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[Kellemora]

I have my credit cards saved on a lot of accounts I use on-line, and to switch cards means a lot of extra work for me, hi hi.
I have one place who has my correct card number, but the expiration date has changed, and so has the 3-digit number.
So far, they have not said anything to me about it, but I sent them a message saying I couldn't update the info for my card on file with them.

[yogi]

The Chase credit card people I deal with have a list of all the online places my credit card information is stored. There are only an handful but one or two I forgot that I even deal with. Most of the purchases I make are as a guest so that I don't let them have a copy of my credit card information for some hacker to steal out of their secure database. But, it turns out that it doesn't matter if you keep that credit card information updated on the website, or not.

I mentioned a while back that one of the domains I own was coming up for a new lease. I wanted to drop the domain and decided not to renew it. My account with that domain registrar has the wrong information regarding my residence and credit card information because I created it when I lived back in Illinois. I can't update the information associated with the domain ownership because the e-mail address has been terminated for seven years now. They send a security code to that e-mail of record so that when I call in or try to do something on the web I need to give them that code to assure it is actually me. Well, I got frustrated and calling them didn't help. It just so happened that my credit card on file with them was due to expire a month before the renewal date for the domain. Good. They will automatically renew and not be paid, and therefor drop my registration. Well, that is what I thought would happen.

It turns out that the domain registrar is a different company than is the hosting service for the website. I wanted to keep the hosting service so that I updated the credit card information with the host. That worked fine. They billed the right card and the credit card people had no problems with paying them. I was shocked to discover that the domain name was also renewed because that company got my credit card information from the hosting service. They are two separate companies but apparently share information. I was really ticked off and called the domain people on it and they more or less said tough luck. I need to update my registration information so that they can verify it's me making any requests. I explained why I can't and they said they would contact their security people and get back to me. They never did get back and I can't update nor remove my credit card information.

So much for storing credit card info online.

[Kellemora]

I hear ya! I had many problems myself for years after I moved south, because I was still using my old St. Louis e-mail address on nearly everything. The big problem arose after they closed down, and I still kept my same e-mail address of record at most places. It was a nightmare trying to tell them what happened and why I needed to change my account data. The one under my own name was easy, I just sent them a copy of my drivers license. But the one under my pen name has nothing to back it up. That wasn't so bad though, I just opened a new account under my pen name with the new e-mail address, and then copied all the data from the old one to the new one.

Sometimes, although it is rare, some good comes out of one of these companies that hosted my books. They had about 360 dollars worth of checks for me they had e-mailed me about to the e-mail that no longer worked, so I didn't know about them.
It was some low man on the totem pole who notice I still had a lot of book sales, but under my new account number, and since it was for the same books, with the same isbn number, by the same author name, he put two and two together and contacted me via my new e-mail on record for the new account. He asked me what my original e-mail address was, I told him, and I told him that company shut down unexpectedly, so I had to reregister with you guys again. He merged my old account with my new account, and then they could send me the link to get my money transferred. I just hope he didn't get into trouble for doing it.

I had a mail-order pharmacy who kept filling orders for one of the scripts I was taking. I called and told them to stop many times, but it took about 4 months to get me out of their auto-ship system. So right now, I'm finally using up the last of what they sent me, which expired in July of 2022. That is the true expiration date, not the date the pharmacy puts on the label.
I asked my local pharmacy about it, and he said it should still be good for another year without problems.
The downside, now that I've about used it all up, I need to start buying more again, and it is expensive stuff, hi hi.

[yogi]

Way back in the old days when I first entered the Medicare/SSA club, I had a mail order prescription drug subscription. My insurance company insisted they will only pay for 90 day supplies, which was fine with me but it took the drug people a few months to get their system in order. Thus I should have received automatic refills every 90 days, but they were coming in sooner. Some a lot sooner. I called and tried to get them to hold up for a few months, but no. They could not figure out how to do that. So, when renewal time came around I switch to some other company and had to go physically to Walgreens to order and pickup refills. That was actually a good thing because I had nearly a year's supply of drugs I did not need. Over the years I kept a 90 day supply in reserve, just in case.

