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Continue reading Early termination fees on wireless contracts one step closer to termination

04 08 2008

Early termination fees on wireless contracts one step closer to termination

Posted by: in Money Ripoffs and Scams

Filed under: Ripoffs and Scams, Technology

The little play on words is obvious. Consumers are just a tiny bit closer to being free of early termination fees on wireless contracts. A California judge ruled this week that it was illegal for Sprint Nextel to charge early termination fees, and they have to refund over $18 million to consumers. The company must also stop trying to collect over $54 million in unpaid early termination fees from former customers.

Of course, Sprint Nextel is going to appeal so we shouldn’t get too excited yet. But this ruling is good for consumers, who are at the mercy of wireless providers who are looking for any excuse to get a little more money out of each of us.

The whole idea of an early termination fee is ridiculous. If you want to cease using our service earlier than you planned, you’ve to pay a couple hundred dollars. To not use the service.

02 08 2008

Watch out for door-to-door magazine sales

Posted by: in Money Ripoffs and Scams

Filed under: Extracurriculars, Ripoffs and Scams, Fraud

I received an email last week from Christina, who had her money taken by a door-to-door salesman, pitching magazines at inflated prices. The salesperson pretended to be a recently-returned Iraq veteran trying to get make a living, which was enough to disarm Christina. It is now many weeks later and the company has their money, but they have no magazine and the door-to-door sales company won’t respond to any inquires about the status of the order.

If you happen to get caught up in a door-to-door sales pitch like Christina did and like my wife and I did a year ago, there are a few steps you can take to try and get your money back. But time is of the essence.

In Ohio where both Christina and I live, there’s a three-day cooling off period where you can cancel the order. These sales companies don’t make it easy, so keep track of all of your records and follow the directions absolutely. I took the added step of putting a stop payment on the check despite the company’s threat of using a collection agency to come after anyone who dared take this action.

If it is too late to halt your check payment, there are a few more things you can try, but frankly your chances of recouping your cash are slim. You can try to use the Superior Business Agency to get your money back from the company (track down the BBB closest to the company’s headquarters.) Another step would be to find a fax or direct line for the headquarters and send in your request for cancellation and a refund. Finally if you want to feel particularly vindicated, you can sue in Small Claims court to recover the money that was taken. In Ohio you can sue for up to three times the amount of the original damages, and since the company must have a lawyer represent it, you’ll likely get a quick settlement out of court.

I hope you can learn from our mistakes, buying magazines from door to door salespeople is a bad idea. You’re superior off going to the publisher’s website to get the best deal or support a family member’s kid selling them through school. Door to door magazine sales are rife with high prices, scams and long delays in receiving magazines, save your money and avoid these traveling liars!

02 08 2008

Scammer poses as out-of-gas motorist

Posted by: in Money Ripoffs and Scams

Filed under: Ripoffs and Scams, Transportation

A special circle of hell should be reserved for those who scam good Samaritans. Include in that category a Texas driver who posed as a motorist stranded on the highway by an empty gas tank. According to the AP, as a patrolman stood talking to the perp, a helpful motorist pulled up and handed the man a full 1-gallon can of gas.

After the cop found that the perp had an outstanding warrant, he arrested him. When he opened the trunk of the man’s Cadillac, he found four more full cans of gas. Apparently, the perp had been working the scam for a while, convincing motorists to purchase him not only gas, but gas cans as well.

I’ve been hit up for a few gallons of gas from the driver of an adjacent vehicle while I’m filling up at gas stations, and for gas money while catching a meal at a fast food restaurant, both times by people that appeared more than capable of earning a few bucks at casual labor. Stories such as this can only make it more difficult for those truly in need to get the help they need. The good Samaritans are only out a few bucks; the people really injured by this scam are the truly needy.

Continue reading ‘Prepayment Privilege’: Misleading Realtor-speak

30 07 2008

‘Prepayment Privilege’: Misleading Realtor-speak

Posted by: in Money Ripoffs and Scams

Filed under: Real Estate, Ripoffs and Scams

According to his website, Tom Hopkins is one of the top sales gurus in the world: “His first book, How to Master the Art of Selling, has sold over 1.6 million duplicates and been translated into ten languages.” He is known as “the builder of sales champions.”

So it’s fair to state that the techniques he suggests are probably employed by a good number of successful real estate agents. Here’s a sample of his “advice” for real estate agents looking to increase sales, from his book Mastering the Art of Selling Real Estate:

“If there is a charge to refinance the property prior to the maturity date, don’t call it the prepayment penalty. Who wants to be penalized? No one. Call it the prepayment privilege.”

I comprehend the it’s the real estate agent’s job to put his ideal foot forward but, to me, that language is incredibly misleading. The truth is that everyone who buys a house has the privilege of prepaying; a prepayment penalty just adds a special cost for doing so. This tricky euphemism has no basis in reality.

Continue reading Miracle cures: How to separate the solutions from the snake oil

23 07 2008

Miracle cures: How to separate the solutions from the snake oil

Posted by: in Money Ripoffs and Scams

Filed under: Extracurriculars, Ripoffs and Scams, Health, Fraud

One of my favorite scenes in Man on the Moon occurs near the end: Andy Kaufman, played by Jim Carrey, is in the Philippines, awaiting a miracle treatment for the cancer that’s killing him. Looking over at the physician, Kaufman sees him hide some chicken gizzards in his hand before pretending to pull them out of a patient. As he lays back against his gurney, Kaufman smiles; a lifelong prankster, he realizes that he, himself has fallen for a trick.

