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materialism
jobs
7 Steps To Developing A Strong Network In Case You Get Fired
What's the first thing you would do if you were fired? Punch your boss? Cry like a baby? Throw a party?Financial blogger Brandt Smith at Get Rich Slowly suggests that your first step should be to contact your network, and he backs up his assertion with a real-life success story. He also shares seven keys to developing a strong network: More »
interviews
CEOs Who Lost Their Jobs Talk About What Went Wrong
Fortune's new article "Lessons of the fall" is interesting and entertaining for two reasons. First, it humanizes brings a human face to the usually remote CEO, in this case the exes at Motorola, Starbucks, and Jet Blue. But more important if you're a wage slave who can admit to a little schadenfreude, it describes how each man was fired from his job. Former Starbucks CEO Jim Donald, who's in his fifties, says the hardest thing was letting his mother know:
More »First phone call was to my mom. Probably the toughest day I've ever faced, ever. Ever, ever, ever! Because moms have a way of putting their sons up on pedestals. I said, "Mom, how are you?" And she goes, "Great. Why are you calling me at ten in the morning?" I just said, "Hey, I just want to tell you, I'm not with Starbucks anymore, but everything is fine."
interviews
Craigslist CEO: Be Successful In Business By Pleasing Customers
Craiglist's CEO, Jim Buckmaster, gave a fantastic interview to Marketplace's Kai Ryssdal yesterday in which he explained that Craigslist runs its business by simply doing what its users want. Why doesn't Craigslist have ads? The users never asked for them. How do they decide what cities to introduce? They wait for the users to tell them. Is he crazy? More »
videos
Interview: Ralph Nader Says We're Living Under Corporate Fascism
Ralph Nader, running for President in 2008, sat down with Red Tape Chronicles to talk about the current deplorable state of consumer affairs. The video kicks butt and reminds me why I get up in the morning. Highlights:
On the derailing of the consumer protection movement: Laws aren't being enforced, not enough prosecutors on the corporate fraud beat.
On the other candidates: Their campaigns are based on law and order. Not one has put the words consumer and protection together in one of their speeches.
On unfair contracts: A common clause now says that the seller has the right to change terms of contract at any time, that's the end of contract law.
On the sub-prime meltdown: It's the government's job to force credit rating settings. There should be a plain-language law mandating that mortgages are written in a language average people can understand
On education: Spend so much time teaching students to use computers but we don't teach kids how to shop for their maximum health safety and economic well-being... what's the point of earning money if you're just going to lose it to corporate scams?
On activism: You want a better country, you've got to spend more of your time more time away from american idol, and more time on your members of Congress. We're millions of people, but corporations don't have a single vote, and members of congress are there because of our votes, so make those votes count.
Video inside.
More »
features
"There's only one leverage any consumer has with a company. And that's financial." So says Ron Burley, author of UNSCREWED: The Consumer's Guide To Getting What You Paid For. I got to interview Ron Burley to plumb his brain about his customer satisfaction hacks, and the current state of affairs of customer service. His techniques are bold and make no apologies. We're not talking letters, and forms, and complaint departments. These are real methods for real people that work real fast. He also goes into the mindset that you need to develop if you're going to get results. Bookmark this post, it's an epic barnburner. Transcript, inside...
More »
Interview With Ron Burley, Customer Service Avenger
"There's only one leverage any consumer has with a company. And that's financial." So says Ron Burley, author of UNSCREWED: The Consumer's Guide To Getting What You Paid For. I got to interview Ron Burley to plumb his brain about his customer satisfaction hacks, and the current state of affairs of customer service. His techniques are bold and make no apologies. We're not talking letters, and forms, and complaint departments. These are real methods for real people that work real fast. He also goes into the mindset that you need to develop if you're going to get results. Bookmark this post, it's an epic barnburner. Transcript, inside...
