You've just spent two hours on hold. You're holding a bill will an unfair $35 penalty fee. You're cell phone bill jumped from $65 to $400. Your cable bill is suddenly triple-digits.You're fed up. You can't take it any more....and I want your help.
Like anyone, you want to kick, scream, and wring someone's neck. But you want something even more valuable. You want justice. You want your money back. So you scour the Internet to find an e-mail address to contact a company executive. You fire off letters to state regulators, the attorney general, your local newspaper. You start a blog and torture the company. And eventually, you get satisfaction.
You are special. You know how to do something much more effective than complaint. You know how to find solutions.
And now, I ask you to take your expertise and help others.
This is a new experiment called the Red Tape Raiders. We all know companies have thousands of ways to cheat you, and thousands of ways to frustrate you. For three years, I've written stories attempting to untangle much of this Red Tape for you, one frustration at a time. I have constantly been impressed by the quality of the contributions that arrive through the comment submissions to my blog. In many cases, people write in just to get a sense of emotional support, a sense that they're not alone. But often, people with special knowledge write in, offering specific solutions: precise internal company phone numbers for tracking down wayward rebates; company insiders with precise phrases that work with difficult customer service phone calls; fax numbers that get results.
I want to put you to work.
The Red Tape Raiders is a new place for you to share your success stories and your acquired knowledge to the rest of the world. This space is your space to be a hero to someone else. It's also a way to get the most of your hours-long crusade. After you've gotten justice, your work can live on and help others.
It's undeniable that the past decade has been brutal for consumers. There's only one way to fight back -- to organize. Consumers who have the special knack of getting their way through persistence and pushiness need to share their methods with others. My hope is that you'll be eager to join the Red Tape Raiders and make a difference. Together, we can help restore fairness to the American marketplace, one click at a time.
INSTRUCTIONS ON POSTING AN ARTICLE
To contribute an article to the Red Tape Raiders, you'll have to join Newsvine and the Raiders group, but that only takes a moment. Just click "join" on the main page. Then, write an article on your Newsvine page using the "write article" link. When you're finished, make sure it appears on the Red Tape Raiders page by selecting the "Publish to:" option at the bottom. Finally, add a tag from the list below so your article appears in the right sub-section and it's easier to find.
The tags are:
*bank-fees
*car-buying
*cell-phones
*credit-cards
*home-buying
*home-phones
*insurance
*Internet-access
*pay-TV
*student-loans
Here are a few other ground rules:
*This is not a place to whine. It's a place to share success stories and help each other. "Me too" thoughts should be include as comments on others' articles
*Information that is publicly available is fine to post -- such as customer service numbers -- but no violations of privacy will be tolerated
*Articles posted to the group should generally consist of first person accounts, not stories about others' experiences
*While nearly everyone who posts here will be frustrated, keep the language professional. Remember, this group is not about being angry, it's about being effective.
Leave a Comment:
I'm in. Just let me know how I can help.
Quick question, Bob. On those tags you're not actually suggesting we have the asterix too are you?
Bob's good people. I interviewed him back here. He's also the best boss I ever had and not just because we'd often end a work day by heading to a bar to shoot pool and drink.
Scott makes an astute observation. I'm using the asterix as a bullet, perhaps a poor choice. The tags are
bank-fees
car-buying
cell-phones
credit-cards
home-buying
home-phones
insurance
Internet-access
pay-TV
student-loans
You can edit your article to revise those... (and correct some other errors ... with for will)
A quick Newsvine/XHTML markup tutorial for you Bob, replace your asterix delimited list with this code
And it'll look like this
I'd point anyone who's interested in this at The Consumerist as well. No, they're not an MSNBC property, but they do really great work on this front.
That sounds great, Killfile. Thanks.
Folks, Bob's good people. I interviewed him back here. He's also the best boss I ever had and not just because we'd often end a work day by heading to a bar to shoot pool and drink.
His book helped me successfully beat Best Buy with the help of many of you at Newsvine over problems I had with a laptop computer
Also helpful in my fight was the Squeaky Wheel web site. I'm doing an email interview later this week with the owner of that site.
btw if anyone has questions they want addressed by Squeaky Wheel about how they help fight red tape and problems just drop them my way via email. I think Bob agrees with me that its sites like Squeaky Wheel and, as Killfile mentioned above, Consumerist, that help consumers try to get back at big business when they do us wrong.
My squeaky wheel interview is now up.
Excellent idea! Very valuable info. I've mostly used the Better Business Bureau at their MAIN headquarters as the local one seemed to be working for the businesses themselves where I live. You'd be amazed at the info they have at their fingertips and the volume of it. I've had to write to CEOs and managers. I've found it's better to go to the top if you're dealing directly with a business. Anyone else under that level is just a way for them to put things off. Then you're free to send your info to the BBB. My main suggestion for writing them letters? Write your rage. Read it. Tear it into little pieces and throw it away. Then I sit down and write a 'civil' letter with my valid complaints and my request. Polite and reasonable. Nobody can argue with that. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar. :) And besides that, they HATE negative publicity. Achilles heel you know.
Hey Nancy, thanks for joining in. Writing good letters is a lost art, and an incredibly vital part of the process. If you have the time, I would love to see you share letters you wrote that got results. In fact, I'll probably add a "letters" category in a little while. People could use them as forms and get results themselves. I'm a big believer in sample letters.
I write letters for people all the time. They rarely fail to be effective. Let me know...
Dr. Know, it'd great if you'd post a couple.
I'll second the link to the Consumerist.com. Just acquired by Consumers Union, so it's here to stay, thank goodness.
Oh, count me in! I have been posting some seeds and stuff to Consumer Vine but now this is here, and is more in tune with what I had in mind.
Are those tags you listed the only topics of discussion for this group? What about other scams?
We can definitely add other tags. I'm trying to keep the list managable so it's easier for people to browse. But if you see something that doesn't fit in the tags I've suggested, feel free to add your own.
I've been a Verizon customer for years. They are my only available provider. In July I called to stop the DSL at $19.99 per mo. Called each month. Could not get it stopped. Quit paying. Cut of long distance. Then cut of local. I was on cable. Talke for 3hrs to a lady in Tucson. Seemed capable and able to make changes. She agreed that Verizon was in error etc. and would credit and have accounts give other credit and send me a revised bill. In the interim, I paid $40= dollars plus $20+dollars plus $3.50 credit card fee to get local service. One month later, disconnected my local again. On Feb 16 I received two bills. One for $103.?? and another for $110.??. Then on Feb. 19 received a bill for $319.??. Called and held for 16 minutes with reaching a living person. So, I have filed a "protest" with the FCC, Texas PUC and Texas attorney general. Any one have any better idea?
If these new rules and laws are put in place next year or the year after what are the credit card companys going to do in the mean time..............raise everything on a credit card they can until that date? We have so much red tape now that you need a lawer to help you purchase a legal reader to help you find the fine print it is getting so small..........we need to rid the world of red tape problems we have in the US and it keeps getting reder by the day.