HomePC Magazine Launches Consumer Watchdog Site On The World Wide Web

Since it launched in April 1996, hundreds of readers have written to HomePC's Consumer Watchdog column to ask computer/Internet expert Larry Magid for help getting computer manufacturing and service companies to respond to requests and cries for help. Beginning this month, HomePC takes the Consumer Watchdog column online at http://www.consumerwatchdog.com/.

HomePC's new Consumer Watchdog site features current and past Consumer Watchdog columns, along with an array of articles focusing on specific companies, the Internet and online services, and hardware- and software- specific issues. A section called "Tips on Writing Complaint Letters to Vendors," a link to Magid's home page, Larry's World (http://www.larrysworld.com/), and an e-mail link consumers can use to send questions are also housed there.

"Each month, we receive letters asking for help in making companies respond to pleas for everything from tech support to honoring pricing, rebates, refunds and upgrade promises to delivering on Internet service agreements," HomePC Editor-in-Chief Ellen Pearlman said. "We decided it was time to provide consumers with an online 'virtual library' of Consumer Watchdog resources so they could access helpful information and problem- solving solutions whenever they want or need them."

This month's Consumer Watchdog column features a frustrated PC owner who spent more than $2,000 for a new PC that froze up each time she tried to log on to the Net. After several attempts to contact the manufacturer for support, the disgruntled woman wrote to HomePC's Consumer Watchdog. In usual Consumer Watchdog effective fashion, Magid contacted the manufacturer for her and got action, including a rebuilt system, reimbursement for incurred expenses, and trouble-shooting tips should more problems arise in the future.

Published monthly by CMP Media Inc., HomePC provides easy-to-understand information about home computers, and each issue is packed with engaging features, trouble-shooting tips and first-hand product reviews. The magazine's editors and columnists are among the foremost experts in education, entertainment, and productivity and Internet services and products for home computer users. HomePC's editors can be reached at http://www.homepc.com/, or on America Online at Keyword: HomePC.

CMP Media Inc. provides publishing, marketing and information services to the broad high-technology spectrum -- the builders, sellers and users of technology -- through print and electronic media. All of CMP's publications and online products can be accessed through the company's TechWeb® site on the World Wide Web (http://www.techweb.com/). Along with Computer Retail Week, print titles include EE Times, Computer Reseller News, InformationWeek, NetGuide Magazine and WINDOWS MAGAZINE.

-0- 4/29/97

SOURCE: CMP Media, Inc.

CONTACT: Leslie Dunbar of CMP Media, 516-562-7040 or ldunbar@cmp.com