The domain registrar company has all it's customer support located in India. Generally I don't have a problem understanding the accent, but I did with the fellow I talked to the last time. The guy who promised to call back. He was actually very understanding and was willing to refund me the registration fee if I could prove who I am. It seems that the company he works for has strict rules about identity, but so does ICANN. They could get into a lot of trouble if they mess things up. So, I don't blame them for trying to vet me, but their process sucks. There is no easy way out of the 2FA going to a nonexistent e-mail account. Part of the problem is that the e-mail server (at Earthlink anyway) does not send back mail that is undeliverable. Thus the registrar had no hint that their security codes were going nowhere. They just assumed I was ignoring them. I don't know what it will take to remedy the problem, but I have a suspicion that I am going to get to know who the CEO of that company is when I write to him.

[Kellemora]

I use Walgreens now, and although I have a credit card on file, they call express pay, I always have to pay at the window.
Besides, I also got set-up for mail order, and no script was ever sent that way yet.
Even if I check the Ship Box instead of the Pick-Up box, they still send me an e-mail saying it is ready for pick-up.
But I NEVER put anything on Auto-Fill anymore.

Well, I hope they get it worked out for you!

[yogi]

A lot of online shops, including Walgreens, offer to "ship" an order, to "deliver" and order, or you can come pick it up at the store. That sounds nice until you discover that delivery involves a healthy surcharge and an available time slot. During the pandemic, however, Walgreens was one of the few shops that delivered free and usually the same day. Shipping can be free if your order crosses over a certain dollar amount, but you and I both know nothing is truly free. The cost of the goods is increased so that shipping costs are covered in the price. And, if I am going to the store to pick up my order, I am not going to waste time online setting it up.

Just the other day I was looking for something online and WalMart happened to have it. I wanted six items that came to almost $32, but the "free" shipping didn't kick in until I ordered $40 worth of goods. So, I looked at Walgreens and they had the stuff for the same price, and also free shipping after a certain dollar amount. Well, I went through the process on WalMart's website and when it came to checkout the price per item was increased to more than the product page price. Looking over their itemized billing statement, they added $7 to the retail price total to bring the order to $39 and some change. THEN, they applied another $7.50 or so for shipping because I was 50 cents short of their threshold. I could not understand why they added the $7 as a separate charge, and it looked like a scam to get me to order more than I wanted. Thus I went back to the Walgreens site and placed the order there for $7 less. I received it two days later. There have been a few times in the past where Walgreens beat the price at Wally World and Amazon. The best part is that they usually deliver in two days. It they could only get their pharmacy in line with the rest of their sales, I might buy my drugs from them too.

[Kellemora]

If I buy in 90 day supplies, which is how most of the things I do get are packaged anyhow. Shipping is free, and you get warehouse rates, which are the same as mail-order rates. So even from Walgreens you do save a little bit on the ones you have to pay for. But with insurance, the co-pay on those that work that way is the same.

Believe it or not, almost all of the brick n mortar stores in my neighborhood beat Walmarts prices, sometimes by a lot.
The item I was getting for 3.50 at UGO jumped up to 5.99, which is OK by me, since they have it all the time. When Walmart does have it, they price it at 9.99, sometimes 3 for 26.97, which is like a dollar off each unit, but UGO is still a lot cheaper.

Debi gets here drugs from Walmart. Mainly because they have her Insulin for a better price than elsewhere, so she's there to pick up that quite often.
She did find a place on-line where she could get Insulin made in India for less, but not enough less to make it worth her while to order and wait 2 weeks for it to get here. But the shipping boxes they use with the styrofoam liner and ice bags are cool to have a few handy ones around if you need to salvage whats in your freezer during a power outage.

Remember the IT guy who used to do business across the street from us and down 2 houses.
He's expanding his new place again. He already took over one store next to him, and now he's building another wing on the building toward the back that is a wide as the two in the front he has taken over and nearly 100 more feet deep. He had to buy an additional 25 feet of land in order for the big trucks to have a way to get to the other stores.
So he must really be doing good. He's also probably into other things now too, like hosting services or perhaps cloud storage.
I was going to stop in on the way home from the hospital, but I was just too tired to do so.

[yogi]

i don't know how Walgreens drug prices compare to anybody else. Most of my prescription needs are handled through the store's website and all I do is give them a few dollars co-pay when I pick up my drugs. Their pharmacy section of the website is a disaster and the people in the store refuse to coordinate with anything I put up there. A time or two they refused to answer my doctor's callback to verify a prescription. I guess they were too busy to answer the phone. The only things I get from Walgreens now are non drug related. Compression stockings, for example. They used to sell the ones I like for $40 a pair in the store. Their online price was the same. Then I discovered Walmart had them for $14 a pair online. I could order enough of them to get free delivery too. It took quite a while, and it happened during the pandemic, for Walgreens to match the price of Walmart for the stockings. Then I discovered other things that Walgreens would sell at a lower price too. They are not the lowest price in all cases, but they do have in stock what they advertise, and they do deliver in two days. That part of their website seems to be working very well.

