NBC, Telemundo Stations Units Recover $20M for Consumers

Consumer investigative teams at NBC and Telemundo stations have recovered more than $20 million for consumers since 2014, NBCUniversal said.

The units—NBC Responds and Telemundo Responde—have answered more than 250,000 consumer inquiries and helped individuals either get funds they were owed or provided them with information they needed to resolve their issues.

“Our consumer teams answer every call and email they receive and see every consumer tip to the end,” said Valari Staab, President, NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations. “Thanks to our teams’ relentless work, thousands of consumers have recovered unpaid wages or funds they were owed. As many communities continue to recover from recent natural disasters, our consumer teams are helping viewers navigate through the rebuilding processes by providing them with direct help or delivering vital information through their reporting. I’m proud of our stations work and the invaluable service and information they deliver to our communities.”

In one example, Telemundo Arizona’s consumer investigative team stepped in to help a woman from Mesa recover her unpaid wages from her former employer so she could pay for her medical care.

And In one case last year, the stations’ consumer investigative teams received multiple complaints from English and Spanish-speaking viewers all across the country voicing concerns about peeling “leather” on their couches, stemming from NBC 5 Chicago’s consumer investigative report which recovered more than $190,000 for consumers after discovering that the material at fault was “bonded leather,“ an imitation leather.

Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.