Oh, Citi. You'll wish you never heard of me...

Lets see if this gets their attention. I dropped the H-bomb and I-theft bomb.

"6-February-2011

To whom it may concern,

Please remove my address (-----St APT ----, Quakertown PA 18951) and person from your marketing database. Due to the behavior explained in the attached CoC (Comptroller of Currency) complaint (Case# 01450312) I do not wish to receive any more offers for any type of financial services from your company or subsidiaries. I have zero faith in your ability to take care of your customers privacy or respond to their complaints.

I expect written confirmation of your receipt of this message. If I do not receive it, I will assume you are consciously ignoring this complaint. I will continue to report additional offers I receive to Citi bank, using your Business Reply Mail envelopes as well as appending my CoC complaint. If my concerns continue to be ignored, I will consider your institutions actions as harassment and will elevate my complaints accordingly.

I should not have to remind you of the serious nature of identity theft. If you consciously ignore this complaint, you might be considered an accessory to the possible attempted identity theft that is described in the included CoC complaint.

Not amused,

Alexander Belton"

The FDIC Knows how Citi Lost me as a Customer

And I never even opened an account:

"Please describe the nature of your complaint or inquiry:
For several months I have been receiving the Citi statement of one Sxxxx Axxx Sxxxxx mailed to my address in Quakertown PA. I have lived at this address for 2.5 years and have not been receiving this statement the whole time. I have called Citi bank two times previous to the most recent call, today, reporting the issue and was assured, every time, that they would remove my address from their system, as I have no Citi accounts of any type. They did not seem particularly concerned that their paying customer's statement was being sent to the wrong person/address. On the back of the envelope it warns that "A paper trail is an identity thief's best friend." They do not seem to take this to heart.

I do not know if this is the result of a simple typo or if there is something more sinister afoot involving impersonating this other customer with credit card activity they are not aware of.

I have returned several of the statements back to sender via the USPS, which really should be a red flag for privacy concerns.

I am filing this complaint because I hope someone else might do the same if it appeared my identity was being stolen.

Desired Resolution:
They need to contact Sxxxx Axxx Sxxxxx and resolve her correct address and bring appropriate actions against her if she is deliberately falsifying her mailing address.

I also wish to have my person (Axxxx Bxxxx) excluded from any and all future solicitations of credit card or other financial services from Citi bank. This whole affair has destroyed my faith in their ability to take care of their customers and protect their identity. I will file future complaints if I continue to receive offers for credit cards etc after the resolution of this complaint."

The Junk Mail Battle Continues...

"Better Business Bureau:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID XXXXXXX, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

I am still disappointed that my name has been entered into the RedPlum system. I filed this complaint out of refusal to be listed in their database when I did not request their junk mail in the first place. I find it reprehensible that they "require" me to provide my name to get my address removed (when the mailings, if I may charitably refer to the material they require me to carry out to the recycling bin on a weekly basis) from their system. I have just checked, and their website still requires someone to enter their name to remove their address from the RedPlum mailing list, even when the mailings themselves are addressed to "Resident". I might not hesitate to use a false name, which might also help me track down anyone they sell my name/address to other trash peddlers. However, on the website, it says the user needs to enter their name to act as their legal signiture. This seems simply absurd and over-stepping their bounds. To register for the national Do Not Call registry, for example, it simply requires the phone numbers and a (potentially temporary) e-mail address for verification.

I require that RedPlum removes my name and any reference to my address from their system, except for what references to my address are required to keep it on their "do not mail" list. Once they can provide that specific assurance, I can accept their response to my complaint.

Regards,

Alexander Belton

PS. I would like to take this opportunity to register my opposition to the unsolicited junk-mail business model from an ecological viewpoint. I do not think they consider any of the ramifications on the environment relating to either the energy requirement to process and print the ads themselves (I will be kind and assume the paper is already entirely recycled pulp) as well as the transportation cost of bringing the packet from the printers to the unwilling recipients (including the increased load on the US Postal Service in manpower and fuel costs) and then the cost and inconvenience forced upon the recipients to dispose of the mailings in either the recycling or refuse streams, and then the energy required to transport the waste to either the landfill or to the recycling facility and then sorted and reused. By mailing their junk to everyone regardless of interest, they are forcing these costs upon the planet and society. Both would be better served if Red Plum, and others like them, would adopt an opt-in rather than an obfuscated opt-out system."

