NEEDS TURNED TO GREED

In the past 10 years, an incredible number of companies and individuals have entered the water marketplace---selling bottled water, water purifiers and other related products.

Drinking water has become a multi-billion dollar industry, and to put it bluntly, for the vast majority of the industry participants, "a consumer need has turned to sellers' greed".

Five years ago, when an individual wanted to know the truth about drinking water or water purifiers, it was easy to sort out fact from fiction. Today, the truth about these important subjects hasn't changed, but unfortunately, there is an active effort by many businessmen to "blur" the facts together or simply create pure fiction to be foisted on a concerned but unsuspecting public.

We have seen scores of heretofore honest businessmen and women in the water fields literally throw their business ethics to the wind and lie through the teeth to make a water purifier sale.

As a direct result of this "situation ethics" approach to retail sales, a half dozen years ago we saw few customers complaining about product mispresentation, the consumer outcry about misrepresentation has grown from a low murmur to a deafening roar. This has prompted strong state legislation to curb these business malpractices as well as a long line of local citizenry waiting outside the District Attorney's office on Consumer Fraud.

INGROWN PROBLEMS

Over the last few years, national water organizations have made attempts to be "self-regulating"---pretending to clean out the "bad apples" and their fraudulent advertising. Virtually all of these efforts have ended up in the circular file---with state legislatures across the nation now stepping in to provide some type of law and order.

California has been a front runner in the water industry, due to it's nearly immoral consumption rates of bottled water, it's affluence and subsequent ability to now consider home water purifiers a mainline home appliance.

These attributes have placed a big bulls eye target on the back of each California homeowner and at which hundreds of high-pressure salespersons are taking aim.

Thousands of professional water product salespersons now prowl the residential streets of urban California, looking for the next victim who will pay thousands of dollars for equipments worth only a fraction thereof.

FINDING ANSWERS

How can you protect yourself against misinformation? Self-education is probably your best weapon. We know of no single water industry organization which is a reliable source of un-biased information on either water quality or water purification systems

When you carefully peel away the veneer, even the so-called "water quality associations" are no more than highly-paid paid public relations operations for large, special interest water corporations.

The news gets even worse as you consider some of the individual stores and distributors where water purifiers are sold. Distributors of a single product, say a carbon filter, normally only succeed in selling by withholding information on other, competitive systems.

Certain water stores are financed by individuals and corporations whose products have obvious preference on the agenda.

As a result, accurate and honest product representation isn't at the top of the salesperson's list.

"Consumer reports" on water purification products are normally years out of date. Albeit helpful in some regards, even organizations such as the Better Business Bureau cannot provide you with information on the activities and credibility of individual water vendors.

The marketplace is crowded with all types of technologies---many new, others sadly outdated. Many are accurately represented, others grossly oversold or cleverly misrepresented.

AVOIDING PITFALLS AND POOR PRODUCTS

Avoid the "pyramid" sales products sold by multi-level distributors. They're normally over-priced and sold by individuals who know nothing about water and care even less. After reading one of their product brochures, you'll probably know more about the product than the distributor does.

The answer is clearly self education. The concerned homeowner must shop around and carefully weigh alternative solutions.