For safety reasons, I have edited out the phone number given to them and have also cut down on the hold music which lasted for about 2 minutes. When the “specialist” came onto the phone I guess I asked my question about who he was with too quickly so he hung up the phone. They keep doing this to avoid providing information or having to deal with suspicious people. Not a problem. I’ll certainly be receiving many more calls over the next week and will document another in entirety.

While working on our news section of the site I received yet another automated telemarketing call with the same woman’s voice, telling me this was my final notice in order to lower my interest rates. How I wished this was the final call, this time from Daytona Beach, Florida at (386) 767-8027. However, the person who picked up to finagle me into a can’t lose deal was calling on behalf of “Consumer Services” - perhaps this is the new version of the infamous “Card Services” company that has taken the country by storm and unable to be stopped.For those of you who haven’t heard these calls, here’s an MP3 file of the Consumer Services aka Card Services call:  Consumer Services MP3. After responding to the caller that I did press 1 to lower my interest rates, they hung up on me - perhaps this person recognized my voice?

The History of the Triborough Bridge

For those of you who are unaware, in early 2008 Governor Spitzer announced that the Triboro Bridge - so named for over 70 years - was going to be renamed the “Robert F. Kennedy Bridge” in honor of the New York Senator. RFK, who didn’t live in New York City during the time of his service, was assassinated almost 40 years ago. That being the case, why and how did this happen? The New York Sun reported that RFK Jr. claimed that Governor Cary promised to rename the bridge in RFK’s honor 34 years ago. Apparently pursuant to a request made by the Kennedy family, Governor Spitzer decided to make good on this alleged promise just a few weeks before his unfortunate, embarrassing resignation in March 2008. It seems that the New York Times glossed over how this renaming transpired, reporting the story as if the City of New York approached the Kennedy family in order to bestow upon them this honor. (”Family Supports Renaming of Triborough Bridge for R.F.K.” 1/8/08)

Justifying Almost $5 Million Dollars to Rename a Bridge

While it’s an unbearable nuisance to needlessly change the name of a bridge after 70 years of usage, let’s move onto the more important and interesting question - the justification of MTA and City of New York in spending at least $4-5 million (“The Triborough is Officially the RFK Bridge“, New York Times, 11/19/08) during a time when the State and City of New York are teetering on the brink of collapse and operating in a record deficit. Let me give you some background as to what motivated the letter to be sent, complaining about this needless expenditure. The MTA announced a plan to raise the cost of public transport up to 30% (yes, you read that number correctly), effective June 2009. After reporting a $1 billion operating surplus just 4 years earlier, the MTA somehow projected a $1.2 billion deficit for 2009. One can only wonder how this is even possible, considering the significant number of tourists and businesses that flourished during the early 21st century. These same officials who ran a billion dollar business into the ground faster than Brewster could dispense with his millions, seem to possess a contempt and disregard for the average New York taxpayer. It seems they believe that there simply is no end to excessive pet projects doled out at prices that we haven’t examined.

The Letter to the MTA and the MTA Response

A concerned citizen (under the nom de plume of “Robert Kennedy”) sent the following, passionate letter to the MTA interested in provoking a response that would be insightful as to how city officials could justify this needless expenditure during a time of dire fiscal emergency.

Renaming the Triboro Bridge for a cost of over $4 million - redoing websites, street signs, maps, etc. - is absurd. It’s even more disgraceful and corrupt when you’ve done this pursuant to the requests of the Kennedy Family. Considering that you’re raising fares 25% for MTA travel during the economic depression, this outlay of funding was abhorrent and reprehensible. You will be held accountable and citizens will take out their wrath upon the current MTA officials for this latest nauseating act of corruption.

The letter is rather poignant, but it unfortunately reflects the sad reality that faces New Yorkers. How did the MTA respond? By passing the buck - literally and figuratively - and tipping off the writer as to the MTA’s own carefree regard for taxpayer dollars. In an effort to portray the MTA as victims of an unfortunate situation beyond their control and not the agency responsible for the Triborough Bridge renaming, it revealed its own perspective on spending taxpayer dollars by both blaming and defending officials of the City of New York.

Response (MTA Official’s Name Removed) - 04/xx/2009 xx:xx PM
Dear Robert Kennedy:

This is in response to your comments concerning the MTA’s decision to increase fares and tolls, reduce many of our services, and reduce administrative costs in order to comply with the New York State legal requirement to have a balanced operating budget for 2009.

The renaming of the Triborough Bridge cost the MTA virtually no money, as the signage was the product of the City of New York and is truly an insignificant amount of money out of a operating budget of billions of dollars.

The March 25th MTA Board actions were the most difficult and painful policy decisions ever rendered in the 40- year history of the Authority. These horrific choices were made necessary because the MTA has an operating deficit in excess of $1 billion for 2009, and no legislative financial resources have been made available to stop this process at this time. Unless recurring and sufficient financial support is provided from our funding partners, further onerous and counterproductive service reductions and delays in completing essential capital improvements are a possible consequence in the coming years. This is shameful, disgraceful and it can be avoided with government assistance.

