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Mar 15 2003

I took a stroll through Best Buy on a recent Saturday. Nothing really in mind. Just there to look at the merchandise. Since I had not been in for awhile, I stopped to glance at the new phones available from Sprint, with whom we have service. As I looked at tiny phones with buttons meant for gnomes, I marveled that this is one thing where a guy thinks that smaller is better. I looked at the phones with color screens and the ability to do email and download from the web. Interesting idea, but you would need to have much younger eyes than I have to be able to read anything. And do I really need to pay an additional $20 or more per month to be able to download new games to play on the phone, new ringer tones to annoy those near me, or (be still my heart) a new screen saver for the itty bitty color screen?

Next, I picked up the current rates brochure more to see what the new service they were offering costs than anything else. Well, lo and behold, there was a rate in there for double the minutes we have on our current plan and a savings, before tax, of $35 a month. That is 30 percent less than we are paying now.

This plan is for what they call “anytime minutes.” The mobile phone industry has consistently constricted the euphemistically named “night and weekend” minutes so they are not of much use to us at all. But this offer was for double the anytime minutes we have and a savings as well.

You would think that if I went on the Sprint web page and clicked on “change plans” that I could switch to this new, lower-price plan right there. I mean, they do want us to do our business on the web so they can have fewer employees, don’t they? The only plan I could find was not only $10 a month higher than the one in the brochure, but also said the offer expired two weeks before the date I was looking at it. So much for up-to-date web-page management. I logged off my account and looked at the offers as if I were a new customer. Ah, yes, there was the brochure offer.

So, I called the handy-dandy toll-free number and got a voice-recognition computer that asked me what I wanted. I told “her,” and “she” said to wait and I would be connected to a customer service person. I told the customer service guy about the brochure price and he said I was eligible to get that service.

Would I like to have voice dialing free for three months? No, I wouldn’t. Time passes as he enters keystrokes on the computer. He then tells me that the voice dialing feature is free on the second phone. Hmmm. Nothing seemed hidden up his sleeve, but why is it free on the second phone rather on the first? More keystroking.

I told him that I noticed I could have “up to 50 free long-distance minutes per month” on my home phones as part of this new plan. Yep. No monthly fixed fee. Only seven cents a minute after the first 50 minutes free. And you wonder why the telecommunication companies are having problems and their stocks are in free fall. I signed up, with the obligatory third-party verification to prove that I was not being “slammed.”

The moral of this story is that going to Best Buy on a regular basis and checking out the rate sheets can:

a. Save me money.
b. Make me wonder how low rate plans will go and what companies will not survive.
c. Initiate a change in our long-distance company again (this is the third time this year).
d. Start me thinking about where else I am being charged more than I should be.

Addendum: My wife’s phone was broken. We went to the local Best Buy to purchase a new one. We found a model that she liked and bought it. We also bought the service plan which is now a year shorter than it used to be (two instead of three years) and more expensive.

My wife was also looking for a digital camera. So, two days after we had bought the phone, I went into the same Best Buy to look at cameras to suggest to her. Out of curiosity, I looked at Sprint phones as I passed that counter. Who knows what new doodad or model would catch my eye? What I did see was that the phone we had purchased was now $50 less than the price we had paid. So, the following day I brought in my receipt and got a $50 credit. I guess I will have to cruise by that counter every week now to make sure we got the lowest price equipment and the lowest price calling plan.

Later, I bought the digital camera and a Compact Flash memory card. I did it on a day when there was ten percent off. A couple of days later I went back looking for a card reader. Lo and behold, the memory card I had bought was $50 cheaper on a special just that week. Thank goodness I’m retired.

Mar 01 2003

Ah, a new computer with Windows XP aboard. And all that free stuff that comes loaded with it. It’s a glory to behold. Want to make sure that you get automatic Windows updates (to fix their security hole du jour)? No problem.

Wait a minute. There is a little message popping up at the bottom of the right-hand side of my screen. It implores me to sign up for .NET from Microsoft so I can get better service from them and all sorts of other neat stuff. Well, trusting soul that I am (naïve, stupid also), I sign up using the email account that I use for the web (affectionately called my spam account). I make sure to read the privacy statement and that all the boxes that say I want automatic email from them or their “affiliates” are unchecked (or checked, as the case might be to confuse the average bear). I get a confirming email telling me all the virtues of .NET and how to use it.

Within an hour of registering, I start to get a steady stream of spam messages. These are from real or bogus Hotmail accounts (another Microsoft feature). I delete these. I get more each day, numbering about 10 a batch and repeating every couple of hours.

Pretty pissed, I go online and cancel my .NET account, but the proverbial feline has escaped the cloth container. Spam continues unabated for days. Well, I think, time to go on the Internet and contact Microsoft to tell them about this. I try looking at www.microsoft.com and about every link I can see. Ah, here’s a Help section, there’s a Contact Us section. Here’s the joker: there is no way to send them feedback or a message UNLESS you are a .NET or Hotmail client! But that was what got me in trouble in the first place. I dig and I dig and I find nada, bupkis, nothing.

So, I go to my ISP’s website and find out how to complain about spam to them. I follow all the instructions and send them a message. They reply that the emails I have been getting are not from their server and that if I have problems, I should contact the server of the offenders. Now, here is a confusing point: My ISP provider (mail server) says that they screen for spam. So it seems reasonable to me that they would want me to report spam that got through their filter. Hmmm. Guess not.

