Free Money Finance

Sears Dying a Death They Deserve

This will be short and sweet today.

First, here's some news from CNN:

[Sears] lost $748 million in the most recent quarter, up from the $454 million loss in the year-ago period. Revenue tumbled 12.5%, due to both the store closings and a 7% drop in sales at the stores that remained open. Hollar acknowledged that the company has "fallen short" of its own turnaround plans. Indeed, Sears Holdings has lost $9.8 billion since 2011 thanks to six straight years of losses.

Second, hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

I wonder if it's because they STINK at customer service.

For background on my war with Sears, see Dear Sears, This is Why I Hate You.

For even more, scroll through the Sears posts in my company experiences category. There are several of them. Sears actually makes Comcast look good.

A Nice Touch from Vanguard

I recently received a card in the mail from Vanguard. It read (in part):

Happy anniversary! You've been a client-owner of Vanguard for 20 years.

It went on to thank me for my loyalty, congratulate me on "reaching this milestone," and so forth.

Overall, I think it was a nice touch from them.

I have been with them a long time and IMO they are a great company. I'm hoping for another 20 years (at least!) together.

For those of you interested, here are the three funds I use the most at Vanguard.

I almost went through the exercise of calculating how much I've saved/earned with Vanguard in 20 years simply because my expense ratios have been almost nil compared to an industry average of over 1%. As we all know, 1% compounded over 20 years adds up to some BIG MONEY!

Sumo Emperor Review

A few weeks ago the people at Sumo Lounge contacted me. They wanted to know if I would like a free Sumo Emperor chair to review. Having done a review of a Sumo product previously, knowing my kids like them (the old one is currently in my daughter's bedroom), and being a sucker for anything "free" I said "Sure!" They shipped one to me a couple weeks after that.

The product arrived in a huge box. We opened it up, cut away the plastic wrap (that serves both as protection as well as a shrinking mechanism), and the thing started to expand (we knew it would since we had another one, so we opened it up in our living room where there was plenty of space.) When it was all out of the box, we had a 55" x 25" bean bag chair in the middle of our living room!

Now that we've had it a few weeks, I'll give you what I see as the pros and cons of the Sumo Emperor:

What I Like

• Good size. Not as humongous as the last one we got.
• Looks decent. This one has some styling that makes it a viable alternative for a living room. The previous model was simply a huge bean bag chair.
• Comfy. The kids love it. Video games, surfing the web, watching TV, etc. -- they are in it.

What Could Be Better

• Cost. $399 for a bean bag chair (even a high end one)? Yikes!
• Color. It only comes in red. BRIGHT red. If you really wanted this in your living room, it would need to be another color.
• Size. One man's "just right " is another man's "too big." It's a bit big for our needs.

Overall, I say this product is best used in a good-sized entertainment/media room. It would have to be a high-end one given the price of this product, but to some people, $400 for a chair is nothing. To me, it's a bit pricey.

Anyone else out there ever tried a Sumo product? What did you think of it?

Designer Checks Stinks

Before I get into this post I want to say one thing: Yes, I still use checks. Get over it.

You all know that I use credit cards and have a debit card as well. So not all of my financial transactions are using instruments that were very popular in the 80's. But I'm not going to give certain companies my bank account information for electronic payments -- I simply don't trust them. Plus, there are all sorts of "miscellaneous" bills that it's difficult to pay via credit/debit card. And auto pay programs have their own issues. So, yes, I still use checks.

I start with this because I know someone will comment "Really? You still use checks?" So I wanted to pre-empt that comment.

Now that I've got that off my chest, let's get on to the story.

In early February I ordered some checks for my personal bank account form Designer Checks. Chase wanted to charge me something like $30 for 200 checks. I looked through the TONS of check ads in the Sunday paper, selected one, and bought 4 BOXES of checks (each has 150 or 200 checks in them) for $16.50. I filled out the order form and sent it in.

I knew that most (all?) of these companies have a "new customer" price and then a different price for "return customers." But since it had been 2 1/2 years since I had ordered checks, I thought I was safe. Surely by now I was a "new" customer. Plus I had ordered from them multiple times previously, each time separated by a couple years or so, and all was fine. And besides, if they needed to charge me more they would simply call or email me and see if I was willing to pay the higher price (at which point I would have cancelled the order.)

Then on Saturday, February 23 I received an email. My checks were done. The final bill was $74.22 (way above my cost but, interestingly, cheaper than what Chase wanted to charge me). This was $60.42 for the checks themselves and $13.80 for handling. Ugh.

I called the customer service number and explained the situation: I had ordered checks for $16.50 and was billed $74.22.

"Tina" informed me that since I was a returning customer, I didn't get the new customer price. The returning customer price was $74.22.

"I don't want the checks then," I said. "Please don't send them."

"They have already been shipped," she replied.

"What? What sort of company would ship something knowing that I expected to pay $16.50 and then try and charge me $74.22 after the fact?" I asked.

