New York – In its first public-education ad campaign, Consumer Reports is telling consumers to just say “no” to warranties pushed by the nation’s retailers.
“We think warranties are a lousy deal for consumers in almost every case,” said Jim Guest, president and chief executive of Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports. “It’s a big business for retailers but a waste of money for consumers.”
The campaign will include a full-page ad in USA Today and feature an e-mail campaign to 825,000 of Consumer Reports’ subscribers and other activists. The magazine’s website, www.consumerreports.org, will also invite consumers to share their experiences.
According to Warranty Week, a trade newsletter, consumers are expected to spend $1.6 billion on extended warranties for the November-December period. And Guest expects that stores will be pushing even harder this holiday season as they seek to offset a slowdown in revenue as prices for a range of products, notably flat-panel TVs, have dropped significantly and the must-have items of previous years, such as digital cameras, are maturing.
