More Tips to End Junk Mail

More on junk mail. These helpful tips are from the Washington Post

Junk mail is a triple threat: It tries your patience, jeopardizes your identity and spoils the environment. But without too much effort, you can give yourself peace of mind and an uncluttered mailbox.

Register with the Direct Marketing Association to remove your name from its national mailing list. The service is free if you register online, or $1 by mail.

Reject preapproved offers from credit card companies by visiting http://https://www.optoutprescreen.com or calling 888-567-8688.

Sign up free at http://www.catalogchoice.org, and the site will do the grunt work to get you off mailing lists for catalogues you don't want.

Pay a $20 annual fee, and GreenDimes will remove your name from catalogue and other direct-mail lists, plus plant up to 10 trees.

For $41, 41pounds.org -- named for the weight in junk mail the average adult receives each year -- will contact several dozen direct-mail companies on your behalf. In addition, $15 of your fee goes to your choice among the group's nonprofit affiliates.

Tired of Junk Mail? You can stop some of it.

We receive so much junk mail that frequently important mail is lost among the advertising circulars. We have discovered that there is something a frustrated mail box owner can do.

While not clearly disclosed to folks, advertisers must include the means to contact them on the circulars they send out. This information is usually found in the very small print along the edge of the mailing. When you call that number, there is usually an option to opt out of any future mailings.

Two big local advertisers that have taken up the bulk of our mailbox have been Valpak and the Pennysaver.

If you want to increase the functional availability of your mailbox, you can contact Valpak and Pennysaver and tell them to stop all mailings to your address. Their contact information is:

Pennysaver - CALIFORNIA:
Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernadino, Ventura and Tulare Counties Private Party: (800) 995-3333 Commercial: (714) 996-8900 Email: PrivateSCA@PennySaverUSA.com San Diego County Private Party: (888) 736-6972 Commercial: (760) 599-1400 Bay Area & San Jose Private Party: (800) 947-3669 Commercial: (800) 947-3669 Email: ads@pennysaverusa.com Sacramento Private Party: (800) 947-3669 Commercial: (916) 636-2200 Stockton & San Joaquin County Private Party: (800) 947-3669 Commercial: (800) 947-3669

When calling the numbers above, listen to the voicemail options and follow them to consumer services and distribution. There will be a voicemail that will ask you for your address. In addition and for your records, you may want to email them so you have a date and time of request in writing.

For Valpak, including the "blue envelope" advertising, send an email to:

valerie@Valpak.com and request all mail advertising to stop immediately.

Unfortunately Valpak is stating that it typically takes a couple of months to stop because they send to so many homes. This does seem quite unreasonable. It would seem that multiple requests may be necessary to help them get the message.

Best wishes

Find Local Speed Traps in Your Area

Here is a nifty little site that we can all benefit from. It's from the National Motorist Association, and is call Speed Trap.org

There you can look up your local area and find speed trap locations. Locations are sent in by motorists. You can also submit known speed trap areas that are not already listed.

This is not meant to condone speeding, however often police officers can be rather ridiculous in attempts to meet their quota or need to fill city revenue funds.

Drive carefully, be safe, and have a wonderful holiday.

Foreclosure Relief

In further researching the number that Bush was recommending borrowers call, 888-955-HOPE, I found that they are a non-profit agency that offers credit counseling and options to those facing foreclosure. The organization is called Homeownership Preservation Foundation. They are located at 8400 Normandale Lake Blvd. Suite 250, Minneapolis, MN 55437. They are not related to the government and no government money is used in this process. Several lenders do sponsor them through grants, one of them being Countrywide.

They have 24 hour counseling available at 888-955-HOPE; also on the web at http://www.995hope.org. They also have online counseling available when you visit their website. If you choose the online counseling, you are re-directed to a CCCS Atlanta site that is partnered with 888-995-HOPE. Their site states that they are approved by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD): and the HUD approved counseling agencies' purpose is to help families understand the home purchasing process, how to get budgeting and credit problems fixed, and how to avoid predatory lending practices. Their counselors have received specialized training in the mortgage industry and are provided with certification with either the AFCPE or NFCC. You can investigate both of these last agencies at http://www.afcpe.org and http://www.nfcc.org

President Bush Announces Foreclosure Relief Proposal

Finally, after presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks of addressing the foreclosure dilemma throughout the United States, with California being one of the hardest hit states, it looks like the current administration might be ready to address this issue.