I don't know much about insulin but I thought the price now is no more than $30/mo for folks on Medicare. I suppose it can be had for less if you are a good detective.

The fact that a business is expanding physically is good news. Your IT friend certainly must be doing well in order to be growing by leaps and bounds like that. He must be doing more than ISP work because there are a lot of big companies in that business and competition is fierce. Also, there are contracts that keep the small businesses out of certain locations. Then again, perhaps your friend landed one of those exclusive service contracts with the city or county. It would be interesting to find out.

[Kellemora]

Right now, I'm wearing Copper something or other. They cost like 19 bucks a pair, but fit well and work well.

There is only ONE Insulin type that is 30 bucks, Debi gets it for 25 bucks, all the rest are up in the hundreds of dollars.
I think that is either Type R or Type N, she uses both of those, plus some others.

I do know the IT guy has clients at many stores in the area. He keeps their client data, inventory, and many other things. I know his system is hooked to their cash register and POS systems. Which is how he got started I think, mainly selling POS systems and storing that data. But I'm sure there is much more to it than that.
A company called Elavon (used to be Nova) handles most credit card transactions in our area, but I think my IT guy has managed to break into that arena also.
I'm sure he is financing all that growth, but he always did have a fancy car, even though he drove a panel truck until he hired more employees.

I doubt if he has any type of government contracts. Our KUB utility board also has their own Fiber Optic System, probably using AT&Ts cabling. I remember back when he had fiber optics ran to his place, all the way from Chapman Highway. Now our street has Fiber Optics, but you can still see His cable run is still up there, and not part of AT&Ts cables.
I may be wrong, but I think Google Fiber is who owns the mainline fiber optics running down Chapman Highway, and Verizon, Xfinity, and AT&T all tap into that source. That being said, Verizon is who installed the fiber optics down the main secondary roads, and I know AT&T is tapped into those to run the smaller streets in an area. I know this, because when AT&T installed ours, after it was connected, they had to call Verizon to turn it on. I overheard him talking to them!

[yogi]

POS terminals have got to be a lucrative business. I'd have no idea about how to break into that business and then make it grow. I guess all that sales data has to be stored somewhere. A few times at Schnucks their card reader froze and the till tart had to reset the computer under the counter to get it going again. I'd guess that computer only runs the terminal and sends the data to some server somewhere. That could be where your friend comes into the picture.

It's not practical for every company out there to lay their own cable so that sharing has become a common practice. I know Google is big in Kansas City but don't know about Knoxville. They tried to wire all of KC for their Gig Network but gave up after a while. I recently read where they are restarting that KC project and the goal is to get the entire city onto gigabyte networks. That will be their model to use for selling the concept to other cities. Around here they laid new fiber last year and I believe it was a startup called Gateway Cable that did it. Like Google they don't mess around with slow networks, but unlike Google they only have a limited number of openings. I suspect that is true because of what you mentioned above. They must be leasing fiber to the other ISPs around town.

[Kellemora]

I have not looked into it much, but I do know the main fiber running down Chapman Highway belongs to Google.
And the laterals from it that go down many of our main streets belongs to Verizon.
Now AT&T taps into the Verizon line to get our fiber optic cable to us.
Our Utility company wants us to get fiber cable through them, so I'm sure they are in cahoots with AT&T to do so.

I have a question. I thought there was as new law that if you have an e-mail account with a company, and you move to another company, they still have to provide your e-mail service. At least that is what I was told, and my e-mail is still at Comcast.
My neighbor, who was originally with AT&T DSL service, had all his e-mail accounts there, and when he moved to KUB fiber (which is still AT&T from what I understand), they said you turned off your account with us, and we turned off your e-mail.
I do realize it doesn't cost but a penny or so to run a Pop-Server to handle e-mail traffic. I use Thunderbird for my e-mail, and the mail itself is stored on my computer after I download it.
On the downside, since I no longer have an account at Comcast. I can't go in and set mail forwarding to my host provider, should I set up my e-mails over there. But I was told, before we switched to fiber, that we could keep our e-mail provider, that it is the law now.

