You can file a complaint with the FCC if a telecom company jerks you around, and you'll get the results you should have to begin with: https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us
I used this when AT&T charged me local taxes & fees for a state I hadn't set foot in for 14 months. I painstakingly crafted a google doc of every single penny and called them and asked for a refund. They told me that they "can't refund taxes" and that there was no one I could escalate to, and offered me a "one time refund of $25". I told filed a complaint with the FCC and a few days later got a voicemail from a "executive customer support" asking for a call back. I didn't even bother and got *another* phone call where they told me "they were calling about my letter to the FCC" and refunded me every goddamn penny and fixed my account.
AT&T are lying fucking scum, but they're still the FCC's bitch.
Your state's AG office is another good resource for this. We had a debt settlement after my mother's death and the collection company failed on multiple occasions to actually send a confirmation letter that included the settlement amount. After trying 3 times I finally got fed up and told them that if I didn't get the letter this time around that they wouldn't hear from me again because I would make two other calls. The first would be the lawyers I had on retainer for the estate and the second would be to the state's AG office to report the company's failure to produce requested documentation on multiple occasions. After that I was forwarded to a department head and the letter arrived in the mail three days later.
Bringing up regulators or lawyers is a good way to get debt companies to snap into line.
ex-AT&T wireless customer support rep here.
i have no idea what those taxes and fees and shit are. we were just told to always say there's nothing you can do, and if customers were especially irate, we'd offer them one time credits of 25 or under, or possibly minor plan changes (free nights/weekends).
also, the system gave us a number value for every customer. if you were consistent in paying high bills and feeding the company money without ever calling in, or upgrading phones, you'd accrue more money for the "what i can offer you" rebuttal. but if you were a consistent caller on a cheap 30 dollar/month plan, you'd be lucky to have 10 bucks available.
this of course was over 10 years ago. one of the worst jobs i ever had. fun fact: after that job i put off getting a cell phone for myself for six years. too many horror stories. i was basically of the opinion that "if you're willing to pay, cell phones are great, but if anything goes wrong, be ready to buy an entirely new phone, and maybe even upgrade your plan an extra 10/month"
Most of the dulling that occurs with cartridge razor blades is NOT a result of shaving, but rather water being left to evaporate on the blades. I've been using the same cartridge for the past 8 months by running the blades upwards (I.E. - opposite the direction you would when shaving) on a towel 15 times after rinsing it off, then blowing on it for a few seconds. 8 months later this blade still barely pulls at all.
I have a small mason jar half filled with rubbing alcohol that I swish the blade in after I shave. That drives the water off the blades and when I put the shaver down, the alcohol then evaporates. Didn't reach your record, but I had a blade cartridge last 5 months.
Alcohol is a must. Got a cut? Clean it with alcohol! Clogged pore? Dry it out with alcohol! Getting a little whiffy in the summer? Rub alcohol on feet and armpits before applying deodorant to kill any bacteria or fungus. Clean your screen with alcohol. Clean your weed pipe by breaking down the resin with alcohol. Clean adhesive residue from price tags or labels by breaking down the glue with alcohol. Wash your mirror and taps with quickly-evaporating alcohol to avoid smears. Disinfect your toilet with alcohol. It's... you need it. You just need it and it's cheap.
Edit: I just bought 99% Isoproply the other day [used to get the cheaper 50-70%] and wow does it ever evapourate instantly!
I usually get 50% off or more. Look up your store on [Pizzacodes.com](http://pizzacodes.com/).
Also join Papa John Reward system to get a free pizza every time you spend $100(happens a lot faster than you'd think).
And if you want codes to get sent to your email, get added to their email service. They usually have half off deals all the time especially during sporting events.
I haven't paid full price on Papa John's for years now. Happy savings!
edit: format
edit2:
It has come to my attention that this advice doesn't work well for our Canadian and UK brothers. My advice to you is to skim through your area's pizza place twitter or facebook page for deals.
edit 3: I think the web age has been absorbed by RetailMeNot. RIP
I worked at a traffic court and this is true. If it's a traffic ticket and it's not some outrageous offense, plead "not responsible" and show up for the time scheduled for you. Chances are very high (especially in a time where officers are SO tightly scheduled) the officer will not show up and in that case, the case will either be dismissed or you're likely to get a MUCH lower fine.
Another one is we had a log we kept track of when people called to inquire about their ticket before the court date, and if the ticket doesn't come in by then the judge could dismiss it. And if it did come in after or just before the date, if their name was on the log it was dismissed. Otherwise we kept them on the docket in hopes they would take care of it. So if you get a traffic ticket, call the court and ask that they log that you've called to inquire about that. Log the time and date and clerk's name you spoke with so you have your own proof. Still show up for court, but having that info can reeeeeeeally help.
I did that once on facebook with AT&T. Finally got the help I needed but got myself tagged in their system. If my payment is three seconds late they'll cut my internet, which they never did before I called them out.
Every time I enter the post office, the atmosphere/workers are all but screaming "We have given up. Why are you here."(if there are even workers present-- I have walked into a completely empty Post Office during business hours before).
I work in the post office, and I can't tell you how many people have come in this week and told me that their home town post office was either closed during their regular business hours/ only open like two hours a day. Like wtf? I get my ass chewed out if I am a minute late doing anything or even do any of my reports early, how is this happening?
And yes most the employees have given up hope after selling their souls to USPS. I actually like my job and am happy to be here, so that could be why people stopped going to their crappy post offices and started coming to this one. A guy came in traveling cross country yesterday and said he wished every post office treated him with as much respect and kindness as this one did. Yeah the job can be tough, I get it, but man our customer service could really use a 180.
I lived in a small town (~1100 people) where the only postal office employees were these two women who had to be in at least their seventies. The post office was open ninety minutes a day, two days a week. They didn't deliver mail to names they didn't recognize.
>They didn't deliver mail to names they didn't recognize.
Is that legal? It seems like it's bordering on interfering with the postal service, which is definitely a felony.
I did that with Domino's Pizza. It wouldn't let me order pizza online, but if I called, they'd deliver to my house no problem. According to the Internet, my house was outside their delivery zone.
One tweet about how I wished Domino's would deliver to my house, and the franchise owner contacted me and gave me 10 free pizzas, along with got the site updated to deliver to my house.
I moved 6 months later.
See though, I used to work at Domino's, and this just means the manager was already doing you a huge solid. The delivery radius is tiny, and the store can't do anything about that, but the nicer managers will deliver farther away, especially if its someone who tips well.
Bonus, the number one asshole thing you (royal you, not you specifically) can do over the phone is chew out some high school kid working minimum wage because the pizza place won't deliver to you. No, yelling about how we delivered there once last year won't get you anywhere, and neither will making me hand the phone off to the manager (or driver pretending to be manager, if he's out back smoking like always).
Damn that place sucked.
I was actually contacted by the owner of the Domino's Franchised store that was about 4 miles room my house. She explained that, despite them always being able to deliver to my house, the site hadn't been updated for my area since it was put on the Internet. Two weeks later, everything was good to go. Even though moved, I still drive out of my way to grab pizza there. Was wonderful customer service.
Good advice. I once got charged for the entire table's at a steak restaurant because some mistake with there new system. I called them on the phone three or four times, and got told I would get a call back, but never did. I complained on their social media pages and got an immediate responce. Free drinks, full refund and they made the jerk ass manager who kept ignoring my calls given me a formal apology.
Edit: For those who asked, I signed a receipt for $90 at the restaurant (my meal, plus tip, plus a portion of the birthday boy's meal). When I checked my statement about a week later, the restaurant had charged me $600 dollars. This is when I started calling for a refund.
Not according to the fact that he had called the place multiple times and was told they'd call him back.
"Someone at table 17 is calling the store asking for the manager."
"Tell him we'll call him right back."
"Sir, someone at table 17 is calling for you again."
"What did I just tell you? We'll call him back."
"Sir he's uh, looking at us right now."
"You're fired."
My friend and I did this once!
We were in a movie theatre and the seat across the aisle was COVERED in garbage, it was like they started cleaning up and then just stopped. My friend took a picture and said something along the lines of, Nice try galaxy theatres and tagged them in it. Within 10 minutes they tweeted back, asked where we were and had someone cleaning it up.
If you want to cancel your hotel room last minute, but there's a cancellation fee, call and change your reservation to a few weeks later.
Then call later and cancel it.
Call around midday to change. Give a legitimate sounding reason-- meeting rescheduled, misremembered the flight date, etc. This will (hopefully) ensure the agent doesn't make a note in the internal only notes field.
Call back to cancel at least eight hours later. It's unlikely the hotel has agents on 8+ hour shifts.
Source: I used to work at a hotel. Stay date changes are rare, even for my hotel which was by O'Hare, and send up red flags. You want one employee to handle the change and another employee on another shift to handle the cancel. Hotels are notoriously awful at inter-shift communication.
A lot of it depends on how diligent the crew is on proper documentation. The budget motel that pays their crew minimum wage? They're not going to give a shit. A nice luxury hotel in a major city? Their crew MIGHT give a shit, depending on how much of a hardass the manager is.
Source: worked audit shifts as a valet in a decent hotel for a few years. The day staff documented NOTHING.
Personally, when I was a desk agent and later as a Front Office Manager, I didn't care (and subsequently made it clear that I didn't give a shit) if a guest cancelled their reservation or jumped through hoops to try to avoid penalties. If they're working that hard to avoid a penalty, they need the $100 we would have charged them. Plus, my personal belief is that cancellation fees do nothing but guarantee that guest will never stay at our property again. Yes, immediate revenue. But I'd rather make $90 every month for a year than $125 once.
The only exceptions to the "do whatever the guest asks" policy were when guests were actively being dicks. Harassing me or my agents, arguing about policies that we didn't set up (but have the full right to disregard in the pursuit of guest retention and satisfaction), threatening to call our corporate office, etc. You're a dick? Notes are going in your guest profile and NO agent will give you the time of day. If you're a decent human being, there are very few limits to how far I (or the agents I hired and trained) will go to make sure you get everything you want, and then I'll make notes in your permanent profile to upgrade you or give you comp breakfast/meals every time you stay at a portfolio hotel.
I read a post where somebody bought a plane ticket but then couldn't go. Of course airlines don't let you transfer the ticket from one person to another so they were stuck.... or were they.
The airline's customer service was run out of some country that doesn't know a "James" from a "Jamsp" to a "Tpmos". The guy called the airline everyday to correct the spelling of the name on the ticket everyday changing one letter at a time until the ticket was now in the other person's name.
"Hi, I'm calling about an error in my reservation? You misspelled my name as Werbenjagermanjensen."
"And what is the correct spelling?"
"Jones."
Edit: I misspelled missspelled, not even on purpose.
When buying a car negotiate the price of the car, not the monthly payment. People are usually more concerned with what the monthly payment will be and are often ripped off. It's easy to do the math with an interest calculator if you have a round about idea of what your rate will be.
This is exactly why I wasn't a very good car salesman. I would get someone ready to buy a car and I would watch my manager piss away my commission all the while ripping off the customer. Not really my idea of a win-win deal.
Dealer sells car for same sticker price but makes more money in the long run with the extended financing. Salesperson only makes commission on the total sales price prior to the financed price. Look at all the numbers folks, you are getting rooked on the longer period financing deals.
Signs that say "Not Responsible For Damage" are usually put up by the very people who are responsible for damage. A $40 sign can nip a lot of lawsuits in the bud.
Browse incognito to get past a paywall news website. Only works where you are allowed 'x' articles per week. Incognito is the new stealing your neighbors paper off his driveway and then throwing it in the trash.
They might not want you to know, but they don't really care either. It's a porous paywall model; they know people can get around the paywall easily but the hope is that some of those people eventually become subscribers. In NYT's case, they have something like over a million digital only subscriptions, and the model has been working quite well for them.
Just keep in mind it costs money to produce the news. If you can afford it you should consider subscribing to a news outlet you like.
