A reader this week wrote to The Informer to relate her unhappy experience with a local retailer, which she said sold her and her husband a freezer that failed to work properly.

“We brought the freezer home, set it up and plugged it in,” the reader wrote. “It never got below 61 degrees Fahrenheit. It then went back up to 71 degrees Fahrenheit where it stayed.”

She said they contacted the store hoping to exchange the malfunctioning appliance for a working one. But, she said, the store said it would send a repairman to the house to see if the freezer could be fixed.

“There was no way we wanted a new freezer that had to be repaired,” the reader wrote. She said that she and her husband told the store manager they would return the freezer. The manager told them they’d be charged a 15 percent restocking fee.

“I am aware that a restocking fee is charged on returned items that are in good working order and the buyer changes his/her mind about wanting the item, etc,” the reader wrote. “But that is not the case in this situation.”

The reader said she later contacted the Better Business Bureau and learned that others had filed complaints against the store.

“Our first mistake in this purchase was not calling the BBB before we began our search for a freezer,” she wrote.

Amanda Larkins, a spokeswoman for the state Attorney General’s Office, said consumers should educate themselves as much as possible — on both their desired products and the stores that sell them — before they make any purchases.

She offered the following tips:

• Be wary of anything that sounds “too good to be true.”

• Avoid high-pressure sales tactics.

• Ask questions.

• Research the product you are considering buying. Check with sources such as Consumer Reports and Consumer Digest.

• Take time to contact the attorney general’s Consumer Protection Section or the Better Business Bureau for information about businesses.

• Stay informed. Make sure you understand the return policy and read the warranty.

For more information on the Consumer Protection Section, call 800-351-4889 or visit www.agbuddycaldwell.com.

Online: http://lakecharles.bbb.org.

A tale that’s as helpful as the dickens

The Informer looked out the window one rainy day a few months ago and commented to his then-7-year-old son: “It’s raining like the dickens out there.”

“What’s a dickens?” the boy said.

Rather than offer an answer — there wasn’t one at hand at the time — The Informer proceeded to be-dickens the heck out of everything in the house.

“This shelf is dusty as the dickens.”

“That window is dirty as the dickens.”

“This food is hotter than the dickens.”

“I’m tired as the dickens.”

Each time the dickens was invoked, the boy grew more exasperated: “Dad, what’s a dickens?” he yelled.

That incident came up the other day, and the boy, now 8, or some other member of The Informer’s family, suggested the question — never answered — be addressed in the column. And so:

The “dickens” is an old euphemism for the devil and, according to word maven Michael Quinion, was first used in print by William Shakespeare in “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” written in the late 16th century.

“I cannot tell what the dickens his name is my husband had him of,” one character says in response to a question.

Online: www.worldwidewords.org; www.bartleby.com.

The Informer answers questions from readers each Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. It is researched and written by Andrew Perzo, an American Press staff writer. To ask a question, call 494-4098, press 5 and leave voice mail, or email informer@americanpress.com

(mgnonline.com)