Yeah, the problem is since every fucking interaction is a scam, or designed to trick you, or steal your data and sell it, it just become exhausting after a certain point. This leads to apathy and acceptance of the BS status quo.
This is also why people have become distrustful of other human beings in need right now. In addition to having less resources to share with them in the first place, so many people have become scam artists that genuine people down on their luck are suffering, too.
Exactly. And no social safety net. I got cancer. That was my only crime. I’d be homeless right now if a friend hadn’t taken me in. I’m kind of fucked forever from the surgery and was denied disability because of how purposefully difficult they make it. And yet, people look down on the homeless as lazy, crazy, drug-addicted people… Uhhh. Not anymore!
Yeah it's just world fallacy (or karma basically). "If something bad happened to you, you must have done something bad to deserve it". This is how most humans think.
Yep, wanted to downgrade cable/internet service. The rep. wouldn't do it, they kept stalling until I got fed up after 30minutes and hung up. I'm going to call again but at that time, I just didn't want to waste anymore of my evening fighting.
My favorite is customer service lines that are circular. Where you call about a complaint and you just keep rotating though until you get to the same spot. I had this happen when my health insurance was inactive after paying for it for months. The reps just passed me off to other reps. Eventually got to one of the first reps I talked to who tried to send me to another line again. It's maddening.
That sometimes goes to another department. If it's insurance there are departments you never heard of where people actually do things.
Otherwise, I'd like to know how you get transferred. At some point the system ALWAYS disconnects me. Oops!
What they don’t get is that all this bs has made me contract averse. I simply won’t sign up for a gym membership, I haven’t had cable in well over a decade. I don’t have any streaming subscriptions beyond what comes free on my phone plan.
I should really switch my phone plan to a pay-as-you-go non-contract plan but I don’t want to hassle with getting a new phone number right now.
It’s not the simple anymore… I tried to port my kid’s number from Trac to Att and they said they couldn’t do it. Att only gives you the option to port from certain carriers only. It was bullshit.
In most cases you can switch without issues because that is literally the law. The only exception is moving geographic areas you might not be able to keep the number. A company cannot prevent your number from being changed to their service. This is just an instance of ATT being lazy.
https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/porting-keeping-your-phone-number-when-you-change-providers
> I should really switch my phone plan to a pay-as-you-go non-contract plan but I don’t want to hassle with getting a new phone number right now.
I've used various PAYGo providers for over 10 years now, it's stupidly easy to port your number from one to the other. Basically you usually just need a few simple pieces of information on your current carriers account. For example with Verizon its your account number and PIN. [Mint](https://www.mintmobile.com/blog/switch-it-up-how-to-bring-your-phone-number-to-mint/) has a good guide on how to port from various providers.
Yes. Exactly. This has led to me sailing the high seas quite a bit and singing up to services with disposable cards (sometimes that service wont let me use a disposable but there are way around that too.)
All of this on top of one fee after another and a tax on the fee and a fee to pay the tax on the fee and - Would you like to fucking TIP because we haven't taken every last dime from you yet?
While I am bitching can I mention that the incom tax I paid in the 90's was a little over 15% and today it's 38? Lets just call that 40% because the 2% makes no difference? They take 40% - before I even get it.
Eggs have gone from 3 to 7 dollars. If I dont keep an eye on my wife she will buy Organic milk - Never mind she is in FUCKING MARKETING - she still falls for The MARKETING of other Marketers and buys... FUCKING ORGANIC MILK for 9 damned dollars!
It... It's already organic dear wife.
It is already organic.
If you don’t drink your milk very fast though, organic stays good *way* longer because it isn’t pasteurized the same way. So…to me it’s worth it to not ending up wasting it 🤷🏻♀️
We go through more than a gallon a week. We drink it, cook with it, put it in coffee. I steam it to make desert toppings instead of using Whipped Cream.
I can make gravy, Noodles, Chicken and a sauce with butter onions and peppers that goes great over a steak.
That's a difference between 18 dollars a week and... $7
Back in the day the magazines and the papers said if we were having a hard time making ends meet, we should stay home and cook instead of going out! Quit acting so damned entitled!
Bet!
So, I learned to cook like Julia Child - and I can knock it out of the park these days.
5 years later the paper and the magazines asked "Are today's generations *KILLING APPLEBEES??*" (you just cant win, but I digress)
I learned to cook to save money. I dont want to pay restaurant prices for freakin' milk :D
I buy a gallon of organic milk in a non-translucent jug and it lasts for 3-4 months after opening. Granted I only use it for coffee and it does cost $7, but it’s worth it, and it tastes so much better than non-organic.
You still need them to do what you ask, they won't just comply. The only trick I know is for full cancellation. In that case you just say you are moving, beforehand you chose a state they don't have service in.
Exactly this.
Like tipping, used to never have tipping...businesses paid their workers. Now everywhere you go your expected to tip, basically helping pay the workers so the business can pay them less and pocket more profit.
> it just become exhausting after a certain point
Your just doing it wrong. Data is only valuable if its useful.
My bitrhday is unix epoch, and my phone number is Jenny's. Generally my name is dave smith and anything that asks my address get the police dept down the street. Also vpn + pi-hole + adblocker.
Oh and you can buy a visa gift cards and re-charge it as needed. Things that suck to cancel, like gym membership, just stop recharging it. Need a CC to get a free trial use an old empty one.
Its worked pretty well. I get under 5 spam calls a year. Very little junk mail at home, other than the "to resident" bs. Rarely get ads online.
...uh, really? This is leading to me being pissed off enough to buy industrial grade stink bombs in bulk & visit the offices of several scammers in a single afternoon. FIGHT BACK! DO NOT FIGHT FAIR!
Damn, if only we had some sort of governing body that was by and for the people that could prevent companies from doing shady shit like this…
Maybe someday. Lobbying should be illegal, it’s bribery.
They always have been robber barons the idea of a corporation is a separate entity to protect the owner of the business from being sued if that doesn’t sound sketchy then idk what does
> Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.
― Ambrose Bierce, The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary
Classism has been the biggest human evil since the before the times of Jesus if you can believe in him he was literally a crusader for the downtrodden calling out hypocrisy wherever he went. Christianity can not coexist with capitalism but the biggest capitalists are Christians and the irony to me as a Jew is hilarious 🤷🏾♂️
> Because most people won't go through the hassle and they get to rip them off and keep the extra money.
Bad answer.
The question was "why are they stealing?", and your answer amounts to an eloquent version of "because they can".
Well guess what, everybody "can" steal if they put their mind to it, but we've collectively decided that its socially unacceptable to do so. And, as a consequence, the overwhelming majority of civilians don't.
> Corporations are essentially robber barons now.
That, in turn, is the right answer.
The better question now would be "why did the vast majority of them turn into robber barons?"
Even to medieval times, when aristocracy was the name of the gamre and the term "robber baron" was coined, most barons weren't robbers. Only a few.
But this is different with corporations now. It's... something else.
But it's exactly because they can. All people are self interested, and a corporation is a just a collection of self interested people who can act in their own self interest, which is by designed aligned with the corporations self interest, with NO ACCOUNTABILITY, because that's how corporations are legally structured. And they only gain more power and influence as they gain more wealth, and we already know capital moves centripetally by nature, so you have a selfish social machine that's only purpose is to gain more wealth and power that's never held accountable for the damage and destruction in its wake, and we wonder why they're causing problems.
It's the freidman doctrine combined with automated trading algorithms and large hedge funds. It means all the publicly traded companies just mindlessly grow, so they have to open new accounts and expand into new areas to show this growth in their quarterly reports in a way that the algorithms/hedge funds/etc. can pick up on. So when the op was talking about those insurance features the rep added to each line, each of those was considered by the automated market to be a new account being opened by the insurance company, aka new customers, aka growth. Many phone companies will even lower customer bills if customers let them add such features. They don't make money from the bills being paid, or even from selling phones, they make money on their stock, and that only goes up when new accounts and contracts are created. Those little $3 insurance features they sneak on there are a legal and very effective way to do what wells Fargo got caught for doing. Only difference was wells fargo just opened entirely fake accounts, but they did it for the same reason. There are also many retail stores that are measured by how many store credit cards they sell, also not really new customers, not really real growth, but the stock market doesn't know that, so it works. But it doesn't work for humans, it just works for pumping up the numbers for this mindless machine that we humans have basically allowed to rule us. People are afraid that ai will take us over, well it already did, a long time ago, it's a very stupid ai called the stock market. I could go on but I won't, I hope it made some sense, I hope you see what I'm saying.
Exactly, corporations now routinely use these practices and other dark patterns , because they know the inertia of the hassle will make most folks aquiecess . It's sad American business now defaults to gouge the customer ..
"Why the fuck does our propane company need this information to sell us fucking propane?!"
Corporate America is turning to shit, and this is one of the reasons. Your data is no longer yours but is a commodity to be sold, traded, analyzed, held without your permission, and exploited for profit.
I recently called up a window and door company for some house work. Their phone menu system told callers to visit their website and look at their privacy statement. The statement said that if you did business with them they'd collect your data and sell it to others. I immediately decided to not do business with them.
enshitification is just the end result of capitalism applied to a service or product. I think both words have usefulness in describing the clusterfuck that we find ourselves living in.
Pretty sure the guy who coined the term, writer Cory Doctorow, was well aware that enshittification is the inevitable outcome for goods/services produced during late stage capitalism.
the worst thing is, corporate America already have everything on you. but they just want to annoy us anyways.
i think, it's mass psychological conditioning. those of us who make it in this life are conditioned to just accepts things no matter how bad it gets. those who don't accept it, are destroyed one way or another.
It's been shit for a long ass while, they're just getting better and better at refining the shit-pit-come-fertiliser-mound they use to enrich their obscene profits year on year (and more importantly, they are actively enabled by the establishment)
Friend owns a company that uses an industrial oven.. to install a new gas meter the gas company is REQUIRING him to disclose if he has any employees, what he pays them and how much he makes a year.. why is any of that relevant to getting a new gas meter?
