Exclusive: Lone protester takes on corporate giant

Alessandro Machi calls Chase's tactic "paper violence".

Today I spoke with Alessandro Machi, a man who strongly believes consumers should be able to “opt out” of a contract if their bank changes the terms. He believes Chase has done it to him, and he’s not going to take it lying down. Machi told me that despite his history of timely and complete payment, Chase raised the minimum payments he’s required to pay on his debt from 2% to 5%, pushing his already hair raising financial state to the brink of tragedy. According to him, when he contacted them about it, they kindly offered to raise his interest rate instead. Machi explained that, as he understands it, the terms were supposed to be for the life of the loan.

Machi’s one-man picket line began yesterday and will continue, “Until I get the change I can believe in – until Chase honors their word.” He’s encouraging people to join him through his specially-created blog Daily-Protest.com. Over the phone he expressed support to any other consumers who want to start their own personal picket lines around the country – in fact, the world. Machi has drawn interest to his blog from fifteen countries around the world.

And Machi tugged at my own heartstrings when he went into a rant about how Chase shouldn’t be allowed to succeed because it’ll inspire other banks to follow suit. “If Chase gets away with this, then guys in boardrooms around the country are going to say, why aren’t we doing this?” he said, taking on one of my favorite themes. I’ve often written about how corrupt business practices become part of the standard business model.

If Chase gets away with this, then guys in boardrooms around the country are going to say, why aren’t we doing this?”

Staying just clear of conspiracy theory, Machi launched into a tirade over the phone about how this new presidential administration was supposed to “clean things up” and how he sees the current state of things being something that “makes it dirtier”. It wasn’t precisely clear what the “it” was. You see, Machi is passionate about consumer protection, has strong opinions about economic policy, and can easily work himself into a lather talking about it. “This is completely malicious and I’m fearful that this is becoming something that – where all we hear about people being upside down in their mortgages – but we’re not hearing about people with their credit cards, who’ve been working hard and paying on time. I fear that there’s a conspiracy here to get the stock market up as fast as they can as they throw under the bus hundreds of thousands of people who worked hard…”

He does have a point. Wall Street is in a tizzy and a big hurry. Fast gains on Red Meat Street are always gained at the expense of someone else.

Machi is no stranger to taking his grievances public. He once protested a Christmas Tree lot he felt was being bullyish and trying to run the little guys out of business. He also runs the Wall Street Change blog where he’s created his own Consumer Bill of Rights. While I don’t necessarily endorse all of its tenets, I do endorse the concept of anyone who feels they’ve been wronged by a big corporation, having the courage to take them on.

Alone if necessary.