This is inspired in large part by KM's thread. In it, she asks why should you pay to be protected against credit mistakes and fraud. But that's not my point here. She has an excellent thread going about that particular subject.
Here, I want to discuss how you react when you check an online account, only to find that your level of service has been changed, with not a word to you about it. Whether it be your bank account that you access on the net, your credit card account, or even your bills that you might pay online.
I posted a link to a credit reporting service that I've been using happily for about two years. Since my husband and I are(were) charter members, we happened into free service for life. Or so I thought. I don't often log in to the site, as the important info is sent via email in the form of weekly reports. But I was inspired to log in this evening to "renew" my acquaintance with the site. Only to be greeted by a pitch to sign up with a service that until now I had access to for free. I poked around, and decided that maybe there was a mistake in one of the accounts, so I checked it out under the other one. Same thing.
What would you do in this instance? Just accept it? Or would you let the site and company know of your displeasure? I chose to inform them of my unhappiness. At length. Heh.
So how do we as a society deal with situations such as these? Where we perceive our rights or our expectations have been at best let down, at worst, trampled on? All too often we just let it happen, thinking to ourselves that it's not important enough to make a fuss. Perhaps it's this laid back attitude that encourages companies to think they can get away with less than honorable behavior?
I think it's time that we let those companies and entities know that we ARE paying attention, and we don't like what they've done or haven't done. I wrote a letter. It took less than 10 minutes. I encourage you to do the same. Express your unhappiness, your outrage, your annoyance. Don't let them get away with treating you like you aren't worthy of respect and a decent level of service.
Let's kick some butt!
Here, I want to discuss how you react when you check an online account, only to find that your level of service has been changed, with not a word to you about it. Whether it be your bank account that you access on the net, your credit card account, or even your bills that you might pay online.
I posted a link to a credit reporting service that I've been using happily for about two years. Since my husband and I are(were) charter members, we happened into free service for life. Or so I thought. I don't often log in to the site, as the important info is sent via email in the form of weekly reports. But I was inspired to log in this evening to "renew" my acquaintance with the site. Only to be greeted by a pitch to sign up with a service that until now I had access to for free. I poked around, and decided that maybe there was a mistake in one of the accounts, so I checked it out under the other one. Same thing.
What would you do in this instance? Just accept it? Or would you let the site and company know of your displeasure? I chose to inform them of my unhappiness. At length. Heh.
So how do we as a society deal with situations such as these? Where we perceive our rights or our expectations have been at best let down, at worst, trampled on? All too often we just let it happen, thinking to ourselves that it's not important enough to make a fuss. Perhaps it's this laid back attitude that encourages companies to think they can get away with less than honorable behavior?
I think it's time that we let those companies and entities know that we ARE paying attention, and we don't like what they've done or haven't done. I wrote a letter. It took less than 10 minutes. I encourage you to do the same. Express your unhappiness, your outrage, your annoyance. Don't let them get away with treating you like you aren't worthy of respect and a decent level of service.
Let's kick some butt!
