By Dave Lieber
watchdog@star-telegram.com
Good news to report in the battle to stop theft from blue mailboxes outside post offices. Remember that Fort Worth is No. 1 in such thefts in the U.S. The Postal Inspection Service declines to comment. The only news we get is from readers.
NWArlington Newsletter, a community journal of useful notes, recently reported that postal inspectors kept outside boxes most often hit by thieves under nighttime surveillance. And it paid off -- twice in one week.
One resident reported that in mid-August postal inspectors caught two women stealing mail, including hers, by using a long pole with a sticky substance on it.
"Anyhow, the postal inspector told me not to drop any mail in the outside box after 5 p.m.," the resident reported. "Take it and put it in the inside slots for mail."
Another resident reported a similar story in the newsletter: His mail was about to be stolen from outside the Oakwood post office a few days later, but postal inspectors caught a man in the act and recovered the stolen mail. "I won't be dropping mail off outside anymore," the resident wrote.
Thanks for callingEvery Monday through Friday at 10 a.m. without fail for more than a month, Ingrid Henne's cellphone rang. An automated voice instructed her to call Kohl's department store. When she did, she was told she had an outstanding account. But when she gave her information, the store representatives acknowledged that they were looking for somebody else.
They promised to take her number out of the automated dialing system. That didn't happen.
She tried everything she could think of to get the calls to stop. She complained to a supervisor. She e-mailed the company. She called its collection department.
She complained to the Better Business Bureau. When she asked her phone company whether the number could be blocked, she was told to change her number.
Then she wrote Kohl's again, only this time she upped the ante. If the phone calls didn't stop, she wrote, she would contact The Watchdog: "As a matter of fact, I will copy him this letter," she wrote. "I already put this on my Facebook page and will write and tell everybody I know how nice Kohl's is that they bother people that have nothing to do with them."
By the time I got involved, Henne's handiwork had done the job. She doesn't get calls anymore.
Asked about this, Kohl's spokeswoman Erin Kelbe is brief: "Thank you for contacting Kohl's directly. Customers can contact the Kohl's Credit Service Center at 1-888-768-5741 should they need assistance with this type of question."
If that doesn't work, consumers should let the caller know that they know the law and then quickly act on that.
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act protects consumers from harassment by creditors. Fort Worth lawyer Jerry J. Jarzombek has said that disputing an error online or in a phone call, as Henne did, isn't the way to set up a proper trail of evidence. Do it in writing, he advised, and always purchase a return receipt at the post office to prove that the letter arrived.
For problems with credit bureaus and inaccurate information, the go-to law is the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Both laws are easily found on the Internet. The laws show exactly how the notification letters should be written.
A creditor or collection agency must respond and prove that the debt is valid. If a response isn't prompt or accurate, a lawsuit can be filed.
Remember this basic principle: In many difficult situations, state and federal laws give consumers rights most people don't know they have.
Shady movers bewareUntil recently, the only way to go after a bad moving company was to complain to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles and try to put the company's state license in jeopardy. But what if the movers are so shady they don't even have a license?
Last month, a state law went into effect that cracks down on unlicensed movers. Fines for unlicensed movers increased from $1,000 to $4,000 plus jail time. (Want to learn more? Check out House Bill 1523.)
Avoid the hassle. Remember to ask to see a moving company's Texas license before signing a contract.
Sunday: The art of hiring a roofer
Dave Lieber, 817-390-7043Twitter @DaveLieber
Looking for comments?
