Last week, a thick envelope arrived in the mail from the federal government. I was excited. It may seem pathetic, but that emotion is a measure of what my life has become since I started coordinating the Whistleblower blog. The 2008 Consumer Action Handbook is a product of the General Services Administration’s Citizen Information Center. I prefer to think of it as the government’s guide to daily American life.

This soft-cover volume (available and constantly updated online) offers a dizzying amount of information to guide one through the details of 21st century consumption. Choosing a preschool, finding a doctor, buying a used car, getting long-term care insurance, losing weight, arranging a funeral - it’s all in there, helpfully arranged in alphabetical order. It also gives valuable guidance on how to complain about the injustices, large and small, visited upon you. In its pages, the government bureaucracies and mammoth corporations that form the walls of life’s labyrinth seem transparent and benevolent, with sympathetic individuals eager to resolve your problems only a toll-free call away.

It has some information that I found quite useful to know. For instance, it’s illegal for telemarketers to call before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. There’s a sample complaint letter with some valuable pointers, such as setting a time limit before you contact the Better Business Bureau or a consumer protection agency.

That’s not to say the book paints an entirely sanguine picture. The modern perils of spamming, slamming, cramming, vishing and phishing stalk the unwary. There are warnings about the tactics of unscrupulous operators and the possibility that a multilevel marketing business is actually a pyramid scheme. And such tidbits as these:

“The funeral provider may not refuse, or charge a fee, to handle a casket you bought elsewhere.”

“Do NOT discuss terrorism, weapons, explosives, or threats while going through the security checkpoint.”

Repo men “cannot break into your home or physically threaten someone while taking the vehicle”

Beware a home improvement contractor who “drives an unmarked van” or “has out-of-state license plates”

More than half of the book features listings of organizations and agencies where complaints can be directed. In the Ts alone, should you have problems with tartan skirts, tea bags, golf balls, car wax or plastic containers, the complaint bureaus for Talbots, Tetley, Top-Flite, Turtle Wax and Tupperware are all there for you. Even the vast organisms of the federal government are laid bare, although for some reason the FBI and the CIA aren’t listed.

I expect to spend a fair amount of time consulting this book as Whistleblower readers contact me with their complaints. I suspect the next edition, however, won’t feature the same smiling visage on the frontispiece. Lurita Doan, administrator of the agency that produced the book, was forced out of the job last week under White House pressure. Reporting by the Washington Post and subsequent investigations on Capitol Hill and by a government watchdog agency uncovered that Doan had awarded a $20,000, no-bid public relations contract to a friend, and that Doan had violated the Hatch Act, a law forbidding federal appointees from using their positions for political purposes.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 9:20 am and is filed under How to blow the whistle, Public records. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.