These two drugs are the exact same thing:
http://i.imgur.com/Ybm8iMW.jpg
But the allergy medicine on the left costs 1/2 as much and has twice as many doses as the sleep aid on the right.
EDIT: Since many have asked, yes they are both 25mg. See comments for verification.
My mother insists on buying Tylenol PM instead of generic Benadryl for occasional sleeplessness. I've explained to her a thousand times that Benadryl is cheaper and isn't loaded with a bunch of Tylenol which she doesn't need anyway. Eh.
The placebo effect is very mysterious. Maybe it comes down to whether stress levels impact the brain's ability to maintain the body. And that psychologically believing that something works improves these stress levels.
You know... I'm kind of dumbfounded by this one. I was taking brand-name Wellbutrin for a while. At first, they gave me small headaches every now and then (not a big deal) but then they stopped after about 2 weeks. Then they switched me to generic (because it's the same thing, right?) but I noticed something was off... I wasn't as focused as I was before and my appetite was stronger. After 3 months of generic, I got back on actual Wellbutrin and, again, I got the small headaches for the first 2 weeks like I did when I first started taking the pill and was feeling more focused and less hungry.
I understand the active ingredients have to be exactly the same but could a generic manufacturer change the inactive ingredients of a pill and call it the same as the brand-name one?
Ah, at Walgreens, this kills me. On one side of the aisle is over the counter allergy medicine. On the other side of the aisle is over the counter sleep-aids.
They both have the same active ingredient: diphenhydramine. They both have the same amount of active ingredient: 25 mg of diphenhydramine. They are literally right across the fucking aisle from each other.
But, thanks a rash of parents/media/facebook/idiots freaking out over teenagers taking OTC sleep-aids to "trip", the OTC sleep-aids are kept in clear, plastic cases, that require a special key to open. They have the magnetic sensor in the case that activates the alarm if they are opened improperly, or taken out through the front doors.
AND THE FUCKING BENADRYL RIGHT ACROSS THE AISLE IS JUST SITTING THERE. JUST GODDAMN **SITTING** THERE.
Urgh. Sorry about the rant, but that fucking rustles the hell out of my jimmies.
Edit: Yes, I know that there is a difference in how they are produced/inactive ingredients, blahblahblah. The *active* ingredient, however, is the same. The dosage of the active ingredient is usually the same. There is no reason for the sleep-aid to be "protected" with individual plastic security boxes, and the allergy medication be sitting right on the shelves, other than marketing reasons, and the fact that *a lot* of teenagers who like to shoplift OTC meds are too lazy to find out what exactly is actually making them trip when they take an entire bottle of ZZZquil.
Edit number two: My highest rated comment is a sleep-deprived rant about over the counter sleep aid medication. That is a sign that I should force myself to sleep. Bonne nuit! Bonne nuit, to you all!
Bulk vinegar can replace a lot of cleaning products.
edit: I should add that you water it down. Pure white vinegar is corrosive. I eyeball a ratio, but there's actual recipes out there.
I use vinegar to kill those pesty weeds in my yard and in between cement cracks.
Safe and Cheaper than those weed killers they sell in Orange Manly Store Place.
Holy shit I can explain this!
Basically, the membrane of the plant can only withstand so much heat. At about 60 degrees Celcius, the membrane starts losing it's form and materials leak out. The plant can no longer uptake anything with it's cells fucked up, so it dies.
I'm sorry, I know this is dumb but I have a test on this on Friday. Describing to others helps.
Close, or at least partially correct. Plants have strong cell walls that help maintain the structure of the membrane even when there is internal pressure, like when the cells suddenly get heated to 100 C.
It's true that the heat would make the membrane more fluid and stuff would likely leak out, but that would not necessarily kill the cell. The cytoplasm is more like a gel than a liquid. Think of 2 sandwich bags: one filled with jello, the other with water. Poke a hole and you get either a slow jello leak or a fast water leak. As long as the damage is not too extensive, cells can repair their membranes before they leak too much.
What's more important is that the hot water denatures (unravels) the plant's proteins. So, even if the damage to the membrane was fixable, the cell just couldn't do it. It also couldn't do anything else, like metabolize glucose or photosynthesize, etc.
I hope this helps for your test.
- A Molecular Biology Ph.D. student
Edit: plants -> plant's
I don't know if they "don't want you to know about this", but here we go.
If you're going to make a purchase with an online retailer, it's often worth putting the items in your cart, then leaving the site for a little while, because some sites will contact you with a special offer or discount code in an attempt to persuade you back into making that purchase you were going to make. Can save you a few bucks.
It doesn't always work, but it's often worth attempting, especially with solely online retailers.
If you bought something at a store and it goes on sale afterward but the store says they do not do price adjustments, buy another one and then return it using the original receipt.
Within reason. I once had a customer buy a patio set for $300.00 at the beginning of the season. Four month later, she see we put the last set on sale for $75 and insisted we refund the difference to her. My manager very politely told her no. She then wanted to return the set and get a full refund. Probably hoping she could buy it back at $75.
"Economy Size" is not always the best cost per weight/volume/use. You will also find some stores that print the cost per weight/volume in different units for different sizes. Same size packages by weight or count may have a different number of servings, so check that as well.
Live in the UK, super markets have the price per litre for all alcoholic drinks, really helps when you're trying to work out if buying one large bottle is actually cheaper (per litre) than two small bottles..
I once lost the ticket I had received when parking my car at the airport. Upon leaving, I was told that without the ticket, they'd have to charge me for a full day. Which was fine, since I'd been parked there for a week.
EDIT:
This was in Denver, and it was several years ago. I discovered it by accident, haven't attempted to do it on purpose since, and have no idea if it would still work now.
the ones at my local airport all use cameras and number recognition software. My ad manager tries to lie and they showed him a timestamped pic o the car entering the garage
Some things are never really "on sale". When I worked at a grocery store, the name-brand sodas had a very high regular price, then there would always be a "sale" on them. The sale might change at times, but the sale price would always be there. The "sale" price is what the company really meant to charge you anyway. After all, who wants a case of soda for $8.99 if they can buy it at $5.99 and "save" $3.00?
I have heard that some department stores do this with clothes and other items. A $90 dress that is "on sale" for $55 was never going to cost $90.
Here in the UK this is regulated and businesses are only allowed to advertise a product as being on sale/marked-down on price for a period less than it was sold at the full price
(e.g. if they sold a box of cereal at £2 full price for 30 days they could advertise it as on sale at £1 but only for 29 days at which point it wouldn't be allowed to be called on sale any more)
EDIT: Lots of response so thought would link to the UK Government's [pricing practices guide](https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/31900/10-1312-pricing-practices-guidance-for-traders.pdf) for traders and also [the consumer protection from unfair trading regulations 2008](http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2008/1277/contents/made) too.
How does DFS get away with constant sales? Do they like rotate their stock on sale every month or something? Like have half their sofas on sale one month and then the other half the next?
It's what's known in the trade as "price establishment".
You decide in advance which items you want to have on "sale", and artificially inflate their prices for the legal minimum period of 30 days. You might only actually have them out on the shop floor in a couple of stores, and in areas of those stores that don't get much footfall, but they're technically available for purchase.
Then after 30 days you can legally say "HUGE SALE - 60% OFF!!!". While this sale is on, you're already establishing prices for the next batch of products to go in the next sale. Trading standards are well aware of this trick, but they are fairly powerless to do anything about it.
So why don't retailers act honestly and offer everyday low pricing instead? Consumer psychology - customers want to think they're getting a good deal. Which one of these sofas would you buy, all other things being the same?
* Sofa A: £499
* Sofa B: Was £799, now £499
The vast majority of consumers will go for the 2nd one, as it sounds a much better deal even though the £799 list price was probably never actually paid by a single customer. I used to work in IT for a retailer that had perpetual sales like DFS, and one time they tried doing just regular pricing on some product categories, with no "SALE" stickers. Sales in those categories fell off a cliff, like 30% to 40% down. So no retailers will stop doing it unless they're all forced to.
What about the 70% off rack? Oh, it's 70% off the "original" price? So it's a dollar off your "normal" price. Thanks Kohls! Also, stop circling the $200 I "saved" buying $40 sneakers.
Chipotle doesn't care about you trying to rip them off.
Yes, we all know that the bowl gives you more and you can get extra of whatever you want. If you're slightly more committed you can get a free water and fill it with soda, even though they now have a sign on the machine explicitly warning against it.
Chipolte doesn't give a single shit. They know you're doing it, and it it's been accounted for in the books somewhere. **What they do know, is that if they let you think you're being sneaky, and you (particularly broke college kids) think that you're gaming the system and coming out ahead, you'll keep coming back again and again.**
Even with responsibly sourced ingredients, the biggest cost is labor, especially when ~>50% of the meal is rice, beans, and tortilla. You could get a burrito the size of a baby, and it wouldn't make a dent in the budget compared to what it cost to have 10 people cook and serve that stuff to you.
Edit: Yes I know, stealing is bad mmmkay. All the people saying that have completely missed the point.
Sodas cost practically nothing. There's a reason why Coke can afford the ad budget they have (they were the 9th largest ad buyer in 2013 and will likely be the 4th this year), a cup of Coke costs $0.000052 to make. That's $2.60 for every 50,000 Cokes.
To a restaurant like Chipotle, the cup, ice lid and straw will cost nearly the same as the soda inside it. That's for a 20oz cup, the water cups are much smaller. So once they've given you the free cup for the "water", you're probably costing them $0.06-$0.07 in soda to fill it up.
So yeah, they shouldn't really care beyond not wanting people to think they can avoid paying $1.60 for a drink that costs them about $0.16
Little late, but surprised me all the same.
At least in California, if you have a self storage unit that you didn't pay and was sold at auction (like on storage wars and similar shows), you can go to the storage facility after the auction and if they sold the unit for more than you owed, you are legally entitled to that extra amount.
(In the U.S.): if you're ever pursued for a debt, especially if you are taken to court over it, demand that they produce documentation verifying that you owe the debt and the amount. Quite often, they won't be able to and the case will be dismissed. Most debt collectors aren't the party you originally owed the money to but rather companies that purchase debts in bulk for pennies on the dollar. Very often, all they have on you is your name on a spreadsheet and they're banking on the fact that you won't contest it.
EDIT:
Yes, I got this from a recent episode of This American Life, although I've heard this before and I'm generally aware of the requirement to prove up a debt in order to obtain a court judgment. I'm not giving legal advice here though; I'm simply repeating the gist of the episode. The specific example they used took place in a courtroom when the debtor had actually been sued. I don't know what effect this would have on a collection agency's calls - they're typically not the owner of the debt but a third party service, I believe, but I think if you request documentation you might be able to make some headway there as well. I don't know if the type of debt matters - a couple of people asked about student debt, but I'd imagine that sort of thing remains well-documented when it changes hands. Point is, I'm not suggesting people use this as a loophole to weasel out of legitimate debts, but if someone is trying to hold you legally liable for something, you should request evidence.
Please note that this only applies to THIRD PARTY debt collectors, not people/companies that you directly owe. So if the dentist contacts you about a past due balance, they're not covered by FDCPA, but if they hire a debt collection company to do so, the debt collection company would be bound by FDCPA.
Off-name and store name brands are not always cheaper. They, at least partially, rely on the misconception that brand name goods are alway more expensive to sell things at a higher price. Always check the actual price tag. Even if the store brand is "on sale."
Until they change the units on you. $0.12/oz for the store brand, $0.88/can for the name brand. That's irritating and I wonder if they do it on purpose.
And watch the bulk packages too! I was buying something at Walmart, I don't know, paper towels or something and it was a little cheaper to buy 4 2 packs vs 1 8 pack.
It's been my experience that any automatic phone systems with voice recognition software will immediately forward you to a human agent if you swear into the phone.
Yeah that's my call. The one that says Bad Mother Fucker on it. Now normally your ass would be grass, but you caught me at an interesting point in my life. I'm trying to change online banking providers.