In which I do battle with a Junk Mailer

Why'd it take me over two years? Because I think this junk mail has caused me to miss electricity bills (the latest tacking on $16 in late fees) and I'm not really OK with that anymore.

Submitted to the BBB:

Business Information
Business ID: 0141-0071004691
Name: Valassis Sales & Marketing Services, Inc
Address: 20 Summit Park Drive
City: Pittsburgh
State/County: PA
Zip/Postal Code: 15275

Problem
1. Primary Classification:
Advertising Issues
2. Secondary Classification:
Customer Services Issues
3. Problem:
I have been living at this address for approximately 2.5 years. Throughout that time I have received, one or more times per week, a significant pile of unwanted mail, coupons for local businesses etc, that I generally consider to be 'junk' as I have no interest in looking through such a pile for the one or two coupons I might be interested in. Recently, this pile of junk mail has been interfering with me receiving proper mail (bills etc) regularly as the mail that is actually addressed to me (rather than "Resident") will get mixed in amongst the junk mail and I throw it all out without noticing the bill or statement buried amongst the ads. I attempted to unsubscribe via the Redplum.com website which redirected it to the Valassis website with a web form to fill out. This form, however, requires me to input my name to get my address removed from their mailing list. I have never given them my name as a means to request these mailings, and the are addressed to "Resident" at my address, XXXXX Quakertown, PA 18951 Clearly they do not already have my name, and if they do they don't have the courtesy to actually address it to me. I do not wish my name to end up in their database, even in the event that it's used to remove my address from their list. I called a number listed on the Redplum.com website to have my address removed. When the customer servce rep picked up, she asked for my name. I stated that I refuse to provide it and she dumped me into a Valassis phone queue that was not being answered except during regular business hours. I, as are the people with the money to spend on the items advertised in the mailings, have a job and are not available to call and be put on hold during regular business hours. The web recording directs me to the same aforementioned web form, that requires me to input my name 'acting as my signature' to remove my address (which will take 5-6 weeks to take effect).

Complaint Background
1. Product/Service Purchased: None
2. Model Number: N/A

Dates you complained to the company/organization
7. First Date: 12/20/2010
10. Payment Made: No

Desired Outcome
1. Desired Settlement:
Other (requires explanation)
2. Desired Outcome:
I wish my address to be removed from their mailing list and no longer receive their mailings.

And Again, with Verizon...

Just included in my monthly Verizon bill payment. Let's see if they respond.

"16-May-2010

Dear Verizon,

Let's just get this out there: I don't like you one bit. You probably have the slightest bit of interest in me, because you've managed to fleece me out of $17 per month for solely providing me a dial tone. I personally find that utterly ridiculous. The only reason I have your land line service in the first place is that I am unable to get DSL service at my apartment otherwise. You insist that I have a land-line, but also have the gall of charging my DSL provider $2.88 per month to use your network. If my $17 per month is not covering usage of your network, then it seems like you need to seriously re-evaluate how you are doing business.
You should consider yourself lucky that I find Comcast an even more distasteful corporation than you. Otherwise I would likely just get cable internet from them, and bypass the need for a landline. Alternately, if you hadn't so offended me by requiring that I spend $17 per month for a dial tone, I would likely have purchased FiOS from you by this point, which would have you receiving far more per month than the $17.14 & $2.88 you extract from me each month. Now, your uninformed and poorly qualified salespeople might have dissuaded me from making that purchase, but that's a whole separate string of complaints.
Now, FiOS leads me to my next series of complaints: the ludicrous amount of sales literature you send me for FiOS. I am not interested. Your sales people, though trying to be helpful, were wholly unable to answer some fairly basic questions I had about the service and thus, I am unwilling to switch internet service. Now, despite explaining that to salesmen, I continue to receive several brochures in the mail each month. This is why I occasionally miss a bill payment: your bills and your junk mail look the same, and it all goes into the trash.
In conclusion: I do not want to be your customer, but you have forced me into it. I would honestly appreciate if you cut off the torrent of FiOS literature. It just fills up my trash and surely throws a wrench into any claims you might make of being a “green company.”

