Turn the Tables on those pesky telemarketers

No matter what you will get some of those telemarking calls even if you ar eon the do not call list. If you own a business they are exempt from the do not call list. So many of these companies use auto dialers and such. In fact there are times when they will call and nobody is on the other end. This might be a way their system will test if there is anyone at your number. I google every one of these numbers from the caller ID. I have found all sorts of scammers and some info about each since there are websites that log these calls. You can find all sorts of good info on the guys calling you. Of course you can always let an answering machine screen all of your calls. These people always have urgent info for you.

Gift Cards Are they really worth it?

The gift card industry has really exploded in the past 10 years. Many years ago these were called gift caertiifcates and were often a piece of paper for use at a store or in many cases a local small business merchant. recently The Sharper Image filed chapter 11 bankruptcy and all their gift cards are now creditors. Initially the holders of the Sharper images cards would not get anything, however the stores will now accept them if the customer at least doubles their purchase. This means effectively that they don’t lose anything on the sale as all of their items have at least a double markup from the wholesale cost. Linens and Things is also in Chpt 11. They will accept gift cards, however I suggest using them quickly in case they chnage the policy or start closing stores.

This is only one single reason why gift cards may not be the way to go. In general the problem is the gift card can only be used at a certain merchant. Many gift cards are also not used. Recently businessweek reporte that Bestbuy has 500 million in gift cards sold, yet not redeemed. Sometimes you lose them or forget to use them. I have found some cards that I had which were unused. Home Depot has at least 100 million in unredeemed cards. Retailers love to sell them because I think as an industry average 10% of the cards never get used, plus customers tend to buy more than the value of the card they get. So they get a customer iin the store to use the card, and end up getting an extra sale. Some of the Visa gift cards have all sorts of attached fees. There is a really great blog that talks alot about gift cards. http://www.savvywallet.com/

No More Expensive Razor Blades

The popular razors for men and even women use blades that can run as much as $20.00 a package or more. In fact many drugstores and supermarkets put the blades under lock and key due to theft. Many of the stolen blades can end up at a flea market or EBay. Gillette has 4 blades on the Fusion razor. It works great but costs a fortune. I got a few of these razors and others FREE after rebate. After you use the blades that come with them, Gillette makes their money on the hugely profitable blades. The old saying is give away the razor but sell them the blades. The same thing on many of those chesp injet printers. The low cost is offset by the huge costs of the ink cartridges.

 According to an engineer who called the Clark Howard National radio show the blades can be used up to a year or more. He claimed that water on the blades causes them to detoriate and appear dull. He stated if you blow dry the water off the razor after each use, the same blade might work for a year or more! Now a product Razor pro that is a little holder that will automatically dry the blades for you. Personally I think the drying of the blades will work as it seems to make sense and work for me. I have not purchased the razor pro, but I think I might. Try this and see if it works for you. Clark has been using a .17 cent disposable razor that he uses for a minimum of 6 months. I get so many of the expensive razors for free on promo deals.

Frequent Flier Miles- Don’t Save Them for long!

In a previous blog post (shown below) I wrote about spending your frequent flier miles due to devaluation and other issues. Now airlines are in a much worse financial shape than ever due to record high fuel costs. Many airlines are reducing the number of flights they have which also affects how many award seats are available. Domestic awards are now more scare or may show up as a larger cost per ticket using the miles. It still makes sense to burn through the miles for upgrades and future trips. It makes great sense to use many of the international partners.  Flying in general is becoming more expensive, yet I still found some deals using my miles over buyign the same ticket. You make find that the $250.00 airfare may now be $400.00 or more but the airline will only charge you the same 25K miles for that ticket. In this case you have a higher value use to spend the miles for the trip. If fuel continues to remail ast these high levels it may have severe consequences to the industry.

The airlines are continuing to devalue the airline frequent flier points. Basically they are doing anything possible to clear them off the books. Recently I checked a plane which was mostly empty on US Airways. they wanted 100,000 miles for a domestic first class ticket. This should be about 50K miles. Many domestic coach tickets that you think will be 25,000 miles can be shown by the airlines at 50,000. The idea is to clean you out. Since the wards chan. ge so frequently I suggest not holding a million miles and cleaning/using them ASAP. Use them on partner airlines on expensive overseas tickets and domestic or international upgrades. Don’t use 50,000 miles for a domestic ticket. Airline miles are like $100.00 in your wallet today but I tell you in 6 months you have $50.00. It has become that tough. Airlines are very stingly in the tickets they offer. Especially on weekend type leisure flights.

Scripted Robotic Customer Service Reps-We value your business

I hear the following on a regular basis: “We value your business”. This is the robotic words from the customer service rep. Usually they tell me that they aren’t going to correct the issue I called about, however they keep repeating how they value my business. This is whether the customer service rep is based in the US or offshore. These reps are merely robots. Ask for a supervisor and you sometimes have to say the same thing 3-4 times. Why?, because the reps are told not to (most likely). Recently on one call I threw the rep a curve ball. Every time she said how the company valued my business I told her not to be funny. I did resolve all issues but not dealing with the rep. Many of the reps have no ability other than to try and read from a computer screen script. Since they are robotic they have little ability to understand or solve issues. I did come across a very good rep from Bank of America this week and was really surprised. I think they are trying hard to personalize service.

