A FEW weeks ago, Ralph Nader rang.

Now, if you supported Al Gore and are still furious about Mr. Nader’s role in the 2000 presidential election, the mere mention of his name may make you boil.

Well, boil somewhere else.

This, if you need a reminder, is not a column about politics. It’s about consumer justice, and it is hard to think of anyone who has worked more tirelessly and more effectively for that cause than Ralph Nader. For the Haggler, a parvenu in the field, hearing from this guy was like a weekend fiddler’s getting a call from Mozart.

He phoned to tell a story, and it turned out to be a good one, with an interesting moral. It goes like this:

In March, Mr. Nader was scheduled to give a press conference and speech in Knoxville, Tenn. He’d bought two round-trip tickets — one for him, one for an associate — from Washington, on US Airways, for $1,380 apiece.

On the day of the event, the forecasts were for severe thunderstorms and tornadoes, and Mr. Nader decided that it was possible his flight would be canceled. So he opted to jump in his car and drive.

He made his engagements in time and incurred two $150 cancellation fees from US Airways. But he didn’t get the rest of his money back. Instead, the airline offered credits that could not be transferred and had to be used within a year. Otherwise, they would be forfeited.

Suffice it to say, this did not please Mr. Nader.

“Could any dictatorship be more efficient?” he asked the Haggler. “The airlines have been pursuing this forfeiture thing for a decade now. It’s like printing money.”

So Mr. Nader wrote to US Airways and demanded a refund. The airline said no. Mr. Nader, you will not be surprised to learn, did not like that answer, and he escalated his campaign with calls.

About now, roughly half of readers are thinking some variation of the following: “Wait a minute. When Nader bought those tickets, he agreed to a contract, which no doubt stipulated all of the particulars that he later objected to. Too late, pal. If you didn’t like the terms, you shouldn’t have purchased that ticket.”

The Haggler hears you. And he’d like to respond with yet another story.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/A-Mr-Nader-Is-Calling-and-He-nytimes-34465...

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