Talking Trash!

I don’t know what happens to our silverware.  Either the silverware keeps getting thrown out in the garbage, the garbage disposal is chewing them up, the kid is eating them with everything else in the house or a combination of all three.  We again have no teaspoons, about two tablespoons and about fifty butter knives.  While looking for a deal, I ran across a 40-piece set at Overstock.com for $65 for 18/10 silverware.

Now, 18/10 refers to the chromium/nickel content.  When nickel is added, the silverware is sturdier and keeps its luster longer.  There was one set left so I snatched it as quick as possible and got it.  Several weeks later since their shipping is so slow, we finally received the set.  The set was poorly packaged and lo and behold, they sent me 18/0 silverware, the cheaper stuff.

We called customer service and they said that someone else bought the last set and they sent something ‘comparable’ without asking us first.  The sets are not comparable and they were attempting to switch out a cheaper set at the  premium price.  They gave us the option of sending the set back for a full refund or giving a partial refund of $15.  I informed them that the set they sent goes for $42 on Amazon.com shipped and they owed us $23 refund to match that price.  They did not match Amazon’s price.

Overstock is a bunch of swindlers and I suggest that you do not waste your hard earned money on these money grubbing thieves.

I just read an article in the local paper about something called the “Slow Media Movement.”  The article was titled, “Analog people at odds with the digital world.”   The point of the story is there are reactionaries out there that are rebuffing the latest technology.   Someone doesn’t own a cell phone, Heaven forbid!  They don’t use Twitter, My God!  They aren’t even on Facebook, Mortal Sin!  Actually, that was just a surface observation.  Later, in the article, the people said they don’t hate the technology but just don’ t see a reason to overuse it.

Let’s get a little real, folks.  The people that are using these technologies to excess are the ones that are overreacting.  Just because communication has become easier and swifter doesn’t preclude the human need for peace, quiet, and enjoyable family or solo time.   My sister’s kids and their friends use the text messaging on their phones so much that the phones buzz off the table when we all try to play a board game.  When I look at their messages of ‘LOL’, ‘What up’, and ‘Im bored’, I could see that about 90 of these messages wouldn’t even make up a 10-minute phone call.

Also, let’s not have a short memory.  Cell phones for the masses have only been around since about 1999 and social networking has only been around since about 2005.  I’m not including BBS systems.  I’m only talking about the Web 2.0 stuff they refer to in the article.

I am one of these Slow Media people.  I put this blog up from scratch and I design websites and I’m a senior network administrator.  I certainly don’t hate technology.  I love it.  But you know what?  I love my down time even more.

Before I start my gripe session, let me just qualify by saying that this is partly our fault.  I implore everyone to get rid of debit cards AKA check cards.  Back in October 2009, all the banks were busy changing their policies to benefit themselves by applying enough fees to produce a death rattle in any average consumer.  The banks know that most of us are busy with work, family, school and not spending our time poring over the banks’ ever-changing policies.

What happened was that we have a check card.  Our ATM also doubles as a VISA so the ease of swiping the card for every little purchase became a matter of course with us.  There is an inherent problem with the way banks collect money using this method.  Every place that accepts credit cards uses a payment gateway which is  a middleman between the banks and the store.  For instance, if you swipe your card at the gas pump and fill up for $30 worth of gas, that money doesn’t disappear from your checking account immediately.  If it did, one could easily account on a cash basis.  What happens instead is that the bank put a $1 hold in your account and it could as long a week for that $30 to disappear. Therefore, all the time you are getting surprise deductions from your account for purchases made days ago.   Plus, banks seem to take off on the weekend and don’t do any processing.  That’s right, the 24-hour computerized operation needs their weekends off.  I guess computers have gotten unionized.

Back to why TD Bank is changing their name.  What used to happen was that if  you overdrafted, you would incur a $35 fee and the check card would be refused.  They changed that without proper permission.  Now what happens is that after there is no money left on the card, they let all transactions through and charge $35 each time.  So, if you bought a $0.70 candy bar, you have actually paid $35.70 for that treat and it’s not even king-sized!  It is very possible to run up $600 in fees just for charging about $30 worth of card swipes over several transactions.

Here’s the punchline:  TD Bank has the balls to call that overdraft protection!!!  Their rationale is that people have been turned away from a grocery line with a full shopping cart.  Oh, the embarrassment.  Hey, I’d rather keep the $600 and have a red face than be embarrassed in front of a bunch of people I do not know.

Okay, now for the joke:

First the bank was Commerce Bank, then they changed their name to TD Bank and now the name is apparently FU Bank.

Long story short, the bank did work with me on mitigating the damages but still helped themselves to $200 they did nothing to earn.

Plus, TD Bank tells me you remove that ‘overdraft protection’ by calling them.  Ahem, wrong way folks.  If you change something, you get my permission first.  You don’t change the terms of my account and then tell me I have to call and make you change it back to the way it was.  Also, we have taken the VISA portion off the card so now it’s a plain old ATM card.  Paying cash for everything hurts a lot more and trains you to be more cautious.

Remember those debit card commercials where everything was moving like clockwork because everyone was swiping and then some bozo pays cash and screws it up for everyone.  Well, that’s me folks!  You’ll just have to wait