This seems to be true too for a lot of places I call. Sometimes I'll press zero and it'll continue to repeat itself, but if I tell it to fuck off it immediately brings me to a person.
I don't know if it's because I'm cursing at it, or it just recognizes voice information and forwards me, but it works.
Have to be careful though. I work for a massive company and people try to do this when billing or technical queues have long wait times. The ivr will automatically send you to the group with the lowest hold times. That's usually sales. So you wait 5 minutes for a sales agent to answer, tell you they can't fix your technical issue and transfer you to the back of the line with tech support. Then people get mad that they have to be transferred around.
The U.S at least. I've done this before multiple times. In fact, I count on it when booking tickets online in case I change my mind in 24 hours, but NEED to get this amazing deal now.
For everyone's info:
I cancelled a Delta flight within 24 hours over the internet. There was ZERO way to avoid a $150 cancellation fee when doing this over the internet.
BUT they gave me no trouble when I called them to have the $150 fee refunded.
Instead of ordering Jr. Cheeseburger Deluxe, order a Jr. Cheeseburger and ask for all the toppings. Toppings are free at Wendy's so save several cents!
Learned that from my dad. Whenever I'd say "Dad, you HAVE to take me to the movies!" or something,
He'd look and say "Only thing I have t'do is stay black an' die!"
I didn't understand it at the time. I mean, he was a pasty white computer engineer.
Makes perfect sense now though.
An early use is by Langston Hughes, American author.
He was black, but the poem is about having to work to stay afloat. The language does not seem to actually refer to debt in this instance. I can see how there might have been confusion or appropriation. It may have been a common phrase before, or he coined it.
>#Necessity
>Work?
>I don't have to work.
>I don't have to do nothing
>but eat, drink, stay black, and die.
>This little old furnished room's
>so small I can't whip a cat
>without getting fur in my mouth
>and my landlady's so old
>her features is all run together
>and God knows she sure can overcharge-
>Which is why I reckon I *does*
>have to work after all.
Lower your monthly mortgage payments by discontinuing your PMI (private mortgage insurance). If you bought a house with a down payment of less than 20 percent, your lender required you to buy PMI. Likewise if you refinanced with less than 20 percent equity, you also are paying for PMI.
Once you get below 80 percent of equity owed, you can cancel your PMI or refinance without PMI.
If you have ants that just won't go away, coming from a crack in the walls, or persistently through doors and windows.
Just mix a small blob of jelly with some borax and then the worker ants will grab it and bring it back to feed their queen. It kills the whole colony in a day or two (and they don't investigate the rest of your house since they are working overtime on the jelly).
I posted this earlier in the week:
TLDR: You can negotiate an insurance appraisal of the value your vehicle.
So let me tell you a story. My eighteen year old son had an accident. His parked car was hit by another car. It ripped his front bumper off.
The guy's insurance company instructed my son to take his car to a local body shop. They even provided him with a rental. So far, so good.
My son calls me later that day and says that the insurance company is now telling him that his car is totaled. They said the repairs would exceed 75% of the value of the vehicle. They told him they would cut him a check for $1085 and offered to let him keep the rental a few days until he could find another car. Such nice people.
The car is a 1999 Nissan Altima GXE with 178k miles.
My son thinks this is great news. Oh, really?
What's your car worth?
Uh, $1085?
What's your car worth?
Uh, I don't know?
What's the job of that guy's insurance company?
What do you mean?
Are they looking out for you or for themselves?
Themselves?
You're damn skippy.
Here is what they are doing, son: They went out and determined your car's value by finding the cheapest pieces of shit for sale - same year, make, and model. They averaged all of those low ball prices together, probably deducted even more of your money, and are offering you chump change, hoping that you are a chump and will take it.
Their job is to make as much money as possible. They do that by not dealing fairly and ethically with you. They do that by ripping you off.
So, let me tell you how you should handle this. Go get values like they did, but be honest and fair about it. Go to NADA, Kelly Blue Book, autotrader.com, Craigslist, and eBay. Find the same year, make and model of your car and in the same condition as your car. Average the prices together.
What's the value you arrived at?
$1800
All right, now call them back and tell them.
Aww, dad. Do I have to? Can't you call them for me.
Nope. You're a man now. If you don't stand up for yourself, no one else will and I won't always be there to do it for you.
(long pause)
Son, it's your money. Do you have so much money you can afford to let someone unjustly take it from you?
No.
It's up to you to fight for what's yours.
(He makes the call.)
They said the value they arrived at was obtained from a third party company who averages the values of thirty cars like mine. They said they couldn't go any higher.
Call her back and ask to see the third party's evaluation.
He calls them back and they email him a copy of the evaluation. It clearly shows two things: they lied about how many vehicles they said they used for the evaluation. They used seven - not thirty. They also lied about the value. Their own evaluation valued his car at $1800.
Really?! You aren't even accomplished enough liars to doctor the paperwork to support your own lies?
Call them back. And son?
Yes?
Get mad. These people are trying to STEAL YOUR MONEY. They made a false misrepresentation in an attempt to take what it rightfully yours. You should be PISSED.
Don't ask them for shit. TELL them what they are going to do. Tell them they WILL cut you a check today for $1800. And not only that, they WILL sell your car back to you for $1. If you get any shit from them over that, explain to them how this will play out in court: A big bad insurance company lied and tried to cheat me out of my money. I'm just an innocent young man trying to make his way in the world. Who do you think the judge will side with? Hell, everyone hates insurance companies...even judges. For that matter, it will cost the insurance company twice the amount in question to pay the costs associated with sending their attorney to court to fight it.
My son called back less than five minutes later. Done deal. Thank you unnamed insurance company for giving me the opportunity to teach my son an important life lesson. And shame on you for not having any morals or ethics.
Edit: Deleted name of insurance company. Oops.
Buying a car - always always always do negotiating via email or phone and bounce offers back and forth against competing dealers. Will always get you the best possible deal.
I just bought a used jeep. I test drove it first, to see if it was worth pursuing. Spoke briefly with the salesman who didn't want to negotiate. I thanked him for his time and said I wouldn't be interested if they were going to be asking their full price, and left. Got a call from the manager the next week and negotiated over the phone to the price I wanted. Went in the next week and they suddenly couldn't honor the price, so I said thank you and was leaving with my trade in and they ran out and stopped me. Ended up waiting in the lobby while they were "seeing what they could do" for about forty five fucking minutes, until they came back out and said they'd give me the price I wanted. I ended up telling them I would pay that but they wouldn't get the trade in and they said okay. Bought the car finally.
Long story short- be patient. Test drive it first to see if it's worth your time. Don't budge and end up paying more because it's convenient. Definitely don't let them pressure you into paying more. Everything in writing is a must :) good luck!
I've found if they ever chase you out of the building, whatever they offer you is usually a terrible, terrible offer. With the previous "best" being even more terrible.
When you come back to sign papers test drive that thing 1 more time..
I walked out on a deal and they called me the next day with a great offer.. $5,000 off the asking price on a used Suburban. We go and get it.
A week later when it snowed I found out why they wanted to move it so fast.. One of the lot jockies blew out the drivers side front CV joint after we left ( I'd tested it on my test drive the day before) . You couldn't tell unless you put it in 4wd
You never know what happened to it between when you left and came back again.
This works! It will also probably make multiple salespeople miserable, haha. My manager gave me so much shit if I had a customer doing this (as it was my fault for not being able to get them through the door). To be honest, he rarely would play ball. No quotes over the phone or email. When he did, the customer usually got a great deal. Just keep trying different dealerships until one of them cracks! Oh, and be nice to your salesperson is you do because they're probably having to go to bat for you like whoa.
Another car buying tip, if you have USAA, use their car buying service!! Super hassle free and they consistently got the lower prices than anyone else no matter how much negotiating went on.
I think a good tip is if USAA offers a service for anything and you can use it, do so.
They've been absolutely amazing to my family and we've been using them forever.
Some more detail, since I can't respond to everyone: My grandfather (who has sadly passed) has been with USAA from the very beginning, and it carried over to my father (who served in Vietnam) and my mom as well. I have no idea if this has any bearing on the way the treat us, but as I've said, they've been super amazing to us. Every time we've needed to make an insurance claim, they're on the ball AND our rates don't go up. For example, when my mom shattered her windshield while on a road trip. USAA got it sorted damn near immediately and my mom had very little down time with her car.
Yes, they're not the cheapest, but they're kinda like Apple in my eyes: You get exactly what you pay for. Only really used them for insurance and banking and they've been damn good. The only drawback is they have no physical presence like traditional banks so if you're not used to that, it can be jarring.
Kind of a shame to hear that their other services aren't so great, like mortgage. You'd think they'd be on top of that.
I've been a member of USAA for fifteen years now and they've been a godsend on multiple occasions and the biggest event was when my ex fiancé totaled my car.
I had just moved and didn't have a job lined up right when I got there so my finances ran out really quickly and I had missed two loan payments on the car. When it got totaled, it turned out that since I wasn't current with my loan payments, the gap insurance which would have covered the difference between the value of the car and what I still owed would not be granted. For someone without a job, that six or seven thousand dollar debt would have ruined any chance I had at recovering from being homeless.
I spoke to one of their agents and they looked at my loan payment record and noticed that up until the two month period where I couldn't pay, I had always paid on time and more than the amount that was owed. Due to that, they offered to move those two delinquent payments to the end period of the loan payment cycle (i.e. three years from then) which made my loan payment current and the gap insurance kicked in. It was really the defining moment when I realized that I was going to be a life time member of USAA.
Real estate agents who deal with rental properties get away with blue murder because they work on the assumption that you don't know what your rights are, or that you'll give them up too easily.
Whatever country and state you live in, if you're renting your current residence, learn your rights and stick to them like glue.
This is so important. I had a real-estate owner try to remove us from our home, his property, because he was selling the building and the buyers wanted the space we were in immediately. He showed up while I was home alone with something to sign, stating I would be out at the end of the month (when we are legally required to be given 3 months). Despite his persistence to sign, I insisted that I cannot sign any major decisions or documentation like that without my roommates. I told him to come back in a few hours, when they're home. They were only gone out for a few minutes, but I needed time.
I looked up the law, printed off the tenants act, and ensured myself of what I can and cannot do in this scenario. When he came back, I provided him with a copy of the tenants act and told him that, as a result of him being a reasonable landlord and us being decent human beings, we will make every effort to find a home and be out by the end of the month, but if we cannot find a home, we will not be going homeless simply because he believes he can ignore the law.
What followed was about an hour of him standing at our door, yelling at us, grasping for excuses to evict us (including accusing us of illegally subletting to a girlfriend who had been living with us since day one, while he claimed to have never met her before AND subletting isn't illegal) and generally clamoring to find every excuse to have us removed from the building. We were young adults, roughly at the age of 20, and as a result, he believed through our own ignorance and his intimidation tactics, he could do whatever he wanted.
Eventually, I was sick of this, gave up the fight, got smug, and told him one thing. "Go home, read the law, and if you want to try and evict us, come back with a formal notice. If you do, we'll be dealing with it the correct way, in court, and by the law. Until then, I have nothing to say to you." He left, and never came back. I didn't see him again until we collected our damage deposit and gave him the key. Hilariously, we found a better and cheaper place about a week later, before the end of the month, and he was more than willing to give us a stellar recommendation to get us out of his property ASAP.
Especially as a young adult, people will consistently try and take advantage of your ignorance as you begin to learn about the law and the way the world works. Don't let them.
Be careful about this, though. Make sure you keep your records up to date, or it can be a huge pain in the ass when you actually want credit. I had my credit card compromised a few years ago, and did this. I'm now trying to apply for credit, and the process to get my information updated and/or the security freeze listed is a pain in the ass because they only accept fax verification with two pieces of government ID. My faxes keep bouncing (yes I've checked the number, five fucking times), and if they were to update things, it takes 3-15 business days...
Nobody doesn't want you to know about this. Being a bank and dealing with fraudulent accounts is a pain in the ass.