"Well we didn't want to inconvenience you by slowing down your order, so we printed and shipped them as soon as possible."

I don't think this was their motivation for doing this, but it was a good/slick reply. IMO, they sent them because they wanted me to have the merchandise and then feel compelled to pay their demanded price.

"I don't want the checks at this price," I said. "I will send them back when I get them."

"But this is our returning customer price," she noted, seeming confused that I would simply not pay the price they wanted.

"I ordered checks for $16.50. If I can't get them for $16.50, I don't want them. I will be refusing delivery when they get to my house."

"Let me see what I can do."

She got off the line and I was put on hold. After about a minute, she came back on.

"Sir, we can offer you a savings of 30% off the price, so your new price would be..."

"No. I ordered checks for $16.50. If I can't get them for $16.50, I don't want them."

"But this is a great savings off of our returning customer pricing."

"I will be refusing delivery when they get to my house and sending them back to you. You have a lot of competitors who will sell me checks for $16.50 -- I know because I see their ads in the Sunday paper. So if you won't honor the price, I will send them back and buy them elsewhere."

I also mentioned that the practice of filling an order at one price and then shipping them out and billing a much higher price was a deceptive tactic that the Better Business Bureau might be interested in (yes, I was pulling out all the classic lines.)

"Let me see what I can do."

She got off the line and I was put on hold. After about a minute, she came back on.

"Sir, we can offer you a savings of 50% off the price, so your new price would be..."

"No. I ordered checks for $16.50. If I can't get them for $16.50, I don't want them."

"But this is an even better savings off of our returning customer pricing."

"I will be refusing delivery when they get to my house and sending them back to you." I also reminded her of the competition and the fact that I have many options for buying cheap checks. I also mentioned the BBB again.

"Let me see what I can do."

She got off the line and I was put on hold. After about a minute, she came back on.

"Sir, If you would be willing to simply pay the handling charges, your new price..."

"No. No. No. Let me state this as clearly as possible." By this time I was putting emphasis on every word and speaking very slowly. "I...ordered...checks...for...$16.50. If...I...can't...get...them...for...$16.50...I...don't...want...them. I...will...be...sending...them...back...to...you."

"Let me see what I can do."

She got off the line and I was put on hold. After about a minute, she came back on and told me that for this ONE TIME that they would give me the checks for $16.50. But in the future I needed to remember that returning customers pay a different rate than new customers.

Uh-huh. I wanted to remind her that I was a new customer -- to her competitors -- and that they would fill my order at the new customer pricing. But I let it pass.

I asked her if they could confirm this agreement in writing. I said I'd like an email so I had a record that they had lowered the price.

"Let me get back to you," she said, and I was on hold again.

When she came back, she told me they would be mailing me a letter saying I had the $16.50 price.

"A letter? Like through the mail?"

"Yes."

"Like through the regular mail? You're not talking email, are you?"

"No, not email, regular mail."

I said "ok" and asked for her name and customer service number. I wanted to be sure I had some sort of backup in case they missed the fact that we had agreed on $16.50.

"I'm putting it all on your record. The change is made in the system," she replied.

"That's great," I said. "Can I have your name and customer service number too?" I have seen too many agreements get lost in "the system", so I still wanted backup.

She gave me her name and my order number, that was it. They didn't have customer service numbers.

I thanked her, told her I realized it wasn't her personally who was responsible for the company's strange policy of send the product and charging much more for it later, and that I appreciated the help she had given me getting it resolved. I also asked her to record my comments regarding the company's policy just in case anyone looked at customer feedback.

We hung up and all was well. That is until I got an email on Tuesday, February 26 saying that I owed them $57.72.

At this point I nearly hit the roof. Turns out, they also called my house and left a message for my wife to call them (it's a joint account.) My wife told me she would have called them back but didn't know what they wanted.

I explained the situation, she called them the next day, and they said we should ignore the email.

• Now some of you may think I'm the jerk in this situation. After all, I had ordered from them in the past so I should expect the higher pricing, right? But here's what got me worked up about how they handled it:
• I had ordered previously and all was well, why was this time different? Did they change their policy? If so, that's their right, but in the interest of customer service shouldn't they kindly explain it to me?
• Why didn't they contact me and explain they had to charge me more BEFORE they made the checks or BEFORE they shipped them. It galled me that they printed and shipped them and just assumed they could charge whatever they wanted (MUCH more than what I had offered to pay) and get that price.
• They tried to their utmost to get me to pay much more -- through a series of offers from their customer service people. I can't really fault them for this, I would probably do something like it too. But I would have done it on the front end, once I noticed a price difference and before I sent the products. They certainly made me work for my savings, so they didn't win any bonus points with me.
• Finally, after they said we had a deal they sent me another email (funny how they could email me a bill but wouldn't email a price break notice) demanding the rest of the higher amount. Certainly not cool in my book. (BTW, I never received the price change confirmation in the mail.)

