Finally Rall says something right. by Fremdfirma

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Finally Rall says something right.

POSTED BY: FREMDFIRMA
UPDATED: Saturday, March 28, 2009 05:18
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Saturday, March 28, 2009 3:45 AM

Took him long enough...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucru/20090326/cm_ucru/whywehatethem;_ylt=AigOp
aHDQZpvbpEbmNrz6Xu7e8UF;_ylu=X3oDMTE5dnVrbTByBHBvcwMzBHNlYwN5bi1tb3N0LXZpZXdlZARzbGsDd2h5d2VoYXRldGhl

WHY WE HATE THEM

Mistreated Customers Fuel Populist Rage

NEW YORK--"Populist anger in America is the anger of dispossession," writes Newsweek's Rick Perlstein. "The delinking of effort and reward has become all too manifest. That always makes Americans angry. We do not like to reward those who do not produce."

That's not it. This is about abused customers. After decades of insults, they can't believe they're being made to save companies that treat them like crap.

I'm a calm person. Yet my most recent bank statement featured three items that brought my blood to a fast boil. One was a $10 "income wire transfer fee." A newspaper that publishes this column paid for it by wiring the money to my account. The bank charged me ten bucks--for depositing money! Money that, by the way, they invest in what the banking industry calls "the overnight call float."

The same statement included a $3 fee for using an ATM that belongs to a different bank. Compared to my bank, loan sharks are sweethearts. If I take out $20 every day and pay three dollars each time, that's 15 percent interest a day--or 5,475 percent a year. Did I mention that the fee was a mistake? I never use ATMs at other banks. To straighten out this $3 fee, I'll have to waste my time explaining myself to someone at a call center in India, typing my account number into a keypad so I can repeat it by voice after waiting on hold.

Then there's what my bank calls AN IMPORTANT CHANGE CONCERNING THE PROCESSING OF YOUR CHECKS EFFECTIVE MARCH 20, 2009: "As checks you have written are presented to us for payment during the course of a business day," they explain, "we will place a hold on available funds in your account of those checks, resulting in a reduction in your available account balance throughout that day." This is Bankese for: "You will pay bounce fees even when you have enough money in your account for checks to clear."

I won't even mention the time they hit me with a $120 fine in a single month--twelve separate fees at $10 a pop--for being stupid enough to use the line of credit they once begged me to take.

I hate my bank. My bank is Citibank. Citibank sucks.

If Citibank wasn't an evil, customer-hating band of fee vultures, I might not be quite so annoyed at the fact that its parent company, Citigroup, had just received $20 billion in direct investment plus $306 billion in loan guarantees from the U.S. government (i.e. us), of which I am a subsidiary. That's $1,100 per American citizen, plus compound interest paid to Chinese investors who buy U.S. Treasury obligations. The fact that Citigroup "didn't produce" has nothing to do with it. I would rather set $1,100 on fire than hand it over to Citigroup.

Which brings us to the American International Group. As you know, AIG executives sparked populist anger by paying themselves $165 million in bonuses after accepting a government bailout. "Take away taxpayers' sense of ownership stake in an issue (especially, as with AIG, when taxpayers literally own the company) and their rage will not go away," says Perlstein. "It festers...And that's when the 'bad' kind of populism--the hateful kind; the violent kind; the demagogic kind--can flourish."

Wrong again. Americans' "ownership stake" in AIG isn't why they're in torches-and-pitchforks mode. Those bonuses only amount to 55 cents per person--no biggie. The Iraq War will cost us at least $10,000 each. The reason we're enraged is that AIG is an insurance company.

We hate insurance companies.

Health insurers are the worst. They repeatedly deny claims they know are legitimate because many sick patients will give up fighting and eat the expense. They arbitrarily decide that tests, procedures, and even life-saving operations are "optional." They literally murder their customers! Insurers even "make use of sophisticated data tools dubbed 'denial engines,' which are touted to reduce reimbursements by three to ten percent," says U.S. News & World Report. But homeowner insurance companies aren't better. State Farm's refusal to pay victims of hurricane Katrina because their policies covered wind but not flooding is typical. "They said, 'If a tornado came through and two days later the water came, it's all flood," remembers a Katrina victim in Louisiana.

They were lucky State Farm told them anything. Other storm survivors spent hours on hold, trying in vain to get through to companies that had happily collected their premiums for years.

Banks like Citibank and insurance companies like AIG may well be "too big to fail," as Obama's team at Treasury argues. So don't let them fail. Nationalize them instead. And send their current and former executives to Bagram.

Also writing for Newsweek, Robert J. Samuelson calls our contempt for corporate leeches "a dangerous mindset" that "justifies punitive taxes, widespread corporate mandates, selective subsidies and more meddling in companies' everyday operations." Gee, how terrible that would be, what with them doing so well without meddling from the guvmint.

I have a suggestion for Mr. Samuelson and the high-flying captains of industry he champions: If banks and insurance companies want taxpayers to save their steak-fattened butts, let them accept some changes that will make Americans like them better. For banks, no more fees on checking or savings accounts. Period. For credit card companies, reset all interest rates at one percent over prime. Give customers a full month to pay their bills. No more unilateral changes in rates. For insurance companies, the presumption should be that all claims are legitimate unless proven otherwise. If a doctor approves it, pay out without being asked twice.

