13WMAZ Failed To Provide Consumer Service In Consumer Report On Dent Repair

Man! If you have a question on a medical procedure, wouldn't you ask a doctor. You would not ask an insurance agent. Same goes for a stain in your new carpet. You'd ask a carpet cleaner, not the sales guy at a carpet store. These may not be the best examples of what I'm leading to, but you'll see where I'm going when I get there.

One of our local news stations is in the process of testing products for the benefit of it's viewers to.....1- See if the product works as claimed and 2- Provide the viewer/consumer with better options IF they exist.

13WMAZ, in Macon, GA, recently tested a product by Simoniz called Pops-a-Dent. Lorra Lynch the reporter and Ben Jones, whom she had assist her with the report tested the product with the assistance of two auto body collision centers. Keep in mind, this product claims to remove minor dents and dings without paint or putty and in just a matter of minutes. This is not what collision centers do. No more than surgeons help people with minor scrapes or little boo boos. There are specialist that do nothing but remove minor dents and dings without painting them and those people are called Paintless Dent Repair (PDR) service providers. I happen to be one of them.

Anyway, Lorra Lynch and Ben Jones took this television gimmick to H&H Body Shop and Harrisions Body Shop and at each facility had two employees test the product and evaluate it. None of the four people that tested the product could get the product to perform as claimed. None! Yet, two of the four gave it a thumbs up. What?! One of the thumbs up people is a friend of mine too. The funny part is one of the shops is a customer of ours and has us, Dent Tricks, remove all their minor dents and dings. They've used us for years. Yet, no one thought to call the dent repair professionals. The guys that remove on average 27 dents a day, six days a week.

Now, at first I thought Lorra may not be aware of PDR professionals and that perhaps, Ben -who knows us- forgot to mention that there were people that specialized in this type of repair and that maybe we'd be a better choice for the product. So, I called Ben and asked why they didn't call on Dent Tricks or some other PDR service provider to test a dent repair product. He claimed that he did suggest to Lorra that she call us, but that she had already set up meetings with the collision centers mentioned above. Okay, as a consumer reporter knowing your story is headed down the wrong path, I'd think you'd call, explain and cancel an appointment if it were in your viewers/consumers best interest. According to Ben, Lorra opted not to do that.

So the segment went like this.......
http://www.13wmaz.com/news/local_story.aspx?storyid=31451

Notice at the end that Lorra leaves the viewer with the impression that they can try the $20 gimmick that was just shown not to work OR she says you can spend hundreds of dollars at a collsion center to have the dent repaired.

Auggghhh! She totally ignored information offered to her that would have actually helped her viewers in Macon and the Middle GA area. The most effective and viable solution to minor dents and dings would be Paintless Dent Removal. It works and is about 1/4 the cost of a collision center. Most repairs take less than an hour and your factory finish and warranty remain intact.

I followed up with Lorra, her news director, Ben and the "Talk Back" line. I'd hoped they do a follow up and give the viewers a helpful consumer report as a consumer service. As of yet I've only heard from Ben, with his regrets and a suggestion that we perhaps do something in the future regarding hail damage during servere weather season and how PDR can help. I'd look forward to that, but really look forward to the follow up on minor dent repair from Lorra.

That's straight from my heart!