I try to make a habit of giving out “tagged” email addresses to web sites when I sign up for accounts / mailing lists / whatever. For example, when creating an account at widgets.com, instead of just signing up as “jik@kamens.us”, I might sign up as “jik+widgets@kamens.us”. It ends up in the same mailbox regardless,… Read More »
Back when I was doing my week-long Shave a Redhead for Israel fundraiser, Google’s search index was taking an unusually long time to index the fundraiser page. This was a problem because I was publicizing the fundraiser and telling people they could find it easily by searching for “Shave a Redhead for Israel”, but they… Read More »
Dear AT&T, Some people don’t pay for their own cell phones. There’s a reason why account emails about my 12-year-old daughter’s cell phone go to me instead of her. Thanks for screwing that up! Sincerely, An unimpressed customer In reference to: Dear AT&T GoPhone® Customer: We want to alert you that future notifications regarding payments… Read More »
Today, I received a second letter from HSBC, claiming once again that they sent me a Statement Available Alert on January 13, despite my twice providing proof that they did not. They also claimed that they were not in violation of the Truth in Lending Act because the Act only requires them to make statements… Read More »
Recently, I wrote about BNY Mellon’s inept handling of 2010 1099-OIDs for Israel bonds, my relief that the State of Israel had decided to replace BNY Mellon with Computershare as the fiscal agent for Israel Bonds purchased in the U.S., and my hope that Computershare would be better than BNY Mellon. Less than 12 hours… Read More »
I’m not going to bother to reprint the response I received from HSBC to my recent complaint. Instead, I will reproduce the response I just sent them: February 26, 2010 [name elided] Executive Liaison Office of the President HSBC Card and Retail Services P.O. Box 80026 Salinas, CA 93912 Dear Ms. [name elided], I have… Read More »
My wife and I own a number of Israeli Bonds purchased over the course of many years (typically after annual High Holiday appeals). Many of these bonds are Original Issue Discount (OID) bonds. Dispensing with all the technical details, the general idea of an OID bond is that you get a 1099-OID statement every year… Read More »
My wife and I have a Jordan’s Furniture charge account issued by HSBC NV, a somewhat shady subsidiary of HSBC with a history of predatory lending and suspicious practices. They issue “private label” charge accounts for Jordan’s and many other retailers. We have a balance on the account under one of their frequent “buy now,… Read More »
I recently sent Citizens Bank, the issuer of our primary credit card, a letter disputing a charge on the card. Being eminently familiar with the rules surrounding such disputes, I included in my letter all of the required information. A week or so later, I got back this letter:
I wrote last week about Lands’ End’s poor handling of a return under their “Guaranteed. Period.” policy. Here’s their response, which I received a few days ago: