Didja miss the best 2-hours in talkradio Sunday morning? Whether you were sleeping late or live outside the Southern California broadcast area of KFI: Now listen to what you missed! Click here to access Ben's on-line radio show archive.

Yo, Einstein! Are you taking advantage of Brother Ben's hard work that goes into every show, every KFI Update and every Dose of Dover Newsletter? [I doubt it.] Seriously...you're leaving a bunch of additional information and entertainment value on the proverbial table if you don't "click over" hot-linked [highlighted] words or sentences you come across. Incredible insights and [frequently] twisted humor are only one click away.....

 

 

In honor of Father's Day 2003: How To Lower Your Child Support and Successfully Battle A Crazy Ex-Wife without Going Broke! It's a predictable punch line used by any man telling his own divorce horror story. But the truth is that there are plenty of crazy ex-wives out there making their ex-husbands miserable and using their children as weapons to punish not only their ex-husbands, but the wives or girlfriends of the ex-husbands as well.

 

How do you fight back? Peggy Jarvel, an Encino (CA)-based family law attorney has dealt with her share of crazy ex-wives in the past 20 years...and her best advice?  Don't screw around and try to represent yourself; if you go cheap as you attempt to maneuver the land-mines that exist in the family courts, you will regret it, folks.  This could be the most important but of legal brain-damage you'll ever encounter, that's why you've gotta have someone that's good and trustworthy on your side.

 

Don't get mad!  Get on with your life, go on offense and you be the one to file first!  Maybe you're at your wit's end and "want to get it over with" ... . . or perhaps you've already got a final divorce decree (and psycho-ex) that both need to be modified (okay, so the attorneys can only do the legal-part), come out swinging with a lawyer you can trust.

    Southern Californians:

        -  Get Peggy Jarvel on your team: Knowing that knowledge is your greatest weapon, trust me when I tell you that a good attorney can be worth their weight in platinum, here's how you can contact Peggy Jarvel [pronounced yar-VELL] directly: (818) 784-6616.

    North Texans: Two suggestions from the family-law representation world.....

        - Higher-assets divorces, don't screw around: www.webbackels.com

        - More "mainstream" lower-stakes divorces: www.prevostandshaff.com

 

 

Remember HIPAA? That's shorthand for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. It's the reason you've been asked sign all those extra forms at the doctor's office. It's also the reason the pinheads at a hospital in Washington state may have to pony up a cool $250,000.  The first phase of HIPAA prevents the unauthorized disclosure of personal medical information, and can cost the big mouth that gets caught illegally disclosing private medical information 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine!

 

Seems that some genius at the Providence Everett Medical Center has been faxing confidential patient reports to some guy's home fax machine:  The latest one was 13 pages about a 76-year-old with heart failure; the hospital says they're taking the mistake seriously.  Well so do I. Hey, mistakes do happen, and since I'm sure it was an honest mistake, I think the fairest way to handle this unfortunate situation is to simply follow the letter of the law: Slap the hospital with a $250,000 fine and slap the fax senders with 10-years in prison!

 

Of course this will never happen, but it should. Otherwise lawmakers have once-again, wasted their time (and our money) enacting laws they won't enforce.  Frankly, the only way anybody's gonna take HIPAA seriously is to cash a few $250,000 checks and make health care-related employees realize that if they aren't careful with our private health records, they could end up as cellmates with the Manson family!

 

I'm sick and tired of the insurance and health care industries throwing around our Social Security Numbers like they're the winning lotto numbers from yesterday's drawing! One of the biggest benefits HIPAA promises is a higher-degree of security the 9-digit number that unlocks virtually all of your most private information. This is an essential step in the right direction for fighting the epidemic of identity theft that victimizes over 700,000 people a year.

 

Another major benefit of HIPAA?  Reaffirming your right to make sure the information in your "secret" medical records is accurate. Before you turn your head, cough, click here for more info.

