Are Consumers Being Taken Advantage of by Companies

[00:00:01] It's time for a virtual campfire sit-down with Terry Wyce. Welcome to Wyce Thoughts. Hey, dee, heidi, ho there, campers. Welcome, welcome to another episode of what I lovingly call Wyce Thoughts.

[00:00:20] It is our weekly virtual campfire sit-down, and I am so glad that you have decided to spend some of your very valuable time with me today. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And would you do me a favor, if you enjoyed the program, would you leave us a positive rating and review?

[00:00:38] Hmm? I would really, truly appreciate it. So back in the recording booth here, back in the chair, back in the Purple Pit studios to record yet another episode of Wyce Thoughts podcast. But before we get underway with today's program, which is going to be a good one today for you, by the way, I wanted to let you know you can listen to each and every episode of the podcast by going to wycethoughts.com.

[00:01:05] Just make sure you spell my name right, W-Y-C-E, wycethoughts.com. As I stated, there you can listen to each and every episode of the podcast. If you want to email me, you can. You can leave a rating right on the website if you'd like. You can also check out my YouTube channel by the very same name, Wyce Thoughts. Look for it on YouTube.

[00:01:26] And I am on X at Terry Weiss. All right. So let's get in right into the meat and potatoes of the program today, shall we? First of all, I hope everyone is doing well. I hope you're well. I hope all is good in your world. And what I want to talk with you a little bit about today on the program with, actually talk with you, excuse me, I still got a little bit of, let me just clear my throat real quick here. Still got a little remnants of the itis.

[00:01:56] And just want to talk to you today on the program about, are you fed up as much as I am? And I really want you to think about this. Are you fed up as much as I am with companies bullshitting you? And I'm talking about all forms of companies, large companies, small companies, medium-sized companies, not just bullshitting you in their advertising,

[00:02:23] but bullshitting you when, let's say, you are a patron of such company and you try to get some customer service or you want to, let's say, get more information, what have you. And I know it's a very broad statement of me to make. You know, you're saying, Terry, what are you talking about? What do you mean about companies bullshitting you? I'm talking about organizations that out and out will either, you know, lie. I don't call it gaslighting.

[00:02:53] You know, the modern day euphemism is, oh, they're trying to gaslight you. No, it's called lying. Let's just be honest. Let's call it what it is. Let's knock off the soft language. All right. They're lying to you. They're lying to me. They're lying to you in some instances. And I'm not saying all companies are garbage, but man, I've run into some things lately, and I'm sure maybe you have too in the past five years or so,

[00:03:20] where companies just do knowingly unscrupulous things. And the reason that we're talking about it on this episode of the Weiss Thoughts podcast, our virtual campfire sit down on this episode today, is I read a few articles over the past week. And one of them was from, and I'm just going to call them out. I'm not saying they're guilty. So let me preface my remarks. So let me preface my remarks.

[00:03:47] No one is as guilty as guilty until they are proven guilty in a court of law, okay, by a trial and what have you. However, Capital One, you remember these folks, you know, what's in your wallet? Lots of, you know, they've got lots of high-end spokespeople for Capital One and everything. And evidently, from what I read on the article, is they offered this wonderful savings account online and guaranteed a certain percentage rate.

[00:04:17] Well, the Justice Department or Department of Justice, I believe, has filed, or is it them or the FTC, Mr. Producer Extraordinaire? Which one? Not sure? Okay. Anyway, a big government entity has filed a multi-million, billion-dollar lawsuit against them, allegedly stating that Capital One allegedly, nothing has been proven yet in a court of law as of the taping of this program,

[00:04:44] that they bilked people that opened online savings accounts with them out of billions of dollars in interest payments. Billions! That's billions with a B, my friends. Now, again, they haven't been proven guilty yet. There's been no proof that they're guilty. All right, so let's just say that right off the bat.

[00:05:07] However, from reading such articles, and you can go, just do a new search, Capital One, multi-billion-dollar suit brought by the government over non-payment and fraud of interest payments. And the funny thing is, is that, you know, allegedly they got people to sign up for this savings account saying you're going to get, I don't know, I'm just throwing an arbitrary number.

[00:05:36] I don't have the article in front of me. Four and a half percent. Okay? You're going to get four and a half percent interest APR if you deposit your money in this online savings account with us here. Well, evidently, according to the complaint that was brought, I believe it, I'm not, I don't think it's a class action.