Screw you guys,
Alex Belton

P.S. I pay my bill in my own envelope by check simply to spite you. It's worth the stamp every month to stick it to you. You're welcome."

Verizon, the Glove is Thrown Down.

Just submitted to the BBB. Thake that, Verizon.

Explanation:
"I do not want to purchase this service from Verizon. However, due to their monopolistic practices, I have no other options for land line service at my apartment. I only purchase this land line service so I can purchase DSL service from a third-party provider (DSL Extreme out of Salt Lake City UT, who have provided nothing but excellent service at good prices). Verizon does not provide the service level and features I want at what I consider to be a reasonable price.

To this end, I purchased what I believe to the the cheapest and lowest possible level of service from Verizon. I do not even care if I am able to place or receive local or long-distance calls. Unfortunately, even this most meager service, which includes per-minute rates for local calls, costs in excess of $24.00 per month.

I find this utterly outrageous. They are providing me with literally just a dial tone. That service alone costs $8.27. Then there are $9.82 of various taxes and fees. I do not dispute these. However, what I find reprehensible, is the 'Verizon Long Distance Shortfall' charge. I did not intend to, nor did I want to, sign up for long-distance service. Especially not for $5 per month when I do not use the service. When I called to dispute this charge, I was informed that there was no way to remove or eliminate this service. What they have done, is advertised a 'free' or 'no monthly charge' long-distance option while it really costs a minimum of $5 per month. On my last bill, this was increased to $6 with no warning or explanation.

Prior to this increase, I had received telemarketing calls (all of which were nearly indecipherable due to poor call quality - which only furthers my disgust for them as a corporation) to ensure I was getting 'the best services at the right value'. When I tried to explain that the 'best service and value' for me would be to remove this feature of my calling plan, I was met with verbal shoulder-shrugging and refusals. I was told that the only way to remove the 'shortfall charge' would be to purchase an 'unlimited' long distance plan, which would increase my monthly expenses (and also their revenues).

If telecom was actually a free market, I'd take my business elsewhere over a year ago. However, I am left with no other option but to file this complaint in an effort to get what I feel that I deserve as a paying customer."

Desired Resolution"
"I want my long distance service removed from my bill and not recur. I do not require the ability to make long distance calls from my land line."

Wherein Visa and First Savings of Perkasie Attempt to Call my Bluff ...and I call in the Feds - Part Duex

Just sent to the First Bank of Perkasie CTO:

"Today at starting at approximately 11:30am three messages were left from Visa Fraud services on my phone number, XXX-XXX-XXXX.

All were again in reference to "Sxxxxx" or "Sxxxxxx" "Lxxxxx" about a Visa ending in XXXX.

Please, please, please, for the sake of your paying customer, take care of this.

Surely you must have some way to contact either Visa or your customer to get this resolved.

Where I work, taking care of the customer is the number one priority. It saddens me that a company in the business of providing services to customers does not share the same priorities.

I must say, given your level of service, were I your customer, I would look elsewhere for banking services."

Seriously, Verizon Sucks

I ended up calling them right after this bill arrived, trying to get some answers. I wanted to verify that I had the absolute barest-bones plans (I do) and that there's nothing I can do about the "Verizon Long Distance Shortfall" charge aka making my "free" $0.00/month Long distance plan, which can not be removed from my service, actually cost $5/month.



