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Consumer Warning: AT&T Phone Replacement Bait & Switch Fraud

ATRIX is on the left, Captivate on the right: The image really speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

By Eddie Childs

For some reason unbeknownst to even the wisest and wrinkliest of gray-bearded sages, I’m a long-time AT&T phone user. I’ve been with these scam-artists so long, in fact, that the letterhead on my bills also has respectively read “Bellsouth” and “Cingular” during my more than 10-year stint as a customer of this wretched telecomm. However, I recently had an experience with AT&T and its minion insurance company, Asurion, that was so unbelievable, I’ll be taking my business elsewhere. Continue reading →

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A Homegrown Initiative: Starkville’s Field-to-Table Movement

By Eddie Childs

For many cities and townships, the farmer’s market is a place where food growers and artisans gather to vend wares, and restaurateurs and residents alike buy fresh produce. As a basic economic building block, these markets play so many roles in a community’s vitality; indeed, a vibrant township would be practically inconceivable
without one.

“[Farmers’ markets are] really the backbone of any community,” says chef and restaurateur Ty Thames of Restaurant Tyler. “And anything supporting them is beneficial to the area economy. I also believe [the produce sold there is] definitely the freshest possible because there’s no transit time; it’s coming right from the growers, so you lose less nutrients than you would transporting it.”

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Storage Battles: When storage units go into default in the ATL…

By Eddie Childs

A flurry of sparks flies, and a padlock is cut loose with a handheld circular saw. The locker’s rolling steel door thunders upward, and the group of bidders collected outside crowds closer, peering hopefully into the darkness. It’s a scene with all the trappings and theatrical value of a syndicated Geraldo Rivera special — except it happens over and over again, and each time, there exists a chance that Al Capone’s vault could be stocked with proverbial gold.

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Tesla’s Brickmobile: Holy depleted batteries!

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By Eddie Childs

Tesla’s response in its company blog last Friday to the so-called “bricking” controversy — whereby the company’s earlier Roadsters become inert “bricks” upon complete battery discharge — undoubtedly contained some compelling points, even if said response seems to lay most of the blame with owners and not with the car’s design.

It stated that, in exchange for not having to worry about gasoline or oil changes, the only trade-off is that the company asks that its customers keep the car charged.  It went further to say that if one were to drive their car without changing the oil, for instance, that you’d have to replace the engine as a result.

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Protecting Yourself from Bad Business Practices

By Eddie Childs

Like so many other small businesses these days, Cynthia’s company has been struggling. Even worse, the numbers haven’t been adding up lately, and a large amount of money seems to be missing. In fact, she has begun to suspect someone might even be stealing from her, but who? Surely it couldn’t be trusty Angela in accounts payable, could it? The woman is so dedicated to her job that she hasn’t taken a vacation in almost two years! It could all just be a mistake, right?

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