UCAN

Consumers who bought the cold remedy Airborne, and related products, between May 1, 2001, and November 29, 2007, can get their money back. Simply visit airbornesettlement.com to make your claim, I just did, and I'll give an update on the results. You can file a complaint online or print and send a claim form, but you'll want to rack your brain and try to remember...

1. The store from which you bought the product(s),
2. The amount you spent on the product(s).
3. The city in which you bought the product.
4. The type of product you bought

The 2000-2001 Energy Crisis was traumatic for most San Diegan's given our first-hand witnessing at ground-zero of the electricity market meltdown beginning in June 2000. But many people ask me how much has SDG&E customers have had to pay for the debacle. Well, here's the answer.......................

It's funny how phone companies that lobby regulators for "pricing flexibility" only seem to move their prices in one direction: up. "Flexibility" implies the ability to flex in multiple directions, and while I recognize it's just another fancy lobby-speak term, it's time to call it what it really is: "price increasing flexibility." It's certainly flexible, because the respective company may decide to raise a particular rate 3% or 300%, but make no mistake, there will be no downward flexing.

As if it were a surprise, the phone giants are raising rates again, some by as much as 300%. This USA Today story points to a growing source of criticism. While the largest telecom companies continue to lobby for decreased regulatory oversight on the basis of increased competition, their phone service rates are rising. In California, phone companies have been largely deregulated since late 2006, but as this chart from TURN shows, major service providers such as AT&T and Verizon have increased rates over and over again. Basic economics tells you that in a competitive marketplace prices should fall...so what can you do? Ditch your landline phone. Internet phones can provide a wider variety of services at a fraction of the cost of traditional landline phones. Using your cell phone as your primary phone can also be cheaper than maintaining a landline phone.

Yahoo! Tech recently reviewed a new web service called Validas that claims to help you reduce your monthly cell phone bill. I used it last weekend and tend to agree with the Yahoo article. I had a $200 bill and Validas didn’t come up with any savings for me. From my own experiment, I concluded that heavy users might be able to benefit from the service, but it's not clear that it benefits those with uncomplicated cell phone use. It was relatively easy to use, which is good (and I like the 5-upload package). But not all that easy for novices…..downloading the bills from the carriers could be off-putting to people not comfortable with computers. Finally, I’m nervous that the per-use charge may be a discouragement to many users. In the circles in which I travel, many are unaccustomed to paying ANYTHING for such services. So I expect many will be resistant to Validas' fees.