After that phone conversation (for what it's worth after about 20 minutes on hold the rep I spoke to was very friendly, knowledgeable and apologetic. Which only continues my experience of Verizon people being very nice and helpful, but the company as a whole is terrible) I called my DSL provider to see what they could do about setting up a "dry loop" DSL line. This is DSL service without the need for a dial tone on the line. 25 minutes of investigating later, it was clear a dry loop service was not possible , as far as I can tell because Verizon said-so. Neither was wholesale Fiber, which they do in some areas, but not mine. Even though my apartment is already wired for FiOS.

Amusing side-note:
A few weeks ago I got a telemarketing call from Verizon trying to get me to switch to FiOS to "save me money". I decided to humor the guy. I mean, if I could get 50MBps fiber service for the same number of dollars I'm currently spending, I'd be up for that.

First though, I wanted to tackle the whole "blocking port 80 etc" issue. I can't find reliable information anywhere about whether Ports 80, 25 etc are blocked on FiOS. I know they are unavoidably blocked on residential Verizon DSL lines (which is what differentiates their Resi/Commercial services, as far as I can tell). The telemarketer got flustered and said he'd have to check. After a minute or two on hold he got back to me saying he talked to someone in tech support and told me that when the installer shows up, I should just tell him what port I wanted to use in my apartment and he could set that up. I then proceeded to inform him it was not a physical device but rather a portion of the software used in networking protocol. He put me on hold for a few minutes again and then came back, apologizing that he couldn't find anyone that knew about these "ports" and that I should just ask the install tech.

Next we covered the "saving money" angle. I currently pay a total of around $70/month to Verizon and my ISP for what amounts to just my internet connection. $24 (phone bill) + $2.88 (Supplier Surcharge Recovery Fee tacked onto my DSL bill by Verizon) is paid to Verizon, who's services I do not use, and I don't appreciate being forced to pay them for services I neither receive nor want from them (yes, I get phone service, but only receive calls for other people on it).

The telemarketer was only able to offer about that much per month for just internet and phone (and free installation of a first and second computer(!)). Combined with my general dislike for the company and absolutely no answer on the blocking port 80 question, I decided to decline the "generous" offer.

Again, what really gets me about this, is my total lack of options. If I want home internet, I can either keep doing what I am, which seems overly expensive, as I'm paying almost $30/month for services I don't need or use. I could switch to FiOS, essentially rewarding Verizon for having excessive control over the phone network, or go with Comcast digital cable/voice which just seems like trading one huge telco for another which sets arbitrary bandwidth caps and may or may not be filtering/throttling connections.

Sigh. All I want is reasonably priced internet, without paying for services I don't want. Is that too much to ask?

Wherein Visa and First Savings of Perkasie Attempt to Call my Bluff

...and I call in the Feds.

Again, this mostly offends me that companies are seemingly doing nothing to take care of their paying customers.

Submitted to the Federal Reserve Consumer Complaint department:
"Over the past several months, I have received numerous calls from Visa Fraud Prevention about fraudulent charges Visa card in the name of Stephen L***** (spelling unknown) ending in XXXX, at my phone number, listed as an alternate contact on this complaint (area code 215). I have been the sole user of this phone number since May 2008. I have never done any business with First Savings Bank of Perkasie nor have I had any contact with Mr L*****. I have contacts this bank on no less than 4 occasions informing them of this problem and insisting they address it, both for my sake and for their paying customer's sake. I have contacted them by phone, leaving messages, sending e-mails via their website and calling and speaking to someone at their main office directly. "

How can your complaint be satisfactorily addressed?
"First Bank of Perkasie needs to locate their customer, obtain his correct phone number and notify Visa to remove my phone number from the contact information for their customer. The First Savings Bank of Perkasie is doing a disservice to their customer for not following up on these requests and potentially leaving Visa liable for thousands of dollars of fraudulent charges.

This is unacceptable. "

Wherein Visa Attempts to Provoke me

The following was submitted to the First Savings Bank of Perkasie (PA)

"For the last several days, I've received over a dozen calls from Visa Fraud Prevention about one of your customers, I think a Sxxxxx Lxxxxxx, at my listed phone number regarding fraudulent charges. This robo call gives me no option to tell them they have the wrong number. I called and left a voicemail this Friday evening in your general mailbox about this issue and then again talked to a woman at your main office this morning. I have continued to receive these calls.

