Intuit Drops the Ball

If you have not read my article on a recent experience with software giant Intuit, Inc., and I urge you to do so. Here is the link to the article I wrote relating what I experienced with this company:

Intuit, the Software Company

In recent times we have all seen customer service take a nose dive, and it certainly has at Intuit. I was to receive a follow up call from a supervisor to assist me with finding out what the final bill would be for the company that I work for. The call was to come in within 24-48 hours.

Did I receive the call from the supervisor? The answer is a big fat “NO!” How hard is it to call back a customer? What giants like Intuit forget, and I may be just a drop in the bucket, is that I am still their bread and butter! Companies like this seem to forget that it is all of those little drops in the bucket that have helped their companies grow to become what they are today. They are the ones who made it possible for the corporate officers all the way down to the customer service person be able to butter their bread!

When all that matters is the almighty dollar, not those who buy the products that give them the almighty dollar, it is no wonder that groups form like the “Occupy Wall Street” group! Enough ranting!

Enjoy your weekend!

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Meat Glue

Have you heard about meat glue? I did and I was curious. So I looked this up. Here is what I found.

Meat glue is made up of the coagulant of the blood of pigs and cows. The scientific name for this compound is “transglutaminase.” Someone figured out that you could use this stuff to stick pieces of meat together, and you can sell that meat as something else. As an example, I saw a video showing a chef using meat glue on stew meat and then serving it up as Filet Mignon. And the usage is prevalent in restaurants.

Meat glued meat - Photo from KBAK/KBFX News in Bakersfield, CA

The down side to meat glue has to do with the surfaces of the meat used for sticking together. If a meat, like stew meat is used, there are a number of surfaces to which germs can cling, and if the meat is not cooked to well-done, can make a person sick. The video showed the chef using the meat glue with stew meat. He mixed it all together, then rolled it up in a sheet of wax paper, let it sit overnight, and then sliced it to the size of a piece of filet. The results were that there was no difference in flavor and that it looked the same. But what are the other implications of something like this being used?

How do you know if meat glue is used in the restaurant you are visiting? The news story said to ask the server or the chef. Somehow, I do not think that a restaurant will actually divulge this to you as they would like to command a premium price on the stew meat, aka Filet Mignon.

Here is the link to a news story out of Pittsburgh, PA.   Meat Glue

Let’s see what you have to say on this topic.  Please feel free to comment too!

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Ridiculous Airline Charges

I wanted to contact the folks in charge of regulating airline charges for the U.S. Government. The reason for this is that my husband and I had to cancel a trip to Hawaii due to a medical emergency which prevented us from traveling for a minimum of eight weeks, and the fee to change the ticket was not disclosed at the time that I cancelled the trip. When I re-booked the flight for the both of us the charge was $150/ticket, or $300 in total. The amount of time that this change took was 5 minutes. Considering only tickets for two, this means that the income to the Airline, who shall remain nameless, Hawaiian Airlines, would be $3600/per hour for a 5 minute change on two tickets. The gal I spoke to: This is all she does for the airlines. So, now you know why I wanted to contact who regulates these charges.

I was directed to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. The Chairman of this committee, John L. Mica, is from the State of Florida. The subcommittee chairman of the aviation committee is Thomas E. Petri.

So I wanted to contact the administration and the subcommittee and guess what? I can sign up for their newsletter but nothing else over the internet. OK, so I can send a letter, but I have to ask why I cannot email any of the members of the committee? The link indicates that I can but that is not the case.

Here is what I sent as a comment to Chairman Mica:

Airlines are charging $150 for a change to a ticket. So one spends 5 minutes on the phone with the airline that they are dealing with, and the total income to the airline for one person working for them, on one ticket only, because the call volume is great, is $3600/hour/ticket (based on two tickets) for only one of their customer service representatives. $3600/per hour? Who is worth that kind of money? Certainly not the airlines, but you allow this.

My question to you, as the Chairman of Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, is why are you folks allowing airlines to charge this kind of money? I had to make a simple ticket change for which I was on the phone for 5 minutes and I was charged $300 for two tickets that one person made the change. One person had to make that change.

I am respectfully requesting that you do something to “fix” this issue as clearly there is something wrong with the system and the regulation of airlines.

