Mo Money, Mo Money, Mo Money...

How about w take the last idea and make it even simpler...

At this point there is a little less than $400 Billion bailout money left out of the original $700 Billion. That is what is left after our government has given a lot of it to banks and large corporations. They have also committed a lot of it towards rescue plans for businesses down the road. Since in theory those are our tax dollars at "work", why not give the American people some of it.

227,719,424 U.S. Citizens 18+ (estimated)
-
2,188,226 U.S. Citizens 18+ in jail (estimated)
-
14,703,600 U.S. Citizens 18+ making more than $150,000 per year (estimated)
-
12,500,000 U.S. Citizens completely relying on the government/not paying taxes (estimated)
=
198,327,598
X
$2,000 each
=
$396,655,196,000

I'm sure most of us out there could use $2,000. It could even be set-up as a slogan: $1,000 to spend, $1,000 to save. That much money directly stimulating the economy and the banks might be the "shot in the arm" we need.

Hate to Say I Told You So...

But, I did!

And actually, I don't hate saying that at all! WAL-MART Sucks! Check out the latest news on one of our country's largest (corporate) disasters...

Look-up "Wal-Mart sues disabled ex-employee for $470,000".

My heart goes out to the woman and her family, but I am kind of glad they did this... anything that makes them look bad is okay with me. They do this shit all the time, just people aren't usually watching.

So, keep it up Wal-Mart... keep making a bigger ass out of yourself and then maybe the public will finally notice.

Whatever Happened to Customer Service?

Lately, I have seen a trend in the companies I deal with on a regular basis. It seems corporations are getting so big, that they have no need to extend any kind of customer service.

1. Take the truck we rented from U-haul recently. After the woman who rented us the truck agreed to one price over the phone and a certain pick-up time, she was an hour late with no real warning. After checking the truck over and taking it home we found that the truck had paintballs in the back that had been in the side-rails of the walls. These paintballs stained our mattress and made a mess. I called the woman who rented us the truck and she assured me that she would help us out and work something out for us. Not only did she not help us, but she overcharges us an additional $10. When my wife spoke to the area manager for the company he had the nerve to raise his voice to her over the phone. Well, they will never get our business again... and I intend to tell all my friends!

2. My wife has bought textbooks on Half.com for college/graduate school pretty reguarly over the last few years. Similarly, we have sold many books, movies, & cds on the site as well as selling things out of my Ebay store. Recently my wife spent $60+ on two books from Half.com, after several weeks of not receiving them we contacted the seller and complained. He did not feel inclined to respond so we sent a complaint through Half.com. After investigating they sided with him because he produced a delivery confirmation number & an insurance number. When we looked into this with the post office, they told us that yes the books were delivered... but the insurance was bogus. Now that Half.com has closed the matter, they have refused to talk to us about it anymore... and we are left with no way of getting our money back. Buyer beware... sounds like a scam to me.

3. Even my favorite company seems to be pulling a fast one as of late. We have been members of Netflix for almost 5 years, and I personally have reffered over 5 people who have at least stayed members for 6 months. In the past I have been able to get my new movie within 2-3 days at the most, usually 2 days. Over the last 6 months I have seen a dramatic slow-down in how quickly I receive the movies. Now it takes 4,5, or even 6 days just to get a movie... that is ridiculous. I complained to them and (of course) they blamed it on the postal service. Oddly enough sometimes they report a movie returned to me in the morning and then the new one doesn't even ship until the next day, late afternoon. That just doesn't seem right to me...

I know that corporations are a necessary evil in the modern world. But, doesn't it seem like the idea of customer service has gone out the window?