The court system sucks.
Apparently it’s not a crime for a realtor to take $23,075.00 out of a client’s escrow fund and to forge her initials on paperwork and to then perjure herself in court when she tells the judge she gave half of that money to the sellers but has no explanation as to why she did so two months before any closing date or dispute.
It is also apparently not a crime for police and judges to not give a flying fuck about the people who lost the $23,075.00.
I guess I should have just moved to Canada when Bush took office the first time.
Humane Society claims Pets of Bel-Air buys from puppy mills
Statement from Pets of Bel-Air:
To the best of our knowledge, our beautiful puppies purchased out-of –state are from USDA approved pet breeders. We rely on our governmental agency to be sure that these breeders are inspected.
Dear Pets of Bel-Air,
Are you not aware that there are very few inspectors and many, many breeders? Way to blame the government for sticking your heads in the sand.
We do not condone puppy mills; we would never knowingly buy a dog from a puppy mill; and we are appalled by the possibility that this may have happened. We are investigating all of our sources so that we continue to nurture the finest and most reputable dogs from the best breeders, a practice that we’ve held central to our business since we opened nine years ago.
How could you not know where your puppies are coming from? Let me introduce you to something I like to call “math.”
In order to make a profit, the breeder has to spend less on creating the dog than what s/he gets for the dog. So take what you paid. Subtract a reasonable profit. The amount left over has to cover:
- Stud fees (assuming these are actually bred puppies, and not puppies created by throwing two dogs together)
- Deworming the puppies
- Regular heartworm treatment, applicable vaccinations, flea/tick treatment for parents/puppies
- Basic supplies: food, beds, treats, toys, vet care
- Kennels/housing facilities for parents and puppies
- People to wash/change bedding, clean the dogs
- People to feed the dogs, refill the water bowls, bring dogs to the vet when necessary
- People to play with the dogs/socialize them
- Transporting the puppies to the store
- Euthanizing dogs that are too ill/old
So what’s a puppymiller to do? Well, for starters, s/he can cut out all the nonessentials. Which leaves:
- Stud fees (assuming these are actually bred puppies, and not puppies created by throwing two dogs together)
Let’s just stick dogs in one big area and see what happens
- Deworming the puppies
Hey, the store that buys ‘em can treat ‘em
- Heartworm treatment, vaccinations, flea/tick treatment for parents/puppies
Store can pay for this, too!
- Basic supplies: food,
beds, treats, toys, vet care Okay, I have a choice of feeding them premium dog food or supermarket dog food…supermarket dog food = more profit for me
- Kennels/housing facilities for parents and puppies
- People to wash/change bedding, clean the dogs
They can be hosed off when I put them in the truck
- People to feed the dogs,
refill the water bowls, bring dogs to the vet when necessary
- People to play with the dogs/socialize them
HAHAHAHAHAHHA!
- Transporting the puppies to the store
- Euthanizing dogs that are too ill/old
There’s a bucket of water over there. Why should I pay a vet to euthanize a dog when I can just drown it?
Every employee at Pets of Bel Air is an animal lover, as evidenced by the care and love we show our puppies and kittens each day; the healthy environment we provide; and the respect we show each of you. We continue to be a community pet store you can trust.
You can be an animal lover, and still not want to see the truth. It’s nice you’re providing a healthy environment with care and love. But if you’ve never visited the breeding facilities you buy from, you have no way of knowing whether the puppies started out in equally nice conditions or, even worse, if there are still adult dogs at the facility living horrible lives just so their puppies can be sold for a profit.
It’s tempting to “rescue” a dog from a pet store. Don’t do it. Every dog or pet supply you buy from a pet store that sells dogs creates money in someone’s pocket that will only make them continue to produce these dogs.
When you review a proposal and the author has misspelled HER OWN LAST NAME, then you know that this person didn’t even read it over after she wrote it.
Obviously, this mistake was a typo. (At least, I hope it was, or else she has more problems than I thought.) But to send out a document that you typed, with your name on it, and with your name misspelled? My mind boggles at the idea.
One or two mistakes in a document is pretty normal, especially if what you’re reviewing is an early draft. But during the 30 seconds that I was staring, with increasing horror, at the document, I saw other typos, grammatical errors, and punctuation mistakes. I wasn’t even reading the document, but was skimming it, and there were still more mistakes in this than I have ever seen in my father’s project summaries that he wrote for work and asked me to review when I was in high school.
