700 federal prisoners to be housed in Lovejoy

700 federal prisoners to be housed in Lovejoy | ajc.com

I had lunch Wednesday with the chaplain of the new federal prison here in Lovejoy. Don Bowen has served in the chaplaincy of both state and federal prisons all over Georgia. He is working diligently to enlist local churches to be involved in ministering to the inmates. The prison will house both male and female prisoners. I hope to have Rev. Bowen at First Baptist Lovejoy to speak with us about the different ways we can be involved. We are the closest church to the prison, and should take the lead in ministering to those who will be housed there.

One of the concerns of the facility when it was being used as a county Jail was that there were too many escapes. Lovejoy residents will be glad to know that much of the $8 million the federal government has spent to upgrade the facility has gone toward making it escape proof.

Update: June 26, 2008
I frequently get calls from people who have "Googled" Lovejoy prison and found this post. Hopefully this information will save you a telephone call.

Robert A Deyton Detention Facility
Phone: 770.305.8000
Map and Directions

AT&T's Customer Service

The Problem

Imagine my shock last night when I got an email from AT&T. This was my first month to have my land line (formerly Bellsouth) and my wireless phones (formerly Cingular) on one monthly bill. AT&T had told me I could save a little money each month by bundling my services and consolidating the billing between my land line and my wireless phones. I expected a little sticker shock, as the land line and DSL generally run around $100, and the wireless also runs a little over $100. I knew to expect the total bill to be easily above $200, and I had prepared myself for that. I was not prepared for a $480 telephone bill though. I got the email after midnight, and I knew I would not be able to talk to a human about it until this morning. But I thought at least I could look at the bill detail online.

I went to AT&T's website and logged in to my account. I kept getting errors as I tried to log in, but I was persistent and finally got to a page that gave a summary for each part of my bill.

$48 for Local Land Line
$43 for DSL 6.0 mbps
$ 8 for my fax line (with another company)
$381 for my wireless service.

Everything looked pretty normal except for the outrageous wireless charges. I clicked on the link next to the wireless charge so I could see the details, but again I got error messages. I kept clicking it again, every few seconds, and continued getting the same error message.

Click to Enlarge

Finally I saw the link at the top of the page where I could download a pdf version of my bill. I clicked there, and it took a minute to download my 20-page bill. I immediately scrolled down to find out why the wireless charges were so high. This is what my wireless bill should be:

$60 for the first line.
$30 for three additional lines ($10 each)
$20 for a data plan on one line.
$110 Total, plus taxes and junk fees.

I figure with taxes and fees, and the kids occasionally downloading a ring tone it may jump up to $120 or $125, but that should just about be the ceiling. So where does the extra $256 come from?

1. Previous Balance $127
2. An extra “partial month” (20 days) on the bill.
3. An extra data plan.

The Process

The first call. When 9:30 rolled around this morning I decided it was time to call the phone company and see if we could do something to reign in this monster bill. I dialed the number on the bill and began punching numbers on my keypad in response to the prompts of the automated avoid-talking-to-the-customer system.

The upsell. When I had successfully navigated my way to a human being and told her my problem, rather than addressing the problem, she immediately began to upsell me. She starts checking to see what services I'm currently using and what they still might be able to pawn off on me. She tells me that now that I have “consolidated billing” that I can switch from the Complete Choice program to the Triple Choice program. This is supposed to reduce my bill by about $10 per month, and give me unlimited long distance.

The long distance isn't a big deal to me, because we make most of our long distance calls via wireless, and we never use all our wireless minutes. On the rare occasion that we use long distance from home, I have been using another company that only charges me 2.9 cents/minute. I get a bill every two or three months from them for about a dollar. However, if it saves me $10 per month on the land line and DSL then I figure that's a savings of $120 per year. So I say sure. Meanwhile we still haven't discussed my current bill. The representative tells me that she'll have to transfer me to a third party “verifier” to make sure I agreed to switch to triple choice. She says that after I talk to the verifier I will be transferred to someone in “consolidated billing” who can help with those wireless charges.

