COMBAT services span the Atlantic to help troubled consumer

If you hang around long enough, you learn stuff. Over the past 32 years, COMBAT has handled thousands and thousands of consumer inquiries – at last count more than 300,000 – giving us a unique perspective on what often happens to consumers when they feel wronged and seek help. But it took a consumer from across the Atlantic to provide a textbook example.

Roger Cowpersmith of Darwin, England, was the high bidder for $385.56 (U.S.) in collectible books from a Wisconsin vender on eBay, the Internet “auction” site. But eight months after paying for his merchandise by Paypal, the online payment service, Roger still had not received his books, which the seller, Philip Sigmund of Kenosha, Wis., claimed to have mailed by USPS. After his initial response, the seller failed to answer numerous e-mails asking for the status of the order or to provide confirmation it had been mailed at all. Like thousands of other consumers COMBAT has helped, Cowpersmith did not know where to turn.

Thus began his lengthy quest for assistance, demonstrating one thing we have learned in 32 years of helping consumers: Finding help isn’t easy, and wronged shoppers commonly go to great lengths, through a frustrating and unresponsive series of corporations, organizations and government agencies, only to hit a brick wall.

Cowpersmith started with eBay, which said it could do nothing because the vendor had a good record, and it takes no responsibility for customer satisfaction other than to provide information to potential “bidders” so they may make their own judgment about a seller’s reliability. If he wished, Cowpersmith could submit a negative report on the seller’s record. Somehow saying “bad boy” on eBay didn’t satisfy Cowpersmith’s book problem.

Then Cowpersmith tried Paypal, which reported that the transaction was complete, and it could do nothing about a refund. Another dead end. So Cowpersmith tried the British and U.S. postal services. But, because Cowpersmith had unwisely chosen not to pay a few extra dollars for insurance, there was no way to “track” the mail, if it had indeed been sent.

So on the off chance he misunderstood the seller’s method of shipment, Cowpersmith contacted UPS, which told him it had no record of shipment and could not help since Cowpersmith didn’t have a tracking number. Resolved to not give up the fight easily, our tenacious Brit contacted a string of possible sources for help including: chambers of commerce, Better Business Bureaus, attorneys general, the Federal Trade Commission and others. Still no result.

By this time, four months had passed and, though discouraged, Cowpersmith kept a stiff upper lip and went online to seek possible resources. This is when the dauntless Cowpersmith proved something else COMBAT has learned in three decades. Sooner or later, a frustrated consumer finds COMBAT. We just never thought our reach would extend across the Atlantic.

At some point in his Google search, Roger Cowpersmith found reference to a consumer organization in Bangor, Maine, called COMBAT. Unable to find an e-mail address – our Web site was not yet available – Roger e-mailed Bangor City Hall. The city manager did not know COMBAT’s e-mail address, so he asked a council member who furnished the personal e-mail address of COMBAT’s executive director.

At 2 on a January morning, COMBAT’s director received a surprise. Roger Cowpersmith, from way across the ocean, had e-mailed: “Dear COMBAT, I have a problem, and I am told you may be able to help.” What happened next opened new vistas for Maine’s consumer advocacy group, now the oldest consumer organization of its type in the United States. But you will have to wait until next week to get “the rest … of the story.”

Consumer Forum is a collaboration of the Bangor Daily News and Northeast COMBAT-Maine Center for the Public Interest, Maine’s membership-funded nonprofit consumer organization. Individual membership $25, business rates start at $125 (0-10 employees). For help and information write: Consumer Forum, Bangor Daily News, PO Box 1329, Bangor 04402-1329.