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UCAN - On Friday, April 3rd, the Ninth District Court of Appeals ruled that a lawsuit against Arco/British Petroleum can proceed. San Diego attorney Tim Cohelan says he can prove that oil refineries routinely trade supplies with each other in order to manipulate and control the street price of gasoline. More.
Is the appearance of cheap, IP based voice services on cell phones like Skype and Truphone on cell phones a game changer or a small step?
Gas prices have surged 10¢ a gallon in the last 4 days. Now, an enforcement action by appointed bureaucrats at an obscure government agency could eliminate California's toughest gasoline retailers overnight and force prices higher. Bluntly, the government's good intentions will drive some of California's best gas stations down a highway to Hell. Full Story.
A 37-page analysis performed by three UCAN experts concluded that the Commission should turn off the lights on an SDG&E proposal to "de-energize" over 45,000 customers who live in rural San Diego County during fire threats. The experts concluded that SDG&E's plan might actually increase fire risk, rather than decrease it. It also found that it was inadequately evaluated, contained misleading data and couldn't be economically or legally justified. To read the entire report, click here. The Commission is planning to hold public hearings on the proposal in San Diego during April but - incredibly -- it chose not to hold evidentiary hearings on the proposal.
On March 26th, New York Times columnist Bob Tedeschi featured UCAN's phone cost study to highlight the difficulty in assessing phone costs. He focused on the wireless aspects of our report but he totally "got" the message. He calculates that, for example, if you were on a calling plan where you paid an average of 26 cents a minute and you switched to a prepaid plan charging 10 cents a minute, a new phone would pay for itself after about 167 minutes of calling rather than 560 minutes of calling on a "bucket plan".
His conclusion is spot-on correct..... the cell phone companies can be doing a much better job in helping consumers navigate the actual costs for phone service. What he didn't add was that regulators should be doing more to push wireless carriers to start fully disclosing actual cost data about wireless phones. Tedeshci's article is worth reading (see below) but you don't need to read the article to get the point: if you don't use all of your bucket of minutes on your cell phone every month, you may be better served by looking carefully at pre-paid wireless plans. The UCAN study referenced by the NY Times can be found here.
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!
KFMB NEWS: Best Windows and Doors has already made a name for itself selling worthless "NERF" Home Improvement rebates to unsuspecting seniors, but now reports are surfacing of deceptive dealings with costly solar panels. Best Windows and Doors latest victim? An 82-year old woman. Full Story.
UCAN's FUELTRACKER.COM: Oil prices have increased by more than 50% in the last 30 days while gas prices have declined by a dime. Full Story.
UCAN's FUELTRACKER: With gas prices more or less stable at $2.18 a gallon in San Diego, the Department of Energy reported a huge and completely unexpected build in gasoline inventories this morning. And even though the supply is up, gas prices are likely to climb. More.
25 years after the breakup of the AT&T monopoly, a comprehensive audit of more than 700 San Diego phone bills challenges the long-cherished assumption that "phone deregulation has reduced costs for all customers." The ugly reality is that for the majority of wireless and landline telephone bills studied, customers pay unjustifiably high per-minute charges for long distance and wireless services. Get an overview of the 87-page report here. Get the full report in PDF format.
Fill out this form to request a FREE copy of UCAN's 2009 updated Mobile Phone Plan Checker
Need help resolving a dispute with a company? Get individualized help with your dispute from the Fraud Squad by using our Online Complaint Forms. Once you've filled out a complaint, call the Fraud Squad Hotline at (619) 696-6966!
Cell phone providers will let you get out of your contract for around $175 per phone line with no questions asked.
If that just isn't good enough for you, and it shouldn't be, then take a look at this guide to learn about asserting your rights!
Shopping for wireless with the World's Greatest Consumer
They don't call me the "World's Greatest Consumer" for nothing. Well, perhaps they do. But that's an entirely different story and only tangentially related to my decision to take a personal plunge into buying a new wireless phone and service. Join me on my virtual safari.
-Michael, WGC
Health care reform may be picking up steam as AARP,an organization representing millions of older Americans, and the American Medical Association (AMA) endorse a $1.1 trillion dollar House bill that could come up for a vote as early as this Saturday. READ MORE.
KUSI's Michael Turko masterfully interviewed the City of San Diego Water Department and UCAN about the next water rate hike hearing set for November 17, 2009. The City of San Diego sent tenants and landlords of residential properties, a 4-page flier via Presorted Standard mail; otherwise known as junk mail delivery. UCAN invited anyone without Internet access to call 619-696-6966 to get a copy of the Protest Form. To stop the rate hike, 50% + 1 of the approximate 240,000 ratepayers must send in the form or write a protest letter mailed to: City Clerk, City Administration Building, 202 C Street, MS 2P, San Diego, CA 92101. A letter of protest or the form must be received by the City no later than 10:00 A.M. November, 17, 2009. Watch the video.
