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Entry bubble Expanding the Home Buyer Tax Credit

By: Jess | October 15, 2009 | Category: Home and Family

House soldTwo of my friends bought their first house this year and are moving in this weekend. They get married this spring, but they wanted to take advantage of the $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit, which meant they had to buy the house before Dec. 1, 2009.

However, now there is a debate in Congress on whether the tax credit should be expanded or continued next year.

Some of the potential expansions include increasing the amount of the credit from $8,000 to $15,000, making the credit available for all of 2010 and opening the tax credit to all home buyers who meet the income requirements (currently $75,000 for those filing taxes separately and $150,000 for those filing jointly.)

Those who support the idea expanding the tax credit believe the credit will help cut down on the amount of foreclosures and prevent the housing market from falling farther.

Those who are in favor of letting the credit expire at the end of this year worry that expanding the credit would inflate house prices temporarily causing a severe drop off when the credit eventually does expire. They also worry that eventually the credit will have to be paid for through higher taxes.

So where do you stand on this issue? Are you in favor of expanding the credit or letting it expire after this year?

| Post a Comment | View Comments [9] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: home_buyer   jess   tax_credit  

 

Entry bubble Banned: Flavored Cigarettes

By: Jess | October 01, 2009 | Category: Health

no smoking signLast week cigarettes with candy and clove flavors were banned in the United States as the first step in the new Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

The reason for the ban was to get rid of flavored cigarettes, which may attract more kids and teens to begin smoking, leading to a lifelong habit. Companies that continue to ship the products in the country will be subject to punishment from the FDA. A phone number (1-877-CTP-1373) and website have been set up for people to report if they continue to see these products for sale.

I'm not a smoker, so this ban doesn't affect me on a personal level, but I want to know what you all think. Smoking is a personal issue for a lot of people, so please share your opinions on the new ban. (Please make sure to read our comment guidelines before doing so.)

| Post a Comment | View Comments [15] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: ban   cigarettes   jess   no_smoking   smoking  

 

Entry bubble Happy 2nd Birthday Gov Gab!

By: Jess | September 24, 2009 | Category: Fun

Birthday cake and presentThis week celebrates the second birthday of everyone's favorite government blog! In the past year, the Gov Gab bloggers have addressed all kinds of topics. We've debated the merits of the Post Office dropping service on a Tuesday or Saturday and discussed where people can find information on the digital TV conversion. We've covered the Presidential Inauguration and many of the celebratory balls.

Whether we were stirring up controversy or just sharing some of the government information we've found helpful in our daily lives, you've been with us the whole way and for that, we want to give you a big "Thanks!"

We appreciate every comment you leave, whether or not you agree with us. It's great to have so many of you joining our discussions.

To celebrate, we thought it would be fun to show you which posts you found the most interesting this year.

Here are the top five posts that got the most of you talking:

The Post Office Dilemma: 38 comments

Contacting President Barack Obama: 34 comments

Inauguration Day: 26 comments

Questions for the President: 26 comments

Your Turn: Making the Most of Libraries: 26 comments

| Post a Comment | View Comments [5] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: birthday   gab   gov   jess  

 

Entry bubble A Successful Consumer Complaint

By: Jess | September 17, 2009 | Category: General

Woman using wireless Internet

You may remember that a few weeks ago I was having horrible problems with my Internet service so I turned to the Consumer Action Handbook to figure out how to file a complaint. Many of you also commented that after I filed the complaint I should ask my provider to reimburse me for the time I had been without service.

I just wanted to take a quick minute to thank you all for that advice. I did request to be reimbursed for service lost, and my provider agreed. I'm waiting to get my next bill to make sure the credit went through. If it does, I'll be reimbursed for about half the cost of the bill and—for all the trouble they put me through—they also offered to cut my monthly bill in half for the rest of the year.

The company was also quick to respond to the complaint letter I sent to the vice president of customer relations. A very nice woman called me and listened to my problem. Since a technician had just been to my house to fix the problem, she told me to call her if we had problems again and she gave me a direct number and her normal work hours.

When my service dropped less than an hour after the tech had been there, I called her right back and she immediately called a supervisor and got a technician out to solve the problem.

My Internet hasn't been perfect since then, but it's been better and I'm happy that I have a person I can contact directly with future problems.

So thanks to all of you for your great advice and I encourage you to use the resources at ConsumerAction.gov if you ever need them.

| View Comments [2] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: complaints   consumer   consumer_action_handbook   consumer_complaint   jess  

 

Entry bubble How to file a complaint

By: Jess | September 03, 2009 | Category: Money

customer service agentThis past month my Internet service provider has been the bane of my existence. My service has been fickle, at best. More often than not, it will work for a few hours and then stop. And then I'll spend another hour on the phone with customer service trying to troubleshoot.

They've sent a technician once to fix the problem, and our service worked for a week or two, but then last week it went out again. I wasted more time on hold and talking to very nice and very helpful customer service agents. (That's not sarcasm, the people I spoke with this time around tried to do the best they could.)

But alas, my service still goes out every couple hours and then stays out for several more.

I finally had to file a complaint against the company. I've never had to do that before so I turned to ConsumerAction.gov for advice on what to do.

My first instinct was to call up my Better Business Bureau, but ConsumerAction.gov advised that I try to contact someone higher up at the company first. So I hunted around on the company Web site until I found a contact name and email for the Vice President of customer relations.

Then I followed some of the suggestions from one of the sample complaint letters and read about next steps to take. I decided I'd wait a week before contacting the BBB to see if the company could resolve the problem. Earlier this week I got a phone call from the company telling me they were trying to get the problem fixed as soon as possible and I have another technician coming out this week.

I really hope this solves the whole problem. I hate paying so much for service and then not having it and I'd really rather not have to file a complaint with the BBB.

Have any of you ever had problems with a company that you had to file a complaint against? What was the process like? Was it easy or tough and did you get the results you wanted?

| View Comments [3] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: complaints   customer   internet   jess   service  

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