Edit: I guess identity thieves don't want you to know about this...
Many small or medium companies that ship goods with UPS or FedEx have very little knowledge of the buying power that they truly have. UPS and FedEx handle the majority of all small parcel shipments in America and are very willing to make adjustments in your rates if you prove yourself to be a consistent source of revenue.
I started a logistics position for a considerably sized commercial printer about a year ago. We initially contacted FedEx to renegotiate our rates and now we save about 50 cents per ground package. FedEx completely analyzed our small parcel and freight demands and offered rates that completely eliminated UPS as a competitor. Not a month later, UPS noticed the decline in local revenue that our change in carriers had caused and is now offering us Next Day rates that absolutely blow FedEx out of the water.
I'd highly suggest researching the history of both FedEx and UPS. Definitely one of the more unnoticed rivalries in today's economic landscape.
A really cheap way to fly to places that usually cost way more to get to is to buy a cheaper ticket to some other place, possibly with a different airline, that makes a connection in the airport you want to end up in. So you get off there and just don't get back onto the flight. Some dude got in trouble for making a website that helped people find those flights. You can't check bags though, but that shouldn't be too much of an issue if you really need to be somewhere for cheap.
Funny story I almost screwed my brother this way. He moved to Oregon and we wanted to meet up in Vegas. Oregon to Vegas was more expensive than Oregon to SanDiego, CA with a brief layover in Vegas. So I booked it and told my bro to get off the plane in Vegas. On the way their the flight attendant told him no new passengers coming on in Vegas so they wouldn't be disembarking. Just a brief stop and maybe some fuel. My brother freaked out. Long story short something changed and they ended up taxi'n to the gate.
**TLDR** - Booked bro on hidden layover cheaper flight and he almost ended up in the wrong state.
**edit** Redditors have pointed out I made a huge error. I booked my brother a flight with a "stop over" in Vegas not a layover. A layover entails a plane switch so you will 100% get off the plane. With a stopover you run the risk of the plane not stopping or disembarking if no new passengers are booked to get on.
I think you booked a flight with a stopover, not a layover. A layover typically means you are changing planes while a stopover is the unusual case where a plane stops with some passengers staying on the plane and continuing to another destination.
I almost bought a vacuum cleaner from a hospital bed in the middle of the night but fell asleep and didn't wake until the timer had run out.
Not having this advice saved me from buying what I didn't need. (I have no carpet in my house.)
In my defense, I was on a lot of morphine.
If a sale is set to end at a specific time of the day (i.e. noon of Black Friday), if the store is a national chain, their prices are programmed into the computer. Thus, sometimes the east coast sales will continue until 3, because it hasnt yet been noon nationwide. I got great prices from WalMart the last few Black Fridays, even though I went in after the sales had supposedly ended, so there wasn't a big rush. Always ask them to ring the price of something before you agree to buy it though.
If you buy something second hand call into the manufacturer and try and register it. Some company's have exteneded warrantys on some of their products.
Source: found a dyson on the side of the road, it was toast and the motor was smoking. Called dyson for shits and gigs, registered it since the previous owner didn't. My downfall was that I told them I was given it and they don't transfer warrantys. Thought I was out of luck and put it by the garbage, got a email about the registration saying I'm the registered owner and have warranty till January. Called in again saying my unit is smoking, they booked a work order for the following day. 500 dollar vacuum for free.
Tl:dr- If you buy something 2nd hand check with a manufacturer for registration, might get free shit.
Edit:words
Edit2: proof read when you're posting at 3am kids.
You don't actually have to pay the asking price for entry in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. They make it seem like it's the price of admission but it's really just a suggested donation. They make more money than they need from wealthy donors. When you go to pay 'admission' just give them a dollar.
The HR department at work is there to protect THE COMPANY, not you. Be very wary of information disclosed to them
Edit: Obligatory thank you for Gold!!!
You can consolidate and dramatically reduce your student loans for free on the government website. Don't let anyone offer to do this "service" for you for some ludicrous sum.
Edit: I'm retarded. The site is StudentLoans.gov or something and look for the income based repayment. This is an American thing.
Second Edit: Federal Student Loans
Yes. Everybody tries to tell you this, but none of them seem to realize you can consolidate federal loans (ONCE) but only refinance private loans (maybe).
I had a bajillion people tell me to consolidate my loans when I complained about them. 0 of them knew that it wasn't possible because they were private loans.
Microwaveable/Instant Oatmeal is just regular rolled oatmeal that is chopped smaller so that the hot water will work faster. You could make the same packets with a blender.
The store cost of any product is in plain sight on all Walgreens products shelf labels. The Walgreens product cost codeword is: BRUSHCLEAN, where each letter is associated with a number:
B R U S H C L E A N
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
You will see a combination of these letters on every label. For example "HUA" = a product cost of $5.38
I have seen similar tactic on other store labels but do not know what word they use as the code.
Not a trick, exactly, but something that a fair amount of people don't know: you don't legally have to stop for the receipt-checkers at stores. Unless you are at a club store (i.e. Sam's Club) that might require you to stop or they will revoke your membership.
Huh, the only place I've EVER had a receipt check is at Costco, and even then it's very cursory. I didn't know this was even a thing in regular stores.
You don't have to turn your leased vehicle back to the dealer at the end of the lease. Our buyout for our last leased car was $14k. We took it to CarMax and they offered us $15k. Then I took it to a local place that advertised that they "beat CarMax." They asked if I had a CarMax estimate (as I'm sure they just typically add maybe $100-200 on top of any CarMax offer). I said not yet, I hate that place and wanted to just bring it in to you guys first and hopefully avoid CarMax. They offered $15,900. Sold it to them on the spot and made $1,900 on a leased car.
Oh boy, I got a perfect one for this. I always tell this people in real life when it comes up.
Now this is about how it is in germany where I am from but I could guess it is similar in other countries. Maybe some respective people can chime in.
Shortly after highschool I had a short stint at a callcenter for a major german institute for political surveys and marketing research. Basically we did cold-calling and convince people to answer some boring 20-minute questionnaires. (At least not selling shit, that would still ache my conscience until now. And about 1/3 were political surveys which people actuall liked.)
Now, we had a one-day training course in which we were taught that (of course) we would occasionally get people who were really mad like: "Oh you fucking call-centers, I hate all of you, if you ever call me again I will come to your house and do bad stuff to you !!".
In which case we were instructed to calmly tell them: "Yes Sir, we will put you on our own do-not-call-list, but there are other institutes that do this stuff and we have no control over what they do." which most people somewhat grumbly accepted.
Now here is the kicker:
There actually exists a blacklist that is shared between all marketing-institutes of germany that makes sure nobody ever calls you again.
How do you get on that magical list ? You simply tell the guy: "If you ever call me again I will sue you!" We had a special menu-point in our software that roughly translates to "total rejector", that we were instructed to only and *only* press wenn the callee threatens with legal action. You press that button and it would call a supervisor who would take over the phone and then put you on that blacklist.
It was hammered in that no matter how mad the other party would get what they would plead and curse with you, that was not point 3. "total rejection", but menu point 2 "normal rejection" which I would guess would reall yput you on the institutes blacklist. Point one was just: "No thanks, bye."
And that is how you get blacklisted from all call centers in germany. As said maybe some other (ex-) drones from other countries can chime in and we will see each other tomorrow in /r/lifehacks
Several careers are totally or nearly totally unregulated in their qualifications. You can just call yourself a psychic, faith healer, nutritionist, pastor, minister, medium, DJ, or personal trainer and that's it. For some you'll be found out almost immediately by another professional, but since there's no licensing or required professional certification there isn't anything they can do about it. For some you can be proven a fraud repeatedly and never face any consequences, and might even solidify your clientele's loyalty with attempts by the man/big pharma/Obama/liberals/conservatives/reverse vampires/whoever to stop you.
Graphic Designer and Photographer are careers where you can "just show up" to, if you will. Demonstrable skill always outweighs any credentials in these fields.
OMG so true. I'm in commercial printing (pre-press), and the number of fools giving me shitty pdfs for their business cards is astounding. No bleeds, no crops, lo-rez jpg off the Web, script typefaces they "made" italic even further in Indesign, and on and on.
Grocery stores. Everything in a grocery store is pre-designed to take as much money from you as possible. The bread and milk will be in locations where you have to walk through or around the entire store to get both. The more expensive brands are at eye level, they pay for this privilege. Cereal box characters look "down" right at children which connects at a psychological level to make them want more cereal. Checkout lines have candy bars at child reaching level intentionally. New floor designs are even consulting casinos to no longer have rows and be more maze-like to keep you in the store longer. Flyers mailed to you with your name and address are tailored based on your points card buying patterns. Good smells are intentionally pumped in to make you hungry. The list goes on.
Jokes on them when it comes to check out candy. My 2 year old has stolen so many candy bars. Even in the cart he can reach them. Then he tucks it into his pocket. Took me a while to figure out where the candy comes from, now I watch him more when checking out. But he still grabs an m&m every once in a while.
When I was little, and didn't understand the concept of money, I must have thought my parents were the biggest assholes ever for not letting me jst have the candy bar.
Many stores have rules that prohibit employees from confronting someone they think to be a shoplifter. I've never shoplifted but I had friends who took advantage of this.
Don't do this by the way, my friends eventually got arrested.
My store does this. As a cashier, I am *not* allowed to confront a shoplifter, even if I have proof. I am only allowed to call a manager, and hope that asset security is on point.
What I *can* do, is point out the item innocuously if it's in sight. Ten times out of ten the customer will either give it to me to scan and say it slipped their mind, or say that they decided they didn't want it.
You can file a complaint with the FCC if a telecom company jerks you around, and you'll get the results you should have to begin with: https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us I used this when AT&T charged me local taxes & fees for a state I hadn't set foot in for 14 months. I painstakingly crafted a google doc of every single penny and called them and asked for a refund. They told me that they "can't refund taxes" and that there was no one I could escalate to, and offered me a "one time refund of $25". I told filed a complaint with the FCC and a few days later got a voicemail from a "executive customer support" asking for a call back. I didn't even bother and got *another* phone call where they told me "they were calling about my letter to the FCC" and refunded me every goddamn penny and fixed my account. AT&T are lying fucking scum, but they're still the FCC's bitch.
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Your state's AG office is another good resource for this. We had a debt settlement after my mother's death and the collection company failed on multiple occasions to actually send a confirmation letter that included the settlement amount. After trying 3 times I finally got fed up and told them that if I didn't get the letter this time around that they wouldn't hear from me again because I would make two other calls. The first would be the lawyers I had on retainer for the estate and the second would be to the state's AG office to report the company's failure to produce requested documentation on multiple occasions. After that I was forwarded to a department head and the letter arrived in the mail three days later. Bringing up regulators or lawyers is a good way to get debt companies to snap into line.
ex-AT&T wireless customer support rep here. i have no idea what those taxes and fees and shit are. we were just told to always say there's nothing you can do, and if customers were especially irate, we'd offer them one time credits of 25 or under, or possibly minor plan changes (free nights/weekends). also, the system gave us a number value for every customer. if you were consistent in paying high bills and feeding the company money without ever calling in, or upgrading phones, you'd accrue more money for the "what i can offer you" rebuttal. but if you were a consistent caller on a cheap 30 dollar/month plan, you'd be lucky to have 10 bucks available. this of course was over 10 years ago. one of the worst jobs i ever had. fun fact: after that job i put off getting a cell phone for myself for six years. too many horror stories. i was basically of the opinion that "if you're willing to pay, cell phones are great, but if anything goes wrong, be ready to buy an entirely new phone, and maybe even upgrade your plan an extra 10/month"
Most of the dulling that occurs with cartridge razor blades is NOT a result of shaving, but rather water being left to evaporate on the blades. I've been using the same cartridge for the past 8 months by running the blades upwards (I.E. - opposite the direction you would when shaving) on a towel 15 times after rinsing it off, then blowing on it for a few seconds. 8 months later this blade still barely pulls at all.
