Consumer Confidential: Strollers, shakes and spam

Here's your make-my-Monday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

--Heads up if you've got a little one. Maclaren, which makes some very popular strollers, has recalled about 1 million folding strollers that can cut or even cut off kids' fingertips. So far, the company says mishaps have resulted in at least 12 kids' fingertips being amputated. The kids apparently get their fingers caught in side hinges when the stroller is being opened or closed. For more info, check out www.maclaren.us/recall or call 877-688-2326.

--The economy might still stink, but things are looking up at the golden arches. McDonald's says its global sales rose 3.3% last month as consumers worldwide answered a hankering for Big Macs, fries and shakes. This was especially the case in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, where sales jumped 4.7%. Who says the United States isn't spreading sunshine throughout the world?

--The website Tagged.com has agreed to pay $500,000 to the New York attorney general's office to settle charges that it routinely hijacked people's e-mail accounts and sent marketing pitches to everyone they know. This is a relatively common ploy among social-networking sites and has sparked outcry among many Net users. If you've had a similar experience with either Tagged.com or some other site, don't hesitate to let California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown know about it.

-- David Lazarus

David Lazarus: Watch out when signing up for online services

David Lazarus' latest column, "Real estate company's pitch leads to unexpected bill," is a cautionary tale about a problem that consumer advocates say is becoming all too common: people signing up for one thing online and inadvertently signing up for something else that comes with recurring monthly charges.

Here's an excerpt:

Maria Casanova, an assistant professor of economics at UCLA, toyed with the idea earlier this year of buying a foreclosed property near the Westwood campus. She signed up for a prominent listing service called RealtyTrac.

Casanova, 31, canceled her subscription not long after. Yet a few days ago she discovered that some other real estate company she'd never heard of has been billing her almost $45 a month for the last eight months.

Here's a video from Lazarus on the subject:

So has this kind of stealth co-registration happened to you? Do you worry when you sign up for paid services online that you'll end up with a little extra something that you didn't bank on?

-- Nancy Rivera Brooks

Consumer Confidential: Cars, Kindles and credit

• The president of Toyota Motor Corp., Akio Toyoda, said it was "extremely regrettable" that an American family died in a crash believed to have been caused by a faulty floor mat. That's commendable, as far as it goes. But such language is standard among Japanese execs and politicians whenever something goes wrong. More important is what Toyota will do about the problem. So far, no word of a recall or any other measure.
• Amazon.com says it will no longer remove any books from people's Kindle e-book readers without their permission. The decision follows an outcry over the online bookseller deleting copies of George Orwell's "1984" from Kindles due to a copyright issue. Amazon's new policy is intended to help settle a lawsuit brought by Kindle users. Orwell would be pleased.
• California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown has filed suit against two businessmen who run a "credit repair" company. Brown says the two -- Todd Swick and Michael Sardo -- have ignored repeated warnings that they must register their business with the state and post a $100,000 bond. He says the lawsuit is intended to make sure that all credit repair firms follow the law. Here's a tip: The only one who can repair your credit is you. Don't pay fees up front to any company saying it can help.

-- David Lazarus

Activia, DanActive yogurt buyers to receive refunds in false advertising settlement

Saturday Night Live has spoofed Activia yogurt and its advertisements featuring actress Jaime Lee Curtis hawking the yogurt that supposedly... er, um ... loosens things up for those who eat it.

But Dannon Co., which makes Activia, is going to have to loosen its purse strings after settling a false-advertising lawsuit today. The settlement calls for the formation of a $35-million fund to reimburse those who bought Dannon's Activia and DanActive yogurts.

The class-action lawsuit, filed in January 2008, alleged that Dannon lied when marketing its Activia and DanActive yogurts by promising health benefits that the yogurt didn't really deliver.

Dannon denied the lawsuit's claims and admitted to no wrongdoing as a part of the settlement.

In a statement, Dannon said the decision to settle the lawsuit was based on avoiding "the distraction and expense of litigation."

