Target + Credit = Screwed!

Ok,

Yes I'm back and I am more frustrated then I have ever been. I will be doing a series of posts coming up, but I wanted to talk about one that has hit home.

With the current Wall street screw up and investors freaking out over something they "knew" was going to happen, they (wall street and creditors) have decided to cut there losses and make sure they pass the buck on the card holders before they go. Don't believe me...ok...

My wife has a Target REDcard which is a Visa so who are we kidding. Any who she decided to check her card before she went out of town to make sure the payment was received and check her limit. What she found sent here into a two hour phone conversation with Target REDcard support...but more on that in a bit. So my wife noticed that the available credit had dropped 800 dollars...yes 800 dollars. They dropped the available credit 10 dollars above what we owe on the card. I'll give you a minute to compose yourself...ok....not yet...ok.

WHAT THE HELL! Listen I have been fighting with the credit card companies for the past 10 years from bogus charges to identity theft so usually nothing surprises me. Heck I even understand in this economy that one really has to have some sort of debt to get credit. I know that sounds crazy, but when banks or loan officers run your credit they are looking at your credit to debt ratio. Here's what kills me, we pay our cards on time and waaaayyy over the payment options and yet they do this. No word, no warning, no phone call, no email...NOTHING! This was down right criminal in my personal and dare I say professional opinion. Sadly it is legal, it shouldn't be but it is. It is a way for the credit industry to save their asses.

But wait there's more, so my lovely petit wife calls the card company to attempt to fix what she thought was an innocent mistake. What she was met with was rudeness and false apologies and shuffled from one person to another for over an hour. Here's what she wanted, she wanted to speak with the office or person in charge that can change her credit limit back to what it was. That's all. She was then told EVENTULLY that the offices she called does not deal with the credit limit. So she asked to be transferred to the person who she needed to speak with. She was then told, quote: "That office does not receive phone calls from card holder, nor can I transfer you to those offices because they do not speak with the people directly." I am not kidding.

So a recap: we have done nothing wrong, we pay our bills on time, our credit is now being changed without word or warning, and the people who change the credit limit do not speak to the card holders nor is there a way to talk with them directly. What the hell happened to speaking with people to resolve issues? I know their is a credit crunch but this company just went and cut prices on everyone. I suggest you all look at your credit cards and their available credit because if it has not changed it will...and very soon.

Well since we are fighters we are going to fight this. Sadly we probably won't get that far. We are not using the card anymore, nor are we shopping at Target from here on out. It isn't so much the credit, but the blatant abuse my wife had to take over the phone. She was treated like a degenerate even though our history with them is clear. I seriously do not think the answer to this credit crisis is to alienate the card holders, and or force them on to another card carrier. Simple because when we come out of this mess (and we will you Armageddon fanatics) Target REDcard will find itself truly in the RED.

I invite any Target representative to contact me, but I doubt they will since there is so little time in the day and soooo many more people to screw over.

(Since we all don't have money anyway I suggest you also boycott Target...that's just me)

-The Voice-

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Ok....

First The GOOD, and this is sadly not a frustration at all, but if you are seriously into up and coming musicians that can actually SING then you need to check out http://www.crystaljeffers.com/ . This girl will blow you away, I got to see her in concert at a unknown wine shop, and man not only is she gorgeous but amazingly talented. Her site is new so she is always looking for support by linking her site out or just saying hello. I just saw that she now has some music on her page to listen too. It's these little things that keep me from punching babies due to pure frustration.

Speaking of punching babies let's talk about THE BAD. Simple frustration is the, "Why are there no real fixes to our Nations problems?" I mean in a election year one would think that we are going to have someone people stand up and start giving some answers to the F-up'd issues we have nationwide. I know that some candidates are giving lip service to our issues, but no real facts have been given to the American people as too how we are going to fix the War, Poverty, Job Loss, Recession, Home Lone's, Environment, etc. I am looking toward Obama right now since he maybe offering vague answers to these problems, but he is the only one that is addressing the fact that the damn is broken and before we can build a new damn we need to stop the leaking from the old one before everything is washed away. Plainly put he is the only one that is standing up and saying we need to fix what we have before we can move forward.


On that same note, THE UGLY, "How dumb can people really be?" I know we all want to participate within the current dialogue dealing with the candidates for president. I know we all have some of our own views on the the election, but why are we listening to email forwards from people we don't even know, and even worse from people who believe what they read in a EMAIL FORWARD. I have received emails telling me that Obama is Muslim, that Hillary is a racist, that McCain is funded by evil special interest groups the list goes on. I receive emails from anonymous people that I delete immediately...WHY? BECAUSE ITS A FORWARD FROM SOMEONE I DON'T KNOW. I really never read forwards, since they flood my email, and since most people are to lazy to write me themselves.

