Two months ago I signed up for a stamps.com account and figured I had nothing to lose and at the very least I’d get some free stuff. Sure enough, my account started off with $5 of free postage. Great! I was able to ship an item I had sold on eBay just fine. A few days later my free “stamps.com supply kit” arrived in the mail. This package included one sheet of 2 half page shipping labels, a sheet of odd sized labels, and a sheet of standard 0.41 cent sized labels (all of which could be printed on to from the stamps.com program). After using the software for a while I even bought some additional postage and shipped a few more items using their software.

So what about the scale? Well the scale isn’t actually free.  You need to pay shipping (roughly $6)  and even then it isn’t a great scale because the max weight is 5 lbs AND you need to connect it to your computer to read the weight from within the stamps.com program (forcing you to use their software if you want to use the scale).  I opted out of the “free” scale option.

25 days later, when I decided it was time to cancel my account, I found the catch. During the signup process I was asked for credit card information; I figured it would be no problem, I could just cancel my account before the trial month ended. But with many companies these days, the folks at stamps.com wanted to make closing an account as difficult as possible. The website instructs users wishing to cancel their accounts to call their support number during business hours. The next day I gave them a call and stated that I wished to cancel my account – “Sure I can help you with that” the representative said cheerfully. When asked my reason for canceling I explained that I didn’t use the service enough to justify paying a monthly fee. So this salesperson said (without waiting for my input) that they were converting my account down to a lower pricing plan (somewhere around 8 bucks a month, down from the standard 18 a month) . They also informed me that they would waive an extra month of service fees so I could re-evaluate their software and if I still wanted to cancel in a month I could do so. I shrugged and thanked the representative.

One month later (and after using up the remaining 30-something cents in my account) I called them back again. Same story, except this time upon learning I wished to cancel the sales person said “sure, I can help you with that” and proceeded to inform me that they would be adding $20 of free postage to my account and waiving my service fee for another month.

So far I’ve tried to cancel my account twice and I’m still a customer of stamps.com… at least they keep sending me free stuff each time I call…  I’ll update this entry in another month when I call them back for the third time…

Original Article: http://www.askaninja.com/node/2836

Revver is not the only site. There are dozens of smaller video and photo sharing sites that they are doing this to.

Why should you care?

Ask A Ninja was created because we were in control of where we posted the videos. That’s a big deal because if we’re forced to put them on MySpace video then FOX could take the episodes and make money off of them without paying Douglas or me anything. Which isn’t fair and takes away the incentive to create cool shows for you to watch.

Why is this against Net Neutrality? Because videos from Myspace Video and Youtube are not effected. It’s only these smaller, more innovative companies that haven’t been sold for billions of dollars.

Here’s what you can do:

Copy this bulletin. Repost it. Blog about it. Make Tom put up a little fix it bulletin saying he’s sorry.

Once you’ve reposted this, send a message to Tom (http://myspace.com/tomanderson) like this (or even better, write your own):

I’m sending this message to request that MySpace stop blocking videos from sites like Revver. Choosing the video-sharing service that is right for me is very important and is why you built Myspace. What I like most about MySpace is that I can generally do what I want here. I like that Myspace is a relatively open platform where I can communicate with my friends (and promote my stuff) in all sorts of ways. I feel good about sharing videos from Revver because I know they respect copyright and look out for independent artists. Please bring back Revver!

UPDATE:

Digg this here

And that’s the address for Tom’s personal profile.

http://www.doshdosh.com/earning-with-image-hosts-an-mini-tutorial/

“Today a scammer named “WoWfan4life” messed with the wrong person I am 25 , and have been a Private Investigator for the State of Florida and Texas for 3 years.

I came across him interested in my World of Warcraft account offering 120$. He seemed very sketchy , rushing me etc. and I thought this trade was going to be a problem but I really wanted to get rid of this account. I accepted his offer and waited for payment via paypal. Since I was being very impatient which was my big mistake I did not wait for the “Pending” funds to clear.. So I gave the account information and as I thought the 120$ was cancelled before clearing. Immediately after giving him the info !

I had prepared for this situation , so I decided to try and turn this whole scam around Screenshots below, funniest thing I’ve ever seen , linked it to a whole bunch of friends thought you all would gain something from this experience too

====================
I copied the images to our server since the old host exceeded bandwidth. Here’s the link in order. -MD

http://www.markeedragon.com/screenshots/data/3019/21.jpg
http://www.markeedragon.com/screenshots/data/3019/221.jpg
http://www.markeedragon.com/screenshots/data/3019/23.jpg
===================

I’m still thinking about that dispute I’ll be calling his mommy today.

There are websites on the internet that let you invest play money in a simulator that mirrors the real world stock market. It’s exactly like the real stock market except you don’t put any money at risk. So where do you find one of these sites? I recommend you head on over to Investopedia.

I have good news for you — the suffering can end today! I began using a program called “Trillian” a few years back and it’s the best instant messaging client I’ve ever had. Here are just a few of my favorite features…

• Combine AIM, Yahoo, MSN, and IRC messengers in the same program — that means all the windows and sounds are the same, regardless of what program your friend is using.
• Quiet, gentle sound notifications. No blazing beeping noises that AIM uses.
• The program can optionally record all your chats so you can look back for reference.
• Automatically manage away messages for ALL your messengers at once.

So how do I get this wonderful, glorious program you ask? Trillian is produced by a company/site called Cerulean Studios and the best part is that it’s absolutely free (what isn’t free these days?). Go to their site and click “Get trillian basic” and you’ll be started in no time. Happy messaging!