I don't know why I have to get forced into a love/hate relationship with Amazon, but it seems that I do. As a buyer, I love dealing with Amazon.  The experience is pretty hard to beat, and as evidenced in a recent news article about customer service and bad actors and the lack of such on Amazon, it's pretty easy to justify buying via Amazon.  If you happen to hit a bad customer service experience, Amazon will step in and make it right, and rather swiftly the bad seller will find the...

Argh!!  I really, really, really hate (and I hate to use that word as I try not to have hatred for others) the chuckleheads at PayFlex USA.  What a bunch of frackin' idjits they are there. I've been fighting -- over the last 2 months (give or take) -- requests that they sent me to provide additional documentation for dental work done back in May.  They demanded supporting documentation for work that was done and I provided the supporting documentation they asked for, but i...

I have owned a Credit Repair/Restoration company, Credit-CPR, for almost 10 years now. It is amazing to me that as credit oriented that this country is that our school system doesn’t teach us a thing about in all our years of both public and private schooling. We generally don’t learn about credit until we get out there in the real world. Even those of us with great credit scores don’t seem to have a clue how that score is computed. I always encourage people to take on my job t...

We just got our tax refunds today so the guys are already asking around who are up for a round of drinks. While they were kidding around as to who is going to pay the tab later, they asked what I plan to do with the tax refund I just got. I just smiled at them and told them that I’ll use it for something else, leaving them to think about what that something is. But the truth is, I do not plan on spending my tax refund anywhere else. Some of you will think this is a crazy idea. It’...

Ever since I’ve read all about Sherlock Holmes, I’ve dreamed of becoming a detective someday.  Many years and a college degree later, I didn’t turn out to be the crime-stopping detective of my dreams.  But that didn’t mean that I totally forgot all about my dream. From time to time, I do a little detective work for my friends and relatives. Not to find where the car keys are misplaced (for the nth time), or prove that the dog really ate the kids’ homework....

If you’re like me who hates Math (okay fine. You don’t hate Math.  Math hates you. ), then you’re probably cringing at the thought of making your own financial plan. Finance = Math, so it has A LOT to do with numbers, right? Don’t hit your head on the wall yet. Financial planning isn’t as bad as you think it is.  It may not look fun, but it can be a very rewarding thing to do. So how do you start? No button bashing on the calculators just yet. The o...

I just submitted this to the state of California at insurance.ca.gov/0250-insurers/IndHlthRateFilings, in response to an article about Anthem Blue Cross's application to raise rates by about 20% next year.  Note that previously they had insisted that they needed to raise rates by about 40%, due to increasing costs.  However, the parent company, WellPoint*, was audited and somehow, via such standard accounting practices as double-billing, as they admitted, they had lost track o...

Some years back, Ralphs got busted big-time for systematic overcharges of its grocery customers.  As a legal consequence they had to offer all kinds of bonuses - free groceries, for example - for every overcharge that a customer caught on their receipt.  I had been checking my receipts for years by then and about half the time there would be an error of a few dollars.  I collected big-time when the penalty policies were implemented.  Now Ralphs, Food-4-Less and t...

Argh!  I booked flights on American Airlines a few weeks ago and booked a later afternoon/evening flight so that I'd have time to get some work done during the day before flying out.  As if! It seems that American Airlines has been taken over by SouthWest Airlines, or so it would appear from the the service that I've gotten from American thus far.  When I went online to check-in for my flight I find that I can't check-in because I don't have assigned/selected seats yet.  O...

Since I just sold a flat in Berlin (my dad was using it until late last year) and since I am thinking of buying a place in a few years, I searched the Web for property and mortgage information, theoretical such. I found this interesting article from 2007 which gives an example of how circumstances can change. Don't bother reading the article itself, I will quote the relevant sections and numbers. http://drhousingbubble.blogspot.com/2007/07/foreclosure-story-how-does-process-look.html ...

So are you a good tipper?  Who do you tip?  What percentage?  Is there ever a time you resent being asked for a tip or seeing that tip jar out? I tip if I eat in a restaurant.  I do feel that when they take my order, bring my food, refill my drinks they deserve a tip.  I generally tip about 15% sometimes more if it is excellent service.  I do not tip when I order carryout food and I don't understand why they expect a tip when all they did is put my order in ...

  Our world is advancing in all technology and medicine is reaching new heights. With the advancements in such things we depend on cables and wires are extremely important for such the medical field, the military and in everyday use for things like cell phones, computers, games and there accessories. We need more lightweight cables that strip easily and can fit in to tight places.  Flexible wire  and  flexible cable  may be required in just about anything. Flexible ca...

Today I was let down by PayPal.  Here is how it happened. About ten years ago someone opened a PayPal account in my name.  The account was fraudulent, and the only way I found out about it was an accident.  I tried to add one of my credit cards to my PayPal account and was rejected because the credit card was already tied to another PayPal account.  Another PayPal account?  What?  I don't have any other PayPal accounts!  So I called PayPal, and the FBI... ...

Sometimes it seems like the basics are forgotten. It all starts with this. There are two parts to customer experience: the customer, and the experience. The CUSTOMER is a person. A human being. Your neighbor, your aunt, your postman, your car mechanic, your librarian. This is a person who deserves to be listened to, not just "monetized" or reduced to a number in a database somewhere in the cloud. The EXPERIENCE is everything that happens to that person as they interact with your co...

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGC1mCS4OVo&feature=player_embedded