Category Archives: Consumer activism

Buyer beware: DiscountFilters.com

DiscountFilters.com lies about the quality of their filters, refuses to honor their warranty, has fake reviews posted on their web site, doesn’t let customers post real reviews, ignores customer service tickets, ignores TrustPilot reviews, ignores Better Business Bureau complaints. On top of all that, at least some of the filters they sell can be purchased elsewhere cheaper.

Today’s episode of health insurance companies are bad and they should feel bad

About my struggle to get good therapy for a family member paid for by health insurance, with delays and difficulties caused by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts in particular and the business model of health insurance in general. This highlights the challenges many families face in accessing timely and affordable therapy.

Ups and downs of patronizing Sullivan Tire in Watertown MA

They do good work, but they often put you through a significant amount of turbulence along the way.

Bad healthcare tech of the day: Boston Children’s Hospital patient portal

The user experience for registering for the portal and checking in for appointments is riddled with problems. We deserve better.

What the hell happened to ZAGG?

ZAGG used to be good, is now bad. You probably should stop buying their screen protectors and cases. Do you have a brand you like?

Any advice on dealing with a bogus trademark infringement claim sent to Google?

Someone told Google that my “LInkedIn Jobs Filterer” Chrome extension violates LinkedIn’s trademark. It doesn’t. What can I do about it, when I can’t afford to pay lawyers to defend a free, open-source extension?

Letter: COVID misinformation from Science Friday

Misinformation and omissions in Science Friday’s COVID coverage endanger people’s health. The program should devote a lot more time to interviewing the experts who have been sounding the alarm about COVID than they do to the “experts” who have been downplaying the pandemic and denying scientific realities.

Why is PayPal still so incredibly awful?

Even if you jump through all of PayPal’s hoops and give them all the information they ask for when creating an account, they may still decide to arbitrarily lock you out of your account and never restore your access.

The major credit reporting agencies are all still dumpster fires

I tried to dispute incorrect information. The process didn’t fully work at any of the agencies. I was eventually able to dispute all of the incorrect information at one, but I was unable to dispute some or all at two others and eventually gave up. The credit reporting agencies are terrible.