In two comments to the original post, reader Varro reports that a normal CSR confirmed that Bank of America treats parking meter payments as a cash advance, but when a city employee contacted Bank of America's government relations rep, the rep dismissed the cash advance charge as an "error." Below are the two comments:

A response to my e-mail to B of A:
Thank you for your inquiry dated 6/29/08 regarding (your card). We are happy to assist you. You may access cash with your credit card up to the credit line; however please keep in mind of your transaction fee associated along with each cash transaction.

Bank of America will now convert charges from parking meters, court fines, and parking tickets into a cash charge. The transaction fee for each cash transaction is three percent with a minimum of $10.00 and no maximum cap.

We appreciate the opportunity to assist you online. Should you have any further inquiries, please e-mail us again. Thank you for choosing Bank of America. We value your business and look forward to serving your banking needs.

Varro asked a reporter friend to check it out further:

But here's what happened when Ms. Ruiz talked to a City of Portland employee who then contacted B of A...:

(B of A Rep) said that there was an issue early this year whereby some municipalities were encoding parking meter transactions incorrectly. The issue was identified and corrected by May 5.

Bank of America does not charge a cash advance transaction fee to use parking meters. Parking meter payments are treated as purchases. There is no associated fee for this transaction.

Below is the actual statement she said that their Government Banking Merchant Group sent her regarding the payment of parking tickets:

"Bank of America does not consider payments of parking tickets as cash advance fees. There was a coding error for a brief period in April and we worked with the District of Columbia to correct it and credited any fees back to our customers."

As far as we know, there was no such problem in Portland.

What's the real story here, Bank of America? Was this a snafu or was it intentional?

(Photo: mbeldyk and dM.nyc™)

In March of 2007 our civil suit attorney contacted Dan Wolf. Dan Wolf owns Toyota of Naperville and other dealerships in the chicagoland area. Dan Wolf immediately fired Mr. James V Gentile in March 2007.... Toyota of Naperville has been served in November of 2007. Mr. James V Gentile aka Jim was hard to serve. Finally April of 2008 he got his papers...

Update on the criminal case... The states attorney has counted 19 blocked phone calls going to my cell phone from his home phone and his cell phone! Starting December 2005 and ending April 2006. Some how the jerk is having his attorney ( James Moore office of Rockford,IL) to pull off getting the case continued. The latest stunt they pulled was this... Court date in April was continued to June 12th because his attorney told the states attorney that he will take the plea. I was happy and I thought maybe there is some good in this man. But no, I get a call from the states attorney on June 12th to come down to the court house to testify! I could not believe it! So I went down to the court house and met with the States Attorney only to be told it will be continued due to the judge assigned to the case is on Vacation! The next court date is set for August 7th, but I am not going to count on it!

To the dealerships out in the Chicagoland area, if you have him as an employee, watch out, he maybe doing this to your customers! To the public, if he is your salesman, please beware of what kind of person he is!

The wheels of consumer justice grind slowly, and they grind exceedingly small.*

Read previous updates to this thread here.

(Photo: Beth and Christian)

* with hat tip to Friedrich von Logau(with hat tip to Friedrich von Logau

Our reader's email:

I got in touch with the Adobe contact you forwarded, and a representative from Adobe Customer Care headquarters took over my case. Their explanation for the problem was:
"Your recent order was an Upsell, unfortunately the only qualifying product that would apply for this type of purchase is GoLive 9. With an Upgrade purchase a customer is able to upgrade from GoLive 5/6/7/8 – Version 8 is also labeled as CS2, with this information I am able to see where anyone would have thought that they would have been able to "Upgrade" from CS2 premium to Dreamweaver CS3. With all the different products and availability I can see where anyone can get confused, I know I do."
Now, I don't see how this can be, as the only two upgrade options available for purchase on the Adobe site are upgrade from Go Live 6/CS/CS2, or upgrade from Dreamweaver MX, MX 2004 or 8. Also, the screen that was giving me grief was asking me to choose which of Go Live 6/CS/CS2 I was upgrading from...
But anyway, they issued me a new serial number (via email) which allowed me to bypass the upgrade screen altogether, and activate the product properly. So I now have a working copy of the software I paid for, and I have thanked the representative for resolving the issue.
As a matter of record, I noticed in the comments to the story you ran that some people had mentioned that the Help menu on Adobe products rarely displays the full serial number. Although I forgot to mention it specifically in my original notes to the Consumerist, I had worked that out at some point, and gone back to my original disks for the full serial number. That hadn't worked either.

