A Look in the Rear-View Mirror
by Jan Quintrall, President/CEO, BBB jquintrall@spokane.bbb.org
for the Spokesman Review, 12/11/11
started writing this column for the Spokesman-Review in May 2003. Where does the time go? Some topics that I write about change and some don’t. Scams get recycled. Industries rise, fall and experience varying degrees of ethical standards. Human nature remains basically the same.
Yet for some reason this past year has seen a more active public response to my columns with comments online, emails to me, phone calls and even letters from readers. Allow me to look back at some of the more interesting feedback (and you can read past columns at www.spokesman.com/tags/better-business-bureau).
My favorite comment of the year came from an anonymous person who reads the SR online. The column topic was dissatisfaction from both businesses and customers who think we are here to protect them from each other. The reader referred to the BBB as “Jan and her troupe of self-serving trolls.” We loved that, and several BBB staffers wanted to find troll outfits and make that a Friday uniform. I do still wonder how you can tell if a troll is self-serving or not.
In general comments online can be pretty nasty. It is so easy to hide behind that keyboard and take shots at any target. But then sometimes they are really thoughtful and kind. The column about the Monday Night Football advertisers generated all sorts of emails and comments from other women who grew up watching football with their dads or brothers. There were a lot who thanked me for reminding them of such a warm memory.
By a huge margin the columns this year about abuse in unemployment garnered the most responses, and I still hear from business leaders on this subject. Many of the online comments attacked me immediately, and it looked like they did not read the whole column. Many jumped to the conclusion that I, with my nice fat job, was proposing taking away unemployment from everyone. Not the case at all.
One of my pet peeves is bringing forth a problem without a solution, and this unemployment award insanity is one of those areas in which there doesn’t seem to be a simple answer. Thanks to Rich Hadley and his team at Greater Spokane Incorporated, I had a meeting last week with an administrative law judge who hears unemployment appeals. It was eye-opening and I will offer a follow-up column early next year on that subject. While I don’t see an easy fix to a very slanted system, there are things employers can and should do to be sure they have the best chance of not paying unemployment to someone undeserving.
My spring-time column “Your bucket list is not a holding tank” was a distant second to the unemployment series, but the feedback was quite emotional. I shared the experience of helping my dad and his wife narrow down their life possessions before moving from Arizona back to Colorado, from a large home to an apartment, from independent to assisted living. Looking back at all the things they wanted to do, the things they will never do again and the people who touched their lives, was a lesson for my husband and I as we sorted, stored and threw away little bits of their past.
Readers talked about doing the same thing with their aging parents, or being the aging parents regretting (or not) the choices made in life, the chances taken, the roads not traveled. Some were hard to read while others were full of joy at a life well-lived.
My next column will be the first of 2012 – a year I hope brings us an improving economy and job market. I know it will be the 100-year celebration of the beginning of the Better Business Bureau system in the United States. I’ve been reading some of the archived materials about the start of this BBB in Spokane and will have some great stories to share about the problems we faced at the beginning of the 1900s.
Some things change, but many more do not.
Previously published in the Spokane Spokesman-Review.
Don't Let Dust Gather on Cut-Rate Coupons
by Jan Quintrall, President/CEO, BBB jquintrall@spokane.bbb.org
for the Spokesman Review, 12/25/2011
On Friday a young, single mom called our BBB office about a coupon she purchased. It offered her $200 worth of day care services, but she only paid $100 for it. Great deal, huh?
A few years ago, a local car wash was selling prepaid coupons, saving the buyer about 30 percent. They were good for 12 months and would save the frequent washer quite a bit of money.
In another instance, the restaurant down the street sold discounted $100 gift cards for $80 each. So if you purchased them as a gift, you’d get more bang for your buck and your recipients more steak for their potatoes, so to say.
These discount offers could be fantastic money savers, but in all of these scenarios there was a problem: The companies went out of business before the coupons, tokens or gift cards were used. It was a big waste of money.
When the multi-location car wash went out of business in Spokane, the BBB was hit with more than 100 complaints the day of the announcement. People were really angry, especially those who had just bought coupon books. Failure does not happen overnight; this has to be fraud, they complained.
I talked to the firm’s attorney and asked why a business would sell prepaid services knowing they were going down the drain. He responded, “Hope springs eternal,” adding that sometimes selling prepaid discounted services is a last-ditch effort to increase cash flow and keep the business afloat.
While sticking with gift card or coupon purchases from larger, well-known companies might be safer, I wonder just how many people were holding onto Borders gift cards and certificates when they closed. Unless you can get a deal at a competing bookstore, they are now worthless, too. Montgomery Ward went away, too. But you’d have to be living under a rock not to have known both of these corporations were in trouble and that using your gift card quickly would be wise.
How can you be safe and smart?
• Use coupons and gift cards quickly.
• If buying a prepaid service, check out the company before you part with your money.
• Does the business feel prosperous, or is there a feeling of desperation in the sales pitch?
• If possible, use your credit card to buy the coupons, as it offers you additional protection, but only 90 days from the purchase.
We seldom see anyone get money back from these prepaid offers. When the company closes its doors, the tax man is first in line. Failure to pay payroll taxes is often what pushes small businesses into insolvency. Next in line are the secured creditors.
In many cases there is little left for customers who have prepaid for a service or even put a deposit on an item.