The Federal Trade Commission is celebrating it's 90th anniversary. CLICK HERE to see to add your name to the "DO NOT CALL LIST" and to see how they define "BAIT & SWITCH" advertising.

To enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law; to ensure public safety against threats foreign and domestic; to provide federal leadership in preventing and controlling crime; to seek just punishment for those guilty of unlawful behavior; and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans. CLICK HERE to visit their website.

CLICK HERE for contact information for the State Of Oregon Dept. Of Justice.

As the chief legal office for the state of Washington, AGO attorneys and staff, in 27 divisions across the state provide legal services to more than 230 state agencies, boards and commissions. We help citizens through antitrust enforcement and consumer protection and protect the environment and utility customers. CLICK HERE to visit their website.

The Good Housekeeping Research Institute (GHRI) is the product-evaluation laboratory of the magazine, with a staff of scientists, engineers, nutritionists, and researchers dedicated to evaluating and testing everything from moisturizers to bed sheets to cell phones. Also part of GHRI is the test kitchen, which creates, tastes, and triple-tests (at least) the thousands of recipes appearing in the magazine. CLICK HERE to visit their website.

ConsumerSearch product-review editors pick the best electronics, appliances and services by comparing professional product reviews (like the ones you’d find at Consumer Reports or CNET) with consumer reviews (like those at Amazon.com and Epinions) to separate the top-rated from the duds. Our product ratings give you meaningful comparisons and unbiased product reviews you can trust.

An online website that gives reports, updates, stories and lots of information about all sorts of products as well as actual postings of complaints from consumers. CLICK HERE to visit their website.

Ripoff Report® is a worldwide consumer reporting Web site and publication, by consumers, for consumers, to file and document complaints about companies or individuals. Unlike the Better Business Bureau, Ripoff Report does not hide reports of "satisfied" complaints. ALL complaints remain public and unedited in order to create a working history on the company or individual in question.

CLICK HERE to visit their website.

A great website that is basic and simple to use as well as easy to navigate. The website offers comparisons for almost all major appliances and is interactive so you can see all the features of and differences between the appliances you are interested in purchasing.

CLICK HERE to visit their website.

Emails From Local Portland Area consumers:

said that Fry's in Wilsonville had lowest prices
I just bought all my kitchen appliances at Fry's. They were hundreds of dollars less than the same appliances I had previously seen at 2 stores in Beaverton. They are out in Wilsonville but worth the drive. Their salespeople are not pushy either. They don't feed you a bunch of crap so that they can sell you some models they get gig spiffs on and they did not try to talk me into buying brands from foreign countries that I did not trust. I brought my list of model numbers in and they had them in stock and their tagged prices were almost $500.00 below what the other stores had quoted me. One of the other stores had the items tagged on their showroom floor at even higher prices. When I indicated I wasn't going to buy without shopping around they started offering lower prices and finally quoted me "today only" low prices if I'd buy right then. I was really pleasantly surprised to see that Fry's "tag prices" were so much lower than the negotiated prices of the previous store where I'd shopped. My vote if for Fry's!
Larry W.

"Liked BEST BUY the best"
I shopped for a Whirlpool washing machine this week at a few area dealers. The first store I went to was one of the larger appliance stores in Portland. They jumped on me the second I walked in the store and hounded me to death. I just asked to "look" for a while and the salesman hey said "OK" but then stood about 15' away and matched every step I took step for step as if he were required to keep within a certain distance of customers. Every few minutes he'd find a different way to ask if I had any questions yet and I finally just got flustered and started to leave the store. I was exiting at a pretty fast pace so since he could not catch up to me he sort of yelled something about "have you seen the latest something or other" (it was an appliance made by some foreign company I had never heard of and when I did not respond he said something at a much lower volume level (I could not hear it) to a few other salespeople who were also waiting near the front door and they all laughed quite loudly. I pulled out of the parking lot, went to another store and was greeted at the door but not followed to the appliance department. Once in the appliance dept. I was greeted but when I asked to look on my own the salesman gladly accommodated. He said "I'll be right over there if you have any questions. He went about his business and I looked around until I found a model that was similar to the one rated in the major Consumer magazine. Their price was pretty competitive (lower than the average price posted in the Consumer magazine). I went back to the area where the salesman told me he'd be if I had any questions and asked him if he could sell the particular washing machine for any less. He said "no, I am sorry but we don't negotiate prices here, we just mark them to the lowest price possible and we guaranty all our prices (or similar)" and I said "fine and dandy" and I asked him to write it up.

All in all it was an experience that started off bad but got really good so please place my vote for BEST Buy in Portland, Oregon. BTW, Thanks for having such a great and helpful website.

Jay S.

Not happy with salespeople who push "spiff" models
I think I found out why some salespeople push so hard to try and talk me into buying brands I don't want to buy. I was talking to a friend who is a salesman at a appliance store in Portland and he said they get spiffs (special  cash factory factory incentives) for selling certain targeted models. He told me that about 50% of his pay comes from the factories from these "spiffs" so he pushed them really hard. He told me the manufacturers pay high spiffs (sometimes as much as $100.00 for selling a single appliance) and sometimes have contests. He told me that when the stakes are this high, there was really nothing else he could do so he would push the "spiff" models and do anything he could do to make customers buy them. Even if it meant telling a customer an appliance they wanted was not in stock (when it actually was in stock) in order to attempt to force them to buy a spiffed model. OUCH!!! I guess one just has to do his homework and no be talked into something he doesn't want. Any more I do my homework and then buy from stores like Home Depot or Lowe's where they don't appear to pay salespeople by commission (I am not positive of that) and they gladly give information about all their products and don't try to jam those "spiff models" down your throat.
Tim R. Beaverton, Oregon