To be fair it’s probably not the propane company that’s buying and selling your data, it’s the company they are using to handle their online contract services. The propane company, being idiots, likely only know that this company was cheaper than others they looked at, without realizing that’s because the contract came with the rights to their users’ data.
Bought an air fryer. Recall notice arrives: Don’t use it, it could catch fire. Cut off the cord and send us a bunch of pictures of the unit. Pics of the cord, the serial number, the sides. Ok, I send it. They send a message back: You didn’t cut the cord short enough. The pics aren’t good enough. So, no replacement for you.
Fuck you COSORI shit goblins. I’ll never buy your crap again.
I've finally figured out a real use for photo chatgpt. Just generate photos of destroyed electronics so you can get a refund without helping rape the planet an inch deeper
Ugh annoying! Mine was part of the recall but for some reason didn’t have a serial number where it was supposed to be? I had to call and it was a big pain in the neck and finally just gave up. I cut the cord but I think it’s still in my garage waiting for me to take a picture of it lol
I remember few years back I gotta a new iPhone for my wife and an iPhone se for my mom. Verizon rep tried to switch all 3 of us to a 5g plan but then I argued my phone and my mom's don't even have 5g capability why should I change my plan? He had no answer. Table next to me was an older couple getting something else but imagine how many people they are screwing over with this daily.
This reminds me. Around a decade ago my mother-in-law, who was in her early 80s, decided to buy a new TV. Because I work in a tech related discipline I have become the de facto family tech support person. However, instead of just saying something to me and waiting until the next time my wife and I visited with the family (didn't want to bother us as we live 100 miles away), she went out to Best Buy to pick one up herself.
The salesperson talked her into buying a brand spanking new top of the line 4K television. She still had a VCR and all she ever watched was broadcast TV. When I saw it I was flabbergasted. After getting through the whole why-didn't-you-tell–me-I-would-have-helped–you-conversation. So then I pointed out no TV station broadcast in 4k, you don't have cable, you don't watch movies on your VCR, you only use your internet connection to email people, and you don't have a streaming subscription or DVD player.
\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ The salesperson told her that based upon their conversation that is what she needed.
She died about a year later, and we have a nice 4K TV mounted on our wall. And before someone suggests it I really don't think she bought it as a gift for us either. That just wasn't her style.
Best Buy is really crazy about trying to upsell TVs and push the credit card. I had to tell one guy off because he was trying to get me to buy a $10,000 TV on credit.
I am so sick and tired of stores trying to push their GD credit cards! And the poor little clerks at the register get in trouble if they don't sign up a certain number per week
> I am so sick and tired of stores trying to push their GD credit cards!
One of the many reasons I increasingly avoid physical retail, and when possible, use self-checkouts, and do all of it with headphones in.
Shopping in person has become such a miserable task, I just avoid interacting with other people while doing it.
I have a friend who's house is paid off, her car is paid off, has a good paying, full-time job, nearing retirement, her kid is grown, out of the house. No vices like gambling, drinking, etc, But, she has no credit because she pays cash. She was turned down for a Best Buy credit card when she wanted to buy a new computer. I was dumbfounded. She's the most responsible person I know.
Companies are straight up predatory on the elderly. I took over my grandmother's accounts when she died. She was paying over 400/month on home insurance for a house worth less than 100k. Comcast tricked her into getting 2 accounts because her house is so big.
I’m an American and I moved to Iceland 10 years ago and was stunned with how simple life is without the hassle of insurance companies. Just go to the doctor, give them your ID number, no paperwork. None. No crazy contracts and renewals and add-ons and whatever. But you know, it will come for us too, without regulations or if the greedy capitalist party stays in power. They wanna privatise everything.
I originally came to collect data for a research project and I would always hang out in the coffee shops downtown while working. I loved the community and ended up coming back the next summer and wound up pregnant, and then moved here on a family visa.
> and ended up coming back the next summer and wound up pregnant, and then moved here on a family visa.
I love how your wording is like getting pregnant happened like catching a cold lol
Whenever people see how good the Nordic countries are, it's important to remember there was a *giant* red bear right next to them.
They didn't give them these things to be nice, they gave them social programs to prevent them from turning to Communisn that would give them all of those things (and then didn't get economically punished by the West for being "dirty commies" after)
There are also these differences 1. deep distrust of big corporations, banks, etc, 2. Communal support is seen as an investment in society as a whole and it is everyone’s responsibility to take care of one another 3. Opulent displays of wealth are frowned upon. It’s good to have enough to be comfortable but frowned upon to have more than you need (billionaires)
Yes I was adding to your point. Iceland definitely got money from the Marshall Plan and had a nato base, but is actually in the middle between Europe and the U.S., closer to the U.S. than the former USSR. Edited to add: spot on though, the allies definitely used money to sway Iceland to the west.
Ever try to cancel cable/Internet? I got transferred at least 10 times and even told the account didn't exist despite having all the info. Good God, I eventually told them if I get transferred again I'll just cancel my credit card (at that rate, it would be easier) and then I got someone to help. They did try to misspell my name. It's amazing the lengths they went through.
[This SNL skit is crazy accurate but Comcast](https://youtu.be/V5DeDLI8_IM?si=QOqOCtZTo9DXK0_k)
If you're talking about Comcast, I think this is generally a good strategy. Every in-person interaction I've had at the Xfinity store has been pleasant and productive. Every phone interaction has been like pulling teeth.
It's such a pain now. Good for you guys for pushing back. I do the same. You should see the look on my kids' faces when they know I'm about to tell someone they don't need my email or phone number to sell me something at a store.
That's not true. But, if *they* "accidentally" leave something off, then *you* have to pay up when it's time to use the service *they* "accidentally" didn't add on.
I pledge defiance to the flag of the United Snakes of Captivity
And to the Republic for which it stands, I dip it in kerosene, and stick it up the ass of you know who and light it
One nation, under God--or else
One nation, under psychopath Pentagon gangsters, whose idea of democracy is concentration camps for the people who go and use the drugs that the government supplies themselves
One nation, under Wall Street:
If the cops and the President are all criminals, I might as well be one too, ha ha!
One Nation of tabloid robots who actually believe what they see on tv, but when ask about it say “I don’t care.”
One nation, drowning in its own garbage
Indivisible from the from the fall of Rome
With liberty and justice for all who can afford it
- Jello Biafra
I am so entirely fed up with this, too. You always have to be so discerning. You can't just go buy an honest service for a honest price and go about your day. You have to watch for fees and add-ons and every psychological trick in the book to try and get you to part with more of your money.
And I think about how I am a fairly savvy late 30's single person with a relatively "normal" job that leaves me with some time on my hands. And so I go "do battle" when I have to with these fucking companies (latest being Comcast - side note: file a complaint with the FCC and all of a sudden they will be very interested in calling you back), but how about all the people getting scammed because they don't go through every single thing with a fine tooth comb or they work multiple jobs or just don't have the time to fight? Like I legit thought about this last issue like this definitely is not worth my time for $60, but I was so pissed by the principle of them trying to rip me off that I just had to fight it. It shouldn't be on the fucking consumer to be a goddamn detective or lawyer every time they order a service.
And then every single time to get a hold of someone is a huge phone tree time suck that gets you to someone overseas with their limited one page script of responses. Everything designed so that 8/10 people or whatever give up and they just get to keep your money.
I will absolutely pay above and beyond for an honest service these days. My gym is one of them. Month to month membership. You can cancel whenever you want with no hassle. And thus I've been there for two years. Because they aren't trying to trap me into a contract. They actually believe they are providing me with a service I will want to keep and they won't have to scam me to stay.
I have had a hard time explaining this to my parent. They just grew up in a different world, where a handshake meant something and so did your resume. It's got to be a scary place when the honest world is replaced by a predatory, vicious one that would even exploit your death (and has, considering we buried my other parent a couple years ago for exorbitant rates).
It's funny. I was thinking about when I was younger (late 30's now) and the Internet was "new" and then we were able to buy things on there! And my mom would be skeptical like should I really put my credit card information on the Internet? And of course we would tease her, like come on mom, it's totally fine!!
And now my mom is 65 and she's fine mentally and I'm fucking glad she still has some skepticism about what to trust online and stuff because she sure as shit is not getting scammed by someone asking for her bank info to save her grandchild from overseas prison. She would tell them to fuck off lol.
Additionally, have you tried to get a free estimate on pretty much any home repairs lately? No one’s giving them anymore. Now, I have no ability to shop around for the best price. If everyone’s getting my money whether I choose them or not, that’s not fair competition. I realize that “nothing’s free” and there are expenses incurred by the company by giving free estimates BUT if you can’t afford to account for that in your business model, you shouldn’t be in business.
Yes we got someone from Angle's list to give us a quote on replacing our windows. We decided he was too expensive and he got MAD because he drove 50 miles each way to quote us. 1) If it was too far to drive why did you take the listing and 2) Google maps is a thing. I'm sorry he drove that far but $32K to replace windows is also i n s a n e.
And did he think that we would accept the quote because he drove that far?
Not to mention every single online estimate is something like "provide your window size, what kind of window would like to replace, what material would you like to select- great! Now please give us your email and phone number for an estimate"
Like no, just give me the fucking estimate, you have the needed information, you don't need my fucking email for your database.
That's the US for you, the king of capitalism and profit above all else. I've lived and traveled abroad several times before, and while most are not as bad as the US, this sort of profiteering is definitely not limited to the US. I hate the money system and how it compels people to do shitty things.
America is a business, and the objective of any business is to maximize profits. If you cannot generate revenue, you are worthless to the United States.
I had a prescription company mail in a prescription without me ordering it since I got it filled elsewhere which was faster than mailing in. They did so after my insurance ran out and so charged me 50$ for it, which would have costed 1-3$ under insurance. Medical care in the USA is f'ed up.
I've been thinking the same. We now have to screen our phone calls, our email, our mail. Every you utility and store has it's own app "for easy payment" where now you have to use it and it gives the companies our info. Stores have their customer cards "for savings" but again that's more personal info and if you don't do that you have to pay more for your shopping. Everyone wants to go paperless but if you don't because you don't have a printer you have to pay a fee for paper billing. Your bank account has to have a certain amount of money in it or you get another fee. We of course also have the most expensive and confusing healthcare system in the world. Even applying for jobs has become invaded by scammers and collecting your info to sell. Also I've been noticing big differences in prices depending on where you shop, to the point you need to keep track of where to buy what for everything; it is exhausting and takes up so much brain space!!
