The 12th annual survey of consumer protection agencies conducted by the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators (NACAA) and the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) reveals that automobile sales was the top complaint category at state and local consumer protection agencies across the nation during 2002. For the past five years, automobile sales has been listed among the top five areas of consumer complaints reported by NACAA members. Complaints about home improvement contractors ranked second, followed by auto repairs as the third most frequent cause of complaints.
Credit complaints moved to the fourth spot, with debt collection and billing practices in sixth place, indicating widespread consumer problems with financing. Advertising and telemarketing round out the top five categories of complaints in 2002. For the first time, complaints about use of the Internet and E-commerce made the top ten NACAA-CFA list.