Autoblog

Sounds like a Ponzi scheme to me.

I suspect the business model sucks and that's the prime reason US Bank has no interest in handling it.

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That says it all. I decline, too.

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It is not just Autoblog - I've heard it on many, many radio stations around here. Scary, I hope a lot of people aren't going to be scammed by signing up.

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Agreed. The "value add" of bloggers is having them know their stuff, slow down, get it right and check the facts. There's far too many of these bloggers now just regurgitating the same flash news that hits ten other sites like Jalopnik and Autoblog. This is what Gizmodo and Engadget learned a couple of years ago as they got into a race to publish or perish, but they seem have learned to be more skeptical and cautious without being slow to bring the news.

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Yeah, "blogs" for some reason covers two distinct things:

1. People who make little announcements about what they've actually been spending time on.
2. Sites that just publish summaries and links to other news. These come under the theory of "look what I found" but rapidly turn into quasi-news sites.

Many call the 2nd "news consolidation sites", but they are also called blogs. As evidenced by "The Weblogs, Inc Network" for example.

There's nothing wrong with either kind of site, but the 2nd has a huge tendency to fall for false info, either false rumors or someone putting out false info on purpose. The reason for this is they are either in the mode of getting stuff out fast, or else they're just in the mode where they want to ensure they have enough content to draw X number of visitors a day (include repeat customers like me). These sites are just here to really point people at other sites, so a "it's not my job to fact check it" comes quickly at hand.

Anyway, when viewing sites like this (and I make over a hundred visits a day to such sites many days), you just have to make sure you are being properly skeptical about what you're seeing.

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yes immediately too.
This isn't a nice happy post. If they'd had some real history and then you came across it then fine...but this is just a problem waiting to happen.

There's a chance it may work but if it does it'd have to meet several conditions (like have a giant oil resereve for all those pre-buying). If that's not something that's going on then the alternative is raping unassuming customers that go a little over their pre-paid amount with a massive overdraft charge. Or you could be suckered into their overdraft protection that will automatically cost you a doozie $ per month as well as refill your pre-paid account with more fuel. I don't remember but I think it's when you hit 15 gallons it's triggered. Otherwise it's something like 3 gallons and adds 15...can't remember exactly.

....but please update this. (seconding idymcsc!) otherwise if this company goes down or unsuspectingly devastates some of your readers....you should be the one who feels the guilt let alone the reader wrath.

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