Anyway, I am done with them. I will be using my checks over the next two years and at that point will be dealing with another company. Designer Checks is now on the list of companies I don't do business with.

What about you? What's your take on the situation? Where do you get your checks?

Bank or Credit Union?

MSN Money asks if a credit union is a better alternative to a bank. They don't really give an opinion one way or the other, but simply talk about the (often unknown) advantages of a credit union.

I have a relationship with both a bank (Chase) and a credit union and they both have their plusses and minuses. Here's how I add them up:

• The credit union gives me a high interest checking account where I can earn 3% back on $15k each month. I have to have direct deposit, check the account four times a month via the web, and use their debit card 10 times a month to get it, but that's no big deal.


• The credit union doesn’t have an easy way for me to transfer money into and out of my accounts there. Chase, on the other hand, easily hooks to Vanguard and other accounts I have, making it very easy to move money from one place to another.


• Chase has been very, very friendly. When I go in I have several people say hello and I've struck up a chatting friendship with a couple of them (who happen to be interested in rental real estate). They've also waived a $16  cashier's check fee twice (once they offered and the second time I asked and they agreed). They also don't charge me for my LLC account based on my "overall banking relationship" (i.e. how much money I have deposited) with them. The credit union wanted to charge me $12 a month for an LLC checking account even if I had $1 million deposited with them. (I don't have that much of course, but they wouldn't waive the fee no matter the amount -- I asked.)

Given the above, I keep most of my money at Chase and enough at the credit union to get the 3% interest on the $15k.

BTW, some of you may ask about ATM usage. I haven't used an ATM in YEARS. The reason: my son and I get paid in cash for soccer refereeing. Since we use very little cash (we charge as much as possible for the credit card rewards), we get all the cash we need in a year through the soccer payments.

How about you? Do you prefer a credit union or a bank? Why do you like the one that you do?

The Pros and Cons of Menards

Over the past few years, Menards has become my home improvement store of choice. But a couple recent events have made me wonder if I should re-think my position. So I've decided to list what I see as the pros and cons of this chain (primarily versus Home Depot and Lowe's, though there are others like True Value, Ace, etc.) and let you all chime in with your thoughts. Perhaps between all of us we can find the "best" home improvement store. :)

Pros

Here are what I see as the reasons for shopping at Menards:

• You can "save big money." If you've ever seen a Menards commercial or been in one of their stores (yes, they play ads over the intercom) you know the song: "You save big money, save big money, when you shop Menards." Now whether this is true or not, they have certainly got me believing it (for the most part -- see below). Do they really have the lowest prices? How can you be sure -- who drives around from one home improvement store to another comparing prices?


• Best employees. This is one I can say for sure -- they have the best employees. I rate them the best for the following reasons: 1) You can actually find someone to help you. At the other home improvement stores there's never anyone around when I need them. 2) They actually want to help. Every time I've asked a Menards employee for assistance, I've always received a positive, welcoming reply. I have yet to get a "you're bothering me" response, which is what I've had elsewhere. 3) They actually know what they are talking about. Not that the other store employees don't, but my experience is that help in other stores can be spotty in the know-how department.

Cons

On the other hand, there are some reasons not to like Menards:

• How they do pricing. They often get to a lower price by offering a Menards rebate, not straight cash. So an item you purchase may be $10 off, but that $10 comes to you via mail (which is a hassle to complete and mail in the first place) and is good for redemption only on a future purchase at Menards. This is not a bad deal if you shop there a lot and have time to complete rebate forms. For me these are negatives.


• They don't sell gift cards other than at their stores. I can buy Home Depot and Lowe's gift cards from my grocery store using my American Express Blue Cash Preferred Card and get a straight 6% off any price by doing so. Menards only sells their gift cards at their stores (at least in our city.) And since they don't take Amex, the best I can get is 1% cash back unless the Chase Freedom card has "home improvement stores" as one of their quarterly 5% cash back options.


• They run out of stock early. This has happened to me twice recently. In the middle of September, I went to Menards for grass seed. A clerk told me they were out and that they weren't getting any more this year. He also noted that it was "too late to plant grass", something I knew was wrong because I had done so successfully last year at this time. I went four blocks to Home Depot and they had plenty of grass seed. Three weeks later, the exact same thing happened, this time with grill covers. Menards was out for the year. Home Depot had many options. This is the first time I've noticed this problem, but if it keeps up much longer, I'll just go to Home Depot and save myself a trip.

So, what about you? Do you prefer Menards, Home Depot, Lowe's, or someplace else? Why?

Latest in My Comcast Saga

After my last Comcast update, I received an email from their social media representative asking if they could take one more shot at making me happy. I said "sure" and provided my account information.