This was announced today through the Associated Press. The proposal, addressing sub prime borrowers, may provide them with an interest rate freeze of up to five years. Home loans that increased their interest rates before January 1, 2007 and folks that bought way over their financial head even without sub prime programs will not be eligible. Folks that are eligible obtained their loans between January 1, 2005 and July 1, 2007. Bush indicated that 1.2 million people could be eligible for help, however only a fraction of those will be eligible for a rate freeze. Others would get help in refinancing with their lenders or moving into a home loan secured by the Federal Housing Administration. Finally, any help will only come to those that ask for assistance.

Bush urged folks to contact a hot line number 1-888-995-HOPE. It is projected that this will provide relief to about 300,000 families. This is a voluntary private sector arrangement that involves no government money.


Right now, nearly one million homes are in foreclosure. President Bush states that if this increases, this could have dire consequences on our economy. Ya think? Bush has been widely criticized as moving too slowly on this issue.


Per the Ventura County Star, first quarter foreclosure sales in 2006 for Ventura County were 62. For the same period in 2007, foreclosure sales rose to 548. That is a increase of 784%. In Los Angeles County, foreclosure sales increased this first quarter at a rate of 675%. Santa
Barbara saw an increase of 768%.


Too bad this was not addressed when folks were being offered these impossible home loan programs. Countrywide is one of the current lenders offering to re-negotiate interest rates with borrowers, but as this author understands, this is only once the borrowers have entered foreclosure and not all borrowers will qualify for this assistance.


If you either have or are going to face these types of rate increases over the next two years, it would be wise to be proactive and start looking for any available options and watch government statements. Letters of concern to local representatives, congress persons, and senators will help keep the focus on this serious issue that so many are facing. Checking out the above hot line number for further information may be helpful as well.

Extended Warranties

Here is an article from Smart Money that is helpful when considering Extended Warranties:
JUST WEEKS BEFORE THE birth of David Bieler's daughter, his digital camera went kaput. No worries, thought the 36-year-old from Poughkeepsie, N.Y. That's what the $100 extended warranty he'd purchased was for. He quickly shipped off the camera along with an urgent-sounding note that he'd need the camera back right away.
Little Jocelyn was nearly three months old by the time the camera was returned to him. He had long since purchased a new one.
Extended warranties on appliances and electronic devices are a huge business. They're offered by retailers and third-party providers on everything from washing machines to Apple (AAPL: 168.46, -0.39, -0.23%) iPods. But what sounds like a great idea when you're in the store, experts and burned consumers warn, might not be worth the added cost. Consumer Reports has concluded that extended warranties are often a waste of money simply because many products tend not to break down during the first few years of service. And even when something does go wrong, you might have a tough time getting it fixed thanks to the small print on your contract or, in Bieler's case, the hassle factor.
Since extended warranties are claimed so rarely, the profit margins on them run as high as 40% to 80%, says Marlys Harris, finance editor for Consumer Reports. That can pad a company's bottom line nicely. During 2004, in fact, nearly 100% of Circuit City Stores' (CC: 5.45, -0.32, -5.54%) and 50% of Best Buy's (BBY: 47.60, +0.24, +0.50%) operating income came from extended warranties, say analysts. Is it any wonder that the big box retailers aggressively push these contracts?

Holiday Sales - Electronics

Please see Holiday Rip Offs and Extended Warranties.

OK, time to practice -

Electronic Store Salesperson: "Would you like an extended warranty for this laptop? It will give you complete coverage for all repair resulting from........, I highly recommend it!"

Customer, Me, You, Relative, Good Friend: "No, thank you."

A new laptop can be purchased for as little as $200. If you have a serious problem with your laptop, get a new one. If you don't have a problem with your laptop, you saved $200 or more.

