The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 05, 2001, Page 5, Image 5
This Week in USC History
Mar. 5, 1980 — Four inches of snow forced USC to close
and caused 22 students to check into the Thomson Student
Health Center with injuries resulting from snow activities.
Monday, March 5, 2001 THlC (3aillCC0Ck . Page 5
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■ Don’t be pressured into buying.
A good offer today usually will be a good offer
tomorrow. Legitimate businesses don’t expect
you to make snap decisions. Scam artists often
^ say they need your commitment to buy
immediately or the offer won’t be available much
longer. They typically brush aside questions or
concerns with vague answers or assurances.
■ Ask detailed questions.
Find out exactly what the price covers and what
it doesn T. Ask about additional charges. Get the
names of the hotels, airports, airlines and
restaurants included in your package and contact
these businesses directly to verify arrangements.
Ask about cancellation policies and refunds. If
the salesperson can’t give you detailed answers,
walk away.
■ Get all information in writing before you
agree to buy.
Once you receive the written information, make
sure it reflects what you were told over the
phone and the terms you agreed to.
■ Don’t give your credit card number or
bank information over the phone unless
you initiated the call or know the company.
One easy way for a scam operator to close a deal
is to gel your credit card number and charge
your account. They use high-pressure tactics to
obtain personal information before explaining
all the conditions of the offer.
■ Be wary of sending money by messenger
or overnight delivery services.
Some scam artists actually discourage use of a
credit card payment and instead insist on the
immediacy of sending them a check or money
order via a courier service. Others may offer to
send a messenger to pick up your payment. If
you pay with cash or a check, rather than credit
card, you lose your right to dispute fraudulent
charges under the fair Credit Billing Act. Ifyou
chaiged your trip to a credit card, you can dispute
the charge with your credit card company should
something go wrong.
■ Check out the company before paying.
Contact your Better Business Bureau at (800)
866-6668 for a reliability report on the company
before making your purchase. If possible, make
travel arrangements with a local, reputable travel
agency. A good travel agent can tell whether
your offer is legitimate and help you make travel
arrangements that match the charges you
expected.
■ Read the fine print in advertisements,
brochures and fliers.
Fine print or asterisks might be used to change
the meaning of an advertising statement or to
indicate restrictions, such as required length
of stay or additional charges. Make sure the
advertised travel prices are available at the lime
you wish to travel.
Courtesy of Better Business Bureau
of Lexington County
Staying Out
of Hot ^ter.
Avoiding Spring Break Scams
by Michelle Pittman
The Gamecock
Buyer beware — as spring break
once again threatens to turns the tropical
climate on its ear in a cycle of binge
drinking and dancing, it’s time again to
warn students of their responsibilities
during a reckless week of partying.
While the usual focus is on safe sex
and informed drinking, many college
students overlook other major factors
of the week — transportation and
accommodation.
With super-cheap fares floating
around the classifieds and the Internet,
it’s possible to be victim to popular travel
scams.
“Sometimes, searching for the best
deal can land students far from paradise
and cost them more than they bargained
for,” said Jack E. Mannix, president of
the Institute of Certified Travel Agents.
Though almost everyone already has
their plans mapped out, it might not
be too late to check the validity of an
“amazing but true” offer.
“The [Better Business Bureau]
typically hears from students who never
get their ‘bargain’ or ‘free’ trip
because their reservations may not be
confirmed or they must comply with
hard-to-meet hidden or expensive
‘conditions’,” BBB President/CEO
Tracey McLamey said.
To avoid spending spring break
stranded at an airport or stuck on some
tropical island without a room, it’s
important to do some homework.
— Make sure the travel agency or
company the trip is booked through is
professionally certified. Two common
and well-respected distinctions are
Certified Travel Counselor and Certified
Travel Associates, staff members who
have been accredited by their peers in
the industry.
— Request information about the
business and ask for names of satisfied
customers. As a job application seeks
references, so should an informed
consumer. Agencies such as the
Consumer Affairs Department and the
Better Business Bureau are established
for the sole purpose of verifying company
information for consumers.
— While paying with a credit card
is a student’s best bet against fraud, federal
law requires that charter packages funded
by cash or check be payable to an escrow
account. Call the bank and verify the
account’s validity. Companies that
hesitate or don’t provide this information
should be approached with caution.