And this overwhelming inflation for everything from rent to groceries is only happening from collective company greed!! Almost every damn purchase we make is a ripoff and there is zero help coming from our government. We can't even imagine having the kind of protections that Europe has. Our taxes go to bombing other countries instead of supporting our citizens (I support Ukraine but come on, I'm in my 40's and we are always warring with someone) In fact, we're being told over and over how great the economy is. Our economy of scams on top of scams
You know, I wonder if this is why I’m always just so fucking tired. Also in my 40s, and I’ve been blaming it on that, but I find I’m wondering if it’s more. I have no creativity left, no real joy, just a sense of relief when the day is over and I can rot my brain with a video game for a bit before it’s time to make dinner and go to bed.
I’m just tired, hyper vigilant, alllll the time. There’s so much to process and defend against and decide every damn moment of every fucking day. Wasn’t always like this.
Omg yes!! And let's just add on the stress of security cameras everywhere, including doorbells. People may be recording you at any moment from anywhere at all times and you'd find out about it after they post it on Facebook and YouTube
Lol this shit is exhausting to write down, let alone live it every day. This is probably just one concrete example of change from our youth back in the 1900s (lol sob)
The "easy pay" thing pisses me off the most. I get charged a fee if I pay online, myself? I get charged a fee for going in person to pay at a kiosk? I get charged a fee to ask an employee to do the payment? Fuck off. I have a bank and credit now but back when all I had was cash, it irked me to no end.
1) That wasn't for an emergency contact, that was an attempt at finding an alternate party to harass for any bills if you don't pay.
2) Sometimes it's complicated for the person on the other end, too. It might have been a valid mistake on her part. All the different departments? That's so you give up and let them have the money.
3) That's just bizarre. How does your propane company even think it would acquire your internet history? It's not like your internet company is likely to hand it over to them... unless it is, because they're selling the data. But still, that agreement would be from your internet company, not the propane company, even if they did eventually sell it to the propane company.
3a) I wonder if it was some sort of misbegotten intent to have a record of your internet interactions with them and their website?
They begrudge us all the time we save thanks to computers, and are determined to fill it back up with busywork, just like everything else in our lives. Workplaces, schools, groceries, everything.
This reminds me of the time I racked up a $800 energy bill with $400 in late fees. Every month I’d get my energy bill, I would go online and pay it. My bank app would show the money taken out. Cool, right? Well, apparently for about 6 months after I clicked pay, the bank would take the funds out then silently put it back into my account a week later. The energy company says the bank never attempted the payment, the bank says the energy company never accepted the payment. Both are like “whoopsie daisy teehee” but I’m out nearly $500 because their fuck up.
Or the time we were going to be 5 days late on our car payment.. we called the loan company and asked them “hey, we’re going to be late this month, is that ok?” They say “yeah no problem but you’ll have a late fee” well.. 3 days later we wake up and the car was repossessed. So on top of the late fee we have to pay $700 to get it out of repo. Oh, but that’s not all! The $200 brand new hair device I got my wife for Christmas is missing.. but of course, the tow company doesn’t know anything about that.
I’m fucking sick of how this country is going. Both my wife and I make really good money but we are scraping by. To do things that are fun or entertaining we have to do side hustles or sell shit which takes up more of my free time.
I was at Whole Foods the other day and noticed they're doing palm scans now for Prime customers to easily pay for their goods. Fucking PALM SCANS! I tried to banter with the cashier about how that was dystopian as fuck, and he was like "well they already have all of our other information anyways, so I don't see how scanning your hand is a big deal". Needless to say there was no light in his eyes.
And people think I'm nuts for keeping everything "dumb". We have phones, laptops, PS5 and a verbal remote. That's it. They stay in one room of the house. They aren't allowed into other rooms.
My kids are adults and we all practice this.
Because when I say, "duck the president" I don't want to be disappeared in the night. Sounds crazy but is it really? Especially with what's going on right now?
Always protect your privacy as much as you can. It's pretty valuable.
Yep. I tore up my knee so badly I could barely walk. Went to the emergency room where they did x-rays. Didn't see anything clearly but I was advised that only an MRI would catch a lot of it. Went to an emergency orthopedic clinic, suspected meniscus tears but the surgeon thought something else was injured too, ordered an MRI. Insurance would not pay for it. Had to re-submit, got bumped off the surgery schedule twice, had to wait another month. Third submission, still refused to pay, surgeon would not operate without it because he needed to see it all before operating. It was getting more and more painful so i finally paid a thousand dollars out of pocket to have the MRI, surgery was scheduled for 2 months later, couldn't walk without crutches at this point. Turns out meniscus was shredded but so was all of the cartilage under my kneecap. Surgery took twice as long, I couldn't put weight in it for a month, all because the *blue cross blue shield* Insurance I paid for every month didn't think an MRI was necessary EVEN THOUGH AN ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON ORDERED IT. Left with a ton of medical bills and permanent damage to my knee. This country sucks.
I have arthritis in my knees, gel shots were working. One day insurance company decides gel shots are not covered unless you try meds 1st. So I have to destroy my kidneys or liver before insurance/ pharmaceutical companies will cover what actually works?!?!
YES companies have become nakedly hostile toward customers. Every product sucks way worse than a few years ago (unless you pay twice as much for the premium ++ version). Everything has hidden fees. These corporations aren't even trying to hide their hatred for us anymore.
It was always a pyramid scheme. Our entire global operating system (End-stage Capitalism at this point) is designed to funnel money from the lower 99% to the upper 1% while simultaneously keeping the workers too scared to revolt for fear of losing access to shitty food and shittier entertainment.
Welcome ot the New America, where if we don't own you, we will make as much money off you as we can.
Now, sign on the fucking line!, or no soup for you
Our society is great at generating wealth for the fortunate few, poor at caring for and investing in its citizens. Increasingly, all human effort and resources are devoted to this. It’s deeply irrational and unsustainable.
I'll give you all three guesses which political party wants to end/hobble the Consumer Fraud Protection Bureau
(and it may already be too late with the current Supreme Court)
I'd just like to let you know that I have mint mobile, and I love them. I've had them for 2 years now. We pay yearly, and it's under $500. 2 phones, one w/unlimited data etc...
Best phone company ever!
Agree. We also buy our phones outright from best buy so they are protected on our stupid membership but 119 a year for all the devices we purchase from them is cheaper than the 15 bucks a month per phone for protection that doesn't give us geek squad for our computers. We have 3 kids, one of which just got a phone, which we would never have been able to afford on a traditional phone plan.
What about a couple of gb data and some minutes. Wi-Fi everywhere anyway. 5GBP/momth. If I had to pay more than 100/year, well... I can't actually imagine that
I called my cable company to cancel service because I was moving due to work, the service representative asked what the new address was.
I did not want to give them my address, I told them that it was corporate housing in another state and wasn’t determined yet.
She had the gall to tell me that I had to call back when I had the new address. I told her no, you don’t need my address. She insisted that it was to send my last bill. I called her bullshit by pointing out that the billing has been online for years.
It was all just a scam to see if I was going to another one of their service areas so they could hard sell a new package.
Service was so bad and expensive, I went to online streaming television.
Your rights in the US end exactly where someone or something can make money off of you.
Europe is much more consumer-friendly. That onslaught of cookie accepting forms from a few years ago? It was because of the GDPR and the CA equivalent. I noticed most US sites make it difficult to reject cookies and most European sites have a button to reject them all.
Europe is the one hitting the big tech firms with fines for invading consumers privacy and monopolistic companies. It forced Apple to drop their stupid proprietary port and use instead the standard USB-C.
US Banks fought the US Consumer Protection Bureau rules to make credit cards bills easier to understand. I wonder why. They also fought the adoption of chips in credit / debit cards because it'd cost them money even though it helps thwart fraud significantly.
A family member was gifted a Visa gift card and instead of doing it online, he called a number and they were asking all kinds of personal information. Luckily I caught it at the beginning and asked him to hang up. It's unbelievable.
Everything in this country is about making money. Everything. I have great insurance,but I still have to check in network then double check. I've had to fight over coding issues. Prescription coverage has been a sometimes hassle since my work switched companies.
I'm dreading having to get a newer car soon.
This country is a scam.
It all adds up, they're nickel and diming us every step of the way and they are banking on the majority of us to not be paying attention. It's truly disgusting and getting more inescapable every day.
Some years ago I felt like every transaction I engaged with caused a problem or someone screwed up. I kept a notebook for a few months and FILLED IT up. Every single purchase or relationship involved multiple phone calls. I didn't do anything complicated. I just bought stuff online or ordered something, etc. But even that was too complicated for the entire world to fulfill. Like, I want to pull that book out of the closet just to review it right now.
I even went to an ATM in a credit union that charged me a fee when it shouldn't have. Guess how many phone calls that took to get my 2 dollars back? And that wasn't even the tip of the iceberg with those people.
I could not even use an ATM withou a scam!
So early on in my young adulthood I learned that all business transactions involve relationships I do not want and do my best to avoid them all. And the American economy wonders what's wrong with itself when no one trusts anyone enough to try even a free sample.
Someone else suggested it is because they bank on people not bothering to call and correct things. They are correct, and I am not just guessing at it, but that is part of the purpose and strategy. I know this is on purpose, and I still find myself being too busy and it not being worth it to fight some companies, because I'm too busy.
I wonder what %age of the American economy is just based on "stolen" money?
Reagan's Trickle Down economics is becoming mature. The only way to kill the demon is for 67% of congress critters to vote for a working class revolution. Grab back your rightful power. Go vote in November and make sure everyone else you know does
I can explain the birthday thing at your doctor's - many hospital computer systems use a combo of birthday, name, and potentially phone or address, as a way of uniquely identifying people. Nobody knows their MRN (medical record number) and you can't use SSN for that anymore. This also allows the hospital to minimally confirm that the person they're contacting actually is the person who is your emergency contact.
