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Mike
Carruthers:
With so many products and services you buy today, there is the
price and then there are the fees.
Bob Sullivan:
When you rent a car, goodness gracious, the amount that you're
quoted is often fifty percent of the price that you end up paying
once the vehicle license recovery fee and the tire and battery
disposal fee are added in.
Bob Sullivan,
Columnist for MSNBC.com and author of the book Gotcha
Capitalism, believes we need to start complaining and trying
to get these fees waived.
There are industries
that are more likely to give you refunds than others. So, we
found out that credit card companies actually (while they lay
their fees on) also take them off with relative ease. Conversely
cell phone companies and pay TV like cable, they're very stingy
and rarely give refunds - so pick your targets is one thing.
And the other is go after the recurring fees more...
Because a nine
dollar a month fee may be small but over a year that's over
a hundred dollars and well worth the effort to try to get rid
of it. And Bob says, if you still feel like you're getting taken
to the cleaners, appeal to a higher authority.
And it really
does work - there really are people in those offices (particularly
I found in State Attorney General's offices) who are very helpful
and eager to help. And some of it is self-interest. Every Attorney
General I know is running for Governor in some way or another
and it's great publicity for them. But also letter writing in
particular is a dying art and as a result when you write an
effective letter and send it to the right people, you often
do get someone's attention.
At somethingyoushouldknow.net
I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.
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