Have you looked at your home security system bill lately? Have you ever wondered exactly what kind of service you're receiving for your monthly fee? Me too!

I've had ADT for nearly four years, faithfully paying them $37 a month, every month. And when I first started with them, I got good service. In my city, the police do not respond to home alarms. Instead, ADT has a list of numbers to call when an alarm goes off.

If they do not reach me, they're supposed to dispatch the "guard service." If they do reach me, I have the option of having the guard respond or not. If the guard is dispatched to the house, the guard is supposed to survey the perimeter of the house to look for obvious signs of a break-in, like a broken window or door. If everything looks okay, the guard leaves with no further action. If there is evidence of a break-in, the guard calls the police. Everything used to go like clockwork, and I had no complaints.

This story isn't about me. I don't hate Bank of America yet. And I like the accounts I have with them and want to keep them. It's just that I feel I have a duty to inform the world about Avi Oslick, who does hate Bank of America.

It's a simple story. One told by many... of a bank transaction gone wrong and a bank who won't fix their mistake. According to a news story, about an hour after Avi issued a check for $2,500, he contacted Bank of America (which happens to be across the street from his house) to have the check canceled. He says the bank told him it was canceled, but later allowed the check to clear and told him tough luck. Avi says this isn't the first transaction the bank has messed up for him, and he's sick of their errors costing him money.

When the bank wouldn't work with Avi, he put a big sign on his house that says "I hate Bank of America" and started a website, ihateboa.com. He says that he's just standing up for himself and that other consumers need to do the same. One consumer did just that last year, starting a site called lowes-sucks.com. Lowes tried to use legal tactics to get the owner to take that site down, and eventually the two sides came to a settlement which resulted in the site going away and the creator going mute on the issue. (I do hope he got some money for his troubles!)

I hate the sneaky little tricks that companies use to make you do business with them, even when you don't want to. There are plenty of services and software programs that allow consumers to renew their subscription automatically... just check the box! That's convenient when you want to renew. Not so convenient if you don't want to renew and forgot that you checked the box.

What about those subscriptions that you didn't even know you were going to automatically renew? I stopped using Norton Antivirus by Symantec months ago on all my computers because it was using too much memory and slowing things down. I found a much better option, and promptly uninstalled all copies of Norton. I thought I was done with Norton forever.

Until a charge showed up on my credit card this week for a subscription renewal. What? I didn't renew anything. I haven't even used the software for months. How could this happen?

These days, it seems every business has a fee for everything. They're trying to supplement their earnings by charging customers for the most ridiculous things. Want to remove a service from your phone bill... pay a fee! Want to actually pay your Sprint bill? You're going to pay a fee for that too.

I don't blame a consumer for wanting to pay a bill in person. These days, you can't trust the U.S. Postal service to get your check there on time, and late payments can cause plenty of problems for bills from credit cards, to cable service, to wireless service. Online payments help the customer's cause, but not everyone wants to do them.

Michelle just wants to pay her Sprint bill at the Sprint store. What's so crazy about that? After all... the store is already there and the employees are there to help the customers, right?

Have you ever purchased something on eBay, paid with PayPal, and felt good because you're got their "buyer protection" guarantee? Unfortunately, buyers aren't as protected as they might think they are. Sure, PayPal agrees to help resolve disputes between you and the seller, but that doesn't mean that you're going to win your dispute, even when all the evidence is in your favor.

Witness this story from a WalletPop reader who was scammed by an eBay seller, and then felt victimized a second time by the lack of results from PayPal:

My consumer scam involves PAYPAL which is a ruthless, money grubbing Ebay company. They get to operate like a bank, allow consumers to think they ARE a bank, pretend to offer "Paypal Protection," when it is all a scam to get and keep consumers' money as long as they can.

Let me start out by saying that I am a small time Ebay Powerseller, with 100% positive feedback. I have been selling small vintage and antique auction items fairly regularly since 2005. I have used Paypal to receive and send payments early on so had always been a great customer and independent agent for Ebay and of Paypal.

