Consumer Action is Now Here for You

Welcome to the Consumer Action Blog.  The purpose of this site is to provide a place for consumers to voice their legitimate, factual complaints about businesses (including government) that just don’t act right.  Please read the terms and conditions before getting involved.  This is a call to action, not just a gripe site!!  Together, we can make a positive difference in our country so, please join me in our push to return sanity and decency to our business world.

To post your problem/conflict and seek Consumer Action help, first read the terms and conditions then post a comment with your complaint/issue.  The administrator will review your post and either approve it, return it with modifications or questions or deny/delete it.

Data Depot is a Company of Crooks (re-direct)

This is one of the many complaints against DataDepot.biz by yet another victim of their shoddy business practices.  Click here to see the complete post.

Checking Better Business Bureau Reports. What to Look For.

A member of a networking site where I sometimes post asked if there were any good internet companies offering mailing lists, e-mail list, etc.  At the time of the question, I had knowledge of two companies:  Data Depot (www.datadepot.biz) and Info Group, Inc. (www.infogroup.com).  As I have mentioned many times, datadepot.biz is not accredited with the BBB and has an F rating.  Info Group, Inc. is accredited with the BBB and has an A+ rating.

What does this mean?  According to the BBB website, “If a business has been accredited by BBB, it means BBB has determined that the business meets BBB accreditation standards, which include a commitment to make a good faith effort to resolve any consumer complaints.  BBB Accredited Businesses pay a fee for accreditation review/monitoring and for support of BBB services to the public.

BBB accreditation does not mean that the business’ products or services have been evaluated or endorsed by BBB, or that BBB has made a determination as to the business’ product quality or competency in performing services.

Businesses are under no obligation to seek BBB accreditation, and some businesses are not accredited because they have not sought BBB accreditation.”

Ratings are determined by a number of factors including how complaints are handled by the company.  The BBB website states, “BBB assigns grades from A to F with pluses and minuses. A+ is the highest grade and F is the lowest. The grade represents BBB’s degree of confidence that the business is operating in a trustworthy manner and will make a good faith effort to resolve any customer concerns filled with BBB.”

Here is a partial list of companies offering these services along with their BBB rating and accreditation status. 

• Info Group, Inc. (www.infogroup.com).  Accredited with the BBB and has an A+ rating.  Approximately 37 complaints closed by the BBB over the past 3 years with 10 of those in the past year.
• LeadsPlease.com (www.leadsplease.com).  Accredited with the BBB and has an A+ rating.  This company has not had any consumer complaints in the past 3 years.
• Constant Contact, Inc. (www.constantcontact.com).  Accredited with the BBB and has an A+ rating.  This company has had 19 complaints over the past 3 years with 4 of those occurring in the past 12 months.
• List Giant (www.listgiant.com).  This is a Gold Coast Partners business.  Gold Coast Partners is not accredited with the BBB and has a D rating.  This company has 1 complaint over the past 3 years that was unanswered by the company.  Also operates under the name Universal Lists.
• Data Depot (www.datadepot.biz).  Data Depot is not accredited with the BBB and has an F rating.  DataDepot.biz has had 56 complaints closed by the BBB in the past 3 years with 50 of those ocurring in the past year.  Company is also known as In Touch Media, LLC and operates additional websites www.b2bdata.org and www.email-list.com. 

Each of the respective BBB sites provides additional information about these companies.  It is a good place to start your research before giving any company, especially on the internet, your money.

BBB reports provide a great starting point to determine what type of company you may be dealing with. 

Hope this helps at least one consumer avoid a bad mistake such as the one I made when I stupidly engaged DataDepot.biz to provide mailing lists.

Let me know if you know of any other company that deserves mention, whether good or bad.

Thanks.

Clark

An Open Letter To President Obama

Who would have thought, and yet many are thinking it. 

AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA

Dear President Obama:You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.

You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.

You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.

You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.

You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.

You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don’t understand it at its core.

You scare me because you lack humility and ‘class’, always blaming others.

You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail..

You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the ‘blame America ‘ crowd and deliver this message abroad.

You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.

You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.

You scare me because you prefer ‘wind mills’ to  responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.

You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.

You scare me because you have begun to use  ‘extortion’ tactics against certain banks and corporations.

You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.

