For years after she purchased her newly-built home in 1992, Nancy Seats, a 66-year-old Liberty City, MO home owner grappled with builders and government officials to correct major structural flaws.

Few listened until she launched Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings and later won a jury trial case against the builder.

From 1997 to 1998, Dayton, OH mortgage broker Greg Fisher exchanged correspondence with a credit reporting agency in an unsuccessful attempt to obtain his credit score and calculations behind it.

His Web site CreditScoring.com helped him -- and millions of other consumers -- extend fair credit reporting rights to credit scoring information.

Two non-profit consumer agencies recently wasted no time launching a Web site to monitor a lender accused of predatory lending after it was purchased by a major consumer finance institution.

With a watchdog at the gate, the hope is that the lender will clearly disclose its subprime lending terms.

"The Internet is a tremendous way to reach a broad number of people across the country and get the word out and allow people to send their message easily and for free, " says Todd Larsen, a spokesman for the new TellCitibank.org, a Web site designed to monitor parent Citigroup's recent Associates First Capital acquisition.

"It makes it very easy to take action," he added.

The grass roots consumer movement is alive and well -- in cyberspace.

Consumers with a beef about real estate problems and other consumer issues are empowering themselves to effect change by harnessing the power of the World Wide Web.

And all it takes to begin to harvest the gripes of wrath is the nominal cost of a Internet domain name.

"One of the really beneficial aspects of the Internet and why we think it's important is the empowerment of the individual and organizations sharing information. It helps level the playing field," said Jean Ann Fox, director of the Consumer Federation of America.

"I've been very interested to see how fast companies pay attention to problems when someone reveals the problems and shows that abuses are widespread," she added.

When Seats took her fight to the Internet two years ago, she unexpectedly discovered a national new homes defect problem, an army of supporters and the ammunition to help her win her battle.

"I thought it was just a metro problem in Kansas and Missouri, but learned it was a serious problem all over the nation. The Internet gave us credibility. Before, the local newspapers wouldn't write anything. Now we are getting stories in the local newspaper and on television news stations," said Seats, president of the Web-based HAAD, a non-profit group that takes builders to task about shoddy construction.

Since it launched two a half years ago, HAAD has generated chapters in at least 15 states and connected with similar groups in dozens of other states in an effort to hold builders accountable for work often constructed with limited regulations.

The consumer federation says successful online consumer action exemplifies the significance of bridging the digital divide. Those who don't have access, also don't have such power, according to "Disconnected, Disadvantaged and Disenfranchised," a joint Consumer Federation of America-Consumer's Union survey of those who are connected and those who aren't.

"It would be nice if low-income people who buy junk used cars had the same kind of clout. It doesn't replace the need for effective regulations, but it does help you communicate in a cost effective way," said Fox.

Fox says the Net is not a problem-solving panacea for consumers, and warns it can be a double-edged sword that swings both ways.

"You can't be public without being public. If you don't want folks to know you, you can't go public," says Fox.

J. J. Vogle, president of Hollister, CA-based Advocates for Quality Home Construction (AQHC) says his Web site may have spurred builders to block some of their efforts.

"I think it does good and bad. That new law just passed that says you can't sue (California) builders (under certain conditions)? I think they really started working on that when they saw how big we were getting. I have a tracker on my site and for the last two years different branches of the federal and state government have been all over my Web site," Vogle says.

CreditScoring.com's Fisher said he tried to keep secret his job as a mortgage broker because he was concerned his watchdog activities would be portrayed as special interest activities designed to attract more customers.

"I was furious that they would be so presumptuous to assume I had any other thoughts than just as a consumer. The principles I was writing about were valid whether I was in the business or not. I'm also a consumer and I couldn't get my score. I was looking over my shoulder, you better believe it. When I became a USA Today Hot Site Of The Day I had the light shining on me," Fisher said.

Home grown consumer Web sites also tend to be hastily designed, cluttered with amateurish design, laden with too much eye-candy and difficult to navigate, all of which can frustrate visitors and diminish a site's effectiveness.

Fox advises consumers about to take their fight to the Net to use the same approach used in off line complaints -- keep it simple, be direct, stick to the facts, avoid emotional outbursts and don't make personal attacks.

"Some sites make outrageous remarks about a product or service without being correct about it," she said.

For more articles by Broderick Perkins, please press here.

Published: February 15, 2001

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