CAT | Misc.
Kyler and I had dinner together this week while mom got her hair done. After dinner I told Kyler we needed to go to the bank to deposit a check. We get to the bank and Kyler recognized it (still not sure how since we rarely GO to a bank) and he says “Um. Dad? Dad get money?”
“Maybe. I need to give them a check but I’ll see if I need money too,” I answer.
“Get some moneys, dad. I need some. I need some moneys in here! Kyler need some money in here,” he says pointing to himself as he sits in his car seat.
Hilarious.
You continue to lower my already low expectations of you. Let me give you a recent example. Yesterday I stopped in to get a new Linksys wireless router. The shelf had 5 of them with the price clearly listed as $129. No price tag was on the box itself, so I assumed that the price that was marked on the shelf was correct.
I was wrong.
I noticed this prior to leaving and stood in the customer service line for 15 minutes to get this resolved. During that time I noticed 7 people behind the counter, but only 2 working registers. When my time finally came, your customer service rep (who greeted me with “you!” instead of the more common “hello, can I help you?”) called for someone to walk back to the shelf with me. It was at that point that the woman said “This is our overstock area, the real ones are here (moving down THREE slots on the shelf area) and pointing out the $199 price.”
Now, I would understand if there was one misplaced item; or if it sat next to the correctly priced stack of products; or if that was the only item marked incorrectly (I counted 3 others with this problem after I noticed it) – but none of those things were true.
During the short walking back to customer service counter, I opened my iPhone, started the Amazon application and found they had the product for $160 (more than the $129 I thought Best Buy was selling it for, but far less than the $199 they actually were selling it for). The app showed I’d get free 2 day shipping meaning I could get it for Christmas!
I then waited for the customer service rep to finish with his current customer. Upon completing that transaction he looked past me and asked the next person to step in line. I said “Um… I’m back.” He looked at me, sighed and said “Oh, you want this back then?”
I explained that I thought Best Buy should really take responsibility for a number of incorrect prices in the area; he wasn’t interested. I asked if they would price match; to which he said “yes, if its a local retailer.” I said “Ah. Because Best Buy doesn’t do business online, right?”
He then informed me (and I’m not making this up) “No, we don’t. Best Buy.com is a separate entity and its my job to keep OUR shareholders happy, not theirs.”
I informed him that I’d like a refund and in 1/2 the time it took him to do that, I purchased the product for less money than Amazon. — ‘Cause its MY job to keep the shareholders happy at whatever company best understands competitive pricing and excellent customer service.
Sincerely,
Me.
Going to the toy store is always a weird experience for me. I’m always surprised at how few people are there, how uncool the store is on the inside and how odd some of the toys are. For example:
So… we’ve got an airplane, a boat with a cage and a dinosaur-bird kinda thing with a lego-ish design to him. “FP-217″ is written so big that you would assume it has meaning – which I don’t think it actually does. The fun here is catching flying dinobirds by flying around them and hearding them into a boat-cage? I guess?
—
In the same family of toys, we have a truck-thing with a boom arm of some sort; a shirtless guy who looks like a plastic wrestler… with glasses; and a brown seal that’s being restrained in the six-wheeled truck… thing.
Maybe I’m just missing it on these things – so if someone knows what they are supposed to be, I’d love to know.
For some odd reason, I find it funny how different car manufacturers warn you of things like low tire pressure, low fuel, etc.
In my old Murano the designers felt that the most important warning was when your tire pressure was 5psi or more lower than it should. (Which happens often in MN.) The car would emit a loud warning tone for 10 seconds when this happens and then repeat it for every tire that was low. I often spent the first 30 seconds in my car trying to figure out which three tires needed air. Thankfully Nitrogen fixed that problem.
In our RX the low fuel warning is a tiny yellow dot that lights up and is positioned in a place that is easy to never see. However, the low washer fluid warning gets a large icon (slightly bigger than the big green turn signal icon), flashing notification AND a spot that’s easily seen on your dash. You might run out of gas, but you’ll be able to see everything in front of you when it happens!
Then there’s my car. The designers here opted to give you a series of warnings. First, the icon on your gas gauge lights up. Then you get a warning on the center display telling you you are on “reserve” fuel. Eventually, they stop you from being able to access all of the car’s features and replace them with the reserve fuel warning. If you still haven’t addressed the fuel situation, they resort back to pictures like the one below which essentially says “Dude! If you want to keep using me, you’re going to have to give me something to drink!”
Makes me wonder what our new car will start doing…
24 hours ago we noticed that two checks were processed deducting funds from our account. Neither of these checks were written by us, for places we shop at or even OUR checks.
Thankfully, we (and when I say that, I mean “Johna”) noticed the odd checks representing a check number we had yet to order … or were even close to ordering any time soon. Pulling up the scanned check image (thank you US Bank – great feature) we saw a check with our routing number and bank account however with a different bank, different name on the check and a different address (complete with ALL CAPS street and state info and all-lower-case city name). The checks even had a phone number and drivers license number on them — all of which was fake.