More »
12:00 PM on Wed Mar 12 2008
By Ben Popken
13,267 views,
40 comments
Latest by n/a: OK, I have not read this book, only this blog and its accompanying posts. Burley's advice does not seem more »
free speech
Complaint Remover is a special service that says it gets rid of "defamatory" and "negative links" on the internet for you:
Complaint Remover Gets Rid Of "Negative Links," Including LOLCats
Complaint Remover is a special service that says it gets rid of "defamatory" and "negative links" on the internet for you: The immediate goal of our service is to stop defamation by positioning links on the Search Engines and by appeals to law to remove negative information. We send cease and desist letters and if necessary, file legal actions against the perpetrators and Internet service providers contributing to the unjust defamation of our members.Their site has an online chat function with a customer service rep and we decided to ask if they could help us take a crap all over free speech, and how much that would cost... More »
9:53 AM on Thu Mar 6 2008
By Ben Popken
143,751 views,
144 comments
Latest by n/a: That's sort of impressive though they're willing to stalk and murder people and sit in jail to protect their clients, more »
investing
Interview With An Anonymous Hedge Fund Manager
n+1 magazine has an incredible interview with an anonymous hedge fund manager. The HFM discusses everything from our weak currency to the lazy bond rating agencies who are, in their own way, complicit in the subprime meltdown:n+1: What's a paradigm shift in finance?More »
advocacy
Robert Reich Talks About His Book "Supercapitalism"
Apparently "Supercapitalism" is making the rounds over at AlterNet, because they keep writing about it. This time there's a good interview with the author, former labor secretary Robert Reich, and he takes the opportunity to summarize his main arguments from the book. More »
exclusives
Sprint Customers Terminated For Complaining Too Much Were Scamming Sprint For Free Service
Sprint announced Monday it was canceling the accounts of around 1,000 people who called customer service too much. At first blush, it might sound like a pretty jerk thing to do, have bad service and then punish people who complain, but we spoke with one of our most reliable Sprint insiders, who had a different side to the story: the terminated customers were scamming Sprint, calling in again and again, just to get free service credits.
More »
interviews
Why Geeks Steal Porn From Your Computer
hashand: I used to work at a computer repair place. All the stuff you're finding isn't limited to Best Buy. We had a 2 TB [terabyte] server of mp3s.
The problem is that management at these places typically aren't that tech literate and the techs are underpaid skeezy comp-sci majors. One guy actually resold to amateur porn sites with what he found. A 4-year degree for 9.50 an hour and that's the kind of "great attitude" you end up with.
benpopken: Precisely the scenario I envisioned, reselling to amateur sites.
hashand: Yah. 11 years at these places. Geek Squad didn't start it. It's the industry.
politics
The Consumerist Interviews Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Presidential Candidate
Congressman Dennis Kucinich is making another run at the Presidency, after a heavily criticized run the Democratic nomination last time, where he was written off as "a Howard Dean without the poll numbers," whatever that means. Now, he faces a primary in his home state by another Progressive politician upset with Kucinich's absences from their Ohio district. More »
ivr
Consumerist Interviews Peter Leppik, CEO Of Company That Conducts Those End Of Call Surveys, So You Know He Knows A Little Something About Call Centers And Customer Service
We emailed the CEO of Vocal Labs, a phone survey company that specializes in measuring customer service quality, three simple questions about his business. More »
underdogs
Consumerist Interviews Former Senator Mike Gravel, Rogue Presidential Candidate
Of all the presidential forerunners, Mike Gravel might be the one most likely, or the one who most needs, to read The Consumerist. He's done battle with the credit card industry, and creditors, both in public office and in private life. More »
interviews
"Security Mostly Follows Black People" Disgruntled Target Worker Alleges
UPDATE: A current Target employee rebuts these statements, inside... More »
Ritz Camera Or Scamera? An Interview With A Former Employee
Before you shop at Ritz Camera, you'll want to read inside about what a disgruntled ex employee terms:
• The Classes Scam
• The Return Scam and
• The Price-Match Scam.
Before you shop at Ritz Camera, you'll want to read inside about what a disgruntled ex employee terms:
• The Classes Scam• The Return Scam and
• The Price-Match Scam.
interviews
DS-MAX Was A "Sales Cult," Says Former Employee
steve-o: OH MAN! IDT is DS/MAX?! I worked for them! Worst 4 days of my life. Thank god I got out before they made me buy my own product.They told me it was B2B marketing, when in reality we were driving around from strip mall to strip mall trying to sell Disney books, umbrellas that looked like a duck, and other assorted crapsteve-o: it works exactly like a cult, complete with the nonsensical chanting
benpopken: you were in product clearance
benpopken: IDT isn't ds-max
steve-o: Midtown Promotions is
steve-o: and they send out the IDT ppl
benpopken: IDT contracted out to Midtown, which is assoc with DSmax
benpopken: apparently now DS-Max is called "Innovage"
steve-o: well if you ever wondered how they're structured, all you have to do is look up the signs of a cult
steve-o: because they hit all the requirements
benpopken: tell me about your adventures
steve-o: My first day there was an 'interview' in what was essentially a warehouse... More »
followups
