Now for something completely different

Entry #625
Saturday, March 29, 2003

That was quite a vibrant discourse. :)

I'm geekin' hardcore this weekend. Tryin' to get a client site up by Monday. I'm modifying osCommerce by adding what I call "subproducts," which is the ability to create products that are composed of other products. So our client has a full uniform product that consists of other products -- shirt, pants, shoes, etc. It requires a lot of code changes, especially in the shopping cart class. So I gotta geek.

I've been diggin' the weather, spring is in the air. My office window's open, even in the evening. Fresh air and non-computer-fan audio.

Rode my bike down to ACLU-WA's annual meeting this afternoon. That was good times. It's nice to get together with folks who share your interests.

I filed a small claim earlier this week. It's the first case I've filed in nine months -- since before Robert died. That was good times too. I love the district court clerk's office -- so many interesting people pass through.

I spoke with Consumer Credit Counseling Foundation the other day and there going to help me reduce my debt -- by $500. That's who I'm suing. Got a recorded call from them the other day.

Comment on this entry

First post!

Way to go Ben for striving to be debt free.

Is that credit counseling outfit a non-profit? If so, does WA or the new Fed. telemarketting law apply to non-profits?

I think if I had time, I'd be doing something about these calls too. But unfortunately for me, it's easier to pay for things like Privacy Director and CallerID so I can just ignore them. Wish I did have the time though.

Washington law exempts noncommercial calls. While they are a nonprofit organization, they will lose any argument that their call was not commercial. They were pitching me a service that costs me $30 a month.

I've been trying to get back into the lawsuit groove. I sent off a demand for damages for two junk faxes I got three months ago for a "DNA LifePrint" program where you take DNA samples from your kids in case they ever get kidnapped or something. It's run by a car dealership in Illinois. For a mere $350 we'll settle the case. Otherwise, they'll be coughing up $1,000 plus court fees.

Also received a recorded call on our answering machine two nights ago. Those are a bit tricky because they can argue that the call was not recorded, that it was a real person. But then I got the same exact call last night, which cut off after five seconds because it wasn't an answering machine. What the lawbreakers are doing now is only leaving messages on answering machines, because they can argue that it's a live operator leaving the message. Not in this case though. Thousand bucks please!

curious, can you sue telemarketers for flat lying? i have had one calling here for the last 2 days for a family member of mine. not one that lives here mind you, claiming that said family member applied for a home morgage loan in august using this phone number. my family member says they have never applied for a morgage loan with this company and most interestingly of all. i only got this phone number in september, a month after they say it was used. i doubt a lawsuit would be worthwhile but still might be fun if i can.

I don't know of a law you can sue them under for lying. However, if they keep calling back and you have used the magic phrase "please add me to your 'do not call' list," you can sue them under the federal rules on telemarketing:

http://smallclaim.info/laws.php