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A work in progress and progress at work, if you've landed here you're an early adopter. Stop back as I add more items of religion, politics, consumerism, and life as it SHOULD be...
Noam Sane
Publisher
The
Must Visit Consumer site:
UCAN.ORG
An excellent source
for Identity Theft info and FREE assistance: idtheftcenter.org
[JunkMail-Telemarketers] [SPAM/Internet] [The Fine Print (examples)] [Counting On Oversight] [Early Renewal] [MisleadingMailers] [Other Stuff]
This is just a start. I hope to collect lots of information for consumers; especially things that really yank my chain. I hope to make the site easy to navigate. You can even SEARCH the site using this:
My belief about business can be summarized thusly:
The goal of a business is to provide a service or product to the public and to be fairly recompensed for the costs plus the risk.
This differs greatly from many people who think that the idea is to make as much money as possible and provide as little as possible. Modern business evolved from agrarian times when people bartered goods for other goods or services (e.g. the farmer and the blacksmith). Those people weren't getting rich; the landed people were. Those folks tried to get the best deal they could for what they offered.
Today an awful lot of business is centered around the concept "caveat emptor" (buyer beware). A generic term is "A Scam". Some of the marketing crap I see really irks me; it hopes you don't know enough about the field involved to know what the caveats are . I intend to offer examples as I encounter them and explain what the traps are. While you should educate yourself about topics you'll be involved in, like major purchases, real estate, investing, etc., nobody can possibly know it all.
The idealist in me says I shouldn't have to be doing this! The FTC should provide more information so buyers can make informed decisions, requiring more useful info be placed on boxes, in stores, etc. Just like I think that the FDA should not be telling us what supplements we may or may not use and that they should require that the results of their research be placed on bottles and boxes so WE can decide whether to heed it or not, I believe this approach should be applied to all consumer items. I'm NOT in favor of more government regulations; just the bare essentials that make it possible for people to be responsible for themselves
Comparison Standards:Another example is audio amplifiers. The same amplifier design, by two different manufacturers, could be specified in at least two ways:
20 watts RMS (at .01% THD, measured 20Hz to 20kHz, into 8 ohms)
and
100 watts EIA (into 2 ohms)
I don't know for sure how EIA is measured, but it might be something like "at 5% THD at 1kHz". Do you know what this all means? Probably not if you're not INTO this stuff. It's easy to supply more apparent power if the distortion is high (ruining the sound you're listening to) and if it's just measured at an easy-to-reproduce frequency in the middle of the audio spectrum. This is like saying that a Lotus and a Jugo can both do 140mph. The Jugo probably can; downhill, rumbling and shaking, quite likely falling apart and killing the occupants. But you dont buy a car to do that and you don't buy and amplifier to sound like crap and only reproduce the guitar solos. And most people wouldn't even know to ask these questions, so they'd buy the 100 watt one for the same money. Didn't the FTC once require RMS ratings on audio gear? I don't even see the specs mentioned in ads any more.
Here's another: have you noticed how nice they are to us at the market or general goods stores these days? They put the cost-per-unit on each shelf label. Now you can tell, without a calculator or a genius IQ, which of similar products is the best buy (all other things being equal). For example they show toilet paper by the roll; oh wait, this other shows the price per square foot. Oh wait, this THIRD one shows the price per sheet. Real useful, huh? I've asked Vons about this and they say there's no standard method and different people do pricing at different times. Well, all they have to do is to set a standard for each type of item and have them listed for the pricers. Is this really a standardizing problem or is it just left alone to confuse the customer?
Junk Mail, Telemarketers and SPAM
Here's a link that talks about the ungodly amount of WASTE caused by junk mail. It's on the County of Benton, WA, website. It includes addresses to which you can mail your requests to be removed from mailing lists and telemarketers lists. http://206.61.210.104/solidwaste/reduction/junkmail.html.
Here's a special section on SPAM, HOAXES, and INTERNET PROBLEMS.