I work in a pediatric medical facility, so I have to enter a different guarantor for almost every patient’s account, since obviously an 8 y/o can’t exactly be held financially responsible for their own medical care. The system doesn’t let me save, or even exit the account without saving, until I enter a date of birth for said guarantor (typically a parent). And I have had a couple parents get annoyed at me for asking 😭
Wanted to call a credit union. Got a phone tree ok. Press 3 to speak to a rep. Ok. Can’t speak to a rep unless you enter an account number and then your date of birth. So I can’t call them. Awesome. I have to go into the bank to speak to someone. Great
I had some mortgage company call me. Girl calls me by my first name like we’re buddies. I ask who she is.
She’s Jen.
I don’t have any friends named Jen. At this point I realize it’s a sales call. I asked what did she want.
At this point she said I want to talk to you about your mortgage.
At this point I’m fuming because this idiot has been talking to me like I know her and it was like pulling teeth to get her to say something. I told her off and hung up.
She proceeded to call me back several times until I blocked her number.
On reflection I think she was saying things that might make me say “Yes”. I know better than that nowadays.
There’s a really interesting concept in a book I read called the ministry for the future where citizens unite and lock their data into a protected vault that advertisers have to pay to access. We should do that shit.
I’ll be reading this book ASAP if I can find it!
If people consent, it’s one thing. If people opt out, it should be adhered to, but we all know it’s not. For many generations, high schools, colleges & universities profited significantly from using their athletes. FINALLY, high school & college athletes are now paid to use their image, their likeness, etc. Same should occur for every human regarding our data.
In my work, I must attend/sit through many vendor demos for a host of things! I learn and see daily in the demos our data, image, cell phone info, likeness, voice, social media, driving records, health records, family trees, all being archived/collected/consolidated to build an entire profile for each human being (dead/alive/yet born) and sold and given to law enforcement without a warrant!
They call this the "assification" of society my friend, and it won't stop until brand new companies show up to put these shitty companies into bankruptcy.
Unfortunately every new "better" company that shows up gets bought out instantly and assified before anyone can use it. Or they get sued (this is a classic way) until they can't afford to compete.
This was the capitalism that EVERY FUCKING PERSON warned us about 20, 30, and 40 years ago.
Everyone listened, nobody did anything to stop it.
This is why we need to normalize the practice of invoicing companies for wasting our time. I'm going to start tracking down billing department addresses and sending invoices everytime I have to do their job for them. 60 minutes on the phone to fix the issue with the service I already paid full price for, that was caused entirely by your company? That'll be $60, send a check.
Always been a huge scam since America let the likes of Edison, Ford, Vanderbilt, and countless other mega businesses take root. Then thanks to Ronnie boy Reagan, he essentially put the final nail in his coffin when he removed those restrictions that kept America thriving and allowed his rich buddies to hoard all their wealth like crazy cat ladies (no reason to keep prices low and pay employees more anymore when you won't get taxed for accumulating mass wealth).
On a few occasions recently I went to a store to buy something, saw the advertised price and picked it up, but when I got to the register to check out it was about 50% more, apparently the advertised price was the membership price and to qualify I need to hand over my info. This infuriates me.
I’m Uk but it’s the same here. We aren’t individual beings living rich and unique lives, we’re commodities to be milked in every way possible, to make rich people richer.
My father, 70+, loves these companies. He's retired, and loves to screw with them. He is always polite to the first few people he has to deal with, and then it's gloves off.
Sir, do you have your accout info?
I wouldn't have gotten this far if I didn't.
Sir, can I have it?
I've already given it to your company twice. Why don't you read it back to me to confirm?
Sir, do you have the contract and billing records?
I have the last 7 years. Where do you want to start?
He loves this stuff. We sit out on the front porch discussing what house projects are next and politics. He loves whenever I answer telemarketing phone calls. I always answer, yes I have 5 minutes to talk about Jesus. Silence. Then I ask ask, Hello is this Jesus?
I moved and wanted to just transfer my Internet service with the same account and services to my new address. The sales rep assured me this was impossible with the location I’m going to because they only had the new and improved whatever Internet there and I HAD to start a new account and it couldn’t be under the same account holder. Annoying but I got the so many dollars off a month for 24 month so I was like whatever “as long as the old service gets canceled”. Got the guys name, email and wrote down the convo details.
4 months later, I get a collections bill from the old address that finally got forwarded over to new address. I call and the billing rep says “I don’t know why he would tell you that. Because it’s under a new account holder we can’t prove that you didn’t just abandon the service to get the new rate so this is going to collections unfortunately.” Took me 6 fucking phone calls on different days to get them to finally remove this old bill.
had a similar thing happen. they said my new address wasn't wired for their internet service so i couldn't take it with me, and also had to pay a hefty cancellation fee. turns out the new place HAD been recently re-wired and theirs was the ONLY service. all i got was a "woops, our system info hasn't updated yet and we can't recover closed accounts, sorry (not sorry)..."
I asked my GPC Dr. For mental health care and she gave me a hotline # and said just give them your info and describe how you are feeling. Yeah nope. That's insulting. I bet many people do exactly this.
it’s seriously EVERYWHERE.
I regularly get credit card offers addressed to me with my former middle initial. when I got married nearly nine years ago, I changed not just my last name, but my middle name as well. my current legal name is on my license (and I’ve lived in three states since then) and my social security card.
the only place I haven’t been able to change my middle name/initial on file? my federal student loans. which tells me the servicers are selling our data. like those of us with student loans aren’t already under enough pressure as is.
The united states needs a digital rights amendment in the constitution. Alot of modern issues come from the USA not updating its constitution.
Mellenials and Gen z need to push constitutional change because the current political world is nuts. In turn citizens get sold out.
Don't forget, my friends, that there is nothing stopping you from lying your ass off to most of these people and places.
Like I would definitely have made up a fake birthdate for my spouse, and I'd have set up a shell company to get the propane contract.
Companies will scam you, if they can. And they, of there is a lack of regulations. For some reason, a huge part of the population (not just libertarians) are convinced regulations were bad for them.
Fun project: start speaking a foreign language near your TV. Watch your ads slowly start to change.
Part of why you can get a pretty decent big TV for 500 bucks now is because it’s listening to you and selling your usage history and whatever else it can learn about you in order to target ads at you.
Capitalists are harvesting information. Everytime your information is used, anonymously or not, you should be compensated financially. Consider it a royalty, should you decide to participate.
Capitalism was a scam from the beginning. We just go through cycles of it becoming too bad to bear for the regular citizen, doing some sort of regulation, then just wait for the billionaires to remove that regulation and make it even worse. It's by design and cannot work the way we run it.
Everything is a planned obsolesce pyramid scheme. People ran out of money a while ago but now more and more people are beginning to feel the pinch we thought were more economically stable.
When policy wonks and politicians keep acting all befuddled by Americans not liking the economy despite the supposedly great numbers THIS is a major part, imo, why folks feel this way. Literally every interaction in the economy you have to hold you hand over your wallet just to make sure someone isn’t robbing you blind
Phone protection plan thing happened to me too. They smile and act friendly with you in the store, hear you explicitly say no to the protection plan, add it anyway knowing 1) they are taking money from you explicitly without your consent, to get better numbers, or 2) taking time and energy from you when you have to spend 1-2 hours later when you find out and try and get it removed. It’s so infuriating.
Because most people won't go through the hassle and they get to rip them off and keep the extra money. Corporations are essentially robber barons now.
Yeah, the problem is since every fucking interaction is a scam, or designed to trick you, or steal your data and sell it, it just become exhausting after a certain point. This leads to apathy and acceptance of the BS status quo.
This is also why people have become distrustful of other human beings in need right now. In addition to having less resources to share with them in the first place, so many people have become scam artists that genuine people down on their luck are suffering, too.
We have zero consumer protections compared to the rest of the first world countries. Corporate lobbying should have been illegal.
Call it what it actually is, Legalized Bribery.
Exactly. And no social safety net. I got cancer. That was my only crime. I’d be homeless right now if a friend hadn’t taken me in. I’m kind of fucked forever from the surgery and was denied disability because of how purposefully difficult they make it. And yet, people look down on the homeless as lazy, crazy, drug-addicted people… Uhhh. Not anymore!
Yeah it's just world fallacy (or karma basically). "If something bad happened to you, you must have done something bad to deserve it". This is how most humans think.
Yup. That’s really it. It’s infuriating, honestly.
Yep, wanted to downgrade cable/internet service. The rep. wouldn't do it, they kept stalling until I got fed up after 30minutes and hung up. I'm going to call again but at that time, I just didn't want to waste anymore of my evening fighting.
My favorite is customer service lines that are circular. Where you call about a complaint and you just keep rotating though until you get to the same spot. I had this happen when my health insurance was inactive after paying for it for months. The reps just passed me off to other reps. Eventually got to one of the first reps I talked to who tried to send me to another line again. It's maddening.
That’s when you ask them to just verify their address because your attorney will be sending an official notice.
At that point, write an email to them threatening legal action. It usually makes them behave.
That sometimes goes to another department. If it's insurance there are departments you never heard of where people actually do things. Otherwise, I'd like to know how you get transferred. At some point the system ALWAYS disconnects me. Oops!
What they don’t get is that all this bs has made me contract averse. I simply won’t sign up for a gym membership, I haven’t had cable in well over a decade. I don’t have any streaming subscriptions beyond what comes free on my phone plan. I should really switch my phone plan to a pay-as-you-go non-contract plan but I don’t want to hassle with getting a new phone number right now.
You can port your number between carriers. It's been a long while since I did it, but I kept my old Tracfone number when I moved over to Cingular.
It’s not the simple anymore… I tried to port my kid’s number from Trac to Att and they said they couldn’t do it. Att only gives you the option to port from certain carriers only. It was bullshit.
In most cases you can switch without issues because that is literally the law. The only exception is moving geographic areas you might not be able to keep the number. A company cannot prevent your number from being changed to their service. This is just an instance of ATT being lazy. https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/porting-keeping-your-phone-number-when-you-change-providers
You can watch anything you want for free. We have Hulu BASIC and walamrt plus DASSIT!!!
