Another Scam

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Steve Picray

I can’t believe my good fortune!  Here I am waiting for my Fedex package to be delivered, waiting for my money from the IRS to arrive (nope, still not here yet, 38 days and counting), and something amazing happens.

This letter came in the mail today, and I’m not sure what made me happier: the fact that I’ve won free airfare, or the fact that I get to blog about another scam so soon after the FedEx thing.

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Things that clued me in this was not legit:

  1. The envelope was hand addressed to me.  This means someone somewhere used a pen to write my name and address on the front. This is almost always a sign that it’s a chain letter or some kind of scam. If this were from a legitimate company giving away airline tickets, they would either use a program to print my name on the envelope or use a envelope with a little window so my printed address on the letter would show through. Amateurs.
  2. There is no such airline called “American Airways,” nor could I find any company by that name.
  3.  Whoever wrote the letter did a bad job with “professional letter writing” because they put the “NOTE:” even before the address (“Dear Steven”).
  4. Notice the second paragraph where they say they have attempted to contact me multiple times.  Thirty years ago this would have sounded legitimate, because of the number of people with rotary phones (kids, ask your parents), answering machines being unreliable, etc.  But now?  Everybody Almost everybody has voicemail, email, etc.  And this is the first letter I’ve gotten from these people, so no, they have not attempted to contact me several times.
  5. It fails to pass the test of common sense.  I didn’t enter a contest for airline tickets, so why would they be giving them away for free?
  6. It fails the google test. I went to google.com and searched “American Airways” and several of the results were talking about this scam.

There are scammers out there people. Stay on your toes.  Just throw this stuff out with the junk mail, and you’ll be better off.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

My Homeowners Association

Posted on March 16, 2013 by Steve Picray

HOA-PoliceI got a letter from my homeowners association today.  This is what they said:

Dear Homeowner,

While driving through your community I noticed you replaced a garage panel and it is not painted to color of the other panels. Please paint this at your earliest convenience when the weather allows.  If you have any questions regarding this or any other matter please conact me at your earliest convenience.

I sat right down and wrote a reply.  This is what I wrote:

Dear Sir,

One of my garage door panels was replaced late last fall.  I realized when they installed it that it was a different color than the rest of the garage door, and that it would need to be painted as soon as the weather was warm enough to allow me to paint it.  I received your letter dated March 14, 2013 in which you stated that you noticed that one of my garage panels was replaced, and is a different color than the other panels. Your letter was the second letter I received on this issue.  I believe the first one came in December or January.

The purpose of this letter is to inform you that the property where I live (and of which you manage, evidently) is in the state of Indiana.  I don’t know if you are new to our state, but the climate of Indiana is such that it usually stays below 50 degrees from September through March.  The people at Lowe’s have stated that outside painting should be done when the temperature is between 50 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit. I have every intention to paint the panel as soon as the climate allows.  As I type this it is 38 degrees outside my house. The beginning of spring is four days away.  I’m sure it will be above 50 degrees soon.

In the meantime, I would appreciate it very much if you would quit harassing me about the need to fix something that conditions do not currently allow me to fix.  I have no idea why you feel the need to drive through the neighborhood looking for infractions instead of letting people live their lives in peace.  Most of us are good homeowners who try to keep our property looking nice even without the HOA insinuating itself into our lives.  I realize that there are certain people who, if left unchecked, would fail to properly maintain their property (such as leaving old vehicle transmissions in their yard, not mowing their yard, etc). Rest assured that I am not one of these.

The fact that you drive around looking for anything out of line with what you think the community should look like is one of the many reasons that I will never again purchase a home in a homeowners association.  I tried to sell my house last year, and I will be trying again in a few years.  Until that day I will toe your line and put up with your harassment.  I look forward to the day when I can purchase a house and not have someone like you standing over my shoulder telling me I need to get permission to make any changes or sending me a letter to tell me something I already know.

On behalf of harassed homeowners throughout our association,

Me.

Then I sat back and thought about it before sending.  I remembered that I never applied for permission to build my fence, remove part of my porch railing, put up a satellite dish, or make landscaping changes including planting different bushes, build garden boxes in my back yard, and place stones around my mailbox and border of my house.  All of these things were within the bounds of acceptable changes according to our HOA covenant, but technically I was supposed to fill out a permit and wait for permission for each request.  In talking with my neighbors, none of them have ever fill out a permit request, and almost all of them have fences, satellite dishes, etc. I realized that if I made the HOA mad, they might be able to force me to change these things back (or at least cause me a great deal of hassle fighting them).  Here is an article detailing HOA’s doing this very thing.  And so I changed my reply to this before I sent it:

Dear Sir,

One of my garage door panels was replaced late last fall.  I realized when they installed it that it was a different color than the rest of the garage door, and that it would need to be painted as soon as the weather was warm enough to allow me to paint it.  I received your letter dated March 14, 2013 in which you stated that you noticed that one of my garage panels was replaced, and is a different color than the other panels. Your letter was the second letter I received on this issue.  I believe the first one came in December or January.

