I have received a few responses to my WLI warning. Maybe if we are all able to submit this somewhere, this Travel group can be investigated. I do have one notice though: Since I use Hotmail as my address, the email service sometimes sends emails to the Junk Folder, and I have to specifically mark them as “not junk mail”. I saw an email from WILLIAM somebody, and instead of clicking “not junk mail” I accidentally deleted you without reading. So if you are named William and sent me an email titled simply “WLI”, then know that I’m not ignoring you, and if you could send your response again that would be great! Thanks, and keep sending me emails everyone!

UPDATE 2/3/03: I have learned that WLI Travel Values is actually the company Travel Values Plus. They are affiliated with Webloyalty.com, a company that tailors discount companies, like Travel Values, to your own website. They basically find ways to integrate these companies as unobtrusively as possible into the client’s website. Several big-name companies subscribe to webloyalty’s services, including Priceline.com, Half.com, 1-800-flowers.com, and Classmates.com.

I personally have used some of these websites and made purchases. I know I am very careful and never click on “send me more information” or “send my info to others”, but I did make these purchases with my American Express card, and that is the card Travel Values used.

If anyone has used any of these services with the card that shows unauthorized transactions, perhaps you have a lead now. For more info online you can go to the websites I listed or search Google for “Travel Values Plus” You can also try calling the company at 1-800-890-4892 and let them know how pissed off hundreds of people are. You can’t tell me they are charging fairly if tons of people are unaware they signed up for anything until they are billed! If anyone has additional info, or finds this update to be useful, let me know!

Thanks to everyone who has responded so far!

I called my Grandma in the hospital tonight. She sounded a TON better than when I last talked to her. She said she was still in pain but that they gave her medication when she needed it. She was actually awake during the surgery, having only received a spinal anesthetic, and said she could hear the doctors sawing through bone and screwing things in. I ordered her flowers today from 1-800-flowers.com at 2 pm and they arrived by 3:30 pm. Pretty cool. She liked them of course, so that was cool too. They already had her walk around a little bit, I guess so she doesn’t get stiff.

I also just spent 27 minutes on the phone with AT&T Wireless, trying to get mMode charges off of my bill. The first month was supposed to be free, but they billed me anyway. Most of the time was spent on hold, but the CSR was nice and took care of everything. I also found out that for now I’ll have to live with this quirk where every time I get a voicemail, I am sent a text message along with the regular VM notification. Kinda annoying because you have to press a bunch of buttons to get rid of all the notifications, but if there’s nothing they can do about it right now, I guess I’ll live.

Another note….

Lately I’ve gotten a TON of people visiting my site because they are searching for WLI Travel Values. I’m not sure if you guys are looking to sign up, or if you are like me and found an unauthorized charge for them on your credit card.

Anyway, I received one email from a guy who was in a similar situation, so I’m curious about the rest of you. You guys should sign my guest book or email me and let me know what you’re looking for. It’d be a shame if all of you are in the same boat, but if it happened to two of us, there could be more victims out there. I thought I was going to be content to just have AmEx void the charges and have that be the end, but if hundreds of other people got charged without their consent, then that’s not right and something should be done.

Anyway, just thought I’d throw this out there for anyone willing to share. If you would like to read my original entry (which is the one indexed by Yahoo, Google, etc. and what brought you to my site), please click here and you will be taken directly to my archived entry. Thanks..

I got back from Vegas last night. I had a nice time—stayed at Mandalay Bay, watched the fountain show at Bellagio, played some Blackjack, watched all the Shakira and Raiders fans saunter through the hotel due to a concert and the Super Bowl, respectively.

My mom called tonight and let me know that my Grandma made it through surgery OK with no complications. They didn’t start until 4, which is much later than the scheduled 1 pm. I’m just glad that she seemed to be doing OK. I’m going to call her tomorrow and find out more. However, since my aunts were also there at the hospital when I talked to my mom, I didn’t find out if my sister responded to the ultimatum.

I know I haven’t updated in a bit, so I thought I’d write a little something. I’m leaving for Vegas in a little bit, so I don’t have much time.

Anyway, I just thought I’d write something that’s been bothering me—my Grandma. No, it’s not something she did; it’s that she is going in for hip replacement surgery on Tuesday. She was supposed to have the surgery right before Christmas, but it got postponed. It’s pretty sad because ever since she decided on the operation, she’s kinda given into the pain. Most days now she doesn’t get out of bed, and when she does, she doesn’t get dressed because it’s just too painful. The pain is all she talks about anymore—before, she tried to fight through it, but now she’s just counting down the days until she can have the surgery. I love my Grandma and she’s the only one I’ve got left, so I really hope that all goes well.

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Apparently I better post another entry before the huge public outcry turns into an angry mob! Anyway, not much is new, so I’m not sure how exciting this will be.

Oh, I am playing Civ 3 at the moment and am doing MUCH better this time. I am currently on the year 1650 AD on PTW and am almost done with the Space Shuttle. I own almost every Wonder, my army is larger than everyone else’s, the UN is built, is there any way I can lose??

Apparently there is.

In the year 1550 when I completed the UN, I accidentally clicked “Yes” when it asked if I wanted to hold elections. There was no way to cancel, so I had to vote. There were only two candidates—me and Mao. I voted for myself of course, but managed to lose after garnering only 3 votes (including mine). I don’t know what he did that was so great. So anyway, my wonderful game came to a rather abrupt end, and I not only felt completely stupid, but freaked that I lost all that game play (since I had forgotten to save since year 1100-something)

Thank goodness for autosave though. Luckily I completed the UN at the end of 1550, so when I opened that Autosave file, I was able to revert to the part right before it was finished and elections had taken place, and now I have respectfully declined to vote just yet. I guess I’m going for the Space Victory, since I’m only a couple turns away. Soon I may get good enough at this to battle Kevin! You think you can take me, Kev?? ;)

Happy New Year! Hope 2003 is a great year for everyone. I hope this year I have the courage to take charge of my life and do the things I need to do to be happy.