Wednesday, July 9, 2008

PS

Good comment by somebody:

"Kimberly Wake Up"

As a reporter, if this is your attempt at research, then it is pathetic at best. There exists SERIOUS concerns about MyGallons. Where do I start?

First let's look at the found Steven Verona - filed for bankruptcy in 2000 and has a history of dubious business ventures. More importantly, NO material history of effective commodity risk management.

Second, the company currently has NO way to provide it's 'members' with a fuel card. He claims he will find a replacement card provider, but that takes months of work. he should shut down the site until he is ready. He is currently still accepting members and collecting $30-$40 in fees.

MyGallons is operating out of a 'virtual' office in Miami. The address of MyGallons on their site is 1221 Brickell Ave, Suite 900. Regus (the office leasing company) uses that address for those looking to have a "virtual" office with the benefits of a 'credible' address. Rent starts at $250/month. The operation may not even physically be at that address. Does that not raise another flag for you?

The US Bank/Voyager logos along with logos of Exxon, Sunoco, BP, Shell, etc have all been removed from his site in recent days. Hmmmm, why would that be you think??? That doesn't help those that signed up when those logos were present on the website launch.

The honorable thing to do is shut down the site until all the pieces are in place. Otherwise it IS misleading regardless of the defense MyGallons will list on their site or in the press. The currently have NO facility to provide it's members with a card - FACT. The list goes on Kimberly. MyGallons has an "F" rating for a reason.


Peter of ME

2 comments:

L said...

Interesting reply. The reporter sounds a little bit dippy and ill-informed, although it may just be that she made a error in judgement.

Re: the bus. The bus system in Anchorage sucks, to put it bluntly. I have been researching the bus as an alternative to driving; it would take me an hour and a half and 2 buses to make the 4 mile commute to my office. Now, I know that I travel "against traffic", that is to say, my office is in the burbs as opposed to downtown. However, there is no bus that even runs to my office, which I find deplorable, since it is in the middle of a number of housing developments.

In general in Anchorage the "upscale" housing developments do not have buses that run to them. How are people supposed to use public transportation if it doesn't run in their areas?

Of course, when I complain about the bus system, some idiots like to tell me "Well, the bus system sucks because no one uses it so it is poorly funded". This kind of asinine thinking is what is causing our public transportation problems to start with. There needs to be some sort of initial investment to improve the system because people won't use it if it's inconvenient if they have any other option. As a result, the only people who use the bus are people who can't afford cars -- like university students, blue collar types, etc.

The way I see it, the richies don't want to fund the bus because they don't use it. Well, I don't want to fund the improvements to their neighborhood streets because I don't drive through their neighborhoods. (As an aside, those neighborhood streets are already scads better than my neighborhood streets. Yet, somehow my neighborhood gets passed by for repaving every year). The point is, with a little initial funding, public transportation could be dramatically improved, which would make Anchorage a nicer place to live for everyone, not just the underprivileged.

NB: I have contacted the city assembly and the Anchorage DOT about the bus system. Supposedly, some plans are in the works to improve the system. However, I'm not holding my breath. We'll see.

Carlw4514 said...

we're pretty lucky around here as you know, but buses, esp regular metro, can be pretty unimpressive.