You scare me because you will not openly listen to  or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.

You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.

You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.

You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaugh’s, Hannitys, O’Reillys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.

You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.

Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.

Lou Pritchett

This letter was sent to the NY Times but they never acknowledged it.  Big surprise.  Since it hit the internet, however, it has had over 500,000 hits. Keep it going.  All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing.  It’s happening right now.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/youscareme.asp

New Forum: DataDepot.biz Complaints

After my own bad experience with this F-rated company and meeting several others with similar experiences, I have decided to start a forum for the sole purpose of documenting this company’s bad business behavior.  Consumers have to band together and take action in order to hold internet companies accountable; otherwise, they continue to victimize unknowing consumers.  Check out DataDepotBizComplaints forum.

Please share this with everyone you know – you never know who else might be a dissatisfied customer needing a place to document his/her experience.  You can also learn more information about the steps you can take if you are “taken to the cleaners” by any company. 

Help us make a positive difference on the internet.  Bookmark this new forum, join in the discussion and share.

DataDepot.biz Continues to Pile Up Complaints

Now up to 49 complaints at the West Florida BBB just this year, DataDepot.biz continues to show why it retains its F rating.  Here is an example of one of the latest complaints:  http://www.complaints.com/2010/may/30/Data_Depot__-_BEWARE_234777.htm

Because this company continues to get away with ripping off people, a new forum dedicated specifically to documenting complaints against datadepot.biz has been started.  If you or anyone you know has had a bad experience with this company, please share it on this forum.  Also, I encourage you to bookmark the forum and share with your friends – who knows, you may help save them from losing their money.

Is Border Security REALLY Necessary?

After all, it’s just the Mexicans wanting a better life, right?  People wanting to crack down on border security and the illegal immigration problem are often labeled as racist and insensitive toward Mexicans.  Don’t buy that line.  It is a real problem for many reasons and one of the main reasons is terrorism.  Check out this video (it’s a two-parter so be sure to watch both videos) before you jump into the argument strictly based on the pro- or anit-Mexican immigrant debate: 

http://www.wsbtv.com/video/23438021/index.html

It’s time to send a message to our elected officials:  Get serious about protecting our borders or get out of office.  Better yet, maybe we should try our elected officials for treason.

Have a great day!

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Advertisement

Looking for business or consumer e-mail lists?  Be sure to check out the Better Business Bureau ratings of any company before sending them your money.  One company to avoid:  Datadepot.biz – rated F by the West Florida Better Business Bureau.

What Do You Really Know About Google?

I’m passing along this information – it is not my original info but it does pertain to consumer rights and protection so I think it is worth sharing.

Find articles such as:

Is history repeating itself with Google antitrust saga?

Consumer Watchdog Says FTC’s Google-AdMob Decision Will Hurt Consumers

Latest Facebook privacy intrusion touches Google

Latest Facebook privacy intrusion touches Google

and more on Inside Google, a new watchdog site with a focus on keeping an eye on Google – the internet giant.

They post articles about things going on with Google and provide a place to file complaints.

Pass this along.  As always, we consumers do have the power if we just take the time and make the effort to exercise our power.  Together, we can hold companies accountable.

Have a great day!

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Advertisement

Looking for business or consumer e-mail lists?  Be sure to check out the Better Business Bureau ratings of any company before sending them your money.  One company to avoid:  Datadepot.biz – rated F by the West Florida Better Business Bureau.

AZ Sonoran Desert Outside Tucson, AZ

This is something I received via e-mail but thought it was worth sharing.  Now, keep in mind as you are reading this that if you throw your cigarette butt or candy wrapper out the window, you could be fined hundreds of dollars and even serve a jail sentence.  Unless, of course…

Hey everyone out there!

 We, in Arizona , know you’re boycotting us — but you really should come out here and see our Beautiful Sonoran Desert .

It’s just gorgeous right now!

 We know you’d love it and maybe you can share what you saw with the rest of the country so they can love it too! 

This is on an ‘illegal super – highway’ from Mexico to the USA ( Tucson ) used by human smugglers.  
 This area is located in a wash, approximately 1.5 miles long, just south of Tucson , Arizona . If a flood came, all this would be washed to the river and then onto the sea!