I mentioned on an earlier post about the value of formal complaints. The big companies hate formal complaints with the Better Business Bureau. You can file these complaints online. Often a management person will call and tell you how valued you are as a customer and how the reps should have resolved your problem. This is nonsense. The only reason they resolve the problem is due to the fact you file complaints. Always look to your local state governments for ways to file complaints as well.
Many utilities, cable companies etc are regulated by local governments and may be careful about too many formal complaints.

Right now credit card companies are under some government scrutiny, so they may be more proactive in settling disputes. I don’t call my credit card companies often, however when I have a question or issue I prefer to deal with US based reps. Many companies are sending calls to the Philippines these days. Americans have been complaining about accents of Indian reps based offshore. Calling during business hours sometimes can mean your call with be handled inside the US. Of course this is no guarantee of good service though.

Hanging up on An Automated Phone Call

Lately various companies have been using a new kind of automated phone call. Credit card companies,cable companies and many others are using software to call customers. You answer the phone and then they tell you to stay on hold. It is unbelieveable to me that these companies think they can call you and have you wait for them to pick up the call. I hang up on these calls immediately. If enough people refuse to wait on hold for somebody calling them, they will staop this practice. Most consumers hang up on those automated solicitation calls and these are little different. If any company I do business calls me I will talk to them. If they use a recoding and put me on hold I hang up!

Dollar Rent a Car is Dirt Cheap!

I have found Dollar rent a car to be super cheap in my travels. I go directly to their website www.dollar.com and look for local city specials. Chose your car and you will be set. Drivers must be over 25. I see them as strictly no frills. The service I have received is good but I think this may vary also. I had some issues with the “top tier” rental companies like Avis and Hertz, so I find it better to shop by rate and save as much as possible for the high price of gas these days.

New Airline Charges-Baggage and More

The airlines are getting hit hard with fuel costs.

United Airlines,US Airways, American and others have started to charge a $25.00 fee to check more than one bag. The airlines can’t raise the cost of the fare, so they are trying this. If the bag is more than 50 lbs the costs can go up much higher to as high as $100.00 a bag or more. Soon they might weigh customers and charge surcharges over a certain weight. (only kidding) If you are a status level frequent flyer the $25.00 bag charges will be waived. I don’t know if they will be waived on other passengers under the same ticketing though.

The real test is to see if every airline will institute these fees. The airlines got nailed in the 1970’s for price fixing so now they float a price increase or this baggage increase and hope other airlines chare the fees as well. Now people are going to carry alot more junk on the planes. The bins on the planes are very inadequete and were mostly designed many years ago when people did not carry much baggage onto a plane. Clark Howard always mentions how he travels with a carry on only and doesn’t want to deal with airline baggage delays or lost/damaged bags. Also many airlines have surcharges on bags over 50 lbs. Personally I need to lighten up on every time I fly. I carry way to much junk. My electronic junk really adds up with plugs,wires, laptop, ipod etc. US Air is charging extra for seats in the front of the plane, aisle seats etc. This will continue as airlines cannot make any money so everything will be extra. At some point they might even try to charge for every bag you check. Some super low cost airlines like Spirit air do this.

Hotel Resort Fees the Ripoffs Continue

In an earlier post I wrote about the outrageous “resort fees that hotels levy on their guests. Last week 20/20 did a story on this where the reporter checked into a $450.00 resort in Arizona. when he complained about the charge the front desk cleark like a robot told him how it was a mandatory charge , blah,blah blah. I get the feeeling that this comes up on a daily basis at many of these places. One hotel agreed to take off the charges but most stand firm. They don’t care whether you use “the amentities” or not. Many hotels are charging for parking. Even hotels outside major cities are trying to charge for parking. I suggest everyone to complain about these fees anyway. At some point they will get the message that customers are unhappy. To pay $450.00 and get a resort fee of $25.00 is totally ridiculous. Soetimes I am suprised to see lower priced hotels offer the little things that the expensive hotels try to capitalize on.

ATM Fees and Bank Fees Rising through the Roof!

A few months ago Bank of America raised the ATM fee for non -customers to $3.00 per transaction. Prior to that the fee was generally $1.50-$2.00. Bank of America has one of the largest networks of ATMs with 19,000 nationwide. There are approximately 400,000 ATMS in the US. Now other banks are joining in with the higher ATM fees for non customers. This is on top of your own bank surchase for using an ATM from another bank. That could raise the fee to $5.00 or more. My suggestions are to use only your own bank ATM and consider a credit union or other bank that rebates ATM surcharges. Some of these credit unions will refund the $3.00 out of pocket ATM fees and not charge any additional fees. Usually they have a cap of $20.00 You can use your ATM/debit card at a grocery store and get cash back usually up to $100.00. Walgreens and other drug stores will let you get up to $50.00 or so approx. Now banks are raising NSF/bounce check fees. this is a huge moneymaker for banks. One bank executive quoted in the Wall St Journal this weekend said he is always looking for new revenue sources as he raised his NSF fee from $32.00 a check to $35.00 per check. The answer to this is have a checking account that has an overdraft feature from a savings account etc, and dont write any bad checks. My suggestion is to use a bank with a good online system and really use it to manage checks and bills without hand writing many checks. Quicken or Microsoft Money can also help you track investments/savings and checks. Don’t let these greedy banks get the best of you, or have you pay for their losses on bad mortgage loans.