returned. I returned the car during office hours and was issued a receipt after the normal check for gas levels, etc. I was shown no damage.

From Avis Budget Group:
With respect to the damage that occurred to the rental vehicle, our claim is based on the following:
– $498.00 (cost of repairs)
– $110.98 (loss of use)
– $100 (administration)
– $708.88 (Total).

Is it possible for car rental companies to make claims after so much time has elapsed? What can I do as a consumer to prevent this from happening again?

Karl has a story about taking his car to a few repair shops and getting wildly varying quotes for what was needed.

My Chevy Malibu was due for an oil change and an emissions test. The car has less than 60,000 kilometres on it.

I took it to a Chevrolet dealer that I’ve used many times, without any problem. Since their emission test machine was down, I told them to go ahead with an oil change, with the GM Good Wrench 20 point check. I would do the emission test somewhere else.

The shop called me to say that the steering shaft was bent. The cost to replace it, using used parts, would be about $400. I declined, as I hadn’t felt anything unusual with steering.

The oil change was done. The 20 point check came back with green scores. There was no printed record on either invoice about the steering shaft.

Two days later, I took the same car to another dealer for the emission test. This shop had been a GM Good Wrench, now changed to KIA.

The dealer called to say the emission test could not be done because the exhaust system was leaking. The cost to fix it would be $700 plus. I declined, as the car was comparatively new and not heavily driven. I didn’t get charged by KIA. The exhaust leak finding was printed on the zero charged invoice.

The same day, I took the same car to a garage recommended by a friend, not GM, not KIA, to do the emission test. One hour later, the emission test report came out with flying colours. No mention of any exhaust leak or bent steering shaft.

Finally, I can renew my licence plate.

Talking about complaints, I got more than my usual share when I wrote a column about rising car insurance rates and shrinking accident benefits in Ontario.

Many people said I didn’t go far enough in denouncing the government’s insurance changes imposed a year ago. Some complained about rising property insurance rates as well. Check out a sample of their comments below.

If you want to see what I’m writing elsewhere, you can find my Toronto Star columns (three a week) and blog posts (two a week) at Moneyville, which just celebrated its first anniversary. You can also follow me on Twitter.

Finally, you can come to my free financial literacy workshop on Tuesday, Nov. 22, from 5.30 to 9.30 p.m., at Ryerson University’s Chang School of Continuing Education. Details below:

COEC 100 Financial Basics

Work on your budgeting skills, learn how to track your spending, understand how credit products are marketed, manage your debt, compare different saving and investing options, choose a financial adviser, and avoid common financial frauds. Participants will learn the need for financial literacy as an essential life skill, the importance of asking questions when dealing with financial products and financial advisers, and the ways to save money when they think they’re stretched to the limit.

Note: Prior to the workshop, you may enroll online or in person. On the day of the workshop, you may enroll in person at the workshop location (Heaslip House, 7th Floor, Peter Bronfman Learning Centre, 297 Victoria Street, Toronto).

The Canada Revenue Agency has sent letters to more than 100,000 people who contributed too much to a tax-free savings account last year. They have 60 days to respond or else pay a penalty equal to one per cent a month.

Only 72,000 people got a warning last year. But the percentage of errors is lower, given the greater number of TFSA contributors.

Revenue Minister Gail Shea is promising leniency to those who made an honest mistake. I’ve already heard from a half dozen of them, including one close to home (my adult son).

The letters are going out just after J. Paul Dube, the Taxpayers’ Ombudsman, released a report saying the CRA didn’t do enough to explain the rules. In particular, many people didn’t wait a year to replace TFSA funds they had withdrawn.

He said the agency couldn’t just publish information, but had to make sure that Canadians could find the information.

Did the government create too complex rules for the TFSA? Did it communicate well enough to the banks selling — and in many cases, overselling — the new savings product?

A Canadian Press article had some criticism of the year-long blitz by the government to lessen the rate of TFSA errors.

Focus-group surveys commissioned by the agency last year indicated Canadians found the official TFSA website confusing and difficult to navigate, even after it was revamped to better highlight the over-contribution rule.

Other internal reports suggested the agency’s language in describing TFSAs to the public has been unclear.

It’s very easy to remove money from a TFSA, a factor that could underlie some of the inadvertent over-contributions.

“The risk of using a TFSA is that you may be tempted to take money out for another purpose,” says Neil Jain, founder of Money Life Skills in Toronto, quoted in the current issue of MoneySense magazine.

“With an RRSP, you’ll think hard before you withdraw from it.”

RRSP withdrawals are heavily taxed and you never get the contribution room back. I’m sure my own RRSP would be much smaller if I could tap it easily to satisfy spending urges.

So, if you get one of those CRA letters — they’re bulky, about eight pages apiece — try to put up a fight. Ask your financial institution to cover the penalty, especially if you weren’t warned about running afoul of the rules. Ask the CRA for clemency.

You have a good chance of being absolved of liability, given the confusion that still reigns in the second year of the new product’s life.

News flash: I’m giving my University of Toronto course, Investing for Beginners, again this fall on Thursday nights, starting Sept. 15. Here’s a link.

Hope to see you there if you can make it to the downtown campus.

Quite by accident, not deliberately, I wrote three columns in a row about water and its potential to create headaches for homeowners.

The first was about how a household’s water bill can jump from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars for mysterious reasons. The city water department washes its hands of the problem, so to speak, and leaves it up to the homeowner to find the leak and plug it up.