The argument. Now when someone needs a third party to verify you agreed to something, alarm bells start to go off anyway. After all, if it was really a good deal for me, why are they so eager to lower my bill and add free long distance? And why would I ever call and complain if everything was on the up and up? So I began my conversation with Mr. Verifier with my guard up.

Verifier: This call is being recorded in case I make a mistake. Did you agree to switch your long distance to AT&T and use the Triple Choice plan.

Me: As long as it saves me $10 per month, and doesn't cost me more somewhere else, that's fine.

Verifier: Sir I need a yes or no.

Me: The lady I talked with said I'd save $10 per month. If that's the case the answer is yes.

Verifier: Sir, I'm sure if thats' what the agent said that is probably the case. But I have to have a yes or no answer.

Me: You said the call was being recorded. I just said “yes”, you have it recorded. You also have what I said about the conditions of that yes recorded.

Verifier: Sir I have to have a yes or no answer.

Me: I just told you, I already said yes.

Verifier: Fine, Thank you sir, have a good day. [Click]

The hangup. I sat for a few seconds and listened to the dead phone line. I've been upsold. I've been argued with. I've been cut off. Where is the part where I get to talk with someone about my bill? I started this process frustrated. Now I'm angry.

The second call. Again I dial the number on the bill. Again I navigate the automated avoid-talking-to-the-customer system. Again I finally get a human, who asks how I am today. So I told her. I'm angry. I called to talk about my bill, I was upsold, I was argued with, and I was hung up on.

The apology “I'm so sorry sir! That should not have happened. That's not the way we do business! I'm going to transfer you to consolidated billing myself, and I'll stay on the line until we have you with a representative.”

The upsell “But before I do I have to offer you [some gadget, I quit listening here] for only [too much money] that you could finance.”

I can't believe it. I just told this lady I'm angry about being upsold, argued with, and hung up on, and she's upselling me AGAIN??? So much for “That's not the way we do business!” I tell her I'm not interested, and she asks, “Why, is it just the price?”

“NO IT'S NOT THE PRICE! I JUST TOLD YOU I WAS ANGRY ABOUT BEING UPSOLD INSTEAD OF HELPED WITH MY BILL, AND YOU ARE UPSELLING ME AGAIN!”

The handoff So, she transfers me to the representative in consolidated billing, finally. I'm probably 30-40 minutes into the process by this point. But this guy will be helpful, right?

The Rationalization

Finally, once I get to this guy, I can actually talk about my bill. I told him about my shock, and about the three things that made it high. I actually got some relief on the least of the three. But with the other two I'm just stuck.

Penalty One: Why do I have a “previous balance?” I am set up on bank draft. They draft my account every month. There should be no previous balance. My new friend tells me that before I consolidated my wireless bill with my land line bill, I was paying in arrears. But to have a consolidated bill I have to now pay in advance, so that puts me a month behind. So on this bill, I have to pay for the coming month, and I have to pay for this month, that should have been paid last month. Is that clear as mud? They tell me I can save a little each month by switching to consolidated billing, and then they make me pay an extra month the first billing period, effectively eating up 2 years worth of what I was supposed to save.

Penalty Two: Why am I being billed for both a full month and a partial month (20 days) on this bill? Well evidently when I was paying the wireless bill separately, it was due on the 2^nd day of the month, and the land line bill was due on the 22^nd day of the month. So now I have to pay for those extra 20 days on the first consolidated bill. So it's not bad enough I have to pay for two months on one bill, now I have to pay for two and two-thirds months on one bill.

Penalty Three: We added the fourth phone line back in October when my son graduated from Army Basic Training. He bought himself a new phone, and gave his old phone to his sister. She has the new line because he kept his old number. For some reason this bill shows a $20/month data plan on her phone that we never ordered. My friend at “consolidated billing” tells me that according to his records, the data plan was added the same time the line was added. I told him that I specifically remember the lady in sales asking me if I wanted a data plan, and telling her NO. He asked if I got any kind of rebate. I told him yes. He said the rebate was conditional on taking a data plan.

