Now, I’m hoping this doesn’t turn out like Cricket. I ordered ClearWire this morning, which came out to about $140 with buying the router instead of leasing it. So, I check the bank account I used to pay for it, and I have seven transactions from ClearWire – one for $16, another for $154 and five for $1… So I contact them, because well, they only gave me a receipt for $140 so wtf? Here’s the convo we had.

Kayla James [9:45:19 PM]: Welcome to our real-time support chat. How can I help you today?
Nito Belmont [9:45:19 PM]: About payment.
Kayla James [9:45:46 PM]: How can I help you with your payment today?
Nito Belmont [9:45:52 PM]: I just ordered ClearWire yesterday morning, and just looked at my bank records.
[9:46:06 PM]: 141.97 AMOUNT PAID
[9:46:17 PM]: Is what I *should* have been charged
Kayla James [9:46:39 PM]: May I have the phone number associated with your account please?
Nito Belmont [9:46:40 PM]: Why am I seeing $16.09, $154 and 5 charges for $1
[9:46:50 PM]: [censored]
Kayla James [9:47:49 PM]: There is a security question on the account. What is [censored]?
Nito Belmont [9:47:59 PM]: [censored]
Kayla James [9:49:24 PM]: You were charged $137.98. The rest are holds that will be relesed in 3-5 busines days.
[9:49:49 PM]: For some reason when new card is placed in the systm the banks like to place hold for odd amounts. But it will come back to you .
Nito Belmont [9:50:26 PM]: My bank doesn’t place a hold on any of my transactions, which means that your company is doing it, not any bank.
[9:51:13 PM]: And if they were holding transactions, they would have all been in one transaction, why is there 7?
Kayla James [9:52:22 PM]: It will be refunded to your card in 3-5 business days. I apologize for any inconveninece.
Nito Belmont [9:53:27 PM]: I’m saving this chat, and holding you to your word. Have a good day.

So, they’re holding *does the math real quick* $37.11? See, I want to believe that this is the truth, but I already know that the better conclusion for this is that they do the same thing as MoneyBookers. Funneling out little increments of money for themselves for each transaction, hoping no one catches it. Oh yes, I don’t play that “You pay us a middleman fee” bullshit with people. Only the company selling pays a fee for their services, not me, and I make sure they know that every time I get my money back from them.

Now, there is no way in hell my bank took the money I’m holding in my account in their bank and then turned around and put a hold on it. And there’s no way that the merchant they’re using did either, which leaves their company. 3 – 5 business days, and we shall see and I will update then.

Until next time,
-Nito

As most of my regular subscribers may know, I’m anti-facebook, and have been since a few months after they came out. I read a piece on their newest monopoly move the other day about their patent application, which has everyone in the OSS world in an uproar.

On August 9th, FaceBook applied for a patent on Crowdsourcing Translation.

What is Crowdsourcing Translation?
The Crowdsourcing Translation has been used for years by multiple sites to allow members to create multilingual translations for websites/pages. It is a free open way to translate web pages to other languages.

What it means if FaceBook gets the patent?
To sum it up, it means that FaceBook would hold exclusive rights to Crowdsourcing Translation software.

What are my thoughts on this?
If this gets passed, OSS is doomed. Why you ask? Because this means that the government is overlooking the fact that this has been an open source of translation for years, and just allowing the first person/company with the money for to apply to get the patent.

What do you think about FaceBook trying to patent this open translation tool?