[yogi]

I don't know the exact law regarding e-mail service, but I do have a relevant story about it. I will preface it by saying if e-mail service were a common carrier public utility, then that law you cite would definitely be applicable. The FCC changed things under Trump and took away the common carrier classification for ISP's, thus allowing them to avoid regulations that apply to public utilities. I can see e-mail being a separate service that uses the Internet, but I don't know what the FCC thinks about it's status as a utility.

My story goes back to the domain registrar that I mentioned earlier. I set up that domain while I lived in a Chicago suburb and the e-mail associated with it was from my ISP at the time, Earthlink. All was hunky dory until we moved. My intention was to use Spectrum as an ISP and thus did not have a need for the Earthlink account. However, I wanted to keep the Earthlink e-mail for six months until the transition was complete. I called Eartthlink and they said "no problem" dropping the ISP portion of the account and keeping only the e-mail. Thus, when we moved to O'Fallon my wife and I spent a lot of time notifying people that our e-mail address has changed. Unfortunately, I could not change the e-mail information I had with the domain registrar and just forgot about it all until recently. They are sending security information to that old Earthlink address and thus I can't update the account even if I wanted to. And I DO want to.

After so much hassle with the registrar's customer service in India, I decided to take a different approach. I thought it might be possible to reactivate or create a new Earthlink e-mail account using the old name. I discovered a statement from Spectrum saying that they will honor the Earthlink accounts they now service but for a fee. Apparently it used to be free, but I don't understand why. Spectrum and Earthlink are two separate companies. All I can imagine is that there was some good will, or possibly some legal liability, between the two companies which allowed Spectrum to provide access to Earthlink's e-mail. Be that all as it may, I also discovered that Earthlink no longer offers e-mail only accounts.

It turns out that Earthlink Internet is in the 5GHz range wile Spectrum maxes out at 1GHz. It would be better if I had Earthlink Internet, but they do not offer cable TV service. Spectrum does that.

Since I got a hint that Spectrum did allow access to Earthlink e-mail at one time, I'm guessing Comcast and AT&T might have a similar arrangement. It might even be a law. There is no technical reason it can't be done, but Spectrum now charges to provide that kind of service. Maybe you can pay somebody local to access your old e-mail account too.

And, for what it's worth, I asked my AI source ...

I have a question. I thought there was as new law that if you have an e-mail account with a company, and you move to another company, they still have to provide your e-mail service. Is that true?

There is a law called the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) that requires companies to provide consumers with the ability to access and delete their personal information collected by the company. However, this law does not specifically address the issue of email accounts and transfer of service between companies. It is possible that your question refers to a specific company's policy or another law that may be applicable. I would suggest checking with the specific company or researching further to see if there are any laws or policies that address your concern.

[Kellemora]

Quite a bit of info there!

I know those who provide Web Mail, if you don't use it for 6 months, they not only turn it off, the delete everything in the account. This is places like Yahoo, Ymail, Gmail, Hotmail, etc.

My sister has been dead now for around 15 years, and her Yahoo e-mail is gone, but her Horizon ISP e-mail is still working.
I thought that quite odd.

Our electric was out for a couple of hours today, and when it finally came up, I found we had not fiber internet.
It appeared to be up, but kept giving a message it was doing something.
Debi finally called them and they had to reset our modem at their end, said its brain was scrambled, hi hi.
But at least now we know the next time we have a power outage that you have to unplug the modem, plug it back in after 10 minutes, and if it don't connect in 5 minutes, to give them a call to unscramble it again.

[yogi]

E-mail is just a server, or a whole farm's worth of servers, owned and operated by somebody. You can offer e-mail service on the Silver Yogi if you wanted to. It would not be great quality, but it is just a a matter of installing server software. If I had an e-mail server too and wanted to use your domain for my customers it's simply a matter of programing the DNS server to do the redirect. Of course you and I would have to have some sort of agreement to make that happen, but there are no legal obligations involved.

In my case Earthlink's e-mail service was provided by a third party. It was really stinky, but had some neat features too. They did exactly what I described above, I'm sure. They simply reprogrammed their e-mail DNS server and it was gone. However, that third party e-mail server still existed somewhere. Anybody, like Spectrum, who wanted to attract old Earthlink e-mail customers could simply arrange to tap into that third party e-mail server. Once they got the customers locked in, that is when I suspect they decided to add a fee. However, Earthlink had all my information for that third party e-mail. When Earthlink cut them off, that was the end of my information records.