The MTA’s goal is to provide safe, reliable, seamless, and affordable transportation within the 5,000 square mile MTA service area. These fare and service actions run contrary to our mission, but the lack of support from the legislature, which created the MTA in the first place, has left us with no other options. This is an awful position for our customers, the recovery of the regional economy, and for our workforce. Regrettably, we are powerless to take any other measures aside from raising the cost to use our system, and/or reducing many services that have made our transportation network the standard by which all other transit systems are measured. No additional internal MTA administrative savings remain for us to achieve without sacrificing customer safety. None.

I have attached the link ( http://www.mta.info/mta/news/releases/?en=090325-HQ9)  to our website that further describes the essence of the approved plan (please see our press release on the MTA website www.mta.info).

We remain cautiously optimistic that our frequent meetings with legislators and customer communication with them will allow us to cancel or postpone this plan. Thank you very much for your comments and hopefully, your understanding of this dire situation.

Sincerely,

Dxxxxx X. Xxxxxxxxx (Name withheld)
Director
Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxx (Division Withheld)

Conclusion - MTA Board Cavalier and Blameless

So let me get this straight - because the MTA wasn’t paying for the cost of the signage, the Board had no need to care whether taxpayer dollars were being spent on its behalf in a needless and wasteful manner? Since the City of New York has a large amount of money to spend, wasting millions of dollars is easily justifiable as a drop in the bucket of endless wealth? Rather than explain how the MTA Board could make a $1 billion operating surplus vanish in less than 4 years, the MTA Board blames the Legislature for the billion dollar deficit problem - because the State refuses to hand out to the Board even more funds to remedy this atrocity of Board’s own making. The horror…

Warranty Services - The Fraudulent Phone Call

My cell phone rang and I heard as the result and, after picking up, I was greeted with a recorded voice warning me: “Your warranty service on your car is about to expire. This is your second and final call…” Seems ominous and something that I should take care of immediately, right? One problem - I don’t own a car. I was curious so I pressed 1 at the tone to speak to an agent so that I can help myself make sure that my car warranty wouldn’t lapse!

Yolanda picked up and explained to me that Warranty Services company was going to help me with extended the warranty on my car before it expired. She was probably the most honest of all the shysters you’ll hear about. After asking her if this was my car dealer and trying to get through her half-truths in order to determine my eligibility for their special program, she finally told me that my information was given to the company because Warranty Services works with all the major auto outlets, etc. Not possible but let’s say they bought my number and let’s play ball with her. I gave her the make, model and year of my car - a 2003 edition. Incredibly, after a minute or two of checking, searching, reviewing and working, Yolanda told me that I might qualify but she’d have to get Dan on the phone, her head of sales.

Dan gets on the phone - and this guy is a master at double talk and willing to lie about virtually anything in order to nail you to a 5 year prepaid warranty. He told me that my car was just out of warranty because normally they only accept cars within warranty and extend it… but he might be able to do something. Wow… really? What a surprise. But he had to get John on the phone, the Program Director, to see what they could do. After about a minute and a half of messing around, John gets on the phone… and now it gets really interesting.

John tells me that normally they can’t extend the warranty if the car is out of warranty - but they can make a special exception from me. The only catch is that they need me to make a decision about getting this amazing deal for an extended warranty service before the end of the call because if I don’t, the exception they can make today will get erased by the computer when the system reboots at the end of the day. Really… So I told him that of COURSE I could make a decision before the end of the call. Let’s move onwards!

John returns me to Dan who does more dastardly double talk about the program, something about “Direct Pay” and the program is 5 years, 100,000 miles, $558 a year, $2,793 if paid in full, $295 for something and I think it was $138 a month (at least that is what I wrote down). Now that I look at it, the numbers don’t make sense but that’s what I wrote down and probably what I was told! Immediately after all this he asks me for my Visa card. I told him that I was in a cubicle and couldn’t say my number out loud but I’d be happy to fax it to him. This man is a master of double talk. He basically asks me for the number again and I reiterated the problem. He says he’ll wait for me to go to another location and I asked him why I couldn’t simply fax him the information. After more double talk… get this… he says he’ll have them call my bank so that they can get my debit card (I told him that was the preferred payment system) and he’ll get them on the line for a three party call. Wow… this is going to get interesting.

I tell him the name of a major bank and he gives them a call - it took him only 2-3 minutes to get the number. I hung up the phone accidentally… but Dan called me back, this time from an unlisted number. Brenda, the bank representative, picks up and asks how she can be of assistance. Dan explains that he is on the phone with a bank customer and he is simply trying to confirm my account number with me. Brenda asks him if he is a bank representative/employee - and Dan says yes!!! I couldn’t believe my ears. So she continues to request his “ACS number” and then Dan says he doesn’t have one. Brenda seemed annoyed but was still willing to connect us to the proper group - Dan apparently called the business group, not the personal group that handles such issues.

During the transfer, I hung up the phone again. This time Dan did not call me back. Of course not - this liar got spotted by Bank of America after lying to them about being an employee and he knew it. It doesn’t matter whether or not any of these “Warranty Services” / “Card Services” companies provide - the fraudulent manner in which they operate to fool you into thinking that they have an affiliation with someone you trust is abhorrent and preposterous. Can you imagine what unscrupulous liars (I haven’t even covered the bulk of the repated misrepresentations) like these might do with your private financial information? They also will potentially have all the key information needed to access your bank accounts. What boggles my mind is that after at least 100 calls over the past year, this company is still in business and operating. How? I’d like to know and fire a shot at these unscrupulous employees… and especially the owners and operators of this company.