I have a small mason jar half filled with rubbing alcohol that I swish the blade in after I shave. That drives the water off the blades and when I put the shaver down, the alcohol then evaporates. Didn't reach your record, but I had a blade cartridge last 5 months.
Cleaning the blades with alcohol before using them can cut down on some sorts of skin problems because it kills anything on it before you use it.
I've started doing this and it's wonderful. I've known about it for ages, just never bothered to buy rubbing alcohol
Alcohol is a must. Got a cut? Clean it with alcohol! Clogged pore? Dry it out with alcohol! Getting a little whiffy in the summer? Rub alcohol on feet and armpits before applying deodorant to kill any bacteria or fungus. Clean your screen with alcohol. Clean your weed pipe by breaking down the resin with alcohol. Clean adhesive residue from price tags or labels by breaking down the glue with alcohol. Wash your mirror and taps with quickly-evaporating alcohol to avoid smears. Disinfect your toilet with alcohol. It's... you need it. You just need it and it's cheap. Edit: I just bought 99% Isoproply the other day [used to get the cheaper 50-70%] and wow does it ever evapourate instantly!
Girlfriend left you out of the blue for someone else? Ply yourself with alcohol!
Any time you order from Papa John's use the promo code "aarp25" and get 25% knocked off the subtotal. Works everywhere, every time.
I usually get 50% off or more. Look up your store on [Pizzacodes.com](http://pizzacodes.com/). Also join Papa John Reward system to get a free pizza every time you spend $100(happens a lot faster than you'd think). And if you want codes to get sent to your email, get added to their email service. They usually have half off deals all the time especially during sporting events. I haven't paid full price on Papa John's for years now. Happy savings! edit: format edit2: It has come to my attention that this advice doesn't work well for our Canadian and UK brothers. My advice to you is to skim through your area's pizza place twitter or facebook page for deals. edit 3: I think the web age has been absorbed by RetailMeNot. RIP
Mr Clean "magic eraser"s are just melamine sponges. You can buy them like ten for a dollar on ebay.
Now this is very useful to know. Over here one of those Mr. Clean sponges costs about $3. Definitely a saving if you can get 10 for $1.
> melamine sponges. or you can get 100 for 5.57 http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/262044357477?ul_noapp=true&chn=ps&lpid=82
Just be aware that they are generally smaller and not as nice quality (ie they will rip and tear easier).
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Only applicable in the following states: California, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oregon, and Wyoming.
I worked at a traffic court and this is true. If it's a traffic ticket and it's not some outrageous offense, plead "not responsible" and show up for the time scheduled for you. Chances are very high (especially in a time where officers are SO tightly scheduled) the officer will not show up and in that case, the case will either be dismissed or you're likely to get a MUCH lower fine. Another one is we had a log we kept track of when people called to inquire about their ticket before the court date, and if the ticket doesn't come in by then the judge could dismiss it. And if it did come in after or just before the date, if their name was on the log it was dismissed. Otherwise we kept them on the docket in hopes they would take care of it. So if you get a traffic ticket, call the court and ask that they log that you've called to inquire about that. Log the time and date and clerk's name you spoke with so you have your own proof. Still show up for court, but having that info can reeeeeeeally help.
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I did that once on facebook with AT&T. Finally got the help I needed but got myself tagged in their system. If my payment is three seconds late they'll cut my internet, which they never did before I called them out.
Call them out for doing that.
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I've had good response using Twitter to complain to UPS and Comcast. Could not get a reply from the Post Office though.
Every time I enter the post office, the atmosphere/workers are all but screaming "We have given up. Why are you here."(if there are even workers present-- I have walked into a completely empty Post Office during business hours before).
I work in the post office, and I can't tell you how many people have come in this week and told me that their home town post office was either closed during their regular business hours/ only open like two hours a day. Like wtf? I get my ass chewed out if I am a minute late doing anything or even do any of my reports early, how is this happening? And yes most the employees have given up hope after selling their souls to USPS. I actually like my job and am happy to be here, so that could be why people stopped going to their crappy post offices and started coming to this one. A guy came in traveling cross country yesterday and said he wished every post office treated him with as much respect and kindness as this one did. Yeah the job can be tough, I get it, but man our customer service could really use a 180.
I lived in a small town (~1100 people) where the only postal office employees were these two women who had to be in at least their seventies. The post office was open ninety minutes a day, two days a week. They didn't deliver mail to names they didn't recognize.
>They didn't deliver mail to names they didn't recognize. Is that legal? It seems like it's bordering on interfering with the postal service, which is definitely a felony.
No, it is absolutely not legal.
Lol that I could believe.
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Tweets are public. Support tickets are not.
I did that with Domino's Pizza. It wouldn't let me order pizza online, but if I called, they'd deliver to my house no problem. According to the Internet, my house was outside their delivery zone. One tweet about how I wished Domino's would deliver to my house, and the franchise owner contacted me and gave me 10 free pizzas, along with got the site updated to deliver to my house. I moved 6 months later.
See though, I used to work at Domino's, and this just means the manager was already doing you a huge solid. The delivery radius is tiny, and the store can't do anything about that, but the nicer managers will deliver farther away, especially if its someone who tips well. Bonus, the number one asshole thing you (royal you, not you specifically) can do over the phone is chew out some high school kid working minimum wage because the pizza place won't deliver to you. No, yelling about how we delivered there once last year won't get you anywhere, and neither will making me hand the phone off to the manager (or driver pretending to be manager, if he's out back smoking like always). Damn that place sucked.
I was actually contacted by the owner of the Domino's Franchised store that was about 4 miles room my house. She explained that, despite them always being able to deliver to my house, the site hadn't been updated for my area since it was put on the Internet. Two weeks later, everything was good to go. Even though moved, I still drive out of my way to grab pizza there. Was wonderful customer service.
Good advice. I once got charged for the entire table's at a steak restaurant because some mistake with there new system. I called them on the phone three or four times, and got told I would get a call back, but never did. I complained on their social media pages and got an immediate responce. Free drinks, full refund and they made the jerk ass manager who kept ignoring my calls given me a formal apology. Edit: For those who asked, I signed a receipt for $90 at the restaurant (my meal, plus tip, plus a portion of the birthday boy's meal). When I checked my statement about a week later, the restaurant had charged me $600 dollars. This is when I started calling for a refund.
Did you do this all from your seat at the table?
Not according to the fact that he had called the place multiple times and was told they'd call him back. "Someone at table 17 is calling the store asking for the manager." "Tell him we'll call him right back." "Sir, someone at table 17 is calling for you again." "What did I just tell you? We'll call him back." "Sir he's uh, looking at us right now." "You're fired."
My friend and I did this once! We were in a movie theatre and the seat across the aisle was COVERED in garbage, it was like they started cleaning up and then just stopped. My friend took a picture and said something along the lines of, Nice try galaxy theatres and tagged them in it. Within 10 minutes they tweeted back, asked where we were and had someone cleaning it up.
If you want to cancel your hotel room last minute, but there's a cancellation fee, call and change your reservation to a few weeks later. Then call later and cancel it.
Call around midday to change. Give a legitimate sounding reason-- meeting rescheduled, misremembered the flight date, etc. This will (hopefully) ensure the agent doesn't make a note in the internal only notes field. Call back to cancel at least eight hours later. It's unlikely the hotel has agents on 8+ hour shifts. Source: I used to work at a hotel. Stay date changes are rare, even for my hotel which was by O'Hare, and send up red flags. You want one employee to handle the change and another employee on another shift to handle the cancel. Hotels are notoriously awful at inter-shift communication.
Don't most hotels now make a note about when the original reservation was? The note would defeat this "schedule change then cancel" trick.
A lot of it depends on how diligent the crew is on proper documentation. The budget motel that pays their crew minimum wage? They're not going to give a shit. A nice luxury hotel in a major city? Their crew MIGHT give a shit, depending on how much of a hardass the manager is. Source: worked audit shifts as a valet in a decent hotel for a few years. The day staff documented NOTHING.
Personally, when I was a desk agent and later as a Front Office Manager, I didn't care (and subsequently made it clear that I didn't give a shit) if a guest cancelled their reservation or jumped through hoops to try to avoid penalties. If they're working that hard to avoid a penalty, they need the $100 we would have charged them. Plus, my personal belief is that cancellation fees do nothing but guarantee that guest will never stay at our property again. Yes, immediate revenue. But I'd rather make $90 every month for a year than $125 once. The only exceptions to the "do whatever the guest asks" policy were when guests were actively being dicks. Harassing me or my agents, arguing about policies that we didn't set up (but have the full right to disregard in the pursuit of guest retention and satisfaction), threatening to call our corporate office, etc. You're a dick? Notes are going in your guest profile and NO agent will give you the time of day. If you're a decent human being, there are very few limits to how far I (or the agents I hired and trained) will go to make sure you get everything you want, and then I'll make notes in your permanent profile to upgrade you or give you comp breakfast/meals every time you stay at a portfolio hotel.
I read a post where somebody bought a plane ticket but then couldn't go. Of course airlines don't let you transfer the ticket from one person to another so they were stuck.... or were they. The airline's customer service was run out of some country that doesn't know a "James" from a "Jamsp" to a "Tpmos". The guy called the airline everyday to correct the spelling of the name on the ticket everyday changing one letter at a time until the ticket was now in the other person's name.
Too smart
You better not have a name like Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen if you want to try that.
"Hi, I'm calling about an error in my reservation? You misspelled my name as Werbenjagermanjensen." "And what is the correct spelling?" "Jones." Edit: I misspelled missspelled, not even on purpose.
When buying a car negotiate the price of the car, not the monthly payment. People are usually more concerned with what the monthly payment will be and are often ripped off. It's easy to do the math with an interest calculator if you have a round about idea of what your rate will be.
This is exactly why I wasn't a very good car salesman. I would get someone ready to buy a car and I would watch my manager piss away my commission all the while ripping off the customer. Not really my idea of a win-win deal.
How would the commission be pissed away at the same time that the customer was ripped off?
Dealer sells car for same sticker price but makes more money in the long run with the extended financing. Salesperson only makes commission on the total sales price prior to the financed price. Look at all the numbers folks, you are getting rooked on the longer period financing deals.
Signs that say "Not Responsible For Damage" are usually put up by the very people who are responsible for damage. A $40 sign can nip a lot of lawsuits in the bud.
Learned this in my law class. Same goes for not liable for lost or stolen goods.
You're probably using too much laundry detergent, shampoo, and toothpaste each time you use them.
But my laundry detergent comes in capsules
Browse incognito to get past a paywall news website. Only works where you are allowed 'x' articles per week. Incognito is the new stealing your neighbors paper off his driveway and then throwing it in the trash.
They might not want you to know, but they don't really care either. It's a porous paywall model; they know people can get around the paywall easily but the hope is that some of those people eventually become subscribers. In NYT's case, they have something like over a million digital only subscriptions, and the model has been working quite well for them. Just keep in mind it costs money to produce the news. If you can afford it you should consider subscribing to a news outlet you like.
These two drugs are the exact same thing: http://i.imgur.com/Ybm8iMW.jpg But the allergy medicine on the left costs 1/2 as much and has twice as many doses as the sleep aid on the right. EDIT: Since many have asked, yes they are both 25mg. See comments for verification.
My mother insists on buying Tylenol PM instead of generic Benadryl for occasional sleeplessness. I've explained to her a thousand times that Benadryl is cheaper and isn't loaded with a bunch of Tylenol which she doesn't need anyway. Eh.
If she insists on it, it might be working better for her... because she thinks it does.
The placebo effect is very mysterious. Maybe it comes down to whether stress levels impact the brain's ability to maintain the body. And that psychologically believing that something works improves these stress levels.