PLEASE TRACK DOWN YOUR CUSTOMERS. I do not appreciate receiving their phone calls. If this is not resolved quickly I will file a complaint with the Federal Reserve, not only for my own sake, but for your apparently valued customer who is potentially facing thousands of dollars in fraudulent charges."

Again, this mostly falls under the category of "Companies who are bad at what they do make me angry" rather than any real annoyance. And maybe it's not the bank's fault at all...maybe these people, who I've been getting collections calls, calls about prescriptions being ready, calls from friends and family, weird calls from friends and family, are so desperate to avoid their creditors they continue to falsely give my phone number.

On the plus side, the collection calls have stopped....for now.

An Illusion of Choice is No Choice at All...

So, I'm basically fed up with Verizon.

When I moved into my apartment over a year ago, I knew I wasn't going to get bundled Phone/Internet/TV from Comcast, and FiOS was not yet available at my apartment complex so that was not a consideration.

I signed up for the barest-bones Verizon home phone line I could set up, which still somehow amounts to over $20/mo basically for a dial tone and the ability to place outgoing calls.

Having a dial tone allowed me my choice of DSL providers. I chose DSLeXtreme, who have provided me excellent service and support since my DSL was activated. They actually resell FiOS service, but that does not appear to be available in my neck of the woods, yet.

I got my bill today, after believing I had unsubscribed from my long distance service. As far as I can tell, both from the website and the bill I had, but there's still a $5.00 'VLD Shortfall Charge' which apparently they can tack on to the bill of anyone they feel isn't already paying them enough.

"A spokesperson for Verizon told KING 5 that even if a person doesn't make long-distance calls, they still have access to the phone network. The "shortfall charge" helps pay for maintenance of the network."

If so, then why do you charge me $8.27/mo just for a dial tone? What does that pay for?

I'm not complaining about the $9.94 per month in taxes in fees which, if they're not labeled deceptively, are all federal and state charges that have been passed through to me.

To add insult to injury, when I "canceled" my long distance, I was unable to also demote my local service from the 'unlimited' to the 'pay per minute' level since I'd already initiated one change to my plan that day.

I wonder if it's a coincidence that I can't currently login to my account page after telling them I was 'very dissatisfied' with the website in the customer-service survey.

So, anyway, do I even have any options for local phone service (that will allow me to keep my DSL service)? It looks like AT&T might be an option, but I can't fathom them being any more pleasant than Verizon.

Any suggestions?

Wherein I Crack Open my Law Books for the Second Time this Summer...

So I've had my land-line phone number since the end of May, 2008. This is, last I checked, at least one year ago. Practically ever since I moved in, I've been getting various phone calls for the people who were, presumably, the last people to have this phone number.

I've informed their bank and various friends and relatives of these people. I've even changed my answering machine greeting to inform people of their error.

However, I have, and continue to receive phone calls regarding "important business issues" AKA collections for the family. Many of which have used some kind of text-to-speech software, occasionally with a British accent that appears incapable of pronouncing the name 'Ralph', but that's beside the point.

Often the call is just instructions to call them back including an absurdly long case number. Sometimes I am given an option to pretend I'm "R a l p h" and speak to a live person. This has happened...at least three times that I've gotten through to an operator and informed them of the situation.

The first time the operator claimed that my number was the one that the family was still reporting as theirs. The second time, the operator got very defensive and claimed I hadn't talked to that particular company before. Clearly I'm supposed to be able to tell the difference between apparently inept collection companies when they never identify themselves.

In both these cases I insist that I speak to a supervisor/manager. The first two operators refused and insist that I explain myself. Then, today, I got another call and pretended to be Ralph. I spoke to an operator and told him repeatedly that I need to speak to the manager. He informed me that I would be dumped into a voicemail box and I'd get a response within 24-48 hours. I explained who I was, stated my phone number, called them ... ahem ... freaking incompetent then dropped the 'H' word. I said I considered it harassment.

