By Quentin Fottrell
- Christopher Elliott
Christopher Elliott, author of “Scammed” and airlines passenger advocate, tells Pay Dirt how he fell for some of the oldest tricks in the book before becoming a consumer advocate. Known primarily for his work as a journalist and campaigner for travelers, Elliott himself used to work for a travel trade publication 20 years ago. He said seeing the travel business from the inside was very “eye-opening.” He also tells Pay Dirt about a valuable lesson he learned from a parrot named Scarlett.
Pay Dirt: What are the most naked scams that we don’t even see as scams?
Elliott: You’re being scammed right now.
Pay Dirt: I am? But you are promoting your book.
Elliott: Consumers are always being scammed. Usually, if you have to ask if it’s a scam, the answer is yes. The common definition of a scam is pretty narrow: A fraudulent deal that some shady guy offers you on the street or an email from someone in Nigeria telling you you’ve inherited $1 million. I talk a lot in the book about contracts. Some of the most onerous are mortgage contracts where the fine print is so dense that – at the end of the first six months – your interest rate suddenly goes up. And shrink-wrap contracts: By opening the box you are agreeing to the terms of purchase. Also, beware of contracts that self-renew.
Pay Dirt: What about gift cards? I received a holiday gift card for a month’s free membership at a gym, which expired on Jan. 5. As a consolation, the gym gave me a training session with a fitness instructor– a few weights and some push-ups – and then tried to sell me a year’s membership. Are gift cards a good idea?
Elliott: Often, the answer is no.
Pay Dirt: What’s your stance on “mandatory arbitration” contracts that require customers to settle any disputes using a private arbitrator, instead of in the courts?
Elliott: It’s worse when people agree to mediation without having to read the contract. This happens a lot when you download software. A message appears: “Do you agree with the terms?” One click and you agree.
Pay Dirt: Is that not the consumer’s responsibility to read the fine print?
Elliott: I spend half of the book telling consumers what they can do. It’s really tough love. Businesses are always being deemed as the bad guy is not always practical or helpful. Kids are not taught how to be good customers either, they’re taught to be voracious consumers – not taught to read contracts and negotiate. This is a failure of the education system, parents and consumer journalists.
Pay Dirt: What should we be watch out for in the airline industry this year?
Elliott: If you took away all baggage fees, the airline industry would not be profitable right now: early boarding fees, seat reservation fees, Wi-Fi, on-board meals. Anything that’s not included in the price of your ticket will substantially add to it. (Victoria Day, a spokeswoman for Airlines for America, an industry group, says airline profitability is razor thin and points to the Department of Transport’s new rules released last year to protect airline passengers, which tackled major issues like lost-baggage fees and price transparency. “We share the DoT’s goal of continuously improving the customer experience and our member airlines will implement the new rules as efficiently as possible,” she says.)
Pay Dirt: Isn’t the answer to that: Travel light and bring your own lunch?
Elliott: Yes, for now. But the victims are those who travel once or twice a year, and end up paying more than they had intended.
Pay Dirt: How did you become involved in consumer advocacy?
Elliott: I became what I am because I got scammed. I hired an unlicensed contractor to build a fence for our property. We paid him up front. He dropped off a couple of posts and disappeared along with our money. I also fell for a financial services pyramid scheme right out of college. I lost $4,000. I remember beautiful people in expensive suits telling us we could earn six figures by the end of the year.
Pay Dirt: Have you heard about the old windscreen wiper scam? You find a note on your car saying, “Earn $1,000! Guaranteed! Send $10 to this address for details on how to get started.” The most gullible will send away and receive instructions to tell them to put leaflets on car windows saying, “Earn $1,000! Guaranteed! Send $10 to this address for details on how to get started.”
Elliott: Yes, I have heard of that one.
Pay Dirt: Were you the victim of any retail scams?