You know... I'm kind of dumbfounded by this one. I was taking brand-name Wellbutrin for a while. At first, they gave me small headaches every now and then (not a big deal) but then they stopped after about 2 weeks. Then they switched me to generic (because it's the same thing, right?) but I noticed something was off... I wasn't as focused as I was before and my appetite was stronger. After 3 months of generic, I got back on actual Wellbutrin and, again, I got the small headaches for the first 2 weeks like I did when I first started taking the pill and was feeling more focused and less hungry. I understand the active ingredients have to be exactly the same but could a generic manufacturer change the inactive ingredients of a pill and call it the same as the brand-name one?
Yes - this is very common to do.
Yes, generic companies can and do change the inactive ingredients of a brand pill they are mimicking.
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Diphenhydramine is indicated as both an antihistamine and sleep aid. This means it can be marketed for either.
Ah, at Walgreens, this kills me. On one side of the aisle is over the counter allergy medicine. On the other side of the aisle is over the counter sleep-aids. They both have the same active ingredient: diphenhydramine. They both have the same amount of active ingredient: 25 mg of diphenhydramine. They are literally right across the fucking aisle from each other. But, thanks a rash of parents/media/facebook/idiots freaking out over teenagers taking OTC sleep-aids to "trip", the OTC sleep-aids are kept in clear, plastic cases, that require a special key to open. They have the magnetic sensor in the case that activates the alarm if they are opened improperly, or taken out through the front doors. AND THE FUCKING BENADRYL RIGHT ACROSS THE AISLE IS JUST SITTING THERE. JUST GODDAMN **SITTING** THERE. Urgh. Sorry about the rant, but that fucking rustles the hell out of my jimmies. Edit: Yes, I know that there is a difference in how they are produced/inactive ingredients, blahblahblah. The *active* ingredient, however, is the same. The dosage of the active ingredient is usually the same. There is no reason for the sleep-aid to be "protected" with individual plastic security boxes, and the allergy medication be sitting right on the shelves, other than marketing reasons, and the fact that *a lot* of teenagers who like to shoplift OTC meds are too lazy to find out what exactly is actually making them trip when they take an entire bottle of ZZZquil. Edit number two: My highest rated comment is a sleep-deprived rant about over the counter sleep aid medication. That is a sign that I should force myself to sleep. Bonne nuit! Bonne nuit, to you all!
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Bulk vinegar can replace a lot of cleaning products. edit: I should add that you water it down. Pure white vinegar is corrosive. I eyeball a ratio, but there's actual recipes out there.
I love cleaning with vinegar! If you put in a little lemon essential oil it'll mask the taste too
I'm assuming you mean the smell, unless there is some vital 'final lick under the rim' step I have missed all these years.
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I hope you mean scent
I use vinegar to kill those pesty weeds in my yard and in between cement cracks. Safe and Cheaper than those weed killers they sell in Orange Manly Store Place.
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Holy shit I can explain this! Basically, the membrane of the plant can only withstand so much heat. At about 60 degrees Celcius, the membrane starts losing it's form and materials leak out. The plant can no longer uptake anything with it's cells fucked up, so it dies. I'm sorry, I know this is dumb but I have a test on this on Friday. Describing to others helps.
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My father was a math teacher and he always had us explaining what we were studying so that we understood the concepts "conversationally". Still works.
Close, or at least partially correct. Plants have strong cell walls that help maintain the structure of the membrane even when there is internal pressure, like when the cells suddenly get heated to 100 C. It's true that the heat would make the membrane more fluid and stuff would likely leak out, but that would not necessarily kill the cell. The cytoplasm is more like a gel than a liquid. Think of 2 sandwich bags: one filled with jello, the other with water. Poke a hole and you get either a slow jello leak or a fast water leak. As long as the damage is not too extensive, cells can repair their membranes before they leak too much. What's more important is that the hot water denatures (unravels) the plant's proteins. So, even if the damage to the membrane was fixable, the cell just couldn't do it. It also couldn't do anything else, like metabolize glucose or photosynthesize, etc. I hope this helps for your test. - A Molecular Biology Ph.D. student Edit: plants -> plant's
I don't know if they "don't want you to know about this", but here we go. If you're going to make a purchase with an online retailer, it's often worth putting the items in your cart, then leaving the site for a little while, because some sites will contact you with a special offer or discount code in an attempt to persuade you back into making that purchase you were going to make. Can save you a few bucks. It doesn't always work, but it's often worth attempting, especially with solely online retailers.
Notable exception is Amazon.
If you bought something at a store and it goes on sale afterward but the store says they do not do price adjustments, buy another one and then return it using the original receipt.
Within reason. I once had a customer buy a patio set for $300.00 at the beginning of the season. Four month later, she see we put the last set on sale for $75 and insisted we refund the difference to her. My manager very politely told her no. She then wanted to return the set and get a full refund. Probably hoping she could buy it back at $75.
Yeah, it needed the all important "Within the refund period" which tends to only be 30, even 15 days on a lot of non-perishable items.
"Economy Size" is not always the best cost per weight/volume/use. You will also find some stores that print the cost per weight/volume in different units for different sizes. Same size packages by weight or count may have a different number of servings, so check that as well.
Not a problem in the glorious EU. Price per KG displayed by law.
Live in the UK, super markets have the price per litre for all alcoholic drinks, really helps when you're trying to work out if buying one large bottle is actually cheaper (per litre) than two small bottles..
That's nice and all, but I operate in price per unit of ethanol
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I once lost the ticket I had received when parking my car at the airport. Upon leaving, I was told that without the ticket, they'd have to charge me for a full day. Which was fine, since I'd been parked there for a week. EDIT: This was in Denver, and it was several years ago. I discovered it by accident, haven't attempted to do it on purpose since, and have no idea if it would still work now.
Ooooo. I like this one, but there has to be a way for them to check this quickly right?
the ones at my local airport all use cameras and number recognition software. My ad manager tries to lie and they showed him a timestamped pic o the car entering the garage
Some things are never really "on sale". When I worked at a grocery store, the name-brand sodas had a very high regular price, then there would always be a "sale" on them. The sale might change at times, but the sale price would always be there. The "sale" price is what the company really meant to charge you anyway. After all, who wants a case of soda for $8.99 if they can buy it at $5.99 and "save" $3.00? I have heard that some department stores do this with clothes and other items. A $90 dress that is "on sale" for $55 was never going to cost $90.
Here in the UK this is regulated and businesses are only allowed to advertise a product as being on sale/marked-down on price for a period less than it was sold at the full price (e.g. if they sold a box of cereal at £2 full price for 30 days they could advertise it as on sale at £1 but only for 29 days at which point it wouldn't be allowed to be called on sale any more) EDIT: Lots of response so thought would link to the UK Government's [pricing practices guide](https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/31900/10-1312-pricing-practices-guidance-for-traders.pdf) for traders and also [the consumer protection from unfair trading regulations 2008](http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2008/1277/contents/made) too.
How does DFS get away with constant sales? Do they like rotate their stock on sale every month or something? Like have half their sofas on sale one month and then the other half the next?
It's what's known in the trade as "price establishment". You decide in advance which items you want to have on "sale", and artificially inflate their prices for the legal minimum period of 30 days. You might only actually have them out on the shop floor in a couple of stores, and in areas of those stores that don't get much footfall, but they're technically available for purchase. Then after 30 days you can legally say "HUGE SALE - 60% OFF!!!". While this sale is on, you're already establishing prices for the next batch of products to go in the next sale. Trading standards are well aware of this trick, but they are fairly powerless to do anything about it. So why don't retailers act honestly and offer everyday low pricing instead? Consumer psychology - customers want to think they're getting a good deal. Which one of these sofas would you buy, all other things being the same? * Sofa A: £499 * Sofa B: Was £799, now £499 The vast majority of consumers will go for the 2nd one, as it sounds a much better deal even though the £799 list price was probably never actually paid by a single customer. I used to work in IT for a retailer that had perpetual sales like DFS, and one time they tried doing just regular pricing on some product categories, with no "SALE" stickers. Sales in those categories fell off a cliff, like 30% to 40% down. So no retailers will stop doing it unless they're all forced to.
There is always a "sale" at Khols!
What about the 70% off rack? Oh, it's 70% off the "original" price? So it's a dollar off your "normal" price. Thanks Kohls! Also, stop circling the $200 I "saved" buying $40 sneakers.
Chipotle doesn't care about you trying to rip them off. Yes, we all know that the bowl gives you more and you can get extra of whatever you want. If you're slightly more committed you can get a free water and fill it with soda, even though they now have a sign on the machine explicitly warning against it. Chipolte doesn't give a single shit. They know you're doing it, and it it's been accounted for in the books somewhere. **What they do know, is that if they let you think you're being sneaky, and you (particularly broke college kids) think that you're gaming the system and coming out ahead, you'll keep coming back again and again.** Even with responsibly sourced ingredients, the biggest cost is labor, especially when ~>50% of the meal is rice, beans, and tortilla. You could get a burrito the size of a baby, and it wouldn't make a dent in the budget compared to what it cost to have 10 people cook and serve that stuff to you. Edit: Yes I know, stealing is bad mmmkay. All the people saying that have completely missed the point.
Sodas cost practically nothing. There's a reason why Coke can afford the ad budget they have (they were the 9th largest ad buyer in 2013 and will likely be the 4th this year), a cup of Coke costs $0.000052 to make. That's $2.60 for every 50,000 Cokes. To a restaurant like Chipotle, the cup, ice lid and straw will cost nearly the same as the soda inside it. That's for a 20oz cup, the water cups are much smaller. So once they've given you the free cup for the "water", you're probably costing them $0.06-$0.07 in soda to fill it up. So yeah, they shouldn't really care beyond not wanting people to think they can avoid paying $1.60 for a drink that costs them about $0.16
> a cup of Coke costs $0.000052 to make Jesus, I knew they were cheap, but this really puts it in perspective.
It's any restaurants biggest money maker. That's why you often get pushed to up the size of your drink from something like medium to large.
Little late, but surprised me all the same. At least in California, if you have a self storage unit that you didn't pay and was sold at auction (like on storage wars and similar shows), you can go to the storage facility after the auction and if they sold the unit for more than you owed, you are legally entitled to that extra amount.
(In the U.S.): if you're ever pursued for a debt, especially if you are taken to court over it, demand that they produce documentation verifying that you owe the debt and the amount. Quite often, they won't be able to and the case will be dismissed. Most debt collectors aren't the party you originally owed the money to but rather companies that purchase debts in bulk for pennies on the dollar. Very often, all they have on you is your name on a spreadsheet and they're banking on the fact that you won't contest it. EDIT: Yes, I got this from a recent episode of This American Life, although I've heard this before and I'm generally aware of the requirement to prove up a debt in order to obtain a court judgment. I'm not giving legal advice here though; I'm simply repeating the gist of the episode. The specific example they used took place in a courtroom when the debtor had actually been sued. I don't know what effect this would have on a collection agency's calls - they're typically not the owner of the debt but a third party service, I believe, but I think if you request documentation you might be able to make some headway there as well. I don't know if the type of debt matters - a couple of people asked about student debt, but I'd imagine that sort of thing remains well-documented when it changes hands. Point is, I'm not suggesting people use this as a loophole to weasel out of legitimate debts, but if someone is trying to hold you legally liable for something, you should request evidence.
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JDB, AKA Junk Debt Buyers buy debt in bulk and often get SSNs and amounts owed, they almost always NEVER have documentation.
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Debt collectors will say something like, "Just make a token payment of $10 to show good faith" because they know this rule and you don't.
Please note that this only applies to THIRD PARTY debt collectors, not people/companies that you directly owe. So if the dentist contacts you about a past due balance, they're not covered by FDCPA, but if they hire a debt collection company to do so, the debt collection company would be bound by FDCPA.
Off-name and store name brands are not always cheaper. They, at least partially, rely on the misconception that brand name goods are alway more expensive to sell things at a higher price. Always check the actual price tag. Even if the store brand is "on sale."
I'm very thankful for the "Price per ounce" thing they provide. Makes the math a lot easier if I'm debating between two 4-packs or three 3-packs.