I didn't hear anything for a couple of weeks. Then I received a bill in the mail for $116.59 -- up from the $90 per month that I wasn't happy about. I sent the rep a "what's up with that?" email and was shortly contacted by Comcast via phone. Yep, it was the same guy I had talked to several times already.

He told me that the $116.59 was the non-promotion price for the Digital Preferred/HD/DVR/Sports Entertainment Package set-up we had. The bump to $90 was from the expiration of one promotion and the latest bump was from the expiration of another. As you might imagine, I wasn't happy.

He offered me several options for lowering my bill including a bundled plan of TV, phone, and internet. He even threw in a couple freebies like a few months of the Sports Entertainment Package for free and waiving the installation fee on the phone/web services. So at least I felt like he was trying to work with me (though not enough). I told him I'd talk to my wife and get back to him.

This prompted an in-depth discussion with my wife of what we were spending, what we wanted to spend, future plans, etc. It's too long of a story to get into now, but here are the results:

• We called AT&T (who we have phone and internet with) and asked what they could do to lower our bill. They took a good amount off immediately and we were told they would take more off if we'd commit to a one-year plan. We haven't decided on that yet.


• We ultimately agreed that we can do without the Sports Entertainment Package (the soccer games) because we can get much of the content from Fox Soccer (online) and FoxSoccer.tv if we need to. We also decided we didn't need so many channels as almost all of the ones we wanted were available at a lower level of service. So we moved our Comcast service down to Digital Starter and now are at $81.20 a month. This is a completely non-promoted price and we're able to cancel at any time.


• These moves bought us time at a lower total cost to decide the following: 1) Do we finally want to cancel our home phone and go all cellular? 2) Do we need TV from Comcast at all (or this much)? 3) Can we get what we want from other sources for much cheaper? (It appears we can, but we need more investigation.) 4) Would we ever want to bundle services with one company? A local company is offering a three-service bundle for $90/month for year 1 and $100/month for year 2. They are generally highly rated, so we may go with them.

So that's where we stand as of now. Decisions on these issues are "on our list" but our list is pretty full, so this is likely to be the status quo for some time.

And to round out this issue, here are a few other related items on this topic:

• When I was talking to the Comcast rep he said they are now offering home security services. You can imagine what my response to that was! :)


• The Wall Street Journal says more and more people are cutting the cable TV cord. We may be one of these soon.


• I had a reader send me this funny story (I asked for permission to run it):

I wanted to let you know that I enjoy the FMF website and enjoy reading the articles and comments. I don't usually make comments but having read about your history with Comcast I thought this might give you a good laugh.

We have been Comcast customers for forever and really don't have too much to complain about except for their prices for TV and Internet Service. I'm an electronics engineer and usually have been able to take care of computer matters on my own. Although, last week I had been on the phone with Comcast about the loss of internet service and between the Comcast rep and myself he suggested that I have my cable modem replaced.

So yesterday morning I removed the cable modem and asked my wife if she had time to exchange it at the local Comcast center. When she arrived, there was a long line of customers returning their DVR's, cable modems and what not. When she made it to the head of the line, she complained about having to wait 45 minutes to exchange the modem. The rep at the counter said they were having network/computer problems and they were doing the best they could. My wife then commented that it really didn't look good for Comcast having problems with their network. Then the rep told her (and here's the good part) we don't use the Comcast network. And why is that, my wife asked. We use AT&T because it costs less.

Now whether this is true or not I cannot say. Maybe the rep was just trying to steer away issues with the Comcast network blaming AT&T for the delays, but a Comcast employee suggesting that the service they provide costs too much makes me laugh.

This made me laugh too!!! :)

Ok, I'm done talking about Comcast, cable TV, and the like for a bit. I'm sure you all are tired of hearing about it -- and I'm tired of dealing with it!

Saving Money by Being Friendly (Again)

Several years ago I suggested that we all could save money by being friendly -- by making friends with store clerks who could then open the doors to savings for us. Well, I recently applied this tip again and it saved me a decent amount.

A couple weeks ago I was in the process of looking for new car tires. I started by considering two main options:

• Costco -- I have purchased tires at Costco several times because 1) they have usually been the best price (both the base price as well as they offer regular tire promotions) and 2) they offer Michelin tires, which I like. This said, there are also reasons not to choose Costco, mainly: 1) they don't allow you to make appointments to get your tires put on or rotated (which can be a huge time suck if you don't get there at the right time) and 2) they are not located anywhere close to my house/work (which makes #1 all the worse -- I drive 15 miles to wait two hours!)


• Belle Tire -- They just opened a brand new store (garage?) a few blocks from my house. It's between my house and work and near where I swim (so I drive by it four times almost every day). In other words, it's very convenient. I wasn't sure how they were on price but thought they might match competitors.

BTW, I did consider Discount Tire for a bit since they had been so great fixing my tire for free. But I was sure the best they would do was match Costco and they were not as convenient as Belle Tire (though more convenient than Costco). So my strategy was to compare Costco's price with Belle's and if Costco was way cheaper, then see if Discount Tire could get at least close to Costco's price. But it didn't get that far.