— One of the most important things
a college student can do to avoid a
miserable vacation is to read the fine
print. Many charter flights can legally
cancel 10 days prior to departure; and
last minute schedule changes aren’t
uncommon. Hotels often list less
desirable accommodations as alternates
in the contract, and students can be quite
surprised when their room don’t match
the glossy pictures in the brochure.
— Traveler’s insurance can help
cover cancellations, and all-inclusive
packages, while seemingly expensive at
first, can save students hundreds in hidden
fees. Also, know traveler’s rights.
Vacationers have the right to cancel a
charter flight without penalty if the
operator changes itinerary, or
dissatisfactory changes are applied.
The spotlight desk can be reached at
gamecockspotfight@hotmail.com
I Wes Lilly
(above left) and
USC student
Katrina Be vis
(left) enjoy
spring break at
Myrtle Beach.
It’s important
for students to
do their home
work before
buying vacation
packages to
prevent travel
scams.
fe Photos courtesy of
Katrina Bevis/The
Gamecock
£
Napster fans worry
about song screening
by Ron Harris
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — Millions of
Napster users were still waiting Sunday
^ find out when they’d confront a new
'.feature on the song-swapping service
— a dreaded screening technology to
weed out one million song titles and
appease the courts and record labels.
But other online music users
weren ’t waiting for the crackdown and
instead started bombarding other free
services.
By early Sunday, Napster hadn’t yet
started blocking access to Metallica
or Dr. Dre songs or 5,600 other titles
the recording industry presented to the
company.
Napster attorney David Boies
told a federal court judge the move to
<#ock those titles would begin some
time this weekend.
Calls to Napster weren’t
immediately returned Saturday.
Napster said it wouldn’t be easy
to exclude the files.
“It is a complex technological
solution that is very taxing to the system
and will degrade the operation of the
service,” a notice on Napster’s Wfeb site
read. “It has involved a significant
investment of time and resources.”
Music fans say it’s a bad move.
“I think it’s going to make a lot of
people mad,” said 19-year-old Andrea
i Gordon of San Jose. “I think they’re
| going to lose a lot of customers.”
Some said they would switch
systems if Napster became a headache.
^ “1 might just stop using Napster and
try to get these other services,” said
Alex S>ensmore, a 20-ye'ar-old
engineering student at the University
Napster pounder Shawn Fanning
of Califomia-Berkeley.
Song trading on the Internet isn’t
expected to die anytime soon—there
are too many sources besides Napster.
“As other people are driven away
from Napster, more people will go to
these alternative file-sharing programs,”
Densmore said.
The demand for free music was
never more evident than Saturday.
On just one of Napster’s 80 servers,
11,000 users traded nearly 2.2 million
songs such as Metallica’s “Unfoigiven,”
which the band requested be blocked
from the service.
Napigator, an alternative system
that directs the Napster program to
servers around the world, listed hundreds
of thousands of users logged on sharing
music.
Napster promised the song-screening
technology after a hearing Friday.
Intellectual property attorney
Anthony Lupo said the time is right for
the record labels to make a deal, on their
terms, with Napster.
“By beating up on Napster too hard,
they may force the people underground
and never get the opportunity again,”
Lupo said.
The Mexican doesn’t head
south despite eccentric plot
by Brook Bristow
The Gamecock
REVIEW
MOVIE: The Mexican
STARRING: Brad Pitt, Julia
Roberts
GRADE: ☆☆☆ out of ☆☆☆☆
The Mexican is an interesting,
convoluted movie that can definitely be
seen as anti-Hollywood.
The two stars, Brad Pitt and Julia
Roberts, are out of place in this eccentric
movie, playing roles better suited for
character actors.
Perhaps that’s why they chose to do
this movie together — it’s a break from
their normal fare.
Pitt plays Jerry, a likeable, goofy guy
who got caught up in the wrong crowd
and now does jobs for a Los Angeles
gangster. He is a screw-up who’s given
a last chance to make good. He can’t say
no to his last job, no matter what his
girlfriend says. Roberts plays the
girlfriend, Samantha.
