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There may finally be a way around those nasty early termination fees levied by the major cell phone providers. Cellswapper.com gives users the ability to literaly swap cell phone contracts with other users. Think of it as the cellular contract equivalent to Ebay. Users can "sell" their phone contract without incurring a cancellation fee and "buy" contracts from others without paying an activation fee. This is a great solution if you are looking for a short term cell phone plan (contracts are availbe for as short as one month) or if you're stuck in a plan that isn't meeting your needs. Two other similar sites include: CellTradeUSA and Resellular.com.
If you are in the market for a major home appliance like a refrigerator, dishwasher, washer/dryer, or oven, then you will want to take a look at Krillion.com. Krillion allows users to select an appliance and view price information from local retailers. The system is not perfect, some outlet stores are not listed for example, but it is a great place to start.
A new federal lawsuit1 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California details how Cingular's advertising claims of being the carrier with the "fewest dropped calls" lured consumers to Cingular's service. The complaint explains how these advertising claims were made while Cingular was in fact one of the worst wireless providers in many major markets. At UCAN, Cingular(now AT&T) is one of the companies consumers complain of most. You can see UCAN's various actions against Cingular here and here. If you have a complaint about Cingular, let our fraud squad help you out by clicking here!
"According to Kaltwasser's complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Cingular misrepresented the findings made by Telephia, a data provider for the telecommunications industry.
Cingular conducted a widespread ad campaign based on what it claimed was a study by Telephia that rated Cingular as having the fewest dropped calls of any wireless carrier in the country.
In fact, Kaltwasser alleges, Telephia actually concluded that Cingular did not have the fewest dropped calls in several major markets, including New York, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles.
Moreover, independent studies by two other companies, J.D. Powers & Associates and Consumer Reports, found Cingular to be the worst or one of the worst carriers in dropped-call performance, Kaltwasser says."
Read the whole story by clicking here!
Kaltwasser v. Cingular Wireless LLC, No. 07-0411, complaint filed (N.D. Cal. Jan. 22, 2007).
If you thought your electric, phone, water, and gas bills were the worst to be found, think again. 1300 residents in Weatherford, Texas recently received utility bills from the Dataprose company that reached into the billions! According to local news station KHOU 11:
" Penny Dawson thought her utility bill was getting a bit high. But nothing prepared her for a $24 billion bill. Dawson was one of about 1,300 Weatherford utility customers who received billion-dollar bills in the mail this week... Dawson said she opened her bill on Tuesday to find she had been charged $3.66, had a deposit of $71,222,200,601 and had a total amount due of $24,200,700,004."It's the funniest thing I have ever seen," she said. Her utility bills normally average $250."
Read the whole story by clicking here.
Why pay $600-$840 per year for unlimited local and long distance service from Verizon when you can get the same from Skype for only $29.95 per year? Skype enables consumers with a broadband Internet connection to make phone calls through their computers using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology. If you'd like to try it, you can download Skype and call other Skype users anywhere in the world for free.
Calling cards are a great alternative to the over-priced long distance plans being offered by the major carriers, and 99 Cents Only just might be the best. For 99 cents, you receive 99 minutes of long distance air-time. Unlike traditional long distance providers, no long-term commitment is required, and there are no set-up or cancellation fees. Find a store that sells 99 Cents Only phone cards near you.
This article from voiceofsandiego.com is an example of why this process is far too short for proper analysis of the proposed water & sewer rate increases. The article explains how about $1 in every $7 of rate increase will be going to the City's crippling pension and retiree health care, not to infrastructure repair and improvement. A February 27th final date for deciding rate increases is simply not enough time to ensure that these rate increases don't unfairly burden certain ratepayers versus others.
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UCAN's affiliate New Media Rights is hosting a discussion forum on the future of media and journalism in San Diego. Join in on the discussion now!
How to protect your own blog or website from liability for user generated content
Is Youtube putting advertisements on user videos without permission?
Essential free and open software toolkit for consumers
How to find free music, images, and video you can use or remix in your own creative works
How to Listen to Music on the Internet for Free...Legally
How to make a Podcast... for free
Visit NewMediaRights.org
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What are you packin? Is it anything like UCAN's new and improved Consumer Complaint Directory? If not, you should really pick up a copy. This thing is chock-full of hard-hitting consumer punch.
