Marc's Musings Reality from Marc's point of view!

When I first moved to the United States many moons ago, I opened a bank account and a credit card account with BofA. When I quickly realized that they would charge me a fee for everything from withdrawing money from ATMs to just having a pulse I quickly fired them and moved on to SunTrust who have heretofore treated me pretty well.

Shortly after starting to deal with SunTrust I got a credit card with them and life went on. After several years the BofA card lapsed and that account closed.

Not too long ago, at Clark Howard’s suggestion, I looked for some kind of financial rewards card. I’m pretty basic financially, if I don’t understand a financial product I’m really not interested in it. So those bizarre air miles cards or “redeem for prizes” Discover cards held no interest for me. Along came Charles Schwab with a financial rewards card that offered 2% cash back on everything. They actually offered more back on some special items but I’m not wasting my time trying to keep up with that nonsense.

Charles Schwab eventually decided that they no longer wanted that portfolio and sold it to… you guessed it, BofA. BofA promptly eviscerated the card benefits and made the card uninteresting to me.

Meanwhile SunTrust had sold its credit card portfolio to… you guessed it, BofA.  Now I’m waiting to see what they do to this card because it’s the only card I own that does not charge a foreign transaction fee premium (3% is the norm I think). So I like to use it when traveling.

Meanwhile SunTrust has begun soliciting me, they seem curious to know why I wouldn’t want a SunTrust Credit card.

So, to look at me I’m apparently some kind of BofA fanboy because I trust them with so much of my credit business.

Time to look for some good Credit cards again. Let me know if you know of any that offer understandable rewards…

Posted under Opinions

This is about a generation off of my feelings about the choices being offered (missed “Skeletor” by a few years).

We really need to be able to vote much more granularly than along so-called “party lines”.

Everything comes as a package deal with a little bit that you agree with and then a whole lot that you absolutely don’t endorse.

Maybe future politics can be like fantasy football, you pick the position you want endorsed for each issue and create your ideal fantasy political party. The majority position for each issue (within the constraints of the constitution) is used as the direction for your elected officials who act as agents rather than leaders.
I think we can all agree that true leadership and vision is something our Federal and State representatives discarded a long, long time ago.

At least with Skeletor, he’d be up front with his motives…

Posted under Opinions

This article in Rolling Stone’s online magazine does not at all surprise me and only confirms my own experiences and opinion of Bank of America.

This little snippet pretty aptly sums up the character of this corporate behemoth.

Take your eyes off them for 10 seconds and guaranteed, they’ll be into some shit again: This bank is like the world’s worst-behaved teenager, taking your car and running over kittens and fire hydrants on the way to Vegas for the weekend, maxing out your credit cards in the three days you spend at your aunt’s funeral. They’re out of control, yet they’ll never do time or go out of business, because the government remains creepily committed to their survival, like overindulgent parents who refuse to believe their 40-year-old live-at-home son could possibly be responsible for those dead hookers in the backyard.

As always, you need to take what you read from ANY source with a grain of salt, however I have always felt that if you deal with them, you really deserve what you get.

I’ve made my views clear in the past

Bank of America – What’s not to trust?

Who do you love to deal with, and who do you not?

Posted under Opinions

It’s a minor annoyance but when my phone rings it’s because it’s somebody I want to talk with, or there is a problem at work. I don’t want to be called because I might need a prescription refill or there is one ready and waiting for me.

For some reason there are two numbers you need to call. The first one is absolutely simple:

To opt out of the refill reminder calls dial 1-866-514-4965. It will default to opting the number you called from out but will ask to confirm this and ask for any additional numbers.

Not sure why, but the second one needs for you to speak with a person:

To opt out of the prescription ready reminders dial 1-800-746-7287, you’ll need to yell “more options” into your phone and then yell “Opt out of reminders” to be taken to a person who will remove your number(s) for you.

I suppose it’s a useful reminder for some folks but I prefer to keep track of my own stuff.

Posted under Retail Experiences

People don’t respect what they don’t Expect”

Posted under Opinions

*Updated 2011.10.22*

A couple of days ago I received a package from Knetgolf with a dozen replacement balls. They arrived unannounced (except for the note from UPS regarding the impending shipment). So I had no idea what, if anything Knetgolf was going to do regarding my order.  I’m a little surprised they didn’t shoot me a quick email to tell me their intentions but I do give them kudos for making things right.

*End Update*

For myself, I’m fine with plain old white golf balls. Now that I’m a bit older I usually buy my balls new as I do see a difference between those and balls that have been sitting at the bottom of a lake for a month.

Michelle has concerns other than performance in mind for her golf balls and so I was tasked with getting her a some PURPLE golf balls.

I eventually found a place that sold reconditioned purple balls (don’t tell her they’re not new) for a reasonable price from knetgolf.com and ordered two dozen.

The balls were delayed in getting to us by a day, UPS noted that this was because the label was unreadable.

When we received the balls the following day, I could see the issue. The label had been destroyed and the box obviously ripped open and taped shut again.

Inside, one dozen of the balls were fine. The other dozen had their little mesh bag ripped open and was actually missing one of the balls. Of those remaining 5 of them look like they had been dragged across some surface hard enough to scrape the shell down so they are smooth in a patch on one side.

Sending a note to Knetgolf’s order confirmation address with a couple of pictures had them respond by asking me to resend the pictures to their help desk. I never heard back.

About a week later they sent me an automated survey email asking how they did. To this I relayed the same story as above and never heard anything back either.

The value of the balls is not enough for me to get worked up about. But the pretense at customer service with absolutely no follow through was irksome.

So I post this warning. I’m sure the fault for this lies in UPS’ court, but it’s up to the vendor to deal with any issues with their carrier. Of course I won’t be patronizing knetgolf again and, if you are thinking of doing so, you should consider this anecdote with respect to their customer service.

Posted under Retail Experiences

Hmmm…  Apparently the $99 I paid for my DVR back in 2005 wasn’t to actually *buy* the unit but rather is a lease price and they want it back. No doubt there were too many people who were continuing to watch all of their recorded content long after they had cancelled service and they needed a way to quell that.

Since mine is about as useful as a brick I have no objections to returning it. Looking at my bill I can see that I’ve had a $6 charge for a “leased receiver” (and a corresponding $6 credit) forever so I can’t really say they weren’t telling me that.

Who really pays attention to those line items anyway?

Now, what will life be like using Netflix, Hulu and other Internet resources for entertainment?  We’ll have to see. The adventure begins…

Posted under Retail Experiences