I was all set to do one of those “(Holiday) by the Numbers” posts, where we talk about how much we will spend on travel and hot dogs and new lawn mowers this Memorial Day. But my Google search uncovered this instead: a website that accounts for EVERY serviceman killed in conflict since the Revolution. We (I) sometimes tend to forget that honoring these men and women is the entire point of the holiday, as opposed to having Monday off and drinking beer.
MindField Online wishes to thank service members past and present and their families, and to honor those we have lost. As Americans, we don’t always agree on the value of this or that conflict, but you can’t deny the courage of those who put themselves in harm’s way. So, please take some time to visit MemorialDayFoundation.org.
And have a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend!!
In the old days, let’s say 2003, online shopping was the Wild West. You didn’t know whom to trust. Today folks like Amazon.com have really reformed online shopping and made it uniform, safe and secure. But it’s still on us to educate ourselves and shop smart online.
Here’s my not-terribly horrifying online shopping horror story from the old days.
I ordered a laptop battery from a place I had never heard of, but who had a great price. The battery worked great for about two days, and then just died. Like, completely dead.
Knowing I had a two-week return window, I contacted the company’s help desk using the email address from my original order confirmation notice. It bounced back as undeliverable. Somehow, they contacted me anyway and I noticed it was a different email address.
As the return process dragged out, with me never actually getting instructions on how to return the battery, I noticed that EVERY time they contacted me, it was from a different address. Finally I told them, “The rotating email thing is cute, but I totally see that the purpose here is to drag this out beyond the 14 day return period. That’s probably the way you burn people and, if the BBB doesn’t know that already, they’re about to.” That (admittedly limp) threat was all it took to get action, and I got my refund.
I am sure if I had taken the time to read the vendor reviews, I could have figured this out without the headache. But I was blinded by the idea of saving 60 percent! So, again, the point is to educate yourself on the vendor, and some common sense rules of online shopping. Here is your reading list. You’re welcome.
Don’t worry; I won’t make you read all 101! The latest edition of Consumer Reports has a nice roundup of 101 tips ‘n’ trix from their writers and editors. These cover household items, money and finance, electronics and more. Here is a sampling from the electronics pile:
Drop your phone or camera in the water? Don’t freak out and run out to buy a new one. Try letting it dry. You can even put it in a Ziploc bag with some rice.
Don’t turn off your printer. Standby mode really doesn’t use much power compared to restarting. Also, if your printer must recalibrate every time, that wastes ink.
Just like the dumb commercial says, a full hard drive is a slow hard drive. There’s an actual mechanical process the PC uses to find your info, and it takes time. So, clean up your hard drive, get an external drive or store things on a Cloud.
PC or Tablet? Never thought of it this way: PCs and laptops are good at CREATING content. Tablets are good for CONSUMING it.
WiFi: Get a wireless hub for your house. You will save on your data plan in a big way. However, when you aren’t near a WiFi hub, your device will waste power searching for a signal, so turn it off when you are out.
That’s just a sample – there are only about 95 other tips at the original article! Next time we will sample a few more. Do you have any useful tips? Let us know!
That awkward moment when you have no money and someone writes AWKWARD! on your blouse.
It’s no secret that money sometimes brings out the weird in us. The triggers can vary but there seems to be a few that we all share, according to CouponCabin.com. They conducted a survey, and here is their “Top 5 Money Moments that Make You Feel All Oogy” (my title) followed by some personal observations.
34% – Feeling pressured to donate on behalf of a co-worker, family member or friend. (Author considers making a crack about mandatory United Way participation, then reconsiders.)
29% – Saying no to a panhandler or beggar. (Back home, some group gave the homeless newspapers to sell, so it wouldn’t feel like charity. So you got the self-satisfied bump of Giving but, since the paper was about homelessness, it was a real buzzkill.)
25% – Feeling pressured to chip in on a group gift at work, like for a baby shower or wedding shower. (This is my wife’s job at her office. She is merciless. “You vill GIVE! You vill LIKE it!”)
25% – Sharing salary/wage amounts with co-workers. (When somebody does this, just say a higher number. It will kill them.)
17% – Splitting a dinner bill or check with a large group of people. (Never be the one collecting the money, unless you like chipping in an extra 10 because your friends are such bad tippers!)
So, what’s YOUR oogy money moment? One of the above, or something unique? Let us know. There’s much more at the original article, so check it out. And have a great weekend!
“Don’t worry, dear. According to the article, Red means savings!”
Merchandising or manipulation? It’s probably a bit of both. We’re talking about the ways retailers place items on the shelves as well as the ways they modify the store’s lighting, music and even smells. This is all in an attempt to alter your buying behavior, usually meaning making you spend more money! And if you’re trying to cut back – and who isn’t? – it may be helpful to learn some of their tricks.
Here are some of the retailers’ Sensory Weapons:
Color: Colors have different associations and those things tend to get people going. So, for example, red is almost always the color associated with sales because it inspires people to take action and it’s a stimulating sort of color. Lifehacker
Touch: We are more likely to buy something if we touch it. And, oddly, if the display is too neat or fancy, we shy away. It reminds me of the big healthcare tub display at the checkout of my local Walmart – a big tub with a huge variety of 88-cent aspirin, nasal spray and bandages literally dumped in. It’s a glorious mess, (below) and I can’t keep my hands out of it!
Who am I to resist?
Music: It depends on what the retailer wants you to do. Sometimes they want you to move through a place quickly (like a fast food restaurant), while other times they want you to linger. Lifehacker
Layout: It could be the grocery store that moves everything every six months to make you discover new items to buy. Or a really specific example such as Ikea – which has a definite In and Out door, and a specific path we must take to get from one to the other.
