An American tragedy: "It's a Whatever-ful Life"

I figured I'd get ahead of the curve and order something I needed before Cyber Monday. That's the Monday after Thanksgiving. Credit Card companies and banks, who control Americans in conjunction with the rejection letters on "pre-existing conditions" by health insurance companies like Humana, are all about them making money, and profit, not about consumer care or servicing the public. So they decided if the retail stores can have a day to promote and drive mindless consumers in America to spend their loot on one day After Thanksgiving -- Black Friday -- then why shouldn't the online industry be able to join int he spoils with their own day, Monday after Thanksgiving. "Cyber Monday."

It's kind of like the Somali pirates getting together and agreeing that one day is for raping and pillaging American ships and another day is set aside for raping and pillaging non-American ships, which are easier targets, of course, but bring in less money.

So I went online to order two Belkin Powerlibe AV boxes. These are the Internet facilitators that you can plug in to any electrical outlet and then plug in to your Internet box to spread the Internet throughout the house without using the unreliable Wi-Fi that comes with Comcast and other providers who brag about all the things they can do, but never deliver. I think that's the Sprint Cell Phone company motto, by the way. Their Palm Pre Cell Phone sucks when it comes to do anything of significance, although they let you pay them for a lot of worthless "games" and a limited assortment of "apps." Tragic company, actually.

The company I chose was Dell Computers. Not because I wanted to. Dell makes cheap and very unreliable computers that don't last more than a year. Keep that in mind if you purchase one. And that policy of they'll fix it for you. They figure most Americans can't afford basic healthcare -- thanks to the robber barrons at Humana Health Care and Human One who are helping to insure that most Americans can't afford basic coverage so they put off exams until it is too late. So they know you won't remember their empty promises, which are offered only to sell something, not to remember once you have made the purchase.

But, the other re-sellers, according to Belkin, a foreign-owned company that knows about as much as I know about the internet, looked kind of cheesy. Hey, I don't want to get ripped off by someone I don't know, right?

Better to be ripped off by someone you do know. And that has a consistent track record of ripping you off. So I ordered the Dell system, two boxes including one with three ports so more than one laptop can connect -- if I can get the Dell Laptops to work properly, which they don't always do.

They promised to deliver in 3 to 5 days. That was before Cyber Monday. Now, they sent me an email saying that I might not get it for another 10 days, on Dec. 9. Nice. But they got their money. Upfront. As they always do. I didn't promise to pay them and then say, oh, by the way, I can't pay for 10 days. I paid them hard cash upfront as they required. Now that they have my money, I and all consumers are at their mercy. And they could care less about quality so why should they care about service?

The last Dell Computer I got came from a client to manage their online work. I told them tow atch out for Dell, but they said, don't worry, Dell has a reputation. What kind of reputation is what I am asking. The day the laptop came, the screen crashed and the monitor lost its light. Oh the computer is running but you just can't see it running on the screen. Nice, I figured. It has a "warranty.' Which means five weeks of service after we ship it at our shipping cost back to Dell and then wait.

So they can say, we'll have it back to you in five weeks. Only to come back and say, we need more time. Meanwhile, we gave them our money upfront, of course.

This tragedy is an American tragedy. A common tragedy. The public gets ripped off all the time and if there is no political benefit for anyone, people like Lisa Madigan, the Illinois Attorney General will not do anything to help the public. She only gets involved if she is guaranteed a headline in a local newspaper. And not just any newspaper. She doesn't care about the community news media. She only cares about the big newspapers like the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. Why waste your taxpayer funded work time on community media read by the community. Those Sun-Times and Tribune headlines make great campaign brochures when the time comes for them to run for higher office, like Governor. Or Senator, Or who knows, maybe even president.

Because the public has memory lapse issues, thanks to Humana which dumps customers from their coverage all the time because of so-called "pre-existing conditions.' Well, Politicians have pre-existing conditions like criminal behavior and me-first attitudes and no one dumps them from the taxpayer paid payrolls.

SoI guess I have to wait for the extra Belkin Boxes -- I'd buy another brand but that is another issue with the technology manufacturers. None of them want their equipment to work with any other system, so they make them unique so you have to buy their crap instead of some other company's crap when you want to expand your system. nd you complain and they shrug their shoulders, count your money and say, "Whatever."

An American Tragedy. "It's a Whatever-ful Life."