@ampersand: No one needs ONE penny, but next time try writing your mortgage check ONE PENNY SHORT and see if:
a) the bank processor will pay it for you,
b) your Visa/MC limit will be lowered due to non-payment (see Slashed Credit Lines),
c) you'll lose your house next month along with everyone else.

LOL remember that commercial from the late 80's? Citibank doesn't like Visa anymore and reissued every Visa card as a MasterCard back when I was still a customer.

If you spend THAT much money and are always trying to charge everything (just like me), then may I suggest The TrueEarnings® Card from Costco and American Express. Impeccable customer service from both institutions, the only caveat is a mandatory Costco membership, which will pay for itself many times over before each year is up anyway. They now even offer 3% rebate on gasoline (3% at restaurants/fast food joints, 2% travel, 1% everywhere else), with no time limits and no maximum cap on the amount you get back! Beat that, Conoco-Phillips credit card (7% up to 6 months, $35 limit).

I think Diebold should "win." I might be biased since I don't have any mortgages, but even if I didn't I'd still vote for DIEbold.

I don't know sucks more: Blockbuster or Discover! One more reason to go with Netflix and American Express (or cash!).

Credit bureaus are partially at fault, too, since they are really for-profit corporations offering a "service" that they're supposed to make sure is accurate, but it's your job to pay them to see that they've gotten everything right so that you don't get screwed when taking out a loan or accruing interest on your credit cards.

If all else fails, look in the mirror and take responsibility for signing up with such a crappy company! I hope that movie was worth it!

Interestingly enough, I got my last traffic ticket (waived in court when officer did not appear) while trying to access the shopping center parking lot where the Blockbuster store was located. Haven't gone there ever since.

Q.E.D.

Anyway, say I work as a "Ronald McDonald" clown for McDonald's in D.C.. I get a private gig at a children's birthday party wearing my "Ronald" costume and expose my "unit." Would McDonald's be held liable? Not a great analogy, but that's my take.

Seeing how private Black Water mercenaries are working in US Military-looking uniforms are given full military rights/powers/privileges with double the pay and none of the drawbacks (no real discipline, not bound by US civil law, US military law, nor any Iraqi law), I'm shocked to hear how anybody can be surprised to read this post. If Wal-mart paid enough, I'm sure there will be a boatload of Metro police lining up to apply for receipt checkers!

Anyway, why would kids be going into CVS stores? They suck anyway. Can't they go to Costco for prescriptions without membership?

Also, as long as RiteAid (formerly Thrifty Drugs) keeps selling ice creams, I could care less about crappy discriminate CVSs. I'll be surprised to read stories about RiteAid refusing to sell ice cream to kids because there are more than two of them inside the store at one time :)

Here's something of a civil disobedience thing you could try. Have kids walk into the store WITH THEIR PARENTS--they don't have to patronize the place or even buy anything at all--preferably lawyers, police or military IN UNIFORM, huge football players, or famous peoples like Angelina Jolie with many kids--and walk right by the line with all the kids and see what happens. Oh, and call a TV station ahead of time to capture the action from afar, then confront the security or store manager a la Dateline's "To Catch a Predator" style. That'll be fun when the guy ends up on TV and the store put on notice (or served with a lawsuit).

Wow, the six-year-old sure has a big head start on a good credit history. Imagine the following scenario:

Loan officer: we cannot approve your new car loan.
18-year-old: why not?
Loan officer: (with a straight face) it seems that you've missed a payment ten years ago.

/sarcasm

After reading the US Airways article, and having never been on a Greyhound bus, I'm curious: do they serve/sell drinks on buses? Is it more than $2?

@ywgflyer: "This pilot isn't setting foot near an aircraft with this all-knowing, all-seeing, pilot-overriding, infalliable-under-all-situations autopilot, if one could ever be designed." Conspiracy spoiler (official story readers need not apply): ever heard the theory that the planes were switched when FAA towers lost track of planes or were told it was just a simulation? Meaning the planes that crashed were remote controlled by someone, perhaps terrorists, with heavy funding? I hope the CIA doesn't come after me for knowing (or rather, stupidly guessing) too much... Remote Controlled Boeings.

