John Smith

The key is whether they TOLD the AT&T salesperson the card would be used in Canada. If they can prove or pass a lie detector on that question then the salesperson (and thus AT&T) is at fault. I would guess they did, since (DUH) they wanted to know if it would WORK in Canada. Salespeople should know their product or at least have sense enough to ask someone higher up if they don't. What the customer says or doesn't say is important. I worked for Radio Shack years ago, and there were many items that were questionable in use. If a customer wanted a phone recording device and said they wanted to spy on a spouse, we couldn't sell it to them. If they said they wanted a scanner to hear their neighbor's cordless phone we had to refuse to sell it. If a customer wanted a fuse but then said it was for a (illegal) CB linear amplifier, no sale. We were told to be very careful about disclosing ALL fees for phones, especially when they were going to be a "gift" (buy mom a phone for Christmas, don't tell her you don't intend to pay the monthly bill, just buy the phone which cost $100 at the time. We called that the "gift that keeps on taking" and warned over and over that it was a 2 year contract and SOMEBODY would be paying it and it was THEIR signature on the paper, not mom's....). That was also in the day when anybody who screamed and threw a fit got just about anything they wanted. That is no longer the case in most stores, they can't compete with wholesale warehouses and Wal Mart's low quality knock offs and still appease all the idiots and con artists. They finally did studies and proved they were better off without the screaming customers, because they just did it over and over and over. We had several "serial renters" who would "buy" an expensive short wave or computer and then return it, heavily used, after 89 days and demand a refund loud enough to get it. Then go buy the same item at the store in the next town and do it again.
I was close to 40 when I went to work for them, mainly for the health insurance, and took legal responsibilities seriously (I had an FCC license to protect at the time). Along with the death of "the customer is always right", probably went all the strict rules and even if they didn't, young salespeople and managers care little beyond this week's commission check....
Maybe the family is on surveilance tape being told exactly what those fees were, we got many tapes of theives looking right into the lens of a camera with the pilot light on, grabbing an item and running out. It could go either way but I'd bet a little more on the "make a sale however possible" salesperson.

If you win a big lottery, or a sweepstkes or big horse race bet, the taxes are collected before you ever get a check. Why aren't TV networks and record companies required to withhold taxes like every other employer? We are the losers, because so many times the tax cheats, or victims of crooked managers or poor advice (whatever the cause) are broke and can't pay. So OUR taxes go up to cover the loss of revenue. The temptation is too great for rags-to-riches singers, the get greedy. They are surrounded by either people they really don't know or people they do know, but who are as clueless about taxes and handling big money as they are. If they incorporate, suffer losses, or whatever - let them file for a refund like everybody else and the IRS will decide if it's legit before giving anything back and they won't end up in jail! I don't love the IRS but the whole system seems designed to let the record companies, managers and TV networks and the IRS set people up to be prosecuted for tax fraud. They figured out with wage earners very quickly that withholding is the only way to protect them from themselves. If the income tax was still a deal where you had to save up and pay at the end of the year, 99% of us would be in jail now.

Computer Shopper was once as thick as any phone book with twice the page size. I started buying it, before it got quite so huge, when I was trying to buy 640K of ram to go on an 8 Mhz PC clone mobo.I chickened out and bought an Emerson (honest to God, a Packard Bell clone!) for $700 instead of parts for $650, but there was someplace to return the Emerson! I got braver with the advent of the 286 and semi-local Computer Shows. Not that you could succeessfully return much to a Computer Show, but you could pretend, and get your wife to gonalong with it.

No Macs=Why they didn't go under 3 years ago.

OH Boy are you guys gonna get SUED! Sacherine, the ingredient in SWEET & LOW DOES NOT BREAK DOWN UNDER HEAT! Your headlines and everything else are WRONG WRONG WRONG!
EQUAL contains Aspartame and ONLY aspartame breaks down under heat and can't be used for high heat cooking. Contrary to popular belief, Aspartame doesn't break down the instant it hits hot water. You can use it in oatmeal or something that only biols a couple of minutes. I had problems with Aspartame the first few times I used it but once you get used to it, it doesn't bother 99.999% of people. Every chemical, including sugars, has some fraction of the population alergic to it.
Here's a chart:
EQUAL = Aspartame
SWEET & LOW = Sacherine
SPLENDA = Sucralose
Many Gums, candy, mints = "Sugar Alcohols"(these have sugar calories but are slowly absorbed which helps diabetics)

This kind of inacuracy is very damaging to the companies and people like me, a diabetic who depends on artificial sweetners for sanity and weight control. It was not fun when artificial sweetners were rare. I can tell you there is no doubt I would have been dead years ago without artificial sweetners. The best aproximation of sugar? Use 2 or all 3 mixed. That gives the most natural tasting sweetness. Try to get it right the first time AOL.

John

Who's complaining about Hillbilly announcers? What do you expect from NASCAR, James Earl Jones? They want you to believe their funny cars with IRL chassis and 100% synthetic engines are still Dukes of Hazard stock cars. The only way Fox thinks they can do that is to have Roscoe P. Waltrippppp yelling Boogity Boogity (why doesn't Ray Stevens sue him for stealing his trademark?). Hell, just drop Darrel and bring in Cletus Spuckler and Homer Simpson to do the races, they're closer to real than the "stock cars" on the track.

Well, if it's OK to listen to Cell conversations over the air, please let the FCC know, so I can buy a new scanner equipped to do it. It's been kinda boring on the bands since the Cell phones went digital and our taped togethether 20 year old scanners can no longer pick them up. I'm sure Uniden could have a digital phone decoding model on the market in a matter of weeks after the FCC gives the go-ahead.
Maybe Hilary could make that a campaign platform plank!Free the technically superior to eavesdrop on the clueless!

Hello? (Banging of a phone on a desk) is anybody awake? What movie did about 6 times what the optimists thought it would do and about 20 times what the critics thought? "The Simpson's Movie". The DVD will probably break records as well, with even the most casual fans nearly foaming at the mouth for the chance to freeze frame their way through the whole thing to find the jokes buried in the backgrounds. As for the fact it was not even mentioned in the first 20 comments here I can only say "The 20 Lamest Coments EVER!". I now must get back to the Season Ten DVD set and pound down 10 or 12 burritos while listening to the audio commentary and throwing darts alternately at pictures of Mike Scully and Ian Maxtone-Graham.

I have sympathy for the family, I hope they recover soon from the pain of their loss. But why is death ALWAYS called a trajedy? I thought a trajedy would be something very unusual, unexpected or unpleasant. When a 20 year old dies, it's a trajedy. When a 40 year old dies it's maybe a trajedy, especially if there are young children losing their father, but once you get past 50 or 60, it's just life, unless it was an especially unpleasant passing. I suppose it shores up everyone's desire to avoid confronting their own death. Not exactly fun, but just like passing gas, no one is immune. I suppose we would all be forced to lead better lives and honor more rules if we used a death as a signal we have to live every day as though it might be our last. But we should. Think to yourself, what if I die right now, would I want to be "caught dead" doing what I'm doing? It might make you change some of your habits.

Why do so many of the "replies" have links to websites with merchandise for sale? Is that health food so expensive you have to sell it to make enough to pay for what you use?