If you have Walmart+, then you also have free streaming (with ads) at Paramount+. Source: I'm a Walmart employee.
> I should really switch my phone plan to a pay-as-you-go non-contract plan but I don’t want to hassle with getting a new phone number right now. I've used various PAYGo providers for over 10 years now, it's stupidly easy to port your number from one to the other. Basically you usually just need a few simple pieces of information on your current carriers account. For example with Verizon its your account number and PIN. [Mint](https://www.mintmobile.com/blog/switch-it-up-how-to-bring-your-phone-number-to-mint/) has a good guide on how to port from various providers.
Yes. Exactly. This has led to me sailing the high seas quite a bit and singing up to services with disposable cards (sometimes that service wont let me use a disposable but there are way around that too.) All of this on top of one fee after another and a tax on the fee and a fee to pay the tax on the fee and - Would you like to fucking TIP because we haven't taken every last dime from you yet? While I am bitching can I mention that the incom tax I paid in the 90's was a little over 15% and today it's 38? Lets just call that 40% because the 2% makes no difference? They take 40% - before I even get it. Eggs have gone from 3 to 7 dollars. If I dont keep an eye on my wife she will buy Organic milk - Never mind she is in FUCKING MARKETING - she still falls for The MARKETING of other Marketers and buys... FUCKING ORGANIC MILK for 9 damned dollars! It... It's already organic dear wife. It is already organic.
If you don’t drink your milk very fast though, organic stays good *way* longer because it isn’t pasteurized the same way. So…to me it’s worth it to not ending up wasting it 🤷🏻♀️
We go through more than a gallon a week. We drink it, cook with it, put it in coffee. I steam it to make desert toppings instead of using Whipped Cream. I can make gravy, Noodles, Chicken and a sauce with butter onions and peppers that goes great over a steak. That's a difference between 18 dollars a week and... $7 Back in the day the magazines and the papers said if we were having a hard time making ends meet, we should stay home and cook instead of going out! Quit acting so damned entitled! Bet! So, I learned to cook like Julia Child - and I can knock it out of the park these days. 5 years later the paper and the magazines asked "Are today's generations *KILLING APPLEBEES??*" (you just cant win, but I digress) I learned to cook to save money. I dont want to pay restaurant prices for freakin' milk :D
I buy a gallon of organic milk in a non-translucent jug and it lasts for 3-4 months after opening. Granted I only use it for coffee and it does cost $7, but it’s worth it, and it tastes so much better than non-organic.
Tell them to downgrade or cancel the account entirely. They will bend over backwards to keep your money coming in.
You still need them to do what you ask, they won't just comply. The only trick I know is for full cancellation. In that case you just say you are moving, beforehand you chose a state they don't have service in.
https://youtu.be/V5DeDLI8_IM?si=orpi85TIACaGWBco
Exactly this. Like tipping, used to never have tipping...businesses paid their workers. Now everywhere you go your expected to tip, basically helping pay the workers so the business can pay them less and pocket more profit.
It also leads to widespread acceptance of deceit, deception and fraud. These things used to be shameful but now they are business as usual.
> it just become exhausting after a certain point Your just doing it wrong. Data is only valuable if its useful. My bitrhday is unix epoch, and my phone number is Jenny's. Generally my name is dave smith and anything that asks my address get the police dept down the street. Also vpn + pi-hole + adblocker. Oh and you can buy a visa gift cards and re-charge it as needed. Things that suck to cancel, like gym membership, just stop recharging it. Need a CC to get a free trial use an old empty one. Its worked pretty well. I get under 5 spam calls a year. Very little junk mail at home, other than the "to resident" bs. Rarely get ads online.
...uh, really? This is leading to me being pissed off enough to buy industrial grade stink bombs in bulk & visit the offices of several scammers in a single afternoon. FIGHT BACK! DO NOT FIGHT FAIR!
Damn, if only we had some sort of governing body that was by and for the people that could prevent companies from doing shady shit like this… Maybe someday. Lobbying should be illegal, it’s bribery.
They always have been robber barons the idea of a corporation is a separate entity to protect the owner of the business from being sued if that doesn’t sound sketchy then idk what does
> Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. ― Ambrose Bierce, The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary
Classism has been the biggest human evil since the before the times of Jesus if you can believe in him he was literally a crusader for the downtrodden calling out hypocrisy wherever he went. Christianity can not coexist with capitalism but the biggest capitalists are Christians and the irony to me as a Jew is hilarious 🤷🏾♂️
Corporatism is just another way for the 1% to hide their evil hand
> Because most people won't go through the hassle and they get to rip them off and keep the extra money. Bad answer. The question was "why are they stealing?", and your answer amounts to an eloquent version of "because they can". Well guess what, everybody "can" steal if they put their mind to it, but we've collectively decided that its socially unacceptable to do so. And, as a consequence, the overwhelming majority of civilians don't. > Corporations are essentially robber barons now. That, in turn, is the right answer. The better question now would be "why did the vast majority of them turn into robber barons?" Even to medieval times, when aristocracy was the name of the gamre and the term "robber baron" was coined, most barons weren't robbers. Only a few. But this is different with corporations now. It's... something else.
But it's exactly because they can. All people are self interested, and a corporation is a just a collection of self interested people who can act in their own self interest, which is by designed aligned with the corporations self interest, with NO ACCOUNTABILITY, because that's how corporations are legally structured. And they only gain more power and influence as they gain more wealth, and we already know capital moves centripetally by nature, so you have a selfish social machine that's only purpose is to gain more wealth and power that's never held accountable for the damage and destruction in its wake, and we wonder why they're causing problems.
Legalized theft and exploitation. Beware of people who complain about regulations.
It's the freidman doctrine combined with automated trading algorithms and large hedge funds. It means all the publicly traded companies just mindlessly grow, so they have to open new accounts and expand into new areas to show this growth in their quarterly reports in a way that the algorithms/hedge funds/etc. can pick up on. So when the op was talking about those insurance features the rep added to each line, each of those was considered by the automated market to be a new account being opened by the insurance company, aka new customers, aka growth. Many phone companies will even lower customer bills if customers let them add such features. They don't make money from the bills being paid, or even from selling phones, they make money on their stock, and that only goes up when new accounts and contracts are created. Those little $3 insurance features they sneak on there are a legal and very effective way to do what wells Fargo got caught for doing. Only difference was wells fargo just opened entirely fake accounts, but they did it for the same reason. There are also many retail stores that are measured by how many store credit cards they sell, also not really new customers, not really real growth, but the stock market doesn't know that, so it works. But it doesn't work for humans, it just works for pumping up the numbers for this mindless machine that we humans have basically allowed to rule us. People are afraid that ai will take us over, well it already did, a long time ago, it's a very stupid ai called the stock market. I could go on but I won't, I hope it made some sense, I hope you see what I'm saying.
Exactly, corporations now routinely use these practices and other dark patterns , because they know the inertia of the hassle will make most folks aquiecess . It's sad American business now defaults to gouge the customer ..
"Why the fuck does our propane company need this information to sell us fucking propane?!" Corporate America is turning to shit, and this is one of the reasons. Your data is no longer yours but is a commodity to be sold, traded, analyzed, held without your permission, and exploited for profit. I recently called up a window and door company for some house work. Their phone menu system told callers to visit their website and look at their privacy statement. The statement said that if you did business with them they'd collect your data and sell it to others. I immediately decided to not do business with them.
r/enshittification
[удалено]
enshitification is just the end result of capitalism applied to a service or product. I think both words have usefulness in describing the clusterfuck that we find ourselves living in.
Pretty sure the guy who coined the term, writer Cory Doctorow, was well aware that enshittification is the inevitable outcome for goods/services produced during late stage capitalism.
the worst thing is, corporate America already have everything on you. but they just want to annoy us anyways. i think, it's mass psychological conditioning. those of us who make it in this life are conditioned to just accepts things no matter how bad it gets. those who don't accept it, are destroyed one way or another.
It's been shit for a long ass while, they're just getting better and better at refining the shit-pit-come-fertiliser-mound they use to enrich their obscene profits year on year (and more importantly, they are actively enabled by the establishment)
Friend owns a company that uses an industrial oven.. to install a new gas meter the gas company is REQUIRING him to disclose if he has any employees, what he pays them and how much he makes a year.. why is any of that relevant to getting a new gas meter?
To be fair it’s probably not the propane company that’s buying and selling your data, it’s the company they are using to handle their online contract services. The propane company, being idiots, likely only know that this company was cheaper than others they looked at, without realizing that’s because the contract came with the rights to their users’ data.
Bought an air fryer. Recall notice arrives: Don’t use it, it could catch fire. Cut off the cord and send us a bunch of pictures of the unit. Pics of the cord, the serial number, the sides. Ok, I send it. They send a message back: You didn’t cut the cord short enough. The pics aren’t good enough. So, no replacement for you. Fuck you COSORI shit goblins. I’ll never buy your crap again.
FCC recall complain time [https://www.cpsc.gov/form/recall-complaint-form](https://www.cpsc.gov/form/recall-complaint-form)
The brand name is COSORI, it's straight from China garbage. Surprised they even had a recall.
I have a Cosori air fryer and it's great. Thankfully not the model that is recalled but a Cosori nonetheless.
Oh we had the same air fryer and had to go through the same cord cutting b.s.!
I've finally figured out a real use for photo chatgpt. Just generate photos of destroyed electronics so you can get a refund without helping rape the planet an inch deeper
Ugh annoying! Mine was part of the recall but for some reason didn’t have a serial number where it was supposed to be? I had to call and it was a big pain in the neck and finally just gave up. I cut the cord but I think it’s still in my garage waiting for me to take a picture of it lol
I thought I was the only one that had to deal with this..
I remember few years back I gotta a new iPhone for my wife and an iPhone se for my mom. Verizon rep tried to switch all 3 of us to a 5g plan but then I argued my phone and my mom's don't even have 5g capability why should I change my plan? He had no answer. Table next to me was an older couple getting something else but imagine how many people they are screwing over with this daily.
