Updated 4/20/2010 - Other Opinion
and Rating Organizations
C Listings*
Cadillac (Auto Mfg)- You pay a lot for planned obsolescence. 1) Plan on setttng aside thousands of dollars for repairs and maintenance after the warranty expires. Everything from mechanical to electrical. There are simply thousands of things that can go wrong with this manufacturer's cars. I usually recommend putting aside $2000 per year for repairs and another $2000 for vehicle replacement. I would double that in the case of Cadillacs. Consumer Reports consistently show a black dot under reliability for my DHS. What do I expect from Detroit? A government bailout? 10/1/2012
California,
State of- Department of Motor Vehicles. 1) Long
Lines 45 minute wait at Rocklin. 2) Requests
people to use lines twice
to obtain personalized
plates rather than to send directly to customer. 3) Licenses
vehicles to begin with. Useless bureaucracy. 9/10/01 4) Called
800 number to make an appointment and received a busy signal
all morning. 5) Got through at 5:30 and made the soonest
appointment for 21 days later. The DMV represents all that
is wrong with California State Government as it continues
to waste money and Californians productivity, time, fuel,
etc.
Camping
World - 1) Tons
of junk mail 2) 99 cent pricing. - 6/17/2008
Canon
(Cameras, Printers & Scanners)- 1) Late Rebate Payment 6/24/04 2) Unclear sales of i80 printers
blue tooth and portable battery aspects that do not come with
the $299 printer, but that you must purchase after the fact
for an additional $178 bringing the total cost to $477. 3) 99 cent pricing (through 2/3/2010, 4)Scanner breaks due to faulty locking mechanism and track after minimal usage, 5) Canon only offers a discount on refurbished scanner rather than expensive repair. 6) Link to discounted refurbished scanner like mine doesn't work and goes to a "page not found" page. 7) Price offered is more than that of over 111 retail outlets. 2/3/2010. CONCLUSIONS: Canon does not stand by its poorly made products.
Capital
One (Capital One Services, Inc) - Hopefully it's not in your wallet. Capital One represents all they some of us detest about credit card issuers. 1) Junk mail (latest of approximately 20 received the past month. It seems I've been getting four or five offers per week of expensive promotional materials trying to get me to apply. So this is why your interest rate is so high? You pay their marketing and the extra paper from a gizillion trees. 2/23/10 2) 0% A.P.R. based on credit research provided
by
Credit Agency or other source, 8/12/01, again on 8/14/01, again on
9/4/01, Small Biz Visa on 8/31. and Mastercard junkmail 8/25/01 This has been going on for years as an enticement before delivering one with a higher interest rate. This probably appeals most to credit card junkies, who upon receipt of their new card, can't resist using it despite the higher rate. A letter accompanies the card to many applicants explaining how the user didn't qualify for the 0 percent.
3) Also repeated Hidden Bank name on outside of envelope on separate
piece on 8/25/01 and 8/31/01, . again on 10/22/01. 4) Constantly
increasing fees and rates i.e. up to $35 late fees. Interest
rates can also jump to 23.63% plus libor currently equal to
24.99% as of unposted date on letter. 5) banks tend to post
increases immediately and decreases after a long time in hopes
that it goes up again? 6) 99 CENT PRICING. I.E.. 24.99% 7) If you live in certain states, you must send in a coupon to
decline new rates and stop using the card. Watch out for auto
charges. 8) Conflict on terms says you must also pay off the
balance to stop the increased rates. 9) Staff makes false
commitments with customers to convince them to keep cards
promising to waive fees, etc. 10) Then the fees are not waived
and you may find yourself with additional fees, interest and
late charges before you realize that they broke their commitment.
Capital ONe is another typical bottom feeding organization
that preys on its customers, then markets over they extremely
bad reputation. 11) When I escalated the call, the staff was
extremely rude and recommended sarcastically that I have a
safe trip. Let's hope that Capital One gets justice soon and
that its staff gets reputable work elsewhere. Most credit
card companies have worse credit than the customers they serve. That is definitely the case with Capital One. BEWARE THE FINE
PRINT IN THIS COMPANY'S CONTRACTS. IT IS DESIGNED TO HARASS
AND DISCREDIT YOU. The only reason a company like this is
in business is that you let them stay in business. It certainly
isn't for good service or fair and ethical business practices. 2/23/2010 Updates after further postal blasts. 4/20/2010
Carnival
Cruises - Unsolicited faxes 10/22/02
Casablanca
Express - 1. (800) 315-2065 calls and then hangs up. 7/6/09.