I love it when the good guys win! Here's more proof that Dover's Six Steps To Successful Complaining really works. Check out this e-mail from another enlightened KFI listener and Dover Disciple:

 

"Good News!  I received a call today (6/12/03) from an Executive with the "Response Center - Office of the President of AT&T". He apologized regarding my problems with AT&T and stated he'd already received several of my e-mails. I'm being given a total of $100.00 credit to each of my two phones, a total of $200.00 in credit...and he said this credit had already been applied to my account. He also gave me his 800 number and direct extension

 

I'd sent out letter to all of the executives mentioned in the media section of AT&T, including a letter to one of AT&T's biggest investors, Mellon Bank. I listen to you each week and receive your weekly newsletter as well and want to thank you for your knowledge and your words of encouragement that got me headed in the right direction.

                       - Ernie R., Highland, CA"

 

Ben's Bottom Line: Knowing how to complain really is 98% of the battle. When you want results from a company that's done you wrong, the nearest helping hand is at the end of your own arm! Just follow the same free advice that Ernie and thousands of others have found posted on my award-winning website.

Here's a story that slams home two major Dover Rules that can save you serious cash and grief in the years ahead:  Mainline Airways is already outta business before it ever got off the ground. The company, which offered bargain basement tickets for charter flights between Los Angeles and Hawaii, had it's wings clipped when an investigation found the company had no planes or employees...small details that need to be addressed before you start selling tickets and taking people's money over the Internet...and apparently 120 suckers had already purchased tickets or made what a Mainline spokesman referred to as "pre-reservations" for flights: 

 

Ben's Bottom Line: Live by these 2 Dover Rules and save yourself a lifetime of grief...

#1: If it sounds too good to be true...don't be a dope!

            #2: Anytime you're purchasing anything from a company you're not sure about, use a credit card. Not a debit card dressed up with the familiar Visa or MasterCard logo in the corner.  I'm talking about a real, live, old-fashioned credit card, a financial tool that allows you to reverse a charge and be credited back the full purchase amount if you don't receive promised goods or services.

 

Don't bite on advertising campaigns that try to convince you that you're protected from fraud whenever you use your debit card: It's not the same type of fraud, folks. All the banks are selling you is protection from bad guys tapping into your bank account through your debit card. You're still on the hook if you use your debit card to buy something from a scam artist.  Get it? Got it? Good!

 

 

 

 

Think you've wasted some money over the years? I'll bet it's nothing compared to the cash one Florida homeowner's been flushing down the toilet for the last 24 years:  This guy has been paying a monthly sewer bill since 1979 only to discover that he has a septic tank and has never even been connected to the city utility.  Now he wants his money back - with interest - to the tune of $16,000.

 

 

This story reminds me of the woman who wrote me a few months ago about a similar dilemma: Like our rocket scientist who didn't bother to find out what kind of sewage hook-up he was buying, this woman said that she and her husband hadn't looked at their bank statements in over two years.  When they finally decided to tackle their financial problems and started scrutinizing their statements, guess what these dolts found out?

 

They discovered their cable company had been debiting monthly charges from their checking account every month: This was a problem because they always mailed in their payments. They eventually figured out that they'd been paying someone else's cable bills--$1,600 worth to be exact--for over two years!

 

Bank error? You betcha...but because they'd been asleep at the switch and failed to reconcile their bank statements every month (they had 60 days to dispute any statement errors or forfeit recovery) they were - what's the word I'm looking for - oh yeah, screwed.

 

Ben's Bottom Line: Assume nothing, know what you're buying, know where your money's going, and reconcile your bank statements and credit card and phone bills every single month. (And your neighbors will be grateful if you don't wait 24 years to pump out your septic tank!)

Remember this story from last week's "Dose"?   "What the hell did you just say!?!" If you think it's getting harder to understand customer service operators, it's not your imagination. The reason more of them sound like they're from-oh, I don't know-Bombay, India? It's no coincidence! More and more of your phone calls are actually being routed to Bombay-based call centers!

