Diane – I am not in HR at CBD so I can’t speak to openings, but your letter sure was entertaining and at least got our attention good luck in your search!

I’m looking for any position at any level for any salary just to relocate to Chicago at my own expense and get out of Detroit which I call “Cuba without the sun, fun and health care” even as I know that’s a huge insult to Cuba.

As you’ll see, I’ve got a wealth of very successful agency experience and three V.P. titles, but am willing to wash the windows at CBD just to be in Chicago.

Here’s hoping we can help each other and believe me those windows will sparkle!

Came across an interesting story this morning in the blogosphere – “Will one Chicago woman’s Tweet cost her $50,000?“. Here is a quick recap if you don’t want to read the whole article ..

Today, Horizon Group Management filed a lawsuit against her, alleging that her statement damaged the company’s business reputation.

Pretty interesting stuff, for one business reason, one theoretical reason and one very scary reason …

1. What is worse PR? Having someone spouting off to 20 followers that she has a moldy apartment & her realty company (apparently) hasn’t done anything about it, or having the entire internet aggregating it? As Marian points out, they could/should have turned this into a very positive PR outreach by accepting there was a problem that needed solving.
2. Even though Twitter asks the question “What are you doing?”, that isn’t what question the site answers in reality. It actually speaks to “What are you thinking?” (I have a whole blog post coming on this soon). That said, is something as nebulous as the above blog post considered defamation? Where does the line get drawn?
3. Depending on your opinion on #2, and where this court case ends up, this could take some steam away from “I’m a millionaire for spilling hot coffee on myself and suing” type people as the new breeding ground for lawsuit-happy individuals and companies. Is the Bluetooth Special Interest Group going to sue me for implying that you are an idiot to use their product in a loud bar? Or maybe US Airways for damaging their seat’s reputation?

Admittedly, maybe not apples to apples, but you get the idea. It will be interesting to see where this goes and what the ultimate kickback from the community is.

I, for one, would not feel comfortable doing business with Horizon Realty after this. If they sue for $50,000 over a tweet, could you imagine forgetting to patch a hole in the wall when you move out!??! You’d be rooming with Madoff soon.

Let’s face it – the summer is why we live in Chicago and brave the hellish winter time and time again. And, nothing says summer like the onslaught of festivals around the city! To help aide your planning, here is a master list and downloadable PDF of all festivities. Thanks to my lovely friend Dana for compiling this!

[PDF download]