Electronic Retailers make a bulk of their profits from extended warranties and then provide extremely poor, rude, or no service. The internett is full of horror stories about these scams.

If you absolutely can't resist getting an extended warranty, do check out Toshiba and get the warranty from them on their product. Our interviews with local computer repair facilities indicates that Toshiba is the Most Responsive of all manufacturers. Additionally, Toshiba has repaired, at no cost, a laptop of ours long after the warranty was expired and after Circuit City would not honor their own City Advantage Plan warranty on the laptop. We have also had good experience with Dell Laptops for our business.

Best Buy's Toshiba Laptop and Canon Printer Offer for $299: But by running Windows Vista, this machine will need a memory upgrade to 2 G to work effectively. Vista is a memory hog! As long as you know this up front, you're good to go.

Happy Holidays!

Holiday Sales - Rip Off Warnings

The holidays are coming and gas prices have been projected as a major impact on shoppers' holiday budgets.

*For those thinking of electronics, extended warranties are Not Recommended. For your information and buying decisions, check the internet for what is said about these retail warranty rip-offs:

Circuit City consumeraffairs, Circuit City's Advantage Plan ripoff report, Business Week article Warranty Windfall, Smart Money's Extended Warranty Rip Off. Retailers make up to 80% of their profit from these sales. The internet is full of consumers' complaints telling of their horror stories of no service and aggrevation. Circuit City's City Advantage Plan can cost up to $500 for a laptop warranty, the price you could pay for a new laptop on sale. It is possible to purchase a laptop for as little as $200.

Another current rip off is the recent attempt to sell consumers "recovery disks". Basically, you don't need to purchase them for the outrageous price retailers are selling them for. From Clark Howard's website, here is the information:

"Oct 12, 2007 -- Extended warranties, recovery disc rip-offs in action
It's great to have the opportunity to see rip-offs that Clark has warned people about being pushed on you and have the chance to say no upfront. Christa recently was buying a computer at a retailer and was being given the hard sell on two things that Clark just spoke about a few weeks back. One item was the Windows recovery discs, which were being pushed for $40. You can make one yourself for practically free or a get lower price from the manufacturer. The other was the extended warranty pitch. On a related note, Clark recently got a call from a distant relative of his who was in a store buying a TV. When the relative said he listened to Clark Howard and knew all about the cons of extended warranties, the salesperson took a very creative and unethical approach: He told the relative that Clark bought four TVs at that store and got extended warranties on every one of them. Clark is now thinking about doing a hidden camera sting where he exposes known retailers who try this tactic to make a sale on an extended warranty or service plan. Once again, for the record, Clark wants to emphasize that he doesn't buy extended warranties. That may change in the future, of course. But for now just say no when they're pushed on you. "

Finally, for your protection, review some identity theft tips before going out on your holiday shopping.

*For my international readers who have asked, "Black Friday" is the first day after the Thanksgiving National Holiday. It is officially the first day of shopping for the holiday season. On this day, retailers drastically cut their prices to entice maximum sales. In the USA, folks go out in mass, frequently at 2 or 3 am to stand in lines waiting for stores to open to grab the best deals. Sounds like fun eh?

Happy Holiday!

Find the Best Gas Prices

I can't believe the price of gas is again creeping up to $3.25 a gallon in my area. I wish the current government would begin to take a more rigorous approach to finding alternate fuel sources and develop legislation that demands automobiles run on other substances besides ongoing oil dependency for the, not so distant, future. But I imagine that is hard for them to do considering current leading government officials make money through their oil business.

What can we do..... Well driving less or participating in a car pool are certainly options. Ride a bike, walk...that's great exercise.

However, if you need to get to work and there is no mass transit, as is the case in Southern California, then taking a more strategic approach to filling your tank is an absolute necessity.

I have a navigator in my car that has the MSN Direct service. It is supposed to allow the user to search for gas prices whenever the user is on the road. The service is free for the first year. However, I find the gas prices it provides are often three days old. I would find no reason to renew the MSN Direct feature after my one year is up.