Thank you for your time and consideration of this in advance.

******

We shall see what I get, or if I even get a response. There are 29 members on this committee. None of the Democrats have a highlighted link, but all the Republicans do. Have to ask — what is with that? And, one is unable to contact any of them directly in their association with being on this subcommittee.

Am I wrong, but shouldn’t we have access to all of these folks? What are your thoughts on this? They are employed by all of those who live in this country. Should we be paying $150/ticket for 5 minutes on the phone to change two tickets? I want that job, and I want that income. I would only have to work a total of 15 minutes a day to be happy!

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Christmas Catalog Must Haves?

Yes–this is another commentary on those catalogs which, by the way, multiply like bunny rabbits the closer we get to Christmas. I had ten delivered yesterday. All the items below are from one catalog. What has me shaking my head on these items is this: What has happened to society that all of these items are something you would need to buy? Some think they are funny and cool; others think, I need this. What is funny and cool, or that one just needs, is a commentary on our society. All I ask is that you think about what these items say about society today.

Item #1 – “Pootin’ Tootin’ Obama Doll – Here is a doll that replicates the President of the United States, I believe I read recently, the most powerful person in the world, that if you pull the finger of the doll it recites, “Now that’s what I call a weapon of mass destruction!” Yours for only $27.96, not including tax.

Item #2 – “Tactical Gals 2012 Calendar” – Not a calendar that supports our troops, but one that features scantily clad women, mind you not in military garb, bearing arms. $19.95, not including tax.

Item #3 – Poop Soap – Yeah, this one has been around for years. I think they used this in a film…wasn’t it Caddy Shack?…Well anyway, you have your choice, yes a choice, of either “plain” or “corn.” Hmm…Price? $14.96 for one bar not including sales tax.

Item #4 – “Santa Takes a Dump Down the Chimney” Yes, here is Santa, bare-ass on a chimney, and he can be yours for $22.98.

Item #5 – “Fast Finish Techniques From World Famous Street Fighters.” For a mere $69.98, plus shipping and handling of $11.50, not including tax, this is the DVD for you. This items cost does not include attorney’s fees, jail time and court costs when you have “finished” someone off. $33.98.

Item #6 – This one goes with the one above. “Steel Shot Knuckle Gloves.” Price? $33.96 not including tax, attorney fees, jail time and court costs.

Item #7 – “Doody Head” – Yes, here is a game, for you and your kids to play, where you throw an artificial piece of “doody” at each others heads! $19.98 not including the costs for committing assault and battery.

Item #8 – “Booby Bongos!” Play with your own set of bongos! No specific size, so I guess one size fits all on this one. Cost: $53.96 not including sales tax.

Item #9 – The “Ass Tray.” Guess where you put your butt? $12.96 before tax.

Item #10 – “Kill Moves DVD.” $81.48 not including court costs, jail time and attorney fees.

Item #11 – “Bad to the Bone Santa.” Santa’s hat is where? He sways his hips to the music of “Bad to the Bone.” Grown women will “blush and squeal with laughter.” Cost: $34.94, before tax. Maybe that is something to squeal at!

What do these items say to you?

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Where Does Corporate Greed Lie?

Last night while watching CBS evening news, I heard a disturbing number. I heard that one in fifteen people in the U.S. are now living at 50% below the poverty level. Robert Moffitt, an economics professor at Johns Hopkins was reported as stating, “There now really is no unaffected group, except maybe the very top income earners. Recessions are supposed to be temporary, and when it’s over, everything returns to where it was before. But the worry now is that the downturn — which will end eventually — will have long-lasting effects on families who lose jobs, become worse off and can’t recover.”

When I heard this story, I thought to myself, this reminds me of 20 years ago. I was working for a service company after graduating from college. We placed folks in jobs at a number of various companies. I was excited to have this job, and I was told when I was hired, that I would be given a raise after three months with the company.

A month after I signed on, the company announced a wage freeze and raises were on hold for the next fifteen months. Working in the accounting office, I discovered that before the wage freeze was announced, eight, yes eight, Vice Presidents were all given raises. The average wage twenty years ago for these folks after the raise was $125K, not including bonuses. What this wage freeze did for me was keep my earnings at poverty level. Why do the top wage earners forget about the worker bees who keep the company running, make the money and whose hard work is providing them their salaries?