A good tactic for discouraging people from illegally downloading your expensive software is to make sure that those who want to pay money for it are able to. Good work, Adobe.

PREVIOUSLY: Adobe: "It Would Have Been A Pleasure To Assist You With This Issue. [Unfortunately, We're Totally Incompetent.]"

PREVIOUSLY: Don't Drink Lamp Oil Or You'll Die

Dear Mr. R:

Thank you for contacting Tony Roma's Guest Relations. Please accept our apologies for the disappointment you had at Tony Roma's in San Francisco, CA. Each guest plays an important role in helping us maintain the standards by which we operate and we appreciate your feedback. Your message is being forwarded to the franchise owner/operator and the Director of Franchise Operations for this location. Management would like to discuss your visit and will contact you at the earliest opportunity. Thank you.

Martha Killion
Guest Relations
Romacorp, Inc.

Alex has promised to keep us updated on this developing story. We shall wait and see whether they make things right, or decide to reinvent math.

PREVIOUSLY: Tony Roma's, Where 16oz = 14oz

(Photo: Rick McCharles)

Sally and Tammy are both hot, but Sally's sister is a prude. This makes the fact that Sally puts out salient to me. I attach that meaning to Sally, but not necessarily to Tammy.

PREVIOUSLY: How Sellers Manipulate You With Decoy Pricing

Thank you for contacting Aunt Millie's Bakeries. On behalf of everyone at Aunt Millie's, I apologize for the condition of your loaf of Aunt Millie's Homestyle Seeded Italian Bread.

From the description provided, the black streaks across several slices of your loaf were slicer marks. This occurs after food grade oil is applied to the slicers. The first few loaves of bread are to be discarded due to this occurring. However, on rare occasions, if a loaf is missed or too much oil is applied, there is no health hazard of the bread being toxic in any way. I will alert the production team to your comments.

I would be happy to send you out replacement coupons if you would provide a mailing address.

Sincerely,
Jill
Customer Service

And that's the end of that chapter.

PREVIOUSLY: Searing Sword Of Schmutz Taints Aunt Millie's Bread Loaf

There are two seals in place when the product is manufactured. One seal is a tamper band connected to the cap that separates upon opening the bottle, the other is a vacuum seal that is created during pasteurization. In rare instances, this vacuum seal may be broken. This may typically occur when a bottle experiences high impact due to rough handling through distribution. Air may potentially get into the bottle and mold may then be able to develop. As with any natural product without preservatives, such as bread and fruit, contact with outside air can cause a common mold to form. This is not something that would cause any health issues.

The rep also told me that this is not the first time Vitamin Water has heard of/seen instances of these kinds of molds in their bottles. So, no hazard, beyond the gag factor of finding a harmless mold in your drink,and perhaps even the potential for a science fair project idea! The original photos, all big-size, inside...

(Pics courtesy of readers Jenny and Steve!)

PREVIOUSLY:
Gross Skin-Looking Thing Found In Vitamin Water
More Gross Stuff Found In Vitamin Water

I got in touch with Sears customer service yesterday (1-800 4 MY HOME). After 20 minutes on the phone explaining to them why the ad was misleading they agreed to provide all of the pieces I had selected at half off.

Congratulations to Nazar. It's amazing what a little escalation and tenacity can accomplish.

PREVIOUSLY: Sears Kicks Off Holiday Weekend With False Advertising

When we posted Brice's story, we listed the names and email address format for E*Trade's executives, and encouraged Brice to fire away using the methods in The Ultimate Consumerist Guide to Fighting Back. The results:

Dear Consumerist,

I wrote you a bit ago for help getting my money back. I had emailed the etrade execs the day after the post aired on your website, and was ignored. I than decided I'd do one more mass emailing and then I'd just take them into the legal system. This time I kept the letter extremely short (the first one was about 4 sentences and asked them to rectify the situation). This one just said I'd like to be contacted with my account numbers and phone numbers provided. I decided I was not going to be easily ignored this time, so I sent 8 emails to every executive in 3 minutes time. 1 hour and 38 minutes later my phone rang from a fellow from etrade. We did have to jump through a couple hoops, all of which could be done via fax and he explained and got back to me on every occasion. Today, I got my checks and my accounts were successfully closed. On an ironic note, 3 days ago I received a letter saying that my account has only earned interest for a year and had no withdraws or deposits and if I didn't withdraw or deposit with in the next year the money would be turned over to the state.

