Consumer Protection Info

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Here's a general site that exposes consumer scams: http://www.scambusters.org/.
Here's a site that exposes monetary scams: http://www.quatloos.com. Its exhibit of exchanges between an American counter-scammer and the Nigerian scammers is hilarious. It exposes anti-income tax scammers, but neglects to expose the income tax scam itself (that the IRS is to be feared, like the Iraqis used to fear Saddam Hussein, in no way makes the income tax less fraudulent).

Always complain if you feel abused by a government agent, bureaucrat, a (non-government) vendor or his employees! Soon, www access will be portable and fast and you will be able to look up a vendor's record from the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and from other sites while you are standing outside their door! Here's the BBB site: http://www.bbb.org.
Here are the government points below (mostly), to use when the government is there to help you or when government agents harm you: 0 (above), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Sun Sept 11, 2005
Follow the Paypal case in the September archives of the humorous website "Something Awful" (http://www.somethingawful.com) http://www.somethingawful.com/inserts/indexes/September-2005.htm. They tried to take up a collection to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, and Paypal locked their account. Paypal's user agreement is reportedly pretty awful. Read the story(ies) and decide for yourself whether you want to do business with this organization given what they want you to agree to.

Sat Sept 3, 2005
The open-source community got tired of waiting for Microsoft to add security and privacy features to Internet Explorer, so they created "Foxie", a Mozilla Firefox plugin for Internet Explorer. Recommended. http://www.getfoxie.com. It found a couple of items of spyware that my existing scanner didn't find. It's great for Windows XP, but when I tried to install it on my Windows 98 computer, it locked up trying to register the dll. I suppose that could be due to my Norton Antivirus program, but it still wouldn't get through the registering step after I disabled NAV.

Sun Aug 21, 2005
Here's the email address of a spammer: scottrichter422@yahoo.com (from "User Friendly": http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20040622&mode=classic).
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_e-mail_spammers.

Mon July 11, 2005
Here's a major piece of privacy advice: Bell Canada will not print your home address in the phone book if you ask the CSR (Customer Service Representative) not to. I think US Bells will also do this for you. This easy step will prevent your address being findable via a reverse phone number look-up on http://411.com/ or http://www.canada411.com/, although your postal code sometimes gets printed anyway, which lets anyone use postal code lookup (using the Post Office's website) to find your street and house number range.

