Tied Down, For My Own Good?

I have to wonder, what is with the seatbelt law. Every day I hear of more and more people talking about tickets they received for not wearing a safety belt in their own cars. There is no freedom of choice about it. We have front airbags, side impact airbags, roll bars, all sorts of safety equipment to keep everyone from getting hurt while driving down the road with the cell phone in one hand, cigarette in the other, drinking a soda and fussing with the kids in the back seat.

There are no allowances for those that might not fit into a safety belt due to a handicap or their weight. If these people wear their belts they can not move quickly enough to shift in a manual transmission car. Nor can they reach for something falling off the seat beside them.

Injuries are common place from the safety devices; spleen damage, broken or dislocated shoulders, extreme bruising inside and out, and broken noses, amongst other things. In some instances, the person, whose safety was in the best interest of the lawmakers, may have never gotten hurt at all, were it not for these great life saving devices.

Maybe I am just plain paranoid.. But will I actually be able to find the seatbelt release to escape if I am in a panic-ed situation such as my car being on fire or going under the water in a flood. Sure, those sorts of accidents are few and far between but I really have a hard time with that.

Okay, so it’s the law. It is for my own protection whether I agree or believe in it. Suffer me the ticket if I can’t slide my arm under the restraint in time for the cop not to notice it is missing from my shoulder.

I would like to have the right to decide if I want to take the risk of not wearing my seat belt. After all we have airbags? why not put them on the other side of us too so they all go off during an impact and we are held into position by all those giant balloons. To me it would make a much less painful impact than having a belt rip and crack at my bones.

Then again it could be because those airbags don’t always work like are supposed to. I had a front on collision.. 2 of them.. I didn’t have my belt on.. (shh!! Don’t tell the police) and you know what the bags didn’t go off. I wasn’t hurt at all. The one accident I did have my belt on in took the pain in my shoulder 3 months to get better.

Even our children are made to sit in safety booster seats that have to be purchased by financially struggling parents for different growth stages for their own protection. (Like we have all that spare money after buying them all the designer clothes they have to have these days.) Okay, I know. It’s the law.

I will admit I do tend to agree with this child safety seat law just because those loving playful little monkeys, we call children, need to be restrained so they don’t distract us, ‘as much’, while we are driving with our cellphones, cigarettes, and sodas in hand.

Here is my major problem with this little safety belt restraint law..

Last week there was an ice storm.. For some reason or another the school district could not locate the person in charge of deciding if it was safe to drive our children to school in these big yellow buses we have here. So on this icy, cold morning the bus drivers were sent out to pick up our children.

Later on the news we started hearing of school buses sliding off the road and ending up stranding our children in ditches on the side of the road.. Were our children safely behind seat belts in these big open seated death traps? Nope, not a seatbelt in sight.. This is where I have a problem and it really bugs me.

I am sure most of you have been behind a school bus going one place or another. Tell me as you looked through those rear windows you seen nice orderly children all sitting perfectly content and still in their seats? Well, if you have I am really surprised.

Those same little monkeys that we have to restrain in our personal cars for sometimes 7 to 10 years (and then for the rest of their lives), for their own safety, are up and jumping around changing seats, bopping each other on the heads with books, tormenting the child with his own mind and doing all sorts of other things that kids do.

What is with that? Why are children allowed to be in huge buses without seat belts or airbags holding them into a safe position? Is it okay on the bus to have their heads bounced off the hard seats in front of them, or racked up against the windows, or thrown across the aisle as the bus accidentally falls off the road sliding towards the ditch? Why aren’t the laws protecting our kids in the school buses? We would get hefty tickets if we were to let them up and jump around in our cars..

Luckily, this particular day of bus sliding, no one got seriously hurt.. But they could have. It could have been devastating as the kids toppled over each other as the bus hit the embankment.

There have been bus accidents in the past like one in Tennessee where children were killed. Would seat belts have saved them? I really don’t know. Do seat belts save everyone in an accident or do they just hold them in a place with no way of escape?

Our school districts would cry ‘it takes money to put seat belts in buses’. (Darn, those football helmets will have to last one more year.) Why should we entrust our children to people who don’t have their best interests in mind? Isn’t that child endangerment? Am I wrong; isn’t there a law about that?

Why should laws only apply to us.
I just think a law that should protect me for my own good should also protect our children when they are not with us especially when left in the hands of government funded public schools. After all it is the government that decided the laws were for “everyone’s” safety. Not like we can sue a school. They already don’t have enough funds to educate our kids to the best of their abilities.