[00:05:56] But anyhow, according to the complaint that was brought, the organization then paid a lower interest rate without informing the customers and supposedly or allegedly, whichever word you would like to use, instructed their employees to not disclose as such to potential customers.

[00:06:19] Now, if, if indeed this is proven true, what a crappy, shitty thing to do, huh? Because, you know, I don't know if you all know how banks work. I'm sure most of you do. My audience is intelligent. We're all intelligent adults. You put money in a bank, in the savings account, your money technically physically isn't there. It's, it's all digital nowadays anyway, but I mean, it might be there in the vault in some form.

[00:06:48] However, that money then is used by the bank to, you know, secure loans and buy bonds and blah, blah, blah. It just, you know, it travels all around. Your money, it's not just like it's sitting there in a box somewhere. You know, it's, think of the old, the movie, It's a Wonderful Life. The Bailey, Bailey, George Bailey, the Bailey building and loan. You know, when they come and they say, I need my money. And I mean, well, you're not, money's not here. It's over in George's house and in Fred's house.

[00:07:18] And, you know, cause they use the money to do financial transactions. And then, you know, they, they make money on that because the interest rate they're paying you, they're getting more on for your money being in there. So that's kind of offsets their cost of paying you interest. Okay. So anyway, this complaint allegedly states that this organization, Capital One, for the savings account, built investors out of billions of dollars of payments that were due in interest.

[00:07:46] So we're going to see what, what happens with that. That ought to be very, very, very interesting, my friends. Then you got a couple other lawsuits that are out there floating in the wind of the latest one I heard. And again, this hasn't, this one has not also has not gone to trial yet.

[00:08:06] That has not been proven in a court of law, but allegedly the drugstore chain Walgreens is accused of filling fraudulent prescriptions and some for opioids. Oh boy. Yowza. Again, hasn't been proven in a court of law. These are allegations and legal matters that are being brought forth. Just a couple off the top of my head.

[00:08:33] And it really makes me, you know, it's like, who, who the hell can you trust nowadays? It's a crap shoot out there, my friends. It's just, um, whether you're banking, whether you're, you know, buying a pizza, shopping in a grocery store, going to your doctor, your physician, uh, buying health insurance, buying auto insurance.

[00:08:54] You know, another shitty thing, um, at a time of the taping of this program, the California wildfires around the Los Angeles area, which, you know, is terrible. It's a terrible thing. But unfortunately, my, my humble opinion on that is there was a lot of mismanagement by those state politicians. And, um, unfortunately folks, as terrible as this statement may, may, may sound to some of you, these people got what they voted for. I mean, they've voted these incompetent buffoons into office.

[00:09:24] They mismanaged that state for the last decade or more. And then when they really needed that structure and that, you know, confidence in their elected officials, you got nothing. And, and my, my, uh, my heart goes out to those affected by that because I know all of you didn't vote for, you know, uh, the dingling governor that got there and the, uh, the elected officials.

[00:09:50] But enough of you did in the state of California elected these clowns and now you're, you're reaping what you've sown and you see what happens when, you know, you elect incompetent fools to do adult things. So hopefully you've learned that you're learning your lesson, California, and hopefully there's not a large loss of life there. But anyway, uh, got a little off track there. The, uh, insurance companies, homeowners companies about, isn't this odd?

[00:10:20] About a week or so before the fire started. And some of them maybe did it a little sooner, but the rumor, the internet rumor going around is that some of these, uh, insurance companies would not insure homes and pulled the insurance of people that had fire insurance out LA way a week or two before these fires started. Hmm. Hmm. Now there's a conspiracy theory that this is a possible land grab by the, uh, the state government because then they can go in there and,

[00:10:49] you know, all these homes that were demolished, they can go in there and buy up the land cheap then, and then put housing up and, you know, do what they sort of like the, the thing that was going around when they said about the California fires. You know, remember that internet rumor that was going around that, uh, theory that, you know, Oprah and all them were going to buy up all the land on Hawaii because they wanted to buy it up. And so they started this bogus charity. I don't know if any of that was proven true. I'm just repeating rumors and innuendo.

