$%!##!

I'll be waiting to hear some news from Egypt soon. One of the loyal followers of my antics on the bastish net should be arriving there (or have already arrived) soon. She mentioned that she was looking for a way to make her own blog, and I'm afraid I wasn't so helpful. I think I'll set up a way for her to use my site if she wants it. (Another thing on my to do list). It should be interesting to hear the stories of a teacher form Wisconsin in Egypt. Incidentally, when I say "teacher from Wisconsin" most of my readers probably have an image of a WELS teacher so I would like to clarify... she's not WELS.

t's unbelievable how much bull-crap Japanese companies can get away with because no one complains. Yesterday I had to pay a $20 fine at the video store for being two days late. I asked the guy if anyone ever complains about that outrageous penalty, and he looked bewildered. "Of course not!"

This is not the first time that store has tried to rip me off. Once I returned a video a couple hours late (after the store had closed). Of course it is natural to be charged for one day's late fee. But they charged me for every day until I paid the late fee. Of course I didn't know they where doing this, so several days passed before they called me to "remind" me. I was working at a consumer finance company at that time, and knew the law... this was totally illegal!

If I don't return the video, they have every right to charge me late fees because they cant rent it to anyone else, but seeing as it was on their shelf the next morning, and anyone is free to rent it, they were not loosing anymore money. So, in effect, the "late fee" I was paying for every day until I actually paid was actually interest. Now being in consumer finance, I knew that the maximum legal interest rate was 29%. How can they get away with charging me 100% interest on my overdue late-fee? It's very simple. No one complains. Consumers take crap from companies and assume they have no choice.

On a side note, I wonder if charging such outrageous late-fees doesn't actually cause the store to loose money. I will never be late again after this. So they have my 20$ and never more. If however, the late fee had been more reasonable, if there is ever a time when it would be difficult to get to the movie back on time, I wouldn't think so hard maybe about "renting" it for another day.