Regarding TeleSleaze calls, here's one thing you can do so they waste a call to you: start your answering machine by saying "Hello", then pause a couple seconds. Also, mention in your message that you don't do business with telemarketers. Predictive Dialers are computers that call ahead to the next number on the telemarketers' list to see if there's someone home; if there's not, the computer skips that number and goes to the next. If you just say "Hello" in your message, the Predictive Dialer can interpret that as someone heing home because when it hears voice for a longer period it assume's THAT's an answering machine message. Now, the computer will connect the agent to you only to have the agent hear the message about not doing business with telemarketers. Hopefully, they'll remove you from their list. Another trick is to have something play the 3 tones (doo-doo-doo is the best I can do without audio!) you get when you get a bad number, all circuits are busy, etc., before you talk on the phone. The Predictive Dialers typically listen for this sound and will note the number as bad so you wont hear an agent and, hopefully, you wont hear from them any more. Somebody makes such a device (to play the 3 tones) but I don't know how to obtain one at this time. Radio Shack sells some kind of anti-telesleaze device but I don't know how it works.
| AT&T One Rate 9¢ Plan |
The mailing I got (with a check) says "No Monthly Plan Fee" in maybe 14 point type right above the check. The Fine Print at the bottom (maybe 8 pt?) says "A $5 monthly minimum usage charge applies to this plan: if you spend less than $5 a month in AT&T Long Distance...your account will be charged the difference between what you use and $5". What's the difference? If I don't make any calls I'm STILL billed $5 for nothing. The only difference is that a Monthly Fee would be the same amount regardless of what your usage is while the fee for this kind of plan will vary from $5 (when you make no calls) and nothing when you make $5 or more worth of calls. If you, instead, used a plan with no fee or minimum that charges 15¢/min., you could make 33 minutes worth of calls and still pay the same as you would with this AT&T plan. This is because, with the AT&T plan, you are going to pay at least $5 a month; and 15¢ x 33 mins = $5.00
|
Counting on Obfuscation
and Oversight
| Yellow Pages | In
addition to the Yellow Pages published by your local "LEC" (Local
Exchange Carrier, e.g. AT&T or Verizon) that you get at least one copy
of just for having a phone, there are other "Yellow Pages"
in the country. Apparently, The Bell System failed to register the name
"Yellow Pages" (and perhaps even the "walking fingers"
logo) or else they LOST that copyright after the "breakup" in
1984. Regardless, it appears that anyone can call their publication "Yellow
Pages". What some companies do is to send you a bill that looks
just like OTHER Yellow Pages bills. They're hoping that either nbody
will look into it or that your accounting folks will think it's the usual Yellow
Pages; either way, it gets paid. Don't fall for this. Know which Yellow
Page publication, if any, you're advertising in and let your AP people
know about this scam.
4/2005: Now these people are required to put this is only a solicitation on these kind of things The Books Themselves : also, now there are many "Yellow Pages" books and websites. They all want you to use their book and to advertize with them. Personally, I just stick with one - I chose the AT&T Yellow Pages; make your own choice. But remember that they're not the same thing as each other |
| DomainJacking by Domain Name Registrars | Dont fall for letters in the mail about renewing your domain name. If the meail or letter or fax is not from YOUR Regstrar, then CONTACT your registrar. See here for more: http://domainjacking.com/ |
| Long Distance Carriers |
When you SWITCH TO a long distance carrier, they handle cancelling your old account. But, when you SWITCH FROM them to a carrier that DOESN'T handle cancelling, the previous carrier won't cancel your account with them. You must ensure that your old account is cancelled, as I learned the hard way. Here's part of the email I received from AT&T regarding this issue: Them:
Noam:
AT&T
I recently rc'd a call from a company who claimed to be a part of SBC and wanted to get me switched over to the best LD account available. After a while I realized that this was a ruse and they were trying to slam me.
|
| Wireless Phone Carriers (Cellular) | You'd
THINK they have your best interests in mind, considering all the heart warming
marketing. But, if your calling habits change and you either need a bigger
plan (with more minutes) or a smaller plan (with fewer minutes at less cost)
they will NOT let you know that you'd benefit from a different plan unless
you call them and ask for an analysis of your calling patterns. They could
easily do this if they wanted to, but they're counting on you not paying
attention or not understanding how the plans really work.
