Hmm, a shaved head. Ben, he was a skinhead! IDT sold electricity to the Nazis. Dig deeper and you'll see the connection between the Nazi's and everything else.

Oops, I'm preaching to the choir.

This hack agency also did a flog last year in St. Louis concerning the theft of a couple of large Cardinals (birds, not Super Archbishops) from a billboard (leased by...... Zipatoni). Except the figures were never installed and QED, never stolen. It got quite a bit of local press when the stunt^h^h^h^h^h promotional opportunity was exposed.

Hey Mr. Meyerkord, I believe your great grandfather had a US Navy ship (DE-1085) named for him. What would he think of you working at a place that does stupid things like this?

Godwin's law *6. This site had some good articles on consumers highlighting ridiculous corporate actions.

Now it's just another over-the-top anti-WalMart whinefest.

Time to look for a competitor (for consumer reporting, not for WalMart).

Moe

If you use a Citi Diamond card, you can pricematch a lot of BF prices (nothing with rebates, though). As long as you have a paper ad from a B&M retailer, they'll match the price up to a $100 per item refund. All you have to do is purchase/order the item during the time the B&M ad is valid. So you can sit at home with the newspaper and order online and not worry about the theatrics at the box box stores.

"Fluent does not mean clear and understandable."

Exactly. Even though all subjects in school are taught in English in the Philippines from Third grade onward, the teachers speak English as a second language and always hear it spoken with a Cebuayan/Visayan/Tagalog accent. Naturally, they pass the accent along to the students. Knowing the words and speaking in an unaccented, idoimatic manner are totally different. In a call center environment where you're just a voice at the end of the line and dealing with an American who's probably frustrated about his cable service in the first place, any heavy accent is a detriment.

Moe

This sounds like a holdover from TWA. They gave elite fliers 4 coupons to hand out to employees who gave good service. Back then the airline didn't tell the employees about the program for a while and helpful employees were stumped when people gave them what looked like upgrade vouchers. I found out later that TWA hired Maritz, a big employee rewards/promotion company, to distribute a gift catalog to employees who could "purchase" items with the serialized scrip.

If that's the case here, it's not insulting and will actually benefit the employee. But if AA is just printing these up with no physical rewards, it's the height of chintziness.

Moe

Good job, Jim.

I've noticed a trend in condescending notices to get a rise out customers whose subscriptions are about to run out.

OnStar sent out a notice saying that my yearly contract was up and "for my convenience" they would continue it at a much higher month to month rate. The option to re-up at the yearly rate was available online, but to cancel you had to call a tollfree number and put up with a retention specialist.

Their game is a reverse telemarketing scheme where YOU call their sales people to cancel and they appear to throw you a bone by reducing their "convenience" rate to what you'd have paid in by renewing. You don't call, they rip you off big time.

Even with supposedly legit companies, a one-time credit card number is becoming necessary.

Moe