So, I go to the Hotmail website and find that a non-subscriber can send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the information. Being a good citizen in the war against Spams of Mass Destruction (this has got to be an Iraqi plot), I send Hotmail an email. They send a generic reply filled with bland advice and warnings, bless their little warped hearts. They say they will get back to me. Yeah, right.

As a final act of revenge, I am going to forward each and every spam email I get with a Hotmail sender to Hotmail’s abuse address. Hope they like them.

Jan 01 2003

Intuitive and Me
January, 2003

Time to buy a new version of Quick Money. Mine was two years old and who knows what wonderful goodies are packed in the current one? So, down to Best Buy, get it, and install it. No problems. Of course, you have to immediately update it from Release 1 to Release 3 (current releases are never shipped, it seems). Data conversion—no problem. Let’s open it and see what’s there.

Hmm. Doesn’t look like the old version. I cannot see how to make it show things I thought important. I go through all the menus and options. Nothing helps. I look in the user manual to find out how to contact the manufacturer. For big bucks per minute, there is an 800 number. Nope. Ah, a web site. I log on and follow instructions for FAQs, but cannot get any real answer to my questions. Hidden at the bottom of the screen is a link to an online chat with a service representative, at no charge. The following summarizes my online chat session with Das, the service rep:

Me: In the 2001 version, when I opened the program, it went directly to my checkbook register. Now it goes to a Home Page and then I have to click to get to my register. Can I get around this?
Das: Your Home Page can give you all sorts of information about your checking account.
Me: But the only choices are summaries like the balance in the account, no details. Right?
Das: Yes, we have enhanced the current product with new facilities. (He then leads me through how to customize the Home Page, which I already know.)
Me: There is nothing offered, not a single option I can choose, that I care about. I don’t want a Home Page. I want it to look like the 2001 version did and go directly to my checkbook register.
Das: You are just used to the way 2001 looked. You will soon be used to the 2003 version and all its new facilities. You cannot get around the Home Page. Or our ads for additional paid services that appear about everywhere you look. (Implication: Your data is converted, buddy. You’re sunk.)
Me: Okay. Well, how about the nice vertical bar on the right? In the 2001 version, I had places to click for online updates, my investment portfolio, common reports. Now, I have to go through layers of menus by clicking on icons in the tool bar. Any way to make it look like before?
Das: No. We did not have room due to all the new facilities we have in the new version.
Me: Looks like formatting and spacing to me. No problem with room. You just decided to eliminate an easy way to access stuff that existed before.
Das: When you get used to the 2003 version and see all the new facilities in it, you will forget about the old version.
Me: If you log complaints, here’s mine: It’s harder to do what I want to do. Why eliminate things that worked?
Das: You will like all the new facilities in the 2003 version.
Me: Yes, master. It’s all clear to me now.

Mar 01 2003

Recently, I bought a new computer for my wife using the web site from CompBuyCity. It was a set package of features (no changes allowed) from a well-known manufacturer. I had tried to buy this model at the local branch of the store, but they were out of stock and their web site offered it at the same price with no shipping cost.

It’s a nice machine. I went into CompBuyCity today to look at it and comparable models to see what I might buy for myself. The model I had bought through the web site was there on the shelf at the same price I had paid.

The store also has a computer where you can “build your own” machine, adding or subtracting features at will. When I started playing with it, there was a message that I would get a $100 mail-in rebate if I ordered a machine. So, I went through the specs and built a machine exactly like the one I had bought: same manufacturer, same everything. And the price was $10 higher than what I had paid.

When I asked about this, I was told that there is a surcharge of $10 for special orders as compared to “mass-produced packages.” Hmmm. Wasn’t what I had worked up on their computer exactly the same as the model I had bought before? Yes, but it’s a different model number since it would be produced as if it were a special order. Well, I thought, $10 isn’t a big deal since I will get $100 back on a mail-in rebate.

Oh, there is one other catch. There is a $75 shipping charge for these “special orders” as compared to free shipping on the model I bought. So, to buy the same thing as I have (just a different model number), I would save a whopping $15. Woo hoo.

Dec 15 2002

So, you are not the sporting type, but would like a trophy. No rifle with a scope? Don’t want to be dressed in camouflage and sit on a board up in a tree holding a loaded weapon? Not up to creeping through the woods with a bow and arrow to get your prey? No worry. Here is a much more fun way to hunt deer.

In the usual form of hunting, you take the trouble to go out and find your quarry. Hey, let the game find you. No need to get up before dawn, wait for sunrise, and stumble over hill and dale. My method is done at night and in the comfort of the family vehicle.

The first thing to note when hunting deer with your car is that you should not worry about areas where signs say “deer crossing.” They don’t show up there. Next, no need to keep a sharp eye out. The deer find you rather than the other way around. If you see deer along the side of the road, they are just testing you. It’s the ones you don’t see that you can bag.

The average deer hunter talks about how many points the buck he shot had. You can talk about the bucks the insurance company paid to repair your car and how many points your premium will go up next year. There’s doe and dough. Instead of having to find a game agent to tag your deer, all you have to do is use a cell phone and call the police who will nicely clean up after you and write up a report you can put in your scrap book.

So, cruise those dark stretches of rural highways and byways. Who knows what surprises await you? You, too, can have stories to tell your children about how you hunted deer.