Top 10 consumer complaints in 2015

Complaints about automobiles were No. 1 on the top 10 consumer complaint list for the second year in a row, according to the Consumer Federation of America.

The gripes ranged from misleading ads and sales to faulty repairs.

The full top 10 list of consumer complaints in 2015, according to the CFA and North American Consumer Protection Investigators survey:

  1. Auto
  2. Home Improvement/Construction
  3. Utilities
  4. Credit/Debt
  5. Retail Sales
  6. Services
  7. Landlord/Tenant
  8. Household Goods
  9. Health Products/Services
  10. (a tie) Internet Sales and Fraud

“Just because an industry has a large volume of complaints doesn’t necessarily mean that they are doing anything wrong. It’s about how they handle those complaints, and what you want to see is a business that has handled that complaint appropriately,” said BBB president John North.

The biggest movers over past year were utility complaints, which jumped from fifth place to third, and household good complaints, which moved up from 10th to No. 8.

The fastest-growing complaint was about an IRS scam and other imposter scams.

“It’s ridiculous that people are falling for that because the news keeps saying over and over that the IRS isn’t going to call you and ask you for money and they are still falling for it and paying,” said Mindy Newland of Moraine.

There is one complaint on the list that isn’t a big issue in the Miami Valley.

“We don’t get a lot of landlord tenant complaints here, ” said North.

To better protect consumers, experts want a ban on forced arbitration clauses in contracts because they prevent consumers from taking legal action. Other suggestions include free credit freezes for consumers and stricter laws against caller ID spoofing and robocalls, according to a CFA news release.

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