Consumer Reports

I’m not the kind of person to be the first in line to buy the newest technology right when it hits the store shelves. I’m more of a “sit back, observe, and collect data” kind of a person. I like to let the masses do the leg work for me and then reap the benefits of getting lots of opinions on features and the pros/cons of the available products. It gives me time to assess what features I want, what features are available, and to consider what I am willing to pay. I have had a standard cell phone with an inexpensive pay as you go plan for years, but I must admit I am experiencing phone envy. Many of my friends and co-workers have purchased smart phones that have all kinds of nice features: listening to music, uploading pictures, managing a calendar, browsing the Internet, and using a small keyboard to text and email. I am evaluating whether a smart phone makes sense for me. It would be nice to have a phone and those nice features in one device. However, I really don’t use a cell phone that much. I work from home and I am usually at home. I don’t have kids who need to be able to get a hold of me when I am out and about. I keep a phone in my purse for emergencies, but it is almost always turned off. Most people know this about me, so they never call my cell phone number. Would my phone habits change if I had a smart phone? Maybe. My call volume would increase slightly, because I would be more likely to have a smart phone turned on, but I don’t think my phone usage would increase that much. My current thinking is that it doesn’t make much sense to get a smart phone and pay for a more expensive service plan, when I simply don’t use a cell phone that much. For now, I am keeping my standard phone; I will look at other wireless devices that have the features I am interested in, but don’t require expensive phone plans. If you are going through a similar debate about a standard phone vs. a smart phone, here are some resources you might find useful: Cell Phone Reviews Consumer Action Website – Cell Phones Consumer Reports Customer reviews – Cell Phones Filing a Consumer Complaint with the FCC New World of Mobile Phones Understanding Wireless Telephone Coverage Areas Wireless Phones and the Do Not Call Registry If you have any suggestions or opinions you want to share, drop me a line.

Ginger’s note: A very special thanks to photographer Gina Gonzalez for the great 2010 Snowmageddon photo! As you all know, the Washington, DC area is under siege with Snowmageddon 2010, and the federal government in the DC area is officially closed. Even though the government in the DC area is closed, our government has offices throughout the country that are doing business as usual. Even many of the DC area agencies, although closed, have people who are teleworking and carrying out their normal duties from home. I know this because I am a full-time teleworker that lives in the San Antonio area and I am still carrying out my duties for my DC office. All of my work duties are carried out across the internet, so when the DC area is affected by something and I am not, I continue my own work. I also can take over most of the duties from the members on my team. For instance, my office runs www.pueblo.gsa.gov , a web site that allows citizens to order government publications. Every business day, someone from my team runs processes and gets orders out to our distribution facility in Pueblo, Colorado. This week, I have been sharing those duties with my DC team members. Also this week, while the government was officially closed in DC, I finished database updates and prepared reports that will be used to make decisions during a meeting next week. My coworkers are able to access those reports via the internet so they can be prepared for the meeting next week. As a member of the blog team, I am expected to meet my deadlines and have my blog posts up during holidays and during those times when mother nature decides to drop record-breaking amounts of snow. My office has other remote teleworkers. Blogger Joanne is a content manager for USA.gov and she is continuing to make updates to that website from her home in Pennsylvania. Diane, in Florida, continues to work with the National Contact Center 1-800-FED-INFO (333-4636). They answer questions about federal agencies, programs, benefits, and services. Questions don’t stop just because DC has to dig out from a cajillion tons of snow. It’s not just the remote teleworkers at GSA that are working during the storm. I have been in contact with supervisors and many of my coworkers in the DC area via phone or email and they too are using their laptops to log in to our government networks to continue their work from home. GSA works very closely with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management on the government’s telework program to ensure that the government has a workforce that can work during times of natural disasters and other situations. So, when you hear in the news that the federal government had to close down in DC, you should know that many dedicated federal workers are still carrying out their duties and serving the public.

Yahoo wants its users to know what it knows about them. The Internet company is rolling out an online tool that allows consumers to see - and edit - the personal profiles that Yahoo has compiled about them based on their Web browsing behavior. Those profiles are used to target Internet advertising. Read more…

Recent emails, calls and web chats coming into the National Contact Center (NCC) have me thinking about the R.E.M. song, ” It’s The End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine). ” Of course most of the people sending these inquiries don’t feel fine about the idea of the apocalypse. If you are not aware, the ancient Mayan “Long Count” calendar ends in December 2012 and according to some Mayan and popular myths, the end of this calendar marks the end of the world. There are many books out now that explore the way the world could end and the John Cusack movie 2012’s plot plays out doomsday and a government plan to get people to safety. Most inquiries the NCC receives allude to this movie and people want to know if the government has identified a credible threat in 2012 and if so, are there any plans to avoid it? I looked around and actually found that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has a whole website devoted to the 2012 topic. There, NASA explains why the various doomsday scenarios are not scientifically feasible and, when asked about the claims of the pending doomsday, they specifically state: “For any claims of disaster or dramatic changes in 2012, where is the science? Where is the evidence? There is none, and for all the fictional assertions, whether they are made in books, movies, documentaries or over the Internet, we cannot change that simple fact. There is no credible evidence for any of the assertions made in support of unusual events taking place in December 2012.” Read over the NASA Doomsday webpage . Do you agree with NASA about 2012?