My first stop was Belle Tire. I chatted with the assistant manager and we hit it off. While he looked at tires for me on the computer we talked sports, their new store, and, of course, the weather. He then quoted me a 65k Michelin tire for $949 for my Highlander. I thanked him and told him I'd be back in touch. I then went to Costco a few days later (while on a shopping trip) and got their quote for the same tire: $937. I asked the attendant if they had a planned rebate because they regularly do with Michelin tires, and he said they did -- a $70 rebate that would be offered in a few weeks.

I emailed the Belle Tire guy and asked if he would 1) match the Costco price and 2) match the Costco rebate. He said they would match the price plus they had their own $70 Michelin rebate coming up as well, so I could take advantage of that. So Belle ended up the same price as Costco and was way more convenient (I am, after all, going to be getting the tires rotated there every 5k miles for the next 65k miles). Sold! I was going with Belle.

I stopped in a few days later to order the tires and set up an appointment. The assistant manager was there and greeted me and we chatted a bit more. I asked when they were able to put the tires on my car and he said something like, "I'm not supposed to be telling people this yet, but starting this Saturday we will be offering a $50 off Belle Tire coupon. It can be combined with other offers. So if you wait until Saturday, you'll get the price match, the $70 Michelin rebate, and the $50 Belle Tire coupon. Your price will go down to $817."

How cool was that? By simply being friendly and working with him I landed an extra $50. Cool!

I ordered the tires, set an appointment, dropped the car off that Saturday, and an hour later, my new tires were on the car.

So consider this yet another reminder of the fact that you can save money simply by befriending store workers and being nice to them. And not only that, being nice and friendly is a much better way to go through life IMO. :)

Shopping for Insurance

Since "regularly shopping for insurance" was #31 on my list of the 52 best money saving tips, I thought I'd follow my own advice and compare our current insurance costs to those offered by other companies. Given the savings some people have seen ($1,400 here and $1,300 there), it seemed like the effort could well be worth it.

It's been a while since we quoted out our insurance. Too long in fact. We haven't shopped for insurance for years. We love the service at AAA (our current provider) and over the years they haven't raised our rates -- they have LOWERED them. So I felt like we were getting a good deal. Then in a discussion at work I mentioned that I had AAA insurance. Someone said, "Really, I always thought they were so expensive." So we decided to find out. If AAA was close to the others (even if they were a bit higher), we would stick with them. But if we found big savings elsewhere, we were ready to move.

My wife did all the hard work -- getting the quotes. I provided her with our current statements from AAA for car, homeowner's, and umbrella insurance to make sure we were quoting the exact same coverage we had now. In addition to asking for a quote given our current status, we also asked for quotes assuming my son was a driver -- which he will be in less than a month.

Next we had to decide what companies we should get quotes from. I prefer to have an agent I can go see if needed. Therefore the GEICOs of the world were out. They may be fine (I'd be interested in hearing from those of you who do/have had experience with them), but if anything happens, I want to have a dedicated person on the task. I've only needed insurance a few times, but when I have, it's been very nice to have an agent to rely on (and stop by their office if need be.)

From there, we asked our neighbors and friends what insurance companies they used and liked. We eliminated the ones we had never heard of and ultimately ended up with State Farm and Allstate as contenders. In addition, we decided we'd try Costco's insurance program just to see what they had to offer.

Over the course of a couple weeks, my wife got the bids. Here are the annual premiums given our current status:

• AAA - $2,253
• Allstate - $2,447
• State Farm - $2,794
• Costco - $3,230

Then with my son as a driver:

• AAA - $2,853
• Allstate - $3,391
• State Farm - $3,284
• Costco - $4,784

A few thoughts on these results:

• Looks like we are getting a good deal with AAA!


• Though I haven't broken out the numbers above, AAA was the cheapest option on each individual type of insurance (car, homeowner's, and umbrella) as well as the total.


• Allstate wasn't out of the realm of reason, but the other two seem high.


• For some reason, State Farm gave us a quote for umbrella insurance that was lower than what we wanted. Since they were already higher, we didn't get a re-quote, but their actual numbers would probably be $50 to $100 higher than what's above.


• My son adds $600 a year to the bill with AAA. This is less than I had expected. He adds only $500 with State Farm, but almost $1,000 with Allstate and $1,500 with Costco. Yikes!


• Looks like Costco is far from the cheapest alternative. I wonder how many people go with them simply because they assume everything at Costco is cheaper.

Of course, these numbers are particular to our vehicles, house, deductibles (which we keep high), area of the country, and so on. So the answers could be different for others based on their specific criteria. To be clear, I am NOT saying that what is cheaper for me will be the best deal for anyone else. I am saying you need to quote out your insurance to find out for yourself.

