Window Shopper

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It depends on the person. Period. Some people who work on the help desks are trying very hard to help you. Others are simply drawing a paycheck and could care less that you have a problem. The companies that hire these people should certainly screen them better, for one thing, and should monitor their progress for another. If they do not show that they have a clue, remove them. The frustration that comes with dealing with those people is huge. You know, I have read tons of those supposedly funny (some are hilarious) conversations from the point of view of a help desk person. Frankly, I would like to know where these people are when I need assistance. They seem to have a brain cell connected to at least one more. I am the customer and my conversations sound more like those but in the reverse.

Recently, I had some problems in my Paypal account because there were two unauthorized payments sent out for magazines we no longer take. The company that took the money is not familiar to me except for what I read about them. In fact, the company in question is a ripoff outfit. They take money from your account making it appear to be legitimate for magazines. If you do not catch it, they win and get your money too. They took nearly $50 from my account. OUCH! So, we called Paypal to see what could be done. The guy on the phone was great. He took care of the removing the transactions. My money was returned to me within a few days. Very nice. In addition, he advised that I cancel the current Paypal card and have them send me a new one. I agreed since it seemed like a really good idea to stop those folks from doing it again. He said that the card should be sent to me quickly. End of conversation. Very satisfying.

A few days later, I did receive the money back into my account. I have patiently waited on the Paypal card to be sent to me since I needed it for some last minute shopping for Christmas. Oh who am I kidding. I am DOING my Christmas shopping and definitely need my card since there are a couple of places, that’s all I can use. One of the most prominent will not ship anything without it.

After seeing the mail today and the card is still not here, I started getting a bit desperate. As anyone knows who buys at this time of year, it is sort of a crap shoot whether you actually get the items or not by Christmas so the earlier the shipping the better. But I still don’t have my card. So, once again, I called Paypal. Those extremely competent people at the help desk must have all been out to lunch. I talked with a young lady who was pretty hard to understand with a very thick accent. Without trying to offend anyone, I would really like to talk with someone who has English as their first language when dealing with such problems. There are too many misunderstandings this way.

She was very helpful as far as she could go. She had no idea about the Paypal card and when it was sent. That sounded somewhat ominous to me. She put me on hold for over 10 minutes. No clue what was going on. When she returned, she told me that the card had been mailed out YESTERDAY!!! Now I had assurances from the other guy that it would be sent out much sooner. And then when I told this to the young lady, she said something that only hit me later. But it was so stupid that I cannot even fathom why she would say it. Perhaps you can catch this?

She said “Ms L., the card was sent out yesterday. If you look on the back, it states that it would be sent out within 4-6 weeks.” Anyone catch that?

And now that I have had time to think about it, I wish I could be back on the phone to talk to her again. However, I will suffice it to say that THIS experience is more in line with what my usual help desk experiences are like. I know you will get the problem here. So I will just say that I hope your shopping is going better than mine.

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For those who have no clue what I’m talking about, these two sites supposedly bring together those who are looking for long lost members of usually their high school graduating class or the college graduating class. Often you get emails telling you that someone from your class is looking for you. They send out thousands of emails with that same line. In this case, both sites are wanting to match you up with your class. Both make sure you give your information before they give you theirs. What is wrong with this picture?

What they are looking for is for you to pay them to see who is looking for you. Now, if you are desperate to find someone from that class, by all means, go ahead and get the upgrade they offer….with a little caution here. Remember why they actually sent you the email in the first place.

More often than not, there will not be anyone that has tried to contact you. I am not saying that no one is looking for you but both those sites send out emails stating that someone is trying to contact YOU. That is the incentive to buy their membership. Oh, they tell you that you can be a member for free. However, any relevant information that you want on those people from your class will not be there until you pay out money to be a gold member or whatever they call it. At some point, you realize that they are not all that but you already paid your money. They will not refund it.

Warning here. When you have paid out to be a gold member, check the options on your profile page or your account page. There will be an option to do an auto pay or manual pay. Do yourself a huge favor and select manual pay. Trust me, they will bug you about your account. You do not have to fear that they will cut you off from their site. But please put in the manual option. Why? I did not do that until the last month of my membership with Classmates. I had bought a year which was okay. I did get together with a couple of old classmates but I also ran into some guy who was a total stranger to me. It’s a trolling place for people too. But since I did not take the option until the last month, apparently their software did not notice that option and charged me the whole year’s membership at a time that I really did need the money. I argued with them about it. They did see the light for me. I received my refund in about four days. That is not the case with most of the people or so I assume since I saw several forum comments concerning them.