That's just not true. We priced the phone over the Internet. It had an “Internet Only” price. But we didn't buy over the Internet. We wanted to see if my son could get a military discount, so we called AT&T. After we discovered we couldn't get the discount, since the account is in my name, and I'm not in the military, I told the sales rep we would go back and buy the phone on the Internet. She says, “I can take care of that for you here on the phone.” I tell her I want the Internet discount, she says she can add that discount for me. She never says I have to take a data plan for it.

I told consolidated billing buddy that I knew the sales calls were recorded, and I'd be glad for them to pull the call and see if I ever agreed to a data plan. He folded his cards and gave me a $40 refund for the data plan, dropping my bill to a still staggering $440.

Conclusion

I don't know when I've been treated much worse by a company I've done business with for so long. Since we just added a line this past fall, I'm stuck with a contract for almost 2 years. You can bet the memory of this gouging, and this poor service, won't fade in 2 years.

Critics of Huckabee's FairTax are either misinformed or just plain dishonest!

Tom Redburn - Huckabee’s Tax Plan Appeals, but Is It Fair? - New York Times

The big word out of Iowa is that evangelicals pushed former Southern Baptist pastor Mike Huckabee to the winner's circle. Indeed, Huckabee has received endorsements from several evangelical leaders, including many Southern Baptist leaders. But I have been concerned about reports that Huckabee raised taxes more than he lowered them during his 10 years as an Arkansas governor. I believe one reason republicans lost power in 2006 is because in the 12 years since the 1994 "republican revolution" they have betrayed financial conservatives. They promised to reduce the size of government and cut both taxes and spending. They have done none of the above. Southern Baptist preacher or not, I don't want another tax and spend republican headed to the oval office to give us more of the same. So in spite of his evangelical roots I would have a hard time supporting Mike Huckabee if....., if he were not supporting the FairTax.

I'll give a brief summary of the FairTax here. For more details and answers to your questions go to the official FairTax web site. The FairTax:

• Eliminates all federal income taxes, both personal and corporate.

• Abolishes the IRS.

• Eliminates all payroll taxes, both social security and medicare.

• Replaces these taxes with a 23% consumption tax on most items you buy.

• Provides a "prebate" to every family each month, so that you pay no tax on life's basic necessities.

Because Huckabee supports this plan I could support him even without his Southern Baptist pastor roots, and in spite of the fact that he might have raised taxes too much in Arkansas. But his surge in the polls has brought about a lot of criticism of the plan in the media. I don't mind criticism, if it is honest and intellectually sound. But I've yet to find any substantive criticism that meets those criteria.

For example, in his New York Times column Tom Redburn says:

But the FairTax, as its many fervent backers call it, is not as simple as its supporters describe. And, to most tax experts who have looked at the proposal, it is anything but fair. For one, its burden would fall disproportionately on middle-income people.

I'm not sure how Mr. Redburn defines simple, but if we are going to compare the FairTax with the current Internal Revenue code, how could it NOT be much more simple than that? He may have a point that middle-income people would bear a disproportionate share of the tax burden. After all, the prebate would allow the poor to pay no taxes, and the rich could avoid taxes by choosing to spend less of their income. But this is a losing paradigm built on class envy. The fact is, that with the current system, the middle-income taxpayer already pays a disproportionate share of taxes, and the same taxpayer, though still paying a disproportionate share, would be better off under the FairTax. Would you rather have more money left after taxes, even though you are paying "more than your share"? Or would you be willing to have less after taxes so you can "soak the rich"? I think I'd rather have more spending power than more equity of tax burden.

But would you really have more spending power? Wouldn't a consumption tax cause the price of everything to go up? If you read Redburn's article he leads you to believe that everything is going to go up 30% or more with the FairTax.