Alternatively, there are many websites that provide what is supposed to be current gas price information that is searchable in a database. In checking one of the sites, gasprices.mapquest.com, I see that the cheapest gas is currently located in Las Vegas Nevada. There a gallon of gas can be had at the SpeeDee Mart. How can this be? Are they getting their gas from right under their gas station? Alternatively, the highest priced gas in the USA is currently at $4.00 a gallon. How can such a disparity exist?

OK, life's not fair.

I want to pass on these websites that I found that track current gas prices and allow you to search their database. Most of them tell you the time frame that the price was found. As I mentioned the MSN Direct feature in my car reports prices that are three days old. But I think it is worth investigating this resources for our specific areas to see if there is a way to save some money.

Here they are:

MapQuest Gas Prices

GasBuddy This site does show the day and time the price was found.

Gas Price Watch This site provides information from motorists informers. It let you know if the price is less than 12 hours old, less than 24 hours, or more than 24 hours.

In my area Coscto has consistently had the best prices around. The only glitch is that it is not so convenient to always get there. I have had to get better with planning my gas trips and when choosing between two local Costcos for shopping, I always go to the one that also has gas.

If anyone has any other ideas on beating this costly situation, please let us know.

Happy Hunting

Sources for Consumer Complaints

consumer-advocacy
Since my difficulty with Circuit City, I have found several outstanding consumer complaint websites. I feel they are wonderful sources as not only do they give the consumer a venue to spew their difficulty out to the world, but it provides a forum where others may provide suggestions toward resolution. Some of these resolutions include obtaining contact information for corporate executives, information that is not easily found on business sites these days.

Here they are:

• My 3 Cents
• Clark Howard (consumer advocate in Florida serving the nation)
• Planet Feedback
• Public Citizen Protecting Health, Safety, and Democracy
• Consumer Affairs

Through one of the above sites, I was able to terminate, without fees, a cingular account for three phone lines after I had gone through a period of time getting double billed from both AT&T and Cingular during their transition. Since they are now going back to AT&T, I imagine the double billing from both companies names is going on again. I can't believe there hasn't been a class action suit pertaining to that as yet.

Clark Howard is a radio consumer advocate that focuses on saving money and finding the truth about products and services. The neat thing about his website is that you can either email a question or call to speak with a consumer advocate. These folks are volunteers under the tutorship of Mr. Clark and they will answer your questions for information as to the best course of action to take. They were key in resolving my difficulty with Cingular. I had a corporate executive, yes a top brass individual from Cingular call me within 3 days after my consultation with the "team Clark" folks. Clark Howard starting out in the travel industry. He is a self made millionaire. I remember once reading on his site that he is a frequent Coscto shopper. The email to contact "team Clark" is teamclark@clarkhoward.com. They are wonderfully helpful folks.

Another individual I highly recommend is Harold Cameron of HaroldSays. He has a blog - HaroldSays - that you can visit for assistance. Harold has devoted his full attention to helping folks with problems with business or government agencies. He does not charge for his assistance. Because this is all he does, he has gathered access to many corporate and government office contacts. His focus is positive and he will post a praise on his blog when he gains the cooperation of a business or agency when attempting to help someone. Because of Harold, I was able to get the attention of Circuit City executive offices, however we are still working on resolution at this time.

If you have any information about further consumer agencies that are helpful to consumers, please feel free to post them on this blog.

On another note, in the course of my billing problem with Cingular, I did find out that the FCC, which is supposed to be a watchdog for wireless phone companies, really does nothing. When the FCC receives a complaint about a wireless provider, they refer the complaint back to the wireless provider to investigate themselves. There is no investigation by the FCC. Wireless companies have free reign on what they choose to do to consumers. Basically the fox is watching the hen house on that one. I did write to our elected officials with respect to wireless phone companies during the time of Cingular double billing and threatening, however that did not go anywhere. I hope that someday, wireless providers will be regulated by the government. I'm sure this will do a lot to bring down the steep costs and improve customer service. There are just too many folks with a "hate" relationship with their wireless phone providers, however they are locked into service agreement with providers that know they have a captive audience.