Hooray for Brice for staying on E*Trade for all this time, and kudos to E*Trade for at least accruing interest on the money they were holding hostage.

UPS agreed to refund $300 of Nick's shipping costs and to issue "a goodwill payment to him for his computer." Here's Nick's response:

So, a happy ending (thanks, I'm sure, to your site). Today, UPS contacted me, saying that since they couldn't find my computer, they were going to pay out the claim on the package and refund my shipping charges. All's well that ends well (that is, so long as they can get it delivered to the right address this time). Thanks for help in publicizing this, and the resources your site offers. I swear, you guys are better than the Better Business Bureau.

We don't really understand how paying for an insured computer that was destroyed adds up to 'goodwill' so much as honoring a stated policy, or why UPS searched their facilities after they admitted to delivering the package to a stranger, but hey, Nick's happy, and that's all that matters.

PREVIOUSLY: UPS Breaks, Steals Computer
(Photo: The Infamous Gdub)

Hello, I would like to inform everyone that posted or read my article, that I received a call from a corporate executive from FedEx in Memphis, TN who acted very promptly on the matter concerning my recent article and complaint that I filed with FedEx about the Maspeth location. He offered to have someone pick the package up for me right at that time, and deliver it to me at my place of employment.

I reiterated to him that the service provided to me at this location was highly unconscionable, and my main concern was that if in the future I needed to go back to this location would i receive the treatment?? He informed me that their actions were totally uncalled for and that there is an existing investigation regarding not only my complaint but at least 50 other similar issues with this branch, and that they are currently working on providing the customer with policy information on notices, i.e. doortags,emails, etc. also providing me with his email, and direct line in Memphis should I have any further issues.

I have to say that it was very comforting to know that my story was heard and acted on in a way that every customer should be treated on a daily basis.

Thank You :)

That's great news, Matt. It's good to see that FedEx is still interested treating people with respect, even in Queens.

PREVIOUSLY: No Proof Of Address? FedEx Curses You Out
(Photo: Maulleigh)

Sallie Mae has publicly apologized for a coding error, potentially affecting around 1 million customers, that caused some consumers credit scores to drop over 100 points, and some consumers report that their dinged scores are already back up. If your score is not back to normal and you are in the middle of a transaction where your good credit is at stake, Sallie Mae said it will provide a credit reference letter. You can also call Sallie Mae customer service at 1-888-2-sallie. Sallie has pledged that the fix is in, but consumers can still take matters into their own hands by pulling their free credit report from annualcreditreport.com and disputing the incorrect information with Experian. Note, it's against Federal law for creditors to report false information to credit bureaus, and consumers can sue violators up to $1,000.

PREVIOUSLY: FICO Scores Drop Over 100 Points After Sallie Mae Recode, Potentially Millions Affected

(Photo: Getty)

KarmaChameleon wrote:

The way most systems in call centers are set up, you can't have multiple screens open to view info, so writing things down is a necessity if you don't want to have to keep clicking back and forth between workflows. I can't imagine the nightmare it would have been working at Chase and not being able to write things down when working accounts.

PREVIOUSLY: Tmobile Forbids Use Of Paper and Pens In Call Center
(Photo: Getty)

Raelyn Campbell's $54 million pro se lawsuit against Best Buy over her lost laptop was dismissed on a procedural issue, thus showing the difficultly of suing a big company for a lot of money without a real lawyer. The trouble all started when she sent a laptop in for repairs to Best Buy, who lost it gave her the runaround for months, and then tried to buy her off with a $900 gift card. They later upped their offer to $1,100, but Raelyn decided to make 'em pay for all the lost photos and tax returns and the potential privacy invasion, and, to get big headlines, went for $54 million. She got some decent press, including a Today show appearance, but no money. In fact, she also had to pay the other side's legal fees, all two hours worth. I think she got what she was looking for, though: the satisfaction of getting Best Buy's name in the national spotlight for their tendency to let customers' laptops get lost and not really care about it. You can read the docket here.