I think Yahoo was the first webamail service I used, but not for their e-mail service. They also were one of the very few people who offered a web version of Instant Messaging. That messaging was tied into their e-mail so that you had to have both in order to get either one. I did that for several years, and then Yahoo changed management and took a dive into e-mail hell. I never did use their e-mail and stopped using their IM service. It took them three, maybe four, years to figure out that I was not logging in anymore. They sent me the standard "use it or lose it" messages for about six months, and now all my Yahoo records finally exist no longer. Maybe some of the other web mail services are a little quicker to disconnect an idle account, but Yahoo was extremely slow about it.

And, my modem is connected to my UPS along with the router and computer. I calculated that I have about 45 minutes of battery under normal load so that should be plenty of time for me to shut things down in a power outage. The likelihood of the modem's brains being scrambled due to a power loss is slim to non existent. Everything here is protected from power line problems. What could go wrong?

[Kellemora]

I know our Slacc computer club had one old computer they used to handle everyone's e-mail accounts, but that was back in the days of Dial-Up, hi hi. Although I did go to several meetings, I really never understood enough to get involved in all they were doing there. I probably should have kept going to those meetings to learn more about their servers, but I had my hands full at home.

AT&T said they would pay for what was left on our Comcast Internet. Debi paid the final bill they were supposed to pay, and has been trying to collect that back from AT&T now ever since.

[yogi]

I think high tech people and high tech companies are fatally flawed with an overpowering sense of self-importance. I know that when I worked with those guys at Motorola, saying they were arrogant was being kind. They had to be nice to the people they faced directly, but if you were not as smart as they were, you were not worthy enough to pay attention to. The sad part is that what I call arrogance seems to be a built in attitude that trickles all the way down to customer service. Some CS people actually like their work and do a good job. Others just think of it as listening to people complain all day. AT&T is no exception, although they did provide me with excellent telephone service for many years.

Speaking of customer service, I had an interesting experience with the folks at Target during this past weekend. I bought three pairs of pajama pants from Target using their website. It's always a hit and miss deal buying clothes online, but there is a store down the street I can go to if I had any problems. They all arrived as predicted, on SUNDAY, via USPS. The e-mail notification I got said it was actually UPS using USPS under some other name. In any case I am surprised that the postal system is delivering on Sundays given the complaints they issue about going broke.

One pair of the three was not what I expected. They were a little large even though the size was stated to be the same as the other two pair (from different manufacturers). Aside from the fit, the cotton material was obviously intended for winter use. Since summer is coming down on us rapidly I decided to return that third pair of pajamas. Before I had a chance to do that, I got an e-mail from Target informing me that my package was delivered and if I had any problems whatsoever, click on the link they provided. I clicked and was given a choice of problems to choose from. "Doesn't fit" was my choice. OK, so then they asked if I want a full refund or to buy something similar. Oddly enough the "something similar" was grayed out. My only choice was full refund. Clicked and only a few seconds later they claimed it was a done deal.

Hmm, so I will get a refund, but they never mentioned RMA or what I should do with the pajamas I don't want. I went into my account to check out the order status and was told the refund was applied. Still no mention of returning the item in question. So, I decided to print a receipt so that I had some proof of purchase when I go to the store to give back the pajamas. On the receipt page was a barcode and the items I ordered listed out. The jammies I wanted to return were marked "not eligible for in store return." I was starting to get nervous about all this and printed out the receipt anyway. A few minutes later I got another e-mail from Target saying the refund was applied and the pajamas can't be returned to the store. They told me to keep them, recycle them, give them to charity, or whatever. They certainly didn't want them back. So, I checked my credit card app and sure enough, the refund was already posted!

If you can use a pair of pajama pants, size 40, I'd be happy to send them to you. Target is truly amazing, and I would say that even if I had to take the pajamas back to the store. Their website works very well, is user friendly, and their customer service is a robot, but quite a friendly chap if I must say so myself.

[Kellemora]

Not so much in the plumbing field, but as an electrician, many of those guys are overly arrogant.

Amazon and UPS are both funding USPS Sunday deliveries of parcels, but not mail.
I think Amazon has also been buying trucks for the USPS.

