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Latest Complaints

Is Chrysler / Dodge Using Taxpayer Dollars for SuperBowl Ad?

Filed under: Chrysler — admin @ January 13th, 2010
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There’s an industry trade magazine I subscribe to. It’s called Advertising Age. I read it today and my eye caught a very disturbing headline… Dodge Suits Up for the SuperBowl.

As I read the news article, I quickly became infuriated. Apparently, Chrysler hired an expensive advertising agency, Wieden and Kennedy of Portland, Oregon to come up with the a SuperBowl TV ad.

So,Chrysler gets to bury $7 billion in tax payer dollars and if memory serves, they received another $8 billion from Uncle Sam, too. I called and asked to speak with Oliver Francois, marketing director at Chrysler for comment. He failed to return my call and his office wouldn’t comment on the Advertising Age article, either.

I don’t know who will read this but in case you’re not entirely up to speed on Chrysler’s melt down and their begging for federal bail out money, last year, Chrysler filed for bankruptcy. They also buried $7 billion dollars of tax payer bail out money into their bankruptcy paperwork — citing the U.S. Government as a creditor they did not have any intention of paying back.

Excuse me?

The American people had no say when Chrysler went crawling to Capitol Hill on their hands and knees for money to save their company from certain financial collapse. Now they got the funds — they turn their backs on the same hard working Americans dollars that saved them from certain doom.

Wow, this gives me a nice warm fuzzy in ditching my Japanese built Acura and buying a Dodge truck now. Who wants to buy my Acura MDX Sports Utility Vehicle?

Where’s Lee Iococa on this issue of this blatant Chrysler immorality? Apparently, this is Chrysler’s way of saying, “Screw you, America. We got to have our Super Bowl ads.” This is like a druggie hooked on crack cocaine. Coca-Cola, Budweiser, and the big 3 automobile fat cats have to have their SuperBowl ads. It’s no different than the druggies who will do anything to get their next fix off crack cocaine.

I don’t know what sickens me more. The apathy of firms like Chrysler that steals $7 billion of tax payer dollars or the American people who should be screaming to their congressmen and congress women about this horrible injustice.

If Chrysler / Dodge has enough money to buy multi million dollar SuperBowl ads, they’re financially strong enough to pay the tax payers back. Why banks are getting all of the attention escapes me. Firms like Chrysler deserve to be dragged out into the hardh light of day and seen for the crooks they really are.

President Obama once called Chrysler a “pillar” of the industrial economy.

Chrysler invented the minivan and they own the Jeep brand. Nostalgia and a piece of Americana to be sure. But I would give anything right now to be a fly on the wall inside the oval office just to hear President Obama’s opinion of them now.

I can’t be the only person in America questioning why a SuperBowl ad is necessary? I already know where the local Dodge dealership is. I don’t an expensive, funny ad to tell me what I already know.

Right now, there are thousands of unemployed auto workers clinging onto their unemployment benefits checks. Why can’t Chrysler / Dodge skip the Superbowl ad and run a print ad like the one below?

“Dear American taxpayer.

We at Chrysler deeply appreciate the taxes that were used to save our company.

We endeavor to build the best cars and trucks built by hard working Americans.

The inexcusable mistake of burying $7 billion of TARP funds in our 2009 bankruptcy was not the right thing to do, and we have terminated those responsible for that deplorable act. We want you to know that the millions of dollars that Dodge could be spending on SuperBowl ads is now being used to help create more than 14,000 new jobs and re-open hundreds of Dodge dealerships.

We’re putting America back to work.”

Has Comcast Improved? Call in Radio Show Announced.

Filed under: Verizon — admin @ December 22nd, 2009
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Bob and I did the first radio call in on Comcast on a cold December night two years ago.  We had an all star line up on the show including Mona “The Hammer Lady” Shaw, My Damn Channel’s Harry Shearer,  In January, I think it’s time to see just how much progress Comcast has made. Are they COMCASTIC?  Is your Dish service DISHriffic?  Let’s find out.

I am proposing we invite a few Comcast Executives to be on the radio show, which will give some of you a chance to call in and ask them questions about your Cable service, your Triple Play Package, or just to vent or rant about how good or bad you’ve been treated, over-promised or lied to.

Please blog your comments below and let me know some of the questions you want me to ask on the next radio show.

I’ll email everybody a few times in advance to let you know of the call in date for the radio show.

Remember;  If you’re Fed Up with Crappy Customer Service, if it’s Smelling a lot like Customer Circus… then Talk Back until you hear back.

– bart

The no-confidence game

Filed under: Insurance — Tags: , , , , — Kevin Tumlinson @ September 28th, 2009
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by Kevin Tumlinson

The biggest challenge facing healthcare revision is confidence.

Americans lack confidence in the current system, in the insurance industry in particular, and in the ability of any government body to repair the situation. In an AP article from earlier this morning (People playing the odds on health care over costs), one young entrepreneur, Krista Neher, sums up what most Americans seem to be feeling.

“I have really low confidence that any insurance company would even cover me, [even after] I paid all the high premiums. It just seems like a lose-lose situation.”

This attitude is precisely why millions of Americans risk going without insurance coverage. The current system is set up more like a gamble, or a protection racket, than a benefit to the customer. The burden of cost is entirely on the consumer, with no promise of return whatsoever. No promise of coverage. No promise of a refund on un-used premiums. Nothing.

Considered in that light, it’s no wonder so many freelancers and small business owners opt to go without coverage. On the whole, it seems to make better business sense than dumping money into a worthless system, only to be left out in the cold when you actually need it. Better, by far, to take your chances. If you’re going to gamble, gamble that you’ll win … not lose.