I'm not expecting any reply. I'm also not expecting the calls to stop.

The question is, what are my next steps? This website suggests I should get their info next time and report them to the BBB. That sounds like a good plan, but anything more humiliating would be preferred. Mostly what offends me is that someone pays them to provide a collections service, and they're clearly incapable of finding the people they're trying to collect money from.

Really, I just want them to apologize and admit they're clueless and incompetent.

The BBB Gets Stuff Done

They can't do math ($199.99+$17+$31 = $247.99, which is what they refunded), but they did respond more than adequately.

For what it's worth, while I wish I wasn't prompted to do things like contact the BBB or my state senator, I have been remarkably pleased with the promptness and effectiveness of the responses.

"MESSAGE FROM BUSINESS:

To Whom It May Concern,

We would like to apologize for the inconvenience surrounding this product. We want to assure Mr Belton that we never internally ship defective products and do our best to support our customers when there is an issue to be corrected.

Per Mr. Belton’s request, we are issuing an RMA number for the return and refund of the gaming system ($199.99) the original shipping charge ($17.00) and return shipping paid on original RMA (31.00). The total refund to be processed upon receipt of the second defective gaming system will be $230.99. The second RMA number Mr. Belton should use is: G220660.

Again we do apologize for the inconvenience that Mr. Belton encounter. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance

Regards,

Brian S
Customer Service Manager
(760) 726-7700 x1312
Office Hours: M-F 7am-5pm PST
http://www.geeks.com/"

Who doesn't want to file a BBB complaint on a Friday?

"On July 16 I ordered a refurbished Xbox 360 from Geeks.com for $200, roughly half the standard retail price. It arrived roughly a week later and immediately upon set up it was clear the console itself or the power supply was faulty as evidenced by the 'Red Ring of Death' (RROD, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_ring_of_death) a widely recognized failure mode of Xbox 360's.

I contacted customer support to obtain an RMA number. It was promptly provided but I was forced to pay the return shipping, $31 for ground shipping from Pennsylvania to California. The RMA was received and processed and a replacement unit shipped out and was delivered yesterday, 6-Aug-09.

Today, while playing Halo 3, a game not known for it's crashes, the console froze up, twice within half an hour, requiring a hard reset to become responsive. I will be contacting Geeks.com on Monday to take up this issue with them, but from what I can tell, they have deliberately been shipping defective product, scamming customers.

At this point I want a paid shipping label to return the clearly defective system as well as a full refund of my purchase amount, $199"

But what if the "fat lady" refuses to sing?

Dear Senator Clinton,

Seriously, Hillary, it's over

Not that I'm calling you fat, Hillary, but simply making reference to the old saying. You ran a competitive campaign, and obviously there are plenty of voters who like you as a candidate. But you are in no way entitled to being the nominee because you were the First Lady for 8 years or 7 years as a senator.

You've been arguing that basically, because you say so, the Democratic Party should simply throw out it's nominating rules, go against 'the people' and make you the winner. What about all the Obama supporters out there? Wouldn't they be pretty angry about you usurping their candidate's more legitimate 'win'? Might they decide to vote independent or *gasp* Republican instead of by default voting for you?

What about voters, Democratic, Republican or Independent who don't like the idea of two families owning the presidency for what, upwards of 24-28 years? (Bush I 4yrs + W.J Clinton 8yrs + Bush II 8yrs + H.R. Clinton 4-8yrs). Regardless of any of my other political views, that last prospect scares me the most. I mean, we're a democracy (fine, fine, Constitution-based federal republic) right? With term limits for (some) elected officials? I don't care how amazing a president someone is (or might be), there is a system that exists for a reason. Washington refused to serve more than two terms for precisely this kind of reason and that precedent was adhered to until FDR was elected for his 3rd term. Even though FDR is generally accepted to have been a 'good' president, a formal term limit of 2 (technically 2.5 to account for a VP serving out a presidential term) was imposed via the 22nd Amendment in 1951 precisely because of FDR being elected more than 2 times. Similarly, the DNC's presidential nomination process, while not perfect, exists and should not be changed due to the whining of a single candidate with an over-fed sense of entitlement. You serving another 4-8 years, spiritually continuing your husband's terms, is not the 'Change' that voters want, ma'am, please stop claiming it is.

