Finance charges are like incest!

[chainedbarista]

Did I mention I was a doctor? Do you know how smart that makes me?

apparently, not smart enough to read the fine print, genius.

what did he want, a standing ovation??

damn jackass; at least his bragging and whining got the right result: nothing.

[chinashirtgirl]

I don't know what kind of doctor he was but I hope it wasn't a doctor of medicine because I'd hate for anyone to have to be treated by someone who doesn't read properly. Like he doesn't read charts properly and prescribes a drug that reacts badly to a drug the patient already takes and the patient dies. But it's not the doctors fault, he shouldn't be expected to read anything! And he said he was so smart, how smart can you be if you don't read terms and conditions of contracts? Is that particularily smart?

[Seraph]

Bah, I kept being distracted while reading this by the Unico avatar.

...That movie was screwed up. /traumatized

Incest, eh? Wonder if the guy was from West Virginia. (I can say that...there are way too many people over there who BRAGGED about having root-like family trees)

[Rosakala]

What did he do, mail in 2 boxtops for his degree?

I must admit, I had lots of fun sharing this special snowflake with my coworkers. Almost as much fun as the customer called me a 'cow sucking whore'.

[Andara Bledin]

"Look at me! I'm a doctor! Do what I say! Wooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

*giggle*

^-.-^

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

What did he do, mail in 2 boxtops for his degree?

Not even. He dug it out of the box of Froot Loops.

[edible_hat]

these finance charges are an abomination of the greatest sin

So what is the non-abominated version of the greatest sin?

Well, there's plenty of internet schooling now...I wouldn't be surprised if a few of those online colleges weren't reputable.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=d4gpNU0LkpU


The kind of stuff in the OP appears on certain TV programmes (think 60 Minutes but less classy). My personal favourite was the kid who ran up a $10,000 SMS bill because "I thought it was free". The TV show tried to turn the phone company into the big bad wolf, but viewer backlash made them turn around and get the kid a job so he could pay the bill himself.

[smileyeagle1021]

Who wants to bet this guy is some kind of religious fanatic? Normally I have nothing against religious people... but...

umm, nitpicking... if he is religious he would qualify not as a fanatic but a nut... a fanatic would know better than to name the wrong sin (it's usury by the way, not incest)... a nut however isn't smart enough to know what any of them are anyway just that they're bad.

[Samaliel]

Hmm, I think he isn't quite as confused about deadly sins as some people think. I just think he believes usury to be just as bad as incest (hence the "akin to"), but this was really misphrased.

But, for his enlightenment, usury is illegal and is quite precisely defined by the law. I'm gonna bet that if any company make any loans, they want to be on the safe side of the law, even if they might want to get as close to the limit as possible.

Of course, from the religious point of view, any kind of loan with interests would be considered usury. But I doubt even the Pope would condemn the banking system. I always thought that trying to be more of a royalist than the king himself wasn't a particularly clever move.

EDIT : According to Dante's Inferno, those guilty of the sin of usury share the same circle of Hell as blasphemers and sodomites. I could find nothing about those guilty of incest. It makes me wonder if the Church or any other religious organization issued an official ranking of sins...

[DesignFox]

The kind of stuff in the OP appears on certain TV programmes (think 60 Minutes but less classy). My personal favourite was the kid who ran up a $10,000 SMS bill because "I thought it was free". The TV show tried to turn the phone company into the big bad wolf, but viewer backlash made them turn around and get the kid a job so he could pay the bill himself.

That video was brilliant. If I had 450 bucks I wasn't doing anything with, I'd so do that.

I'm glad viewer backlash made that news program turn it's attitude around. I work for a cell phone company and I deal with entitled parents on occasion who try to pull that shit. 9 times out of 10 if the parent is a new customer of mine, I warn them ahead of time about all charges, explain that they can either A) get their kid a package and head off the inevitable or B) if they don't want them using it at all, block it.

Guess what happens to some of the parents who choose neither?

If I'm lucky, and they are entitlement whores...guess who gets to hear about it in a month's time?



Thankfully, this doesn't happen too often...but I can honestly say, I've seen kids rack up bills into the hundreds, and yes, I once saw a $3,000 bill.

One dad was great- he had me print out his entire 37 page bill so he could show his son the consequences of his actions- and get him started on paying for it.

[Andara Bledin]

One dad was great- he had me print out his entire 37 page bill so he could show his son the consequences of his actions- and get him started on paying for it.

Oooh... we need more of him!

^-.-^

[strawbabies]

If he has the money to pay off the account in order to close it, why didn't he pay the entire bill and not get the finance charges in the first place?

[LewisLegion]

I'm a big believer of the Golden Rule. Treat others as they treat you. What an assclown!

Actually, its treat others how you WANT to be treated, not how they treat you. That said...Paging Dr. Assclown! Dr. Assclown your Mama-Sister is on Line 2!

[DesignFox]

If he has the money to pay off the account in order to close it, why didn't he pay the entire bill and not get the finance charges in the first place?

Becky hasn't said it yet, so I'm going to: If it makes sense, it's not allowed!

[Anthony K. S.]

Dr: No, no, you listen to me these finance charges are an abomination of the greatest sin akin to incest!

. . . Nice to see that he's keeping things in their proper perspective.


This all reminds me of one of the worst problems I saw on Planet Feedback (years ago, when I still bothered to even look at that web site). Certain people who had problems with companies or stores would write complaint letters, in which they compared their problems to being raped.

It didn't happen often, but when it did, it was really wince-inducing.

(I'm being merciful here by saying "wince-inducing." Many PF commentors used far harsher - but all well-deserved - adjectives to describe this behavior.)

To make matters even worse, the letter writers who did this were usually the ones with the most trivial, often completely groundless complaints.

(And when they did have a valid complaint, that rape analogy still completely destroyed any credibility that they might have had.)

I remember one in particular. The writer's rhetoric was generally over-the-top to begin with, but he really crossed the line when he said, "I feel like I have been brutally prison raped . . ."

What was his issue? If I remember correctly, he was refused a cash refund because he didn't have the receipt for an item he wished to return.

. . . Need I say more? <Sigh>


Perspective, people. If you don't have any, then at least pretend that you do.