$54 Million Lawsuit Against Best Buy? Poof, Gone [NAM] (Thanks to Wade!)
PREVIOUSLY: Woman Sues Best Buy For $54 Million Over Lost Laptop

ResellerRatings does not condone fake reviews. For the past 13 years, we have worked hard to develop anti-fraud tools, both automated and manual, and we disable fraudulent reviews every day. When we heard about the Cell Shop's actions, we immediately began contacting all Cell Shop reviewers to verify that they were not, in fact, offered money for their positive reviews, and to obtain proof of their valid transactions (order invoices, credit card statements, etc) and we have disabled reviews where money was offered for positive reviews.

Word up Steve-o, make them go outside and pick out their own switch from the hickory tree.

(Photo: Getty)

The lady whom Circuit City charged an extra $169 for an HDTV installation will finally get her money back. The fee was because it was over a fireplace and fireplaces are usually made of brick. However, this fireplace was fake and the wall was drywall. When a local TV news investigation team started asking questions, Circuit City Spokeswoman Jackie Foreman just kept chirping, "It's resolved." Two days after the report aired, Jackie told the reporters, "Byrd's installation was not standard…due to a miscommunication; Ms. Byrd will receive a refund."

Woman gets refund of Firedog's extra fee [WRAL] (Thanks to Cheryl!)
PREVIOUSLY: Circuit City Will Not Refund Your $169 Even If The Local News Calls On Your Behalf

Netflix rents only studio or filmmaker authorized DVDs – no copies. Netflix has more than 100,000 titles on DVD available for rental, so labeling takes many forms. DVDs marked “for sale only” were purchased legally and legitimately by Netflix for rental to Netflix members. And yes, each DVD is individually inspected before it’s shipped.

Netflix ships 1.9 million DVDs on a typical day out of more than 50 distribution centers across the U.S. (including Alaska and Hawaii). Occasionally an error occurs and a Netflix member receives the wrong title or a scratched disc. But the probability of a Netflix member receiving a copied disc is very slight. Four copied discs, even less.

Netflix is the #1 rated ecommerce site for customer satisfaction by Nielsen Online and ForeSee Results because of the outstanding convenience, selection and value available to 8.2 million Netflix members. Concerns such as those raised by The Consumerist are extremely rare. But something we’re looking into nonetheless.

Thank you.

PREVIOUSLY: Are These Netflix DVDs Legit?

First, Firedog technicians should only perform services that they are properly trained in completing. Second, the employee’s testimonial is not accurate regarding the way in which Circuit City calibrates televisions. Firedog technicians follow procedures recommended by Sound & Vision, a professional authority on home theater, audio, video and multimedia products. When conducted properly, the test patterns improve television performance including contrast, brightness and power usage, among other aspects. Additionally, on an unrelated note, an e-mail appears to be circulating that claims Circuit City and other stores have filed for bankruptcy. If you receive this e-mail, please know that the information is completely false, as far as Circuit City is concerned.

Honda and Acura 6 Speed Manual Problem Addressed - TSB Released [Automotivearticles](Thanks to Mark!)

PREVIOUSLY: Honda Ignores Civic SI Owners' Complaints About Faulty Transmissions

Cristy writes:

I am from Progressive and would like to respond to your posting titled "Why is Progressive Using 'Recent Military Service' to Determine Rates and Eligibility?"

First, I would like to apologize to Ceaser and anyone else who got the impression that Progressive uses military service to determine rates and eligibility. This is not true, but it's easy to see how Ceaser and others could have gotten that impression based on the language on our Web site.

The reason we would ask about military service is to make sure we are not unfairly charging a higher rate to service men and women who have had a lapse in insurance coverage.