Thousand Oaks Circuit City has got to be the worst company we have ever encountered

consumer-advocacy
I didn't want to use this blog for a complaint board, however I am considering the following as a community service message with the sincerest integrity.

I mistakenly purchased a laptop from the Thousand Oaks Circuit City store last year. I also mistakenly purchased their City Advantage Warranty. It was the most expensive warranty I have ever purchased. $500. In fact, I don't usually purchase warranties at all. But for an expensive laptop, I thought it was worth taking the warranty.

I have had nothing but problems with Circuit City, the laptop, and their warranty. There is no way to contact the corporate office. They shield themselves quite well from consumers as all calls are routed to Manila Philippines. When asking the folks in the Philippines for their corporate contact, they simply state, "I do not have the means to contact the corporate office and can not share that with you". Interestingly, the Circuit City in Thousand Oaks, where the laptop was purchased also states that they have no means to contact corporate. I am wondering what they do if their paycheck is missing? Oh well....maybe next month.

The laptop in question repeatedly shuts off without warning. It could be after 5 minutes or 2 hours. The keys either fall off, or when pressed, type multiple unwanted letters through out the document. This necessitates a second round of proof reading to fix all the errors.

Did I say this is the second time in one year that this has happened? Did I also say, this is the second laptop doing the same things? The first was returned the second week of service. Although this one is a year old, it has now been gone for repair a total of 2.5 months, so I guess it is less than a year in service.

The "store director" of the Thousand Oaks Circuit City informs me that there is nothing he can do to assist me. He states that warranty service is handled separately although the purchase is made through Circuit City. Warranty calls always go to either Manila or India. The warranty company is Assurant Solutions, although Circuit City calls it their City Advantage warranty. Although I have a warranty in hand, Assurant seems to change what is covered at each phone call. Kinda like random statements. Although the replacement laptop is supposed to be provided for repeated problems, replacement is at their discretion and arbitrary. Of course there is no way to contact Circuit City corporate. I did get the email of their legal counsel, however a similarly rude and unhelpful response was found there as well.

So, it seems that with Circuit City, one has no other recourse other than small claims court. I have done extensive research on Circuit City on the internet and found many similarly frustrated customers, as well as numerous lawsuits., and no one is able to contact corporate. One would wonder why they are so protectively shielded from consumer contact?

We have all had dissatisfaction with cell phone carriers, but somehow we move on. Perhaps changing carriers and grumble about our experiences along the way. However I have never encountered such rude, sales hungry no matter what they have to say to get the sale, and purely worthless warranty as with Circuit City. It has been that bad as to warrant this community service message to our local clients toward the aim of consumer empowerment.

Throughout the last view years, I have noticed PC Club on Thousand Oaks Blvd to be outstanding in service. They build computers and laptops and also service them onsite. There is no need to call some distant person in Manila or India that cares little about consumer needs as they will never have to speak with that person again. I guess this speaks a lot about supporting local businesses and old fashioned service.

In this world of "big boxes" and phone voice menus, old fashioned values and service is getting to be harder to find and something we are slowly letting go of. How sad. It's like walking into a stinky room and not noticing the smell after a while, we acquiesce. I encourage readers to do a google search on "complaints Circuit City". This is something that this writer should have done before entering the Thousand Oaks Circuit City store. Choose wisely before giving your money to Circuit City. They are on the receiving end of a lot of bad feedback and they don't seem to care. In check the companies financials, they also make the bulk of their money from their warranty sales. This was found recently by an independent rating firm that is unrelated to the Wall Street houses that may have conflict of interests in rating Fortune 500 companies. Circuit City is also the owner of Car Max. Glad I didn't purchase a car from them.