So we're sticking with AAA, which I am happy to do. They have always treated us quite well and it's good to know they are giving us a good price too.

How about you? Do you shop around for insurance? If so, what have you found? If not, do you feel you're leaving money on the table?

Kudos for Panera Bread

It's a joke in our house that whenever I ask my wife where she wants to go out to eat she always says Panera Bread. Not once in a while. Not most of the time. But EVERY time I ask her, she wants to go to Panera.

I have been there a few times without my wife as well. The closest Panera to us is a great spot (centrally located) for an early morning meeting.

We were at Panera recently, just sitting in our booth and chatting. We had finished dinner and were going over schedules, schooling choices, and so on -- drinking their (free) water and killing time before we had to pick up my son after basketball practice.

Suddenly a Panera employee (I'm not sure if it was the manager or not), pops out of nowhere and lays two double chocolate fudge cookies on the table. She then walked away.

We were stunned, not sure what to say. We didn't get the chance to ask why we were given the cookies or even offer our thanks. So we did what comes naturally, we unwrapped (they were in plastic sleeves) one of the cookies and split it (these were over-sized cookies -- not small in any way.) For the record, we took the other cookie home for our kids to split.

Boy was that cookie good! Soft, full of chocolate and fudge, and fresh. They weren't simply unloading stale cookies on us -- this was the good stuff.

A few minutes later the employee that dropped off the cookies walked by to deliver an order for someone else. As she finished with them, we thanked her for the cookies and she responded kindly.

I'm still not sure why we got the free cookies. Was it because my wife has a frequent customer card with Panera and they always seem to be handing out bonuses (a free smoothie, free treat, etc.) on it? If so, we are usually notified of an award in writing. Was it because it was a couple hours before closing and they had extra cookies they were going to toss anyway? Or was it simply because they wanted to be nice?

We weren't the only ones to get the cookies. At least one other couple did (we didn't notice if anyone else received them or not.) Perhaps they simply wanted to say "thanks for being a customer" to those who were there. Whatever the reason, it was a nice touch and I wanted to give them a shout out for their kindness.

Sure, it was "only a cookie", but little acts of love can have big impressions on customers, especially these days when stores and restaurants seem to be cutting back on these sorts of touches. It makes me want to do more business with them (which may have been their intent) and I will certainly be visiting again.

Questions on "Showrooming"

"Showrooming" is the practice of looking at/checking out a product at a store, then leaving and buying it cheaper online. How it works and what retailers are doing about it was highlighted in this piece from MSNBC if you'd like more details.

Showrooming is becoming more and more popular with the growth of smart phones and even apps designed to showroom (Amazon's app was the first I remember causing controversy in this way.) It's very easy to be in a store and at the same time check prices online on your phone.

But physical-location retailers hate it, saying it's unfair. Why? Because they provide everything for the customer -- the chance to see the product (try it out, touch it, etc.), a nice shopping environment, knowledgeable employees to answer questions, and so on. But then don't get the sale because the customer finds somewhere else to buy it at a lower price.

Of course price is not the only factor people consider when buying a product (selection, time, other charges/fees, etc. play roles as well), but it's a major one for sure.

Given these points, I have a couple questions for you about showrooming:

• Do you think showrooming is fair to physical-location retailers?


• Do you showroom yourself?

Personally, I think all is fair (within the law, of course) in the competition for sales. And in fact, showrooming can have benefits for everyone -- not only consumers, but physical-location stores.

The article linked above tells how showrooming has been impacting Best Buy's sales. As a result, Best Buy is making changes that will make it a better retailer. Becoming a better retailer will earn them more sales, more loyal customers, and so on. So the practice of showrooming (AKA "competition") has challenged them to do better. Retailers that respond positively to showrooming will be stronger and thrive. Those that sit back and complain will fall by the wayside.

I have showroomed in the past, but I do it more to make sure buying in person is not a total rip off. For instance, I was in Best Buy the other day to buy a belt clip for my phone. It was something like $25 at Best Buy. I looked at Amazon and it was $22 (or something like that.) I needed it right away and the price was close, so I bought it at Best Buy.

Now if the Amazon price had been $10, I would have felt that Best Buy was trying to rip me off. Even if I had needed it right away, I may or may not have purchased it there. Perhaps I would have dealt with the inconvenience of not having it immediately because I felt taken advantage of (and to save $15).

Furthermore, I rarely buy something after looking in just one place for it. For instance, I'm in the process of buying a computer for my son. I've looked in-store at Costco, Best Buy, and Staples so far. I've also looked online and in numerous ads. So if I ultimately buy at Staples will Costco complain that they provided the store for me to shop, the products to look at, and the employees to talk to just for me to buy it somewhere else? Of course not. Everyone considers this process fair competition for retail sales. So what's the difference if I look at a physical store and then buy it online?