Here's a question: what if the "kill switch" is activated, then the control room's power gets knocked out by an earthquake, flood, or an employee lounge microwave oven overload?

Does it piss people off, of course. Is it illegal? Nope, but instigators never get their proper punishment...not until the afterlife anyway. Besides, maybe he thought the doctor was waving him in instead of giving him the finger?

On the other hand, maybe Exxon's been sitting on solar energy vehicle technology for 20 years, and after they sell all their soon-to-be-obsolete gas stations, they bring it to market--government-subsidized, of course.. Genius!

All kidding aside, why spend money on stations and have to deal with maintenance, labor, cleaning bathrooms, selling maps, cigarettes and lottery tickets, possible vandalism, and even battle angry, tire-iron-wielding doctors, when you're making a killing simply supplying the black gold?

Mind you she never asked for ID, but her supervisor came over and ask me to sign it anyway because Denny's (not Dennis, heh, heh) needs a signature, even though it says right there on the ticket "NO SIGNATURE REQUIRED."

It probably cleared automatically because it was under ten dollars, much like at many other shops, but since she's probably used to seeing every credit card transactions having a place for the customer to sign that she REQUIRED one from me, as well. I should've refused and asked for a chargeback, but I was hungry :)

On the other hand, it probably didn't help that I didn't tip (it was for take-out, geez) but I'm 100% sure that's not why the incident had occured.

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BTW, you know how signing an "X" is valid for a legal contract? Well, if CID is how you sign everything (it could be your name, alt. form of "Sid") or your initials but also your signature, then SCREW ALL YOU MERCHANTS! lol j/k

I'd pay so see someone named Charles Irwin Dell sign his name CID, so when a minimum-wage-earning Wal-Mart clerk refuses the card or asks for ID and sees that he signs his driver's license the EXACT SAME WAY (i.e., CID) he can ask him/her "are you f#$%ing happy now?" (Not knocking on min. wagers, but rather the Wal-Mart company.) Yes, I WOULD pay to see the clerk's face after "CID" rubs it in :)
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On a separate note, I remember from watching old Hong Kong police movies that when a criminal yells "C.I.D.!", it mean the same thing as "5-0" or "COPS!"

/sarcasm

Local TV news did a story, but stated that the doctor had his office in Anaheim, so I don't know which story is correct; perhaps he lives in La Palma.

Witnessed a similar incident at a Chevron in Anaheim: a big 2-ton truck was waiting to pump gas, and waited until the car pulled out or something. Then before he had a chance to pull up to the pump, someone else must've came from the other side and parked where the truck driver wanted to gas up.

The truck driver kept honking but the rude dude went inside to prepay and waved his hands as if to say, "whatever" at the truck driver, who came out of his truck to go have a word with the guy who "stole" his spot next in line. Didn't see what happened afterward, but life's too short to deal with A-holes...

>24. I refused a search, but the officer searched me anyway. Was it an illegal search? What should I do?

Unfortunately police sometimes search you even if you refuse consent. If they find anything illegal, you'll have to get a lawyer and fight it out in court.

If the officer convinces the judge that there was probable cause to search without your consent, then the evidence will be admissible in court. If your lawyer convinces the judge that there was no probable cause, then the evidence will be thrown out and your charges will be dropped. Every case is different so it's hard for us to tell you how good your chances are in your particular case. Your attorney should be able to tell you what to expect from the judges in your area.

If you're searched illegally and nothing is found, you should still consider taking legal action or at least filing a complaint. Local attorneys, as well as your local ACLU and NAACP chapters may be able to help you.

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[comment] That's in case you are searched by the REAL police. I wonder how much power grandpa at the Wal-Mart exits really has?
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Also:
[www.die.net]

>As for the lack of a mention of purchase verification in the Uniform Commercial Code, he is correct. Though I am certainly not a lawyer and have not retained one to research relevant statutes and case law for me, it is my belief that an item that I purchase becomes my property and therefore is mine to do with as I please as soon as I would be subjected to the store's return policy for it. This is the case when the cash register closes or the credit card transaction completes.

If this is true, then the only method available to legally prevent me from moving as I choose out of the store would be to detain me for shoplifting. I would've welcomed this, actually, as it would've been fun to sue Best Buy for false arrest.