The purpose of this letter is to inform you that I will be fixing this at the earliest convenient opportunity that the weather allows.  I expect this to be sometime in April. Thank you for your attention, but rest assured that no further vigilance on your part is necessary.

As soon as I sell this house, it is my intention to never again buy a house in a homeowner’s association.  But until that day, discretion is the better part of valor.

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Weight Loss Update

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Steve Picray

I started eating HFLC (High Fat Low Carb) six weeks ago. The first few weeks my weight dropped rapidly from 298 to 289.  Then I plateaued for a few weeks. Then my weight dropped to about 282, which is where I’ve been for the past few weeks.  The lowest I’ve gotten down to is 280, but the next day the scale says 283.  Every morning I wake up hoping I broke through into the 70’s.  It sounds a lot better to say, “I was almost 300 pounds, and now I’m in the 270’s.” At least that sounds better than, “I’ve lost 16 pounds in two months.”

I think one of my problems is popcorn.  A bowl of popcorn is the only “carb” treat I have allowed myself (other than a few pieces of thin crust pizza every other week).  Kim and I have popcorn about four or five nights a week. We eat the air popped Orville Redenbacher, which has  23 net carbs in six cups of popped popcorn.  Since I eat about 3 or 4 cups, I know I’m getting less than 20 carbs per serving, but evidently that’s too much.  I’m going to trial “not eating popcorn” for a few weeks and see what happens.

Another thing that is going to help the weight start dropping faster (hopefully) is that the weather is getting warmer, and I am going to start running again. I’ve been saying I’m not going to start running until I get down into the 260’s, but at this rate, that will be August.  Now I’m saying that as soon as the weather warms up into the 50’s and 60’s (consistently), I’m going to start.

I’m not giving up.  Even if I only lose a pound a month, I’m going to keep doing this.  I will see the south side of 200 by the time I’m done.

Posted in Weight | 3 Comments

H&R Blockheads and Inconvenience

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Steve Picray

hrblockI filed my taxes the first week of February. I usually get my refund a few weeks later. Then I found out that, since I filed an education credit form, my return wouldn’t be processed until February 15th (something to do with the fiscal cliff…I don’t really care what).

I’ve been checking my refund status on the IRS website called “Where’s my refund?”.  Ever since February 15th it has told me my tax return was being processed, and that I should receive my return “21 days from the date I filed.” Calculating from February 15th, my revised date of “here’s my money” was March 8th.

March 8th came and went.  No money.  March 9th came and went. No money.  Here we are on March 11th.  Guess what? No money.

Tonight I got home from work and called H&R Block, whose software I used to e-file my return. I found out that evidently H&R Block’s tax return software had a glitch that caused the IRS to reject the returns that had education credits (like mine).  The person I spoke with at H&R Block told me, “We are sorry for the inconvenience, but you don’t have to worry about it, because the problem has been resolved, and you should receive your refund within the next 45 days.”

WHAT????

I told him, “I understand your program had a glitch.I understand that you fixed the problem with the IRS so that I don’t have to do anything but wait. I understand that you are sorry for the problem. What I don’t understand is what are you going to do about it?”

He escalated the call to a supervisor who told me that their “advance on your tax refund” promotion is over, so that isn’t an option.  He told me that he would “escalate my call” and I should get an answer within the next 72 hours.  Any guesses on what that answer will be?

I went to H&R Block’s Facebook page, and found out that there are thousands of their customers affected by this.
I’m angry. I understand that these things happen sometimes, but they need to make it right. I filed my return on February 6th. Because of the idiots in Washington DC, my return wasn’t processed until Feb 15th. And now, because of H&R Block I won’t get my money back until April. I have bills to pay, including my mortgage.  They are sorry for the inconvenience, but they aren’t doing anything to prove they are sorry.

I have been a loyal H&R Block customer for over 18 years. If you want to keep me, H&R Block, you need to step up and advance at least some of our money to us. NOW.

Posted in Customer Service, Taxes | 2 Comments