Companies which do the whole "bait and switch" thing with bundled trial software really grip my shit.
Case in point. Western Digital bundle Memeo Backup Software with their "My Book" External hard-drives.
That's what buyers of the drives think. There's certainly nothing to suggest otherwise.
But only AFTER loading the software, taking time to configure it and running the first backup do you discover it is a "30-Day Trial" version, requiring a further $30 purchase to retain it.
First impressions count. My impression is that Western Digital suck for bundling it, and Memeo sucks for using deceptive business practises. When it comes to buying another HD, I will be sure to avoid Western Digital products.
Trial Software
Lipitor/Zocor/Statins
From Shannon Browlee's excellent investigation into the American healthcare industry entitled "Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer"...
"the criteria for who needs to be on a statin, or cholesterol-lowering drug, were redefined in 2001, more than doubling the number of Americans who could be put on drugs like Lipitor or Zocor from about 13 million to 36 million. Many experts argue that these new guidelines are based on faulty interpretation of the medical evidence and could actually prove harmful to many people who wind up taking the drugs. Critics also note that EIGHT of the nine authors who crafted the revised guidelines were being paid by the companies that make statins"
You may like to read that final sentence again.
As something which has quite possibly affected me personally, this has REALLY gripped my shit.
Best Buy
Despite being sued for deceptive practises a few months back, Best Buy persist in using in store kiosks that - on the face of it - appear to be connected to the internet.
Instead they are connected to the company's own intranet.
The prices shown end up usually being higher than those a customer may have found at online at home, resulting in confusion when he or she is finally at the store to actually buy something.
Best Buy staff members use the kiosks to "check prices" for shoppers, presumably trained by management to do so, and thus fully aware of the deception they are then perpetuating by doing so.
This practise - something which obviously grips my shit - needs to be commented on and reported wherever possible, so as to make the public aware that one of the nation's major corporate retail chains is, to all intents and purposes, ripping them off.
The FDA & Drug Companies
The FDA is the Food & Drug Adminstration, a government entity set up to protect us mere "meaklings" from the horrors of, well, bad food or pharmaceuticals.
Since 1992 it has accepted payments from the larger "pharmies" to accomodate the 'fast tracking' of clearance of certain drugs.
Since 1992, the pharmaceutical companies have concentrated on "lifestyle" medicines, the ones more likely to make them a larger profit - and which are easier to advertise on television - rather than ones that address serious medical problems.
The FDA is complicit in this, basically accepting 'bribes' by another name.
It's similar to having all your local thieves, burglars and rapists funding the local police station in return for not being arrested.
It could only happen in America - where money appears to be a million times more important than people's health.
Guess what? It grips my shit
The Shite House Pt I
In what will doubtless be a recurring subject on this blog, the Bush administration grips my shit.
The Secret Service's White House visitor logs are supposed to be a matter of public record.
Last week a federal judge had to order the Bush administration (quite possibly the cause of international shit-gripping disease) to release information about visits by nine conservative religious leaders.
The White House claimed these records/visits were protected by "executive privilege", which is mere double speak for "our esteemed leaders have something to hide"
Bush and his cronies plan to appeal against the federal ruling. Maybe because they haven't gripped everyone's shit enough?
Airline Swines
I am indebted to The Consumerist* for pointing out this one to me.
Airlines tried, thankfully unsuccesfully, to OVERTURN a New York state law forcing them to provide their passengers with "fresh air & lights, a waste removal service and adequate food and drinking water" whenever a plane was stuck on the tarmac for over three hours.
I'll repeat that for the people that didn't quite get it. There's a law in place that FORCES airlines to provide basic human needs to passengers when a plane is grounded for any length of time. Grounded, usually, for the airlines own purposes or problems (repair work, no gate, late luggage, etc). For periods where it might cost the airline just a few bucks more to disembark passengers into the relative comfort of a terminal.
So there was a law in place to provide "human decency" and the airlines - in all their fucking infinite wisdom - wanted it overturned. Which would benefit NO-ONE except maybe..... oh yes, the fucking airlines' bottom line.
Consider my shit well and truly gripped.
*One of my most favourite consumer websites EVAH! Go there now!
Retail Problems
All the retailers are bitching about what a "flat" Christmas season they've been having, despite cutting prices and advertising heavily.
If you want to achieve more sales, here's an idea:- How about employing some fucking staff to man the checkouts?
The best prices in the world combined with the greatest store layout possible will do you NO fucking good if when customers get to the tills they have to wait and wait and wait and wait to pay for what they have chosen. Time is too valuable for many, so no wonder people are abandoning the high street, instead flocking online to competitors sites with comparable/cheaper prices and to-the-door delivery.
This kind of blinkered management decision - based, no doubt, on staffing costs rather than any other factor - really grips my shit.
Back from the U-Bend!
Bowing to people's demands for my shit to continue to be gripped, this blog has been unceremoniously reborn.
Just like Jesus all those years ago, this is a virgin birth, although I am sure someone, somewhere actually got fucked over to make it happen.
This time I am going to try and get Dulcolax to sponser the blog, because with all this grippage going on in the world, I am most surely going to be completely full of shit.
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