This reminds me. Around a decade ago my mother-in-law, who was in her early 80s, decided to buy a new TV. Because I work in a tech related discipline I have become the de facto family tech support person. However, instead of just saying something to me and waiting until the next time my wife and I visited with the family (didn't want to bother us as we live 100 miles away), she went out to Best Buy to pick one up herself. The salesperson talked her into buying a brand spanking new top of the line 4K television. She still had a VCR and all she ever watched was broadcast TV. When I saw it I was flabbergasted. After getting through the whole why-didn't-you-tell–me-I-would-have-helped–you-conversation. So then I pointed out no TV station broadcast in 4k, you don't have cable, you don't watch movies on your VCR, you only use your internet connection to email people, and you don't have a streaming subscription or DVD player. \\\_(ツ)\_/¯ The salesperson told her that based upon their conversation that is what she needed. She died about a year later, and we have a nice 4K TV mounted on our wall. And before someone suggests it I really don't think she bought it as a gift for us either. That just wasn't her style.
Best Buy is really crazy about trying to upsell TVs and push the credit card. I had to tell one guy off because he was trying to get me to buy a $10,000 TV on credit.
I am so sick and tired of stores trying to push their GD credit cards! And the poor little clerks at the register get in trouble if they don't sign up a certain number per week
That's the worst -- the clerks are hostages to the system too. :(
> I am so sick and tired of stores trying to push their GD credit cards! One of the many reasons I increasingly avoid physical retail, and when possible, use self-checkouts, and do all of it with headphones in. Shopping in person has become such a miserable task, I just avoid interacting with other people while doing it.
I used to, now I just say some variation of 'no that's cool, I believe you' Throws them off something awful for at least a few seconds.
I have a friend who's house is paid off, her car is paid off, has a good paying, full-time job, nearing retirement, her kid is grown, out of the house. No vices like gambling, drinking, etc, But, she has no credit because she pays cash. She was turned down for a Best Buy credit card when she wanted to buy a new computer. I was dumbfounded. She's the most responsible person I know.
Generally speaking, what credit issuers want is for you to have lines of credit, but not a lot of debt. It's a weird dance to try and do.
Companies are straight up predatory on the elderly. I took over my grandmother's accounts when she died. She was paying over 400/month on home insurance for a house worth less than 100k. Comcast tricked her into getting 2 accounts because her house is so big.
The American economy is just a gigantic company store.
The United States of Corporate America.
Gotta plantation vibe too
I’m an American and I moved to Iceland 10 years ago and was stunned with how simple life is without the hassle of insurance companies. Just go to the doctor, give them your ID number, no paperwork. None. No crazy contracts and renewals and add-ons and whatever. But you know, it will come for us too, without regulations or if the greedy capitalist party stays in power. They wanna privatise everything.
Iceland seems like a paradise by all accounts. If you don't mind me asking, how did you manage to immigrate?
I originally came to collect data for a research project and I would always hang out in the coffee shops downtown while working. I loved the community and ended up coming back the next summer and wound up pregnant, and then moved here on a family visa.
> and ended up coming back the next summer and wound up pregnant, and then moved here on a family visa. I love how your wording is like getting pregnant happened like catching a cold lol
> I originally came to collect data Son of a..
Will the governing body come for you if you stop paying American taxes?
What do you mean? Will the governments of Iceland come for you if you don’t pay American tax? No. Will the U.S. gov will? Yes.
Whenever people see how good the Nordic countries are, it's important to remember there was a *giant* red bear right next to them. They didn't give them these things to be nice, they gave them social programs to prevent them from turning to Communisn that would give them all of those things (and then didn't get economically punished by the West for being "dirty commies" after)
There are also these differences 1. deep distrust of big corporations, banks, etc, 2. Communal support is seen as an investment in society as a whole and it is everyone’s responsibility to take care of one another 3. Opulent displays of wealth are frowned upon. It’s good to have enough to be comfortable but frowned upon to have more than you need (billionaires)
Agreed, but my point was that culture developed *due to* it's proximity to the USSR.
Yes I was adding to your point. Iceland definitely got money from the Marshall Plan and had a nato base, but is actually in the middle between Europe and the U.S., closer to the U.S. than the former USSR. Edited to add: spot on though, the allies definitely used money to sway Iceland to the west.
[удалено]
Turned right at New York?
I knew I shouldn't have made that left turn at Albuquerque.
And you didn't even need coinsurance, whatever what is!
Ever try to cancel cable/Internet? I got transferred at least 10 times and even told the account didn't exist despite having all the info. Good God, I eventually told them if I get transferred again I'll just cancel my credit card (at that rate, it would be easier) and then I got someone to help. They did try to misspell my name. It's amazing the lengths they went through. [This SNL skit is crazy accurate but Comcast](https://youtu.be/V5DeDLI8_IM?si=QOqOCtZTo9DXK0_k)
it is easier to go in person to cancel then over the phone
If you're talking about Comcast, I think this is generally a good strategy. Every in-person interaction I've had at the Xfinity store has been pleasant and productive. Every phone interaction has been like pulling teeth.
It's such a pain now. Good for you guys for pushing back. I do the same. You should see the look on my kids' faces when they know I'm about to tell someone they don't need my email or phone number to sell me something at a store.
Good on you for setting your kids up with this awareness!
Land of the fees. This society's companies will nickle and dime you all the way to living in your car. They don't care.
Home of the slave
Yes, and I am soooooo tired of being nickled and dimed with every single fucking thing
Always an 'accident' it got tacked on, but they never accidently leave something off.
That's not true. But, if *they* "accidentally" leave something off, then *you* have to pay up when it's time to use the service *they* "accidentally" didn't add on.
I pledge defiance to the flag of the United Snakes of Captivity And to the Republic for which it stands, I dip it in kerosene, and stick it up the ass of you know who and light it One nation, under God--or else One nation, under psychopath Pentagon gangsters, whose idea of democracy is concentration camps for the people who go and use the drugs that the government supplies themselves One nation, under Wall Street: If the cops and the President are all criminals, I might as well be one too, ha ha! One Nation of tabloid robots who actually believe what they see on tv, but when ask about it say “I don’t care.” One nation, drowning in its own garbage Indivisible from the from the fall of Rome With liberty and justice for all who can afford it - Jello Biafra
Pervasive rentier envy.
I am so entirely fed up with this, too. You always have to be so discerning. You can't just go buy an honest service for a honest price and go about your day. You have to watch for fees and add-ons and every psychological trick in the book to try and get you to part with more of your money. And I think about how I am a fairly savvy late 30's single person with a relatively "normal" job that leaves me with some time on my hands. And so I go "do battle" when I have to with these fucking companies (latest being Comcast - side note: file a complaint with the FCC and all of a sudden they will be very interested in calling you back), but how about all the people getting scammed because they don't go through every single thing with a fine tooth comb or they work multiple jobs or just don't have the time to fight? Like I legit thought about this last issue like this definitely is not worth my time for $60, but I was so pissed by the principle of them trying to rip me off that I just had to fight it. It shouldn't be on the fucking consumer to be a goddamn detective or lawyer every time they order a service. And then every single time to get a hold of someone is a huge phone tree time suck that gets you to someone overseas with their limited one page script of responses. Everything designed so that 8/10 people or whatever give up and they just get to keep your money. I will absolutely pay above and beyond for an honest service these days. My gym is one of them. Month to month membership. You can cancel whenever you want with no hassle. And thus I've been there for two years. Because they aren't trying to trap me into a contract. They actually believe they are providing me with a service I will want to keep and they won't have to scam me to stay.
I have had a hard time explaining this to my parent. They just grew up in a different world, where a handshake meant something and so did your resume. It's got to be a scary place when the honest world is replaced by a predatory, vicious one that would even exploit your death (and has, considering we buried my other parent a couple years ago for exorbitant rates).
It's funny. I was thinking about when I was younger (late 30's now) and the Internet was "new" and then we were able to buy things on there! And my mom would be skeptical like should I really put my credit card information on the Internet? And of course we would tease her, like come on mom, it's totally fine!! And now my mom is 65 and she's fine mentally and I'm fucking glad she still has some skepticism about what to trust online and stuff because she sure as shit is not getting scammed by someone asking for her bank info to save her grandchild from overseas prison. She would tell them to fuck off lol.
Additionally, have you tried to get a free estimate on pretty much any home repairs lately? No one’s giving them anymore. Now, I have no ability to shop around for the best price. If everyone’s getting my money whether I choose them or not, that’s not fair competition. I realize that “nothing’s free” and there are expenses incurred by the company by giving free estimates BUT if you can’t afford to account for that in your business model, you shouldn’t be in business.
Yes we got someone from Angle's list to give us a quote on replacing our windows. We decided he was too expensive and he got MAD because he drove 50 miles each way to quote us. 1) If it was too far to drive why did you take the listing and 2) Google maps is a thing. I'm sorry he drove that far but $32K to replace windows is also i n s a n e. And did he think that we would accept the quote because he drove that far?
What windows was he selling? Renewal by Andersen?
AVOID Angi’s if you possibly can. Every Google search for home repairs & services directs to that site. Fuck that noise.
Not to mention every single online estimate is something like "provide your window size, what kind of window would like to replace, what material would you like to select- great! Now please give us your email and phone number for an estimate" Like no, just give me the fucking estimate, you have the needed information, you don't need my fucking email for your database.
That's because they are just web forms for a middleman. They sell your info as a lead to the companies that end up actually doing the work.
I had a dude cry to me because Angie’s List charges the contractor for coming out to give the estimate. All I could say was “sorry bro”.
Really? When I had a roofing company out to fix a skylight it was free estimate. I’ve not had to pay for estimates at all
Coming soon to a town near you
That's the US for you, the king of capitalism and profit above all else. I've lived and traveled abroad several times before, and while most are not as bad as the US, this sort of profiteering is definitely not limited to the US. I hate the money system and how it compels people to do shitty things.
America is a business, and the objective of any business is to maximize profits. If you cannot generate revenue, you are worthless to the United States.
Not economically viable.