If you've bought car insurance before, you know that most companies offer you a better rate if you have continuous insurance coverage, and it's the same with Progressive. But, someone who is deployed overseas without access to a car does not need insurance, so they may not have it. But we certainly don't want that to hurt them in terms of their rate. So, if a person had a lapse in coverage because they were in the military, we would offer them the same (better) rate they would have gotten if they had had no lapse in coverage. The majority of states require insurers to do this, but we do it voluntarily in all states regardless of whether it's required because it's the right thing to do. Please let me know if this makes sense; if not, I will try to explain it better!

As for the confusing language on our Web site, I'm very sorry about that and we are now in the process of getting it changed. That language is a disclosure about our comparison rating service, where we give you our rates and the rates of some of our competitors. The language is meant to convey that some companies may consider military service in rating, and if they do, it might make the rate we gave you for the other company inaccurate. But unfortunately, the way it's worded, it sounds like we may use recent military service as a reason not to offer insurance, which is not the case.

The last thing we want to do is make anyone in the military feel that we're treating them with anything less than the respect they deserve. We want to make sure we don't charge higher rates to people who don't have continuous car insurance coverage because they were deployed overseas. If you are in the military and have been deployed overseas, please make sure your insurance company or your agent knows this so that you are not penalized for not having continuous car insurance. Thank you for hearing me out, and again, I am sorry for the confusing language that led to this misunderstanding.

Cristy Cote
Progressive Public Relations

PREVIOUSLY: Comcast Skips 3 Appointments, Hangs Up On You 6 Times, Makes You Want To Cry
(Photo: u2acro)

Cablevision writes:

"There is no direct connection between the digital transition of broadcast television stations that will occur across the nation in early 2009 and Cablevision's decision to transition away from the duplicate analog feeds of a certain number of channels that we already carry in digital format.

Unfortunately, Cablevision goes on to say:

Neither our customer service training, nor our customer communications, link the two in any way."

As for Cablevision's training, we spoke with four customer service representatives and each one said the same thing. These weren't rogue agents conjuring up their own unsupportable explanations. Two CSRS put us on hold to consult their materials, came back, and repeated their assertions.

When we asked the agents to tell us who instructed them to mention the FCC, they expressly stated that they were following Cablevision's training. We strongly suspect that if we (or you) called back, we would again receive the exact same answer. Could all the agents have made the same mistake, and lied about their training? Absolutely, but Occam's Razor seems to shred any suggestion of a coincidence.

Cablevision admits that their agents repeatedly provided incorrect information. Two questions remain: Are they now lying about their training; and, how will the FCC admonish Cablevision for their deceptive and predatory behavior?

PREVIOUSLY: Cablevision Blatantly Lies To Subscribers As The FCC Twiddles Its Thumbs
Cablevision Uses Digital TV Transition To Upsell Basic Cable

Anonymous writes:

I recently wrote to the consumerist about the fact that Verizon is acting in a manner most would consider inconsistent with a customer-first attitude. Only in bizarro world could the statements that were made be construed as an attack on it's employees. Unfortunately John Bonomo, Verizon's director of Media Relations, saw it as exactly that. He believes that it did 'his or her colleagues a disservice and dishonoring the work that they do on behalf of our customers.' Mr Bonomo also said that there were 'a number of inaccuracies', but failed to identify any. All he did was state that customers entitled to the tv will get them, and acknowledges that delivering the set would take some time, and we said that as a part of the promotion.' That's funny, I never stated that Verizon wasn't going to give everyone their tv's, only that it was taking longer then it takes conceive and deliver a baby.

Mr Bonomo goes on to say that employees should be commended and here I am in total agreement. For far too long we have suffered at the hands of individuals posing as management, people who have no clue how to properly run a company. They actually believe it's acceptable to refuse to credit a customer who we admit we over billed, simply because we're given too much credit to everyone else. They think it's perfectly fine to knowingly send out fliers advertising a price, then decide not to honor them, and to then claim they were sent out *in error*.

Some readers of the consumerist have asked 'how do we know what he said is true?' Excellent question. To prove it, I submit to you the emails from the director and the head of marketing which is the basis for most of what was stated in my previous article. I believe they stand for themselves, and I challenge Mr Bonomo to defend the policies that these emails impose on us as employees, and on the customers who they claim to value.