Sun June 20, 2004
Given that I'm back in Ontario and there was a power outage here last year (August 14), some emergency preparedness thoughts are not out of line. Here are some websites giving info:
Canadian Center for Emergency Preparedness: http://www.ccep.ca/ccepabot.html
Emergency Management Ontario: http://www.emergencymanagementontario.ca
Windsor Fire and Rescue: http://www.windsorfire.com
Do what you can. It's pretty easy to keep your camping water jug filled up in your kitchen and to keep another 2.5 gal jug of water in the fridge. Stocking a little firewood might not be a bad idea.
Sun Feb 22, 2004
Tips for car buyers: http://carbuyingtips.com -- stay caught up with the latest scams!! RRemember, as the customer, you have most of the power; the only thing on the dealer's side is his turf. Armed with this and other knowledge, you should be able to do pretty well.
Here are some other useful auto sites:
Edmund's Automobile Buyer's Guide http://www.edmunds.com/
Kelley Blue Book http://www.kbb.com
National Motorists' Association http://www.motorists.org/
AAA http://www.aaa.com/
Mon Jan 12, 2004
In the same vein -- we are all consumers of government and the police -- here is a site with information all UUS residents or visitors should know: http://www.FlexYourRights.org. The police are not required to tell you your rights to refuse a search, unlike the requirement to tell you your 5th Amendment rights when they arrest you with intent to question you -- the well-known "Miranda" warning --, and they are trained and practiced in intimidating people into allowing otherwise illegal searches on a flimsy "consensual" basis. Keep a tape recorder in your car, keep the batteries checked, and use it! -- without being obvious about it! The site can easily be read in one sitting. Everybody should know what a "Terry frisk" is, for example. See also the Police Complaint Center, http://www.policeabuse.org, which can help you in case you have a complaint against the police. You should look up and join your local citizens' police oversight groups - "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?".
Fri Sept 12, 2003 - Updated Oct 11, 2003
Dave Barry, in last Sunday's column, gave the website for the National (USA) Do-Not-Call list: http://www.donotcall.gov. He also gave the phone number for the American Teleservices Association, 317-816-9336 (Changed from 1-877-779-3974 by Oct. 5) http://www.ataconnect.org, and opined that if you are tired of hearing telemarking calls, that you call them up and exercise your constitutionally protected right of free expression. Also, you could use the "Seinfeld method" when called by a telemarketer, vis: "I'm busy right now, could you give me your home phone number so I can call you back?" (Telemarketer says something) "Oh, you don't like being called at home? Well, how do you think I feel?!" SLAM! (See http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/dave_barry/ for the index to Dave Barry's columns).
Thurs July 4, 2003
Innovative new site launched to track government officials and activity, etc: http://opengov.media.mit.edu. As it says on their website,
As the government broadens internal surveillance, and collaborates with private institutions to access data on the public, it is crucial that we maintain a symmetry of accountability. If we believe the United States should be a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" it is of central importance to provide citizens with the power to oversee their government. At least as much effort should be spent building tools to facilitate citizens supervising their government as tools to help the government monitor individuals.
We are all, willy-nilly, "consumers" of government, so consumer protection against government activities is vital, a fortiori.
Thurs July 4, 2003
Good news for motorists a spray is available that produces a clear coating over a license plate that foils photo radar: "Phantom Plate" (http://www.phantomplate.com) - . Thirty bucks per spray can, called ""Phhotoblocker".
Competitor: Roy Reyer, a former police officer, operates http://www.PhotoBuster.com, a Web site that distributes a product similar to Photoblocker called "Photo Fog" (Two oz - $11.95). He said anger with the "Big Brother attitude" of governments has fueled the innovation.
June 14, 2003
To cut down on preapproved credit card offers, opt out by calling (888)567-8688 - US News & World Report, May 19, 2003, pg. 39. You can opt out for two years or permanently, or you can opt back in. It asks for your home phone number, but you can probably type in 1234567890 if you want. I called it. It also asks for your SS number (individual tracking ID), of course. They send you a letter which you have to sign and mail back to confirm, but they don't ask you to add any other information to it.
Photo Developing
How to get 3x5" prints out of Walgreen's 1 hr photodeveloper service: their machine won't make a photo disk (ette - 3.5", 1.44MB) and make 3x5 prints - they have to run 4x6 prints so that the machine will make a picture disk. They will throw the 4x6 prints away and the manager will approve this and charge you regular price for the disk and the 3x5 prints, but most employees at Walgreen stores don't know this and have to be told, or else they will call you back and very authoritatively tell you that it's not possible to make 3x5 prints and a photo disk.
Airlines
After much searching, a Captain who flies for United Airlines (who prefers to remain anonymous) has "located a customer service address for you to respond to the next time you have a bad experience on United (if you fly United, that is.) Please give it to anyone you think might use it.
For Customer Service Representative Complaints or Compliments (at the ticket counter or at the gate).

WHQPO
PO Box 66100
Chicago Ill 60666
-Mention the flight number, date and citty in your complaint and enclose ticket stub if available.

This address was on a complaint form that was stashed under the ticket counter in Chicago, where no passengers would ever see it!"

-Captain, 737
United Airlines
-From a letter to the Editor in the Noveembber 2000 Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact magazine, pg. 140.

Some other URLs:
http://www.passengerrights.com/
http://www.travelproblems.com/
The above two sites don't seem to be available right now, but the three that follow are still there!

http://www.delta-sucks.com/
http://www.untied.com/
http://www.northworstair.org/

A Waitress story

I generally believe in supporting waitresses and waiters, because they make very little, are on their feet all the time, and have a tough job keeping customers happy. Once I was in an airline bar, waiting for my flight and having a beer. It occurred to me that I should increase the waitress' tip, because it seemed to me to be insufficiently large, but I was out of change. I asked my waitress for change for a bill, and was coldly told that she didn't make change for people and that I would have to go to an external change machine somewhere. Well, that was the end of that. I didn't take away the tip I had already put down.
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Last updated Sept 11, 3, Aug 21, July 11, 2005; July 6, June 20, Feb 22, Jan 14, 12, 2004;
Oct 11, Sept 12, July 5, June 26, 14, May 26, 17, April 19, 6, 3, 2003