another consumer ripoff

I have Parkinson's disease and one of the few things I can do and enjoy doing is webcasting. Now the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has imposed unrealistic fees, 140% increase, that will drive me out of webcasting.. If it were not for webcasters, you, members of the CRB, would not be in existence. Artists would not have the CD sales they enjoy today to worry about royalties. The CRB saw a good thing and became nothing more than parasites. Then again someone has to rip off the consumer. So once again, CRB members, thank you for making it impossible for me to continue webcasting!

Bank of America - I am a little confused

A true story with some text below taken from e-mails from Bank of America

I just finished reviewing the e-mail (2nd) sent by Bank of America concerning the payment or nonpayment of an item submitted to the bank. I am still somewhat fuzzy on which policy is in effect at any given time. It must be that on even days you pay an item (post date 03-06-07) even if there is insufficient funds. On odd days you returned an item (post date 10-17-06) for insufficient funds.

There is another policy concern that I would like to have clarified. In your e-mail addressed to me dated 03-13-07, you stated that, "although we are not obligated to pay an item presented if a your account does not have sufficient funds, we may pay it as a courtesy". Is there anything a customer of Bank of America can do to receive such courtesy or non-courtesy consistently. I'm asking this question because both items posted were from the same individual, one returned and the other not. Maybe I didn't use the right check color on the day the one was returned.

Pardon me for being so confused, but if you would have used the same policy on 03-13-07 as you did on 10-17-07 I would not have multiple overdraft charges as I do now because of other items coming in before I could make a deposit.

In an e-mail dated 03-12-07 you stated that items are processed as follows, "ATM withdrawals, automatic payments, check card purchases and personal checks from highest to lowest dollar amount". That one day I could have an ATM withdrawal post first and tomorrow I could have a check card purchase post first depending on the dollar amount?

Thank you,
your courtesy driven customer.

All quotes made are documented by hard copy e-mails. If you have had similar experiences with Bank of America I would like to hear from you. My e-mail address is support@webspaceusa.net
or leave a reply/comment on this blog post.

I guess I missed something

Someone once told me that an opinion can't be wrong, so here is mine.

When my wife told me that "The Departed" was nominated for a slew of Oscars, I sarcastically said, "sure". We left it at that. Now comes the Academy Awards night. "The Departed" won the following:

Best Achievement in Editing
Best Achievement in Directing
Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay
Best Motion Picture of the Year

I said "wow" isn't that something. Now I can tell my daughter all she has to do is learn to swear "real good", and you can make millions of dollars and receive an award as well.

The following are comments by the critics:

Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon... Martin Scorsese's blistering thriller goes beyond the A-list.

The Departed is Scorsese's most purely enjoyable movie in years.

Scorsese's sharpest film in a decade and the most entertaining major studio release this year.

Strong dialogue, intrigue and great music. Top notch acting, crisp direction and editing. Unfortunately, a contrived love triangle & climax greatly compromise the integrity.

Only a cinematic master like Martin Scorsese can take a complex character-driven drama and turn it into a grandiose masterpiece.

Enjoyable movie. Grandiose masterpiece. I like Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon. I saw the movie but I must have missed something. Call me a prude, but in my opinion, and remember opinions can't be wrong, this movie should have been in the trashcan. I could have left the movie theater instead of sitting through more than 2 hours of vulgarity, but didn't. Hell, oops, I paid seven dollars to see the movie and beside I wasn't finished with my popcorn yet. I was told, "that's the way life is today, it's realism". I said, "isn't that true".

I'm not ticked I'm a lot ticked

I'm not just ticked off I'm a lot ticked off. Politics is politics nothing new. The corruption that has surfaced from both parties is unnerving. I'm not talking about the Dick Cheney thing, but everything that has been going on in DC lately. The lack of support for our border guards, no immigration policy, the North American Union.

I have said for years that this country is headed for a revolution. I used to think that it was far off, but now I'm not too sure about that. It could be within the next 10 to 20 years if things don't get turned around. Question I have is where are we going to find the honest politician to help us do that?

I believe God has given America a special role in making up the future of mankind. Lately we have not done a very good job. Abortions are still being used as a means of birth control, our youth have little respect for their parents let alone other people's property, they are having sex at such a young age it boggles your mind. Look at the Internet, no you better not because you may see something you don't want to see.

If we don't wake-up and start shaking those that are still asleep, God is going to turn his wrath on us, or has he already. Khrushchev said during a Russian news conference that America will not be destroyed from outside forces, but rather from inside forces. How true that may be.

Hewlett-Packard's Telephone Support Center

While I was sitting in front of my laptop trying to decide what my first ever blog post would be I just happened to have been on the phone with Hewlett-Packard's telephone support center. The reason I was on the phone was my eighth attempt to get information as to why my new laptop of only seven months old was delayed being delivered. If you have never dealt with Hewlett-Packard's phone support center you are in for a treat. Not only do you have to deal with an Indian accent but also reading from scripts. After being on the phone for more than two hours, and I'm not kidding about that, I got no resolution. So here I am after two weeks and no laptop. Hewlett-Packard has a webpage where you can enter a service order number and allegedly get information about your item being repaired. The only problem is that the information was never updated. It's the same today as it was two weeks ago.

So what am I going to do about it. Well I created this blog site so anyone reading my post will get a heads-up on dealing with Hewlett-Packard's phone support center. I am going to let Hewlett-Packard know that I do not intend to purchase another Hewlett-Packard laptop. I also intend to put my Hewlett-Packard printers on eBay for sale and purchase Lexmark printers.

The sad part about all this is that I purchased a $275 two year unconditional extended warranty. Now that ticks me off!