Another reason is well, most forwards or anonymous emails are false and are fishing for information about you. Do you really believe in a forward that Hilliary is racist or Obama is Muslim when in the same "inbox" you receive notices that you won a million dollars, that if you send a particular email to 10 or 20 of your friends Bill Gates will send you $100, or that your log in and password was lost at a bank you never heard of and you need to resubmit your information...really....I mean really really?

Don't be an idiot, don't forward crap to your co-workers, friends, or family saying, "Check this out OMG" when in fact if they read it and realize that you can be that much of a chode for sending /believing such nonsenses that they question wanting to know you...do you really want that? I hope not, let me tell you my frustration comes from people like this, that read political information in a forwarded email and then go vote!

Thanks for believing the crap in your inbox, by the way if you want to send me your personal information I will make sure all your dreams come true. Just include your bank account, full name, and social security number and I will double the money you send me in only 1 hour, that's right 1 hour. How can you lose...schmuck!

The Voice

What the Hell

Ok...
Today's Frustration is, "Why do we need to destroy a man to feel safe?"

This one hit home with me since I am an avid comic book collector. I heard the below story on NPR and looked up more information on Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF). I am attaching the column I wrote for Komikazee.com. Either way it really FRUSTRATES ME!

I am a NPR junky. I listen to NPR on the way to work, while I am at work, and I download specific broadcasts on my Ipod. So I was rather shocked to hear a comic book related story on NPR, much less one as silly as this. My humor quickly went to frustration on the matter of Gordon Lee facing a prison term for an obvious mistake. A brief overview of what has occurred, you can find the below article over at our friendly Comic Book Legal Defense Fund website.

Source: CBLDF Website

"During Halloween week 2004, Gordon Lee’s comic shop, Legends, of Rome, GA, participated in a trick-or-treat event in downtown Rome by distributing free comics. "Alternative Comics #2," the Free Comic Book Day edition from publisher Alternative Comics for 2004, was inadvertently included in the mix of books being given away. The comic was a single copy among thousands of comics being given away that day, and was accidentally handed to a minor, whose parent filed a complaint with the police. The comic book features a variety of stories from the company's line, including an excerpt from Nick Bertozzi's now published graphic novel The Salon, depicting the first meeting between Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. On three pages of the eight page section, Picasso is depicted in the nude, a factually accurate detail for the period during which the story is set. There is no sexual content in the story.
Upon learning of the error in distributing the comic, Lee admitted that a mistake was made and offered to make a public apology for the first of many times. That apology was rejected, however, so days later, Lee was arrested."

So has anyone else been to a free comic book day? Remember how the comic shop sets up the free comics for people to pick up and it gets kinda nuts to get free comics. But lets move to the other point, Mr. Lee actually opened his store on Halloween to invite the community in and receive free comics as a treat. Did Mr. Lee make a mistake? Sure he did and he was willing to make a public apology for it, but in these times for a man to admit he was wrong is just not enough. The article goes on to say:

"At arraignment in Spring 2005, Gordon Lee was charged with violating two laws: 1) Two counts of distributing material depicting nudity or sexual content, a felony; and 2) Five counts of unlawful disposition of materials to minors, a misdemeanor. The felony counts alleged that Lee had distributed the comic to the named victim and to a “John Doe.” Three of the misdemeanor counts were for distributing the single comic to the named victim, with the other two counts alleging that the comic was distributed to “John Does.”
"In May 2005 the Fund submitted four motions to dismiss the counts Lee faced. The Fund’s legal team, led by Atlanta lawyer Alan Begner, and coordinated with Cory Begner and Rome criminal expert Paul Cadle, challenged the constitutionality of both the felony and misdemeanors laws, as well as the standing of the John Doe charges. A hearing on those motions was held on December 1, 2005 during which, likely in response to Fund motions, the prosecution dismissed both felony counts and both “John Doe” counts. On January 2, 2006, Judge Salmon dismissed the felony and “John Doe” misdemeanor counts with prejudice, and consolidated the remaining misdemeanor counts from three to two."