Perhaps the the real reason for the seatbelt laws is a way to make a few extra dollars for the local police departments and governmental agencies when funds are low for that new furniture they want in the lobby or office. It’s not like they speed trap for seatbelt restrictions everyday.

I just feel if you are going to tie me down with laws and fine me for my lack of care for my own safety. *cough* Those same laws should apply to those buses that carry our beloved 66 to 88 little monkeys back and forth to school and activities every day.

Everyone should be tied down by they same laws.. Even government and public schools.

Buyers Be Aware

You have to wonder now days what large corporations are thinking when it comes to customer service. Years ago companies seemed to care about their customers and what they thought. Keeping a customer was as important as getting a new one. Word of mouth was the best advertising for a company.

Now companies pay big bucks for commercials lined with small print on the bottom that no one can read on a television advert. They offer great deals and when the customer calls in they find out what the fine print said.. ‘Tough luck this is for new customers only’. Instead of customer loyalty for good service received they lock you into a high buy out contract for years.. So no matter how horrible the company treats you, in order to cancel your service, you pay dearly.

I work for a company that takes the word of all associates that work for commission over the word of the customer.. If the previous representative did not notate that they were making a mistake on the account than the customer pays the price.

If the greedy salesman decides to add a product to the account without telling the customer, to earn a few more pennies commission, it’s too bad for the customer. Of course notes on the account may say it was added but it is not going to say that it was done so fraudulently.

Our company says to take the word of every salesman over the word of the customer. And if it isn’t on the account notes we cannot take the customer’s word for it. Don’t they think that some sales people may be fleecing their own pockets at the customers expense? Or that they might have made a mistake? What happened to common sense?

I spend hours a day telling customers ‘Sorry Mr. Customer, What you were told was not true and so sorry but you were lied to. You will have to pay for it because the previous person you talked to, that hosed you, did not put a note on the account stating he was lieing to you. Nor did they note that you really did not ask for that service to be added to your bill. So this month you have to pay for their lie, but I can change it for the future so you are not made to pay for it again next month. (I am paraphrasing of course.. I have to be creative in letting the customer know they’ve just been ripped off.)

Or better yet… I am sorry Mr. Customer I see that you did call in last month, But since there is no note saying you added a product, even though you never used it until this month in excessive amounts, you are going to have to pay for the usage of that service at the higher casual rates.. But I can add that on there for you in the future.’

It doesn’t matter any more if the salesperson or customer service representative made a mistake. The customer pays for it either way. With no proof on their behalf.

How many times do we hear when we call customer support that the call may be recorded. It’s not being recorded for the purpose of keeping the customer safe. It is for grading the associate for following set rules for the call flow. Or for using the call for training purposes. Ninety-nine percent of the time it’s not being recorded.

So what can a customer do to protect himself when he is locked into a contract that he has to pay hundreds of dollars to get out of? How can he win? It is a really hard game to play. Buyer beware. Here are a few ideas to help safeguard yourself:

1. Read those contracts before you buy... So it takes you an hour to read the small print.. Take the time.. Ask questions till you fully understand.

2. Ask phone associates to make notes on your account and ask them to read the notes to you before you end the call. That way if something is missing you can ask them to notate it as well.

If you have a doubt they really wrote the notes they are reading, call back and ask the next representative to read the notes to you.. They may give you a hard time, but do it anyway.. It’s your name on that contract and your dollar in your pocket that will pay for their mistakes.

3. Read your bills every month. Not just once every 6 months. Most companies have a limit on how long you have to dispute a incorrect bill and a limit on how many bills they will go back to correct error.

4. Be polite to the person on the other end of the phone.. They don’t make the rules they just work there. Yelling and cussing is not going to get you what you want in the long run. Believe me you get much further being nice than yelling at a customer service representative. If someone is yelling at you tell me you wouldn’t, do as little as possible and hurry to get you off the phone. They are not going to take the time to look for errors on your account or go that extra mile to find a way you might save money on your service.

5. Don’t ever assume. If you don’t understand something ask questions until you understand.. People can’t read your minds.. The person on the other end of the phone doesn’t know you or how you use your service.. There are many uses for the same service and people use things differently.

6. Password protect your information and don’t share your password with other people.

It’s sad to say but it is a dog eat dog world out there and the corporations are the bigger and stronger dog.. .