Congress is considering the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. UCAN urges its adoption as not only in the best interest of the consumer, but also the financial industry.
Toyota is ordering mandatory inspections of all Toyota and Lexus vehicles after an improperly installed floor mat was linked to a crash that killed four people last month near Santee, California. One of the victims was a California Highway Patrolman, who was driving the vehicle. READ MORE UPDATE: Toyota recalls 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles, according to Channel 10 News.
Michael's aquaponics adventure led him to the water saving potential for hydroponics, e.g. growing plants using water and nutrients, but no soil. So now he has an hydroponics system, to compare to his aquaponics and conventional soil gardens. 
Miracles don't happen often enough in our world. But when Michael starts growing his own fish and food in his garage, then you know that there's some divine intervention because Michael doesn't fish and he's got a brown thumb that makes all leafy things tremble. So how did Advocate Michael become Farmer Michael? One word: AQUAPONICS.
Many Southern California homeowners are weighing the cost of installing solar, but energy experts agree they should first take advantage of lower-cost energy-saving measures that can be taken now -- especially in older homes.
Hiring a contractor for home improvements or repairs can be a tricky and expensive business and there are bad apples out there. If you've had a problem with a contractor, or just want to check one out before signing on the dotted line, you can go to the California State Contractors' License Board's (CSLB) Web site for help.
UCAN received documentation that Best Windows & Doors filed for bankruptcy protection on December 19, 2008. Contact UCAN immediately if you signed a contract around December 19th, or after that date, by filling out the Best Windows & Doors complaint form . The other bad news is that those of you who counted on the promised voucher plan sponsored by NERF (National Energy Rebate Fund), will not be collecting your rebate after the 4 years. NERF is no longer in business either.
The bankruptcy hearing is scheduled for January 26, 2009. So, there's not much time. READ MORE.
Visit our page dedicated to the Sunrise Powerlink Transmission Project. You will find news, data, legal hearings and testimony, open-letters from UCAN's executive director, and just about everything else you might want to know regarding this important proposal. Or, listen to Michael Shames explain UCAN's opposition to Sunrise in this UCAN.org podcast.
AT&T's practice of enabling international roaming without customer notification violates the CA Public Utilities Code, which is intended to protect consumers from "cramming" of unauthorized charges. AT&T customers are also being charged for calls that were never placed. UCAN asserts that these customers never sought nor authorized international roaming as a service provided in connection with their cellular phone service.
California Lifeline, formerly known as Universal Lifeline Telephone Service (ULTS), provides discounted basic residential (landline) telephone service to low-income households.
UCAN has filed a federal class action complaint against Sprint Nextel (aka Sprint Solutions) for illegally billing customers taxes, fees, and text message charges on data services plans. You can read the complaint here.
December 8th, 2006 was not a good day for San Diego. On that day, San Diego Gas & Electric asked state regulators for permission to raise base rates for electricity and natural gas customers by some $250 million annually for the years 2008 through 2013. You don't need a calculator to realize that adds up to a chilly $1.5 BILLION over those six years. Listen to Michael Shames explain UCAN's position on SDG&E's rate request.
UCAN established that Cingular Wireless engaged in illegal marketing and customer service practices from 2000-2002 and filed a suit in July 2002. The case dragged on for years, but in was worth the wait. In 2006, a CA Court of Appeals judge ruled against Cingular and upheld a CPUC decision to hit Cingular with a large fine for its unconscionable actions. Get all the details inside our issue center.
UCAN's complaint, filed with the California Public Utilities Commission, details how MCI added surcharges to the bills of local phone customers in violation of California law. MCI's new long-distance "Basic Monthly Fee" is being imposed on those customers who use MCI's local phone service...but don't use MCI long-distance.
In a filing with the Public Utilities Commission, SDG&E has asked for approval to deploy "real-time" advanced meters to all of SDG&E's small business and residential customers. Find out why the SDG&E AMI proposal needed to be substantially revised.
Of all the new features and capabilities of today's cell phones, UCAN receives the most complaints about ringtones and text messages. Our issue center contains all sorts of valuable information from consumer guides and updates to lawsuits and settlements against major cell phone providers. Come inside and see for yourself!
After over two years of litigation, the City and UCAN's Executive Director Michael Shames have agreed to a settlement that would return about $40 million to overcharged residential customers and, perhaps more importantly, allow for the creation of independent oversight of City water and sewer operations. Check out this Issue Center for everything you need to know about the refund!
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Learn how other people have made money by taking telemarketers to small claims court. Download PDF
Post your auto fraud question and get an answer from Hal Rosner, one of California's leading auto fraud attorneys.
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.
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