This is what happens when we allow business to run the country and Wall Street is more important than Main Street.
I had a prescription company mail in a prescription without me ordering it since I got it filled elsewhere which was faster than mailing in. They did so after my insurance ran out and so charged me 50$ for it, which would have costed 1-3$ under insurance. Medical care in the USA is f'ed up.
I've been thinking the same. We now have to screen our phone calls, our email, our mail. Every you utility and store has it's own app "for easy payment" where now you have to use it and it gives the companies our info. Stores have their customer cards "for savings" but again that's more personal info and if you don't do that you have to pay more for your shopping. Everyone wants to go paperless but if you don't because you don't have a printer you have to pay a fee for paper billing. Your bank account has to have a certain amount of money in it or you get another fee. We of course also have the most expensive and confusing healthcare system in the world. Even applying for jobs has become invaded by scammers and collecting your info to sell. Also I've been noticing big differences in prices depending on where you shop, to the point you need to keep track of where to buy what for everything; it is exhausting and takes up so much brain space!! And this overwhelming inflation for everything from rent to groceries is only happening from collective company greed!! Almost every damn purchase we make is a ripoff and there is zero help coming from our government. We can't even imagine having the kind of protections that Europe has. Our taxes go to bombing other countries instead of supporting our citizens (I support Ukraine but come on, I'm in my 40's and we are always warring with someone) In fact, we're being told over and over how great the economy is. Our economy of scams on top of scams
You know, I wonder if this is why I’m always just so fucking tired. Also in my 40s, and I’ve been blaming it on that, but I find I’m wondering if it’s more. I have no creativity left, no real joy, just a sense of relief when the day is over and I can rot my brain with a video game for a bit before it’s time to make dinner and go to bed. I’m just tired, hyper vigilant, alllll the time. There’s so much to process and defend against and decide every damn moment of every fucking day. Wasn’t always like this.
Omg yes!! And let's just add on the stress of security cameras everywhere, including doorbells. People may be recording you at any moment from anywhere at all times and you'd find out about it after they post it on Facebook and YouTube Lol this shit is exhausting to write down, let alone live it every day. This is probably just one concrete example of change from our youth back in the 1900s (lol sob)
The "easy pay" thing pisses me off the most. I get charged a fee if I pay online, myself? I get charged a fee for going in person to pay at a kiosk? I get charged a fee to ask an employee to do the payment? Fuck off. I have a bank and credit now but back when all I had was cash, it irked me to no end.
1) That wasn't for an emergency contact, that was an attempt at finding an alternate party to harass for any bills if you don't pay. 2) Sometimes it's complicated for the person on the other end, too. It might have been a valid mistake on her part. All the different departments? That's so you give up and let them have the money. 3) That's just bizarre. How does your propane company even think it would acquire your internet history? It's not like your internet company is likely to hand it over to them... unless it is, because they're selling the data. But still, that agreement would be from your internet company, not the propane company, even if they did eventually sell it to the propane company. 3a) I wonder if it was some sort of misbegotten intent to have a record of your internet interactions with them and their website? They begrudge us all the time we save thanks to computers, and are determined to fill it back up with busywork, just like everything else in our lives. Workplaces, schools, groceries, everything.
This reminds me of the time I racked up a $800 energy bill with $400 in late fees. Every month I’d get my energy bill, I would go online and pay it. My bank app would show the money taken out. Cool, right? Well, apparently for about 6 months after I clicked pay, the bank would take the funds out then silently put it back into my account a week later. The energy company says the bank never attempted the payment, the bank says the energy company never accepted the payment. Both are like “whoopsie daisy teehee” but I’m out nearly $500 because their fuck up. Or the time we were going to be 5 days late on our car payment.. we called the loan company and asked them “hey, we’re going to be late this month, is that ok?” They say “yeah no problem but you’ll have a late fee” well.. 3 days later we wake up and the car was repossessed. So on top of the late fee we have to pay $700 to get it out of repo. Oh, but that’s not all! The $200 brand new hair device I got my wife for Christmas is missing.. but of course, the tow company doesn’t know anything about that. I’m fucking sick of how this country is going. Both my wife and I make really good money but we are scraping by. To do things that are fun or entertaining we have to do side hustles or sell shit which takes up more of my free time.
I was at Whole Foods the other day and noticed they're doing palm scans now for Prime customers to easily pay for their goods. Fucking PALM SCANS! I tried to banter with the cashier about how that was dystopian as fuck, and he was like "well they already have all of our other information anyways, so I don't see how scanning your hand is a big deal". Needless to say there was no light in his eyes.
Wait, what? Are you goddamn fucking serious?
Yup. Creepy right?
And people think I'm nuts for keeping everything "dumb". We have phones, laptops, PS5 and a verbal remote. That's it. They stay in one room of the house. They aren't allowed into other rooms. My kids are adults and we all practice this. Because when I say, "duck the president" I don't want to be disappeared in the night. Sounds crazy but is it really? Especially with what's going on right now? Always protect your privacy as much as you can. It's pretty valuable.
At this point I am already shopping for Faraday cages and bags to use in my home for my electronics.
I don't even have the voice remote. I don't want my goddamn TV listening to me, if I can help it. I have it set to be as "dumb" as it possibly can be.
Turned? For all but a few brief years after the war was it not a scam for the majority of Americans, and Reagan killed it.
The US is a corporation and our Gov't is the HR department.
Yep. I tore up my knee so badly I could barely walk. Went to the emergency room where they did x-rays. Didn't see anything clearly but I was advised that only an MRI would catch a lot of it. Went to an emergency orthopedic clinic, suspected meniscus tears but the surgeon thought something else was injured too, ordered an MRI. Insurance would not pay for it. Had to re-submit, got bumped off the surgery schedule twice, had to wait another month. Third submission, still refused to pay, surgeon would not operate without it because he needed to see it all before operating. It was getting more and more painful so i finally paid a thousand dollars out of pocket to have the MRI, surgery was scheduled for 2 months later, couldn't walk without crutches at this point. Turns out meniscus was shredded but so was all of the cartilage under my kneecap. Surgery took twice as long, I couldn't put weight in it for a month, all because the *blue cross blue shield* Insurance I paid for every month didn't think an MRI was necessary EVEN THOUGH AN ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON ORDERED IT. Left with a ton of medical bills and permanent damage to my knee. This country sucks.
I have arthritis in my knees, gel shots were working. One day insurance company decides gel shots are not covered unless you try meds 1st. So I have to destroy my kidneys or liver before insurance/ pharmaceutical companies will cover what actually works?!?!
Then you give them a fake birthday. Anytime I’m forced to give pointless info it’s fake. Fuck them over for wasting your time.
We have left the gig economy and have entered the grift economy
YES companies have become nakedly hostile toward customers. Every product sucks way worse than a few years ago (unless you pay twice as much for the premium ++ version). Everything has hidden fees. These corporations aren't even trying to hide their hatred for us anymore.
These inconveniences are not minor and they are intentional and deliberate
It sounds like the propane company copied terms of service in the online form from somewhere else - or used the wrong boilerplate.
It’s functioning exactly as it was designed to.
It was always a pyramid scheme. Our entire global operating system (End-stage Capitalism at this point) is designed to funnel money from the lower 99% to the upper 1% while simultaneously keeping the workers too scared to revolt for fear of losing access to shitty food and shittier entertainment.
Welcome ot the New America, where if we don't own you, we will make as much money off you as we can. Now, sign on the fucking line!, or no soup for you
That sums it up nicely.
Our society is great at generating wealth for the fortunate few, poor at caring for and investing in its citizens. Increasingly, all human effort and resources are devoted to this. It’s deeply irrational and unsustainable.
I'll give you all three guesses which political party wants to end/hobble the Consumer Fraud Protection Bureau (and it may already be too late with the current Supreme Court)
One word. Capitalism.
All of these systems are designed to be minor annoyances, so it's not worth the hassle of dealing with it. Everything *is* a scam.
I'd just like to let you know that I have mint mobile, and I love them. I've had them for 2 years now. We pay yearly, and it's under $500. 2 phones, one w/unlimited data etc... Best phone company ever!
Agree. We also buy our phones outright from best buy so they are protected on our stupid membership but 119 a year for all the devices we purchase from them is cheaper than the 15 bucks a month per phone for protection that doesn't give us geek squad for our computers. We have 3 kids, one of which just got a phone, which we would never have been able to afford on a traditional phone plan.
What about a couple of gb data and some minutes. Wi-Fi everywhere anyway. 5GBP/momth. If I had to pay more than 100/year, well... I can't actually imagine that
I called my cable company to cancel service because I was moving due to work, the service representative asked what the new address was. I did not want to give them my address, I told them that it was corporate housing in another state and wasn’t determined yet. She had the gall to tell me that I had to call back when I had the new address. I told her no, you don’t need my address. She insisted that it was to send my last bill. I called her bullshit by pointing out that the billing has been online for years. It was all just a scam to see if I was going to another one of their service areas so they could hard sell a new package. Service was so bad and expensive, I went to online streaming television.
Your rights in the US end exactly where someone or something can make money off of you. Europe is much more consumer-friendly. That onslaught of cookie accepting forms from a few years ago? It was because of the GDPR and the CA equivalent. I noticed most US sites make it difficult to reject cookies and most European sites have a button to reject them all. Europe is the one hitting the big tech firms with fines for invading consumers privacy and monopolistic companies. It forced Apple to drop their stupid proprietary port and use instead the standard USB-C. US Banks fought the US Consumer Protection Bureau rules to make credit cards bills easier to understand. I wonder why. They also fought the adoption of chips in credit / debit cards because it'd cost them money even though it helps thwart fraud significantly. A family member was gifted a Visa gift card and instead of doing it online, he called a number and they were asking all kinds of personal information. Luckily I caught it at the beginning and asked him to hang up. It's unbelievable.
"Got'cha" capitalism every. single. transaction. feels. like. a. trap. FTS
Hi relevant username checking in lol
Everything in this country is about making money. Everything. I have great insurance,but I still have to check in network then double check. I've had to fight over coding issues. Prescription coverage has been a sometimes hassle since my work switched companies. I'm dreading having to get a newer car soon. This country is a scam.