The thought in my head at the time was, “It is easy for these VP’s to accept this decision, because for them, they are really not affected.” The affect on me? Living in the San Francisco Bay Area meant for me no extraneous costs. Food that topped the list included Top Ramen and a lot of stone soup. Rent was taking up 60% of my after tax income. Dining out was not an option. Cable TV was not an option. Getting sick was not an option. Vacations away from home — not an option. Presents to others at the holidays for the first time in my life could not be done. Couldn’t you have made something you ask? No. I could not afford the materials.

C. Northcote Parkinson wrote a really good book that I had to read while getting my college degree. In the book there was a chapter that had to do with a board of directors of a company. Basically it said that the board could make a decision involving millions of dollars in two minutes, but when they had to discuss what kind of coffee to buy for the office it took a half hour of their time. Why? Because the coffee immediately affected them in their daily lives. The millions, did not. For a good read check out “Parkinson’s Laws.” Look for it in your library: C. Northcote Parkinson (Nov 19th, 1955), “Parkinson’s Law.” While the book focuses on UK bureaucracy, it fits for us in the U.S. as well.

The question is: Today, how can these top earners sit in their offices, look at themselves in the mirror in the morning, and feel good about themselves for making one in fifteen people survive below poverty level? How hard would it be for them to take a pay cut so that someone else can eat something more than Top Ramen or stone soup?

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Student Loan Woes

OK – Here is another post that has nothing to do with Life in the Foothills, but has to do with a news story I heard last night while sitting in my home in the Foothills. OK – so I am stretching a bit, but having had a student loan myself in my younger years, I felt the need to comment.

The news story: Channel 13, Sacramento, CBS…again. The report was about graduating students who do not know how they are going to pay back the loans that they used to finish school. The story focused on a gal who ended up having to move back with her parents in her senior year; was surprised at how much she had to pay back; and did not know how she was going to pay back the money she agreed to pay back.

OK – Now this gal ended up having to move back in with her parents in her senior year. Now the question is: Did she take a student loan for a four year college? If so, why? Why did she not go to a community college at a much lesser cost, and then go to a four year college to finish her last two years? Or, did she go to a four year college and take the loan for four years? CBS did not ask that question, so how could they get the answer? Did the gal go to a four year college and take the student loan so that she could move away from home? Which did she do and what was the motivation?

Next she signed an agreement for a loan to pay for her education. What did she think? Did she think that she would not have to pay it back? My student loan was with Fannie Mae and I had a six month grace period after graduating, before I had to start making payments. I am sure that this has not changed, but do not quote me on it. A loan is a loan, and you have to pay it back. Is this how the young people today are starting out their lives? Taking loans and not thinking forward as to how they will pay back the loan?

The gal said she was surprised at how much she had to pay back. I was allowed, yes allowed, to have the student loan after a rigorous interview process. One of the questions I was asked was how I would be able to pay this back. I told them that I anticipated getting a job and including the amount that I was to pay back in the budget I would set up for myself. The amount was in the paperwork that I signed. I figured that with the six month grace period in that time I would have a job. I also knew how much in total I was borrowing and at the get go I knew how much I would be asking to borrow and asked myself: Will I be able to afford this loan? I knew the answer was yes. Why did the gal not know how much she had to pay back, or know the monthly payments? These programs are nothing new. Are they not asking how one intends to pay back these loans now, or, do these young people of today feel that they are just entitled?

I ask that question due to a person that I ended up working with after I graduated. I was working as a consultant for a bio-tech company. There was another person, one who would just be graduating college, and this fellow felt that upon graduation he would be making $60K a year. When he told me this I laughed and he looked at me with a look of surprise on his face. I told him that he had to pay his dues by starting at the bottom and proving himself, getting experience and working his way up to finally obtain a $60K a year salary. He actually believed that he would graduate and command that kind of a salary. So the next question is: Where did he get an idea like that? Did he hear this at school from a instructor or a counselor? If so, is the same instructor or counselor that told him this still working in the system today? Are the loan people indicating that this would be the case today? Where would anyone get the idea that they could have earnings like this? Especially today. Maybe it was media reporting on the nightly news or on the internet…hmmm.

