Register your business 

By: Jim Yekrang
I got a letter from San Carlos City Attorney demanding to pay and register my business in the city of San Carlos. So I called to understand the reason I need to do so since I only receive my mail at a P.O. Box address in the City of San Carlos.

On the phone I got a customer services so I explained to her that I received a letter that "demands" payments for registering my business. She asked for some information and said yes what I can help you with. I explained to her that I do not run a business in San Carlos and I only receive my mail at a P.O. Box. She asked me where is the physical address of the business and I said there is no physical address since this is a consulting business and the consultants are at various customer locations which none are in San Carlos. So I do not generate any revenue from anyone in San Carlos. She said you are running a business here and that you have to register your business. I asked her to explain to me how I'm running a business here and she said since you have to physical location then you are running your business here.

After many back and forth of repeating the same thing, I asked her to explain to me what my registration is buying for me as a business owner since I do not have a shop or employee or anything else for that matter. She said that by paying for registration, you are complying with the city ordinance. So I asked her since I'm paying for something I would like to know the benefit of that, she repeated the same thing. I asked why do we have such an ordinance and she said there are a lot of people that run their business from their home here and they have to do the same. I asked how does that cost the city any money if one decides to run their business here at home. She said Mr. Yekrang, this is the city ordinance and "they" are enforcing that and you are not the only one. I asked her who "they" are and she said the city. I asked her if she is one of them, and she said yes. So I repeated my question with phrasing it with "they". She said the benefit is that you are doing business here!! I couldn't help but laughing and apologized for my laugh but insisted that there should be a benefit when you are asking someone to pay for something and I respectfully do not see any benefit of having a mail box here which I have paid for it should oblige me to pay for another fee.

I hung up and started thinking that what have we become as a country. Our income is taxed as heavily as ever, Almost everything else that we purchase is taxed heavily. Our government makes more money than the oil company from selling the gas. Our lives ran by ordinance and laws that only benefit a small percent of us and we are constantly reminded of we live in the best country in the world and that we are free. I guess my definition of free is different than being controlled and manipulated by ordinance and non-sense laws.

By: Jim Yekrang

Canceling your service online

Have you noticed while in any of your online services, it's very easy and intuitive to add new features (which cost more) and upgrade your services? Well, if you have not noticed, then you are a perfect candidate for up sell and cross sell victim. On the contrary, it is very confusing and cumbersome if you are attempting to downgrade or cancel your services. At least that has been my experience. Also, it's amazing when you are about to cancel your services, there is always a promotional even that is going on which can reduce your subscriptions monthly charges quite nicely but it's never advertised or could be found any where.

So here is my last few experiences with canceling some services online. I joined Spotify a couple of months ago and the only option available was their $9.99 per month and I thought heck it's thirty days free so I'll give it a shot. After a few month, I realized I was not using it enough to justify the expense so I logged in to my account to cancel my subscription. I have to admit that this is one of the better sites to manage your subscription. After navigating to the cancel button, I found out that there is a different option of $4.99 per month which I did not know anything about. Now I admit that this could have been just an oversight by me but never-the-less it was not that obvious during the sign up.

One of the worst sites which is a shame since they are part of the technology companies is AT&T. They have managed to make the site as complicated as possible for canceling or down grading your services. I needed to cancel a line that we do not use and after five minutes of navigating and having to sign in three times, it finally gave me an option which was calling the customer service! And as most of us know, that is as annoying as it can be since first you have to be wait a few minutes online and listen to the options that no one ever uses and then go through the security questions etc. And then I was told that there was a promotion that could save me 40% of my monthly fee! I declined and then I was asked about how I was going to receive and make my calls (I have wireless services with them) I asked them to check my account and they would see how.

Another one of these sites is DirectTv which I think they are partner or owned by AT&T. It's one frustrating site that again it is impossible to downgrade or cancel. Again you have to call and go through the annoying messages and find out there is a spacial! How funny and sad are these stuff? Every business is out there to get you one way or another and they have no conscious what so ever. I would like to know if anyone else has had similar experiences with other sites