Company line-up: the good and bad

Article

Recently I have had to deal with a number of companies and am quite pleased and disturbed by some of them. I try to make it a policy to avoid dwelling on the negative in my online journal, but I felt that you good folks ought to be aware of these things. So in an attitude of public concern, here are my recommendations:

Bank of America = Bad, Bad, Bad!

Bank of America has unfortunately earned a solid reputation as a bloated, unethical, self–serving corporation only interested in the “almighty dollar.”

I switched to Bank of America for three reasons:

1. While in India I had some money issues with a train ticket, and the only banks they would “talk with” were the large, international ones. I saw a Bank of America branch in India and decided I needed a bank with a global presence. However, this isn’t actually a benefit as I will explain later.
2. I thought it would most likely have an easier means to transfer business funds electronically, IE like Paypal. Wrong again.
3. I liked the logo. I know…silly me. I’m a sucker for good design.

Here are the reasons I strongly regret choosing Bank of America:

1. Fees. They have high fees. Fortunately I have not been charged for anything because I’m careful.
2. Their merchant fees are ridiculously high. Don’t plan on operating a business with them. I have a business account with them, but have never used their merchant services.
3. Despite their image of being “everywhere” they treat branches in other regions as totally different banks! While living in California, I could not use the ATM to deposit checks for my Virginia account. The same goes for Washington. When a banker in one region needs to access my account from another, their hands are tied and can do only so much. So much for “everywhere.”
4. They lie. Before coming to Yemen I arranged to have a trusted friend added to all my accounts in case of emergencies. This process I was assured would be “no problem” but took a good 4 weeks. Before I left I was assured my friend had been added to all my accounts. After arriving in Yemen, I did, in fact, have a financial emergency, only to find out my friend was added to only ONE of my three accounts. And as mentioned in #3 above, branches in the other states refuse to talk with her.
5. They freeze your account at the drop of a hat. I made a large purchase recently, but it took weeks for the payment to be accepted because they considered it irregular activity. I understand that. What I don’t understand is why they send an email to confirm the purchase by “Clicking this link” only to be told: “We’re sorry, this account cannot be serviced online. Please call us.” I tried using other cards, but they froze all of them. So to “call” them inexpensively, I tried purchasing SkypeOut credit, but since they had frozen my accounts I couldn’t pay. All the customer service emails I sent came back generic and unanswered. So I finally had my Mother call the number while I talked with her via Skype. However, the woman refused to speak with me because I must call “using a direct line”. She could hear me fine, and I told her I could give her any info she needed, but she refused. So we just called back, my Mom held the computer speaker to the phone, and we played their game.

It’s not just me saying all this. Many many people have been discussing this for years. They play unethical games. The list is enormous. Even unjustly putting people in jail, then refusing to apologize despite community action. Clark Howard, a radio host in Atlanta, Georgia, has been fighting Bank of America for years. He has hundreds of articles on his website relating abuses of Bank of America. The following are some highlights. Please, please…read them yourself and pass them on to anyone banking with this company.

1. Bank of America unjustly jails a man, then refuses to apologize
2. Clark organizes a BOA challege
3. Clark addresses the BOA campaign
4. Money loss meter for BOA
5. BOA reuses old account numbers to save a buck
   Scroll down almost to the end (Jan 05, 2005)
6. Clark has a lot more to say about BOA

Just to show my utter distaste for this company, I am willing to send something from Yemen to anyone who cancels their Bank of America account. You must register on my website and send me some kind of proof that you did this, but I’ll send you something at least.

DHL = Good, Good, Good!

Wow, why didn’t I ever use these folks before? I have had very bad experiences with FedEx (They continued redirecting a package with important tickets despite my calls to have it held. I missed the venue. No reimbursement.) and can’t remember anything special about UPS. But I always remember looking at my package tracking online and thinking, “Why is my package just sitting in a sort facility for 3 days?”

DHL is completely different. At least in my initial experience.

I had a very important package sent to me last week from Atlanta, Georgia. The website said it would arrive in four days. I was doubtful. The package was in my hands in less than 2.5 days! It was in the U.A.E. in a couple days, but it took another 13+ hours to get to Sana’a. My guess is they had to send it by truck instead of airline to Sana’a. At every location the package hardly had time to settle before it was off to another facility. Here’s a copy of the online tracking: (keep in mind the change in time zones makes the transit time actually less)

Yahoo = Bad, Bad, Bad!

Recently Yahoo received high ratings for customer approval/trust in some survey. (Sorry, I can’t find the link.) But I think not some, but ALL of the people surveyed would change their tune if they knew more about Yahoo.

My bad experience

I bought some messenger credits with them recently because I wanted to make cheap calls to the US. However, their Messenger for MAC does not have audio capabilities. They have a misleading disclaimer on their site for MAC users that begins with: “Lucky you, you’re a MAC user…” before you add credit. This statement is actually more of a mockery than genuine. I tried to ask questions, but they didn’t respond. So I placed the order. When it didn’t work, I asked for a refund. EIGHTEEN emails later (just Yahoo responses) they still have not refunded me anything because I can’t answer the security question I created EIGHT years ago. (At least?) When I ask how to edit the question in my profile, I get the runaround. More generic emails that don’t answer my questions.

But I know. That’s not a big deal to you, right? Read on.

Yahoo has been subpoenaed before federal courts on a number of occasions recently for their unethical involvement in criminal activities with countries such as China. They provide the infrastructure to the Chinese government which allows them to track online user activity. This information provided by Yahoo to China has put a man in prison for speaking out against government activities. And how he was treated in prison is anyone’s guess. How many other people have suffered a similar fate at the hands of Yahoo and China?

View the following links to learn about Yahoo’s unethical behavior with the Chinese government.

• CBS News article on the incidents of torture as a result of Yahoo's involvement with the Chinese government
• PBS video documentary on China
  Click the link, "6. The Struggle to Control Information"
• US House of Rep. document search on Yahoo hearings

AramediA = Good, Good, Good!

AramediA is a software company based in Massachusetts which primarily caters to anyone needing software products in another language. It just so happens that they also sell the Adobe ME (Middle Eastern) design software MUCH cheaper than anywhere else. Don’t ask me why. I was leery of it until the software arrived two days ago. Read more about this in my next article, All new Adobe apps! Woohoo!

There you have it. Perhaps I will add to this article as time goes by. But I am also curious…do you have some good or bad company experiences you would like to share? Please do comment.