We've all heard the stories of credit card companies suddenly deciding to raise your interest rate. If you've made a late payment or gone over your limit, the credit card agreement allows them to immediately raise your rate. And there are other lesser-known reasons for raising your interest rate. Now it's become more common for credit card companies to have a clause in your agreement that allows them to raise your interest rate if your credit score decreases or if you have a late payment to a different credit card company.

One WalletPop reader wrote to me with this note about her increased interest rate:

I am writing because the Bank of America, where I have 5 or 6 different accounts, all in good standing, called me to tell me that my small business credit card finance rate was going to be increased to 23.99%. Not because I was ever late on a payment. Not because I went over my limit. Not even because I wasn't paying the minimum payment (I always pay more than the minimum payment). Nope. It was because I wasn't paying my balance down "fast enough".

Today in the mail, I received a new credit card from Discover. But the question is why. I didn't open a new account. My card hadn't expired. I didn't get a new account number. I hadn't lost the card. I didn't request a second card.

There was no documentation with the card other than the standard "here's your card" notice and the sticker on the front of the card saying it must be activated by calling from your home phone. Except I already have a card with the exact same numbers on the front and the back that's already activated. No activation needed for this card I received today... the card number is already up and running.

Each time a credit card company sends out a credit card, isn't there a certain amount of risk that goes along with it? The envelope could get lost and the card could end up in the wrong hands. The card could be stolen by someone who's a part of the mailing process. At the very least, someone could get the numbers off the card and try to use them online.

I'm a firm believer in using the power of the internet to keep retailers and service providers honest. And I think consumers owe it to each other to report those companies that provide poor or dishonest service to their customers. But it's equally important to let the world know what you've have a great experience. Let's reward the good companies with our business!

How do I love Home Depot? Let me count the ways... I cannot remember ever going into a Home Depot and getting anything less than superb customer service. Even when they've been very busy and clearly shorthanded, I was still treated with kindness and the sales people made sure I had everything I needed (without feeling rushed).

Chalk up one more gold star for Home Depot this week. Over the weekend I found a cool refrigerator for my office. I don't need a full size refrigerator, but I wanted something a little more substantial than the typical "dorm room" model compact refrigerator. The only problem with this medium-sized refrigerator that I found at Home Depot? It doesn't fit in my car.

Today, after many months of procrastinating, I finally called AT&T to tell them to take their "long distance service" off my home phone line. I don't even use the line, much less the long distance. So the idea of paying an additional $5 a month for something that doesn't cost AT&T anything to make available to me, and for something I don't ever use, is just silly.

Of course, it took me many months to get around to making this phone call. (Imagine them collecting $5 a month from hundreds of thousands of customers just like me, who just ignore the issue.) I know, I know. It's my fault for being too lazy to call them. It's just that it's always so painful to call AT&T...

So I call customer service, go through several menus, and end up speaking to a live person. He tells me he's happy to remove the $5 per month charge for the long distance I don't use, if I just pay a $9 fee. Huh? I have to pay you if I want to stop paying you?

Here's a pretty convoluted story I found on the GolfWrx.com message board. Basically, this guy went to Golf Galaxy and purchased a club for $60 and then received this phone call: "The sonartec club you purchased 2 weeks ago shouldn't have been for sale. It was an employee's club getting serviced or something. Would you do a big favor and bring it back in? I would appreciate it very much and we will take care of you!"

So this good Samaritan drives 60 miles to return it, and is offered a $100 used driver as a trade. Not satisfied, he asked to be upgraded to a $250 driver and was told that he couldn't have it. He ended up settling for some golf balls because he didn't want the driver he was offered.

So here's the question: did he get ripped off?

I recently received a message from Reunion.com that looked like it was from a former employee who was searching for me on the site. Weird. Why would she look for me on a site targeted toward high school classmates? We grew up a country apart from each other.

Then I heard about the mess on a message board I frequent, and now the LA Times is writing about it... Reunion.com has found a sneaky way to email everyone in your address book without your permission.

The game goes like this: You get a message saying Bob Jones was looking for you at Reunion.com and you're supposed to visit the site to see who else has been searching for you. Once you get to the site, you're prompted to sign up for a free account. After you sign up, you receive a message like this: "We'll find your friends and family who are already members and also automatically invite any nonmembers to join (it's free!)."

