America gripes

The Better Business Bureau registered almost one million complaints in 2009, up 10 percent from the year before. Tough times will tend to make folks a little cranky, and besides, the list of industries most complained about will not comes as a big surprise:

1)Cell phones
2)Cable and satellite TV
3)Banks
4)New-car auto dealers
5)Internet shopping
6)Collection agencies
7)Used-car auto dealers
8)Telephone companies
9)Furniture retail
10)Auto repair

Furniture retail before auto repair? That's odd. A BBB spokeswoman tells Real Time Economics that a 42 percent jump in bank complaints is "a sign of the times."

Ms. Southwick also says that complaints for online "free trials" for things like weight-loss supplements, credit scores and teeth whiteners are on the rise. Most of these programs enroll consumers is fee-based subscription programs and continue to charge them until they cancel, a process which can be riddled with fine print and customer-service-call nightmares.

The bureau has all kinds of statistics on numbers of complaints and for what industries. Here's the link.