I want to give a loud shout-out to our favorite auto-body shop and service station, A-Z Auto Center in Brighton, MA. My wife and I have used them numerous times for many different services, including routine maintenance (e.g., oil and filter), auto-body work, repairing a broken automatic minivan door, and tire repair and replacement. In… Read More: We love A-Z Auto Center »
I got a call on my cell phone at about 2:20pm (US/Eastern) today whose caller ID claimed to be from 406-623-3644 and “Hardin, MT”. Here’s the transcript of the voicemail message that the caller left: Hey guys this is Sara Ellis here. Hey we spoke on the phone last week [lie!] about possibly trying to… Read More: Phone phishing scam of the day »
Executive summary: Carolina Furniture Works ships damaged furniture as new and apparently thinks this is not something they need to apologize for. In addition to shipping damaged furniture, their workmanship is poor. Their claim that their furniture is “rigidly inspected” before shipment is a joke. If you care about the new furniture you buy looking… Read More: Carolina Furniture Works ships broken dresser as new »
I’m in the process of having solar panels installed on my roof. One of my friends is considering doing the same and asked me to share what I’ve learned so far. I figured I’d post it here since it may be useful or of interest to others as well. If you have any questions about… Read More: Solar panel brain-dump »
I sent a detailed complaint letter to the New Jersey Attorney General’s office about a company doing business in their state which, it seems clear, is knowingly committing fraud against consumers on an ongoing basis. My letter contained all of the information that the AG’s office could possibly need to investigate the company in question.… Read More: NJ govt: Our job is to enforce red tape, not… »
We were recently in the market for a new dresser for our daughter. After a great deal of research, we settled upon a particular Carolina Cottage dresser. Since we knew exactly which dresser we wanted, we decide to buy it on-line, which wouldn’t cost any more than a brick-and-mortar store, since we’d have to have… Read More: UnbeatableSale.com: scam artists extraordinaire »
Executive summary: Tony Mitchell threatened to sue me for exposing his company’s slimy telemarketing practices on my blog. I had to pay a lawyer to defend myself against his threats. See below for his letter and the one my lawyer sent in response. If you hate slimy telemarketers and opponents of free speech as much… Read More: Tony Mitchell threatens to sue me over my blog postings »
My wife and I recently closed our Citizens Bank checking account and home equity line of credit (HELOC) and opened new ones at Century Bank. We decided to do this after many unsatisfactory interactions with Citizens. We’ve learned a lot about Century in the short time we’ve been doing business with them. I wanted to… Read More: Century Bank scorecard »
Those of you who have been reading the ongoing saga of my dissatisfaction with Citizens Bank will no doubt be pleased to hear that it is nearly at an end. Last week, my wife and I transferred our home equity line to Century Bank and opened a checking account there, and we applied for a… Read More: More Citizens Bank shenanigans »
Long-time followers of my advocacy may recall my story from years ago of attempting to get the Social Security Administration (SSA) to deal with the fact that they sent several of my kids’ social security cards to the wrong address because the software they were using to canonicalize mailing addresses was buggy. Some sleuthing on… Read More: Semaphore Corporation continues to canonicalize addresses wrong and refuses to… »