From a second-floor location atop the Rossetti-Cowan Senior Center on Winthrop Avenue, Allan J. Fitzmaurice is helping hundreds of consumers find solutions to their complaints.
The Revere Consumer Affairs Office (CAO), where Fitzmaurice has been director since April, 2020, has been very busy.
Last year, the Revere CAO processed 367 complaints and returned $257,000 to consumers.
The Consumer Affairs Office operates under a grant from State Attorney General Maura Healey’s Office. The grant application was submitted by Mayor Brian Arrigo’s Administration.
“About 40 years ago, the Attorney General established these local consumer protection offices throughout the state,†explained Fitzmaurice. “When someone goes online and files a complaint with the Attorney General against a business or landlord, that complaint is sent to one of the local consumer protection offices.â€
Fitzmaurice said the highest number of referrals to his office in the past two years consisted of automobile and used car complaints, home improvement contractor complaints, online shopping complaints, travel-related complaints about trips that were booked and paid for in advance, and landlord-tenant complaints.
While based in Revere, Fitzmaurice’s Winthrop Avenue office serves 14 municipalities, ranging from Revere, Malden, and Winthrop to Lynn, Swampscott, and Marblehead.
Fitzmaurice worked previously as the senior constituent services representative for Revere 311, a successful initiative under the leadership of Mayor Brian Arrigo. It was Arrigo who appointed Fitzmaurice to his current position as director of the Consumer Affairs Office and provides the office space.
In Revere, Fitzmaurice works under the supervision of Mayor Arrigo and the city’s Department of Health and Human Services.
“I’m proud to say we have had a successful record of helping consumers and our reach has expanded over the years,†said Fitzmaurice, who is assisted by Marie Lepore, a Revere resident who has worked in the Consumer Affairs Office for 13 years.