 

Thank cheap labor costs, cheap per minute long distance costs and the fact that India's got a huge pool of well-educated, English-speaking candidates:  I wanted to share the following e-mail/feedback from another enlightened Dover Disciple on this topic:

 

Be resourceful and share the wealth!  Give a subscription to the Dose of Dover, the most reliable source of insights and no s*** ideas available on the planet...and it's free!  Sign 'em up for their weekly Dose of Dover newsletter on our award-winning website!

If you've been those IRS-related problems, it's not if--but when--they're going to explode.  Think of the most inopportune time for this to happen...and it will!  Got some loose-ends dangling out there in the tax world?  Why not wave the white flag and get a deal worked out on your terms.  Check out your options and learn why hiring an Enrolled Agent probably makes the most sense.

You'd better tell the truth (not to infer that you wouldn't!) if you're involved in a car accident - especially if you're driving a newer model vehicle...or you've piled up a rental:  You've heard about the "black boxes" that provide valuable information that helps determine the cause behind airplane crashes, right? Well now the same technology is being used to reconstruct automobile accidents. And this crucial information is finding its way into civil and criminal courtrooms, helping judges and juries figure out who's really at fault.

 

Prosecutors love 'em...and say the data from the black boxes, which are already on over 40 million cars, provide an unbiased account of accidents: Just ask Edwin Matos. His Trans Am's Black Box ratted him out big time.  In fact, Matos' attorney claimed he wasn't driving faster than 50 mph in the accident that killed two teenaged girls, but the Black Box hidden in his car logged his speed at 103 mph just before impact. Matos was convicted of manslaughter and vehicular homicide. Oops.

 

Since most motorists don't realize their cars are equipped with these little mobile narcs, it's quite an edge for the prosecutors and insurance companies across the country: Unlike the models used on airplane, the black boxes installed in our cars was an afterthought designed to trigger air bags.

 

Since they're not required by the government (yet), no exact figures exist on the extent of their use: However some experts say that most U.S. automakers began installing some form of the devices in the 1990s, finding information from the boxes invaluable whenever they end up in court over a product-liability lawsuit.

 

By the way: In case you wanna grab a flashlight and poke around the inner-bowels of your ride, in search of this non-obtrusive evidence repository, the boxes are usually silver, not black...and about the size of a pack of cigarettes.  Depending on their sophistication, they'll usually monitor your speed, braking actions, seat-belt use and other factors we haven't found out about just yet.  The readings are made in five-second spans, capturing the final five seconds before a crash...or the instant the car's electronic brain triggers an air bag.

 

Incidentally...I'm not even remotely attempting to defend this scumbag murderer:  In fact, Edwin Matos had 20 prior convictions for a range of charges including credit card fraud and grand theft.  The lowlife was driving almost four times the (30 mph) speed limit when he killed the two teenaged girls last summer.

Speaking of cars and the law, have you ever gotten a ticket for something you know you didn't deserve?  Wait until you get home to "trash" the cops for what you believe are unfair actions...don't mumble in your car.  And now here's a story that illustrates why you should never put it in writing...especially if it's on a check to pay the fine!  Keep your seatbelt on, pull over and click here for the scoop!

Have I mentioned lately that I'm not a fan of the cable company?  Just in case you're whizzing-away your TV dollars every month on a company that delivers poor customer service and ever-changing e-mail addresses (for you cable-modem users), you might wanna refresh your memory why I love my satellite Dish!

I'm going to expose the predatory, guilt-trip laden methods routinely used by funeral homes and mortuaries across the nation...and will open your eyes by exposing their dirty-little secrets before you're forced to utilize their services.  It's information everyone's gonna need sooner or later and one more reason why you can't afford to miss the Sunday, June 22, 2003 edition of The Benjamin Dover Show on KFI-AM/640, Los Angeles! (Set your alarm clocks to the proper time-zone): 5-7am (Hawaiian Time)  7-9 am (Pacific Time) 8-10 am (Mountain)  9-11 am (Central)  10 am-12 noon (Eastern)  3-5 pm (GMT).