Big Brother and Greed and Ranting

[HokieLoki]

Ever since Youtube has started having ads before MANY of their videos, I have been absolutely livid with Google, which owns youtube, for their full on GREED.  A company who has more money than they know what to do with, and who is already making money with ads to begin with, starts to run actual commercials on youtube.  They bait us in, wait until youtube is so popular that you MUST use it to watch ANY video, then they flip the switch and boom, you must watch their commercials and they rake in a fortune.

But they already were raking that in.  And here's proof.

http://i.imgur.com/sYMLS.jpg

Remember that thread I started?  Well my cookies show that I looked up all those things on newegg, and thus google is paid by newegg to look at my cookies and push out ads to respond to that.  That must cost a FORTUNE!  So why the hell then must they run commercials in their videos?  As if they aren't making enough already.  It's just a huge finger to the people that are responsible for their profit in the first place.

And I know that a business is in business to make as much money as possible, but where'd the respect for the customer go?  Google and facebook are in bed together with this crap; the monopolization, the cornering of certain pieces of the internet, then they've got us by the balls and we're forced to stay with them no matter what they do to us.

I don't have a Facebook, and for a search engine, I use Bing.  It rocks.  For maps, I use google.  Bing maps doesn't have street view, and isn't as good overall.  But I feel their search engine is superior. 

Cell phone companies are doing the same thing.  They've got us.  We either do what they say, and pay their prices, or we don't have a cell phone.  $20 for unlimited texting?  Really?  You can only send 160 characters per text because the texts don't even use the nice wide band that the calls use.  No...they use a cheap, shitty band that can't handle anything over 160.  And yet it's $20??  Really??

And look at Verizon.  They are the most expensive cell company out there.  This can be easily explained because they have to support more towers than any other company, and thus they have better coverage.  They are who I am with.  And they have just received a TON of AT&T customers who wanted iPhones and Verizon.  Now Verizon is turning around and saying they are scrapping the unlimited data plans.  Those are plans that people left AT&T, paid the early contract end fee, and paid Verizon an arm and a leg to switch for, and now they're gonna be effed.  No respect for customers. 

And another thing about Verizon.  It used to be that when you go international, you call them up, tell them to activate international calling on your phone, and boom it's done.  Then when you get back you call and have them stop it.  Then that month if you were gone for two weeks, you're charged for two weeks of international.  Now suddenly Verizon says they are implementing a tiered international plan.  Like $30 for 20mbs and $100 for 100mbs of international data for a month.  So now they've ramped up their rates big time on that, but when my dad calls and learns all this, and says he wants to leave the contract then if they are changing the plan, they say that the contract only covers domestic, not international, so they can change it when they wish.  Furthermore, they assured him that should he leave, he would be responsible for the early termination fee.

Unbelievable.  I see so often these days how companies just screw over their customers.  There's no more dignity in these companies anymore.  I know in a suffering economy there is little room for dignity when greed and necessity for money is crowding it all, but this has to stop. 

And I'm not trying to say that making money is bad.  Trust me.  A few years back, Exxon Mobil posted more profit in one year than any company in history.  What a proud moment for them.  But what does Hilary Clinton say?  She scolds them for being so greedy and taking all that money for themselves. 

Exxon Mobil makes a ton of money not because their screwing their customers, but because oil is a VERY profitable product.  We need it no matter what.  And that's what they do.  They didn't get us hooked on it though, they just produce it.  And they have competition.

But the cell phone companies got the corner, and now it's "sign this contract so we can make you pay us for two years or else your phone will cost $1000" and Facebook has the corner too with their "leave Facebook and you'll never know what's going on with your friends, oh and by the way we are selling your information and making bank and not giving you a penny."  How about cell phone plans not be hundreds of dollars, and how about we can back out whenever the hell we want?  And Facebook, that's my information?  Where is my share?  But no, people are all too willing to have themselves sold to every hand that pays Facebook well.  They don't care.  Because in their mind, the idea of quitting Facebook is so audacious, it doesn't even enter in as a remote possibility.  Facebook knows that, and until it changes, they'll keep screwing everyone. But it won't change.

Too much greed.  Too much disrespect.

If you've read this far, congrats.  I didn't mean to have this go so long and I honestly don't expect anyone to take the time to read it and respond with their real opinion, but I would be truly grateful to hear what anyone has to say.

Hope everyone is doing well.  I am flying to Florida tomorrow!  :-)  See you all in game in a bit over a week.  I'll be on here often though, of course.

[boca99]

$20 for unlimited text. Thats amazing. I wish i lived in the USA. Everything is have the price than over here. If u think $20 is bad, i must be gettting screwed lol.

Thats business for u nowadays. If businesses arent greedy and try and make as much £ or $ as they can while they can then they wont succeed. The company i work for looks like they are going to fold soon. If they where more cut throat and made more money then they probably wouldnt be in this mess. It now looks like 10,000 people including me will be out of a job soon.

Yeah the world of 2day sucks and we get srewed all the time by pretty much everyone but theres not alot we can do about it. We just have to live with it. It sucks but thats life.

Thats just my view on it lol.

[Eric]

+1 for Loki

[aPotHead2]

+1

[Groovechild]

Well, as your boy Keyenes would say, there's no free lunch. Everything operates around cash, so everything is created around what you can maximize for what you sell (price elasticity? been too long since I had economics).  What you are talking about with cell companies is more often known as collusion. The bandwidth is crap, it's the fact they all charge for it, you can't just goto a vendor that  offers it free, bc it's everyone's cash cow. No one offers it free bc they know you will pay for it. It's like offering dialup free or pay extra for broadband. I'll pay every time; to a certain degree it can be argued we're just as much at fault for consumption. Boca makes a point, you can't take your foot off the gas or people lose their jobs. It's the world we live.
Facebook is great if you really liked high school. Like really liked it, have a hard time moving on from those times liked it. It gives then an escape, they can act like their agent instead of themselves. Most people I know with hobbies rarely go on it. Although the some of the facebook rants regarding Charlie Sheen were pretty hysterical.  I am naming my next character 7GramRocks. I don't even know what that means but it sounds legit.
I kinda wished I knew what the world was like in the 50s. I feel like everything is evolving way too fast nowadays.

Edit: Charlie Sheen spelling mistakes