*ahem* Sorry bout that. Channeling Morton Downey Jr. there I think. What I really wanted to say was

You re probably being ripped off at this very moment and you don t even know it. Do you have frequent flyer miles? Have you checked lately to see what they re worth? Probably a lot less than when you signed up. Everywhere we turn, companies are pulling back from the value they offered when you signed the contract and handed over your payment, and leaving fees and restrictions in their wake. Gift cards whose value dwindles over time. Credit card payment due dates getting shorter and shorter. Credit card interest rates shooting up for no reason. Impossible to fulfill warranty repairs. Overdraft fees completely disproportionate to their cost. Health insurance coverage denied for the flimsiest of reasons. The list goes on.
Companies have clauses in their contracts which say they re allowed to change their policies at any time. You can imagine resort rental cars denver what would happen, however, if you instead arbitrarily decided that you felt like paying your cable company $20 less per month because of a change to your personal consumer policy. That s right, they would harass you with notices and phone calls and then eventually sell your bill to a debt collector who would phone you all the time and call you nasty names that you normally resort rental cars denver have to pay $2.99 a minute to hear. Yet, somehow resort rental cars denver they have the right to degrade the level of service or quality or quantity, THE VALUE, at any time. Well guess what, the promise was X dollars for Y service. Effectively, by say, making Y service ½ Y service, they are stealing your money.
If you bought what you thought was a new microwave and came home to find it full of wet paper towels, you can easily resort rental cars denver say that this is a scam. But the practices of some of the most trusted companies come with bubbly corners, and everything looks so pleasing and professional, and everyone wears a tie, and all the policies are clearly explained in nanoscopic print but that doesn t change what lies there once you cut away all the fat and gristle. We call it a scam. They call it a business plan.
Most people seem not to care. They accept these minor inconveniences as part of the absurdity of modern life. Or maybe it s just learned helplessness . Of feeling that effort is futile, or would be seen as whiny. Well you can get what you deserve without raising your voice or making threats. Our readers do it every day . They use tactics like those described in The Ultimate resort rental cars denver Consumerist resort rental cars denver Guide To Fighting Back to get what is due. Sometimes it s as simple as just asking, politely, and firmly.
Ahhhhh you re right about that! I have recently been jipped with Southwest airlines. I had 2 round trip tickets which I was going to use anyway I please. Then they instituted the new tiered pricing for tickets as well as the create of the Freedom Pass where you can comebine 2 of your roundtrip resort rental cars denver tickets to be used anytime then just half the time. Am I making sense? Anyways now if the flights have a cost of more then $130 one way you can t use the regular old tickets .grrr!!!!
resort rental cars denver 1) Incident specific scams- those that happen infrequently and revolve around a specific set of circumstances: Xbox with a brick in it, the fridge they can never deliver or fix, freezing my account after a charge in Paris (even though I called you and warned you in advance), etc.
The easy answer is not to spend your money at those businesses that have these sorts of policies. But what about # 2, systemic scams that involve an entire industry? Mileage programs, credit card fees, etc. often happen on an industry level. What do we do? You can t politely but firmly say, I want that trip for fewer miles. Is this where laws or industry resort rental cars denver standards need to step in?
And a big FU to any of those super-capitalists that glibly respond, just don t have a mobile phone, just don t have internet, just don t have a credit card, etc. We live in the modern world. There are some things that are needed to be productive (or even have a job) in this world even though I can physically survive with less.
@ ARP : This is why I think cell phones, internet and cable need to be regulated just like other necessary utilities are. There was a time where electricity was a luxury, now it is considered required for most living situations and for business.
As for many of these creative ways to devalue goods and services I tend to err on the worst possible outcome. I assume the warranty that comes with a new fridge probably isn t worth much so I don t rely on it when making my decision to purchase. I guess I build into the overall cost concept of the item that I might have to call the local repair guy. I assume that my bank will screw something up if I don t watch them and my accounts. I also don t use something for an incentive program because they have a way of never being what they claimed to be.
*ahem* Sorry bout that. Channeling Morton Downey Jr. there I think. What I really wanted to say was It seems like more and more these days the only way to survive the future is to live in a shack in the woods and grow your own food.
