Sometimes being a volunteer consumer mediation specialist, or CMS, at Northeast COMBAT can be as much of a giggle as it is a rewarding opportunity to help a consumer in need. Since COMBAT is a Maine-grown organization that helps Maine consumers, we like to say we are “neighbors helping neighbors.” Sometimes that neighbor turns out to be closer than one might think. The names used in this column are changed to protect identities … and embarrassment.

A year ago, volunteer CMS Mary L. (Smith) of Newport reached into COMBAT’s bulging basket of incoming assistance requests and lifted the next case out of the hopper. CMS Mary smiled when she realized the client was Betty T., also of Newport, who lived exactly next door to her and who did not know Mary was a COMBAT volunteer.

Client Betty had responded to a “free copy” weight-loss offer she had received by mail from an outfit in Compton, Calif., called Natural Slimming Systems. Betty had bulges where she wasn’t supposed to have bulges. The plan offered a “miracle” and “natural” weight-loss program, two bottles of their “organic weight loss supplement,” a “How To Lose Pounds the Natural Way” paperback book, and a subscription to their monthly magazine that promised she would “lose the fat and never gain it back.”

The mailing assured Betty that if she was not “100 percent satisfied,” she could keep her free book, cancel the magazine subscription, and receive a full refund. Betty sent her check for $39.99 and figured that soon she would be watching the bulges melt away.

But when the goods arrived, the “organic weight loss supplement” proved to be little else than a bottle of fiber powder, the book was an exercise plan, and the magazine consisted of self-promotional articles describing other Natural Slimming Systems products, a few horrible sounding weight-loss recipes, and pages and pages of advertisements. “I’ve been taken for a ride!” thought Betty.

She immediately wrote the company, expressing her dissatisfaction, canceling her subscription, and requesting the promised refund. There followed a deafening silence, six more months of magazines, several more letters to the company, and no refund. That’s when Betty decided to write COMBAT … and her neighbor, CMS Mary, found Betty’s case in the basket.

COMBAT volunteers often use only the first letter of their first names for personal security purposes. So CMS Mary wrote client Betty identifying herself only as “M.L. Smith,” offering to work actively (write the company) if Betty chose to join COMBAT. “Consider it done,” wrote Betty in sending her $25 check. “In fact you can have the refund if I get one … I just want to get these guys!”

So CMS Mary wrote Natural Slimming Systems suggesting that unless a refund was forthcoming, COMBAT would have a friendly chat with the California attorney general. Within two weeks, Betty’s refund arrived in the mail. When back in Newport, Mary never mentioned her COMBAT affiliation to Betty. Case closed? Not yet.

Months pass, and consumer Betty was in Bangor shopping. She decided to drop by the COMBAT office because she had purchased a defective “Valentine Baby Weight Loss Belt” from Valentine Baby Products Inc. of Boca Raton, Fla. That company, too, was failing to respond to Betty’s letters demanding a promised refund.

When she walked through the door, Betty’s jaw dropped. CMS volunteer Mary (Smith) was seated at the front desk. “OMG, it was YOU!” she laughed. Her secret life discovered, Mary just giggled … and yes, she got Betty her money back from Boca Raton, too. Happy Valentine’s.

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 memberships $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.