Chase
Home Financial - 1.) Extremely poor customer service dropped
call 2.) Takes three months to get mortgage account posted
for online banking. 3) Referred to Internet to make
payment, but you don't know that it takes three months to set
up account because you are not told that. Instead, you keep
trying to no avail. Prey that you don't get your loan bounced
to Chase for servicing. 12/8/06
Chevron-
Junk Mail 10/31/01
Chevys
Fresh Mex- 1) Junk
Mail 2) 99 cent pricing 6/5/2008
Chronos
L.C. Software (Personal Organizer for the Macintosh & Sticky
Brain)- 1)
Junk Software that isn't like anything promoted in its pacaging,
2) Email
support. Toll phone with $10 for support even to set up software.
3) Uncompromising
management that is not allowed to pass calls upward. 10/31/01 4)
No upgrade pricing, you simply pay for the upgrades as though
they were new programs. 5)
Sales department is not available at 10:30 a.m. on a Monday
(non holiday) (probably gets too many angry customers)
10/31/03 thru 12/13/04.
Citibank- Placing
Date Due on the send in coupon and not on the statement. Once you
send in the coupon, then its pretty hard to dispute the date due
since you sent it in with the payment???? 11/30/04. (2)Setting
up new password verification with ridiculous questions you would
never remember. The nickname of the spouse was good, but mine was
less characters than permitted. This is a caused by a combination
of bad IT management and bad corporate management which should
show more obviously during the coming years. 5/07 3) Consistently
donating to (bribing) political campaigns. Probably does so
Internationally.
CITIGROUP,
Inc - 1) Contributed 309,350 to G.W. Bush 2004
2) Contributed 264,131 to John Kerry 2004 10/21/04
Clear
Concepts Mortgage (www.clearconceptsmortgage.com)- Junk
Mail 3/17/03
Cingular
Wireess - A typical "why we shouldn't do business with big companies"
type of company.-99 cent pricing 8/2002. 2) On hold
5 minutes to cancel service, 3) then another 3 minutes to cancel.
4) then couldn't cancel because I'm under a contract for a phone a
returned within days, but operator couldn't verify return to their
own company's phone and wanted me to go back to their store to resolve
it rather than call themselves. 5) on hold extensivey to wait for
manager. 6) Manager would call back in 24 to 48 hours. 7) beign billed
waiting for call back. 8) took hour to go to store to resolve instead.
CITI
(Citibank - Junk Mail 2) fake credit card 3) 0% that revert
to exhorbinant interest if any part of the agreement is breached.
4) 99 cent pricing 19.99 APR. 8/28/02
Chase-
Junk mail.. 10/31/01, Pre-approved loan with fine print stating you
must be approved. No visible interest rate., Worded "Up to $75,000
or more."
Clark
Pest Control - The industry itself and not Clark specifically,
needs to take steps to reglate itself. They have been living high
on the hog by a nations dependency on them to conform to loan and
buyer requirements. There is an EXTREME conflict of interest with
Pest control companies that do pest reports for approximately $100
and then offer to repair what they find with the sometimes included
incentive that they won't charge for a post work inspection. This
leaves the industry wide open to find as much work as possible and
to exaggerate the findings usually at the expense of the seller. Best
to remedy this as an industry before more government regulation occurs.
The Pest inspection and Pest control idustries need to be separate.
The report doesnt' differentiate between redwood framed homes
(usually older homes and regular wood framed homes). Redwood is termite
resistant. They don't like the taste. This is also conveniently overlooked
by this corrupted industry. See http://www.treesofmystery.net/sequoia.htm
Michael
P. Murphy
DBA The Small Businessman - www.smallbusinessman.com
Technical Site Coordinator and Registrant
C Listings (Cont.)
ClickNDesign
3D (Stomp Software on Avery CD Stomper) -
Avoid at all costs RockMSockM9NY
Version: 3.4.7, 10/27/2004 09:25PM PST
1) As a person who spent months of aggrevation dealing with this company, I'd
like
to offer a warning to anyone considering using this product.
Over a year ago, I purchased this software as part of a "CD STOMPER" package.
Moments after installing it, I was told I needed an upgrade. After spending an
unecessary amount of time getting the upgrade via online download, the problems
continued. Without getting into detail, the long and short of it was that the
product was not functioning as described: 2) Images were being resized without
my consent, and printed images were consistently poor in quality even when the
source
files were 600dpi.
3) After multiple attempts to contact tech support via the website, an employee
finally answered me in one of the online forums. 4) Unfortunately, not only was
the help ineffective, but his responses were few and far between. 5) Eventually,
anything I posted was ignored. In addition, users with similar issues were also
ignored.
I then tried contacting the company via email, and the 6) responses were even
slower. I decided to try the website once more, only to find that my IP had been
banned
from posting. I was furious, and decided to call the company ASAP.