She is an interesting, but evolving,
character. She’s addicted to self-help,
and most of what she says can be
found in a psychobabble book
somewhere. She uses phrases that guys
have heard before, such as “time out,”
“blame-shifting” and “Forrest Gumping
your way through something.”
The plot revolves around a precious,
handcrafted pistol known as “The
Mexican, j^everal sepia-toned flashbacks
give us different histories of the antique.
I_:_ mss.i-1_
Special to The Gamecock
Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts star in The Mexican, a movie about a
handcrafted pistol known as “The Mexican.”
The problem is that the histories don’t
match up, and Jerry must figure out not
only how to get the gun back from thugs
who steal it on several occasions, but
also who he’s working for and who he
needs to deliver the relic to.
Pitt and Roberts are rarely together
on screen, and their adventures become
two different stories.
One story follows Jerry on his quest,
and the other follows Sam as she goes
to Las Vegas and is kidnapped by Leroy
(James Gandolfini of The Sopranos).
The real treat in the movie is the
interaction between Roberts and
Gandolfini. He isn’t far from his Sopranos
role, but he still does the best job of
anyone in the movie.
Director Gore Verbinski (Mouse
Hunt) gives us a surprisingly good movie
filled with twists and turns.
The only problem is that there are
too many attempts at different genres,
and the story can’t tie them all up into
a coherent package. The comedy,
adventure, romance and violence are
hard to put together until die end, when
we really get to know who the characters
are.
If you are going to see The Mexican
for the star power of Pitt and Roberts,
this movie isn’t for you.
Though not without its problems,
it’s still good enough not to be
blowing around with the tumbleweeds.
-■
The spotlight desk can be reached at
gamecockspotlight@hotinail.com
TOP TEN
Week of Feb. 26
Tortoise — Standards
Minus Five Vs. The
Young Fresh Fellows —
L Because We Hate You/Let
the War Against Music
Begin
Various Artists — Every
Tone a Testimony
Guided By Voices —
Isolation Drills
Crooked Fingers —
Crooked Fingers
Half Japanese — Hello
Various Artists — O
[Brother, Where Art Thou?
Soundtrack
Dropkick Murphys —
Sing Loud, Sing Proud
Luna — Live
The Queers — Today
In The News
■ Former Seinfeld
star Louis-Dreyfus to
star in new sitcom
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Former
Seinfeld star Julia Louis-Dreyfus will
be singing a new tune in her own sit
com.
NBC said Thursday it’s ordered a
pilot, starring Louis-Dreyfus, about the
life of a lounge singer.
There’s a twist: The show will take
place in “real time,” with each episode
focusing on about a half-hour block of
the'character’s life. The untitled series
is intended for next fall.
Louis-Dreyfus played Jerry
Seinfeld’s ex-girlfriend, Elaine Benes,
on Seinfeld, the hit NBC comedy that
aired from 1990-98.
The network has tried, so far
unsuccessfully, to recapture the glory.
Michael Richards, who played Kramer,
returned last year with The Michael
Richards Show, hut NBC canceled the
low-rated comedy after two months.
■ Elizabeth Taylor to
receive award for
distinguished career
TAOS, N.M. (AP) — Elizabeth
Taylor will attend next month’s Taos
Talking Picture Festival, where she’ll
receive an award for her distinguished
career.
The 69-year-old actress “has
agreed to come out and accept our
Maverick Award,” said Jason
Silverman, artistic director for the 7th
annual festival.
The awards ceremony is set for
April 6.
Past recipients include Dennis
Hopper, James Cobum, Ben Johnson,
Louis Gossett Jr. and Anjelica Huston.
The April 5-8 festival will feature
a screening of the 1966 film Who’s
Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, in which
Taylor played a bitter, middle-aged
wife.
■ Magazine to honor
Britain’s lirst couple
of jazz’ with lifetime
achievement award
NEW YORK (AP) — Great Britain’s
first couple of jazz. Dame Cleo Laine
and bandleader John Dankworth, will
receive Back Stage magazine’s “Bistro
Award” for lifetime achievement during
a ceremony on Monday.
A compilation CD, Quintessential
Cleo, and the CD of a Carnegie Hall
concert, Live in Manhattan, is scheduled
for release this month by Gold Records.