Damn Chauvinistic Laundromats
by gatsome on Mar.31, 2009, under Miscellaneous
Are You Down With G-Mobile
by gatsome on Mar.07, 2009, under Miscellaneous, Tech
The Movie Critic: America’s Newest Trolling Attention Whore
by gatsome on Mar.04, 2009, under Movies
There used to be a time in my life where I could absorb a critic’s input with a sense of “Oh, well when you put it that way I guess I can see your point of view“. Now in the later stages of the Internet Age, top shelf critique of that nature is only reserved for the old timers among them. What’s left for us is the adaptive yet tragically hip critic-de-jour. The kind of person you’d avoid at parties, if they were ever to be present at one.
These evolved critics have been ambushed in one too many forum wars and emerged from the battle tainted with the seductive powers of the trolling movement. There are many definitions of a troll but one of the more clear and concise is found at Urban Dictionary and is as follows:
One who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument.
The key wording here is deliberately provocative. The problem herein lies with greed. These bastards are all competing for worldwide attention and there are only so many ways you can say “I liked it” or “I hated it” in 500 words all the while sounding boring and unoriginal. So instead of writing what you really feel, you cater to your inner demons and write something so loud, obnoxious and fucking smug that people have no choice to pay attention. You can overlook 10 average Joes but the one Quasimodo to reach your peripheral vision will stick out like sore thumb. Same concept on the Internet, the louder and nuttier you are, the more people will look and the higher your name recognition gets.
Normally this would be so benign it would be irrelevant but when a bunch of unoriginal pussies gather ’round the ‘puter to type their two cents worth it turns into ‘Who can make it sound the worst’. If you frequent popular review aggregation sites like Rotten Tomatoes or any other similar ones, you’ll notice this quite often. They’re the ones from big metropolitan publications and their reviews are often muddled with so much obfuscation you start to question their credibility. This is where you look up their review history and see how the blatantly obvious GOOD MOVIES are stricken with their negative grunts and moans. I’m sorry but anyone who gives a negative review to The Dark Knight or Slumdog Millionaire or Iron Man is obviously trolling for recognition.
Ultimately this would be relegated to the Who Gives A Shit file but on a worldwide scale the impact sends tremors through premiers, revenue, future careers of parties involved, future studio decisions, the list goes on. It’s reckless and irresponsible and these pussies (many in New York publications, shame on you) are going to try and get away with it like all greedy ass mother fuckers do until it finally ends.
So do the world a favor, concentrate on making some valid points and less time on being a giant douchebag.
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It is ILLEGAL to REQUIRE a minimum or maximum purchase when using a credit card
by gatsome on Dec.31, 2008, under Awesome Advice, Miscellaneous
Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve all been there. You’re at a bar, or making a small store purchase or just grabbing a coffee or soda at the gas station and they (sometimes asshole-ishly) tell you that they have a $5 minimum when you try and purchase it with a credit card. Some of you have even gotten wind that this isn’t even legal, but you’re not quite sure. You might even suspect it might be a state by state thing. Well wonder no more because it IS in fact illegal (in all 50 states). It goes against the rules the various credit card companies require their merchant/retailers to follow. Nothing has infuriated me more then being told I can’t make a purchase despite my insistence that it’s not in compliance. So I’ve gone through the trouble to map out just where each company specifies this information not only for my own reference but everyone who chooses to make a stand against shady practices.
Now it is our turn to look that douchebag in the eye and tell him to go fuck himself, because this shit isn’t going to fly anymore.
Lastly, since I am human I’m just as prone to making mistakes. If you see something that shouldn’t be there or should be corrected or you have any additional information PLEASE CONTACT me to update this guide. You can leave a comment or email me. I want this thing to be as precise as possible.
The following breaks down each credit card institution by where they specify this condition in their merchant rules/guidelines. I’ve added a link to the contact information to report these instances of merchant fraud. (Warning! Some PDFs! To make this easier I’ve transposed and referenced the exact section where this is so you don’t have to open the PDF if you don’t want to or are unable to do so.)
All links open in a new window. Happy hunting!
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MASTERCARD
Rules Homepage:http://www.mastercard.com/us/merchant/support/rules.html
Rules PDF: http://www.mastercard.com/us/merchant/pdf/MasterCard_Rules_5_08.pdf
What It States:
Section 5 – Merchants and Sales Transactions
5.9 – Prohibited Practices
5.9.3 – Minimum/Maximum Transaction Amount Prohibited
[A Merchant must not require, or indicate that it requires, a minimum or
maximum Transaction amount to accept a valid and properly presented Card.]
Contact Us – Merchant/Retailer Violation
http://www.mastercard.com/us/personal/en/contactus/merchantviolations.html
[] In order to make a MasterCard purchase, the merchant/retailer required a minimum or maximum amount.
As you can clearly see, there’s no denying the explicit ruling by Mastercard on this behaviour. They’ve even gone as far as to make that an actual check box on the violation form! Sounds like a common issue to me.