Dannon also agreed to make changes to the labeling and marketing of its Activia and DanActive yogurts by increasing the visibility on the labels of the scientific names of the “probiotic” cultures in the yogurts, the settlement said.

The word “immunity” will be removed from DanActive labels as a part of the settlement, court documents said.

Labels that say the yogurt has “a positive effect on your digestive tract’s immune system” will be replaced with labels that say the yogurt will “interact with your digestive tract’s immune system,” the settlement said.

But Dannon will still be able to say it has scientific proof that its yogurt has the ability to improve "slow intestinal travel," or bowel irregularity, as long as the label, ad or display also states that such improvement occurs only when "eaten daily for two weeks, as part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle,” court documents said.

The refund program for customers who bought Activia or DanActive yogurts will pay up to $100 per customer, court documents said.

To get the refund, consumers have to fill out a claim form that will be made available once the settlement is approved by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.

Consumers will have 100 days to apply for their refunds from Dannon, which will post claim forms on its website, the settlement said.

San Diego law firm Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins, the lead council on the lawsuit, is offering to mail claim forms to consumers who fill out a form on their website.

If any of the $35 million is left over after the customer refunds are paid, Dannon must donate the remaining amount in yogurt to food banks, court documents said.

-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Photo: Activia yogurt. Credit: Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times

Dog bites are one-third of all homeowners insurance liability claims, institute says

So much for man’s best friend – dog bites represented a third of all homeowners insurance liability claims last year, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

Attacks cost insurers $387.2 million in 2008, up 8.7% from $356.2 million in 2007. Since 2003, the average dog-bite claim has jumped nearly 28% from $19,162 to $24,461, due in part to higher medical costs and pricier court decisions.

In the last year, the number of claims rose nearly 9% from 14,531 to 15,823. More than half of bites happen on the dog owner’s property.

More than 4.5 million Americans are bitten by dogs each year, with nearly 900,000 requiring medical care, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About half of those are children.

In 2006, more than 31,000 victims required reconstructive surgery.

-- Tiffany Hsu

FTC bans most robocalls

The Federal Trade Commission is sending most of those pesky “robocalls” to the junk heap starting Tuesday.

Those unwanted prerecorded commercial calls, soliciting services such as carpet cleaning or car warranties, will be a thing of the past unless telemarketers have written permission from consumers that they want to receive these calls, the commission said today. Beginning Tuesday, Sept. 1, violators will face penalties up to $16,000 per call.

"American consumers have made it crystal clear that few things annoy them more than the billions of commercial telemarketing robocalls they receive every year,” Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a news release. Previously, telemarketers had to tell consumers how to opt out of receiving robocalls.

But there are a few exceptions. The commission will exempt calls that aren’t trying to sell goods and services to consumers; that category would include calls that provide information such as flight cancellations, delivery notices and debt collections.

Other calls not covered include those from politicians, charities that contact consumers directly, banks, insurers, phone companies, surveys and certain healthcare messages such as prescription notifications. The commission said those types of calls don’t fall under its jurisdiction.

Calls made by humans rather than automated systems also will be allowed unless the phone number is on the National Do Not Call Registry.

Consumers who receive an unauthorized call starting Tuesday can file complaints with the commission online at www.ftc.gov or by calling (877) FTC-HELP.

“If consumers think they’re being harassed by robocallers, they need to let us know, and we will go after them,” Leibowitz said.

-- Sherine El Madany

As airlines roll out holiday fares, Southwest blacks out key dates

Although Southern California is still enjoying shorts and T-shirt weather, airlines have already started to roll out discount fares for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s travel.

This is great news for bargain-hunting travelers, but it signals growing desperation among U.S. airlines
that have seen revenues drop 26% in June compared with the same month last year, according to the Air Transport Assn. of America, the industry trade group that represents most passenger airlines in the U.S.

“Everybody is fighting for your buck,” said Tom Parsons, chief executive and founder of Bestfares.com, an Internet discount travel website. “It’s definitely a fliers market.”

But Parsons takes exception with the tactics of one airline that has joined the discount fare war: Southwest Airlines.