Cost more to return them, that what they cost them, is probably the reason.
I had a bout with that watch I bought and wanted to return.
Could not get a response from the seller for an RMA, no response from them at all actually.
So I contacted PayPal who is handled the payment. Sent them all the paperwork associated with the order.
They too did not get a response from the seller, so told me I didn't send them enough info.
So I contacted my CC company, because I knew they would handle it for me with ease.
However, they wanted a ton of stuff all by FAX, which is why I had to figure out how make my Printer do a FAX.
It did and I sent them all they requested, and as soon as they got it, they credited my account.
Nearly a month later I get a message from PayPal that they have closed my refund complaint.
I'm sure it was because my CC company reversed the charges to PayPal, hi hi.

I ordered a pair of slippers on-line about a year ago. told them 9-1/2 is my size. They sent a pair of slippers marked M, and the wrapper said M = 9 to 10 USA Male, 10 to 11 USA Female. They were so small I couldn't get them on, hi hi.
Same here, I wanted to send them back, they gave me a refund right away, and told me to give the slippers to someone they fit.

[yogi]

The three pairs of pajamas I got from Target were all different brands. They all came in one package, but not from Target. One of their partners sent the pajamas to me. When I requested the return, only one of the three pair was not returnable. I don't think they were one sale either. The receipt showed that I could return the pairs I wanted to keep, which I thought was really odd because they all came from the same store. My part in all this would be simply to drive over the the local Target and drop off what I didn't want. But, as you point out, they probably didn't want to go through the expense of returning the goods to the original seller. Doing that kind of thing and shipping it all to me free makes me wonder how they can do it profitably. The markup on their clothes must be tremendous.

PayPal is an extreme case for payments as far as I'm concerned. I have an account with them that I have not used in a few years but I opt out of paying by PayPal whenever I can, which is just about every time. Back when I was using them on E-Bay they had some kind of guarantee about payments and was willing to settle buyer/seller disputes. Now that E-Bay is the sole owner of PayPal I don't know what their policies are. Apparently credit card companies have more clout. I don't know who keeps the credit card people in line.

[Kellemora]

I rarely if ever pay for anything through PayPal either, unless that is the only thing the seller accepts.

I think the government keeps tabs on the CC companies.

There needs to be a law letting you know if something you ordered is coming from overseas or stocked here in the U.S. even if it came from overseas to start with.

I was reading where a restaurant that uses one heck of a lot of potatoes, was miffed when they found their order was held up in customs. They thought their potatoes were coming directly from Idaho, because that was their name Idaho Potatoes.

I remember buying a transistor radio, a nice one too, that had clearly printed on it, Made in USA, turns out it was made in Japan, in a city named Usa, Japan. Had another one that said, assembled in something Arkansas from components sourced from other countries. I think the only thing on it that was assembled in Arkansas was putting the battery cover on the item, hi hi.

[yogi]

My credit card company will flag just about anything I want them to. For example, if the company I am ordering from online happens to be in a foreign country, they hold up the payment processing and send me an e-mail requesting my authorization. After being burned a time or two with "held up in customs" I decided not to deal with offshore companies directly. I also have them flag any charge whatsoever if it's over $1000. By doing that we actually caught some hacker in Germany who wanted to buy an iPad with my card number. There are certain exceptions to the self-imposed rules, such as when I want to buy a motherboard from ASUS in Taiwan. In that case I knew what I was doing and was not being tricked into thinking it was a domestic company.

I remember the USA, Japan, radios. If I'm not mistaken I got one or two of those when I was a teenager. LOL There was a big to-do in Detroit regarding those Japanese imports which were selling for less than their domestic made products. The first thing they did was impose an import tax on the likes of Honda and Toyota just to make GM and Ford happy., Then they convinced some of those offshore folks to manufacture in this country, where the bulk of their customers were located. Honda and Toyota are not crazy and know how expensive it is to actually make a car in the good ol' U S of A, so they did exactly what you describe. They built "assembly" plants and hired Americans to run them. Basically all they did was attach the name plates and and a couple other trivial parts. The 99% completely built in Japan chassis was considered a module that was used in the American assembly process. Not sure, but I think they still do it that way today.

After all that lobbying from Detroit, and forcing us to pay higher prices for imported cars, guess what GM did next. They bought the Saturn manufacturing company because it was making high quality cars at a low cost right here in America. The problem GM had, however, is that they did not want to change their management style in order to support the way that car was made. Thus Saturns are no longer made in the USA, or anywhere else since GM happens to own them.