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VISA
Rules PDF: http://usa.visa.com/download/merchants/card_acceptance_guide.pdf
What it states:
(Numerical page 9, actual page 16 of 151)
[Always honor valid Visa cards in your acceptance category, regardless of the
dollar amount of the purchase. Imposing a minimum or maximum purchase
amounts in order to accept a Visa card transaction is a violation of the Visa rules.]
Visa FAQ
http://www.corporate.visa.com/ut/faq.jsp
[I believe a merchant has acted fraudulently. What can I do?]
[Please notify the dispute area at the financial institution that services your Visa account of any
merchant practices that you feel are inappropriate. Your bank has access to the appropriate Visa
rules and regulations as well as to the Notification of Customer Complaint forms which should be
used by your bank to document and file merchant complaints. It is not necessary for your bank to be
the merchant's financial institution in order to file a complaint for you. The address or telephone
number of the financial institution that issued your Visa card can be found on the back of your Visa
card or your Visa statement.]
Also very cut and dry here. There’s no marginally gray area or exhaustive use of complicated terms to confuse all parties involved. The only drawback is there’s no actual form to fill out. But contacting your issuing bank may be easier for you especially if they are local, which in most cases they are. Bonus points for making the call infront of the merchant themselves!
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DISCOVER
Operating Regulations: http://finance.tamu.edu/fmo/apcc/docs/Discover-Operating-Regulations.pdf
What it states:
2.8 – Minimum/Maximum Dollar Limits and Other Limits
[You may not require that any Cardholder make a minimum dollar
purchase in order to use a Card and you may not limit the maximum
amount that a Cardholder may spend when using a Card except when the
Issuer has not provided a positive Authorization Response for a Card
Transaction.]
Discover Fraud Prevention FAQ
http://www.discovernetwork.com/common/pdf/FraudPreventionFAQs.pdf
6. Where can I report suspected merchant fraud?
Please contact our Merchant Fraud Prevention Department at 800-347-3083.
A mix of Mastercard and VISA’s contact, you’re still phoning it in but it’s directly to Discover. Still some bonus points for immediate in-store dialing. Again, same simply linguistics in the regulations regarding minimum or maximum purchase amounts.
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AMERICAN EXPRESS
Merchant Policy: https://www209.americanexpress.com/merchant/singlevoice/USEng/FrontServlet?request_type=navigate&page=merchantPolicy
Merchant Policy PDF: https://www209.americanexpress.com/merchant/singlevoice/singlevoiceflash/USEng/pdffiles/MerchantPolicyPDFs/referenceguide_withfees_Final.pdf
What it states:
3.2 – treatment of the American Express brand
- [try to dissuade Cardmembers from using the Card,]
- [impose any restrictions, conditions, or disadvantages when the Card is accepted that are not imposed equally on all Other Payment Products, except for ACH funds transfer, cash, and checks,]
- [engage in activities that harm our business or the American Express Brand (or both),]
Message Center
https://www152.americanexpress.com/EformsWeb/un/ViewSuppressionPage.do?loc_str=en_US&utype=internet&origin=6
Type of Experience: [Merchant insisted on a minimum / maximum purchase amount.]
Amex is a little trickier with this rule as they do not explicitly say one way or another. But using circular logic and the right level of confidence with the prohibitive treatments stated, you can go a long way. For instance, since it’s against the rules for merchants or retailers to require a min/max amount on the other 3 cards, it would be very dissuasive to Amex users if they were the only cardholders subject to this tomfoolery. This also imposes a “restriction, condition or disadvantage” over all Other payment products for the same reason. The last example is also a no brainer. So by knowing the rules on other cards, you can legitimately fight this as an Amex customer as well!
To back this up I looked for contact info for American Express and one of the options on the first drop down box is regarding the minimum or maximum requirement!
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So there you have it. An in depth breakdown of how merchants and retailers sometimes force customers into purchases they normally wouldn’t be. This is highly shady and is against every single card company’s rules and procedures and if you report it, it will be fixed. Then one day you’ll absent mindedly walk in, make a sub-$5 purchase, receive no hassle in the process, and stare at the clerk with the self-satisfied smugness of a battle well won.
Knowledge is power.
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As Seen On:
Comment Validation is now live
by gatsome on Nov.29, 2008, under Admin
Rather then sift through the mountain of spam comments (double digits every single day) I decided to implement a text validator to save me alot of time and to also help the small amount of you who might’ve been sifted into the spam section. I’ve caught some before but I could very well miss one on any given day. There’s not a mountain of comments incoming but if this holds up I’ll enable on the fly posting instead of having everything marked for approval. I know it’s a pain in the ass to figure out what a difficult letter actually is on some of these but simply hitting the refresh button will give you a new, and hopefully easier one.
Sorry for the inconvenience, but it was either you or me. Let’s face it, there’s only one option I’m going to pick in that scenario.