In order to insulate themselves from unfortunate civil suits such as this, many merchants have adopted six rules for their security personnel that guarantee having "probable cause":

* You must see the shoplifter approach the merchandise
* You must see the shoplifter select the merchandise
* You must see the shoplifter conceal or convert the merchandise
* You must maintain continuous observation of the shoplifter
* You must observe the shoplifter fail to pay for the merchandise
* You must apprehend the shoplifter outside the store

An employee failing to meet any one of these criteria is supposed to let the suspect go. A door guard will never meet these criteria, and therefore will never actually accuse anyone of shoplifting just for not letting him look through their belongings. He's there to create duress, giving the impression that you are not free to leave unless you let him search you.

I completely understand why a merchant would be interested in searching everyone leaving the store. It makes great financial sense. I just don't happen to let them, and they can't do much about it. As I am not particularly price sensitive, I prefer to pay slightly more and not be intimidated every time I shop. Thus I choose to not return to stores that are aggressively enforcing this particular policy.

I've only had a few bad experiences in the years I've been ignoring door guards, and I think the time I've saved in not standing in line again to leave the stores has more than made up for them.
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[comment] If you still choose to shop at Walmart (or BestBuy, et al.) and don't mind showing--VOLUNTARILY--your receipt but simply want to avoid the line, then:
a) walk to another exit and proceed exiting without acknowledging the "checker" or looking suspicious, and if they come after you, show them your receipt and say, "see?" without getting mad. That will drive THEM mad and save you from having to wait in line;

b)walk around, if challenged, tell him/her to go check the videos as they have you on tape paying for your stuff and leaving the store without "picking up" anything else before you were confronted, which should also be on tape;

or c) walk around, if challenged, go return the item you bought WITHOUT RETURNING THEIR PLASTIC BAG, then leave the store again, now with an empty bag, but pretend that you DID buy something. If they stop you again (and they will) then tell them that they already sold you the bag and you returned the items you bought (show them your chargeback receipt) and laugh and you watch them fume! lol :)
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And one more: [crimedoctor.com]

>Are Door Bag Searches Legal?

Yes, as long as the inspection is voluntary. No, if the bag check is involuntary or coerced. This is a rather fine legal distinction that is subject to misunderstanding and abuse. Basically, nothing in the law gives the merchant the right to detain a customer for the purpose of searching a shopping bag unless there is a reasonable suspicion of retail theft. See my web page on Shoplifting: Detention & Arrest for more details

A customer can refuse to have their bag checked and simply walk out the door past the bag checker. Hopefully the bag checker has been trained to know that they cannot force anyone to submit to a bag search without cause. This is important because the expectation of the bag checker is that all bag contents have been purchased. The worst thing that could happen is that an aggressive bag checker would forcibly detain or threaten a customer who refused to comply with the voluntary search

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@Shaftoe: the fact that you have no sense of humor or sarcasm.

This story reminds me of an earlier Walmart receipt story where the guy bought a gun (or shotgun), was told he couldn't carry the gun out of the store so someone who watched him pay for it "escorted" both him and the gun toward the exit, only to be told that he couldn't leave without showing a receipt, so he just returned the gun--without the receipt! :)

He also couldn't buy bullets at the same time, as I recall.

STOP SHOPPING AT WAL-MART!

This is what THEY have to say about it:

* The legal bit - as part of our fair usage policy you'll get up to 10,000 calling minutes per month.

While plenty, this is hardly "unlimited," and seeing how many people signed up for the $99/month plans at AT&T, Sprint and Verizon will tell you that even 10K monthly minutes (about six hours daily) isn't enough...

Arclight: no ads, no panhandlers :)
One caveat: albeit worthwhile, it's DAMN expensive; however, its prices are nowhere near as expensive as what El Capitan charges...

If the movie isn't played at the Arclight, and I'm too lazy to go to the Mann's Chinese Theater, then I'll go to the Pacific Theatre at the Grove. I've almost completely stopped going to AMC and UA/Edwards theaters because the theaters suck, the rude/immature patrons suck, and the commercials suck, including but not limited to the trivia quizzes...