Now, I am not discounting the young from wanting an education to better themselves. I applaud them. But the education has to start before they even get to college. Were they exposed to finance growing up? Did the gal in CBS’s story understand what a loan is, and what you have to plan for to pay it back? Or, have we become a society that believes in fairy tales and if the fairy tale does not come true, then…well, you get the point.

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Buy a House, Get a Visa!

OK – so here is the United States offering a foreign person that if they buy a house, then they can get a Visa. No-no-no-we are not talking about a credit card, we are talking about someone being able to stay here in this country with benefits. Benefits, that if you are a citizen you cannot get! What is wrong with this picture? Our government can take care of other countries, citizens from other countries but not our own?

I have to ask: Is this kind of assistance only because there is a desire to look good? Let’s put forward a face of humanitarianism for the world, and let’s not let anyone know that we cannot take care of our own.

Have you seen homeless people on the streets where you live? Why are they on the streets? How is it that we can take care of folks who come here with a desire to live here but we cannot take care of the homeless on our streets? I just don’t get that; do you understand this? If you do please explain this to me.

I have personally paid into the U.S system for more than 35 years, and when I needed assistance, I was turned away. I pay taxes on every paycheck I have ever received, and companies that I have worked for have paid for me to be able to benefit if I am unemployed. When I needed to draw on this I was denied. Yet I saw folks new to this country receive thousands of dollars per month to be here and I could not get a dime.

What is wrong with this picture? Are the people of this country fed up? Is this why there have been protesters for more than a month protesting the greed of Wall Street?

Our politicians have this need to take care of everyone except the citizens of this country. Why are they still in office? Why have you not rebelled in the voting booth? Forget political parties, all sides are responsible for the state of the U.S. And we are too for letting them remain in office.

Let your U.S. representatives know that buying a home in the U.S. should not be a ticket to a Visa.

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Wells Fargo Bank Screws Up!

One of the top news stories tonight is about Wells Fargo Bank sending out bank statements to wrong addresses! What? How can this happen you ask? Here is what was reported after the tease from CBS 13 News in Sacramento:

In South Carolina and Florida Wells Fargo Bank sent statements out to wrong customers due to what was cited as “a faulty printer.” I ask: Where is the rest of the story?

My comments: CBS News but should have asked: How does a printer go wrong? Who changed the information? The customer’s account is attached to the name of the account holder. Did Wells Fargo get hacked and they don’t want to take the blame? Or, was it a disgruntled employee who took their revenge?

Why did CBS News not ask but just report that this happened? What has happened to good news reporting in this country?

My condolences to those in SC and FL and please start asking questions and demand answers that make sense. And, shame on you CBS 13 in Sacramento for not asking questions and getting answers!

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The Rascal Alfalfa

I am not talking about Alfalfa the Little Rascals, but the rascal that feeds CA livestock. My husband and I take care of a wild mustang that visits us looking for food, not that there is not enough around the reservoir behind us, but he adopted us and we give him half of a flake every other day. When we first started buying him hay the price was $8.99 a bale. Our last trip to buy hay made our jaws drop! The price today for the same bale: $17.99! Why have the prices gone up you ask? We found out why…

A Bloomberg News story reported on this issue recently. It stated that it was cheaper to ship hay to China than to ship it up into the valley. This has to do with a limited supply of hay from foreign importers. The cost to export hay runs from $16 to $25 per ton while the cost to ship into our area is $45 to $50 a ton. What is driving the price down on exporting hay are transportation costs. The ships that bring imports from Asia are not able to fill the space on the return trip, so this drives down the cost of transportation resulting in a lower cost of transporting hay to Asia.

Did you know that a bale of hay with three ties is normally 15 inches high, 23 inches wide and 48 inches long? The hay going to Asia gets compacted to 15 inches high, 23 inches wide and 20-21 inches long. This conserves space. So more hay is able to leave the country and sales are greater reducing the price. And, of course there are bucks to be made by selling in huge quantities which limits supply in our area. I have to ask: If compacting hay reduces the space needed to transport an item, then why are they not compacting hay that is sent to us in our neck of the woods? Takes up less space, more can be transported, and aside from weight, which will not change, would not the cost of transportation come down? Hmmm…

Oh, the old supply and demand model we learned about in economics! And here is where the market comes into play. Farmers have shifted from alfalfa to other crops, such as soybean, corn, almonds and pistachios, leading to a decline in availability of alfalfa too.