My father didn’t learn English until he was over 30. And he has never sent out anything this awful, including the email he sent to me that read, “Hane. If you go to Wallmart could you buy several distill water for me? I still can suive 2-3 wks. When next time you go there, take a look. iF YOU FIND IT PLEASE BUY IT FOR ME. i SHOUGHT NEED TO KEEP TO AVOID RAISE HEAVY STUFF NOW.”
I am astounded that anyone could even physically produce a document this bad. I mean, Word even UNDERLINES the words it thinks are misspelled — how hard is it to just skim through a document after you’ve written it and look for the little red lines? DO YOU NEED BILL GATES TO PERSONALLY WALK OVER TO YOUR HOUSE AND POINT AT THESE WORDS BEFORE YOU CAN SEE THEM?!?
I’m not even going to go into the sheer horror of knowing that there are people out there who would hire someone to write a proposal who cannot write. Or type, evidently. Or proofread. Or see little red lines.
HER OWN LAST NAME.
What is this world coming to?
I’ve been very careful about not identifying myself online because:
- I don’t want people from high school googling me
- I may be paranoid
- Except I google high school people all the time, thus they are likely to be googling me
- And there are strange creepy people in the Internet, many of whom I have dated
Since I moved my website to WordPress, I’ve removed as many identifying features from my site as possible. I do not have my name associated with the site, and I never post pictures of people without their permission. The only photos I put online without permission are of dogs, because frankly, as dog-crazy as I am, even I have to acknowledge that dogs simply don’t care if they look a teensy bit fat in a particular picture.
Today I happened to google my cousin’s name. My cousin is over a decade younger than I am and has Asperger’s. She has never really understood why it is unsafe to post identifying features about yourself online. Currently you can find her name, email, photos of herself, birthdate, location, and high school online.
So I googled her to see what she had been up to, and to check if there was anything I should freak out about.
Read More »
Dear People of the Internet:
Do I really need to know that you got my sister-in-law’s message yesterday but you were out and about and didn’t want to call her back too late? What possible reason could I have for needing to have this information taking up useless space in my ever-diminishing brain?
As I see it, there are two possible options:
- You think we really, really, like you. Life revolves around you, and thus everyone (people you don’t even know!) are wildly fascinated by your mundane life.
- You are really, really, stupid. “Reply All” is not the same button as “Reply” and apparently you haven’t learned that yet.
For cripes’ sake, people, either just hit “reply” or pick up the phone and call the person you want to relay information to! And all you other people — maybe you should learn to bcc a giant list of people rather than ccing them. I mean, you wouldn’t give a 5-year-old a butcher knife to carry around, would you, so why would you give the “reply all” power to similarly undeveloped minds??
Next time, if you’re going to be so irritating as to reply all, at least include some salacious gossip about your latest boyfriend (”He took off his pants and he was a GIRL!”) so that I don’t feel gypped when I finish reading your email.
Sincerely,
Jane
P.S. When someone calls you on your “reply all,” writing back that you “usually do” just use reply, does not make us think you are any less stupid or self-involved. Especially when you reply all with that response.
I don’t have time to link to all the other posts, but you can do a search for “Chase” in the box to the right.
I had made a complaint to the Better Business Bureau, among other places, about the problems we were having with Chase. Apparently the only way to get results is to contact them, because my complaint was forwarded automatically to the local BBB office in charge of Delaware, where the main offices of Chase Bank are located. The very next business day after I made the complaint, I received a call from someone at the CEO offices at Chase Bank to let me know they were looking into my complaint.
About a week later, another person called from the Chase CEO offices and talked to Chris. She said she could not talk to me since I was not the primary cardholder, although I had been the one to make the complaint (and change our email address, and argue about our bill, and get reported to the credit bureaus along with Chris…). She verified the information I had put in my complaint: namely, that we did not receive any bill notifications online, did not receive a letter in the mail, and that we had paid up once we discovered the outstanding bills.
She told Chris that she would credit us for the late fees and finance fees, and remove the negative information about us at the credit bureaus.
I said, “What about the Amazon points?”
Read More »
Dear Carter,
I was so excited to get your letter. Last week, I was feeling miserable. I mean, Chase Bank had just rejected me. Chase didn’t even want my credit, my money, or my business. I really tried to get over this rejection, but honestly, I was beginning to wonder if any credit card would ever want me again.
And yet, despite my status as a leprosy-ridden undesirable, you, Carter Franke, Chief Marketing Officer for Chase Card Services, have actually defied the wishes of your superiors and contacted me today! I finally know how Juliet must have felt that first time when Romeo stood underneath her window, yelling, “Hey, hottie, let’s you and me meet by the tombs, a’ight?”