And no, Michigan and Florida should not count in the slightest. They chose to break the rules and should not be 'un-punished' just because you say so now. You can bet your bacon that you, Senator Clinton, would not be arguing for their inclusion if the results were close or clearly in Obama's favor.

Respectfully,
Potentially disenchanted 'young' voter.

PS: Am I the only one confused about non-voting US territories having presidential primaries? It seems a little goofy to me, but I guess the DNC can do what it wants to pick its candidate. The fact that a candidate won in Puerto Rico, American Samoa etc should not be used as an argument for whether or not they can win in November (or are even a better candidate than their same-party candidates)

OK, I know who I'm not voting for...

...whoever authorized this god-aweful idea of changing daylight savings! Seriously, am I going to have to fight with my PDA twice every year? Why not just get a new PDA, you might ask? Well, first off there do not seem to be any on the market that I like. Additionally, my current one still (::knock on wood::) works fine, so why should I have to replace it? This whole SNAFU is supposed to be some kind of perverted money/energy saving plan.

IT IS NOT!

I propose that all the extra coffee that had to be made to write software patches to correct this problem counteracts any and all possible present and future energy savings of this policy. This does not include any waste due to missed meetings caused by an electronic scheduling device being off by an hour.

Politicians, in all your stupidity and ignorance, you have at best not inconvenienced any given individual, and greatly inconvenienced a whole hemisphere of them.

Fucking brilliant, guys. (Pardon my language)

Why I Feel Like A Second-Class Citizen...

Over the past several weeks, I have been met at every turn by companies who have refused to take my money for their goods or services:

"You want a credit card? You're a student and never had one before? OK, just sit here and have an incompetant teller fill out a web-form for you and wait a week or ten days." "Oh, too bad. You're not in the system and we clearly can't issue you the only card we offer"

"Get into an accident? Sure, we'll fix your car. But those guys over there won't let you rent a car. You can enlist or get drafted and go out there and defend my whiny ass but you're not renting one of our cars. Oh no, you have to be 21 to do that, mister. And we'll still ream you, hard, till you're 25."

Conveniently I turned 21 about two weeks after the accident, but I would've been SOL if this had happened last summer or the summer before. Apparently all work done by under-21 year olds is optional and they can just skip it for a week or two.

"Oh, great! You're 21 now! You can rent a car! But not without a major credit card!"

You can have plenty of money in your account and be fully insured, regularly pay your taxes in full, but you can't rent a car without a major credit card, though they likely don't care if you're eyeballs deep in debt.

"That broken car? Yea, you need to pay us for the repairs. Check? No problem....oh, wait. There is. You haven't written enough checks so clearly we can't trust this one. Try again in six days."

That's the one that really pissed me off. I mean, they basically could deny me for any reason and refused to tell me why. At least the MA Dept of Revenue eventually told me why they didn't want to give me my money back.

Part 2, Wherein I battle the MA Department of Revenue

The following was sent to my town's State Senators and State Representative, the Auditor of Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Attorney General, the Governor (and Lt Governor), and the Secretary of Administration and Finance. It follows up a previous letter to the D.o.R.

