# Coporate America, I have a request... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 12, 2003, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coporate-america-i-have-a-request/187878 "2003-07-12T01:54:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coporate-america-i-have-a-request/187878/61 "2003-07-16T15:59:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rhum Runner \* > \*\*Dude, are you being deliberately ironic here? You complain that the charges are hidden because you have them bill the credit card directly, when the likely the reason you set it up on the credit card in the first place was so you wouldn’t have to read the damn bill? Aren’t they really just giving you what you ask for? \*\* BZZZT WRONG That is in effect Standard Operating Procedure, Fed-Ex will not give you an open account until you’ve shipped with them for at least six months, and even after that, the approval process is long, in fact I’m still awaiting notification from my request 10 Days ago. \Btw, did you know the Fed-Ex instead of sending a monthly bill, bills by the week? Odd. \ > [@](#): > > \*\*You people and your “corporate = bad” mentality never cease to amuse me. Complaining that banks make too much money? ATM fees are too high? You got charged for, wait for it…using a phone, the horror, the horror. What universe are you living in? \*\* You people with “companies should be allowed to screw you as long as they can get way with it” mentality never ceases to amaze me. I expect to receive good service for, wait for it, a good product, not to be treated as chum for by predatory practices. **Dooku** I didn’t notice that I’d left out that I got off at Peer 39, my Mom wanted a pic of the Carousel. Sorry for the confusion. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coporate-america-i-have-a-request/187878/62 "2003-07-16T16:24:07Z")
> [@](#): > > the corporations make profits, which in turn they hand over to the corporate Board members, the executives, and the stockholders. The profits, in my experience, are not returned to the average worker like myself. I’m not saying a company should put every penny of profit into employee benefits, but a significant portion of it should be returned to the people who have created that profit in the first place. As has already been noted, you and I have already been compensated for our trouble in a manner and to an extent that you had agreed on. It’s actually arguable that the founder, investors, and executives are the people who made the profits possible, and that the normal ranks of employees would have been better replaced by robots, if only such a thing were possible. I don’t have any illusions about my place in a company, when I’m on the lower rungs. I’m expendable, and will be replaced when the management finds something that works better. Were the guys screwing on body parts the people who made Ford’s profits possible? Apparently not, because they’ve been replaced by robots. Are we going to argue that the robots make the profits possible? Only in the most general sense. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coporate-america-i-have-a-request/187878/63 "2003-07-16T16:38:11Z")
I don’t know who said this, but it goes something like: “A corporation’s profits are the difference between what their employees earn and what they’re actually paid.” OTOH I do like **mrsmith537** ’s point about what people want, that is really true. And I also wonder where some of you posters are coming from - are you saying you’ve never experienced/seen/been outraged by corporate greed? That the prospect of being replaced by robots in order to improve profits isn’t somewhat, well, horrifying? As with replacing American workers with overseas workers who are cheaper in large part because they have a lower standard of living & fewer environmental regulations? You think this is a good thing? I used to work for an architectural firm who were total corporate whores. The convinced one large high school to eliminate the marching band in order to fund an electronic music studio where kids could write jingles for a local clothing company (for which they were compensated with company coupons). WTF!!! I hate the way corporations try to reduce all of life to profits without any care for the qualities that make people human - that’s the power of collective greed and anonymity. I also hate the way commercials lie. I started despising corporations back when I worked for a fast food company & experienced the huge discrepency between the image they projected in their commercials and the reality of how they ran their business. Re: the ATM fee, perhaps you don’t remember but there was a time when you could go to the bank during business hours and do your transactions without incuring any costs. Don’t tell me it isn’t cheaper to run ATMs than to pay bank tellers. Bank profits are at an all-time high. ---
**Author:** ![TaxGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@TaxGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TaxGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coporate-america-i-have-a-request/187878/64 "2003-07-16T17:41:05Z")
**fessie** , congratulations for being the biggest idiot I’ve come across today. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coporate-america-i-have-a-request/187878/65 "2003-07-16T18:09:24Z")
Given your name, I take that as a compliment. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coporate-america-i-have-a-request/187878/66 "2003-07-16T18:26:43Z")
So really, is the point of life to create something of meaning and value, to find ways of alleviating suffering and spreading joy, to celebrate beauty, to run a decent damn business that says what it does and does what it says & doesn’t exploit people, or, is it all about fucking over the next guy so long as you don’t get caught/can justify it with smarmy legalese in order to accumulate as much wealth as possible? Give me a fucking break. Money that comes through shitty activities is shitty money. Keep in mind, too, there are a lot of reasons why the rest of the world hates Americans & soulless capitalism ranks among them. I am sick to death of watching wealthy people use their resources to manipulate the marketplace and fix the games they’ve created to their own advantage. Don’t you people know that the vast majority of the stock market is owned by a very small group of people, and most of them know each other? It’s all a big joke & I look forward to the day when people decide to stop playing by the values set up by corporations & start defining their lives for themselves. Designer clothes & the latest gadgets my ass. ---
**Author:** ![TaxGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@TaxGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TaxGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coporate-america-i-have-a-request/187878/67 "2003-07-16T18:48:35Z")
**fessie** , please accept my apology for spouting off and calling you an idiot. Sometimes I just can’t help myself. The reason you and I disagree (and I do disagree entirely with your last post) is that we are coming at the issue from entirely different angles. When I get some time later I’ll explain myself better on this point. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coporate-america-i-have-a-request/187878/68 "2003-07-16T20:35:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by fessie \* > That the prospect of being replaced by robots in order to improve profits isn’t somewhat, well, horrifying? I’ll say it is - _DESTROY!!_…_DESTROY!!_ ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coporate-america-i-have-a-request/187878/69 "2003-07-17T19:05:52Z")
> [@](#): > > are you saying you’ve never experienced/seen/been outraged by corporate greed? That the prospect of being replaced by robots in order to improve profits isn’t somewhat, well, horrifying? No it doesn’t. Overall, improvements in efficiencies make more things available for less, allowing us to buy other things instead of having to spend money on those things, or providing a much better product for the same buying power. Cars are in fact a great example. Are we all going to weep for the lost buggy whip manufacturing jobs? ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coporate-america-i-have-a-request/187878/70 "2003-07-17T19:11:58Z")