It is estimated over 5,000 discarded backpacks are in this wash.  Countless water containers, food wrappers, clothing, feces, including thousands of soiled baby diapers. And as you can see in this picture, fresh footprints leading right into it.

As we kept walking down the wash, we thought for sure it was going to end, but around every corner was more and more trash!   

And of course the trail leading out of the wash in our city, heads directly NORTH to Tucson , then leads to your town tomorrow.

They’ve already come through here. Isn’t Arizona just beautiful,  America ?

Why would you boycott us???

Our desert has basically been turned into a landfill.

The trash left behind by people illegally crossing our border is another Environmental Disaster to hit the USA .

If these actions had been done in one of our Northwest Forests or Seashore National Parks areas, there would be an uprising of the American people…..but this is the Arizona-Mexican border.

You won’t see these pictures on CNN, ABC, NBC or the Arizona Republic Repugnant newspaper.  Nor will they mention the disease that comes from the uncovered human waste left in our desert.

However, with respect to CNN, ABC & NBC, they do offer us “Special Reports” on cheating celebrity spouses….

This information needs to be seen by the rest of the country.

Is There A Difference Between Internet Companies Offering Mailing Lists?

You’ve seen the very poor reviews and ratings for Datadepot.biz.  Are all internet companies offering mailing lists and e-mail lists as bad as Datadepot.biz?  We’ve looked at one of the other companies out there and found that the answer is, no, they are not all the same.

Datadepot.biz has an F rating with the BBB with over 50 complaints (most in the past year) and is not accredited with the BBB. 

Compare that to one of their competitors – InfoGroup, Inc. – another company offering similar services.  InfoGroup, Inc. has 37 complaints in the past 3 years, holds an A+ rating and is accredited with the BBB.

Not hard to determine which company is the better choice.  We recommend InfoGroup, Inc. and advise customers to stay away from Datadepot.biz.

Shop wisely.

Your Consumer Action Advocate.

DataDepot.Biz Website Endorsements: Are They Real or Fake?

We know that there have been numerous complaints filed against DataDepot.biz and that they have an F rating with the West Florida Better Business Bureau but when you view the website for datadepot.biz, they show some pretty impressive endorsements.  In an effort to find someone who has had a good experience with them, we began looking into these endorsements.  Here’s what we’ve found so far:

# 1.  Lynne Jones, President of Escrows Direct – we were able to find a record for Escrows Direct located in Seminole, FL.  According to the Florida Department of State Division of Corporations, this company was incorporated 5/2/2007.  No officer name is shown and the status of the company is listed as inactive.  The last event recorded is “ADMIN DISSOLUTION FOR ANNUAL REPORT” filed on 9/26/2008.  We were not able to find the Lynne Jones shown on the datadepot.biz endorsement.

Is endorsement # 1 real or fake?

# 2.  Adele Krsek of Family Shield USA.  We were able to locate only one company with this name.  It was incorporated in New Hampshire 11/4/2005 and its current status is shown as “Admin Dissolution/Suspension” as of 8/31/2007.  The company’s articles of incorporation show 3 different people signing the form; however, none of them are Adele Krsek.

We also found a Family Shield (USA) where the name is an alternative title for the TV series, “To Serve and Protect.”  We did not find an Adele Krsek associated with this name.

Our name search for “Adele Krsek” turned up two women in the U.S.

Is endorsement # 2 real or fake?

# 3.   Pilar Jiminez, listed as Vice President for Pericia International.  We found Pericia International and it appears to be an on-going business.  We contacted the company and were informed by the President of the company that there is no one at the company by the name of Pilar Jiminez and there never has been.

Is endorsement # 3 real or fake?

# 4.  Brian Williams, VP of Marketing at Crossfire Financial, Inc.  The only business we found during our internet search with a similar name was Crossfire Financial Network located in Florida.  The company we found is a mortgage brokerage company according to their website; however, the e-mail address they have listed on their “contact us” page is invalid so we are unable to verify the endorsement, the person supposedly making the endorsement or the actual existence of the company represented in the endorsement.

Is endorsement # 4 real or fake?

These are just a few examples.  Can anyone provide proof that any of the so-called endorsements shown on this company’s website are real?  Is there a credible voice that can validate any of them?  We’re still looking for any positive endorsement of Datadepot.biz and, so far, are having no luck.