Wow. Hard-hitting. I think maybe you should take a field trip to a panacea where there are no depreciating frequent flyer miles, no dwindling gift cards, no credit card companies wanting you to pay back the money they are lending you (for free) in a timely fashion, no rising credit card rates, no impossible warranties, no overdraft fees, and no health care denials.
Are companies not allowed a rate of return (your fat and gristle )? You feel that large companies like BoA, Exxon, and such are taking advantage of you? Fine, just don t complain when your 401(k) tanks because the stocks in it underperform.
Nordstrom has great customer service because they make a great margin and have a strong brand. resort rental cars denver Apple fleeces its fanboys and fangirls to the tune of a 300% markup, yet they are revered for their excellent customer service. Where do you think they get the money to pay for that customer service? Margins in the banking industry are much lower if BoA or WaMu took their margins up to Apple s levels, I m sure they d have great customer service, but you wouldn resort rental cars denver t go near them because of the outrageous cost.
@ krom : Yeah, I can t get youtube at work. What does that have to do with Or, say, forcefully evicts you because they have suddenly discovered that the land wasn t really owned by the guy who sold it to you.
However, I can t say that anyone would be successful opening up a mom pop next door to a Wal-Mart, so the consumer is also partly to blame. There doesn t seem to be a solution to this growing problem I don t think you can legislate good sense and honesty.
This is where business is today . See the tiny sliver of space between the two parts of that definition ? Thats where a lot of big companies have wedged themselves. Raising fees , moving due dates and hiking fees in fine print are certainly dishonest,but fraud ?
Fraud invites criminal and civil sanction ,while resort rental cars denver dishonesty just means that the company has to spend an ever increasing amount on marketing and advertising to attract new customers to replace the ones that are fed up.
I left Dish Network resort rental cars denver today after 4 years.They resort rental cars denver made the calculation that it was cheaper to try to rope in a new customer resort rental cars denver than retain me.They tried every retention method EXCEPT dropping the price increase they tried to impose. (They are still advertising my package to new customers for a lot less). I won. I will take my business elsewhere (or maybe even back to DN through another family member setting up a new account). but the bottom line is, I won t take it from them or anybody lying down. Neither should you
Since I used banks in my little diatribe, I ll stick with them. What, exactly, do you pay for and get half of? I would like to hear it. Today, banks allow you to withdraw money at ATMs all over the world; you don t have to go to a branch during bank hours. You can pay all of your bills online, saving you even more time. Your bank issues you a debit card, usually for free, that you can use in lieu of a check. These are all added value for you, yet the profit margins of banks have decreased steadily over the last 20 years. Maybe they are just getting worse at scamming you. Seems to me you are paying incrementally less for what you are now getting, and market forces resort rental cars denver caused this to happen.
You want a dirt cheap flight? Fine, but the plane will be delayed from time to time, and you ll have to pay to make changes. You want to borrow resort rental cars denver money at zero cost for a month (meaning no interest, no cost of infrastructure to process payments, etc)? Fine, but you ll have to pay for it if you are late. You want to make phone calls from a wireless device across the country (or watch tv on it, or send text, or listen to music, etc)? Fine, but you re going to drop a few calls in your basement. All of these things resort rental cars denver could be remedied if you are willing to pay a much higher resort rental cars denver price. TANSTAAFL still applies.
To your larger point, resort rental cars denver I m here because it pains me when companies resort rental cars denver make egregious customer service blunders, and I read about them so I don t commit them. Equating profit with scam, however, solves resort rental cars denver nothing.
I have said it before will say it again. Most Companies these days rarely rely on a good product excellent resort rental cars denver customer service. Instead it seems to become competitive they have to rely more on tricking or misleading the customer into buying their product/service and they have the balls to call it something seeminlgy innocuous like marketing .
Because of this it has become a war against the customer mentality of many companies. Those people have money we want it! so lets do everything we can to trick our customers out of it! Companies have a whole host of strategies, schemes other resources at their command that they can bring to bear against the consumer, while consumers have at most their own wits the internet (with sites like the consumerist) to attempt to help them from getting screwed.
resort rental cars denver If when I signed up for the airline miles, the airline said it took 40k miles to get a ticket, and by the tim