First is the NJ marketing summary which clearly state on the 2nd page that effective 2/18 the blitz offers were to be made permanent. Second is an email from Judy Peters stating that all offers are rescinded. Following this is a far more detailed email dated 3-15 detailing what has been rescinded, why, and what is left to offer. The language is very threatening (even to management, which is referred to as IHD) This email was sent only a few weeks after half a million letters offering these rates were mailed out, and it clearly stated as so in the NJ marketing plan on our website. After being rightfully called out for being so asinine, Judy Peters sent another email explaining that the offers are now back in effect, but ONLY if the customer indicates awareness of them. We can't proactively offer them. Note the specific use of the phrase 'letters sent in error' which contradicts Verizon's own internal marketing information, which indicates that the offers were in fact meant to be sent.

Following that is an email informing us of the first of what would be two times where we simply didn't give anyone their proper discount if they had a specific bill date.

Then we have three emails from our director and the head of marketing. The first one, dated March 3rd, tells us that we're been partially neutered and that we are now only able to adjust $150 without first needing to seek management approval. Pay particular attention to the last paragraph if you want real insight into how management thinks. Then there's a followup sent March 18th cutting it to $50. Finally there's an email telling us that we are not to give any credit to anyone for any reason for the remainder of the month.

PREVIOULY: LEAKS: Insider Says Verizon Isn't Fulfilling Advertised Discounts For Tens Of Thousands

RELATED:
Verizon Changes "Free LCD TV " Promotion To "Free Digital Camcorder" Promotion
Verizon Responds To Angry Customers Who Have Not Received Their Free LCD TVs
Verizon FiOS "Free LCD TV" Promotion Resulting In A Lot Of Angry Customers

(Photo: davidbivins)

I just wanted to provide some clarification regarding Daniel's situation. The technician parked in front of Daniel's house did not disconnect the connection in any way. But we did want to try to resolve the issue for Daniel as quickly as possible. We received the initial call regarding the outage at 11:00 AM. We had a technician at his location by 3:00. The technician verified the connection and identified a network problem that could not be rectified (or caused) on the Customer's premises. We escalated the situation to have this looked into. We also promised to have this resolved within 1 business day. The next afternoon we called Daniel to inform him the network issue was resolved. We have also apologized to him for the problem occurring in the first place. The initial outage occurred on April 8 and it was resolved on April 9. We have also followed up with Daniel to make sure that he has not had further problems.

It is certainly our goal to avoid outages, but at times they do occur. When this happens we want to resolve it as quickly as possible. This was not related to wiring or connections, so this was not the doing of the technician in question.

We do apologize that the van was blocking his driveway and for the inconvenience of the outage!

PREVIOUSLY: Ask Comcast Tech To Move His Van, Mysteriously Lose Signal

(photo: Spidra Webster)

Jessica: By hand, going through chats that took place on the last 2 fridays around 517pm (like the screen cap showed.)
benpopken: How was the matter addressed internally? Was there an announcement?
Jessica: It wasn't necessary, once a single person knew it spread like crazy to all the departments. But the general concensus around the office was "oh my god, what were they thinking??" There's a zero tolerance policy for anything like that. So basically the person was just walked out the next day. no one would have known who it was, but he gave some people a carpool ride, so process of elimination...
Jessica: I don't know if sprint corporate has even commented on it to inq yet, if so, they didn't tell us. but apparently he was fired before sprint said anything or saw it on your site.
benpopken: Is that common, razzing customers?
Jessica: Not at all. We deal with some of the angriest and craziest sprint customers, too, and we have like zero access to anything. So we're sitting there trying to help them, but we cant see their account or change anything, etc. All we really have is sprint.com to help us, which isn't much.
benpopken: That must make it difficult at times
Jessica: It is, but there's no excuse for what that kid pulled. None of us ever do anything like that, and we try our best to assist people when we can. I'm a sprint customer, too, so i know it can be like the worst thing in the world sometimes, but that guy was waaay out of line saying that, and on a whole, I think that doesn't reflect our service. Thanks for the tip, again, the timely notice of that might have saved all our jobs. Again, my name is Jessica. Thank you for visiting Sprint.com today!

PREVIOUSLY: Sprint To Customer: "Are You Nucking Futs?"

1) Members of the Howards Forums cellphone message boards have discovered a URL hack that lets users add the "Unlimited Shared Night & Weekend Minutes at 5pm pack" for free to their account.

