Where Has Integrity Gone?

Here in finland, a guy sold worthless surgeon masks to the government for 5 million. Bought a Bentley the next day.

Well, at least now he's arrested and his assets frozen. I'd like to see the return of the pillory and perhaps quillotine too.
 
I saw my Sirius monthly fee hit my CC and decided to call and cancel (since I haven't even started my truck in a month). When I called I got an automated message that said - "we are experiencing high call volumes...but we may be able to help you anyway....if you want a reduced rate of $60 for the next 12 months, just say -yes- "
I said yes, and the automated voice said - thank you, you are all set.

Sure enough the $60 hit my CC and I'm subscribed for another year (hopefully I get back in my truck soon enough to make it work while).

Obviously, they are getting TONS of people cancelling and are doing anything they can to keep accounts active.
 
I read this thread earlier and resolved to cancel when I received the renewal notice. Sure enough, I just spent 11 minutes in a chat session repeatedly typing "No. Please cancel." They are desperate - and they've been smacked for this issue before (in 2008).
 
They certainly can't rely on Stern to keep the subscribers pouring in anymore and have lost quite a few subscribers over the last several years as a result of the show changing as much as it has. To be fair to Stern, the guy is in his 60's and the world has changed greatly compared to where the world was at in the 90's and even 00's.
 
Their other main attraction seems to have been that they offered so much music variety - want to hear the Boss? Jambands? Alt-rock? Hiphop? 60s? Reggae? Bill Walton holding court on long strange trips? They could offer it all. But now with the rise of Spotify etc, consumers have so many better options than the limited playlists they offer.

Last year I was a tour guide and our vans had SXM. On the 2 hour drive back I would often put it on and at first loved all the variety. But it didn't take long to realize they were playing all the same tunes every day and really didn't have much variety at all. What seemed revolutionary back in the day now just sounds like another bunch of FM radio stations. Compare that to checking out different people's Spotify playlists every day, and see which gives more value for your $10.
 
Integrity, decency, and generosity are in short supply. It's especially prevalent in business, where we've adjusted our expectations so low that it's surprising when we receive even the slightest hint of genuine customer service. If you are lucky enough to be a customer of Fractal Audio, XiTone, ZenRigs, and those other awesome people who provide amazing customer service, then you know what it feels like to be treated with value.
Sadly, it is also reflected in our dealings with other people. It doesn't change how I choose to live; I treat everyone with kindness and truth, as it's how I want to be. But it surprises me how we've become tolerant of crappy treatment from companies that we pay. Dive-and-save tactics such as "oh please oh please don't leave us we'll offer you a fantastic discount just like the new customers we're trying to attract..." are offensive to my sense of fair play. It shows me that I'm only treated as having value when I'm expressing intent to cancel - and I never bluff.

I recently decided to upgrade to gigabit internet speed, and to cancel my cable TV service. My previous carrier (you can probably guess who...) was offering gigabit speed at a great price, but only for new customers! I asked if they would make an exception since I'd been a loyal customer for 18 years, and was told "no". So called up another local carrier, ordered the fiber hookup, and contacted the other company to cancel my services. They offered to beat the price and throw in a year of cable TV service. I felt quite satisfied informing them that I'd already uninstalled their equipment from my home network and would be returning it ASAP. They were betting I wouldn't take action, which probably works out in their favor most of the time. It sure tells me how little it matters to them.
 
My previous carrier (you can probably guess who...)
Starts with 'C' and ends with 'x', and rhymes with what they can suck a box of?

Similar experience here when I moved to my current house a few years back. Took them months to even get the internet working right. Had major outages all the time. No discount or money back for unusable service, even when it ended up being that they hadn't grounded their cable coming in. A guy from CenturyLink came around offering to get in early on the new fiber-optic internet service they started a test on in my area, and it was the same deal - the old service offered a better rate to stay. Sorry, Charlie, you had your chance to provide useable service, and you blew it....
 
I'm just about ready to dump Sirius/XM on all my cars. When I turn on a music channel I want to hear music, not "Rachel Steele" or "Kristine Stone" yap about mundane nonsense between every song. The other day one of them spent about two minutes talking about the invention of the spork. Don't care, don't care, don't care. Play music dammit.

The last straw though is they are now playing edited versions of songs. Why on God's green earth would you play the edited version? It's not like you need to make more time for commercials. You play the edited version so "Kristine Stone" has more time to talk about sporks?
 
I think companies like Fractal show true heart, spirit, and integrity. It sadly is rare. But when I find a company like that (like Fractal) I am a die-hard fan.
 
I'm just about ready to dump Sirius/XM on all my cars. When I turn on a music channel I want to hear music, not "Rachel Steele" or "Kristine Stone" yap about mundane nonsense between every song. The other day one of them spent about two minutes talking about the invention of the spork. Don't care, don't care, don't care. Play music dammit.

The last straw though is they are now playing edited versions of songs. Why on God's green earth would you play the edited version? It's not like you need to make more time for commercials. You play the edited version so "Kristine Stone" has more time to talk about sporks?
#allUtensilsMatter
 
Ex. 3
We're trying to get one of those PPP loans. It's virtually impossible. However all these big chain restaurants are getting them and they gobbled up all the money.

Ex. 4
Harvard has an endowment of over $40B (B as in billion). They got a grant because of the Covid-19 act. And then they had the hubris to defend taking the money because "our investments might lose money". And they weren't the only ones. Columbia, Michigan, etc. did the same thing and they all have huge endowments.
How about these guys:
https://time.com/5865746/catholic-church-billion-ppp-loans/
 
I'm still wondering when there was a time of integrity. There's individual examples throughout history of course (including plenty of folks nowadays) but I can't think of time where you could generally say that business, government, and the citizenry had integrity.
 
I had a business connection with a guy that owned a tire store. I was sitting in his office one day and he said, you know how much that tire right there is worth? I said, around $80? He said, that tire is worth as much as I can get for it. These are predators. Plain and simple. They do not really have a great deal for you. They have no consideration for you at all. There consideration is for your money and how they can get you to give it to them... because that's the most important thing in the world. Money is god and it worshiped above all else. It is rare to find and exception to this rule... but they do exist.
 
I canceled mine about 6 weeks ago. It took a couple of phone calls and a couple chats. I had to explain to them over and over that I had no job due to Covid. I didn't get any of the reduced rate offers. They couldn't grasp the concept that no job = no income, no income = no payment.
 
Everybody has a scam. Big wigs make the rules and the only people that you can talk to has no power and no ability to see common sense. Even if they did, they have no power. They get paid next to nothing to read a script.
Oh and... please select from the following menu of useless options that don’t apply.
 
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