Elliott C. Back: Internet & Technology

I received the following warning from Chase bank via email and a series of harried transactions. Apparently someone decided to try to use my Chase British Airways BA Visa card to signup for an e-dating site. The baddie was doing this from London, Ireland, and had tried four times today with different expiration dates and CSV confirmation codes:

URGENT: Confirmation of Recent Transaction
Your Account Ending in XXXX

Dear ELLIOTT:

As part of our ongoing effort to protect your account and our relationship, we monitor your account for possible fraudulent activity. We have recently attempted to contact you by phone and/or text message but we have been unsuccessful in reaching you. We need to confirm that you or someone authorized to use your account made the following transaction on your British Airways Visa account ending in XXXX:

Transaction for $54.94 at ZOOSK.COM was declined on or around 10/17/2010 in LONDON, Ireland.

Zoosk is some kind of scammy online dating site that I definitely did not sign up for. Currently, it looks like this:

Apparently a lot of people think Zoosk itself sucks. I wonder if it’s the company itself is behind this. I can’t really see people using stolen credit cards to sign up for a dating service. Maybe it’s just a test run? Or an accident?

I like the way Hertz car rentals sends you a “Hertz E-Mail Statement of Charges” with a nice PDF attachment of your bill to review after you drop off their car. I flew into Phoenix AZ for the weekend, rented a car, and dropped it off at 3AM before my 5AM flight. Final charges get tallied afterwards and charged to your card. Mine unfortunately were significantly higher than I expected, due a “FUEL & SERVICE” fee of $50 (after tax) on the bill. I rented a CAMRY for three days:

RENTAL DETAILS
Rate Plan: IN: VSTATE OUT: VSTATE
Rented On: 04/01/2010 22:53 LOC# 216011
PHOENIX, AZ
Returned On: 04/04/2010 05:00 LOC# 216011
PHOENIX, AZ
Car Description: CAMRY AKF0400
Veh. No.: 7763329
CAR CLASS Charged: F MILEAGE In: 1,873
Rented: F6 Out: 1,675
Reserved: F Driven: 198

Here’s what the charged me:

RENTAL CHARGES
DAYS 3 @ 41.99 125.97
SUBTOTAL 125.97
DISCOUNT 10.00% -12.60
SUBTOTAL 113.37
FUEL & SERVICE 41.62
CONCESSION FEE RECOVERY 17.87
FF SURCHARGE 2.25
O & M RECOVERY FEE 4.99
ENERGY SURCHARGE 1.03
AIRPORT FACILITIES FEE 18.00
MOTOR VEHICLE LEASE TAX 2.50
ROAD TAX 3.97
VOUCHER VALUE -113.37
TAX 15.30% 30.46

The interesting thing is that I filled up the tank completely before dropping off the vehicle. It’s only a few miles away to the airport; the car, when I had picked it up, did not by any means have a full tank of gas (more like 4/5). So, I suspect that Hertz simply sucks, and as a routine matter adds this extra fee to every rental, whether they come back with a full tank of gas or not! Of course, if you really do bring a car in noticeably dry, they will charge you a hefty fee + fill it for you at ~$10 a gallon.

I suspect this is standard practice from reading other accounts online:

I called to ask why, and she said “because you didn’t return the car with a full tank, we charged you an extra $77 in gas fees.” I asked her if she would like me to prove from my bank statement that I was at a gas station filling the car up at 11:20 PM and I dropped the car off at 11:30 PM with a completely full tank. Sarah said that wasn’t necessary, and she would take the extra gas charges off our bill. A few of my co-workers confirmed this morning that they too had the EXACT same gas experience with Hertz in the past.

I called Hertz as soon as I saw the bill and they said they were going to credit me the gas+tax. I see from Mint that the money has come back onto my card, a $49.33 credit from “HERTZ RENT-A-CAR.” Still, I think Hertz sucks big-time. If I can avoid them in the future, I definitely will.

This year’s Black Friday tragedy is a Walmart stampede which left a 34-year-old temp worker (Jdimytai Damour) dead and four shoppers (one eight months pregnant) injured. 2000 shopper stormed the Queens-area Walmart gates at 5 AM after chanting “push the doors in.” People at the scene reported chaos:

“They were jumping over the barricades and breaking down the door,” said Pat Alexander. “Everyone was screaming. You just had to keep walking on your toes to keep from falling over.”

Kimberly Cribbs said “When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling, ‘I’ve been on line since Friday morning!’ They kept shopping.”

The deals included a $798 Samsung 50-inch Plasma HDTV, a Bissel Compact Upright Vacuum for $28 and Men’s Wrangler Tough Jeans for $8.

The Wallmart in question, in Long Island NY

I was wondering why this would happen. I’ve been in huge crowds–concerts, for example, regularly have many thousands of rowdy, excited riotous fans–but they’re always carefully controlled to minimize the chance of a trampling rush. The Walmart itself is not in a particularly bad part of NY; the average salaries, education, age, and racial composition are more or less normal.

On the other hand, there’s a thread on slickdeals where seancashmere disagrees:

Yeah, really and truly, the people who live in Valley Stream and some points to the East have nice homes and are educated enough, but the people who shop at the Valley Stream Walmart are terrible. They are under educated and poor. Many come from Jamaica and South Ozone Park, Queens, the projects, Rosedale and the surrounding areas…

I don’t buy that particular argument; any tightly-packed large crowd is dangerous, whether filled with the upper or lower crusts. Pictures of the scene show the problem: a small doorway, and way too many people.

A picture of the crowd waiting for Walmart to open

Interestingly, there are other incidents driven by crowds, bargains, and human rage. For example, see Fatal shooting followed toy store brawl about a Black Friday skirmish inside a Toys-R-Us.

Just listen to Gizmodo (oh how I hate to say they’re right on this one)–You Don’t Really Want This Crap. Deals aren’t to die for.