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And thanks to you. 2012 is going to be a hellish year for the USPS.

And such a shame because in recent years, things seemed to be getting better, not worse.

Dave Lieber shows Americans how to fight back against corporate deceptions in his wonderful national award-winning book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong. Are you tired of losing time, money and aggravation to all the assaults on our wallets? Learn how to fight back with ease — and win. Get the book here.

Tags: post office, Postal Service, postal theft, USPS
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Utility price increases often start earlier than you think

Wednesday, December 28th, 2011

Dear Watchdog Nation:

We were hoping you could help us with our water bill from the city of Watauga, Texas. They passed a rate increase of 30 percent for water and sewer and 100 percent for drainage fees, effective Oct. 1. We received our bill for September, and they charged us the new rates. We called to complain and they basically said we had to pay it, and if we didn’t like it we could attend the next council meeting.

We also tried to e-mail the city manager, Dr. Scott Neils, but we never heard back from him. It’s like they don’t care at all. We don’t feel we should be charged for usage in September for a rate increase that went into effect Oct. 1. Thank you for any help you can give us and the other residents of Watauga.

– Kathy and Robert Moran

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Dear Mr. and Mrs. Moran:

This is an issue of government transparency. As readers of the Dave Lieber Watchdog column in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram first learned, anytime a government is going to take more money out of your pocket, as the Watauga council voted to do in late September, officials have to be crystal-clear about it. That didn’t happen here.

But while Neils, who has been in office for six months, did not answer you, he more than made up for it after The Watchdog pushed your cause.

Here’s the big news: The city manager tells me that Watauga is postponing all three rate increases until Dec. 1. Plus, 6,000 of the city’s 8,200 customers who were charged the higher rate for their September usage before the effective date will get credits in the November bill. A refund!

Neils told me: “I agree that the information for the customers may have been unclear as to the effective date of the rate increase and when the billing with the new rate would begin.

“When I received the e-mail from the Morans, I began an evaluation of the impact on our consumers given the amount of increase in the rates and the larger consumption patterns we noticed from our customers, even with the water conservation programs in place.

“After this analysis, I have concluded that, given the unusual circumstances, it is appropriate to provide some relief to our customers.”

Credits will show up on the November bill, he said, adding, “We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers and to the Morans in particular. We hope that this solution will be acceptable to all.”

City staffers will manually adjust 6,000 bills to apply the credits. (Note that software used by most cities for water bills cannot adjust when there’s a rate change in the middle of a billing cycle. But electric meters can do that, according to the Texas Public Utility Commission.)

It comes down to this:

Officials should clearly explain to customers that a rate increase doesn’t apply to the time when the water was used, but to the date the bills are issued. That’s a lesson for area cities increasing their water and sewer rates.

North Richland Hills does it correctly on its website by stating an increase in water rates “will go into effect with the October 2011 billing cycle which is primarily water consumed during the month of September.” However, the city states on an insert that went into water bills that the increase “will go into effect Oct. 1.”

City spokeswoman Mary Peters agrees with the need for transparency and said, “It wasn’t as specific as it was on the website. We probably could have done a little better there.”

In Fort Worth, an increase in water and wastewater rates will take effect Jan. 1. Spokeswoman Mary Gugliuzza says that because of the way the city’s billing system is structured, a small number of customers will pay for only a few days of water usage in December at the higher rate.

In Arlington, the city approved a water rate increase that went into effect Oct. 1. As in Watauga, customers were charged for the previous month’s usage at the higher rate because of the billing cycle.

“You just have to pick a date and make it the effective date,” Water Utilities Director Julie Hunt said.

Watauga Finance Director Sandra Morgan explained the thinking behind the city’s decision to postpone the increase. “You have to put yourself in the citizens’ shoes. Certainly, if we haven’t communicated well enough, we have to go back and do it better.”

The Morans’ reaction to the news: “WOW. We fought City Hall and won!”

Dave Lieber shows Americans how to fight back against corporate deceptions in his wonderful book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong. Are you tired of losing time, money and aggravation to all the assaults on our wallets? Learn how to fight back with ease — and win. Get the book here.

Read The Watchdog Nation manifesto here

Tags: Arlington, Fort Worth, municipal, North Richland Hills, utility price hikes, utility rate increases, Watauga, water department
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Avoid telemarketers by getting on state and federal do not call lists

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

Angela Michau says she keeps getting robocalls from a company promising to lower her credit card interest rates. Yet she’s on both the federal and state do not call lists.

“We’ve been getting these same calls for years,” she says. “Help!”