Senators, Representative, and other State officials,

"In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."
--Benjamin Franklin

Today I write you all to register a complaint regarding the behavior and performance of the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, specifically the Audit division. I filed my personal income tax return, electronically, for both State and Federal taxes, in mid-March, 2007. Come April 2, 2007 my Federal income tax return had been directly deposited into my bank account. April 4, 2007 I received a letter, while still away at school, that the D.o.R. would be 'verifying' my 2006 Massachusetts Income Tax Return. The size of my return? $170. The documentation requested in the letter was sent from Sharon on 4/23/2007 via the United States Postal Service (Label Number: 0307 0020 0004 8152 5768) and was delivered to Boston, MA 02204 on 4/24/07 at 12:49pm. A series of calls today to the Audit Division of the D.o.R. revealed that my information was not entered into the computer system until 6/16/07. That alone is unacceptable. A series of calls made to the Audit Division of the D.o.R. in mid-May procured conflicting information regarding the status of the form. Some said that it had already been received, others did not. Once I returned home at the end of May I called again for a similar response. I called today, twice, and was told both times that my information had been entered into the computer system only within the past two weeks. When I asked about the estimated date for the conclusion of the audit, I was told 'several more weeks'. Today's date is 6/21/2007. Nearly two months after the requested forms were delivered to D.o.R. offices in Boston. I must restate the size of my MA Income Tax Return: $170

I am a college student who only works during the summer. My gross income for the year is under $5000. My 2006 return is my second tax return filed in MA. It is nearly identical to the previous one, only differing due to a small increase in my salary at the same employer I've worked both summers (as well as this current summer), Dynamet Technology, Inc in Burlington MA. I do not have any investments or significant assets to my name, besides my car (a 2005 Toyota Corolla).

I find it patently absurd that I would be selected for an audit. Given that the per-capita income for MA is on the order of $42,000 and there are over 6 million residents of MA, I must assume that there are at least a few MA Income Tax Returns that merit more scrutiny that mine, both due to larger size and greater complexity. There must be better ways for the Department of Revenue to spend its time and budget.

I have already sent a complaint to the D.o.R. via a e-mail form on their websites, as well as expressing my dissatisfaction with the D.o.R. representatives I spoke to today. Contacting you appeared to be the next logical step in getting a meaningful response about this issue.

My permanent address is:
XX XXXXX XX
XXXXXX, MA XXXXX
I can be reached via e-mail or by phone, ***-***-****

Any information or help provided would be greatly appreciated.

Lets see if that will get any wheels spinning.

Ugh, more techmology problems.

"I attempted to update my Zen Vision M (30GB) from f/w version 1.41 to 1.61. During this process the player hung during rebuilding approximately 60% through. The update utility did not say the process had finished.

Eventually I rebooted using the reboot switch on the bottom of the player. The player hung at rebuilding at the /exact/ same place. I rebooted several more times and at all times it froze at the same place. Looking online I found out about the recovery mode.

I ran the clean up utility and that did not address the rebuilding hang. I tried re-updating the firmware to the latest version and initially that did not alter the behavior at all. I then chose the 'reload firmware' option from the recovery mode and then updated the firmware.

At this point the update utility claims 'Firmware Update Failed' after the progress bar fills. Now when I reboot my player it simply flashes 'firmware problem' and returns to the recovery console. On the recovery console it lists the firmware version as "v1.61.01_0.0.23".
Formatting the player through the recovery screen does not affect anything.

I have read extensively about other people with this same problem. I find it very distressing that an otherwise reputable company producing fine hardware, like Creative, would publish firmware updates that seem to so widely cause problems. I would purchase more Creative products in the future, assuming this debacle does not leave me with the impression that your tech support is bumbling morons with no regard for the customer. "

I'm back and angry...

So yea, I made it home fine, hung out for a week and now have started work.

In other news, the following was just sent to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue:
"I am a college student. My budget is wafer thin and I only have time to work over the summer. My MA tax return expected amount was $170. My tax forms this past year was identical to the year's prior, with a slightly higher income due to a dollar-an-hour raise. My gross income was on the order of $5000.

The 2004 per-capita personal income in MA is $42,000. Perhaps the taxpayer's dollar funding the Department of Revenue would be better spent investigating larger tax returns? Given that total processing time for my audit has been at least 5 weeks, I can safely assume that well more then the entirety of my $170 return has been spent investigating it.

I see no reason for my return not to be deposited into my bank account, but even if it isn't and the DoR gets to keep it, this investigation has undoubtedly cost the taxpayers of Massachusetts (of which I'm one, of course) hundreds if not thousands of dollars.

This is fair to no-one, least of all me, a cash-strapped college student along with all my fellow taxpayers."