As gold prices have climbed, there has been a flood of companies buying the precious metal in Wisconsin. The state Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection recently checked out the scales being used by 129 of those buyers, to make sure consumers are getting a fair deal. DATCP’s Jerad Albracht says they found all but one of them were either giving exact weight or gave measurements in favor of the consumer.
The state typically sees a pass rate above 90 percent when it checks devices such as gas pumps or grocery store scales. Albracht says a compliance rate of essentially 99.2 percent is pretty incredible.
The agency’s weights and measures division did not check every scale in the state being used to weigh gold, although Albracht says it should give sellers some confidence that most businesses appear to at least be properly evaluating the weight of the items properly. He notes that even a tiny inaccuracy can be costly for consumers, so it’s good to see numbers this positive.
AUDIO: Andrew Beckett reports (1:01)