Taking Advantage

With everything going on Caesars Palace is opening a $550 million promenade in Las Vegas. And apparently states are looking at gambling to get out of their shortfalls. To me this is not the answer. Supporting people’s bad habits will only lead to more crime or other poor choices.

Scammers are notifying the phone companies to tack on phony services to your phone bill; it’s called cramming. To stop this scam you have to call the phone company and opt out of all third parties services. I don’t understand why the phone companies don’t require proof that a person agreed to such charges before putting them on. Along this same line, I have a problem with banks and other companies that get hacked and although they’re the first to know it’s up to their clients to handle the fraud. Companies need to be liable for all dealings with credit bureaus and any financial or emotional situations that arise as the result of the hacking.

According to GMA, officials in at least 3 states have found that 8 months after the big banks promised change, there is new evidence that workers in the mortgage industry are Robo signing contracts (signing without reading them and using fake names). I guess Wells Fargo’s $85 million fine for falsifying documents and pushing high interest loans and Bank of America’s settling with investors of bad mortgage securities for $8.5 billion was not enough incentive to get the banks to behave. We have Zabar’s, an upscale grocery store in NY, that has been selling lobster salad for the last 20 years with crayfish, not lobster; they’ve renamed it Seafare and are still selling it for $17 per pound. And, with the Louisiana oil spill, some people got rich overcharging BP while their neighbors suffered; their actions drove up the price of gas for all of us. And just to make a buck, we have companies selling items that should not be in the hands of everyday people; like ATM skimming devices or assault weapons. I think that if a patent or manufacturing license is approved it should identify the real use of a device and the proposed customer base.

We all know that carelessness by a customer or employee causing breakage and frivolous lawsuits raise the cost of a product for all of us. But, I don’t understand why a robber doesn’t know he/she is stealing from neighbors, friends, and family and not a multi-million dollar company.

The Federal Reserve is keeping the key interest rate historically low for next 2 years and this is good for businesses and people. The government has done its part in creating jobs and the American Jobs Act proposes more. However, businesses are still saying they need to reduce costs. I think they should be looking at their current practices instead of laying people off. I really don’t know why they make hard toothbrushes if they’re bad for your teeth or why we have so many choices in tooth paste within a single name brand. I believe reducing our options would reduce cost as machines wouldn’t have to be set for each type of product. According to a Consumer Report survey, 71% of the people are dissatisfied with not reaching a human on the phone and 76% are annoyed with the number of steps it takes to get the right option. I know that I’m annoyed when I call a company and reach someone I can’t understand. Another peeve is paying for warranties that are not timely honored, e.g., washer and dryer or a refrigerator that breaks down and they want to send a repair person two weeks later. By the way, I don’t like that my PC is out of date or can’t handle the current software a year later. Instead of businesses reducing their costs, I think that they should be finding ways to improve service and reduce costs for the average American.