Offering regional and national programs, CIO (and CSO) events bring together some of the most respected names and thought leaders in information technology and security. Presented by CIOs and other senior level executives, these invitation-only programs offer timely topics and strong networking. Learn More »
Webcast: In the Google Apps Cloud: How to Achieve Your Business Objectives
Dec 3rd, '09, 1 - 2 pm US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Council member Brent Hoag, Director, Global IT, at JohnsonDiversey, as he discusses the adoption of Google Apps which has helped meet four corporate goals; sustainability, simplification, increased employee productivity and global collaboration.
Webcast: Collaboration Initiatives: Benchmarks & Best Practices
Dec 15th, '09, 4 - 5 pm US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Council members Ruth Thorpe, VP & CIO at the U.S. Pharmaceutical Operations of Sanofi-Aventis, and Gary Kuyper, CIO at Bethany Christian Services, as they speak about their collaboration initiatives and experiences in how and why they chose the social networking and collaboration tools they are using and their business goals for collaboration, and facing culture change challenges.
Data Overview: Collaboration Initiatives Field Guide: Benchmarks & Best Practices
This appendix to the Council Field Guide provides an analysis which discusses benchmarks for collaboration IT implementation costs, adoption rates and payoffs. The overview identifies top IT and business goals and satisfaction rates for collaboration initiatives as well as best practices and lessons learned for implementing collaboration IT.
Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »February 26, 2008 — IDG News Service —
Two related companies that offer to finance the purchase of PCs to consumers with poor credit ratings have agreed to pay up to US$5 million to settle a U.S. Federal Trade Commission complaint that they violated a federal lending law and sometimes failed to deliver the computers, the FTC said.
BlueHippo Funding and BlueHippo Capital failed in many cases to tell consumers that they could not get refund even if they canceled orders before delivery of computers, the FTC said in a news release Monday. Many consumers paid hundreds of dollars and received nothing in return, an FTC complaint alleged.
A settlement before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York includes a fine of at least $3.5 million and up to $5 million, which will be used to repay customers who entered into contracts with BlueHippo before March 2006 and did not receive products or a refund.
The two companies offered to extend credit to consumers to finance purchases of personal computers and other consumer electronics with down payments of $99 to $124, plus a year of weekly or biweekly payments ranging from $36 to $88. The companies, in television and radio commercials, said consumers with "less than perfect credit, bad credit, no credit" could finance computers.
The companies required consumers to agree to a series of automatic debits from their bank accounts, the FTC said. In many cases, the defendants debited consumers' accounts without first telling them they could not get a refund even if they canceled their orders, and regardless of the reason for cancellation, the FTC said.
A BlueHippo spokesman didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment on the settlement. BlueHippo, based in Baltimore, sells desktops and laptops from Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and Apple, monitors, plasma television sets, and long-distance calling cards.
Many consumers did not receive the merchandise they ordered or refunds, the FTC complained. BlueHippo failed to clearly and conspicuously disclose their policy of not providing refunds before debiting accounts, in violation of federal law, and consumers had no opportunity to make an informed decision about whether to risk the loss of advance payments, the FTC said. The defendants also allegedly failed to deliver the products after consumers made 13 weeks of payments, as promised during the sales call, in violation of the FTC Act, the FTC said.
The defendants also are charged with violating the FTC's Mail Order Rule by failing to ship merchandise in a timely manner or give consumers the right to cancel and receive a refund, the FTC said. They allegedly violated the Truth in Lending Act by failing to make written disclosures before a transaction was made under an open-end consumer credit plan, and they allegedly violated the Electronic Fund Transfer Act by linking the extension of credit to consumers to preauthorized electronic debits.