Don't Be A Sucker!

Don't Believe Your Email

Do you ever get email saying forward this to 50 people and your wildest dreams will come true?  If you don't forward it,  your genitalia will fall off?  How about the warnings about perfume salesmen in parking lots kidnapping women with ether instead of perfume samples?  What about warnings not to enter your car while getting gas or static electricity could set you on fire?  Before you buy into all of that stuff and forward these warnings on to your friends and family, check them out.  There are several great web sites that track this type of thing and visiting one of them will save you from looking like a fool when you send some bogus message to everyone in your email address book.  Use any of these to validate these claims before your forward them on:

	Snopes:  A fantastic site with a great search engine for looking up urban myths.  Just enter a key phrase from your warning and then watch the pages of information come up.  You'll see all of the different versions of the myth, supported with commentary on where the myth came from and what it means from a sociological and psychological viewpoint.
	Scambusters: Covers much more than urban legends and myths.  They include all sorts of scams, such as attempts at credit card fraud, counterfeit items, toll phone numbers and more.

Don't Pay for Calls You Didn't Make

About a year ago my long distance company which must go unnamed (let's call it Splint for the sake of having a name) tried to charge me for nearly $1,000 worth of long distance phone calls to Romania.  Amazingly enough, the calls took place over the course of a week or so at times when nobody could have been in my house.  They lasted about a minute or so apiece, as if someone called and hung up over and over.  A brief bit of research on the net revealed that "phreakers", or people who can hijack/manipulate phone lines, often call Romania using other people's phone lines because Romania is one of many countries with old and easily conquered phone equipment  I explained this to Splint, also mentioned that my family could prove we were not home when those calls were made, and referred them to the complete lack of international calls on any of my bills for the past decade.  Splint disconnected our long distance service, started adding late fees and sent us to a collection agency, and threatened to destroy our credit.

Guess what?  This was over a year ago now and we haven't paid them a penny!  If you get an irrational and unfair bill, don't give in to corporate threats and pressure until you research all of your options.  Every time Splint turns my wife and I over to a collection agency, we promptly respond to their letters refuting the charges.  This buys several months of peace, and then another collection agency sends a bill in the mail.  We break out the old form letter refuting the charges and on the process has gone for about a year and a half.  They haven't touched our credit rating or taken any other action because we stay on the ball and refute any claims they make, keeping the ball in their court.  Each collection agency offers a smaller and smaller bill as a settlement.  I think the last one was just over $100, which is a far cry better than $1,000.

I'm not a lawyer, and am not giving you legal advice or in any way accepting responsibility for your actions.  I'm simply encouraging you to stand up for yourself whenever someone tries to stick it to you and chances are you will come out ahead.  Do a search on the internet and find out your options.  File complaints with anyone who will listen, such as the FCC, Better Business Bureau, Magazines, Consumer Activists, you name it.  Turn the tables and hold your accuser's feet to the fire and see how they like. 

Fight the Good Fight!

I'm in the process of buying a very expensive, top of the line computer system from a company reputed to have nothing but the best.  The best parts, the best technicians, the best configurations, the best technical support and the best technicians.  Did I say BEST?  Well, apparently their web site and the numerous reviewers, critics and magazines define "best" differently than I do.  It took weeks to get this company to act on my order, and this process was studded with incorrect bills, a couple dozen emails and phone calls, hours on hold and a great deal of wrath on my part.  At one point in time they were trying to charge me more than I agreed to for a system they hadn't even started building!

 Rather then put up with this, I went online and tracked down some information about that company in hopes of finding a way to extricate myself from this deal.  I went to a search engine and literally entered the name of the company followed by the word "sucks".  It returned about 8 pages of results, and listed sites dedicated to avenging wrongs from that company.  I found email addresses for the CEO, VP of Marketing, the top customer service executives, etc.  Armed with this I sent an angry, yet civil email to the top ranking customer service executives, CC'd the marketing VP and told them how I was being treated.  I threatened to blast them with negative publicity by posting complaints on numerous product review web sites, sending letters to computer magazine editors, filing formal complaints with the better business bureau, etc.  I told them this could all be avoided by giving me some substantial discounts and freebies (I listed what I wanted) along with greatly improved service, and within 24 hours I got what I wanted.  I'm now expecting the computer to arrive any day with free upgrades to the video and sound card, $250 off the originally agreed upon price, 12 months same as cash financing, and the right to return the system for any reason for a full refund for up to a month after I received it (usually they charge a hefty restocking fee).

Moral of the story:
When you find yourself on the loosing end of a deal because the other party doesn't live up to their promises, fight back!  Make it very clear that if they don't make amends for their mistakes they will be getting into an full scale war with you.  In a world were companies export their customer service jobs to foreign countries and customers are treated as nuisances, you can't afford to be a wimp.  Contact the big shots, bypass the customer service flunkies and tell them what you want.  Make reasonable demands, keep the language civil and make it VERY clear that you won't rest until you get what you want.  Chances are they will make an arrangement with you rather than spend a small fortune fighting you.