Banks . . . I Hate Banks - pretty much

Howdy!

Have you noticed how your bank - especially the large nationwide operations - instead of treating you as a valued customer and trying to be a helpful addition to your life, now tries to prey upon you whenever possible?

For example:

• if you have checks that clear on the same day as a deposit, making sure they clear the checks first, maximizing the chance that your account will go into the negative - even though you have a deposit pending for THAT DAY - so they can charge you an overdraft fee
• charging the fee for overdraft protection to the credit card you use for that purpose, instead of your account, hoping that you won't notice that they're charging you ten bucks for so-called "protection" against overdrafts, when in fact they're just charging you a lower amount than the $25 they would usually charge you
• sending you a letter changing the terms (read "interest rate") of your credit card agreement, and casually mentioning that the only way you can avoid this change is to write them a letter stating that you don't agree to the change, and then never using the card again - or else the change then automatically goes into effect anyway

Yep, banks are really big on honest dealing - when it comes to you paying them. When it comes to how they treat YOU, not so much. I hate banks, except the bank I currently use, USAA Federal Savings. You can't just get an account there, unfortunately, because they're oriented primarily toward serving active and retired military - which is why they don't try to cheat you at every turn. An excellent bank, and hooray for our troops that they get to take advantage of it.

Amazon Hack/Scam Revealed!

I've bought lots of stuff from Amazon.com over the past few years, and until recently I was always pleased and satisfied with my purchases.

Recently, I searched Amazon's site for a pair of Sony in-ear headphones. They generally cost around fifty bucks, but I found a pair from one of Amazon's vendors for the amazingly low price of $17.95. Well, naturally I bought them, thinking I'd made a great deal.

Not so fast. When I checked my bank account online the next day, the charge from the vendor was $70+!

Yup, they only charged me the $17.95 for the phones, and then charged me over $53 for shipping!

You need to keep in mind that this set of headphones weighs maybe - maybe - 2 oz.

So, the scam is to quote an impressively - not impossibly, just impressively - low price for the item, and then stick it to you for the shipping. Of course, the shipping part doesn't show until you've already bought the item. To add insult to injury, the scamsters have posted a lot of obviously bogus positive feedback about themselves, to attempt to counteract the irate postings of others who've been ripped off. Grrr! Kill!

Also, you can't cancel your order once it's been processed, especially if you use the "Buy this item with 1-click" option. I've used it over and over for book purchases, and because Amazon limits the amount that can be charged for shipping/handling for any one book to $2.59, I've always been happy. Not so for their other types of vendors, as I now know.

I'm chalking this one up to live and learn, but what I'd really like to do is pay a personal visit to the worthless waste of space that pulled this scam and introduce them to my aluminum baseball bat. You know: "Bat, scumbag. Scumbag, bat." Like that.

So, watch out for this one. Amazon's Customer Service department e-mailed me after I complained and told me they'd "look into it," etc. I'm thrilled.

So, remember, everything's a scam these days, unfortunately.

Preston Sturges Knew a Scam When He Saw One

There's a new DVD boxed set of my favorite Hollywood (when it was still Hollywoodland) directors. You can read all about it, and about him, in Slate Magazine's article here .

Sturges was probably the most subversive and satirically adventurous director of his time, and time after time was able to slide amazingly subtle, but unmistakable, digs at a variety of cultural targets - including the film industry itself - past the dreaded Hays Office, the official government censors of the time.

I must admit that I've only seen four of the eight films from his most productive period, most recently The Lady Eve. Sometimes it can almost make me cry to see the high level of linguistic sophistication that was present in the best Hollywood films of the 30's and 40's.

So, Preston Sturges, scammed the Hays Office mightily, but most definitely not a scam for the viewer.

Why Scam World?

Why Scam World? Because, increasingly, everything is a scam. It's actually a rarity to find a person or business who'll just attempt to give you a fair deal anymore.

I won't only be writing about the various scams I find in my day-to-day life, but about other ways that we're being scammed.

The worst problem about the whole "culture of scamming," from Carl Rove to X-Box Live (or at least many of its members) is that the idea of cheating is becoming more and more accepted. It's almost as though it's not really cheating anymore, just a kind of accepted and expected behavior. Everybody spins, nobody lies. Everybody's playing Survivor, except the other participants haven't been informed and the island, or desert, or wherever, is a whole lot bigger.

As we go along I'll write about some specific scam-like behaviors and situations that piss me off, but today I'm just settting up the idea. I'll try not to be too curmudgeonly, geezerish, misanthropic, or to make too many lists like this one, ok?

So, welcome to Scam World, and I apologize in advance to and for my fellow humans.

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