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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Nutritional supplements are behind a sharp rise in complaints filed by Utah consumers with the Better Business Bureau.
Consumer complaints were up by nearly 30 percent to more than 21,000 in 2009, led by complaints about ineffective supplements or trial offers that hit consumers' bank accounts with unexpected monthly charges.
Dietary supplements are a major Utah industry with about 120 companies generating annual revenues of around $4.5 billion, according to the Utah Natural Products Alliance.
"Most people were complaining about the money they got charged or that the product didn't work," Jane Griggs, president and chief executive officer of the Utah BBB, told The Associated Press.
A common complaint involved consumers using a debit card to make an initial purchase of supplements without knowing they were committing themselves to monthly charges for continuing supplies, she said.
Gripes about supplements or providers led all other categories at 1,596 complaints, double the number filed the year before, according to a BBB tally.
That was followed by 1,181 complaints about alarm system services. The No. 3 area of complaints involved shopping websites.
Hard economic times motivated consumers to file more complaints last year even over small setbacks, Griggs said.
"Consumers were more willing to absorb it if they lost $25 before. They're not willing to absorb it now," she told the Deseret News.
The BBB has no enforcement power but publicizes complaints and says that because of its intervention, businesses satisfied 76 percent of customer complaints last year.
Utah also saw 760 complaints, up threefold, about promises to help people secure government grants from companies trying to capitalize on federal spending to stimulate the lagging economy, Griggs said.
"The average consumer can't get a grant to pay off bills," she said.
Complaints about work-at-home offers, up 50 percent to 342, also drove last year's complaint tally.
The BBB also got a bunch of complaints about one bank, which raised credit-card interest rates to nearly 30 percent from 10 percent, she said.
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Information from: Deseret News
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
