Archive for September, 2008

flickr photo / Stuck in Customs

Halloween is coming up and it’s time to share your scariest consumer stories. A new blog, Arbitration Horror Stories, wants to hear from people who have had their lives turned upside down by those binding mandatory arbitration clauses that are hidden in all kinds of consumer contracts — for everything from credit cards and stock trading accounts to gym memberships. You usually don’t know that you’ve signed away your rights to take these companies to court over a dispute until it’s too late.

The blogger is Ehren Bragg, a Southern California luxury car consultant who supposedly has written a novel based on his own arbitration horror story. His blog seems to be a pretty straight attempt to publicize the pitfalls of mandatory arbitration.

Consumers who have found themselves in the arbitration trap know the horrors all too well.

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From Kim Jarrett @ Texas Vox: I’ve been wanting to write a piece arguing that just because ethanol isn’t a complete solution to global warming and oil prices, it is still an alternative to oil and therefore good. Unfortunately, I can’t honestly say that because ethanol isn’t even a partial solution; it’s just a bigger problem.

I really wanted to like ethanol because corn is good.  And I really wanted to quote Hardin from his 1968 article in Science magazine where he said: “. . .we can make a rational decision which will not involve the unworkable assumption that only perfect systems are tolerable.” I love the quotation, however, I sadly cannot honestly say that it applies to ethanol. In my mind I hear that blind Native American in the Oliver Stone film U-turn. Continue Reading »

Between the financial meltdown, the on, off and on again presidential debates and the drama over the bailout negotiations, there were a few news items that got buried in the back pages (as if people still turned actual pages to get their news). The Wall Street Journal had a story about some allegations that, if true, offer an insight to how medical-device maker Medtronic gave doctors all sorts of inducements, including strip club visits, to gain their business.

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Photos by Joe Newman

In the words of Public Citizen Communications Director Angela Bradbery, pictured above, “It felt good to yell at the White House.” I wonder if President Bush, John McCain, Barack Obama and the other big wigs meeting inside the White House heard us standing outside in the drizzle. And if they heard us, did they care?

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Want another reason why most Americans have no sympathy for the Wall Street investment firms and financial institutions? Check out this CNN interview with two former credit card bankers who talk about how their job was to make consumers max out their credit lines, with little regard whether the customers could afford it (via Consumerist).

“Every customer who calls in is a mark. It’s a great big con,” said Colombo, who estimates that she alone sold almost a quarter of a billion dollars in the four years she worked for MBNA before it was bought in 2005 by Bank of America.”

Sarah Byrnes writes more on this issue at Caveat Emptor, including links to some video-taped interviews a couple of the ex-credit card company employees gave to Americans for Fairness in Lending.

So, the question remains, what about all those Americans struggling under almost a trillion dollars in credit card debt, is Congress going to do anything for them? Will they listen to the suggestion of Public Citizen and other consumer groups who want some sort of cap on credit card interest rates? Don’t forget to sign our petition asking Congress to put consumer interests first.

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