PAYING BILLS USED TO BE EASY IF YOU HAD THE MONEY TO DO SO

It used to be easy to pay your bills but, like everything else today in our world, simple only defines minds today. Once, the world allowed 30 days for a bill to be considered paid on time. There were no fines that sometimes exceeded the amount of the actual bill for being a minute late. The bill came to you in the mail and you wrote a check and paid it, mailing it back for a few cents in postage. The postage never exceeded the amount of the bill.

Today, many places charge $5. to authorize payment to a real person on phone. It is made difficult for you to pay online unless you must promise to allow the company to withdraw whatever they want you to think you owe, automatically from whichever source you name. Had I allowed Verizon to do this I would have been out a few hundred since, in the two and a half years I've had their FIOS, cable TV and house phone, an accurate bill has been a rare novelty.

Webmasters seem to make a game out of seeing how quickly they can confuse the consumer. When you call a Service Representative to discuss a bill, it seems like a Murphy Law that an important phone call will beep in (to which you need to respond) and the representative comes back to you then, finding you not there, hangs up and the whole wasted time procedure must be repeated.

I'm not paranoid. I just know 'they' are all out to get us!

NO ONE IS MINDING THE STORE

We used to think that our government wanted to discourage monopolies so that competition would keep prices down. In the last few years we have seen conglomerates become monopolies, individuals gain control of massive media outlets and all sorts of frightening indicators for the poorer of those among us. While Microsoft did not acquire YAHOO, Carl Icahn may have a better chance.

One of the newer ones is eBay trying to control Craigslist, on of the few who gives the buyer the break that one gets at a flea market. Craigslist functions locally with a great proportion of volunteers (almost a dirty word in corporate circles)!

HP is after EDS. Monopolies are not illegal in the United States. What is illegal is actions taken by monopolies to limit competition. It will be the subject of my rant to the Attorney General as soon as I get time to write about Verizon. (see Verizon Fraudulent Sales blog of 4/15 archived).