Consumer Sundays: Green says go, Social Security Numbers and Open Enrollment
Happy Monday, everyone. I don't know about you, but I'm sick of candy already. I was visiting my Mom's and they had all of 9 trick or treaters so they were letting the kids grab handfuls from the candy bowl.
(ahem) I might have snuck a couple Junior Mints and M&Ms into my purse.
Anyhow, so did anyone going to the Waverly Farmer's Market notice how long that light is at Barclay Street? Well, thanks to Liz, the Department of Transportation has a fix set for the end of this month that will make those long car lines leaving the market go away faster. I feel like I need to go around the city and write down all the traffic signals that make me crazy because they're either way too long or way too short.
There's one near Hopkins Hospital that is an accident waiting to happen since people run the left turn signal ALL the time.
But I'm going to save my traffic light rant for another time. I don't want to start our Monday ranting... unless you feel like ranting?
Besides, I can't get to uppity since I have a confession to make about Social Security Number requests. I have to tell you that as much as I rail against companies that demand your SSN during a transactiion, I caved recently when I tried to renew my Verizon Wireless contract. The guy at Best Buy said he couldn't sign me up without it and I was pressed for time so instead of standing my ground and saying, "NO," I asked him if I could type it in myself... I hang my head in shame.
Perhaps that's why I was so indignant about what Mr. Murray went through with his American Express card. The man has had it for 43 years and suddenly, the company tells him he's got to hand over his SSN to activate his card. How ridiculous is that? And then to just activate it at the end without the SSN... what in the world does that teach anybody?
That if you say no long enough and take your complaint up the chain of command, you'll prevail. So let's stop handing over our confidential digits without question, ok? If you promise to do it, I promise to be more diligent about it, too.
I also promise to be more diligent about being healthy this year. The Sun had a flu shot clinic in our building recently and I forked over $10 to get a needle in the arm (ouch. I don't care what they say, you can SO feel it.)
Eileen says other companies are doing even more to keep employees healthy by offering to pick up the full cost of some prescription drugs and creating on-site medical clinics. During this open enrollment season, is your employer doing anything to keep you healthy so they can just work you to death (heheh. jokes, people! jokes!). Write in and let us know if you're seeing similar trends in the workplace.
(Image courtesy of stock.xchng)
Categories: Complaints, Credit cards, Healthcare, Identity theft, Personal finance, Watchdog