The second was about how a home inspection firm can miss water damage if it’s hidden behind a wall and has no visible signs. I spoke to a home buyer who had to spend $5,000 to replace mould damage in a bathroom after his home inspector gave it a clean bill of health. He got a refund of the fee, but nothing else to help with the repair cost.

The third was about how door to door sellers can scare homeowners into replacing their water heaters by saying they’re unsafe or inefficient, while pretending to work for an energy supplier. These new water heaters come with long-term contracts, which can trap later owners of a house into paying hefty fees to buy their way out.

All three columns, as usual, sparked some discussion among readers. I’m attaching a few comments below.

Apologies to readers for not posting anything new here for a long time. A combination of hard work and hot weather kept me away from the keyboard. I’m still committed to keeping this blog going and hoping to write more frequently in future.

I’ve written about the “bill shock” that can arise when taking your smart phone with you to the United States or overseas.

In a couple of articles, I suggest that telecom companies could do a better job of warning people about the possibility of shockingly high charges.

They could urge people to protect themselves with detailed instructions on how to turn off their data settings or unlock their phones.

And they could make it easier for customers to find and choose the right prepaid data roaming packages.

In response, I’ve heard many stories about being caught unaware by high fees. Even corporate executives, who should know better, have had bad experiences.

I’m also getting feedback from readers who have no sympathy for those penalized for not knowing the rules.

They say it’s a waste of my time to defend clueless clients or try to get their data roaming charges “right sized,” as Rogers calls the process of putting people on a prepaid plan that would cover them.

Informed consumers often resent attempts to protect the uninformed. The issue of penalties for those who broke the rules for tax-free savings accounts in the first year springs to mind.

I always look at communication when deciding whether to not to use my power to help customers. I feel companies should go out of their way to let people know about bad things that might hurt them.

If customers aren’t warned in a way that catches their attention, they should have their charges written off — at least the first time — as a learning experience.

I’ll post some comments below to give you a feel for the debate. As usual, please feel free to add your own comments.

You’re invited to come to one of my free Financial Basics workshops, taking place at Ryerson University’s Chang School of Continuing Education on Tuesday, June 21, from 5.30 to 9.30 p.m. Here’s a link.

You can enroll in advance or just show up on the date. The location is 297 Victoria St., (just north of Dundas St. E., east of Yonge St.), 7th floor, The Bronfman Room.

Remember, the workshop includes an excellent take-home booklet, prepared by me with help from two partners, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada and the Investor Education Fund.

If you’re in Toronto, you can come to hear a talk by Tom Bradley, president of Steadyhand, a new and innovative Canadian mutual fund manager, at the investment club I organized.

We meet on Tuesday, June 14, at the Miles Nadal Community Centre, 750 Spadina Ave. (near Bloor St.). The cost is $10 a person. You can also get a copy of Tom’s book, It’s Not Rocket Science.

Do you have opinions on water heaters? Buy or rent? Which is better? Two MBA students at York University’s Schulich School of Business are doing a critical look at the burgeoning door-to-door sales of water heater rentals.

“It’s a 5-10 minute survey. The purpose is to understand the reason why individuals buy or rent their water heater, as well as to assess their level of satisfaction with the service that they are receiving,” says Azadeh Afshar, one of the students.

“The research is completely confidential and no individuals or organizations will be identified in it. The survey will also be destroyed at the end of our project.”

Here’s a link to the survey for water heater renters. And here’s a link to the survey if you’re a water heater owner.

Are you tired of going into a big store and not being able to find help? Retailers should treat you with respect when you try to spend your hard-earned money. Instead, they make you do all the work.

You have to figure out where the stuff is located and how much it costs. To choose among several items, you have to do your own research, since you can’t rely on store staff to know anything.

Then, you often have to scan and bag your own purchases to avoid line-ups at the cashier’s desk. Whatever happened to service with a smile?

There’s nothing more frustrating than being ignored or shrugged off when you try to ask questions. But that’s the status quo at many large retail chains.

I recently went to my local Canadian Tire to buy an iron. I found two $49.95 models with the features I wanted. But the cashier rang up one at $59.95 and one at $69.95, saying they were on the wrong shelves.

A staff member was sent to track down the lower-priced irons that matched the shelf tags. Nothing turned up. I ended up paying $10 more than I thought I would, just to minimize my wasted time.

I think Canadian Tire needs a shake-up. While some franchise owners care about service, others don’t seem to want our business. They let customers fend for themselves.

In contrast, the Hudson’s Bay Co. has upgraded its staff training. I used to wander around looking for someone to help me. Now I find greeters on every floor and people who know the products they sell. It’s a welcome change.

So, what’s going on? Caitlin Kelly’s book, Malled: My Unintentional Career in Retail, talks about working at The North Face, a U.S. chain. She says sales associates are treated badly, leading to surly service and lots of turnover.

A Canadian journalist living in New York, Kelly found her writing income dried up during the 2008 recession. She took a part-time retail job at $9 an hour, but found her work unsafe and injurious to her mental health.

Retail workers are treated oppressively by management, in her view. They’re forced to work long hours with low pay and little chance of advancement. She quit after two and half years, unable to quell her dissatisfaction.

As a customer, I’ve decided to stay away from stores that stint on staff. If enough of us boycott underperformers, we can start a revolution. Let’s try to bring about change for shoppers and sales associates.

Please tell me your retail horror stories and happy stories. My Moneyville post on this topic drew more than 120 comments.