Don’t try to deny your love for me, Carter. I know you want me. I know you want me bad. You want me so bad that you even spent a “PRSRT STD U.S. Postage PAID” envelope on me.
Even the front of your envelope was so shockingly enticing: “Earn triple points automatically!” “20,000 Bonus Points after your first purchase!” “No late, overlimit, or annual fees!”
By golly, could there have been a clearer sign that yours was the card for me? You even sounded better than the card Chase had just ripped away from my arms.
I don’t mind telling you that I could barely control myself. I had to tear open the envelope right away. I skimmed the sentences (because, as much as we love each other, even you have to admit that sometimes your prose could use a little tightening-up).
You were so wonderful to pre-approve me, and give me three points for every dollar I spend in any three of 15 categories. (Truthfully, darling, I’m not quite sure what these 15 categories are since you neglected to mention them, but I’m sure you will clarify it all in that tiny, tiny print on the back of your letter. No matter, these categories will probably be exactly the ones I want to use my “Chase Freedom World MasterCard” on. Even the name of your card just dances off my tongue!)
I especially appreciate how much sympathy you have for my status, Carter. Surely you must have known that I would be so distraught that I would have trouble focusing, because I can’t think of any other reason why you would tell me that I would earn three points on every dollar of eligible purchases seven times, just on the first page of your letter.
I am eagerly anticipating meeting my new card, since you know that one of the reasons Chase and I fell out was over the 2614 Amazon points which he brutally took from me without warning. And you’ve been so kind to emphasize that I will never lose points with you, and that there are “no complicated rules”! (Wait, did you write the entire letter by yourself, Carter? Because I still don’t know about those 15 categories.)
Anyway, Carter, I have to run now. If I hurry, I’ll be able to catch the mailman before he loses more of my bills in his truck. I’m going to stick this letter in the reply envelope you thoughtfully included for me, with “No Postage Necessary If Mailed in the United States.” (How thrillingly naughty you are, Carter! “No Postage Necessary” — pardon me while I fan myself!)
Your new BFF,
Jane
xxooxxooxxo
After all the problems we’ve had with Amazon and Chase Bank, detailed here and here, I have come to several conclusions.
- Amazon.com customer service reps are generally polite, and willing to err on the side of the customer.
- Amazon.com-affiliated businesses have customer service reps who are generally rude, give conflicting information, and do not care much one way or the other if they lose your business. In addition to the Chase Bank issues, I previously had a problem with a magazine subscription that my sister purchased from Amazon to give to me. I spent months trying to figure out what had happened to the subscription. The people managing the subscription services were not Amazon.com employees. My other sister also bought the same magazine subscription for me, but from a cheaper online place. I had no problems with her subscription for me.
- In the future, I will only purchase directly from Amazon.com. To avoid any confusion, this means I will limit myself to purchasing books and CDs from them because it’s not worth my sanity to pore over the fine print on the Amazon website in an effort to figure out what Amazon actually handles and what they merely offer on behalf of a different merchant.
- If you are a good person and pay up what you owe as soon as you find out you owe, say, $400, Chase Bank will still permanently close your account. If you are a college student who has trouble paying in full every month, and falls more and more behind in payments, Chase Bank will not only keep your account open, but increase your credit limit.
- We will be getting rid of all credit cards we have, other than the American Express card (we get a cash rebate) and our bank’s Visa card (for the many places that don’t take Amex). Or rather, we will be getting rid of them once my husband reads this and understands that this is the only way I can keep myself from asking him, every day, to buy Chase Bank and shut it down. After this realization, we will then go through our credit reports and close any open account outside of those two cards.
Click “Read More” to find out about credit reports.
Read More »
Worse and worse.
When I last left off, I had just made a payment online to Chase Bank. The rep had told me that regardless of whether I paid through them or my own bank, as long as I set it up before 4pm, it would post on their system by midnight. I had heard from the Post Office consumer affairs department, who sent me a letter for the creditors explaining the missed mail issues we’ve had.
I called Chase on March 23, which is when the rep of the day before had said everything would post.
Read More »
We applied for and received an Amazon.com Visa card a while ago. We used it only to buy purchases on Amazon, and we got it because Amazon.com offered points, gift certificates and $30 free for signing up. In other words, we got it because Amazon offered it to us.
This credit card, it turns out, is managed by Chase Bank and not Amazon.com.
Because we were having problems with our mail, we switched our Amazon.com Visa bill so that we would receive online-only notifications of it. And then we proceeded not to use it for 8 months.
Around Christmastime, we used it to buy presents. This, it turns out, was a very, very, bad idea.
Read More »
« Previous Entries