Paul Lewis says he gets sales calls from a magazine even though he, too, is on the lists. “I am looking for the telephone number to report the company,” he says.

Marjory Hiersch keeps getting calls from charities. “Are there different rules for callers who say they are calling for charities?” she asks.

Rebecca Atwell says: “We are receiving multiple calls from insurance companies and do not want them. We are on the do not call list.”

Bill and Amy Barnett tell me, “We have received calls for months even though we are on the Do Not Call Registry. When we push 1 to talk to a rep, the person hangs up as soon as we ask for any information. Pressing 3 to discontinue the calls obviously doesn’t do a thing. Any thoughts?”

Yes. Everyone should be on two lists: the federal Do Not Call Registry and your own state’s No Call list.

Image courtesy of Watblog

As readers of the Dave Lieber Watchdog column in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram first learned, most states lists are for residential, wireless and business numbers. Often, these lists apply to telemarketers both inside and outside the state. The national list is for residential and wireless numbers, and it applies to calls from other states into your state.

Even then, there’s no guarantee that the calls will stop, but federal and state officials tell Watchdog Nation that once someone gets on the lists and continues to receive calls, it’s easy to complain. Both federal and state officials say they may prosecute.

Breaking news on this: U.S. Department of Justice fines company $500,000 in first-of-its-kind case. Learn more here.

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“File a complaint with the state attorney general and the Federal Trade Commission,” FTC spokesman Mitchell Katz says. “The more complaints we get, the more likely we are to take action.” The Federal Communications Commission and the Public Utility Commission of Texas also take complaints.

In Watchdog Nation’s home state, Tom Kelley of the Texas attorney general’s office says, “We will surely go after clear and repeat violators of the law.”

There are exceptions to the lists, though. In Texas, for example, permitted callers include companies you have established a business relationship with during the previous year, nonprofits and charities, debt collectors and holders of a state license, such as insurance agents or real estate agents.

If authorities fail to investigate, residents can file a civil or small-claims-court lawsuit.

Exceptions to the national list include callers working for political organizations or candidates, charities, polling companies and survey takers. Also, companies may call consumers who have a business relationship with them. That’s defined as someone who made a purchase within the past 18 months or an inquiry or an application about goods or services within the past three months.

Although some believe the lists don’t work, federal officials point to the many violators that have been punished. In 2011, for example, the FTC shut down a mortgage and debt relief company, a bogus medical discount company and a time share reseller.

The FTC also fined DirecTV $5.3 million for violations, then fined the company again after more violations, Katz says.

About 200 million phone numbers are on the federal list. About 1 million of those get calls anyway, Katz says. “Sounds like a lot, but it’s a half a percent of the people on the registry,” he says.

“We continue to track them down. We’re continuing to prosecute the cases that we have brought against companies that were offering fake extended warranties on cars and deceptively trying to get you to pay to lower your credit card interest rates.

“We continue to be the cop on the beat, and consumers should continue to file complaints and provide us with as much information as they can get.”

Unscrupulous callers use caller ID blocking and spoofing (in which caller ID shows a fake number) to confuse consumers. “And we’re now working on a rule that would beef up enforcement in that area,” Katz says.

In Texas, 900,000 numbers are on the state list. From 2008 to 2010, 6,000 consumers complained about violations, state records show. Also, 121 complaints were received about unwanted faxes, and 55 people complained about telemarketers who blocked caller ID to protect their identities. In Texas, it’s illegal for telemarketers to block caller ID.

The Watchdog filed an open-records request to see some of the complaints in Texas. Better-known companies that consumers complained about include AT&T, Dish Network and Verizon Wireless.

During that same period, the state attorney general opened 18 investigations of companies. Three cases were resolved with judgments against the companies. The attorney general also filed five lawsuits.

WATCHDOG NATION TIPS

Tell the caller you are taping the call and plan to use it as evidence in a complaint to state and federal authorities.

Also, ask to be put on a company’s internal do not call list. If a consumer asks and a company continues to call, file a complaint with the FTC.

Sign up for the national Do Not Call Registry at 888-382-1222. File federal complaints with the FCC at 888-225-5322 or the FTC at 888-382-1222 or donotcall.gov.

Gather information about the caller such as the number the call was made to, what caller ID shows, the name of the company or product, description of the call, any numbers offered to opt out of future calls and whether the caller was given permission to call.

Do an Internet search for your state’s list by typing your state’s name into a search box followed by the words “Do Not Call.”

Michau, who complained about robocalls from a company promising to lower her interest rates, came up with her own tactic. She told me: “The last time I got a call, I talked gibberish very loudly, and I have not been bothered in a while. Maybe that did the trick!”