After getting the runaround, I was told QUOTE: "my comments were not constructive
to the tech support forum," and that, 7) technically I was "not a click
n design customer." According to the person on the phone, I had purchased
their software as part of a "CD STOMPER" package that was put together
by Avery. When I told them that I was using an upgrade that Click N' Design had
been given to me DIRECTLY BY STOMP via registered online download, the person
on the phone claimed that 8) I was "really not supposed to have that version," and
that I was "given that version out of the goodness of their hearts" (no
lie). They then indicated that access to the tech support area of their site
was banned, and that I wasn't a customer. I told them that if I was ignored,
I'd be forced to contact the local office of the Better Business Bureau, and
I hung up.
Shortly thereafter, I forwarded my concerns to the Avery corporation, as well
as any corporate contacts for the Stomp, Inc. company who put out Click 'n' Design.
Avery in particular was shocked and dismayed at the behavior of Stomp, Inc. After
months of back and forth, the company finally decided to issue me a refund for
the initial package purchase I made.
In closing, I must say that anyone and everyone should avoid this product and
company. Their product was faulty, their tech support was rude and innefective,
and their customer relations department was insulting and uneducated.
Don't make the same mistake I did, folks. NOTE: I also owned this product and
felt that RockMSockM9NY said it all - MMURPHY
Clover
Valley Group (Yes on Measure H Campaign for Rocklin, CA) - 1)
Cold calliing with unlisted number. 2) Pretending to be the side
that is providing more open space and less traffic to confuse
voters on the issues. (obviously, more homes means more
cars and less open space)
Closet
World
- Junk Mail 4/2/08
CNN
(...Calling themselves the most trusted name in news 4/7/03)
- EXTREMELY BIAS REPORTING TRUST AT YOUR OWN RISK
(PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS THROUGH 2ND WAR AGAINST IRAQ) ONE RED
PAW PER YEAR ESPECIALLY WHEN IRAQI DEFENSE MINISTER, SPEAKING
IN ENGLISH WAS REPLACED BY ENGLISH TRANSLATOR APRIL 2003 - paws
are for years 2001,2002,2003
Coldwell
Banker - Maureen Higelin- Junk Mail 10/12/01
CompUSA- 99
Cent Pricing, i.e. $2499.97 for a PowerMac?? That's not $2500 smackeroos?.
How about $129.97 for Mac OSX??? That's not $130? 2) Jump through multiple
hoops to submit for rebates (i.e.
sending copy of original receipt with pre-printed copy especially for
rebate. This causes potential rejections and less rebate payouts to
frustrated customers. Honest, then discount at the register and you
collect from the manufacturer. 3) Short return policy. 4) Poor return
policy that sticks consumers with faulty equipment they can't use and
if they honer the return, you may be forced to bring in your whole
system to prove your point. 5) Doesn't always honor rebates. 6) Web
rebate tracking submission fields don't alllow information to be entered
correctly, keeping customer from being able to really track rebates.
6/16/04
ConAgra
Foods
(Hunt)- Snack Pack containers are only 2/3 full misleading
consumers as to quantity they are getting. No wonder they are only
80 calories. Why not make them empty so that they are only 0 calories?
10/10/01
Consumer
Reports- Junk mail.. 10/10/01
Countrywide
Home Loans- 1) Junk mail.. 2) NO PRIVACY (opt in vs
opt out) Even then, no privacy. 11/21/06
Course Mortgage Corporation - Junk
mail.. 8/14/01
Craig's
List - Eaten alive by spammers and competitive flaggers,
is no longer able to offer a ligitimate or useful service to many.
When Ebay gained 25% of the list, it may have doomed it to the
also rans of history. 12/16/06
Credit
Card Protection Agency, Inc.- Junk mail.. 8/14/01 Entisement
heck enclosed with
results in fine print. Junk Mail 9/10/01
Crown
Roofing (Roseville, CA)- Junk Mail 4/1/08
C-SPAN
NEWS.- RIGGED REPORTING For
one of many, many examples, on 4/30/2002, under the call in topic "Marginal
Presidential Candidates", C-SPAN offered call in numbers to survey
the public.
For those that felt the election system needs to allow third party
candidates in the debates, you could call (202) 585-3880. The line
was always
busy. They didn't supply enough lines. If you felt they shouldn't
be in the debates, it rang straight through. People assume C-SPAN is
the
least bias, but it is simply another rigged station, like CNN, FOX
AND MSNBC. They are bias towards the current Democrat and Republican
regime directives. Americans
must get their news from outside the country or a much smaller news source
in order to balance the extreme bias in U.S. advocacy news. Not even cable
has provided a solution.