JUNE

5-6: Free! 57th Street Art Fair

5-6: Community Art Fair

5-7: The Raven: Experience the Magic of Ravenswood

6-7: Free! Chicago Gospel Music Festival

6-7: Free! Chicago Tribune Printers Row Lit Fest

6-7: New! Metronome Celebration

11-Aug. 23: Free! Chicago SummerDance Festival

12-14: Free! Chicago Blues Festival

12-Aug. 30: Free! Movies in the Parks

12-14: Party at St. Mike’s

12-14: Ribfest Chicago

13-14: Andersonville Midsommarfest

13-14: Old Town Art Fair

13-14: Wells Street Art Festival

14: Q101 Block Party

15-21: Free! Fiesta Puertorriquenas

19-21: Free! Chicago Peace Fest

19-21: Close Up 2 Smooth Jazz Festival

19-21: Festa Pasta Vino

19-21: St. Josaphat Summerfest

19-21: Taste of Greece on LaSalle Street Festival

19-21: Taste of Randolph Street

20: Free! Puerto Rican Day Parade

20-21: BAM! Belmont Arts and Music Fest

20-21: Chicago Summerfest

24-27: Free! Chicago Arabesque

26-27: Chicago Pride Fest

26-28: Chicago Soul Music Festival

26-July 5: Free! Taste of Chicago

28: Free! Pride Parade

JULY

3-5: African-Caribbean International Festival of Life

9: Bastille Day 5K Run, Walk and Block Party

10-12: Irish American Heritage Festival

10-11: Jeff Fest

10-11: Old St. Pat’s World’s Largest Block Party

10-12: Free! Chicago Tribune Magnificent Mile Art Festival

11: Free! ‘I Have a Vision’ Community Gospel Festival

11-12: Chicago Folk and Roots Festival

11-12: Rock Around the Block

11-12: St. Andrew’s Greek Festival

11-12: West Fest 2009

12-14: Ribfest Chicago

14-Aug. 25: Free! Outdoor Film Festival in Grant Park

17-19: Pitchfork Music Festival

18-19: Sheffield Garden Walk and Festival

19: Free! Chinatown Summer Fair

25: Free! Dragon Boat Race for Literacy

25: Free! Venetian Night

25-26: Taste of Lincoln Avenue

25-26: Wicker Park Fest

26: Free! An Arts Adventure

30-Aug. 2: Fiesta del Sol

31: Aug. 2: Gold Coast Art Fair

AUGUST

1-2: Northalsted Market Days

1-2: Retro on Roscoe

2: Free! Belize Day in the Park

7-9: Ginza Holiday

7-9: Lollapalooza

8: Free! Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic

8-9: Free! Korean Street Festival

8-9: New! Lincoln Park Arts and Music Festival

8-9: Wrigleyville SummerFest

14-15: Free! Armenian Fest

14-16: Free! Edison Park Fest

14-16: North Side Summerfest

14-16: New! Chicago Ribs ‘n’ Soul Festival

15: Free! Croatian Fest

15-16: Free! Chicago Air & Water Show

15-16: Free! Chicago Carifete

15-16: New! Green Music Fest

21-23: 60th Annual Greek Festival

21-23: Free! Glenwood Avenue Arts Fest

22-23: Lake View Music Fest

29-30: Free! Bucktown Arts Fest

29-30: Free! Taste of Greece 2009

29-30: Free! !Viva! Chicago Latin Music Festival

SEPTEMBER

4-6: Free! Chicago Jazz Festival

4-7: African Festival of the Arts

4-7: Taste of Polonia

5-6: Bash on Wabash

11-13: Free! 89th Annual German-American Festival

12-13: Free! Celtic Fest Chicago

12-13: Groovin’ on the Grove Festival

12-13: Free! Renegade Craft Fair

13: Free! 26th Street Mexican Independence Day Parade

13-14: Wells Street Crush, Music and Comedy Fest

19: Edgewater GRalley

19: Guinness Oyster Fest

19: Musky Fest

25-27: Oktoberfest

Last night at TheChiGuide.com launch party, I had the pleasure of meeting Jonny Imerman from Imerman Angels. His story is one of the most true form of courage and strength that I can imagine: Diagnosed with testicular cancer at age 26 … now, seven years later, runs an organization that pairs one cancer fighter with one cancer survivor of the same age, gender and type of cancer for the ultimate form of support: walking, talking, living proof that they aren’t alone and they can win.

Please … help Jonny in his amazing pursuit: Donate to Imerman Angels, Get Involved in his efforts, become a Sponsor, Join the Database if you are a cancer survivor, Purchase Angel Gear to show your support, run with Imerman Active in marathons – and most importantly – contact Jonny and his team if you are fighting cancer.

‘I Hate Everything’ is my chronicling of things that just suck …

I Hate Everything – Volume 1: Chase & PrivacyMatters

No one likes banks. It’s just a fact. It’s hard to feel warm and fuzzy with their fundamental model of business … making unthinkable profits off you by simply holding / lending money. (Well, aside from their 86% drop in profits last quarter – whoops!) . So far, I have had a decent experience with my current bank, Chase. They have been reasonable with the service offering … have lots of branches here in Downtown Chicago … and even proactively alerted me to possible fraud on my credit card a few weeks ago …

I received a call around the third week of July explaining that there were suspected fraudulent charges on my Chase credit card – one that I rarely use.

I had just returned from a long trip to Europe, and had used the card a few times over there, (though I wasn’t quite sure how it would have been compromised as since the card was still in my possession). Anyway, I thanked them for the alert and asked if they can tell me what was charged. They mentioned something quickly about a company called “PrivacyMatters”, to which I said I had never heard of, and they said the charges would be removed and I would receive a new card within 14 days. Great! That was painless!

During these 14 days of my card and account being in transit, the card was removed from my online Chase account, so I had no way to dive deeper into the charges. No worries I figured – it will get sorted out shortly.

Around the 5th of August, I received a call from a Chase rep letting me know I had missed my credit card payment on the 1st of August. I explained that my account was currently inactive due to fraud and I could not access it online to pay the balance. She said I should have called Chase before the 1st to pay over the phone. I was a little annoyed to be told this, but conceeded I didn’t understand I needed to do that and would be happen to pay over the phone right then. She then said because of the confusion, they would remove the late fee. Great! That was painless!

I finally receive my card in the mail (well after the allotted 14 days), activate it over the phone and wait for it to reactive in my online account. When it finally does, I expect to find my recent activity just as I left it, with the fraudulent charges (that Chase identified themselves) removed or refunded. Well, I don’t exactly find that … the first thing I see is this:

7/30 – AP9*PRIVACYMATTERS12-V(Other) – $29.95
7/30 – AP9*PRIVACYMATTERS12-V(Other) – $1.00

A few things to note here. First, Chase Fraud had called me almost a week before these charges – my account should have been quite closed at this point. Second, this is clearly the same company they had called me about, yet the charges were still there, against my account. Upon looking a little more closely at my statement (which admittedly I haven’t done in months as this is a credit card I only use for emergencies), I see there is a trend here:

6/30 – AP9*PRIVACYMATTERS12-V(Other) – $29.95
6/30 – AP9*PRIVACYMATTERS12-V(Other) – $1.00
5/31 – AP9*PRIVACYMATTERS12-V(Other) – $29.95
5/31 – AP9*PRIVACYMATTERS12-V(Other) – $1.00

That is interesting. My first step was to do some research on said company. Ironically, they offer “Free Credit Report, Free Credit Score, Identity Theft” services. They are also a very,very, very, very, very, very, very well known fraud/scam operation, run by parent company Vertrue. From the BBB:

Based on BBB files, this company has an unsatisfactory record with the Bureau due to a pattern of complaints concerning unauthorized charges to consumer’s credit cards. Complaints reported to the Bureau primarily involve claims of unauthorized charges by the Company’s affiliates. In such cases, customers reported no recollection of having agreed to the programs that were billed to their credit card, debit card or bank account. In some of the cases, consumers reported being charged for two or three years.

