Word: repairer
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...financial or otherwise. In recent years, however, as consumerism has grown into a potent political force, officials at every level of government have got into the act by creating their own consumer offices. Many of these tax-supported agencies have been increasingly effective in guarding the public against television-repair gyps, cheating furniture dealers, heavy-thumbed butchers and other unscrupulous businessmen...
...state's most active agency largely because of its director, John Kehoe, 42, a former legislative aide to Governor Ronald Reagan. Kehoe, who gets along well with the state's lawmakers, helped guide through the legislature a law creating the nation's first bureau of auto repair. Every auto-repair shop in the state must adhere to such basic standards as making all cost estimates in writing and clearly noting if the parts used are rebuilt. They must also post prominently the bureau's telephone number, which consumers can call toll free if they believe that...
These examples of auto repair swindles have a familiar ring to most Americans. They are typical of the many detailed by Attorney Donald A. Randall and Journalist Arthur P. Glickman in their new book The Great American Auto Repair Robbery, which will be published later this month by Charterhouse Books Inc. As the authors describe it, the auto repair industry is fraught with deceit at every level, from gas station attendants who surreptitiously puncture tires with a screwdriver to insurance estimators who take kickbacks from body shops to steer business their way. In a modern version of highway robbery...
Randall, especially, knows whereof he writes: he was director of a four-year investigation of the auto repair racket for the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly. In that position he discovered that auto mechanics are, as often as not, incompetent hacks. None of the 50 states requires that automobile mechanics be licensed, says Randall, although "persons engaged in less life-and-death-re-lated professions such as beauticians, barbers, and real estate agents generally must pass proficiency tests and be licensed in order to practice their trades...
...minimize the chances of being swindled, Randall and Glickman suggest that motorists carefully follow the routine maintenance procedures outlined in the owner's manuals; that should lessen the need for major repairs. If such repairs become necessary, owners should avoid the repair services operated by new car dealers and franchise specialty shops in favor of long-established independent garages and individual mechanics who have proven their reliability...