Santa’s not the only one with a list. Consumer Reports released its annual “Naughty & Nice” list today, a way to highlight company policies and practices that deserve cheers or jeers. 

The list is based on suggestions from the magazine’s staff as well as Facebook fans. The 100 nominees were whittled down to 10 naughty and 10 nice. 

Tod Marks, Consumer Reports’ senior editor, says the companies on the naughty list have “hidden or tricky fees, fine print or generally unfriendly practices.”  Those on the nice list “went the extra mile” to make sure their customers were happy patrons. 

Consumer Reports stresses that this list is not an evaluation or rating of a company. It’s a thumbs up or down on a specific policy or practice. 

“We have companies that we like a lot when we rate them, but they make the naughty list, and vice versa,” Marks explained. 

In preparing this year’s Naughty & Nice list, Marks read a lot of the comments posted on the Consumer Reports Facebook page. He told me he noticed a lot of angst and aggravation. 

“People are really ticked off because they don’t feel they have a voice,” he said. “When they want to get information or complain about something, they can’t get a live human being on the phone or they’re kept on hold for an inordinate amount of time. They feel like their complaints are falling on deaf ears." 

Here are some of the companies that made the Nice list:  

• Honda got a shout out for putting rearview cameras – a safety feature normally reserved for high-end vehicles – on most of its 2013 models. The cameras are now standard on all Honda trucks and SUVs, as well as the top-selling Accord and Civic. 
• Publix, one of the top-rated supermarket chains in Consumer Reports surveys, won praise for its policy of giving customers an item for free if the scanned price at checkout is more than the shelf price or advertised price. Years ago, this was common practice at many supermarkets. 

Many of the companies won praise for their generous return policy. 

• OXO guarantees all its ergonomically-designed housewares. If you are not completely satisfied, return it for a refund or replacement. 
• Safeway promises “fresh and delicious” produce every time. If you don’t like that mushy melon or bruised apple, bring it back for a refund or replacement. 
• Red Wing Shoe Company offers an unconditional 30-day comfort guarantee. If you don’t like the way those shoes feel, bring them back for a refund or exchange, no questions asked. 
• Nordstrom got a tip of the hat for its free shipping and free returns on all orders. 
• Kohl’s made the list for its “No Questions Asked – Hassle-Free” return policy for all purchases, whether online or in-store. There is no time limit. The editors say such a generous policy is uncommon for middle-of-the road retailers. 

Here are some of the companies on the Naughty list: 

• Spirit Airlines offers super-low prices, but it landed here for its new fee – as much as $100 – for carry-on bags that won’t fit under the seat and must be stowed in the overhead bins. “That’s more than you would pay for a checked bag!” Marks exclaimed. The carry-on fee depends on when you let the airline know you’ll need the over-head bin space: in advance, at the airport or at the gate. 
• Ticketmaster was cited for charging customers $2.50 per order to print their tickets at home. The editors said that charge is “especially hard to justify” since Ticketmaster will mail those same tickets for free if you book far enough in advance. The company says tickets are sent out a leisurely 10 to 14 days after purchase. 
• Forever 21, the apparel store, got dinged for its return policy. If you return an online order to a retail location you can only exchange the item or get a store credit. But if you mail it back, you can get a refund. “It would be nice if the policy was consistent all around,” Marks said. 
• CompUSA was called out for automatically adding a “free” download for antivirus software to some purchases. Consumer Reports shopped the site and found that it was not made clear this free subscription only lasted six months. If it wasn’t cancelled before then, there would be a charge of $49.99. “We have a pet peeve about those freebies that are automatically added to orders that force people to unclick the item so it’s not added to the shopping cart,” Marks explained. 
• Tiger Direct.com got slammed for its restocking policy which is “vague” and has one of the highest penalty fees around. Among other things, Tiger Direct requires returned items to be in the same condition as when sold and in the original packaging. The company says all returns “will be inspected and products found to be non-conforming will be rejected or subject to a restocking fee” of up to 25 percent at the company’s sole discretion.  It’s not clear what triggers that maximum fee. 

Lessons to be learned 
Tod Marks has been watching retail practices for decades, so he doesn’t expect companies to change their policies based on the magazine’s Naughty & Nice list. He does hope it encourages people to be better consumers. 

“If nothing else, this exercise will show people how important it is to read the fine print and understand that companies do have very divergent policies,” he said. “It makes sense to understand them and be an informed shopper before you make the purchase."

Read the complete list of Consumer Reports Naughty & Nice List 2012

Herb Weisbaum is The ConsumerMan. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter or visit The ConsumerMan website.

The auto industry has traditionally been male-dominated but Honda has rolled out a new model it claims to have specifically designed with women in mind.

The new Honda Fit She’s is a pretty-in-pink version of the maker’s familiar subcompact that offers a few niceties the maker believes will specifically appeal to distaff buyers, such as a windshield designed to block skin-wrinkling ultraviolet rays.

But will women actually care? While the new Honda subcompact may be the only car currently on the road specifically targeting women there’s a good reason.  Previous feminine offerings, such as the old Dodge LaFemme, met with little more than indifference and, in some cases, outright hostility.

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Priced at $17,500 – at current exchange rates – the Honda Fit She’s is currently available only in the Japanese market and it’s unclear whether the maker will roll it out in other parts of the world.

