Watch out, here comes a rant! Okay, the ongoing downfall of American society and culture seems to be accelerating exponentially. In the past few days, I have either experienced or observed a couple of new outrageous acts against consumers (i.e., customers) by big business. The first of these involve Western Union – you know, the company that was once known for its telegram service and now focuses on money transfers. Well, according to Western Union’s home page, they proudly (and fraudulently) tout their “money in minutes” program in which they claim that funds can be transferred anywhere around the world in a matter of a few short minutes. Heck, they even proudly proclaim,

“Happy Chinese New Year!

Every time you send a “Money in Minutes” transfer online from the U.S. to Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, or Taiwan you will receive a set of 10 Western Union Limited Edition Red Envelopes to share with your friends and family.”

Let’s just say that Western Union is full of rotten chow mien if they expect people to really believe that. In my case, I needed to make a simple transfer but spent TWO DAYS trying to do so through WU. I tried on the their web site, called them several times on the phone, wasted time on one of their online chat boards, going into two of their branches a total of FOUR times, and then called on the phone again. As I’ve already said, “money in minutes?” Well, it gets worse, much worse. After finally reaching someone who claimed that I could take care of the transaction and that the funds would be wired in just 45 minutes, that turned out to be a big lie. Not only did my financial institution approve the transaction and WU had no problem getting an instant hold placed on those funds, but then one of their clowns on the phone disconnected me. So. . .I called back (again), only to learn that WU had decided that due to their “business requirements,” they were refusing to wire the money. Again, this was AFTER my institution approved the transfer, after WU lied to me about sending the money within 45 minutes, after spending TWO DAYS (yes, I’m yelling), trying to deal with a simple transaction, and after being lied to by their employees. On top of that, their moronic supervisors – “Mike 697” and, allegedly, his supervisor, “Nate 745” both refused to explain what the nebulous “business requirements” were (they’re allegedly “trade secrets”) but they also informed me that the hold on my funds would be there for SIX days. That’s right, WU lied about their “Money in Minutes service,” REFUSED to complete the transaction because of their own scam, and refused to provide a reason. So, as all good consumers should do, they were reported to the Better Business Bureau and the FBI Fraud Unit. Apparently, when complaints are filed against WU with the BBB, it gets their attention as I received an e-mail from them asking for more details today. Of course, I had already taken my business elsewhere and it even cost less to do so. I will NEVER use Western Union again – what a scam.

Now for rant number two – I’ve always been a PC guy (I’ve never liked the OS for Macs) but I do like their iPods – they’re extremely well designed and are rather remarkable devices. I’ve always felt; however, that the fact that their decision that iPhones can only use ATT to provide wireless phone service was a completely stupid one (I dumped my own ATT service, years ago after having problems with their “tech support” located, where else but in India). Silly me, I thought the first letter in the acronym, ATT, referred to “American.” Apple; however, did come out with a very similar device, called the iTouch, which is essentially an iPhone without the phone – all of the other cool features are still there.

In a brazen act of stupity and disregard for their customers (many of whom have been long time Apple fans), Steve Jobs – Mr. Big Mac himself  – spoke at Apple’s trade show/conference on Monday whereby he touted the latest wonders of Apple’s engineers and announced the launch of new software applications for the iPhone and iTouch. While owners of the iPhone received those applications at no charge (i.e., FREE), Mr. Big Mac also announced that owners of the iTouch, could receive the exact same software application for a measly twenty bucks. Considering that the iTouch costs the same as the iPhone and that it is essentially identical in everyway (of course, without the phone service), Mr. Big Mac’s announcement has rightfully launched a massive outcry from iTouch users. Furthermore, Apple is actively censoring posts on their own discussion boards about the situation, but that hasn’t stopped angry consumers from posting elsewhere. Not surprisingly, the media has also picked up on the situation and, while very little is coming out of Mr. Big Mac’s mouth (maybe he’s choking on a few apple seeds), the so-called “update” is no longer downloadable from Apple’s site. If a large company like Apple is so arrogant as to ignore their responsibility to their customers, no wonder that others, like Western Union, can get away with so much. What ever happened to the adage that “customers are always right” and common courtesy towards those that cough up hard earned dollars for products and services? Oh well. . .