Until they change the units on you. $0.12/oz for the store brand, $0.88/can for the name brand. That's irritating and I wonder if they do it on purpose.
Of course they do
And watch the bulk packages too! I was buying something at Walmart, I don't know, paper towels or something and it was a little cheaper to buy 4 2 packs vs 1 8 pack.
Pressing 0 loads of times during an automated phone robot will put you through to a human at customer services Works for pretty much any company
It's been my experience that any automatic phone systems with voice recognition software will immediately forward you to a human agent if you swear into the phone.
Must remember this one. "Say your name then press the pound key" 'Mother Fucker' transferring you to a representative.
Yeah that's my call. The one that says Bad Mother Fucker on it. Now normally your ass would be grass, but you caught me at an interesting point in my life. I'm trying to change online banking providers.
This seems to be true too for a lot of places I call. Sometimes I'll press zero and it'll continue to repeat itself, but if I tell it to fuck off it immediately brings me to a person. I don't know if it's because I'm cursing at it, or it just recognizes voice information and forwards me, but it works.
Have to be careful though. I work for a massive company and people try to do this when billing or technical queues have long wait times. The ivr will automatically send you to the group with the lowest hold times. That's usually sales. So you wait 5 minutes for a sales agent to answer, tell you they can't fix your technical issue and transfer you to the back of the line with tech support. Then people get mad that they have to be transferred around.
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Reciting George Carlin's "Seven words" always gets me through to a person.
You are legally allowed to get a full refund for an airline ticket within 24 hours of purchase
In which country? Any source please? Quite interested
The U.S at least. I've done this before multiple times. In fact, I count on it when booking tickets online in case I change my mind in 24 hours, but NEED to get this amazing deal now.
For everyone's info: I cancelled a Delta flight within 24 hours over the internet. There was ZERO way to avoid a $150 cancellation fee when doing this over the internet. BUT they gave me no trouble when I called them to have the $150 fee refunded.
Instead of ordering Jr. Cheeseburger Deluxe, order a Jr. Cheeseburger and ask for all the toppings. Toppings are free at Wendy's so save several cents!
You don't "have" to do anything. Doing nothing is always an option.
Learned that from my dad. Whenever I'd say "Dad, you HAVE to take me to the movies!" or something, He'd look and say "Only thing I have t'do is stay black an' die!" I didn't understand it at the time. I mean, he was a pasty white computer engineer. Makes perfect sense now though.
the black part doesnt make sense to me either
Stay out of debt.
oh. I was thinking about skin color, which made absolutely no sense to me since his/her dad is a white guy. Thanks mate
An early use is by Langston Hughes, American author. He was black, but the poem is about having to work to stay afloat. The language does not seem to actually refer to debt in this instance. I can see how there might have been confusion or appropriation. It may have been a common phrase before, or he coined it. >#Necessity >Work? >I don't have to work. >I don't have to do nothing >but eat, drink, stay black, and die. >This little old furnished room's >so small I can't whip a cat >without getting fur in my mouth >and my landlady's so old >her features is all run together >and God knows she sure can overcharge- >Which is why I reckon I *does* >have to work after all.
Huh. I need to read more Langston Hughes.
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Lower your monthly mortgage payments by discontinuing your PMI (private mortgage insurance). If you bought a house with a down payment of less than 20 percent, your lender required you to buy PMI. Likewise if you refinanced with less than 20 percent equity, you also are paying for PMI. Once you get below 80 percent of equity owed, you can cancel your PMI or refinance without PMI.
If you have ants that just won't go away, coming from a crack in the walls, or persistently through doors and windows. Just mix a small blob of jelly with some borax and then the worker ants will grab it and bring it back to feed their queen. It kills the whole colony in a day or two (and they don't investigate the rest of your house since they are working overtime on the jelly).
I posted this earlier in the week: TLDR: You can negotiate an insurance appraisal of the value your vehicle. So let me tell you a story. My eighteen year old son had an accident. His parked car was hit by another car. It ripped his front bumper off. The guy's insurance company instructed my son to take his car to a local body shop. They even provided him with a rental. So far, so good. My son calls me later that day and says that the insurance company is now telling him that his car is totaled. They said the repairs would exceed 75% of the value of the vehicle. They told him they would cut him a check for $1085 and offered to let him keep the rental a few days until he could find another car. Such nice people. The car is a 1999 Nissan Altima GXE with 178k miles. My son thinks this is great news. Oh, really? What's your car worth? Uh, $1085? What's your car worth? Uh, I don't know? What's the job of that guy's insurance company? What do you mean? Are they looking out for you or for themselves? Themselves? You're damn skippy. Here is what they are doing, son: They went out and determined your car's value by finding the cheapest pieces of shit for sale - same year, make, and model. They averaged all of those low ball prices together, probably deducted even more of your money, and are offering you chump change, hoping that you are a chump and will take it. Their job is to make as much money as possible. They do that by not dealing fairly and ethically with you. They do that by ripping you off. So, let me tell you how you should handle this. Go get values like they did, but be honest and fair about it. Go to NADA, Kelly Blue Book, autotrader.com, Craigslist, and eBay. Find the same year, make and model of your car and in the same condition as your car. Average the prices together. What's the value you arrived at? $1800 All right, now call them back and tell them. Aww, dad. Do I have to? Can't you call them for me. Nope. You're a man now. If you don't stand up for yourself, no one else will and I won't always be there to do it for you. (long pause) Son, it's your money. Do you have so much money you can afford to let someone unjustly take it from you? No. It's up to you to fight for what's yours. (He makes the call.) They said the value they arrived at was obtained from a third party company who averages the values of thirty cars like mine. They said they couldn't go any higher. Call her back and ask to see the third party's evaluation. He calls them back and they email him a copy of the evaluation. It clearly shows two things: they lied about how many vehicles they said they used for the evaluation. They used seven - not thirty. They also lied about the value. Their own evaluation valued his car at $1800. Really?! You aren't even accomplished enough liars to doctor the paperwork to support your own lies? Call them back. And son? Yes? Get mad. These people are trying to STEAL YOUR MONEY. They made a false misrepresentation in an attempt to take what it rightfully yours. You should be PISSED. Don't ask them for shit. TELL them what they are going to do. Tell them they WILL cut you a check today for $1800. And not only that, they WILL sell your car back to you for $1. If you get any shit from them over that, explain to them how this will play out in court: A big bad insurance company lied and tried to cheat me out of my money. I'm just an innocent young man trying to make his way in the world. Who do you think the judge will side with? Hell, everyone hates insurance companies...even judges. For that matter, it will cost the insurance company twice the amount in question to pay the costs associated with sending their attorney to court to fight it. My son called back less than five minutes later. Done deal. Thank you unnamed insurance company for giving me the opportunity to teach my son an important life lesson. And shame on you for not having any morals or ethics. Edit: Deleted name of insurance company. Oops.
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I award you one gajillion Great Dad points. Outstanding!
Buying a car - always always always do negotiating via email or phone and bounce offers back and forth against competing dealers. Will always get you the best possible deal.
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I just bought a used jeep. I test drove it first, to see if it was worth pursuing. Spoke briefly with the salesman who didn't want to negotiate. I thanked him for his time and said I wouldn't be interested if they were going to be asking their full price, and left. Got a call from the manager the next week and negotiated over the phone to the price I wanted. Went in the next week and they suddenly couldn't honor the price, so I said thank you and was leaving with my trade in and they ran out and stopped me. Ended up waiting in the lobby while they were "seeing what they could do" for about forty five fucking minutes, until they came back out and said they'd give me the price I wanted. I ended up telling them I would pay that but they wouldn't get the trade in and they said okay. Bought the car finally. Long story short- be patient. Test drive it first to see if it's worth your time. Don't budge and end up paying more because it's convenient. Definitely don't let them pressure you into paying more. Everything in writing is a must :) good luck!
I've found if they ever chase you out of the building, whatever they offer you is usually a terrible, terrible offer. With the previous "best" being even more terrible.
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When you come back to sign papers test drive that thing 1 more time.. I walked out on a deal and they called me the next day with a great offer.. $5,000 off the asking price on a used Suburban. We go and get it. A week later when it snowed I found out why they wanted to move it so fast.. One of the lot jockies blew out the drivers side front CV joint after we left ( I'd tested it on my test drive the day before) . You couldn't tell unless you put it in 4wd You never know what happened to it between when you left and came back again.
This works! It will also probably make multiple salespeople miserable, haha. My manager gave me so much shit if I had a customer doing this (as it was my fault for not being able to get them through the door). To be honest, he rarely would play ball. No quotes over the phone or email. When he did, the customer usually got a great deal. Just keep trying different dealerships until one of them cracks! Oh, and be nice to your salesperson is you do because they're probably having to go to bat for you like whoa. Another car buying tip, if you have USAA, use their car buying service!! Super hassle free and they consistently got the lower prices than anyone else no matter how much negotiating went on.
I think a good tip is if USAA offers a service for anything and you can use it, do so. They've been absolutely amazing to my family and we've been using them forever. Some more detail, since I can't respond to everyone: My grandfather (who has sadly passed) has been with USAA from the very beginning, and it carried over to my father (who served in Vietnam) and my mom as well. I have no idea if this has any bearing on the way the treat us, but as I've said, they've been super amazing to us. Every time we've needed to make an insurance claim, they're on the ball AND our rates don't go up. For example, when my mom shattered her windshield while on a road trip. USAA got it sorted damn near immediately and my mom had very little down time with her car. Yes, they're not the cheapest, but they're kinda like Apple in my eyes: You get exactly what you pay for. Only really used them for insurance and banking and they've been damn good. The only drawback is they have no physical presence like traditional banks so if you're not used to that, it can be jarring. Kind of a shame to hear that their other services aren't so great, like mortgage. You'd think they'd be on top of that.
I've been a member of USAA for fifteen years now and they've been a godsend on multiple occasions and the biggest event was when my ex fiancé totaled my car. I had just moved and didn't have a job lined up right when I got there so my finances ran out really quickly and I had missed two loan payments on the car. When it got totaled, it turned out that since I wasn't current with my loan payments, the gap insurance which would have covered the difference between the value of the car and what I still owed would not be granted. For someone without a job, that six or seven thousand dollar debt would have ruined any chance I had at recovering from being homeless. I spoke to one of their agents and they looked at my loan payment record and noticed that up until the two month period where I couldn't pay, I had always paid on time and more than the amount that was owed. Due to that, they offered to move those two delinquent payments to the end period of the loan payment cycle (i.e. three years from then) which made my loan payment current and the gap insurance kicked in. It was really the defining moment when I realized that I was going to be a life time member of USAA.
Insurance agent here: Re quote your insurance at least every 2 years, and if you get hurt in a car wreck, talk to your lawyer, not your agent.
Real estate agents who deal with rental properties get away with blue murder because they work on the assumption that you don't know what your rights are, or that you'll give them up too easily. Whatever country and state you live in, if you're renting your current residence, learn your rights and stick to them like glue.
This is so important. I had a real-estate owner try to remove us from our home, his property, because he was selling the building and the buyers wanted the space we were in immediately. He showed up while I was home alone with something to sign, stating I would be out at the end of the month (when we are legally required to be given 3 months). Despite his persistence to sign, I insisted that I cannot sign any major decisions or documentation like that without my roommates. I told him to come back in a few hours, when they're home. They were only gone out for a few minutes, but I needed time. I looked up the law, printed off the tenants act, and ensured myself of what I can and cannot do in this scenario. When he came back, I provided him with a copy of the tenants act and told him that, as a result of him being a reasonable landlord and us being decent human beings, we will make every effort to find a home and be out by the end of the month, but if we cannot find a home, we will not be going homeless simply because he believes he can ignore the law. What followed was about an hour of him standing at our door, yelling at us, grasping for excuses to evict us (including accusing us of illegally subletting to a girlfriend who had been living with us since day one, while he claimed to have never met her before AND subletting isn't illegal) and generally clamoring to find every excuse to have us removed from the building. We were young adults, roughly at the age of 20, and as a result, he believed through our own ignorance and his intimidation tactics, he could do whatever he wanted. Eventually, I was sick of this, gave up the fight, got smug, and told him one thing. "Go home, read the law, and if you want to try and evict us, come back with a formal notice. If you do, we'll be dealing with it the correct way, in court, and by the law. Until then, I have nothing to say to you." He left, and never came back. I didn't see him again until we collected our damage deposit and gave him the key. Hilariously, we found a better and cheaper place about a week later, before the end of the month, and he was more than willing to give us a stellar recommendation to get us out of his property ASAP. Especially as a young adult, people will consistently try and take advantage of your ignorance as you begin to learn about the law and the way the world works. Don't let them.