Oh, and one more thing: Get rid of phone trees. Fire the half-a-world-away call centers. Ban voice recognition systems--"say yes or no--I'm sorry, I didn't get that." Hire actual people to answer the phone. Make them pick it up on the first ring and transfer calls to the proper department.

I'd pay $1,100 for that.

==============================
Disclaimer: I do not like Rall, he's one of Yahoo's token "liberal" columnists but he's quite unconvincing, coming off as a barely moderate conservative - and he seems too afraid of offending anyone to be of much interest, handing out free passes like candy to those he favors, while making vague and laughable excuses for those he doesn't even as he's supposedly bashing them.

Watching Ted Rall make political commentary is like watching Brit Hume on qualuudes covering the superbowl.

So while he does deliver an actual shot across the bow on a very rare occasion, the guy just don't hit hard enough to be in the ring imho.

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Saturday, March 28, 2009 3:57 AM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

I know that I can never "get even" with companies like these, so I've satisfied myself that while *I* can't ever get my money, time, or aggravation back, I *can* make sure that I cost them far more than they cost me. Put a brick through a window. Graffiti a building. Engage in wanton vandalism against these megaconglomerates. Call it an economic stimulus - after all, if they have to fix a window, they have to call someone local to do it, and they have to pay them, so you've created jobs!

Cost me a grand? I'm pretty sure I can cost you at least ten times that amount!

Better living through revenge!

I'll draw the line at burning down ShittiBank's HQ - but only because there might be innocent cleaning crews inside that could get hurt in the blaze.

By the way, I may or may not be serious about any of this. Your mileage may vary.

\m/

I'm something of a ne'er-do-well
even though that's something I could never do well...

The "On Fire" Economy -
The Dow closed at 10,587.60 on January 20, 2001, the day GW Bush took office. Eight years later, it closed below 8000 on the day he left office - a net loss of 25%. That's what conservatives call an economic "success".

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Saturday, March 28, 2009 4:02 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Ted Rall is a moron and a buffoon. Nothing he says is "right" , in any form of the word. He hates his bank? Dumb ass, then fire them! What a feakin' zombie.

"As much as I respect what he's doing, really the economy is something he should focus on more than the brackets. "
- Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, after Obama snubbed Duke in his Final Four picks.

The U.S. economy WAS on fire under Bush, for 6 years. Until the Democrats took control of Congress. It's been all down hill since then.

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Saturday, March 28, 2009 4:52 AM

FREMDFIRMA

To accomplish what, Rappy ?

When they're all on cahoots cause there's no REAL competition and the bastards have a lock on the ability to damn near write their own regulations (which we're chokin on the effluvia of now) and therefore anyone who *DID* offer competitive options would be blackballed if not prosecuted ?

To be fucked for 15.896% or fucked for 15.986% is a false choice, nothing more than the same shell game that the Democrats and Republicans have to offer, cause behind the pretty labels, it's all the same bullshit.

Oh and Mikey, there's more than one way to cost a company money in retaliation for being screwed, and many of em are indeed quite legal.

The crowning moment of awesome related to that actually belongs to my ex - the supplier for GM she once worked for paid her less than the janitor because she was female, even though she was running the warehouse and that entire supply line, and topped it off with a "get back in the kitchen" speech when she took issue with it...

So she jumped ship, and her experience and good rep in the business allow her to jump "up" every time, so it's not a big deal.

And there she is three years later, and in the final decision making process of which bidder gets a thoroughly lucrative contract to provide certain materials to the supply chain of the company she's now with, eight figure contracts, mind you...

And on paper the two top bidders are equal, save for one little detail - one of the bidders is her ex-company, and she KNOWS they're lying about the ability to deliver what they're promising cause her old job involved trying to make that happen despite them always promising shit they couldn't deliver.

And they send the reps to negotiate - and the one from her old company, being in fact the guy who GAVE her the "get back in the kitchen" speech sees who it is he has to try to convince...

And whimpers.
And leaves.

Said company went under for the lack of nabbing that contract too - now THAT is revenge, Mikey.

Now you know why I am still nice to her even though she's the ex, lol.

-Frem

It cannot be said enough, those who do not learn from history, are doomed to endlessly repeat it

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Saturday, March 28, 2009 5:18 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

I heard some guy whining because his bank charged him for massive penalties for bouncing a check.

Don't bounce a check in the first place. Have I done that too? Hell yeah, when I was young and irresponsible, and did stuff like write a check for a 6 pack of beer for like 75$. No, the beer didn't cost that much, but I ended up paying that much for a bounced check. You do stupid things when you're young, ( hopefully ) and you learn from them.

My point being, this dork was whining that THE BANK was the problem, when he was the cause of his own misery. It wasn't the banks fault. Same with Rall. Don't like your situation, then shop around. Find other means of handling your money. Credit Unions, or hell, take your $$ out of the bank completely and use a gorram mattress.

Just stop the WHINING!

"As much as I respect what he's doing, really the economy is something he should focus on more than the brackets. "
- Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, after Obama snubbed Duke in his Final Four picks.

The U.S. economy WAS on fire under Bush, for 6 years. Until the Democrats took control of Congress. It's been all down hill since then.

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