On Reunion, I simply kept getting the messages about people looking for me. When I clicked on the message to go to the site, I found myself at a place where they expect you to sign up for the paid membership. If you do not, you cannot see who is looking for you. The fact is, it is more likely that there is no one looking at that particular time. They simply want your money.

I am not against these sites. But I am warning people against their tactics concerning money and memberships. If you like the membership, that’s great. I did see some people on the site that I used to know but it was not the big deal I thought it would be. For one thing, most people do not visit there every day. In fact, sometimes they took a week or more to answer me when I wrote them. These folks are otherwise busy. Classmates is not a high priority in their lives. Neither is Reunion which is not as popular as Classmates. In both cases, they expect you to be curious enough to sign up for the upgraded membership to find out. Now you are warned.

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Hey, I realize that this is way overdue and late to boot. But if you can remember it for next year, that works too. In this amazingly bad economy, it boggles the mind that anyone would want to go to such places in the first place but if you do that, you need to know a few things that might help you. This particular subject and post are happening due to someone who commented on another post here. So, I will try to help in any way I can. That person said that they wanted to spend as much as they could when going to the fair. Yes, I understand that. However, there are things unseen going on there. One really big thing here, I am not talking about permanent amusement parks. This is about traveling carnivals only.

For instance, that carnival that has all the rides and games is only there for one thing, to separate you from the money in your wallet. That is it. No other reason. They do not care whether they entertain you or not. That is a side benefit since it brings people back for more. The food is high priced but you will probably eat it anyway because it’s unique to that time and place…more or less. Most of those things can be fixed in your own kitchen but I suppose it’s not the same. One thing here, a foot long hot dog is only 9 inches long. Thought I would share that.

Games are there so you can lose. Yes, people do win occasionally. And if they win a large stuffed animal, unless they had whatever they were tossing right on the mark, it took them much more money than it cost for the thing in the first place. Most games are rigged for the house. Big shocker. All of them are rigged to not lose much at all. Little kid games will get you little bitty prizes. Big kid games almost always get you little bitty prizes. The trinkets cost less than a few cents. The stuffed animals cost much less too. Often, the win or lose is a judgment call by the person in the game booth. These people have to pay the boss if they lose some of the “plush” so they try very hard not to do that.

Rides in most states are not regulated enough to be safe. Some states or local governments do not have rules in place for the safety issue. Some do. Some are very strict but most are not. There are no real regulations on the games either. But let’s take a closer look at the rides. These pieces of machinery are painted, repaired and packed up at the beginning of the season, carted around the country, set up temporarily at the site where they are going to operate for a few days up to ten days. The people that the owners use to assemble these large, heavy pieces of machinery are usually from the town or city where they are setting up. These folks have zero clue what they are doing. That is not safe. But the carnivals rarely have enough people to do the job themselves. At the end of the stay, the rides are torn down in less than 6 hours usually, packed up and heading for the next stop.

In the beginning, they are well repaired, look fresh and crisp. Don’t let that fool you. Those rides are usually pretty old. They have a new paint job. After they have been on the road all season, are usually in need of repair they will likely not get until they go back to winter quarters. They are dangerous in the beginning and worse at the end of the season. And those who love carnivals will not pay one bit of attention to me on this but they should. It might save a life or some injuries some day.

Just my two cents worth for today.

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Fear drove the Dow down for the seventh straight day of trading. It closed under 9000, a place it has not been since 2003. Because of the greed of the large corporations now in distress or in bankruptcy, wild stock selling is occurring unlike it has ever been. The problem today came because of one of the top members of the Dow, General Motors, dropped sharply in their stock bringing down the other members. The auto industry has had it’s own problems this year which have been overshadowed by the housing crisis and the credit crisis. This is unlikely to stop anytime soon with fear running the people who handle the stocks.

Frankly, that is a huge problem. Fear leads to panic. No one can think straight when they’re panicked. And now we have a country full of people who are starting to panic. Others who did that long ago and some who will soon. Some cooler heads are still around but will those who are currently running in fear listen to the others? Who knows. A bigger problem seems to be that because of the various problems here in the United States, much of the banking and lending institutions around the world are also running on fear. That emotion simply should not be part of people’s lives but it is. Right now, it’s definitely part of all our lives whether we feel it or not.