The bottom line of this laptop story is that the warranty company sent the laptop to Nexicor in Simi Valley for repair. Nexicor said the laptop needed the fan "dusted" off and now after a one hour test, it is working fine. Funny they didn't notice any "dust" in the Thousand Oaks Circuit City when they opened the laptop several weeks before. The Thousand Oaks Circuit City store said that the laptop was shutting down in their presence when testing it for several days. But then the warranty company didn't observe that. Now after a mere dusting after the second trip to a repair facility, it suddenly working? But then I wouldn't know this as Nexicor sent the laptop to the wrong address through DHL over a week ago and the laptop is now lost. They currently indicate that they can't help me with locating it as I have should now be working with DHL for a resolution. That's funny, didn't Circuit City get the money for the laptop? At this point, I have not had the laptop in my possession for over a month and everyone of the above business claims it is not their responsibility.

When you consider purchasing consumer electronics, I would highly recommend working with a local business that can provide service locally in our own community. Since we have purchased one computer from PC Club that has never needed either software or hardware support, I would highly recommend them, plus they are right there when you need them. Their corporate office is in City of Industry, however repairs are accomplished at the Thousand Oaks Blvd location.

If you are similarly situated as myself with a Circuit City matter, I would welcome your comments and contact. Perhaps a class action suit with respect to their warranty service is needed. If companies continue to get away with this type of bad behavior they are still around to take advantage of the next community member.

Notary for Consumers Purchasing Extended Constracts at Electronic Stores?

consumer-advocacy
Here'a an idea that I think is worthy of consideration. Why not have a notary meet you at Best Buy, Circuit City, or other site of a salesman offering an extended contract policy to go along with your electronic purchase?

I don't typically purchase extended warranties myself. However, I have gotten them on electronic items that are high risk for damage, such as GPS navigators and laptops. GPS navigators seem to die frequently. Laptops are just high risk for dropping, keys falling off, etc. Well, the contracts seem to make sense.

My GPS from Best Buy did well with the extended warranty from Best Buy. The unit died several times and each time Best Buy replaced it without issue. I was happy I had the warranty and now have much better unit than I started out with.

However, a recent difficulty with Circuit City has taught me the level of dishonesty of Circuit City and the salesman I worked with. I was told that the enormously expensive extended warranty would cover the laptop from all malfunctions and perils. In addition, if something did happen to the laptop, I would have a new unit within a couple of days. Not so. In fact, it's not possible to get a repair within several days. A Circuit City warranty dictates that the laptop must "mailed" out after one must wait several days just to have a box "mailed" to their residence. Then, after the unit is sent, one must wait several weeks to hear anything. Although, the unit was shutting off without warning, it may have had to do with the fan, Circuit City is stating that it is the software and they probably won't be able to do anything with it. Software causing the unit to overheat and turnoff? That's new.

In doing research on Circuit City, it appears that they do this practice with everyone and there are many unhappy customers to be found around on the internet. Websites such as Consumer Affairs. com, My3Cents.com, RipOffReport.com highlight the details of customer experiences that are hair raising. It is a wonder that they are still in business. I know that I wouldn't purchase a battery from them in the future.

But I was thinking. If one found it absolutely necessary to purchase from them, I would highly recommend scheduling a notary to stop by to take a sworn statement from the store manager or salesman with regard to their warranty. The customer can write down what the store is saying in terms of the coverage and how the warranty works, and the notary can notarize the store manager's statement that the document is true. This type of notarization is a "Jurat". I guess this can work for automobiles and other high risk items. I think it's an idea worth considering these days with so many sales persons just saying anything to make a sale, and companies being so uncaring about the consumer.

If the store manager refuses to make a statement regarding how the warranty works, then there's is your information....they are not being truthful. And when you
"mail" your laptop out, you may feel like you'll never see it again. If you find this to be too much effort, I would then just consider patronizing a local store, such as PC Club, that repairs their computers and laptops right in the store, you can speak to them while looking in their eyes, and usually get your unit back in short time.

So if you are considering purchasing from Circuit City in Thousand Oaks, and are interested in getting the bottom line on paper with the sales manager or sales person, give My Mobile Notary a call to get their statement notarized. I would be honored to participate in a consumer protection effort. If the item is less than $5,000, you can utilize the small claims court in Simi Valley with the document if things don't work out the way the store claims they will.

Just a thought.