Consumer Forum marks its 24th year in the NEWS

Twenty-four years ago this week, Consumer Forum first appeared on the pages of the Bangor Daily News. It is no small achievement that a coalition of Maine consumers, merchants, and a newspaper initiated what is now the oldest continuing consumer help line in the United States. So pardon us if we indulge ourselves with a look back at how we started and why the column is as important today as it was 24 years ago.

Consumer Forum began in June 1978 as a collaboration between the consumer group COMBAT, the NEWS and the Bangor Chamber of Commerce. To our knowledge, this was the first time that a consumer advocacy group, a major newspaper and a business organization had formed such a partnership for the good of the community, consumer and merchant alike. Forum aimed to provide useful information and to resolve disputes in a fair and reasonable way. COMBAT agreed to handle reader inquiries and write the column.

Given the often less than responsible behavior of some advocacy groups, a NEWS editorial staffer observed, “We feel like we are getting in bed with a tiger” as we shook hands on the collaboration. Twenty-four years have passed, roughly 1,400 columns have appeared, and there has never been a complaint about COMBAT’s fairness and objectivity. The “tiger,” COMBAT, has indeed “bitten” many out-of-state companies that rip off Maine families and businesses through fraudulent or deceptive practices. But in dealing with Maine businesses, resolving issues usually involves only a nibble, because “up here” we still know how to do business with a handshake.

But thousands of Maine families and merchants are being cheated out of millions of dollars each year by increasingly numerous and sophisticated mail, telephone, and Internet marketing scams. Our homes and shops are at risk from schemes, including bogus charitable solicitations that rob our economy and make it difficult for legitimate charities and enterprises. Our wealth is being siphoned across our borders. Our economy is under attack, our traditions threatened, and we lack the technology and finances to fight back against these giants.

Gov. Angus King has said we are at risk of losing Maine’s special status as “the way life should be” if we don’t work hard to protect it. To be successful, all sectors must be willing to partner, each giving up a little of their turf to protect the whole. There can be no partisanship when it comes to Maine’s general welfare. Yes, we can argue politics, philosophy and opinion. We can agree to disagree. But, as another governor, Jim Longley, once said, “We can disagree without being disagreeable.”

And that is what Forum is about, working together as Mainers to resolve our “family” differences in a mature and objective way, while locking arms to defend our state, our homes, our businesses from outside interests that do not share our New England integrity or ethics.

Forum is simply the means to educate, inform and assist; a small bridge to bring consumers and providers together. But it is an important little bridge because it has demonstrated for 24 years that cooperation during conflict is possible.

And Forum will do even more as COMBAT expands its capacity, statewide reach and effectiveness with creation of a Maine Center for the Public Interest and a Web site, www.consumerprotect.org. That’s how we will celebrate our 24th anniversary, working harder to protect and inform Maine merchants and families. If you or your business would like to help, write Forum for information. And, as always, if you have a question, dispute or observation related to consumer issues, let us know. We plan to be here for a while.