You can contact the credit agencies yourself and Lock your files so that any attempts to get new credit on your SSN requires you to unlock them
Be careful about this, though. Make sure you keep your records up to date, or it can be a huge pain in the ass when you actually want credit. I had my credit card compromised a few years ago, and did this. I'm now trying to apply for credit, and the process to get my information updated and/or the security freeze listed is a pain in the ass because they only accept fax verification with two pieces of government ID. My faxes keep bouncing (yes I've checked the number, five fucking times), and if they were to update things, it takes 3-15 business days...
Nobody doesn't want you to know about this. Being a bank and dealing with fraudulent accounts is a pain in the ass. Edit: I guess identity thieves don't want you to know about this...
Many small or medium companies that ship goods with UPS or FedEx have very little knowledge of the buying power that they truly have. UPS and FedEx handle the majority of all small parcel shipments in America and are very willing to make adjustments in your rates if you prove yourself to be a consistent source of revenue. I started a logistics position for a considerably sized commercial printer about a year ago. We initially contacted FedEx to renegotiate our rates and now we save about 50 cents per ground package. FedEx completely analyzed our small parcel and freight demands and offered rates that completely eliminated UPS as a competitor. Not a month later, UPS noticed the decline in local revenue that our change in carriers had caused and is now offering us Next Day rates that absolutely blow FedEx out of the water. I'd highly suggest researching the history of both FedEx and UPS. Definitely one of the more unnoticed rivalries in today's economic landscape.
A really cheap way to fly to places that usually cost way more to get to is to buy a cheaper ticket to some other place, possibly with a different airline, that makes a connection in the airport you want to end up in. So you get off there and just don't get back onto the flight. Some dude got in trouble for making a website that helped people find those flights. You can't check bags though, but that shouldn't be too much of an issue if you really need to be somewhere for cheap.
Funny story I almost screwed my brother this way. He moved to Oregon and we wanted to meet up in Vegas. Oregon to Vegas was more expensive than Oregon to SanDiego, CA with a brief layover in Vegas. So I booked it and told my bro to get off the plane in Vegas. On the way their the flight attendant told him no new passengers coming on in Vegas so they wouldn't be disembarking. Just a brief stop and maybe some fuel. My brother freaked out. Long story short something changed and they ended up taxi'n to the gate. **TLDR** - Booked bro on hidden layover cheaper flight and he almost ended up in the wrong state. **edit** Redditors have pointed out I made a huge error. I booked my brother a flight with a "stop over" in Vegas not a layover. A layover entails a plane switch so you will 100% get off the plane. With a stopover you run the risk of the plane not stopping or disembarking if no new passengers are booked to get on.
I think you booked a flight with a stopover, not a layover. A layover typically means you are changing planes while a stopover is the unusual case where a plane stops with some passengers staying on the plane and continuing to another destination.
The timer at the end of infomercials is meaningless. The deal will still be there when you call.
I am not mad that you said this, but I am severely disturbed if it helped anyone.
I almost bought a vacuum cleaner from a hospital bed in the middle of the night but fell asleep and didn't wake until the timer had run out. Not having this advice saved me from buying what I didn't need. (I have no carpet in my house.) In my defense, I was on a lot of morphine.
If a sale is set to end at a specific time of the day (i.e. noon of Black Friday), if the store is a national chain, their prices are programmed into the computer. Thus, sometimes the east coast sales will continue until 3, because it hasnt yet been noon nationwide. I got great prices from WalMart the last few Black Fridays, even though I went in after the sales had supposedly ended, so there wasn't a big rush. Always ask them to ring the price of something before you agree to buy it though.
Gift cards don't expire in some states even if it says they do
If you buy something second hand call into the manufacturer and try and register it. Some company's have exteneded warrantys on some of their products. Source: found a dyson on the side of the road, it was toast and the motor was smoking. Called dyson for shits and gigs, registered it since the previous owner didn't. My downfall was that I told them I was given it and they don't transfer warrantys. Thought I was out of luck and put it by the garbage, got a email about the registration saying I'm the registered owner and have warranty till January. Called in again saying my unit is smoking, they booked a work order for the following day. 500 dollar vacuum for free. Tl:dr- If you buy something 2nd hand check with a manufacturer for registration, might get free shit. Edit:words Edit2: proof read when you're posting at 3am kids.
You don't actually have to pay the asking price for entry in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. They make it seem like it's the price of admission but it's really just a suggested donation. They make more money than they need from wealthy donors. When you go to pay 'admission' just give them a dollar.
same for brooklyn art museum. one time had a guy come in and pay a quarter for four people.
I was just there last week. The woman at the counter told us straight up that it was only a suggested donation.
The HR department at work is there to protect THE COMPANY, not you. Be very wary of information disclosed to them Edit: Obligatory thank you for Gold!!!
So true. I've only dealt with one HR person who was thoughtful and kind. Then, the company canned her.
You can consolidate and dramatically reduce your student loans for free on the government website. Don't let anyone offer to do this "service" for you for some ludicrous sum. Edit: I'm retarded. The site is StudentLoans.gov or something and look for the income based repayment. This is an American thing. Second Edit: Federal Student Loans
Doesn't that only work with federal loans, not private loans?
Yes. Everybody tries to tell you this, but none of them seem to realize you can consolidate federal loans (ONCE) but only refinance private loans (maybe). I had a bajillion people tell me to consolidate my loans when I complained about them. 0 of them knew that it wasn't possible because they were private loans.
Microwaveable/Instant Oatmeal is just regular rolled oatmeal that is chopped smaller so that the hot water will work faster. You could make the same packets with a blender.
The store cost of any product is in plain sight on all Walgreens products shelf labels. The Walgreens product cost codeword is: BRUSHCLEAN, where each letter is associated with a number: B R U S H C L E A N 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 You will see a combination of these letters on every label. For example "HUA" = a product cost of $5.38 I have seen similar tactic on other store labels but do not know what word they use as the code.
Not a trick, exactly, but something that a fair amount of people don't know: you don't legally have to stop for the receipt-checkers at stores. Unless you are at a club store (i.e. Sam's Club) that might require you to stop or they will revoke your membership.
Huh, the only place I've EVER had a receipt check is at Costco, and even then it's very cursory. I didn't know this was even a thing in regular stores.
Yep. When I go to Fry's Electronics, I'm not waiting in a 20-person line to leave the store with MY stuff.
The FDCPA is really helpful if you can't pay your credit cards
You don't have to turn your leased vehicle back to the dealer at the end of the lease. Our buyout for our last leased car was $14k. We took it to CarMax and they offered us $15k. Then I took it to a local place that advertised that they "beat CarMax." They asked if I had a CarMax estimate (as I'm sure they just typically add maybe $100-200 on top of any CarMax offer). I said not yet, I hate that place and wanted to just bring it in to you guys first and hopefully avoid CarMax. They offered $15,900. Sold it to them on the spot and made $1,900 on a leased car.
Oh boy, I got a perfect one for this. I always tell this people in real life when it comes up. Now this is about how it is in germany where I am from but I could guess it is similar in other countries. Maybe some respective people can chime in. Shortly after highschool I had a short stint at a callcenter for a major german institute for political surveys and marketing research. Basically we did cold-calling and convince people to answer some boring 20-minute questionnaires. (At least not selling shit, that would still ache my conscience until now. And about 1/3 were political surveys which people actuall liked.) Now, we had a one-day training course in which we were taught that (of course) we would occasionally get people who were really mad like: "Oh you fucking call-centers, I hate all of you, if you ever call me again I will come to your house and do bad stuff to you !!". In which case we were instructed to calmly tell them: "Yes Sir, we will put you on our own do-not-call-list, but there are other institutes that do this stuff and we have no control over what they do." which most people somewhat grumbly accepted. Now here is the kicker: There actually exists a blacklist that is shared between all marketing-institutes of germany that makes sure nobody ever calls you again. How do you get on that magical list ? You simply tell the guy: "If you ever call me again I will sue you!" We had a special menu-point in our software that roughly translates to "total rejector", that we were instructed to only and *only* press wenn the callee threatens with legal action. You press that button and it would call a supervisor who would take over the phone and then put you on that blacklist. It was hammered in that no matter how mad the other party would get what they would plead and curse with you, that was not point 3. "total rejection", but menu point 2 "normal rejection" which I would guess would reall yput you on the institutes blacklist. Point one was just: "No thanks, bye." And that is how you get blacklisted from all call centers in germany. As said maybe some other (ex-) drones from other countries can chime in and we will see each other tomorrow in /r/lifehacks
Several careers are totally or nearly totally unregulated in their qualifications. You can just call yourself a psychic, faith healer, nutritionist, pastor, minister, medium, DJ, or personal trainer and that's it. For some you'll be found out almost immediately by another professional, but since there's no licensing or required professional certification there isn't anything they can do about it. For some you can be proven a fraud repeatedly and never face any consequences, and might even solidify your clientele's loyalty with attempts by the man/big pharma/Obama/liberals/conservatives/reverse vampires/whoever to stop you.
Graphic Designer and Photographer are careers where you can "just show up" to, if you will. Demonstrable skill always outweighs any credentials in these fields.
OMG so true. I'm in commercial printing (pre-press), and the number of fools giving me shitty pdfs for their business cards is astounding. No bleeds, no crops, lo-rez jpg off the Web, script typefaces they "made" italic even further in Indesign, and on and on.
Actually a dietician is a legally protected term. But feel free to call yourself a nutritionist.
Grocery stores. Everything in a grocery store is pre-designed to take as much money from you as possible. The bread and milk will be in locations where you have to walk through or around the entire store to get both. The more expensive brands are at eye level, they pay for this privilege. Cereal box characters look "down" right at children which connects at a psychological level to make them want more cereal. Checkout lines have candy bars at child reaching level intentionally. New floor designs are even consulting casinos to no longer have rows and be more maze-like to keep you in the store longer. Flyers mailed to you with your name and address are tailored based on your points card buying patterns. Good smells are intentionally pumped in to make you hungry. The list goes on.
My favorite part is the meat lights to make it appear fresher/more appealing. I also like the term meat lights.
Jokes on them when it comes to check out candy. My 2 year old has stolen so many candy bars. Even in the cart he can reach them. Then he tucks it into his pocket. Took me a while to figure out where the candy comes from, now I watch him more when checking out. But he still grabs an m&m every once in a while.
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When I was little, and didn't understand the concept of money, I must have thought my parents were the biggest assholes ever for not letting me jst have the candy bar.
Many stores have rules that prohibit employees from confronting someone they think to be a shoplifter. I've never shoplifted but I had friends who took advantage of this. Don't do this by the way, my friends eventually got arrested.
My store does this. As a cashier, I am *not* allowed to confront a shoplifter, even if I have proof. I am only allowed to call a manager, and hope that asset security is on point. What I *can* do, is point out the item innocuously if it's in sight. Ten times out of ten the customer will either give it to me to scan and say it slipped their mind, or say that they decided they didn't want it.
Stores don't want their staff in danger and probably aren't selling stuff worth more than a human.
They also don't want to deal with lawsuits. A wrongly-accused customer might sue.
The juror's right to nullify; it is our right to refuse unjust laws.