While I wouldn’t call myself an herbalist, a naturalist, or a witch doctor, I definitely have an appreciation of alternative remedies. When I’m feeling under the weather, I try to eat a couple of oysters or a plate of ceviche: both are high in zinc, and often get me back on my feet. I take fish oil each day, and have been known to indulge in mushroom pills, garlic supplements, Kava-kava, and the occasional glass of absinthe.

That having been said, I’m also aware that the FDA exists for a reason. Recently, the government agency cracked down on 25 retailers who were selling so-called “cancer cures” under false pretenses. Because the internet has made it possible for overseas con artists to sell fake cures to Americans, it is nearly impossible for the FDA to absolutely police all of the snake-oil salesmen out there. With that in mind, they have produced a list of warning signs that a product is not legitimate:

21 07 2008

Beware the substandard AC - DC adapter / charger

Posted by: in Money Ripoffs and Scams

Filed under: Home, Ripoffs and Scams, Health

In the United Kingdom, Officers of Trading Standards are warning consumers there, that electric adapter / chargers which have been imported from China are posing a potentially significant safety hazard to users. At this point, it appears that no similar warnings have been officially issued to American consumers.

Tests in the UK have shown that the charges, most of which are being used for portable gaming units such as the popular Nintendo DS and DS Lite machines, are prone to overheat or short circuit. A report from the BBC indicates that the units might not have been properly inspected at the point of manufacture. Officials say that the UK might be littered with hundreds of thousands of the substandard units. The BBC report also states that the death of one 7 year old boy, 18 months ago, has allegedly been attributed to a failed charger. What’s worse, is that some of the chargers may even carry counterfeit safety certification markings.

Officials in the UK informed BBC that the offending chargers generally cost about one third as much as safe chargers do. Consumers would be well advised to take into account the old adage; “You get what you pay for.” Although there has been no mention yet of a full scale product recall on the offending units, it might be just a matter of time before China has to take “the big bite” on yet another consumer product category.

19 07 2008

Colleges team up with credit card issuers to ripoff students

Posted by: in Money Ripoffs and Scams

Filed under: College, Ripoffs and Scams

Yesterday I wrote about colleges teaming up with textbook publishers to screw students out of just a tiny bit more of their hard-earned money.

Not wanting to miss out on the orgy of exploitation, credit card companies are also collaborating with colleges on misleading credit card offers loaded with undisclosed conflicts of interest. Basically, credit card companies are paying colleges in exchange for student information, and working out licensing deals that put colleges in a position to prosper by trapping their undergrads into a cycle of debt. Find out more about this sordid tale in this BusinessWeek story.

Here’s how students can avoid this trap: if you receive a credit card offer in the mail, throw it in the trash. College students should never have more than one credit card — there’s just no reason to and, given that they’re new at this, there’s no reason for them to complicate their lives juggling multiple accounts. Log-on to creditcards.com’s special card finder for college students, pick one with no annual fee, and pay off your balance each month.

If you know any college students, forward this post to them and save them some agony.

18 07 2008

Colleges team up with textbook publishers to rip off students

Posted by: in Money Ripoffs and Scams

Filed under: College, Ripoffs and Scams

Public-private partnerships are a favorite of politicians — what’s superior than people working together for the public good?

But a recent Wall Street Journal piece (subscription required) exposed a disturbing trend: public colleges and textbook publishers teaming up to ripoff students. Here’s how the scam — and there’s noting else to call it — works: The University of Alabama requires freshman composition students to buy a writing textbook called “A Writer’s Reference,” by Diana Hacker.

But: not just any edition will do, they’ve to purchase the special edition for the school for $59.35, when the regular edition could be had for half that price used. Worse still, the campus bookstore won’t purchase back or sell the special edition. The only difference is a special cover and a writing guide that’s available free on the college’s website.

What can college students do? Ignore the directions and purchase a regular used copy. What could possibly be so special about the college edition? In all probability, everything you need will be in the original book or in the professor’s presentations and, if for some reason you actually do need something from the special edition, they’ll have a copy of it at the library.

18 07 2008

Not worth it at the dollar store: 10 items to avoid

Posted by: in Money Ripoffs and Scams

Filed under: Bargains, Ripoffs and Scams, Shopping

Dollar stores are great places to find bargains on any number of household needs but you can’t always assume that, just because it’s only $1, you’re automatically getting the most bang for your buck. Prices and quantities may vary according to stores in your town, but going by my shopping list, here are 10 things you might want to go elsewhere for:

Toothpaste

This is one of the things I leave on the shelf at the dollar store. A 2.54 ounce tube of tartar control or cavity protection Crest or Colgate cost a buck, obviously, and that seems like a lot less than you’d pay for a full-sized tube in your local drugstore.

But the same brands, in the same size, cost only 63 cents a tube at my local Wal-Mart store, so it still pays to shop around and read your local store flyers to find the sales and the best everyday prices for your favorite brand of toothpaste.

A word of caution when buying toothpaste at the dollar store: Don’t buy unknown brands and be careful of boxes that look like name brands but actually aren’t. Toothpaste was one of the household items to get caught up in the tainted products from China scare of the past several years. Toothpaste containing diethylene glycol, a sweet, syrupy poison used to make antifreeze, was found in several dollar stores.

See the full list.

Marlene Alexander is a freelance writer and dollar store diva. She writes free tips and ideas about decorating using only items from the dollar store.