On Tuesday, my new Apple desktop computer was delivered. I signed up for Best Buy’s Totaltech program, paying $200, because a tech would come to my house and install the computer. My iMac desktop is heavy and I didn’t want to lug it to Best Buy and also have to get a new heavy computer back home, too.
Comcast is one of the companies that I dislike the most. I’m using polite language here because it’s best thing for bloggers to do. I’ve had poor customer service many, many times, and one customer service manager used abusive language, calling me derogatory names. Another thing that irks me about Comcast is mandatory fees.
It’s great progress that 40 state attorneys general have reached a $391.5 million settlement with Google over its location tracking practices. The Big Four – Google, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook – have tremendous power over our personal information and more needs to be done to rein them in.
When I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile, it wasn’t a problem to cancel once I finally got the correct information on what to do. However, some consumers have found it difficult or nearly impossible to cancel a service because companies illegally trick or trap people who use their services. An example is the phone company Vonage.
After a loved one dies, going to a funeral home to make arrangements for a burial or cremation is difficult. Fortunately, in the 1980s I wrote an article on how to pick out funeral goods and services. I learned a lot. I did a survey after funeral directors in the area told me consumers weren’t having problems.
For years, I’ve suggested that consumers consider banking with a credit union rather than a bank. Why? Consumers often can’t trust banks not to gouge them with high interest rates and fees. It was great to listen to President Biden speak on the radio and on television about the action his administration is taking on “junk fees.”
Michelle Singletary, financial writer for The Washington Post, has been recommending buying Series I Bonds for months now. Singletary says for investors with money to spare and who are looking for safety, inflation has been good for Series I Bonds, which the Treasury Department announced will be paying 9.62 percent until the end of October.
My daughters are runners, and when they come and visit, they run through a cemetery that’s about 10 blocks from where I live. Recently, they’ve been after me to pick out my grave. Mona even stopped by the office and brought me a map of the different sections of the cemetery.
On Facebook this week, a woman in a financial group told about how she almost paid $2,500 to a scammer on Zelle. It was the government imposter scam. A guy told her she owed $2,500 because she’d missed a court date. The calls went on for about an hour. A friend on another line kept telling her not to send the money.
