Category Archives: Consumer activism

Citizens Bank: the bad house-guest who won’t leave

UPDATE: I was wrong. Yesterday, when I was digging through my pending paperwork pile looking for another document, I came upon a file folder containing the mortgage discharge paperwork, which Citizens Bank did, in fact, send me. I put that folder in the pile to remind me to take it to the registry of deeds, and… Read More »

My own small encounter with the evil that is Zynga

Much has been written about the fact that Zynga is evil. From my own experience, I’d like to add massively incompetent and law-breaking to the list of adjectives that accurately describe them. A number of days ago, I decided to give Words With Friends, a Scrabble™-like game, on my smart-phone. I was bored, and I wasn’t… Read More »

Fandango discriminates against imaginary Germans

November 26, 2014 Regal Entertainment Group 7132 Regal Lane Knoxville, Tennessee 37918 Fax: 1-865-922-3188 To whom it may concern: I’m writing to you to complain about Fandango, the vendor you’ve selected to exclusively handle on-line sales of Regal tickets. I have been forced to escalate my complaint to you because of Fandango’s completely inept handling… Read More »

“A message to my friends about Question 2, the Bottle Bill Update”

This is from my friend Phil Sego: Dear Friends, I’m asking my friends, neighbors, allies, and family to please vote YES on ballot question 2, update the bottle bill. If you care about litter, the environment, and saving money for our cities and towns, I urge you to join me in supporting this important ballot… Read More »

StoryPress: “Can we profit from your work product without compensating you?”

Much ado has been made recently about Lena Dunham’s intention to invite seven lesser known artists to warm up the crowds during her upcoming book tour, without actually paying them. More generally, it seems like there has been a growing backlash against the idea that it’s OK to offer artists “opportunities” for “exposure” without actually… Read More »

MBTA’s “Transit Diary” a failure before it has even begun

The MBTA is currently beta-testing a project & corresponding web application called “Transit Diary“. Its purpose is to collect data directly from riders about their experiences riding the T, presumably to help the T evaluate how well it is serving riders’ needs and where service-improvement efforts should be focused. Unfortunately, Transit Diary employs obsolete, inferior… Read More »