Ok, here I go again on another rampage. This time it’s my bank. What I thought was a simple mistake turned out to be bank policy that seems to be akin to a scam. At the very least it’s taking advantage of bank customers. Here’s what happened…

I ran my personal account down to $38.18. I know, I shouldn’t let it go that low but I try to only keep what I need for the bills in that account and I would get another automatic deposit of almost $900 in the morning. I also knew I would have an automatic monthly payment coming out the same day as the deposit.

Friday morning, before the bank opened, I logged in and noticed they debited the account the $47 before they added the deposit which caused a $33 non-sufficient fund fee. “No problem“, I thought, “that’s just the computer and when I call about it later they’ll fix it“. Of course that’s not what happened. Now if they had told me that’s just the order they came in and they couldn’t fix it I wouldn’t be writing this post. I wouldn’t have been happy but I would have accepted it and made sure it didn’t happen again by transferring more into that account. But what I was told was unbelievable and upset me to no end…

Can you believe that? That’s what the customer service rep told me. No matter what order the transactions come in it is bank policy to make the automatic debits before adding the automatic deposits. Kind of convenient isn’t it? I wonder how much profit Flagstar Bank makes by robbing their customers with this unfair policy. This should be illegal…

I have to say I like all of bank employees at my Flagstar branch. They are some of the most polite and professional people I have ever dealt with. I have actually been greeted at the door with a smile and offer for donuts and coffee. It’s that type of atmosphere. I have a feeling that the  bank rep that told me of the policy wasn’t supposed to let that slip so I’m not going to mention any names.

In light of all the recent negative news about bank abuse and their inability to run a business without irresponsible management (see Fire Those Bastards) you would think they had enough sense to clean up a little. Does Flagstar bank think they are too big to be bothered with fair banking policy? What do they care if a few customers leave from the theft disguised as fees, they know most will just silently pay. Shame on Flagstar Bank. I think it’s time for Mark T. Hammond (Flagstar Bancorp, Inc. CEO) to start working for the customers that earned him that 2.8 Million dollars in compensation [source: Forbes.com] and stop allowing his bank to rip those customers off!

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I have yet to see a legitimate ad blaster that works and is legal? You can find them to blast emails, Yahoo Groups, MySpace etc. and they are junk. Just like Free For All lists, they give legitimate advertising methods a bad name.

Guess who owns MasterAdBlaster.com? Yep, I do. I was so excited when I first purchased that domain. I already had the perfect product to promote there. I had purchased the resell rights to an ad blaster from a very respected marketer. It was the latest (Back in Nov. of 2005) Automatic AdBlasting Software that sent your ad automatically and instantly to over 1000 Advertising Networks and 2,500,000+ Websites and Engines across the net, day after day, throughout the year! Bla Bla Bla

The site was perfect. Great graphics and structure. Enticing ad copy that promised:

“Have Your Ad Blasted To 2,500,000+ Sites Every Day
Automatically Using The Worlds Most Astonishing
“Set And Forget” Technology !”

and

Get 5000 Hits To Your Website Per Hour!

I was nieve back then. I used the blaster everyday. I promoted my new site and sold a few copies. Then the inevitable came. I began receiving complaints and refund requests. You know why? Because I hadn’t bothered testing it. I faithfully submitted my ads daily just assuming they were being delivered just as the software displayed after the submission process. So I finally wised up and used a tracker. I tested many sites for weeks. Hundreds of ads going to what was supposed to be millions of sites and not one single click. I was so embarrassed.

Embarrassed but not defeated, I started looking for a replacement that worked. I tried several other email blasters that didn’t work at all. I found a nice Yahoo Groups mailer that showed promise but didn’t pan out. The latest was a piece of junk MySpace mailer that was being promoted everywhere last year. Again, zero clicks!

The Bottom Line

Here’s the bottom line - Are the ads even delivered? I doubt it but even if they are, the proofs in the pudding as to the results.

Are there any legitimate Blasters? I have yet to find one and I really really tried. Hey, I wanted MasterAdBlaster to be a success! Do you have one that is legal, ethical and actually works? Give it to me and I’ll test it but I’m done buying them. Don’t even bother unless every single person that receives the blast has opted-in to get the ads. If you can’t prove that then it’s unethical as far as I’m concerned.

Why they’ll never work - A blaster won’t work even if the ad actually gets delivered unless someone can resolve one huge problem. That problem has to do with targeted ads going to potential customers that want to see what you have to offer. It’s our greed and laziness that fuels the development of these fraudulent programs. Now if it was an opt-in membership based blaster then I would be of a different opinion but then it would be called a safelist

That’s Right I Said It,
Brian Hawkins

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