I know, I know -- the physical retailer is providing some value (and thus has some costs) that the online store does not. But as I said, price is not the only factor people consider when buying -- just one of the factors. If the retailer "wins" on enough of those other factors and the price is close enough to what the online options are offering, the physical-location retailer will still get the sale. But oftentimes retailers want to offer sub-par service, selection, convenience, and then charge a big premium for their products. And they complain when they don't get the sale. They feel entitled to the sale when they simply should be earning the sale.

So yes, I do showroom, but not often and not as a standard practice. In many cases I simply forget to check online. But if I think of it, I will consult online prices before making a purchase.

So, what are your answers to the questions above? I'm interested in hearing what I assume will be a variety of comments.

Comcast Fails to Deliver

After I wrote My Discussion with Comcast, I received an email from a Comcast national customer service representative. She said that they would like to speak with me regarding my service issues. (FYI, I think this was the same day I wrote the post. If not, it was the day after it went live. The response was very quick.)

I was impressed. They must closely monitor what's said about them on the web AND they must care. Maybe they had changed and cared a bit about the customer's feelings. I felt that perhaps I had misjudged them.

I sent the rep my phone number and she said someone would be contacting me soon. I was traveling and away from home, but over the next several days we received many messages from Comcast, trying to get in touch with us. For one reason or another I didn't have time to call them back. Then I received a letter saying they had been trying to contact me and if I didn't call by a certain day, they would assume I was satisfied. Give them an A+ for persistence.

I finally called them on July 5 and talked to the same gentleman I had talked to about a year or so ago. I knew this wasn't going to end well.

We basically went over the same things I did with the online chat detailed in my previous post (FYI, the below is paraphrased with liberty by me):

Me: I am paying too much when others (Direct TV, Charter, etc.) are charging the same price for three services.

Him: You (meaning me) are receiving a much higher level of service than what those companies are offering (because I need a higher level to be able to get the soccer channels.)

Me: I understand that and am willing to pay more for them, but the current price just seems unreasonable.

Him: You could always cut service if you want. (BTW, I have considered and am considering this option.)

Me: I know, but I'd prefer not to.

Him: We could offer you a better deal if you bundle services (add either internet or phone to the cable bill.)

Me: I know this game. It's a great deal to start, then you up it to unreasonable levels.

Him: It's a great deal to start and then a good deal after that.

Me: I'm not excited about giving MORE business to a company I feel is already ripping me off.

Him: I understand and you're certainly entitled to your opinion. But you are getting a lot of value for what you're paying.

Me: Can I just buy the 7 channels I watch/want, give you the 500 others (exaggeration on number) back, and you can save me some money?

Him: No response.

Me (thinking): I hate Comcast. I hate Comcast. I hate Comcast. I hate Comcast. I hate Comcast. I hate Comcast.

Him (thinking, probably): I hate this guy. I hate this guy. I hate this guy. I hate this guy. I hate this guy. I hate this guy.

I finally saw that this was getting us nowhere and said that if he didn't have anything new to say/offer, then we were just wasting each other's time. He agreed (in customer service lingo, of course) and we ended the conversation.

So what I thought might be a great response from a company looking to work with a customer simply turned out to be more of the same. I not only had to hear the same pitch AGAIN and cover the same issues AGAIN, but there was absolutely nothing new they offered. Why even contact me in the first place? (They obviously saw my discussion with the online rep). The follow up contact was a complete waste of time and HURT my opinion of Comcast rather than helped it.

At least I'm in the same boat with many others. Comcast "won" Consumerist's 2010 competition for worst company of the year (and they are in contention every year), they regularly rank low on customer service surveys, and were recently ranked #4 of the most disliked companies in America. So if misery loves company, I have plenty to love. :)

BTW, with the list of "accolades" they've accumulated above, as well as how they have treated me so far, do they really think I want to ADD services with them?

Ok, time to REALLY consider viewing alternatives -- or cutting the cord completely. Stay tuned.

My Discussion with Comcast

It's been awhile since I've written about my relationship with Comcast. Long-time FMF readers will know that it's been a rocky past. For those of you new to my relationship with Comcast and wanting details, check out my last post on the issue.

The short story is that I got cable a few years ago and through a series of mistakes on Comcast's part was able to extend my promotional rate for a couple years. Then I upgraded a couple times (after complaining) to get promotions to keep my rate relatively low. Even with all this, my monthly rate had crept up to $60 per month (FYI, this includes way more channels than I need (several hundred), but they don't let you select the channels you want, a DVR, HD, and the sports package which shows worldwide soccer games I like to watch.)

Well recently I went "off promotion" and now my bill is $90 per month. Even though this is now $1,080 per year, it's still below what I earn as a soccer referee and my deal with my wife is that I pay for cable with my soccer earnings. Still, I want to pay as little as possible.

