Good Tuesday morning! Here's your
Dose of Dover...
Still your most reliable source for un-common sense insight and
cover-your-backside strategies this new year and beyond.
Take your best shot...try to put me out of a job!
How? Make everyone a little lot smarter:
Forward this to everyone in your Address Book!
[C'mon...be a big shot!]
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Lots of eye-opening information posted on
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Tuesday, April 20, 2004
"The closer to the truth, the closer to the
nerve."
Those sorority girls are lyin' at Mizzou,
all in the name of winning!
Calling them
competitive would be a
gross understatement in the world of Greek
blood drives on Missouri's biggest campus.
(Maybe they'll be forced to change their
name to Gamma Hepatitis C after this is all
over?)
Speaking of bad blood, there's
panic in
porno land!
From the "I can't believe this hasn't
happened before now!" department comes this
story about the latest scandal in that
hotbed of hotbeds and adult film
capital of the world, Los Angeles.....
Running late to catch a flight? Breathing
heavy and sweating (this story has nothing
do with the previous one, I might add) could
get you the hairy-eyeball the next time you
fly.
Here's
why.
I know, I know. You really are amazed by
the number of resources I compile every
week for ya in the Dose of Dover.
Great! Then don't whine about
having to sign-up for free access to
sites reference in these stories:
Like anything in life, there's
always gonna be a trade-off on some
level. I embed dozens of links in every
edition of this newsletter, and my
frequent sources,
The
New York Times,
The Dallas Morning News,
The
Los Angeles Times,
The Orange County Register
and
USA Today
require varying levels of registration
in order to access their websites for
free...with
one small caveat: If you try to hit an
older story, there's a reasonable chance
that the news organization has either
moved the story to a new URL, or to
their archives. If it's archived,
there's a high probability that they'll
charge you for access to the
story...usually under $3. Don't
complain about it...just pay 'em if you
wanna read it--or not. It's always
your choice.
Also worth
noting: Nowhere
is it written that you have to give
accurate information when you sign up
for free access on their website.
They'd like you to, but they'll never
really know. So use a disposable e-mail
address (like
Hotmail
or
Yahoo)
and get creative when you
register. But just remember: They/we
are giving you a tremendous service for
a great price...free! So no
complaining.....
Front page
of USA Today last week: “Hospital Bills Spin
Out Of Control/Consumers are caught in
cross-fire between insurers and hospitals.” With
all due respect to the fine journalists at
USA Today, I started preaching about this
consumer trip-wire waiting to blow up on
anyone requiring medical care over a decade
ago!
Hospital
sticker shock is a reality of living in the
USA in 2004, and it ain’t just $5-a-pill
aspirin anymore: They’re
paying $5,000 a day in room charges in New
Jersey. Pray you don’t need an emergency
appendectomy on your next family trip to
Disneyland: It’ll set you back an average of
$18,000 in California. And you could suffer
a real heart attack after you get your bill:
The national average for heart attack
patients is more than $20,000!
Turn your head and cough before you read the
rest of the story.....
Don’t expect
the health care industry or your insurance
company to do you any favors. You’ve got to
take responsibility and question everything
once you walk through the doors of a
hospital. Didja hear how one Mom got a
hospital to cut her hospital bill from
$21,000 to only $600?
Karen Hamers'
teenage daughter needed knee surgery, and
Mom didn't have insurance, so she called
several local hospitals and asked how much
the surgery would cost. She chose a hospital
and paid the surgeon and the hospital the
$4,200 they said the surgery would cost.
"Six days after surgery,
we receive a letter from the hospital asking for
an additional $21,000,"
Hamers says. She asked for an explanation and
got an itemized bill. "It was two pages of
gobbledygook, we couldn't understand it and they
couldn't explain it. We showed it to our doctor,
and he didn't understand it."
Hamers kept a detailed log of her daughter's 20
hours in the hospital, including a list of all
the staff who cared for her and what drugs she
was given and after reviewing the log and its
own records, the hospital reduced its additional
billing to $610.
The moral of the
story? Check their work and
keep detailed notes! Paper your trail or be
ready to pay a lot more than you should!
Need some help
constructing a great complaint letter? Never
fear, your pal Bennie's here:
Check out my Six Steps To Effective Complaining
section and quit yer whinin'.....
Mother's Day is only
19
days away. And then there's always
graduation and weddings, or even bigger yet?
Anniversaries! The days of kissing your
cash goodbye are long gone...once you've got
an affordable and reliable source
for all types of jewelry or watches!
Learn how to avoid getting hosed.
Check out my
diamond/jewelry buying tips and on-line
buying resource...all assembled in one easy-to-reference section.....
Speaking of Mom,
now's the time to place your order and secure
your spot at the top of the Will. Send
some beautiful flowers from Hawaii, aside from
being amazingly-affordable, they'll last at
least twice as long...FedEx-ed direct by our
friends at
www.tropicalcolors.com
And since we're on the subject of Medi-Dollars...if
you cut pills in half to stretch your drug
dollars, there are some obvious savings to be
had:
But you may be risking some potentially serious,
if not fatal, side-effects!