Smell: yes, even smell. Smell has a strong tie to memory (Personal smell note: Fresh cut grass = first day of kindergarten.) If the retailer can connect with a memory, it’s a sale!
I guess you could make a counter argument… that all of this sensory experience is part of the fun of shopping. (I’m told some people enjoy shopping, anyway.) What do YOU think? And check out the original article!
“Treasured” memories like the above will soon be a thing of the past. Out of the blue, the company (CPI) that runs thousands of portrait studios inside big retail stores such as Sears and WalMart is closing its doors.
After many years of providing family portrait photography, we are sad to announce our Sears Portrait Studios are now closed. We appreciate your patronage and allowing us to capture your precious memories. If you currently have an album or have had a recent portrait session, you can order products at searsphotos.com thru April 18, 2013. If you have had a recent session, your portraits may be available at your local studio.
Now, before you blast Sears or Walmart, remember that CPI, in business for 60 years, is just a vendor for the retailers. They are deeply in debt, and their time has come. CPI says that much of the blame goes to the proliferation of camera phones.
Their employees are shocked, to say the least, and more than a little worried that CPI might not make good on their current orders. Some are taking matters into their own hands. One employee “hastily burned as many undelivered portrait packages as she could onto compact discs on Thursday. By Friday, she tried to spread the word to those customers that she’d be at a nearby pet store’s parking lot Saturday with those CDs.”
So, if you have a pending portrait order with a local CPI, you might want to pick up the phone. To CALL them, not to take pictures!
So, what do you think? Will you miss the old portrait studio? Hey, I never used one, but it is kind of sad to lose a minor American tradition such as this.
I think people want to do good. They mean well. As the Wizard of Oz said there at the end, “Back home we call these people well-meaning do-gooders!” or something.
But this one has me skeptical. You be the judge…
There is a movement afoot (translation: a Facebook page) to “Pay it Forward” at your local coffee shop. It goes like this…
When you order your morning (coffee), you also order additional items, but ask for them to be “suspended.” When a person who can’t afford their own beverage comes in, they can ask for a “suspended” coffee or food, and receive one for free. The Consumerist
Poverty solved! I am AWESOME! (Sorry, I said I would let YOU judge.)
Now, with a headline like “Why Ordering ‘Suspended’ Coffees For The Needy Is Stupid And Inefficient,” it’s as if The Consumerist is giving us a vague hint as to its opinion of this practice. You can read their criticisms in the original article. Meanwhile, Starbucks Melody, an “unofficial blog of the Starbucks brand,” has some suggestions to help people more efficiently.
But what do YOU think? Is this an efficient way to help people? Is a little kindness better than nothing? Is this just an example of (well-meaning) people finding the easiest, cleanest way to feel like they are helping? Have you done it? Would you? Let us know!
It’s kind of a slow consumer news day, other than the persistent economic gloom. So I thought we would surf the web for money saving ideas! See if any of these make sense for you and your family. Follow the links to savings! or something…
Nearly 35 million Americans claim some Irish heritage. That’s seven times the population of Ireland, around 4.58 million.
Americans, Irish- and otherwise, will spend around $4.5 billion for various St Patrick’s day food, and festivities, at around $35 per person. Where does it all go?
In the all-important food and beverage category, St. Pat’s celebrants will buy 26 billion pounds of corned beef and over 2 billion pounds of cabbage. Then, they will combine those, boil them to death and EAT them!
Meanwhile, they will spend $435 million on beer alone, not all of it green.
Other popular expenditures?
Irish-Americans will spend $24 million on lime-green dyed potted mums for Ma and Gran.
We will send 7 million St. Patrick’s Day greeting cards, presumably with leprechauns on the front.
And we will spend around a billion dollars on trips to Ireland.
Sounds like a blast. The good news is that you don’t have to be Irish, at least according to the stats. While Irish-Americans make up about 11% of the population, fully half of all Americans say that they will be partaking in the St. Pat’s festivities. So tilt a pint of the green stuff, but please do it responsibly! Thanks, and have a great St. Pat’s weekend!
Cool links: Here, here, and a really fun graphic here.
What’s your favorite scam? Mine has to be the infomercials where, if you call now, they will double your order…. “You just pay separate shipping and handling!” Which suggests to me that THAT’S where they are making their money. I have also heard stories of people whose orders were doubled without their permission – as well as the shipping and handling. The remedy, when the company owns up to it, is to return the product for the full refund…but you still pay the S & H! Grrr.
Anyway, they have just published a list of top consumers scams of 2012. The list is from Missouri, but I bet it’s pretty typical. Take a look, listed in order of obnoxiousness!
NO-CALL COMPLAINTS (39,990 complaints)
DEBT COLLECTORS (1,769)
MORTGAGE/FORECLOSURE/LOAN MODIFICATIONS (1,648)
MAIL AND PHONE SOLICITATIONS (1,432)
TELPHONE CRAMMING and BILLING (1,165)
CREDIT AND DEBIT CARD (1,165)
HOME REPAIR AND REMODELING (928)
PUBLICATIONS AND MAGAZINE SALES (823)
CABLE/SATELLITE SERVICES (670)
AUTOMOBILE REPAIR (641)
Interesting that Do Not Calls are by far the biggest complaint, when that is the area the government has been attacking the hardest for years. Again, technology has made it easier to get around the laws.
The article has several tips and tricks and numbers/websites to call to get help. So check it out!
So, again, what’s your favorite scam-ola? Let us know!
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