Hey, whatever works.

Tags: Do Not Call, FTC, no call lists, robocalls, telemarketers, telemarketing
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Make sure your auto insurance covers you against uninsured drivers

Monday, December 12th, 2011

Randy and Donna Smith waited at a stop sign in Fort Worth in August when another motorist rammed into their car from behind. Their car was pushed across North Beach Street. The other driver took off.

A third motorist, Tommy Stover, followed the driver who hit the Smiths’ car. “I was right on his tail. He knew I had his license plate number,” the good Samaritan said.

The hit-and-run driver made a U-turn and doubled back to the scene of the accident.

“The guy gets out of his car and starts screaming at me that there’s nothing wrong with our car,” Randy Smith recalled.

“You could smell liquor on his breath,” Donna Smith said.

Randy Smith shouted at him, “You could have killed us.”

As readers of the Dave Lieber Watchdog column in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram first learned, eventually, four Fort Worth police cars showed up. The offending driver, Kyle Allen Angle, 24, passed a field sobriety test. But he was arrested for public intoxication and taken to jail, police said. Later, he was charged with leaving the scene of an accident. He was also cited for driving without a license and failure to control his speed.

Driver Kyle Angle didn't have insurance but drove anyway

The Smiths were in for another shock when they tried to make an insurance claim.

They learned that Angle didn’t have insurance and didn’t own the car he was driving. He had borrowed it from a friend, who told her insurance company that he didn’t have permission to drive her car. Her insurance company said it would not help the Smiths with car repairs or medical costs, which totaled thousands of dollars.

What’s more, the Smiths believed they had full coverage but found they didn’t have the types of protection they needed — uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage and personal-injury protection.

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They contacted two lawyers. But when both lawyers found out they lacked those two extra layers of coverage, they declined to help.

Donna and Randy Smith with the car they driving that day.

According to state statistics, 1 in 5 drivers in Texas does not carry the minimum liability insurance required by law. That can leave others with little recourse, unless they have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage and personal-injury protection.

Uninsured/underinsured coverage would have helped the Smiths because it pays for accidents caused by hit-and-run drivers if the accident is promptly reported to police. (There’s an automatic $250 deductible.)

That and PIP coverage are relatively inexpensive when considering the costs of going without it. (I checked my policy, and my annual cost for uninsured-motorist coverage is $66 for up to $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident; PIP coverage is $48 a year for $2,500 for each person.)

When I showed these numbers to Randy Smith, he said, “It makes you sick. All of this could have been avoided by just paying a little more on insurance, but we didn’t know.”

The Smiths’ insurance covered their car repair after they paid a $500 deductible. But the Smiths also face more than $2,000 in medical bills and a $1,600 ambulance bill because Randy Smith was taken to a hospital. He suffered shoulder and back pain after the accident, according to a medical report.

Angle did not respond to The Watchdog’s requests for comment. The Tarrant County district attorney’s office told me that he had been in the county jail two other times this year for unrelated incidents, including driving while intoxicated.

Texas can catch uninsured drivers when a driver’s license or car registration is awarded or renewed and when a car is inspected. Law enforcement officers can also use a statewide database. But with 1 in 5 drivers slipping through the cracks, the system isn’t perfect.

For drivers, that makes those other layers of insurance even more important. “You just can’t assume that you have everything unless it’s on your policy,” said Texas Department of Insurance spokesman Jerry Hagins. “Check your policy.”

Won’t the insurance policy of the owner of the car driven by Angle cover the Smiths’ costs?

“It’s possible,” Hagins said.

The way to find out is to file a complaint with the state insurance department and let staff there contact all insurance companies involved.

“Different companies have different requirements,” he said.

On Hagins’ suggestion, the Smiths filed a complaint last week with the department.

Another question: Should drivers loan their cars to others who aren’t listed on their policy?

Hagins said, “There’s no blanket answer to that. It depends on the policy. Drivers should look at their policy and contact their insurance agent to get an answer for their particular policy.”

For the Smiths and the rest of us, there’s an easy way to shop for auto (and homeowners) insurance, using a state-run website called helpinsure.com. The Smiths can visit that website and do a side-by-side comparison of rates.

”If you want to add more insurance and not spend an arm and a leg, you might find a company that offers it at a lower price,” Hagins said. “Helpinsure.com helps you do that.”

WATCHDOG NATION TIPS

Texans can visit helpinsure.com to compare automobile and homeowners insurance rates.

Liability coverage, required by state law, covers people in the other car in an accident caused by you or someone else covered by your policy. It pays expenses such as medical and funeral costs, low wages, and compensation for pain and suffering, as well as car repair or replacement, car rental (if part of the policy) and punitive damages awarded by a court.