It is time to stop and rethink things. Stop the fear and the panic. Wall Street needs to come to grips with the fact that if they do not stop the insanity that there will be more and more problems and a crisis every week. And soon, if it does not stop, a depression will occur if we are not already in one. Who can tell since the people of the media put their own spin on everything. We can hardly know if we are getting the story straight or not. So, prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

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A few months ago, we acquired a new puppy. She was about 5 weeks old at the time and very active. As little as she was, she got into everything we left out. One day a couple of months later, we went out to go to the store. It took quite a while since we had several stops to make. And when we came home, there were things torn up all over the floor including a few things from the trash. Nothing seemed to be wrong so we cleaned up the trash and torn up things around the floor. Our puppy looked none the worse for wear. Our cat appeared to be nervous around the pup though. At this point, the cat was now smaller than the pup so it was no wonder the cat had gotten worried about our puppy.

Later that evening, I noticed some small bits of something that were about the same color as the carpet strewn around the floor. My memory clicked in to the fact that I had picked up a medicine bottle that she had chewed but I thought it was the one I had thrown away the day before. The small bits were actually a cholesterol med that I am taking. She had evidently chewed on several before we found the pills. We could not account for 7 of them. She was none the worse for wear but it could have been quite dangerous for her.

My advice is when you have medications, vitamins, diet pills or anything like that, put them up high so that a pet cannot get to them. See, we had been used to an older dog that knew better than to get into such things. The meds were in what we thought was a safe place. However, this puppy could go places you would not dream she could get to. We had to do some changing in our thinking. It would be no different than if you had a new baby in the house. When they get mobile, or even before they do, put meds in a place where they cannot be reached. I saw a blog today that suggested putting meds, OTC meds too, under lock and key. I agree even with pets. Do yourself, your family, your children and your pets a favor and put such items out of reach of little fingers and teeth.

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I want to take this time to stop what I am doing and remember the tragedy of September 11, 2001. This devastated a nation but also brought a nation from a state of political couch potato status to that of a nation of courage and unity. We must not forget the date nor what happened that day but we must also remember that good things happened too. I do not want to downplay the losses from that day. It was horrible and horrifying and I remember the pictures and saw the towers as they fell. I saw the second plane crash into the second tower. I will never forget that.

But we must remember that though we were bruised and battered, we were also a nation brought together in unity, something that had not happened in a multitude of years. Perhaps it would be best if we remembered more about that, the unity. I was proud of our country again. We stood tall for all that was good in the world. That should not change from then to now.

I would like to encourage all of you to think upon what we turned into as a nation for those few days after the tragedy. People cared about each other again. We were united against an enemy. It was awesome. That, of course, has gone away now due to the political atmosphere. Now we are at each other’s throats again because one does not believe the same as the other. We could come together again. We could become what we once were, a unified country with a single purpose. I wish and pray for that.

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We have contemplated moving several times since we came to live in the house we currently live. Every time we do that, it occurs to me why I hate moving. For one thing, we are not the spring chickens we used to be. Years ago, it was a whole lot easier to move from one place to another. For another, we have no help whatsoever. We must do this ourselves. ACK!

For what it’s worth, I will move when we find just the right place, right price and the right location. I will hate the process but I will do the deed. At some point, I would like to have the money so that we could hire someone to do the moving for us. Now that is a wonderful idea well worth exploring. See, I hate to pack and move because packing requires all those shipping boxes be packed and labeled. And what happens? For some odd reason, I tend to forget what’s in them. It then becomes a trial and error system to find the one thing I knew was packed but not where it was packed.

If we had someone else packing and shipping everything, it would be even worse, don’t you think? I mean, at least if I had to pack it, there is a slight shot I would remember WHERE. If someone else does it, there is no possibility of me knowing and then it’s a mystery to be solved. Hey, I can live with that! Mystery. I like it. Let’s move. When can we get started?

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Earlier this year, the experts told us not to eat tomatoes because they caused people to get sick from salmonella. So many of us stopped eating tomatoes just like we stopped eating spinach when it was the cause of people getting sick from e-coli. Now, the experts said that it isn’t tomatoes at all. We could have been eating the things all this time. Instead, it’s jalapeno peppers. This time they have actually found the disease in the peppers.

Okay, I understand that we do not want to eat those peppers and we do not want to eat freshly prepared salsa that has the peppers in it. And for once, they appear to actually have a real reason to say this. But I have a real problem with all these stories coming out about this. First they do not want you to eat it. The sales on those products goes down, down, down. People stop eating that because of fear that they will get sick. Sometimes, like with the spinach scare, you never see that product as it was sold previously ever again.

I think we should take extreme care in what is put on the table, yes. I believe we should protect our families in this. However, we cannot run our lives on fear. That is exactly what’s happening with all these announcements. They said the tomatoes were bad. We don’t eat them. They say…OOPS! We made a mistake. In all that time we could have been eating the tomatoes that are really good for you.