Consumer Union/FCC cellular provider complaint ratings (Report says Verizon is best, and I've been pleased with them for the past 4 years) |
| zLine Long Distance Comparison | Here's an example of an unfair comparison. You have to ask yourself, "what if I don't WANT all that stuff? NOW how good a deal is it?" Click here to see a scan of the full document I received, then click your browser's BACK button to return here. After you've seen that, click here to see the comparison part of the document (the blue area) enlarged for legibility. Again, click your browser's BACK button to return here. If you want local phone service and nothing else, it's still $54.99 with them and $21.22 with SBC (the parent company of Pacific Bell, my LEC). MY Pac Bell bill says I get charged $11.03 per month for "Residence Flat Rate Service". It's not clear if the $54.99 includes taxes. If it does, then we'll add my bill's taxes for a fair comparison: now it's $54.99 vs $16.58. Pac Bell is still a better deal. The $9.78 for "Local Calling" is completely unclear. The $11.03 above includes calls in Zones 1 and 2 in San Diego County. Zone 3 calls are a few cents a minutes. Calls from 17 miles to the next calling area (or LATA) are called Local Toll Calls. If zLine means to say they give you no-charge "Local Toll Calls" (I say "no-charge" vs "free" since they AREN'T free, they are just not costing you an additional charge) that might be worth something. At an average of about 8¢ a minute on Pacific Bell, 100 minutes (day) would cost you $8.00 on Pacific Bell who also have a plan (#405) that gets you 180 Local Toll minutes for $10. I have no idea where zLine gets the $9.78 from. If you add the $18.75 that zLine says SBC charges you for 200 long distance minutes, the SBC (or Pac Bell) charge is now $11.03 (service) + $9.78 (unsure) + $18.75 = $39.56 so SBC is still a better deal. Also, you can get long distance from other vendors. At 15¢/minute 200 minutes is $30. At a dime, that's $20. In-state rates can be as low a 5¢. If you needed ALL of that AND the 3-way calling, etc, you'd be at $56.51. Now zLine beats SBC. Add in the VoiceMail and zLine is a definite winner. However, SBC probably has some bundles, too. I'm NOT pushing Pacific Bell. I'm pointing out that the mailer makes zLine look so much better, but that's based on you getting all those options. AND, the incorrect quote for PacBell's local service plus the unknown $9.78 make this piece very questionable. |
Fax Spam:
Fight Back Against Junk Faxes - Despite federal laws prohibiting unsolicited faxes from being sent to homes and businesses, junk faxes continue to be a frustrating part of owning a fax machine; tying up phone lines and costing users in terms of toner and paper. Different states' anti-junk fax laws have various degrees of "teeth". Here's an email I sent to a fax blaster in 2009:
Sent: Friday, January 16, 2009 8:15 AM
Subject: Your Unsolicited Fax is Illegal In California
Your Unsolicited Fax is illegal for 2 reasons. First, it does not contain a way to opt-out (not that I ever opted-in in the first place) with a toll free number. Second, you did not ask my permission. While Federal law allows faxes if there’s a prior business relationship (which we have not), CA law does not. The exception would be if you were a non-profit organization and I were a member (and I am not).
“All unsolicited commercial faxes must now include an opt-out provision on the first page of the fax, providing a cost-free, 24-hour means for the recipient to request to be removed from the fax distribution list. Also, all fax numbers can now only be obtained either directly from the recipient or from a public source to which the recipient gave the number for publication (i.e., a Web site, advertisement or directory).” (semasan.com)
Web sites you should have referred to before your fax blast:
http://www.junkfax.org/fax/basic_info/basics.html
http://www.dmaresponsibility.org/FaxAlert/
http://www.loeb.com/californiaenactsunsolicitedfaxbill/
INTERESTING LINKS
Source:Telecommunications Research and Action Center. http://www.trac.org
Visit these guys for an, apparently, unbiased comparison of long distance rates and industry info
©2008 The Idealist.net Last updated September 10, 2009 |