Equipped with my new understanding of what happened to my account, I call Chase Fraud Protection to get the charges removed. After being bounced to FOUR representatives (and annoyingly needing to give my name, credit card number and prove my identity FOUR times), I talk to someone who is aware of the PrivacyMatters scam and tells me she is going to connect me to someone who can help me get the charges overturned. Great! The phone rings a few times, and I am greeted by a rep with a heavy accent who simply says “Hello?”. I thought this odd for Chase. Here is how the rest of the conversation went:

Me: “Hello? I am looking to get fraudulent charges overturned on my credit card”

Rep: “Do you have your 9 digit account number?”

Me: “9 digit? The only account number I am aware of is my 16 digit credit card number …? But I have already given that to four people at Chase during this call …”

Rep: “How about your phone number?”

Me: “.. ok .. 312-XXX-XXX”

Rep: “Sorry, that is not providing any results. How about your email address?”

Me: “Email address? Ok … john (at) johnroa.net”

Rep: “Sorry, that is not providing any results”

Me: “Wait – did I get transferred to the wrong place? Is this still Chase Fraud Services?”

Rep: “No .. this is PrivacyMatters”

I am blown away. After Chase has already acknowledged these charges as fraudulent, they actually forward me to the merchant to dispute the charges. The rest of the phone call was as to be expected … “if you have a complaint, here is our P.O. Box address” … “no sir, there is no manager you can talk to, I am the manager” … “my name? Chloe .. ID #14952″ … “no, we do not use our last names here” … “the best I can do is refund one of the charges” (yeah, if I give her my new credit card number) … “yes sir they were authorized. No I cannot provide proof the authorization you gave. You will have to request that in writing to our P.O. Box”.

I hang up and call Chase back. It took a few minutes to get to a supervisor, and after explaining all of the pieces of this horribly annoying puzzle and my elevated level of anger because of being transferred to the scam company unknowingly, they finally agreed to put the request in to have the charges overturned and I should get a letter confirming this within 14 days. Great. Not exactly painless, but at least it should end on a positive note, or so I thought.

At the very end of this phone call, and at the point I finally think this is behind me, I am clicking around my credit card account online and something jumps out at me:

Purchase APR: 18.99%

What the hell? It was half of that before all this mess happened. I have the fraud rep bounce me back to a customer service rep (where yes, I have to give me card number and confirm my identity for the 5th or 6th time in the last hour), and am told there was an increase in my APR for missing my payment. Yes, that payment – the one that was missed because my account was inactive. The FIRST one I have ever missed.  The one they already acknowledged their error on and were refunding the late fee.

I’ve lost it at this point and demand it goes back to where it was or I will cancel the card. She says she will “put the request in to corporate and you will receive a letter soon”.

At this point, I really don’t know whether the charges will be refunded, if my APR will go back to the cozy number it used to be at or if I will be a customer of Chase a week from now – (including my three business accounts). All I do know is that it makes me sick that there are operations like this in this day in age.

I live near an area of Chicago affectionately known as Boystown. This is an especially special weekend in this area, because of the annual Chicago Pride Parade, which is happening nearby as I write this. In light of this, there has been an increase of gay-friendly signage, advertisements, souvenirs, accessories and more around the area.

I stopped by the local Chipotle for lunch yesterday and did a double-take at a sign sitting on the ordering counter:

(click for larger version)

Not being gay myself, and understanding this was done in fun, I am quite curious to know if this would be construed as offensive to anyone? I suppose they were just scraping for a way to use the word ‘homo’ in the sign, but this came off as poor taste to me.

I was with a colleague last night playing the “.com name game” for an upcoming project. We felt we needed some inspiration, so I sent out a text message to about 20 of my friends saying:

First reaction – don’t think about it – send back the first fun word you think of

Here are the responses, in order received:

• Jewish
• Boobs
• <censored>
• Fun bags
• Yermom
• Teezey
• Tits
• Boobs
• Tits and ass
• Armadillo

If that isn’t inspirational, I don’t know what is. Go team go!

Jason R. Knowles, a Special Projects Producer at WLS ABC 7, just dropped me a note about a recently aired segment about a phenomenon that I am sure a lot of people reading this blog can relate to – PDA / Blackberry Addiction!

It is an entertaining look at the addiction so many of us business folk have, and the downsides being connected to work 24/7. There is also some insight on strategies company executives are taking like “banning” employee use of these devices after business hours; an effort to sacrifice some productivity for a little R & R. Hearing others accounts of the “Phantom Buzz” gave me a laugh too:

Definition: The phenomenon of experiencing a sensation of vibration in the pocket-region, leading one to believe their cell phone is vibrating. The sensation can be triggered by other vibrations, such as the engine in a car, but can also appear when no external stimuli is present. [source]

Great story – however, I can’t say I have plans to give up this particular addition

Check it out!