Have you been cheated, scammed, or otherwise disappointed by a company? WalletPop wants your real life stories about consumer scams and complaints.

Email us with your story.... Did you receive horrible customer service? Did you pay for a product or service that you didn't receive? Did a company refuse to honor a warranty? Were you scammed out of money?

What we want to hear the facts of your firsthand experience. If we're interested in your story, we may email you to clarify some of the facts or to request your documentation. Don't be offended if we ask you for more information... we just want to make sure that we get the story right. And while we won't necessarily be able to fully investigate your claims or get your money back, we'll at least be able to hold companies accountable for their behavior. And hopefully, they'll even respond with some action to right their wrongs

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

Sometimes all it takes is a little pressure to get the wheels of a corporation moving. It turns out that shortly after the story of Tom, a Sears customer who was charged $1070 for a TV he never received, gained traction in the media, Mark Ennis, from the Presidential office at Citibank service contacted him. Mark had tried calling the Sears store where Tom purchased the TV but was given the same treatment Tom experienced. Undeterred Mark went "off script" and pulled the records for every Tom who purchased a TV on "Black Friday" in order to find out what went wrong on the order.

It turns out that just after the first TV was refunded, it was re-rung, resulting in the outstanding charge to Tom's Sears card. None of the individuals Tom spoke to over the past 4 months looked past the initial refund transaction to see what was really happening. If they had spent an additional 5 minutes investigating the billing issue, Tom's problems could have been solved months ago. Thankfully the story has a happy ending, Tom is getting a refund for his undelivered TV and some Sears employees will likely be getting a refresher course in customer service. That is if they aren't shown the door for this heinous neglect of customer service. Bravo to Mark for helping out the consumer and making extra effort along the way. We need more people like you in corporations.

Via Consumerist

Update; no thanks to Sears, Citibank officials have stepped in to resolve this dilemma. Read about it here:

Just in case you need another reason not to use a store branded credit card, a Sears card holder, Tom, is still waiting for a refund on a TV that he ordered last November at his local store. After finding out that Sears didn't have the specially priced TV he wanted in stock on Black Friday, the store agreed to order one for him. He went ahead and paid for the $1,070 TV with his store credit card.

The customer left for a week long vacation expecting to pick up his new TV upon his return. However the TV was still unavailable. At this point, he was able to negotiate a lower price on a similar TV by speaking with the manager, for which he also paid. He went home with his new TV to bask in its glow.

He soon found out that Sears had not refunded the original purchase price of $1,070 for the set he had purchased on Black Friday, a TV he has never taken delivery of. He has tried speaking to the manager at the local store as well as the customer support for his Sears card, but no one can seem to get their act together and issue a refund. Tom already disputed the charge with the "Disputes" department for his Sears Card but is consistently hung up on, as there is no hold queue for the department. Contacting the local manager has proved fruitless as well, as her phone rings continuously.

Right now the customer is out $1,070.74. It is ridiculous that no one at Sears can step outside the script to help resolve a major purchase for this man. To get closure he may find it necessary to take Sears to small claims court or to approach his State Attorney General.

In Ohio, for example, one can file a complaint online and sit back while the AG's office does all the heavy lifting for you. Tom might also call his local news team -- I am sure they have a "Call for Action" segment that this would fit into quite nicely.

He would have been well advised to use a major credit card instead of a store card for this purchase, so that he could better challenge this charge. Store cards are notorious for having high rates, and in this case have a vested interest in not helping him with the dispute.

UPDATE: Additional information has come to my attention, and this article has been updated accordingly.

One of the consumer scams that is most well-known and most hated by fraud experts is the Advance Fee Loan scam. The scam is exactly what it sounds like: You want a loan, and someone offers you a loan but asks for a hefty fee prior to giving you the loan. And we're not talking a small application fee that a bank sometimes requires. We're talking about significant money up front before you ever see a dime. And the "loan" never happens.

One WalletPop reader has been taken for $39,000 with this type of scam. Here's her story with her name changed to protect her identity...

In late 2007, Angie began looking for funding for her small family-owned business. She was in financial trouble and was striking out with banks. She started looking for funding in the private sector, and her research brought her to Global Funding Network.