Frankly, most of what we read or see on the news is one type of fear tactic or another. I do believe we must protect ourselves but we have to have some sense about this too. Please just take care. Buy what you know is right for your family. But for heaven’s sake, do not live in fear!

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I hate the time when we need to get tags because you have to stand in the line for so long. This year, there was no line. I thought it was much better especially since we had to actually replace the tag for our car this year. It’s had too many years. And of course, you no longer have to actually have the insurance card anymore either because the almighty computer takes care of that too. It’s great and not so great.

We are probably insurance poor. That used to mean that people were spending too much money for it. Now it also means that you do not have enough. In our case, that is so very true. For instance, there are insurance types out there that are a mystery to me. This may seem really simple to you but it appears to be a lot more complicated than it looks on the first peek. What does the term life insurance really mean? Because sometimes it’s just that. You spend X number of dollars, you get X amount of coverage. I have seen those commercials on tv. But they leave a lot to be desired.

Then, there are the ones that give you some type of borrowing power but I am not sure about those either. Obviously, you have to pay into that type of policy for a long period of time before you have any ability to borrow against it. And isn’t that a bit detrimental to the thing too? Also, that type appears to need a doctor exam. The ones on tv don’t need it. That means that they will probably not want to pay it out either. I don’t know. Insurance is now and has always been a mystery to me. Guess that isn’t going to change.

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With the ever increasing gas prices, it’s much harder to move goods and products across the county cheaply. In fact, the big ticket items will most surely go up dramatically and soon. You can probably already see the difference in the grocery stores and department stores. The biggest problem is the price of fuel. Gas prices are at an all time high but what gets missed in all of this, the price of diesel fuel is also extremely high, much higher than gas prices ever were.

This hits the truckers even more than it does the general public. Truckers move almost all of the goods and products in this country. When they raise the rates on moving products, it would be because of the higher gas and diesel prices. Trucking companies cannot keep their fees low anymore. They cannot exist on no or little profit so the bills for taking a load of goods and food across the country goes up dramatically. Where does it end? In the pocket of the consumer. And since we are all consumers, even the truckers, we all pay for the fuel prices that are causing all the problems in the first place.

And still, the US is dependent on foreign oil. Crude prices are at an all time high themselves. Yes, the price of a barrel goes up and down. You can sit there in your home, watching the news and hoping the prices will drop but is that realistic? Is it? Is it realistic when the middle east sheiks and oil profiteers are the ones controlling the prices and the amounts? There is no way they are going to be nice, is there. You know there isn’t. They LOVE it that we are hurting this much. We are a world power that is about to go to its knees because of middle easterners who control the oil. Is it possible for us to have missed it more??? Doubtful.

I suggest strongly that you brace yourselves for some very hard times. When the oil gets to pricey and we have nothing to put in its place, it is going to be a rocky ride. The middle east and the EU will start to write us off as a second rate power. Only if we can deal with our own oil can we stay in the world power status. That is not going to happen. Our shortsighted leaders have sold us out. This goes all the way back to before the 70s shortages. But we had a clue how it was going to be then. Why did we do nothing? We could have built more refineries, found more oil. Where is it???? And we are going to pay and pay and pay now.

Truckers who are feeling the crunch more than you are have decided to go on strike. I support this. They are protesting the high price of fuel. Frankly, I doubt that too many will do this but if it is possible, many truckers will shut down their rigs and not move for at least 24 hours. Some would like to park for a week. It would surely get the attention of the government.

Many truckers have the problem that if they start their truck, they are losing money. How can this be? Because everything they have to do to maintain the truck costs more and more, like insurance. Most truckers are paying out $600 to $800 per truck per month. The insurance is based on credit. If the trucker is losing credit status, he also pays more insurance which actually makes it a circle. Pretty soon, he cannot pay to run his truck so he parks it. That’s one more load that will not be delivered on time. If that continues to happen, the prices of goods and food will go up again.

It’s no better with the companies that have to maintain their trucks as well. In the case of the companies, there are the additional costs of individual pay, maintaining the fleet, insurance for each truck and trucker, the whole overhead. It is an awesome thing. I do not know how the trucking companies are making it. I suspect many have already fallen and there will be more to follow. When that happens, goodbye good prices for anything. It will cost yet more to move the freight and so it goes. More prices at the store. There is no end to it unless there are some stops put on those oil freaks over there in the middle east. Only then can we get a better deal at the store…..maybe.

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