When Southwest unveiled its Fall Savings deals — offering one-way fares from $59 to $109 for flights between Sept. 9 and Jan. 7 — it included some small-print exceptions that Parsons insists should have been made clear in bold lettering.

The deals included blackout dates from Nov. 24, 2009, to Dec. 1, 2009, and Dec. 18, 2009, to Jan. 4, 2010. That’s a grand total of 26 blackout days clustered around all the major fall and winter holidays.

On his website, Parsons called it a “Bah Humbug air fare sale” because, he said, the blackout dates make it nearly impossible for families with school-age children to take advantage of the deals.

A spokeswoman for Southwest, however, insisted that bargain fares can be found during those blackout
periods, depending on availability. But because the airline cannot promise those deals across the board, she said Southwest decided to list only the specific dates when the bargain fares are more certain.

“We are trying to be as honest and straightforward as possible with our customers,” said airline
spokeswoman Brandy King.

So, how do travelers know if the discount rates are available during the holiday season?
King suggests travelers visit the airline's website, punch in the date that they want to fly and see what rates
pop up.

“In other words, we should just poke around,” Parsons said sarcastically. “I think they just shot
themselves in the foot.”

-- Hugo Martin

Photo: Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times

Two more infants killed in Simplicity bassinets prompts re-announcement of recall

The death of two more infants trapped in Simplicity bassinets prompted the Consumer Product Safety Commission today to re-announce its August 2008 recall of the child beds.

The recall was first announced last year after the death of two other children. A total of four deaths have been reported to the commission involving Simplicity bassinets. The recall includes more than 900,000 bassinets sold as far back as 2001 and as recently as last year.

The hazard in the Simplicity 3-in-1 and 4-in-1 convertible bassinets stems from metal bars spaced farther apart than federal standards allow, the commission said.

If Velcro-attached fabric that covers metal bars on the bassinet isn't attached properly, a pocket can be created where children can become trapped, the commission said.

Children also can become stuck between the bassinet's metal bars without the fabric attached, the agency said.

In the latest two incidents, a 6-month-old girl in Fort Worth who died in January after she was trapped between two exposed bars on the bassinet. In September 2008, a 2-month-old girl in Demorest, Ga., suffocated when she was caught in a pocket of fabric, which was not properly secured to the bassinet.

The commission also received two other reports involving 10-week-old and 3-month-old infants whose heads became trapped between the bassinet's lower bar and mattress. The infants were freed and uninjured, the commission said.

The recalled bassinets were all manufactured before May 18, 2008, and include some sold under the Graco brand and others with Winnie the Pooh characters printed on the bed's fabric.

Simplicity is owned by children's furniture manufacturer SFCA Inc. of Reading, Pa.

The model numbers for recalled Simplicity bassinets are: 3000, 3010, 3011, 3012, 3013, 3014, 3015, 3016, 3017, 3020, 3025, 3026, 3027, 3030, 3040, 3045, 3046, 3047, 3050, 3060, 3070, 3111, 3112, 343-8363, 343-8399, 5730, 5750, 8383, 9250 and TD250, the commission said.

Model numbers on the recalled Graco-branded bassinets include: 3000CL, 3010HAV, 3011WHE, 3011WHK, 3014NGS, 3016LAU, 3017NCB, 3025C, 3030SAR, 3050SAR, 3111DPC, 3111ZOL, 3112DOH, 3122TGT, 5730FKB, 5750SAR, 8393, Graco said in its own recall statement.

Owners of the recalled bassinets can return the beds to the stores where they bought them, the commission said.

-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Photo: An infant-sized doll is used to portray how a child could become trapped in a recalled Simplicity bassinet. Photo credit: Consumer Product Safety Commission

KFC sued over May grilled chicken giveaway [Updated]

KFC Corp. and some of its customers are embroiled in a beef over a free meal that never came to be.

In May, the fast food chain promoted a giveaway of two pieces of grilled chicken, two individual sides and a biscuit on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." Within days, demand was so high that the company had to scale back the offer, asking customers who had printed the online coupons to visit stores for an IOU voucher that also included a free Pepsi drink. 