Elliott: I was living in South Florida a few years ago and I really wanted a parrot. It taught me to never go the discount route when you are looking for a pet. I wanted an African Grey Parrot. I paid $900. She died 24 hours later. Her name was Scarlett. She fell to the bottom of her cage and died from pneumonia. We were told she was probably sick before she came home with us. Thankfully, my credit card company sided with me and I got all my money back.
Pay Dirt: Did the parrot ever speak?
Elliott: It was too young to speak.
Pay Dirt: Do you know what the parrot would have told you had she lived long enough to speak?
Elliott: No, what?
Pay Dirt: “You have been scammed. You have been scammed. You have been scammed.”
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Swtor cant play, play button greyed out?
I got email that i was choosen for beta testing. i downloaded and installed the game but when i log in with my client the Play button is all greyed out. cant play ….
Some else had this probb ?
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by Stephen
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Best Answer – Chosen by Voters
They let you download the game before they let you play.
Why? The download of the game takes a good while to finish/Install. So instead of sending out the emails the day they open the beta. They let you download the game days before. So they day they open the game up you can just log right in and play without wasting 6 hours of the weekend downloading it.
This weekend beta AKA "Thanks giving weekend beta" will start sometime Friday and end on Monday. Please note that the sooner you accepted the RSRP the sooner you can play. BW is doing this weekend beta in stages to insure smooth gameplay. So tell your friends..
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by Haryon Lainadan
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That’s what I found :
Hello everyone! As some of you may have noticed, we are beginning to grant access for players who will be asked to participate in this weekend’s Beta Testing Weekend. We will be sending invite emails very soon, but the process of inviting and granting access can take several days. If you do not have access now, please check back later in the week and watch for official announcements.
For anyone who has visited the Game Tester Page and has been able to download: you are installing the newest launcher and game client, and you will not need to uninstall if you get an invite email. However, this is a new build of the game, and any software used during previous testing phases will need to be updated to the current version.
Please note that we’ll be notifying players separately about when and how this testing phase will begin. Watch for official emails and sticky messages here in the Game Tester Forums.
We’re excited for this weekend’s fun and are looking forward to your participating and feedback! Welcome!
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In the same boat bud. If i’m correct, and i believe i am because i’ve been doing this beta testing stuff for a while. Our window of play is going to be 11am pst Friday/Sat and Sun. So don’t expect to be able to click that Play button, (even though we took the 5-6 hours to download) till those days. They said the window is the 25th through 28th. You can ask around, but i’m pretty sure this is the case.
Like a lot say on the forums, we’re there to "Stress test the servers, not play the game." even though i really want to test the game out and all the classes before i finish paying off my own prepaid.
Good luck.
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If you have any earnings you can start a Roth IRA. If not, then you have to insvet in a taxable account. My guess is that you are not familiar with insvetments. I would suggest you consider insveting in Vanguard’s Star Fund or one of their Target funds (pick a date closest to your estimated retirement date). Both of these funds are low cost and provide a diversified allocation of insvetments. Just go to their web site or call them to get started.I think you should also begin reading about mutual funds, insveting, etc unlike most of what we learned in school this is knowledge you can use and profit from the rest of your life.Just be careful everyone wants to lure you with the top ten funds etc. Look for the articles that recommend using index funds e.g. books by Bogle on mutual funds (he founded Vanguard). As you become more knowledgable you can move your insvetments. The best way to save is to do it automatically. You can have money taken out of your bank account and insveted in your mutual fund each month.Once you do that don’t pay much attention to the market noise markets go up and down, you are in it for the next 25 years or so so don’t panic. When you are about 5 years from needing the money then give it some thought.
This is a good article. I agree with Christopher Elliot that consumers need to take responsibility as well. If consumers are constantly seen as victims, that prompts little sympathy, attention and action. When consumers purchases a product or service – they should adopt the frame of mind similar to entering into a business contract – and the contract you do sign will be skewed to the person who wrote it versus the consumer. Also, if you cannot afford something – do not get it. Lastly, if it sounds too good to be true…well you know the rest. Again, good article!