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Every time you step up to the checkout counter, you’re faced with a choice: shop smart or get cheated. But you don’t have to eat your losses if your car repair bill is more than you’d bargained for, or the stationer you hired to print your wedding invitations did a poor job.

"The first thing I tell people is look before you leap -- don't buy impulsively," says Gene DeSantis, a consumer law professor at Syracuse University. “Make sure you research both the product and the merchant. It's good preventative medicine. If you're smart enough to do that, you minimize the risks."

Want help with a purchase, or need to make a complaint to a merchant? Then keep reading for a quick course in consumer smarts--or just use the links at the top of this page to get where you want to go.