More from the world of
financing that body of yours: If
you're like Angelina Jolie and are havin'
second-thoughts about that "I Love Billy-Bob"
tattoo on your arm,
there's good
news for undoing the long-term and permanent
impact of
what seemed like a good idea one drunk Saturday
night.
Here ya go, Popeye.....
Check out my moving tips
section here...and
remember the key to lowering your chances
for financial and emotional heartbreak
starts by choosing the right moving company
choice.
Exodus Moving is
a great North Texas example of dependability
and just as important, affordability.
Unpacking after a big move doesn't
have to be total brain-damage, either:
Ben's choice for unpacking and organizing
expertise that won't bust your bank
account?
Tiffany Pine-Lastelick and her team of
organizational experts at InOrder.....
Moving to a new house, condo or apartment?
Then you'd better change the locks! If you
live in North Texas, I've already found the
first/last/only reliable locksmith you'll
ever use: Chief Safe &
Lock
(214) 827-7535
(answered 24/7)
NostraDover strikes again! This time?
Warnings about the antics of this Las
Vegas-based company and their ability to get
back countless IRS dollars by filing amended
returns has been well-documented on this site
over the last 5 years.
Read all about the Justice Department's
aggressive move to shut these clowns down.....
Hackers are cruising your neighborhood and
stealing your passwords, copies of your e-mails
and accessing your computer whenever they
want...and you're helping them do it! It's
another dark side of the Internet...here's how
to slam the cyber-doors on these clowns before
you end up on the victim's list.
Speaking of Wi-Fi,
you'd better make sure you don't get victimized
by a McHacker:
Here's the latest thing to be weary of at the
Golden Arches (other than the nutrional value of
their menu).....
Adult "Happy Meals" becoming a McReality:
They're tryin' to sound McHealthier, and are
about to add some stuff to their McLine-up to
prove it...
Ronald's not McSmiling about their loss
yesterday:
All kidding aside, McDonald's is about to
install a new McCEO...here's
why.
And since we're talking about cyber-scams, didja
hear about Earthlink's newest tool to fight the
bad (on-line) guys?
They're the first ISP to send an SOL message to
those SOBs trying to sucker you into giving up
your ID. Expect the other Internet access
players to follow suit ASAP.....
Thomas Jefferson has gotta be spinning in his
grave: The ridiculous witch-hunt
that started with
Janet Jackson's stunt at the Super Bowl
and launched attacks on
Howard Stern's future on the (open) radio
airwaves is just the tip of the
censorship iceberg.
Now Google's in the sites of free speech
antagonists.....
Speaking of The
King of All Media, one of his frequent
contributors had to be a catalyst behind
C-Span's recent announcement that they're
thinking about going to a "delay" to protect
themselves from prank callers:
That scamp known as "Captain Janks" has been
making life hell for TV news show producers for
years...and
now C-Span, one of his frequent targets,
is thinking about doing the unthinkable. Read
more here...
Since the FCC's out to censor everything, the
only content worth watching is going to be on
pay TV:
I'm no fan of the cable industry, but I sure
love my Dish! (Here's why
you are gonna love
yours.)
Know how to find a new landlord that'll not only
give you free rent, but will even move you for
free?
Simple! And just
one
click away.....
The FTC is deluding themselves!!! They
haven't even begun to cure the "spam" problem
and now they're going after a new target:
Chances are you're already infected...and
chances are their moves to protect us are gonna
be just as effective as their spam solutions,
but we'll see.
What is it they're going after next? Oh yeah:
Read more
here.....
Still sleepin' at the "let's buy (or re-fi) a
house" switch? What are you waitin'
for???
Mortgage rates rose again last week (no
surprise)...read more and wake up before it's
too late.
Does anyone else remember "Dodie" from those
God-awful color "My Three Sons" episodes back in
the 1960s?
Leif Garrett's
big sister (he was the teen poster boy/idol of
the 1970s and his big sister was Dawn Lyn, the
kid that played the obnoxious character known
as Dodie)
must've been the inspiration for these latest
dolls now sweeping the marketplace.
When you read the story, you'll understand what
I'm talkin' about.....
Rising to the occasion, Pfizer's giving away
free Viagra!
Think of it as their version of a frequent flier
program. Hmmmmmm, then that would that make
this a..... Oops,
nevermind.....
Wanna
avoid automobile acquisition-related
brain-damage? Deal with an honest
company in the first place!
No matter where you're located,
Manufacturer's Auto Leasing delivers
on that promise, and more. They've got
the Dover Endorsement because they
really are auto experts you can trust.
Check 'em out for yourself.....
Dead bodies fermenting in a house mean the
insurance company needs to act fast:
Here's how to make 'em pay!)
Plus:
Success stories that'll make ya proud; ATM deals
that don't pass the investment smell test...And:
How to prepare your credit card company for your
next big trip. Guiding you through life's mine
field (one nasty letter at a time),
check out the April 22, 2004 edition of Ask
Benjamin Dover from The Dallas Morning News
right
here! |