Like those vehicles handed out as prizes by Mary Kay Cosmetics, the dominant shade is pink, starting with the exterior paint and including the interior pink stitching and tutti-frutti-hued chrome bezels. If that doesn’t get the message across, Honda uses a pretty little heart to replace the apostrophe in “She’s.”

To Honda’s credit, the maker also has plans to offer the special model in an alternate hue that might best be called “eyeliner brown.”

The Fit She’s also delivers some other features women might appreciate.  That includes the special UV-blocking window glass.  Recent studies have underscored concerns that extended exposure to the sun while driving can be nearly as bad for the skin as spending too much time on the beach. 

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The Honda Fit She’s also features a “Plasmacluster” climate control system the maker claims can improve skin quality.

The decision to offer the car in the Japanese market isn’t all that much of a surprise considering the country’s more traditional sex-defined roles. As much as half of all Japanese women stay out of the workforce and still more tend to shift to homemakers after getting married. But even for those women who do join the workforce, there is  more of a divide in tastes than one might find in Western countries.

That has stifled efforts by European and U.S. manufacturers who previously tried to target products directly to women.  Chrysler, for one, thought it had a winner with the 1955 LaFemme. The sedan featured special storage places for hat and purse – and the driver’s seat swiveled to allow a woman wearing a skirt to enter or exit the vehicle with appropriate modesty.  Nonetheless, like the few other offerings openly aimed at American women over the years, LaFemme proved LaFlop.

One might think that the U.S. auto industry would be inspired by the Honda Fit She’s. After all, women now directly purchase over a third of the vehicles sold in the States, while data from J.D. Power and Associates suggests they “influence” as much as 60% of all vehicle purchases.

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Yet, just the hint of being a “woman’s car” can prove the kiss of death.  Despite their tremendous flexibility and functionality, minivans lost much of  their cache, noted Nissan marketing executive Tom Smith, when they become known as “soccer-mom vehicles.”  Chrysler tried to counter that image when it released its latest  version of the Dodge Durango by dubbing it the “man van,” but with little success.

Volkswagen blames the fall off in sales of the so-called “New Beetle” to the fact that the vehicle became known as a “chick car.” Jonathon Browning, head of Volkswagen Group of America, says the maker specifically wanted to make the latest version of the Beetle, introduced a year ago, “look more masculine.”

That doesn’t mean makers are ignoring the needs of women.  Both Ford and General Motors, among many makers, have established groups of women designers and engineers who specifically consider the features and attributes of new products looking for ways to appeal to feminine needs – and avoid problems that might not be apparent to their male colleagues.

That might include door handles that can snap off long fingernails. And a number of new vehicles now feature larger center storage bins able to handle a pocketbook – while men get the added benefit of being able to tuck away their iPads and other electronic goodies.

Some makers have also introduced new colors that they believe will have bigger appeal to women buyers – though whatever their sex, studies by paint suppliers like DuPont Automotive show that silver, black and white continue to dominate.

So, while automakers clearly want to win over women shoppers, few are likely to follow Honda’s lead, especially outside of Japan.  In most of the rest of the world, women car buyers just wanted to be treated as one of the guys.

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1994 Honda Accord

By Jessica Mintz, msnbc.com contributor

Reading the 2010 top stolen cars report from the National Insurance Crime Bureau got me to wondering: What is it about the 1994 Honda Accord that thieves find so irresistible?

Certain Accords and Honda Civics from the 1990s, along with the 1989 Toyota Camry, have dominated the list for the past eight years. For the sake of variety, the NICB cuts duplicates from its top-10 lists, says public affairs director Frank Scafidi. It’s possible, then, that another vintage of Accord could have bumped another contender from the list. (The 1996 version was also a very popular target in 2010.)

The 1994 Accord was special, however. That year, Honda revamped the design of the Accord and changed details under the hood. That kind of full model change, as it’s called, would have been accompanied by a big publicity push, said Chris Martin, a Honda spokesman, in an interview.

Thieves are likely interested in mid-90s Accords simply because there are so many of them still on the roads, Martin said. Demand for replacement parts may be keeping shady actors in business.

 “I think a lot of vehicles are stolen to tear them apart,” Martin said.

Honda hasn’t stopped selling Accords, but it has made them a lot harder to steal. In 1997, Honda started putting tiny microchips into car keys. If someone tried to hot-wire a car without the key, the car simply wouldn’t start. (Hot-wiring may be obsolete, but other methods, such as driving up with a tilt-bed tow truck, still work, notes Scafidi.)

The NICB report breaks thefts down by state, offering an abundance of opportunities to draw ties between car thieves’ preferences and the way we live today. For example:

• Texas is the only state where the full-size Chevy Tahoe makes the list, and five of the remaining nine vehicles on the list are pick-up trucks;
• In Michigan, the top-10 list was comprised exclusively of American cars;
• Minivans — mostly Dodge Caravans — were among the most frequently stolen cars in Delaware, Kansas, North Carolina, North Dakota and Vermont. In Missouri, the Caravan was the No. 1 choice for thieves.
• 1990s Subaru Legacy wagons are prized primarily by thieves in Montana, Oregon, Maine and Vermont;
• New York’s claim to fame: it’s the only state with the Ford Econoline E350 passenger van on its list.
• In Maryland, the 1999 Ford Crown Victoria — the iconic law enforcement vehicle — made the list.