Food and transportation prices have been rising enough in the past few months to give anyone a heart attack. In fact the high prices of everything from cab rides and dinner at Applebee's to an evening out at the strip clubs have been causing heart attacks for Robert P. Farnum a resident of Milwaukee who has been using it as an excuse to skip out on several bills over the past month. With this many heart attacks in the span of a month, you might be worried about Mr. Farnum but as it turns out, the only thing Robert is suffering from is being a 'Fakey McFakerton"!

This isn't Farnum's first brush with the law, in fact he is on probation which includes a restriction against visiting several restaurants in his area, including Applebee's He was turned in by a doctor at the hospital who became fed up with his shenanigans especially after Farnum used it to elude payment for services rendered at an exotic club. The good news is that Farnum won several awards for his acting, including one for restaurant fraud and another for habitual criminality, which include complementary gift bags including up to 2 years and nine months in Jail.

I'm hoping they televise the trial later this month as I can't wait to see Farnum try and pull a fake heart attack in front of the judge to get out of hard time. Hopefully it doesn't become a modern day case of the boy who cried wolf, suffering a myocardial infarction as he comes to grips with the gravity of his acting. Be sure to check out the one and only Mr. Farnum's mug shot to complete this tale of woe.

Moving is a stressful event, tempers are tested and wallets are opened all in the need to get your life's accumulations from point A to point B. The NY Times covered an issue some people are having with moving services, especially with state to state moves. In these cases a moving company provides a lowball offer for moving your goods, often sight unseen. When the movers show up at your new home with all of your belongings locked securely in their truck they then request a substantial additional sum of cash to unload your items!

If this happens to you unfortunately your options are limited. If you don't pay up the movers may damage or leave with your items and if you do fork over the cash your recourse is also limited. In many states the legislation is not on the books to protect consumers from these unscrupulous state to state movers. When restitution is made through the help of a consumer group the process is often a lengthy and involved one.

I haven't used movers in the past but I have run a small moving and storage business with two of my classmates shortly after graduation. One of our biggest issues was gaining the trust of our customers and assuring them that we wouldn't run off with their futon and mini fridge. Just like mechanics, movers are mostly "good people' but a few bad apples can ruin the reputation of the whole group. Before you hire a mover check out a reference or three and contact your local better business bureau for the company's standing.

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.