I think my new favorite past times is calling a company evil. Witness my MonaVie and Ijango posts of the past. I like to think I’m relatively justified when I call out a company for being evil. The evil company of the week is… Verizon.
Why are they evil? A company called 4Info allows people to create text message alerts. If you want to know when Brett Favre throws a touchdown, you can go to the website and set that up. It’s quite a handy service. Like any intelligent company, they look to make a profit. The text message alerts are free (as long as your cell phone provider doesn’t charge), but they come with a small advertisement… usually 20 characters or so. That advertising supports the company. This weekend Verizon decided that they would stop their customers from being able to access this service.
I don’t know why Verizon decided to prevent the service. Perhaps they are jealous that 4Info is making a business using Verizon’s service. That sounds pretty weird considering how popular cell phone app stores are nowadays. App stores made the iPhone what it is and bring a lot of customers to AT&T. It’s puzzling to me that Verizon would do this at the risk of losing customers. Furthermore, they may find themselves open for a lawsuit unless they let everyone out of their contracts. If I were a Verizon customer in a contract and I was looking to get out, this would be a fantastic opportunity. After all, Verizon effective took away a service from their customers.
My friend Kosmo wrote more about Verizon trying to kill 4info. It’s a good article, I highly suggest you read it.
And onto the links:
Money Writers:
- Brip Blap talks expanding your means.
- The Digerati Life writes how Sunday paper coupons and newspaper ads save me money.
- Frugal Dad asks life after debt: is it easier on the other side?
- Generation X Finance provides cooking tips to help you keep your energy bills down this holiday season.
- Million Dollar Journey shares financial pet peeves. What are some of yours?
- Money Smart Life answers a student credit card reader question.
- My Dollar Plan illuminates on 6 mistakes of new earners and how to fix them.
- The Sun’s Financial Diary posts serving holiday food frugally.
Top PF Posts:
- Free Money Finance shares one example of living paycheck-to-paycheck. Watch out!
- The Smarter Wallet writes housing prices still down: predicting home price trends.
- Wisebread offers 6 ways to boost your income in a big way.
- All Financial Matters presents three commandments for stock investing (from Jason Zweig).
- Consumerism Commentary discusses your flexible spending account: 10 qualifying purchases.
- One Frugal Girl asks should I pay more for an oceanfront view?
- One Money Design posts how to live off one household income.
- Money Ning talks giving gifts for the holidays on a budget.
- Frugal Being Green shares gifts from years past that I still use today.
- One Frugal Life cracks the great toilet paper conspiracy!
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