2) If you take this URL and replace the phone# at the end with the phone number of someone who hasn't set up the PIN on their account, you will see the last 4 digits of their social security number. Not a huge deal, we give out the last 4 of our social over the phone all the time, but it seems a bit odd to broadcast these numbers unnecessarily.

PREVIOUSLY: Flawed Sprint Security Worse Than We Thought
Flawed Security Lets Sprint Accounts Get Easily Hijacked

dragonfire81 writes:

I'm a former Sprint rep, I worked with this "3 questions" system numerous times.

I was shocked at the number of times I was able to access an account by simply guessing the answers. Fortunately I am an ethical person, but if I wasn't I could've done a LOT of damage very easily.

In every question pertaining to cars, it was always three Luxury models plus one typical one (Peugeot, Porsche, Ferrari and Ford for example) which made them stupidly easy to guess.

In addition the "none of the above" answer for "which properties have you owned?" was correct 99% of the time.

On top of that, one thing the article does not mention is that you are only required to answer TWO of the three questions correctly to gain access to an account. The system won't tell you which ones were right and wrong, but you need only answer TWO of three to get access.

This new process is more trouble than it's worth if you ask me and I'd like to find the person who came up with it and give him a good punch to the head.

But don't blame Sprint for all of this, some people truly don't give a crap about the security on their accounts. When asking customers to setup a 6-digit pin number most just wanted to set it to 111111 or 123456. Pretty secure huh?

Council Considers Testing Water for Traces of Drugs [NYT]
PREVIOUSLY: AP: 41 Million Americans Drink Water Contaminated With Antibiotics, Anti-Convulsants, Mood Stabilizers, And Sex Hormones
(Photo: Getty)

PREVIOUSLY: Kraft Invents The Twinkie Of Bagels: "Bagelfuls"

Your email was sent to me and I wanted to respond to you personally. We do not refuse to prepare tax returns for gay and lesbian couples. Unfortunately, we are a public target of some pretty nasty allegations that are not true. I believe the media and other like to sensationalize issues. Here is what is really going on...

The federal government does not recognize same-sex civil unions for the preparation of federal income taxes. However, Connecticut has recognized these civil unions for state taxes. In our online tax program, TaxCut, the federal tax return programmatically feeds the tax return information into the state tax return. Since the federal return can not be filed as a same-sex civil union (like a joint return) the correct information is not flowing to the state portion of the tax return to file a same-sex civil union state return. In this instance, like any other area that may not be handled well with the online program, we provide some guidance that our H&R Block tax offices will be able to assist you with your return. In general when we have complicated tax return situations, we feel that the best outcome is to have one of our tax professionals assist the consumer.

We are accused of is discriminating against same-sex civil unions because we presented the option of visiting one of our offices. Our competitors recommend that three returns be prepared (two individual returns for the federal return, and then a "proforma" return where the information is combined for the federal return that will feed into the state return. The customer is instructed to print the "proforma" return and mail in the state return). We have the same workaround available in our online and software products. Additionally, we have offered to refund the price of the "proforma" return so that the couple is treated financially on parity with a married filing jointly couple. Our competition does not offer the refund or parity pricing with a married filing jointly couple.

I want to assure you that we do not discriminate against any individuals and value all our customers. We do not refuse to prepare tax returns for gay and lesbian couples that live in US states where their marriage is recognized. We are in fast offering a better solution than the competition for those customers.

Please feel free to email me directly with any other questions.

Warm regards

Paula Drum
Vice President, Marketing
H&R Block

PREVIOUSLY: H&R Block Doesn't "Support" Gay Civil Unions

(Photo: Ben Popken)