So does this mean it is over, gosh no Mr. Lee was Re-Charged

"On April 2, 2006, the eve of trial, prosecutors contacted Mr. Lee’s counsel to notify them that they intended to dismiss the charges against Lee because, after 18 months, and numerous court appearances, they discovered that they had the wrong victim.
The morning of April 3, prosecutors walked into court and stated their intention to declare the case nolle prosse, meaning that the charges that were to go to trial were dismissed. They later re-filed under a new accusation alleging that Lee handed “Alternative Comics #2” to a six-year-old minor and his nine-year-old brother, instead of solely to the nine-year-old, as had been previously, and repeatedly, declared.
Though the dismissal was a victory in the near term, because it served as an admission that Lee was not guilty of the crimes for which he was accused in October of 2004, it raised abundant questions about how prosecutors arrived at this point." ead counsel Alan Begner said, “I have never -- as a criminal trial lawyer for thirty years -- seen a complete changing of the facts like this.
Throughout the year and a half before that trial date, through written statements, the investigation, and the presentation of evidence before the grand jury, as well as the written accusation and indictment, the State had steadfastly asserted that the comic book had been handed to the nine-year-old. The dismissal of the charges today reflects the prosecution’s admission that everything that was presented as evidence before was untrue, and that they had stuck to the false facts through procedure after procedure in the case. How did a year and a half of statements based on one set of facts get changed at the last minute to another set of facts?”

Go to the link and take a gander at the section "Going through the Motions" to continue the mind-numbingness. In a nut shell, Mr. Lee is now finally facing another trial to hopefully end this exercise in madness. For the past two years this man's livelihood and freedom has hung in the balance because he made a mistake and tried, several times, to apologize for it. If it was not for the CBLDF Mr. Lee would have had to pay an excess of 80,000 dollars in legal fees, and/or admitted a crime that the prosecution as already stated he did not commit. Now if my child had received a comic with these images I may have been upset that my underage kid had it, and confronted Mr. Lee with my concerns. But after hearing his side and then accepting his apology I am pretty sure I would have been done with this issue. I know the verdict is still out on this guy, but if there was a true malicious intent would not other underage children receive the same comic. Mr. Lee isn't a sexual predator, nor a menace towards the moral judgment of parents. If this case is found in the favor of the prosecution everyone should also question how this may cause new restrictions on the comic book industry.

Sadly yours,
The Voice :(

The Costumer is Always Wrong

Hello my fellow web surfers, apparently I am a lier and will be posting when every I get the chance. I thought I would be able to post every Thursday, but as it turns out my life is not set to a regular schedule yet.

So for today's rant, "What the hell happened to costumer service?

(side note: I am talking about all areas where I shop, eat, or purchase some sort of goods)

This rant comes from being treated like a nuisance or distraction from some person(s) having to serve or wait on me. Time and time again I see this when I am out. The sales person or waitress either:

A.) Takes forever to handle the costumer

B.) Looks/Sounds iterated when listening or responding to the costumer

C.) Messes up the order or sales

D.) All of the above.

I am really not that old, but seriously in the past five to seven years there has been a HUGE drop in how people are treated in places of business. When I was a kid I remember being waited on in a polite and timely manner, or when I was working in food service (fast food) I was held responsible for my cleanliness, politeness, and work efficiency. WHAT HAPPENED!! I have said it before that there is a massive increase of people that seem to have the "You owe me" attitude.

These places forget that I am doing business with them and my money is the reason they want me there. In the past I would leave a place of business and go to their competitor. But the tables have turned on me now since no matter where I go I get really crappy service. I am a man of examples:

"Some time back my wife and I decided we would like a taquitos from Whataburger where we live. We each just wanted one and decided to go through the drive through. We ordered our two taquitos and were then squeezed in by a car behind us blocking all escape routes if the need arise. There were two vehicles in front of us, and we proceeded to wait 57 minutes in a drive through for our food. We could not leave or else I would have driven off at the 25 minute mark. Did the person working the window ask the two vehicles to pull to the side? Nope. Did the person working the window think that they could possible just bring us our order? Nope. By the time we got to the window I was so frustrated and angry that it took nearly an hour of waiting for two taquitos that I didn't want them. The girl at the window didn't apologize for the wait, nor did she even acknowledge our wait, but did have an attitude that my wife didn't have the money ready when we got to the window. Mind you we had to go through the process of starting our car and whatnot after our wait."

This was supposed to be "fast food." I do see this everywhere from shopping malls to eateries. I dread going out to places of business. Seriously, in my town there is only a limited number of place to go, so I know before I leave the house that I have to cike myself up for crappy service. Tipping doesn't even matter anymore in most circumstances. I tip because I know that in food service the waiter(s) makes less and thus relies on tip, but it is not mandatory to do so. I tip on the premise of what the tax was on my bill, and WHAT THE SERVICE WAS LIKE.

Here's what I do, I walk into a restaurant and have set in my mind I will be tipping the person waiting on me 8 dollars, which is a lot depending on the bill. Every time I am rude to, or ignored, or die from dehydration (no refill) I take a dollar away. I have let places with out leaving a tip, not because I forgot but because they person waiting on me forgot why he/she was there; To serve the customer.

I would love to hear your stories and how you handle bad costumer relations. Or why you think this is happening in the first place.

-voice-