It is not the same as a normal sales tax, however. Under the proposal, the tax is included first. That means a $100 item would cost $130, or 30 percent more. The plan’s supporters say that works out as a 23 percent rate because $30 is 23 percent of $130. Americans would no longer face federal withholding from their paychecks. But most analysts say the tax rate necessary to replace current federal revenues, under any likely plan, would actually need to be much higher. By some estimates it could add 40 percent, if not more, to the cost of living.

That would be a huge cost of living increase. Even if it were true, you'd be able to handle a lot of it with that prebate you are going to get to cover the basic necessities at the beginning of each month. Then there is also the nice bonus that you didn't have any federal taxes, medicare taxes, or social security taxes withheld from your paycheck. You get to stop worrying about the difference in gross and net pay, because you get to keep your whole check! (Yes, you may still have state taxes withheld, but I'm trying to keep this simple and just focus on federal taxes).

So even if Redburn is right, the prebate and the increased size of our paychecks would offset a lot of his supposed 40% cost of living increase. But the fact is that there will likely be little if any cost of living increase to begin with. That's because Redburn, like most critics of the FairTax, conveniently ignores the embedded taxes already included in the price of everything you buy. When you buy a $100 item Redburn says you will have to tack on another $30. What he doesn't tell you is that since the retailer, wholesaler, shipping company, and manufacturer no longer have to pay income tax, and no longer have to pay payroll taxes on their employees, they can now afford to sell that item for $77. Add another 30% to that $77 dollars ($23) and the item is back to $100. So now you got your $100 item for the same price it was before, plus your prebate, plus your whole paycheck. Wow, what a burden on the middle class!

I hope that clears up the 30% vs 23% thing too. The FairTax is inclusive, whereas most sales taxes are exclusive. In Georgia we have a 7% sales tax. So if I buy a $100 item, I pay an EXTRA $7 for a total of $107. But the FairTax doesn't add an extra $30 to raise the price to $137. With the inclusive FairTax, $23 of the original posted price was the tax! So in a state with no sales tax (though I don't know of any), you see an item priced at $100, you pay $100, and walk out of the store. The store keeps $77 and sends 23% of your $100 ($23) to the federal government. Yes, $23 is about 30% of $77, and so if you quote it like most other sales taxes, it would be a 30% tax. But it's not replacing another sales tax, it's replacing an income tax.

If I am in a 15% marginal tax bracket, and pay an additional 7.65% for social security and medicare, then I only get to keep $77.35 of each $100 I earn. The other $22.65 goes to the federal government. But we quote this as paying nearly 23% of our income in taxes, not as paying 30% of the amount we got to keep. That's why it makes more since to quote the FairTax as an inclusive 23% consumption tax rather than an exclusive 30% sales tax. It's about comparing apples with apples.

I'm not committed to any candidate for President yet, but I'm taking a long hard look at Mr. Huckabee and his FairTax. I hope you will at least give him a look.

I'm not dead - but I die daily

It's been a long time since I posted here. You might have thought I'd died, but I'm very much alive. I have managed to put up a couple of post on the family, sermon and church sites, but I honestly have had neither the time nor the inspiration to post anything here lately. So much has happened since my last post:

• One of our church families lost a son, who was a member at a sister church.
• One of our newest members passed away, leaving a grieving widow and parents-in-law in our fellowship.
• Two ladies in our church spent Christmas in the hospital. One was recovering from a heart attack, the other from pneumonia.
  
• My son has come home from Fort Huachuca to spend the holiday with us, and has now gone back to Arizona.
• We've picked Terri's sister and niece up from the Airport, and taken them back after Christmas.
• We spent a couple of days in Eastman with my mother and my brother's family.
• I managed to get BOTH of our cars stuck in the mud on the way home from Mom's.
• I've thrown my back out and had extremely limited mobility these last few days.
• I got to watch the Georgia Bulldogs route the Hawaii Warriors in the 2008 Sugar Bowl!

There has been a lot to cheer about and a lot to cry about. Every year brings some sunshine and some rain. The last two weeks of December were a microcosm of that principle. But praise God that he is with us no matter what the weather.