Unethical, misleading, or illegal actions to make more profits are of course bad things. ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coporate-america-i-have-a-request/187878/71 "2003-07-17T23:51:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fin\_man \* > **They “get off” charging you $3 per month when your balance is below X since they disclosed that to you when you started using the bank and nobody held a gun to your head and told you to bank with them, right? If you don’t like the fees/services, find a new bank.** Fascinating. So the fees are justified because they’ve chosen not to offer me anything better, and theoretically there might someday be some other magical bank that doesn’t charge for all these things? ---
**Author:** ![Ferris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ferris/32/11573_2.png) [@Ferris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferris)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coporate-america-i-have-a-request/187878/72 "2003-07-18T01:19:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cardinal: > \*Unethical, misleading, or illegal actions to make more profits are of course bad things. Agreed. However, I believe there’s plenty of room for debate about what exactly constitutes such behaviour. Hence, there’s plenty of opportunity to perceive an unfairness, or imbalance of power between supplier and customer (which I think is what the OP is really raging about). To what extent is a monopoly being unethical? To what extent is advertising being misleading? I’m sure that there’s plenty of threads in Great Debates on this and similar topics, but I’ll just add that **msmith537** ’s Dilbert quote sums up my own feelings about the issue - thanks for posting that. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coporate-america-i-have-a-request/187878/73 "2003-07-18T04:59:50Z")
If the company is printing things on the back pages because they’re scared to print them where you’re actually going to read them, then that’s misleading in some way, at least. While not illegal, it certainly rubs me the wrong way. This is one of big reasons our company does so much business with Hartford Insurance. We know there’s nothing in the policies to make the client sit up and scream, “I’ve been cheated” lurking in the back somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coporate-america-i-have-a-request/187878/74 "2003-07-18T11:21:14Z")
Frankly I don’t see how they get away with fine print in TV commercials at all. How is a blind person hearing the promptions supposed to be aware of the huge disclaimers? Seems like an ADA issue to me. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coporate-america-i-have-a-request/187878/75 "2003-07-18T11:22:53Z")
uh…promotions. And I probably should’ve spelled “Americans with Disabilities Act”. must drink coffee… ---
**Author:** ![Fin\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@Fin\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fin_man)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coporate-america-i-have-a-request/187878/76 "2003-07-18T11:30:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mr2001 \* > \*\*Fascinating. So the fees are justified because they’ve chosen not to offer me anything better, and theoretically there might someday be some other magical bank that doesn’t charge for all these things? \*\* Oh my God. Yes, the fees are justified and you are completely justified not to sign up. Banks exist that do not charge fees. Do you alos bitch that the entrance fees at Disney World are too high and they are ripping you off? ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coporate-america-i-have-a-request/187878/77 "2003-07-18T11:40:05Z")
Disney - Bah! That reminds me, I went to Epcot a couple of years ago (not my idea) and was treated to the “Story of Energy” ride wherein they explained all about how the dinosaurs had been so kind to leave us all the oil we could ever want. After I was already seated on the damn thing the Mobil oil company sponsorship came up on the screen so I figured it wouldn’t be all about solar power & it sure wasn’t. And then there was the “Story of Communication” ride sponsored by AT & T, where at the end of it one could pay to make a phone call using one of their nifty phones. I imagine Walt would be appalled. Yes, that was a ripoff. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coporate-america-i-have-a-request/187878/78 "2003-07-18T12:41:58Z")
$32 to make two calls is flat out ridiculous. Even if this was written in big, bold letters right on the telephone, the charge is STILL excessive. And Stuffy has a right to gripe about it, whether or not he actually made a phone call. Loyalty is very big in corporate America and hotel chains are no exception. (Anyone here a Marriott Rewards or HHilton Member or Starwood Preferred member?) Hyatt may have made an extra 32 bucks this time, but stuffy won’t be back. That is BAD for them. They need to know that and they need to understand why. Stuffy, if I were you, I’d write a simple letter of explanation. If you don’t get a discount or refund, at least they’ll know that they’ve lost one customer because of their excessive fee. ---
**Author:** ![Fin\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@Fin\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fin_man)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coporate-america-i-have-a-request/187878/79 "2003-07-18T13:00:44Z")
**PunditLisa** , I agree with you that $32 is excessive for two calls. While I agree that **Stuffy** (and others) have rights to gripe about it, a gripe of “I went to this hotel and the bastards wanted to charge me $32 for two phone calls. Right!!! Like I’ll ever use their phone.” would be much different (and received differently) than > [@](#): > > Those assholes have charged me Thirty-Two Dollars for Two Freaking Calls. Grrr!!! The second (and actual gripe) recieved well-deserved (IMHO) responses of “read the prices first {insert naughty name here}” And yes, if I were **Stuffy** I’d be writing letters complaining to the hotel. They want your business and I’m sure **Stuffy** would get something to make him/her happy. ---
**Author:** ![TaxGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@TaxGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TaxGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coporate-america-i-have-a-request/187878/80 "2003-07-18T16:55:54Z")
Fin\_man, you the man. You hit it right on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coporate-america-i-have-a-request/187878.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coporate-america-i-have-a-request/187878.md?page=5)