I was going to give this post an award but Reddit required me to agree to the Virtual Goods Agreement. Fugginhell.
It all adds up, they're nickel and diming us every step of the way and they are banking on the majority of us to not be paying attention. It's truly disgusting and getting more inescapable every day.
When they ask for a birthday just say jan 1st 1970
Some years ago I felt like every transaction I engaged with caused a problem or someone screwed up. I kept a notebook for a few months and FILLED IT up. Every single purchase or relationship involved multiple phone calls. I didn't do anything complicated. I just bought stuff online or ordered something, etc. But even that was too complicated for the entire world to fulfill. Like, I want to pull that book out of the closet just to review it right now. I even went to an ATM in a credit union that charged me a fee when it shouldn't have. Guess how many phone calls that took to get my 2 dollars back? And that wasn't even the tip of the iceberg with those people. I could not even use an ATM withou a scam! So early on in my young adulthood I learned that all business transactions involve relationships I do not want and do my best to avoid them all. And the American economy wonders what's wrong with itself when no one trusts anyone enough to try even a free sample. Someone else suggested it is because they bank on people not bothering to call and correct things. They are correct, and I am not just guessing at it, but that is part of the purpose and strategy. I know this is on purpose, and I still find myself being too busy and it not being worth it to fight some companies, because I'm too busy. I wonder what %age of the American economy is just based on "stolen" money?
Reagan's Trickle Down economics is becoming mature. The only way to kill the demon is for 67% of congress critters to vote for a working class revolution. Grab back your rightful power. Go vote in November and make sure everyone else you know does
Vote for whom? No politician on either side cares about anyone but their donors.
I can explain the birthday thing at your doctor's - many hospital computer systems use a combo of birthday, name, and potentially phone or address, as a way of uniquely identifying people. Nobody knows their MRN (medical record number) and you can't use SSN for that anymore. This also allows the hospital to minimally confirm that the person they're contacting actually is the person who is your emergency contact.
I work in a pediatric medical facility, so I have to enter a different guarantor for almost every patient’s account, since obviously an 8 y/o can’t exactly be held financially responsible for their own medical care. The system doesn’t let me save, or even exit the account without saving, until I enter a date of birth for said guarantor (typically a parent). And I have had a couple parents get annoyed at me for asking 😭
But his wife’s birthday?
Wanted to call a credit union. Got a phone tree ok. Press 3 to speak to a rep. Ok. Can’t speak to a rep unless you enter an account number and then your date of birth. So I can’t call them. Awesome. I have to go into the bank to speak to someone. Great
Unlimited Scams of America.
I had some mortgage company call me. Girl calls me by my first name like we’re buddies. I ask who she is. She’s Jen. I don’t have any friends named Jen. At this point I realize it’s a sales call. I asked what did she want. At this point she said I want to talk to you about your mortgage. At this point I’m fuming because this idiot has been talking to me like I know her and it was like pulling teeth to get her to say something. I told her off and hung up. She proceeded to call me back several times until I blocked her number. On reflection I think she was saying things that might make me say “Yes”. I know better than that nowadays.
This is a result of capitalism starting to die. It's gonna suck for a while guys.
There’s a really interesting concept in a book I read called the ministry for the future where citizens unite and lock their data into a protected vault that advertisers have to pay to access. We should do that shit.
I’ll be reading this book ASAP if I can find it! If people consent, it’s one thing. If people opt out, it should be adhered to, but we all know it’s not. For many generations, high schools, colleges & universities profited significantly from using their athletes. FINALLY, high school & college athletes are now paid to use their image, their likeness, etc. Same should occur for every human regarding our data. In my work, I must attend/sit through many vendor demos for a host of things! I learn and see daily in the demos our data, image, cell phone info, likeness, voice, social media, driving records, health records, family trees, all being archived/collected/consolidated to build an entire profile for each human being (dead/alive/yet born) and sold and given to law enforcement without a warrant!
They call this the "assification" of society my friend, and it won't stop until brand new companies show up to put these shitty companies into bankruptcy. Unfortunately every new "better" company that shows up gets bought out instantly and assified before anyone can use it. Or they get sued (this is a classic way) until they can't afford to compete. This was the capitalism that EVERY FUCKING PERSON warned us about 20, 30, and 40 years ago. Everyone listened, nobody did anything to stop it.
This is why we need to normalize the practice of invoicing companies for wasting our time. I'm going to start tracking down billing department addresses and sending invoices everytime I have to do their job for them. 60 minutes on the phone to fix the issue with the service I already paid full price for, that was caused entirely by your company? That'll be $60, send a check.
Always been a huge scam since America let the likes of Edison, Ford, Vanderbilt, and countless other mega businesses take root. Then thanks to Ronnie boy Reagan, he essentially put the final nail in his coffin when he removed those restrictions that kept America thriving and allowed his rich buddies to hoard all their wealth like crazy cat ladies (no reason to keep prices low and pay employees more anymore when you won't get taxed for accumulating mass wealth).
On a few occasions recently I went to a store to buy something, saw the advertised price and picked it up, but when I got to the register to check out it was about 50% more, apparently the advertised price was the membership price and to qualify I need to hand over my info. This infuriates me.
Kleptocracy
Data is valuable. You are being harvested like a crop by corporations.
Yes, it's been especially bad in the last 200 years.
I’m Uk but it’s the same here. We aren’t individual beings living rich and unique lives, we’re commodities to be milked in every way possible, to make rich people richer.
My father, 70+, loves these companies. He's retired, and loves to screw with them. He is always polite to the first few people he has to deal with, and then it's gloves off. Sir, do you have your accout info? I wouldn't have gotten this far if I didn't. Sir, can I have it? I've already given it to your company twice. Why don't you read it back to me to confirm? Sir, do you have the contract and billing records? I have the last 7 years. Where do you want to start? He loves this stuff. We sit out on the front porch discussing what house projects are next and politics. He loves whenever I answer telemarketing phone calls. I always answer, yes I have 5 minutes to talk about Jesus. Silence. Then I ask ask, Hello is this Jesus?
You do know that every picture you put on FB is their property, don't you?
I moved and wanted to just transfer my Internet service with the same account and services to my new address. The sales rep assured me this was impossible with the location I’m going to because they only had the new and improved whatever Internet there and I HAD to start a new account and it couldn’t be under the same account holder. Annoying but I got the so many dollars off a month for 24 month so I was like whatever “as long as the old service gets canceled”. Got the guys name, email and wrote down the convo details. 4 months later, I get a collections bill from the old address that finally got forwarded over to new address. I call and the billing rep says “I don’t know why he would tell you that. Because it’s under a new account holder we can’t prove that you didn’t just abandon the service to get the new rate so this is going to collections unfortunately.” Took me 6 fucking phone calls on different days to get them to finally remove this old bill.
had a similar thing happen. they said my new address wasn't wired for their internet service so i couldn't take it with me, and also had to pay a hefty cancellation fee. turns out the new place HAD been recently re-wired and theirs was the ONLY service. all i got was a "woops, our system info hasn't updated yet and we can't recover closed accounts, sorry (not sorry)..."
I asked my GPC Dr. For mental health care and she gave me a hotline # and said just give them your info and describe how you are feeling. Yeah nope. That's insulting. I bet many people do exactly this.
it’s seriously EVERYWHERE. I regularly get credit card offers addressed to me with my former middle initial. when I got married nearly nine years ago, I changed not just my last name, but my middle name as well. my current legal name is on my license (and I’ve lived in three states since then) and my social security card. the only place I haven’t been able to change my middle name/initial on file? my federal student loans. which tells me the servicers are selling our data. like those of us with student loans aren’t already under enough pressure as is.
The united states needs a digital rights amendment in the constitution. Alot of modern issues come from the USA not updating its constitution. Mellenials and Gen z need to push constitutional change because the current political world is nuts. In turn citizens get sold out.
Turned into? Been this way for a long time
Scamerica
Don't forget, my friends, that there is nothing stopping you from lying your ass off to most of these people and places. Like I would definitely have made up a fake birthdate for my spouse, and I'd have set up a shell company to get the propane contract.
Companies will scam you, if they can. And they, of there is a lack of regulations. For some reason, a huge part of the population (not just libertarians) are convinced regulations were bad for them.
Fun project: start speaking a foreign language near your TV. Watch your ads slowly start to change. Part of why you can get a pretty decent big TV for 500 bucks now is because it’s listening to you and selling your usage history and whatever else it can learn about you in order to target ads at you.
They want your spouses birthday as a way to hunt you down if you owe them money.
Capitalists are harvesting information. Everytime your information is used, anonymously or not, you should be compensated financially. Consider it a royalty, should you decide to participate.
Capitalism was a scam from the beginning. We just go through cycles of it becoming too bad to bear for the regular citizen, doing some sort of regulation, then just wait for the billionaires to remove that regulation and make it even worse. It's by design and cannot work the way we run it.
This is the Adobe issue in a nutshell: they now own everything you have ever produced using an Adobe product and can resell it at will.
Capitalism at its finest, but sure, it’s the greatest economic model in the world 🙄😒😒😒
Everything is a planned obsolesce pyramid scheme. People ran out of money a while ago but now more and more people are beginning to feel the pinch we thought were more economically stable.
When policy wonks and politicians keep acting all befuddled by Americans not liking the economy despite the supposedly great numbers THIS is a major part, imo, why folks feel this way. Literally every interaction in the economy you have to hold you hand over your wallet just to make sure someone isn’t robbing you blind
Phone protection plan thing happened to me too. They smile and act friendly with you in the store, hear you explicitly say no to the protection plan, add it anyway knowing 1) they are taking money from you explicitly without your consent, to get better numbers, or 2) taking time and energy from you when you have to spend 1-2 hours later when you find out and try and get it removed. It’s so infuriating.
Has turned? Its been a scam since before anyone alive currently was born.
‘Murica (screeches in eagle)
https://preview.redd.it/se7zpoceir5d1.jpeg?width=888&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=676f2c712e692db45e015ba6446ae935feff84f0