The US Department of Agriculture has reported that alfalfa production in 11 western states is lower than last year, and reported the lowest yield of alfalfa since 2006, which equates to about .1 ton per acre.

The bottom line is money. Say you owned a car dealership and you sold one car per month at the highest price possible. Or, say you owned the same car dealership and you were able to sell 20 cars in a month at a reasonable price and still cover your costs. Where are you making more money? You make more selling 20 cars than just the one.

Products will go where the money is to be had. That is the bottom line. So, what can we do? I think you might want to think about that considering the failing US economy. Buy US made products and boycott products from China.

Source: Lee’s Feed Article “Export competition adds to ‘SCARY’ HAY MARKET” written by Steve Adler.

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Social Security Administration Makes Loads of Mistakes

I found an article on CNN Money, written by Blake Ellis, on the internet which reported that thousands of people who were alive were reported dead. What? I could not find anything on Snopes.com to refute this claim. Further, my own Mother suffered at the hands of the good old SSA. And I will be suffering from them as well and at a time when I should be enjoying my retirement. Here is a synopsis of what was reported, which is followed by what happened to my own Mother, and my own thoughts.

Apparently, out of the 2.8 million people who are reported dead, about 14,000 of those reported are still alive. 14,000 people! What happens to you if you are included in that list of 14,000? You can lose your social security benefits, which can result in hardship for you, and your personal identifying information gets published in what is known as the “Death Master File.” It becomes public information.

Mr. Ellis reports that one woman stopped receiving her Social Security Disability payments due to this happening to her and this resulted more hardships for her than she was already experiencing due to her disability.

What hardships happened to her? Well, she ended up having her bank close her account as she was reported dead. She had to prove herself alive. Not only to the bank, but to the SSA. It took her months to be brought back to life. And, the SSA did not pay for the missed benefit checks, they just started them back up from when she was brought back to life.

Further, the SSA lost her file, and it took two years for all the information to be resurrected. Did the SSA apologize to her for making this mistake? No. The SSA, according to this article, stated that two months is too long to fix a situation such as this, but with the loss of her file, this took over two years to be fixed. Can you afford this kind of mistake?

It was reported that the SSA received false information, apparently some of it coming from funeral homes who reported the wrong social security number for someone recently deceased. Shouldn’t all the paperwork be double checked before going anywhere? How little this happens today in a world of get it done quick and don’t worry if the information is not correct for we can fix this later. Yes they can at the loss of two years worth of income to someone who does not have the wherewithal to survive this.

My mother, upon entering her retirement years, was 63 at the time, and she informed the SSA that she would be earning a small amount of money during her retirement: The total she reported would amount to $999.99 for the upcoming year. This of course was no where near the amount that would affect her social security benefits. Once the paperwork was filed, my Mother waited for her first check.

Did it come? No. Why you ask? Because someone entering her data at the SSA entered the amount as $99,999.00, instead of the $999.99. Whoops! How long did it take before my Mother was finally able to collect her social security check? Two whole years! Seems to be a magic number with these folks.

So, here I am sitting at my desk and writing this, still stunned from people being reported dead when they are not, and remembering what my Mother went through. I recently heard, and I am sure that you have too, that there is not enough money in the SSA for all the “baby boomers” who are either in retirement age or will shortly be reaching that stage of life.

To me, social security is money that I have contributed, my employer’s too, to a fund that is being held in trust for me for when I reach retirement age, which at that time, I get back with interest. I think that was at least what this was intended for. Will this happen for me? According to an article in the news as of August 22, 2011, the money will not be there for me.

How can this happen? Well, the government needed the money for something that they did not have the funds for so they borrowed from my retirement. Shame to those whose decision touched the retirement fund of millions! This decision was made by small group of 535 who do not pay into social security and who would not be affected by their decision. So, that is it in a nutshell. Who gave them permission to touch my retirement fund? I know that I didn’t. Did you?

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