You may remember that a few weeks ago I was having horrible problems with my Internet service so I turned to the Consumer Action Handbook to figure out how to file a complaint. Many of you also commented that after I filed the complaint I should ask my provider to reimburse me for the time I had been without service. I just wanted to take a quick minute to thank you all for that advice. I did request to be reimbursed for service lost, and my provider agreed. I’m waiting to get my next bill to make sure the credit went through. If it does, I’ll be reimbursed for about half the cost of the bill and—for all the trouble they put me through—they also offered to cut my monthly bill in half for the rest of the year. The company was also quick to respond to the complaint letter I sent to the vice president of customer relations. A very nice woman called me and listened to my problem. Since a technician had just been to my house to fix the problem, she told me to call her if we had problems again and she gave me a direct number and her normal work hours. When my service dropped less than an hour after the tech had been there, I called her right back and she immediately called a supervisor and got a technician out to solve the problem. My Internet hasn’t been perfect since then, but it’s been better and I’m happy that I have a person I can contact directly with future problems. So thanks to all of you for your great advice and I encourage you to use the resources at ConsumerAction.gov if you ever need them.

“There’s smoke coming from the Pentagon!” one of my coworkers shouted. I ran to his office window where we worked at the top of the Old Post Office Building in downtown Washington, DC, to witness black ribbons flowing from the Department of Defense building. This, after just watching the Internet’s news about the attack on the World Trade Centers that morning, September 11, 2001. We were allowed to leave work—but I was at a loss as to how to get home since I had heard that the subway was closed. I had just moved from DC to a suburb in Maryland, and didn’t know an alternate way to get home. I ended up stuck on a gridlocked bus for four hours because I didn’t have another plan. Are you prepared for a natural disaster, potential terrorist attack, or other major crisis? September is the sixth annual National Preparedness Month , sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security . The companion website, Ready.gov , gives you tips on what to include in a basic emergency supply kit , and suggests ways to contact and regroup with family members in an emergency. It also offers information on a variety of emergency situations , such as influenza pandemics, wildfires, chemical threats, and winter storms, and recommends preparations for businesses as well. Interactive features help you personalize a family emergency plan , and links take you to sign up for free emergency alerts from your local government. You also can follow Ready.gov on Twitter , or take the Readiness Quotient quiz . USA.gov offers information on preparing for emergencies for specific groups , including people with disabilities, kids, and pets, and links to federal information on disasters and emergencies . Since 9/11, I’ve maintained an emergency supply kit and made it a point to learn a variety of ways to get home. Do you have an emergency kit and plan?

This past month my Internet service provider has been the bane of my existence. My service has been fickle, at best. More often than not, it will work for a few hours and then stop. And then I’ll spend another hour on the phone with customer service trying to troubleshoot. They’ve sent a technician once to fix the problem, and our service worked for a week or two, but then last week it went out again. I wasted more time on hold and talking to very nice and very helpful customer service agents. (That’s not sarcasm, the people I spoke with this time around tried to do the best they could.) But alas, my service still goes out every couple hours and then stays out for several more. I finally had to file a complaint against the company. I’ve never had to do that before so I turned to ConsumerAction.gov for advice on what to do. My first instinct was to call up my Better Business Bureau , but ConsumerAction.gov advised that I try to contact someone higher up at the company first. So I hunted around on the company Web site until I found a contact name and email for the Vice President of customer relations. Then I followed some of the suggestions from one of the sample complaint letters and read about next steps to take. I decided I’d wait a week before contacting the BBB to see if the company could resolve the problem. Earlier this week I got a phone call from the company telling me they were trying to get the problem fixed as soon as possible and I have another technician coming out this week. I really hope this solves the whole problem. I hate paying so much for service and then not having it and I’d really rather not have to file a complaint with the BBB. Have any of you ever had problems with a company that you had to file a complaint against? What was the process like? Was it easy or tough and did you get the results you wanted?

My mom admits to being paranoid about ATMs, online banking, and shopping on the internet, so she won’t use them.