President Obama’s Herculean task is to reform healthcare and make it a working system. But even if he comes up with a perfect solution, will Americans be onboard with it?

Maybe not, if that solution involves forced health insurance coverage with an industry that remains unregulated.

Complaints from the insurance industry go like this:

“Government-provided insurance creates an unfair competition in the market and impacts our profits.”

“Government regulation pulls the industry out of the free market and impacts our profits.”

“Caps on premiums and enforced coverage, regardless of demographic information, increases our costs and impacts our profits.”

Common threads do appear.

But the fact remains … the current system is broken by any measurable standard, and the insurance industry likes it that way. Why wouldn’t they? The balance of power is decidedly lop-sided. Insurance companies have the money to pay for lobbyists, have the clout to force hospitals and doctors to play by their rules, and have the ogre-like visage to scare the norms (that’s you and me) into paying up lest they suffer horrible, horrible accidents.

The answer is, as always, regulation. Obama’s plan for required health insurance coverage can work (even if it kind of irritates me), but only … ONLY … if there is a regulating body placed over the Insurance industry. That body cannot be the U.S. government. That’s not what it was designed for. But it can be a committee of unbiased, non-industry officials who have the background to understand insurance and healthcare, and the human hearts to understand that this is about people, not numbers.

A separate regulatory entity, paid for by the industry itself, is needed to create the rules and bylaws by which insurance and healthcare is to be regulated. Without it, forced health insurance coverage is just one more way to soak the American public for more money, while providing as little in return as possible.

Kevin Tumlinson is a writer and consultant in Houston, TX. Learn more by visiting his website at www.kevintumlinson.com.

I Got Screwed by RealEstateAgentListPro.com

Filed under: Database Driven - Real Estate Agent List Pro, Online Retail Companies — admin @ September 12th, 2009
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12 September 2009

Vanessa Miller
Database Driven
2620 S. Maryland Pkwy #510
Las Vegas, NV 89109

Re: Refund Demand. Order # KEJ-382313.

Hello Vanessa,

My Tracking order # XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX finally arrived a few days ago. I ordered it on 22 August. Reference Number: 40XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Subtotal: $404.00
Tax: $0.00
Shipping: $0.00
Total: $404.00

The links you sent me via e-mail would not open or un-archive.

For $404, I received a recordable CD with (7) .CSV files files and a scribbled Sharpie label in place of a professional disc label. This looks nothing like the product image on your website and I am outraged for allowing you to rip me off like this.

- The list had numerous typos everywhere. BLAke BAKer and so on. Very sloppy.

- The list had mistakes with missing two-letter state designations.

- Alabama, for example had numerous missing letters, Birmingham and other city fields were just plain empty.

- EVERY state that did contain a two letter state abbreviation were odd. They had tilde marks after them. AK~ AL~ CA~ and so on. I tried a search and replace in Exel to remove the ( ~ ) marks and it would not remove them.

- Inconsistent national names; Re/Max, REMAX and other mistakes were evident.

- REALTORS who had been in Gadsden, Alabama such as Robert McMurry from Realty Plus were non existent. Others such as Jennifer Zimmerman who has been in Alaska (Anchorage) for more than 6 years were not listed, either. I could list dozens of other mistakes like this.

- Gender. # of employees (agents) in the office. None of these columns contained any data which makes this list entire worthless if we are targeting brokers with more than 25 agents. Your sales rep lied to me over the phone on this feature.

I should have received a current list of REALTORS from you as of this year and it’s clear that just after checking with my customers from all 50 states, and then comparing the list to yours, not a single one of them showed up. And all of them have been in business for five years to 15 years or more. This list is far from being current or accurate. The last time this list was updated, as evidenced by your last date stamp on the .CSV file was April 8th, 2009.

Your website says: updated daily. 100% satisfaction guaranteed. Well, I’m not satisfied, sorry.

No one has scrubbed these lists as evidenced by the hundreds of missing fields, upper and lower mixed letters for names and company names. I would have to spend a week scrubbing these Excel files manually and quite frankly I don’t have the time or energy to do this. For $404, this is something you should have done. What I received and what I was told I’d receive is a clear cut case of Mail Fraud as you have deliberately misrepresented what I was going to receive once I placed my order.

I demand a refund in 3 business days, or I will instruct my bank to reverse the charge. You can choose either one. But keeping my money for this crappy excuse of a product isn’t going to be one of them.

100% satisfaction to me means delivering what you promised. Taking my money, burning a 33 cent CD with (7) screwed up and outdated CSV files and scribbling a title on it with a black Sharpie and tossing it in the mail is not what I agreed to buy.

If I do not see the refund on my card by close of business Friday, September 18th, 2009 — I will be filing formal charges against your firm for Interstate Mail Fraud and deceptive business practices.

If convicted, this carries 3 to 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. To ensure you understand the seriousness of these actions, I have already informed the Las Vegas AG’s office.

Govern your actions accordingly,

Bart A. Wilson
Chief Marketing Officer

cc: Jones, Snead, Wertheim & Wentworth, Attorneys at Law
cc: Las Vegas BBB
cc: Las Vegas Attorney General

Unethical Collection Practices

Filed under: Collection agencies, Financial Services — admin @ September 3rd, 2009

We received a phone call stating they were coming to our office to do a survey of all of our equipment and assess how much money we have to satisfy a debt. They were stupid enough to LEAVE the voice mail recording too which we promptly turned over to the Attorney General’s office. The firm was bogus and was hired by someone we never heard of and was never our client.

Beware of these types of predatory Collection agencies. This act was 100% illegal. Learn more by knowing the facts. the Fair Debt Collection Practices act can work for you. Click here and get the facts.

- bart

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