Friday, August 22, 2014

Captain Consumer

When I was 12, I sent Goody hair products a hand written note along with two hair ties that were mistakenly linked together. I said something like, "I just wanted to alert you of this mistake so you can look into any machines that may be malfunctioning." A few weeks later I got a huge box from Goody with a ton of new products - brushes, hair accessories, etc. Can you just imagine how psyched 12 year old me was?? I learned a powerful message back then. It pays to be an involved consumer.

Following in this vein, I just wrote our bank to tell them how shocked I was about the over $40 in ATM transaction fees that have hit our account since arriving in Bosnia, and nicely requested advice on how to avoid this in the future. I never want to complain just to complain or to try to milk the system, but I know there are other options for us out there. Anyway, I'm happy to say our bank has refunded that amount, and gave us guidance on how to avoid fees from now on.

Don't forget your power as a consumer!

(Also, I am a huge nerd and proud of it.)

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