But James Asanuma and Veronica Mora were feeling so peckish that they filed suit against KFC and its parent company, Yum Brands Inc., in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Wednesday and are seeking class action status.

The complaint accuses KFC of false advertising, fraud and unfair business practices, among other allegations. The company, according to the filing, used the promotion to pluck money from customers who hadn’t intended to spend any.

KFC should have made more of an effort to personally inform people who had downloaded the coupons, according to the complaint. Customers who missed out on the free meal had spent money on travel, paper and printing to find out, and then wasted more on postage for a mail-in rain check.

KFC representatives didn't respond to a request for comment.

KFC spokesman Rick Maynard said he couldn’t comment on the lawsuit. But, he said, “we apologize to any customers who were inconvenienced and we remain committed to providing a free Kentucky Grilled Chicken meal plus a medium soft drink to those who submitted valid coupons for replacement coupons.”

According to the complaint, Asanuma of Northridge used a color printer and paper to print out four coupons, which required him to download and install a special computer program.

Mora of Sylmar did the same. Her daughters, according to the complaint, were excited at the prospect of KFC for dinner. But when the group arrived at a KFC in San Fernando, they were told that they were too late for the giveaway because the restaurant had doled out its quota of 100 free meals a day.

They drove to a KFC in Sylmar, where they were told the same thing, even though the restaurant was still selling grilled chicken, sides and biscuits, according to the complaint. When a store employee suggested that Mora return the next morning, she informed him that “she, and her children, do not eat chicken for breakfast.”

The complaint asks for “full restitution of monies acquired” through the promotion, as well as an injunction prohibiting what the suit called “bait and switch” practices and a declaration that KFC’s tactics were unfair.

-- Tiffany Hsu

Ban on BPA in plastics moves forward in California legislature

The bottle battle is heating up in California.

The state Senate narrowly approved a proposal today that would ban the use of a substance in baby bottles, toddler sippy cups and food containers.

The chemical called bisphenol A, but more commonly known as BPA, is said by some independent scientists to pose a threat to childhood development.

Times reporter Eric Bailey in Sacramento writes that the bill  by state Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) prohibiting the use of BPA next goes to the Assembly, where it is expected to face fierce resistance from manufacturers of the infant products that contain the controversial chemical.

Industry leaders have targeted California for an orchestrated lobbying and grassroots PR campaign to turn back efforts by health and consumer groups to ban the use of the chemical, a component in the manufacture of plastic containers.

Researchers from the chemical industry say the public health threat has been vastly overblown. But more than 200 independent scientific studies have linked BPA to brain development and behavioral problems in young children, early puberty and the eventual onset of some types of cancer. Scientists say the chemical can leach into a liquid, particularly when a bottle or cup is heated.

Pavley said on the floor that the goal of her legislation is to protect "the most vulnerable," stressing that affordable alternatives are already available to the chemical industry. "For each year we delay, 500,000 babies are born in California" who could be affected, she said.

The measure squeaked through with a bare majority largely on partisan lines, 21-16, though two Democrats -- Sens. Ron Calderon (D- Montebello) and Gloria Negrete McLeod (D-Chino) -- voted with the Republicans.

Sen. George Runner (R- Lancaster) said the measure is a "knee-erk reaction" that sidesteps efforts the state undertook just last year to more fully study the effects of potential chemical threats before adopting blanket bans.

BPA has been used since the 1950s as an additive to give plastics more strength and is common in hundreds of household products, including plastic bottles and food containers. It is also used in the linings of canned goods such as soup, baby formula and fruits or vegetables.

In March, Connecticut Atty. Gen. Richard Blumenthal said that six companies had stopped manufacturing baby bottles containing BPA in response to a request from his office and attorneys general from Delaware and New Jersey.

The companies are Avent America Inc., Disney First Years, Gerber, Dr. Brown's, Playtex Products Inc. and Evenflo Co.

-- Nancy Rivera Brooks

Credit: Index Stock Photography