Personal-injury protection provides medical coverage for drivers and passengers in your car, plus 80 percent of lost income. An insurance company must offer a minimum of $2,500 in PIP. If you don’t want PIP, you are supposed to reject it in writing.

Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage pays for expenses caused by a driver who has no coverage or not enough.

Learn more at tdi.texas.gov. Click on “Types of Insurance,” then “Auto.”

Or visit your home state’s Department of Insurance to learn more by googling your state’s name followed by “Insurance Department.” Then find news and information about automobile coverage.

Tags: auto insurance rates, personal injury protection, shop for car insurance, uninsured motorist
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Grand Prairie, TX auto repair owner Larry Duncan is not BBB accredited. Hardly!

Monday, December 5th, 2011

A roofer had his truck towed to a Grand Prairie auto repair shop for a $900 engine diagnosis. But when the truck owner was told that the repairs would cost nearly $9,000, he balked. He wanted his truck back.

Larry Duncan, owner of Einstein Transmission Repair, refused to give it back to him for the $900 diagnosis charge. He said he wanted several thousand dollars for dismantling the engine, towing and storage for a couple of weeks in the shop.

So the roofer hired a lawyer to call the repair shop on his behalf. The lawyer, H. Charles Hamm III of Fort Worth, called Duncan and tried to negotiate a settlement. Things did not go well.

Hamm describes the phone call with Duncan as “20 high-strung minutes.” He recalls that Duncan told him, “Maybe we should have a face-to-face meeting or we could even handle it around the corner in the alley.”

A frustrated customer of Larry Duncan's took this secret photo of him and published it on the Internet.

I called Duncan a few weeks ago. He cursed at me and said, “I don’t care what you write.” Then he hung up. For this report, I sent him an e-mail describing the facts as told to me by the lawyer and his client, roofing company owner Scott McCall. Duncan has not responded.

In September 2011, Watchdog Nation reported how Duncan told another vehicle owner that he had to pay $2,500 in cash or by cashier’s check to get his truck back. Duncan originally promised a $1,500 repair job, the vehicle owner said. (Read “Transmission repair deals too good to be true.”)

In a brief interview in September, Duncan said he sometimes has to face angry customers, but that’s part of doing business.

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Promises and untruths

As readers of the Dave Lieber Watchdog column in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram first learned, in this latest case, McCall has been without his work truck for more than a month. Before going to Duncan, McCall got a repair bid from another shop for $7,000. But McCall’s father found Duncan on the Internet, where Duncan attracts many of his customers, and Duncan promised a $5,000 price for the repair, Scott McCall said. Duncan’s business also goes by the names Transmission 33 and Transmission/Engine Shop.

When Duncan told McCall later that the repairs would cost $9,000, McCall asked Duncan where his shop is so he could deliver the $900 and pick up the truck. But he said Duncan refused to tell him the address, which does not appear on the invoice for the diagnosis. McCall says Duncan told him, “I don’t meet with my customers.”

McCall found the address — the shop is in the 1800 block of South Great Southwest Parkway — on a website that lists numerous complaints against Duncan. He visited the shop, and Duncan told him he could get his unrepaired truck back for $2,700.

Later, Duncan placed a mechanic’s lien against McCall, increasing the cost of returning the vehicle to $3,700.

A week ago, the lawyer and his client sent by courier a letter demanding the return of the truck. The letter included a $900 cashier’s check. But a shop employee told the courier, “We know your tricks,” and refused to sign for it, Hamm said.

When McCall called the shop again, Duncan told him, “Now I’m going to play hardball because your lawyer is involved and you’re wasting my time,” McCall said.

On Duncan’s transmissionshop.biz website, he says his business is accredited by the Better Business Bureau. That’s not true. The BBB website says the business is not accredited and shows that his shop has an “F” rating. The state comptroller’s office also lists the business as “not in good standing” because it is not up to date on a business tax.

Larrry Duncan's website claims his shop is BBB accredited, only it's not.

The fallout

McCall has been borrowing a truck from an employee for his roofing business and driving a rented Toyota Corolla. He went to the Grand Prairie police but says he was told that this is a civil matter and police cannot help him unless there is an argument or a fight on the premises.

McCall says he will never shop again based on price alone. “I’m going to research the heck out of people,” he said. “Anything involving substantial money, I’m researching now.”

If he had, he would have seen Watchdog Nation’s September report on the Internet describing Duncan’s business. These days, it’s not hard to steer clear of business owners who may want to settle expensive matters in a back alley.