[00:11:16] I have no proof that to say it's true or otherwise. I'm just throwing it out there for discussion sake here on the program today. But it, you know, these companies, you go to an insurance company, you're doing business in a state for so long. Well, yeah. You know, I've heard the argument where people come in and say, well, the state made it so difficult that they can't do business there anymore.

[00:11:40] Well, it's kind of a risk if you open a business and you know, you know, especially in the insurance business, you're in the insurance business and you know that, you know what? Yeah. Here's how the insurance game works, folks. And I know I'm probably stating the obvious for most of you, but for those of you who don't, you pay so much money. We all pay money for auto insurance, homeowners insurance, whatever, life insurance, health insurance. And their gamble, these companies, is that a lot of us are healthy.

[00:12:10] A lot of us will live long lives. A lot of us won't get into auto accidents. And a lot of us won't have damage or anything like that to our homes so that they have to pay out. So they keep collecting this big pool of money. Now, the basic idea behind it is that when you need a claim and it's justifiable, then they should pay out.

[00:12:36] But then a lot of them, not all, but a lot of them, depending, will skyrocket your rate even if it's one claim in 10 years. So, you know, the idea, you know, the biggest one I could think of, you know, State Farm is one of the biggest ones I believe I had read that it's pulled out of California. State Farm doesn't give a shit. It seems like. It seems like. I don't know. But it seems like they were one of the biggest ones that are screwing people over out there on the West Coast.

[00:13:05] You know, all state. You're in good hands. You know, again, these are rumors. These are just things out there on the Internet, stories that have been written. I have not experienced it firsthand, so I cannot confirm or deny. I'm just, again, putting it out here on the podcast today for some give you something to think about. You know, I think all of us as consumers have to be as careful as we can.

[00:13:30] To which companies we give our money to and really do our homework. One of the things I've read, and there has been some evidence provided on the Internet that, you know, with the tragedy going out in Los Angeles with these out-of-control wildfires, the American Red Cross wants donations.

[00:13:52] Now, it has been rumored and it has been tossed around the Internet, whether it's fake news or not, that the Red Cross, let's say for every dollar you give to the Red Cross, maybe 20, 25 cents actually goes to the victims. And then there's a—and I don't know if this is true or not, but I've seen some sources and a lot of people that I know that have used the Red Cross in the past have said, you've got to pay them back.

[00:14:20] And if that's if, if, my friends, that is indeed the case, what the shit? You're down on your luck and, you know, let's say your house just burnt down or you had a flood or something or some kind of natural disaster come through and Red Cross comes in and gives you five grand to help you get on your feet and everything. Now, then they want that money back. What's the idea of a charity? You know what I'm saying?

[00:14:46] I mean, just some of the ways that these companies thinking, they're thinking and the way they try to just grind it out on the consumer, it just, it doesn't sit well with me.

[00:14:59] So, again, I am—I try to be extremely, extremely careful who I spend my money with and for how long and, you know, and if you're good to me and you're fair, I will establish a long-term relationship in that fold in a business relationship with you. I will patronize your establishment. I will promote your establishment to my friends and family. But if you screw me over, I sure as hell am going to let everybody I know know about it.

[00:15:29] I don't know, just some points to ponder here. You know, I just read all these articles, saw what's going on out in Los Angeles. The companies that outright lie to you or do unscrupulous business practices and do things, you know, that they think that maybe there's no competition. Maybe not enough competition. Maybe, you know, that's why we need more competition.

[00:15:56] We need more medium and small business entrepreneurs in this country to actually take some of these big corporations and these big entities to task. And, you know, we used to have things like monopoly laws and things. And I don't know, some of these really, really, really big companies, I don't know how they're sliding under the radar. Hey, thanks for listening to the program today.

[00:16:24] I truly appreciate each and every one of you out there. And remember, to see a change in the world, you have to be the change in the world you want to see. It all starts with you, the person looking back at you in the mirror every morning. Remember to be kind to yourself. Be kind to others. Weiss. If you want to tweet at me on Twitter, it's at Terry Weiss. Stop by the website, weissthoughts.com. Just to make sure you spell my name right, W-Y-C-E.

[00:16:55] Weissthoughts.com. And hey, leave us a positive rating and review on your favorite podcast provider, won't you? Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your pets about Weiss Thoughts. And I look forward to gathering yet again around the virtual campfire with you real soon. Take care.