Now that we’ve canceled the account and associated cards, contacted anyone payments were issued to that had not yet cleared and contacted the authorities, we pretty much have this behind us (all but the waiting for new checks, cards, etc.).
I asked our bank how this could have happened — after all, we write checks only for bills we get in the mail, and then mail back in; to our church; and very intermittent other cases. They’re answer was simply that “it happens” because so many people can touch a check between you and it getting to the bank that there is room for foul play. What’s more, the economy seems to be fueling this problem a bit more … infact, the checks that were written were not for frivolous things but “essentials.”
So the grand lesson here is simply: watch out. Balance your check book, watch it carefully and be cautious about whom you give your checks to. The result for us will be more on-line bill paying and probably using cash even in the random cases where we would write a check that wasn’t paying a bill.
If that story compels you to take a closer look at your bank statement – then great! Hopefully you don’t have this problem, but if you do, then hopefully you find it quickly.
I found myself reflecting on my recent trip to Disney World on the drive home and thought I’d share some of the highlights with everyone:
checking in for the plane ride with more luggage than we had people traveling
becoming a bed for a tired biscuit (Kyler) on the plane
landing at MCO knowing my parents were 30 minutes behind us
joking about my second minivan rental in a month (i hated them both)
flipping a quarter to the kid hoping SOMEONE would forget it when returning a cart
knowing exactly what exit took us to Target – and missing it
saying for the 37th time “I really should just buy the e-Pass for the tolls!”
checking in to Saratoga Springs
meeting up with my parents and watching them light up when seeing Kyler
teasing my dad that he now has an “official car” (for both renting and owning)
arguing over the check with my dad (he always “won” — thanks again, dad!)
taking Kyler to a beach – watching him figure out water and sand
mid-afternoon cocktails at the Yacht Club
having breakfast with my parents – watching Kyler devour pancakes
staying up LATE to pick up John, Rob and T at the airport
breakfast with the whole family
discovering i can argue my way into bypassing the fingerprint reader
discovering T and I had another video podcast to offer YouTube (link TBD)
Kyler calling Rob “aaaaayyy!”
Kyler calling T “ta taah”
Kyler trying to say “elevator”
Kyler learning the word “monorail”
walking around the parks with my family
dinners with my family
discovering gilmore girls really isn’t that bad
looking for an iPhone case with T
holding Kyler’s hand while walking
watching Kyler fall in love with “nay-nays” (the horse carousel ride)
watching Kyler suddenly be afraid of the actual RIDE part of the ride
clapping along with Kyler at the end of a good ride
hearing that Rob, John and T had come up with top 7 lists on their own
becoming a bed for Kyler on the flight back
knowing this isn’t the last trip – its one of the first with Kyler
As I look at the list (and know I’ve missed MANY things that I’ll think of over the next 24 hours) I find it interesting that hardly anything had to do with rides or things in Disney parks. People that ask me why I go to Disney World so often almost always get the same response: it just happens to be one of my favorite places to spend time with my family. Its true. Its the backdrop where I relive memories and create new ones – and this trip added plenty to the list of new ones!
No pictures. No videos. Nothing terribly random in this post. Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!
We’re celebrating this year with Johna’s parents who are due to arrive any moment. My brother, John, will also celebrate with us – so there should be plenty of people to eat what appears to be plenty of food.
On another topic, I’m behind in posting videos and pictures due mostly to a suddenly crazy traveling schedule. While in LA, I took a bunch of video to use for Netcot with the hopes that I’d be able to crank out one new video episode. So far, it looks like I might have enough for 3 or 4 episodes!
That’s great! Except that EDITING all that video is always what takes the most amount of time. What’s more, since I’m now fully in the HD world, I need to edit it using some more advanced software than I have in the past. Thankfully, John has been guiding me through it to help ease my learning curve. Of course, once those videos are done, I’ll post some links to them here.
Back to the point: Happy Thanksgiving!
I’m traveling this weekend and has to share some pics from a brief stop at Disneland. The sky looks very strange due to the fires out here. For most of the afternoon ash was falling from the sky continuously. I’m glad I wasn’t wearing a dark shirt as most of those people looked like they had bad dandruff by the end of the day.
We woke up this morning only to see it was officially going to be cold for at least the next six months. See the proof for yourself.
On my podcast, I sign off each episode by saying “Rock on!” I’m not sure why I do that. Just something I did once that stuck, I guess. What’s funny is how many times I’ve heard that phrase used since I started doing it nearly 3 years ago. The most recent example was when I visited the Original Pancake House in Maple Grove, MN (which by the way, is one of my FAVORITE restaurants!). They had the latest issue of a local magazine featuring rock work…
