Bad Guys

Contents

• American Express
• Better Business Bureau
• DeLorme Publishing
• Discover Brokerage
• Enterprise Rent-a-Car
• E*Trade
• Fidelity Investments
• Iomega
• Lotus
• McAfee
• McGraw-Hill
• TeleType Company
• United Parcel Service
• V Communications

American Express

Spam: American Express sent me unsolicited commercial email and continued after I instructed them to stop. The link they provided to unsubscribe was broken, and their systems did not accept mail to the postmaster, a violation of good email practices. Please do not do business with American Express.

Better Business Bureau

Sham: In my opinion, the Better Business Bureau is of minimal value at best, and possibly zero or negative value. It is hard to tell since one does not do business with the BBB the way one does with a retailer, so these are my opinions based on some interactions and what I have heard. First, I have seen the BBB do little more to handle a complaint than ask a business for a comment and then mark the complaint resolved. That whitewashes bad businesses. Second, the BBB does not do enough to help resolve problems. Of course they do not have the power of the courts, but they could assist in communications, apply pressure to businesses to be better, form and report opinions, raise their standards, report positive and negative comments about businesses, and so on. Third, the BBB gets money from businesses. This gives it a conflict of interest, because it is hard to say bad things about somebody you receive money from.

DeLorme Publishing

Defective product:Street Atlas 2005 USA failed less than two months after I bought it. Some internal data expired on January 1, 2005, and the program completely stopped performing all functions. DeLorme provided an update which extended the expiration but did not fix it, and they repeatedly did not answer questions about the product or answer communications at all.

Discover Brokerage

Lousy service: Discover Brokerage did not respond to email, fax, and a telephone call requesting an addition to my account. What kind of business ignores a customer trying to do more business? Please do not do business with Discover Brokerage.

Spam: After I closed my account, Discover Brokerage continued to send unsolicited commercial email.

Enterprise Rent-a-Car

Dishonorable practices: I called Enterprise, discussed a rental rate and the charges that would apply, and reserved a car. After they had picked me up and driven me to their office, they refused to rent me the vehicle unless I also paid for insurance that I did not need. Had they disclosed their requirements in advance, I could have made satisfactory arrangements. Do not trust Enterprise Rent-a-Car.

E*Trade

Onerous contract terms: E*Trade's contract gives them irrevocable power of attorney over your assets. The contract does not limit this power to the assets in your account, nor does it limit E*Trade's actions to those necessary to recover debt you owe them.

Junk mail: E*Trade bothered me with solicitations, sometimes two copies, years after I told them to stop.

Bad service: I have heard bad things about their service.

Fidelity Investments

Mistreats employees: Three Fidelity employees or contractors in three different jobs at two sites told me how terribly Fidelity treats their employees: demanding arduous hours, withholding answers to vacation requests, telling hourly employees to do work on unpaid time, and more.

Iomega

Did not provide warranty service: Iomega did not answer my request for service, or even just information, for a tape drive that failed while under warranty.

Lotus

Poor service: Lotus never answered a question I had about a product I was interested in purchasing, even though I sent letters to several different departments over a period of a few years. How lousy does your customer service have to be not to answer inquiries from potential customers?

McAfee

Lousy service: I asked McAfee, via their web pages, where their PGP key look-up web page went. It took them 28 days to respond, and their response only told me to call a long-distance telephone number. The day after that, I got a lame automated email say they hoped my experience was positive. I won't be buying any McAfee products soon.

McGraw-Hill

Junk mail: McGraw-Hill put me on an inappropriate mailing list after I ordered one item from them, and they ignored my requests to stop.

TeleType Company

Defective product: TeleType Company (also known as Teletypesetting Company, Incorporated) sold me a GPS product that did not work on two of my systems and would not refund my money until I obtained a court judgment.

United Parcel Service

Inadequate service: In spite of UPS' great employees, UPS' residential service is inadequate. UPS has no regular policy or practice for delivering to people who are away from home during the day, as most people are. UPS has no weekend delivery and no evening delivery except when a driver is late. UPS has no evening or weekend or early-morning customer pick-up hours. UPS has no regular policy or practice of leaving packages unattended or with neighbors.

V Communications:

No Rebate: I bought their Partition Commander with a rebate offer, sent in the materials, and never received the rebate, even after I wrote to the company.

© Copyright 1998 by Eric Postpischil.