The blog directory 52XTAUWXSQA9 blog central site Technorati is periodically re-recommended in industry publications as a place you MUST sign up for. Their sign up process is cumbersome, and we haven’t seen any difference in traffic results based on our status. But, we’re trying it again.
We’ll let you know when this blog is accepted and if we see any interesting traffic results.
Banks don’t keep their promise of zero fraud liability on debit cards.
Here’s my personal experience which will get me to rely on sole credit cards (and the Federal consumer protection laws they have).
May 21, 2011
Wells Fargo
PO Box 6995
Portland, OR 97228-9995
REGARDING: FAILURE TO CREDIT FRAUDULENT DEBIT CARD CHARGES IN A TIMELY MANNER
Dear Wells Fargo,
Someone recently charged $100 at an Exxon station in Connecticut to my debit card while I was at sea on a cruise
ship. My first clue that something was wrong was when I was at a port call, tried to get cash from an
ATM, and my request was declined. Apparently, your security system correctly suspected that my
card had been compromised and blocked my card. Of course, I didn’t know about the reason for the
card problem until I returned home and looked at my online banking statement and saw the fraud.
I saw the charge on May 19th and immediately called your bank. I received a FAX of a claim form,
filled out the statement, and FAXed the completed form to your fraud department within an hour.
Friday, May 20th, I received in the mail a new debit card with a letter that said, “… your debit card
number and/or Personal Identification Number were identified as being at risk for unauthorized
transactions. As a precaution measure, we will be closing your current card and issuing you a new
debit card…” Your fraud department sent this on their own initiative, and it reinforces my statement
to you.
Today, I called to see why my account had not been credited for the fraudulent $100 charge.
Pauline at 800-548-9554 first said that my FAX was unreadable, even though I had not been
contacted about problems with its clarity. Then she put me on hold, confirmed with me that I never
lost my card, and said that she would have a temporary credit issued which will post to my account
by Tuesday.
Tuesday? She said that the bank has given itself two business days to scan in FAXed forms and
another two business days to issue credits. So, Tuesday is within the standards the bank set for itself.
This is an unacceptable retention of my money. Your own fraud department believes my card was
misused. I provided you with the requested statements immediately. You should respond and make
my account whole the same day you receive the statement you need from me.
Your debit card promotional material says that I will enjoy “Zero Liability and full reimbursement for
promptly reported unauthorized purchases…” The clear implication is that you’ll credit my account
when I tell you of a problem. You don’t say you’ll credit accounts on your own leisurely schedule.
You are not keeping the promise you are making to consumers.
Sincerely,
Galen B. Workman
Tech maven Leo LaPorte has been saying on his radio show that you should use a Code Management System (CMS) for your website and not have a designer create a site for you.
I like to think my disagreement with Leo comes from a valid intellectual position and not my desire to protect my business position… just as I trust that his touting of CMS is impartial and does not stem from his desire to accommodate a sponsor of his program.
Actually, I do believe that Leo comes by his opinion honestly, but I honestly think he’s wrong. Leo is a techy, geeky person. Most people who hire me are looking to offload a task and they’re not looking to learn new tech skills. They don’t want to take responsibility for building and maintaining their web site, even with user-friendly interfaces. They want someone to do the web work for them.
A good CMS lets non-technical people create, update, and delete web pages. And for fast moving businesses with staff dedicated to creating and changing web content, CMS is a good fit.
But, most of my clients don’t match this profile. They don’t have scads of information to publish and change and republish on the Internet. In fact, my biggest challenge with 90% of my clients is to get them to give me ANY content that I can publish.
I know what questions to ask and what hard copy materials to get copies of so that my clients can have a good-looking, informative web site. These businessmen don’t need help getting content to the web; they need assistance writing content!
Reason #2 that CMS doesn’t fit my clients is Control! Most code management systems come with templates and options that typically look 85% like what a client envisions. That’s a great percentage, but in my experience 85% isn’t close enough to make a client happy.
At first look they say, “Oh, wow! Great!”
The next call they ask if the blue borders could be a shade darker. That’s usually no problem. But, then they want the search box to fit on the other side of the page under the date. The technical problem for the designer is that the pre-made Search widget comes at a specific size (or location or something). Of course, it can be customized, but only with an unreasonable amount of time and effort (and client money) for the benefit.
After explaining the cost of modifications to move up from a 85% match of client expectations to a 99% match, the client suspects that the designer is being difficult. Even when the customer acknowledges that they are buying a template based product, it’s obvious that they are wondering WHY moving a box from one side of a page to the other would cost hundreds of dollars.
And, the payoff for all of the tradeoffs is the ability for the customer to do his own updates in the future. And, that’s something he is likely to do very infrequently, if ever.
I believe that CMS templates will become more robust, easier to modify, and easier to use. But, up to this point, I am not willing to risk client frustration and dissatisfaction for a functionality that the customer isn’t going to use.
Leo?
A client was puzzled because her business was tanking but it seemed like everyone was reading her blogs. She was getting a lot of comments encouraging her to keep up the good work and telling her how valuable her insights were.
Why weren’t those happy readers calling her for her services?
Sad to say, when I looked at her blog I discovered that it was mostly a spam magnet. She was getting phony comments from automated programs who were carefully linking back to their own site. Her blog was being used as a way to deceive Google into thinking that the spammers had a popular web site of their own.
If you’re running a blog, you need two tools:
The first tool is essential. This blog uses a spam filter that catches 100’s of attempts by automated bots to link back to their site.
The second tool is now industry standard for blogging programs like WordPress. It makes your blog less attractive to smart spammers by robbing them of the Google boost IF any of their spammy comments should get through. This precaution may make you feel better should the anti-spam program slip up and allow a malicious comment to be published. However, it generally doesn’t lessen the amount of spam on your blog because most spammers use a shotgun approach and don’t investigate to see if their spam is really going to help them.
Your blog can be helpful to your business and your reputation. Blogging is fun, too!
However, practice safe blogging. It’ll help you collect realistic statistics, and by robbing spammers of their links you’ll be doing your part to fight slimy Internet practices.
Ozdachs is on vacation and completely away from the Internet!
We’ll be back Thursday, May 19th. There are some posts scheduled while we’re away, but responses to your email or comments will happen after we’re back.