PREVIOUSLY: Office Depot Falsely Denies Man's Rebate

analyst Kris has entered room
Kris: Hello amanda_, Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Kris. Please give me one moment to review your information.
Kris: I will be happy to assist you with your questions today.
amanda: ok
Kris: I apologize for the inconvenience, I can understand your frustration.
Kris; Please give me a minute while I pull up your account.
Kris: Can you please provide the serial number from the bottom of the box?
amanda: I understand you are compressing HD channels now on the History HD channel to make more room for other channels, this seems to be effecting my HD quality.. is this a known problem?
Kris: This is the first of its kind that we encountered and I am having it noted.
Kris: Can you please provide the serial number from the bottom of the box?
amanda: I am not able to lift it up... is there another way to get the SN out of it from a menu command?
amanda: or can I give some personal info to look up my account?
Kris: is that the only HD box?
amanda: yes, the only one
Kris: I already have your account. I just need to trouble shoot the correct box,.
amanda: ok
Kris: Please make sure that the box is turned on.
amanda: cause I have look at several articles stating that several HD channels are now being compressed to carry more HD content, and for the last few days, my A&E Hd, and history channel HD look very degraded..
amanda: yes it is on
Kris: i will send a signal to refresh your box.
amanda: ok
Kris: I will now send a hit signal.
amanda: ok.. waiting...
Kris: I have sent a signal to your digital box. Can you please check to see if this has resolved your issue?
amanda: one sec
amanda: I have degraded service on A&E, discovery, and history HD...
amanda: FROM THE WEB, Wow. Can this company be any more evil? "It looks like Comcast is degrading the quality of some HD channels in order to make room for more channels. So far the Comcast channels receiving extra compression are: Discovery Channel, SciFi, USA, Food, NatGeo, UHD, A&E, HGTV, Starz, Cinemax, HBO, TLC, Animal Planet, Discovery HD Theater, and History HD.
amanda: that is the info I have
Kris: There are no HD issues reported for your area. Is it fine with you if I schedule a technician to have it checked?
Kris: I am sorry but we are not degrading services.
amanda: it sure seems like it.. because all the channels in the list are degraded... seems real weird.... is there a new HD box top that might solve this problem? mine is kind of old
amanda: I think I might just cancel my HD service... how do I go about doing that?
Kris: I can process that for you and schedule a tech to have your box replaced. Another option is to return the box to your local office and replace it with a regular box.

—-—-—-- Forwarded message —-—-—--
From: David R
To: brian_roberts@comcast.com
Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2008 16:14:21 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: NO MORE HD

Dear Mr. Roberts,

I want to let you know about my total dissatisfaction with your new attempt to carry 3 HD channels worth of bandwidth in the space of 2, effectively degrading my HD service.

I am a avid History Channel watcher, and enjoy the HD service for it's crisp picture and clarity. Now that you have decided to try and compete with FIOS, you have degraded your own HD signals to try and carry more channels. This has totally messed up my HD channels that I watch, and makes me wonder why I am paying full price now for down-graded service.

This is just another reason why I might leave Comcast and move to FIOS. Don't degrade your own channels to say "we have more HD", just give me good HD on the channels I have now... PLEASE!!!!

Dave R

—- "Asbury, Cynthia" Cynthia_Asbury@cable.comcast.com wrote:

Good evening Mr. R,

Thank you for the feedback to Brian Roberts. As you are aware, we are constantly striving to provide improved services to our Customers, including a wide variety of HD content. In an effort to do this, we have recently started using a new system to deliver some HD channels.

While this system works well with clean 1080i signals, we're making some adjustments to improve how it handles other types of HD signals so we can bring you the best HD picture. We apologize this has not created the HD experience that we intended, but we will work towards getting it right.

Thank you for being a Comcast Customer!

Sincerely,
Ms. Asbury

National Customer Operations
Executive Office
One Comcast Center
Phila, Pa. 19103

—-—-—-- Forwarded message —-—-—--
From: David Rogers
To: "Asbury, Cynthia" Cynthia_Asbury@cable.comcast.com
Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2008 20:39:41 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: Comcast HD channels

Ms. Asbury,

I beg to differ. This has nothing to do with 1080i vs 720i. This seems to have every thing to due with Comcast over compressing HD singles in limited bandwidth, and not informing your customers regarding the degraded HD signals, nor offering your customers a reduced rate for the degraded HD signal.

This seems to be nothing more than a marketing campaign to try and be able to state that "we have more HD than XYZ". Seeing that FIOS is available, and that Direct TV has just launched another satellite offering HD, I no longer see any reason to hang on to Comcast's degraded HD service.

Dave R

It's not up to Ken to do the dealership's PR. Any new impositions by the dealer are moot. You can't add on conditions after the fact.

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