Back in the good old days (a couple years ago), you could get promotional deals renewed again and again if you simply called or chatted online with a rep and complained enough (and in the right way.) It's been increasingly harder to do this though as the cable companies have gotten wiser. In addition, as they've seen the writing on the wall that competition is heating up, Comcast has been more aggressive in bundling services like phone and internet access in with their cable. They offer these at low prices at the start, but then ratchet them up once the promotional period is over. Sounds familiar, huh?

So not wanting THREE high-priced services with a company I hate, I've been putting off that option. Besides, this is the year I think we'll get rid of our phone line anyway. So with that said, I decided to hit up a Comcast rep via online chat and see what they could do to help me out on price. I had a DirecTV ad that offered great prices on three services and wanted to use that to get a better price on cable from Comcast. I thought it would be pretty easy, but I was mistaken.

Anyway, see for yourself how things transpired. Here's the transcript of our conversation:

Comcast Rep: Hello FMF. Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is *******. Please give me one moment to review your information.

FMF: My issue: I am currently paying Comcast $90.91 a month for cable only. I just received a Direct TV insert for cable, internet, and phone for $94.94 per month (for all three). See the issue?

Comcast: I hope your day is going well! I'd be happy to help you with your concern. Our Comcast Customer Guarantee is our promise to you that we stand behind our products and services and we are available to you 24/7.

FMF: ok, great

Comcast: As I have understood your concern, you had offered for a deal from DirecTV and you are interested getting it. However, you want to know if we have same offer like what we they have before you make your decision. Is that correct?

FMF: Yes, because I can get TV, internet AND phone from them for the price you are charging me for just cable. I want to know if there's something you can do to help me get into their price range -- either with all three services or simply cut the cost of the cable.

Comcast: I understand that you want a package similar to what DirecTV is offering you or either have cable package lowered rate.

FMF: yes

Comcast: Let me pull up your account to see what we can do to solve this issue. To verify that I am chatting with an authorized contact, may I please have your complete service address and the last 4-digit of your SSN?

FMF: My service address (I have the bill right here) is: ***********************************. The account is in my wife's name so I assume it would be her SSN. Last 4 digits are ****.

Comcast: Thank you for that information. May I also have the account number of the account?

FMF: **********************

Comcast: Thank you for the information. I am currently pulling up your account. This will take me a minute or two to review. Would that be okay?

FMF: sure

Comcast: Thank you for being so patient. As I review your account here, you are currently under a stand-alone package which is only cable. Just to set proper expectation, promotion varies from time to time and is usually given once. However, I can try searching for available promotion for you. You made mentioned also about bundling your services, a bill can be lowered by having individual services bundled as one to have a lowered bundled rate. Having bundled service, you will have two or three services (video, cable, internet) for a price of one.

FMF: That's what Direct TV is offering -- 3 services for the price of one.

Comcast: We also have it on our end, FMF. Since, you are interested of bundling your package, we also offer that promotion.

FMF: I would be ok just with a cable reduction -- I get decent rates already on phone and web. And I'm not sure how long we're keeping our phone anyway.

Comcast: Okay, FMF. I will check on what we could offer you. Just to set proper expectation, to help you lower down your bill, these are some options that you can choose: 1. A bill can be lowered by downgrading the package for your service to have a lower package rate. 2. A bill can be lowered by removing some services on the account to remove additional costs. 3. A bill can be lowered by taking advantage of package upgrade discounts. I will further check on cable service promotion if there is any as of this time. Are you able to hold for another 2-3 minutes while I check on it?

FMF: FYI, the Direct TV deal has 225 all digital channels, 11 movie channels, HD DVR and 3 HD receivers, HD included, free set-up in 4 rooms, and HBO, etc. free for 3 months. This is BETTER than my current cable set up with you.

FMF: Yes, I can wait. But I don't want a reduction in service when Direct TV is offering more.

Comcast: Okay, I understand FMF.

Comcast: Since promotion varies from time to time. Based on my search on available upgraded promotion, the only available promotion as of this time is the Digital Premier package which is 84.99/monthly for 6 months promotion. Has more than 200 channels, you will also get free premium channels (HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, and others). Over 17,000 On Demand movies and shows that you can watch on your TV and now online. That is the only promotion available as of this time for cable upgraded promotional package.

FMF: I don't really want to upgrade either.

FMF: I'm looking to spend LESS money, not more.

Comcast: I understand that you are not interested of upgrading your service and want to spend less for your cable package. The option/s that could lower down your bill is either to downgrade service or remove some add-on services that you rarely use to lower down bill.

FMF: That's not my choice with Direct TV -- only if I stay with you.

FMF: Here's the deal: I contacted you to see if you could work with me to lower my bill before I call Direct TV. It appears you can't or won't. So my only choice is to call them.

FMF: I've been with Comcast a long time, but the Direct TV deal is just too good.

Comcast: You’ve been a great customer. We value your business. Here at Comcast we truly care about our customers, please be advised to call 1800-934-6489. They can give you more options to lower down your bill.
As much as I want to help you, however, the options that I could see here are limited only.

FMF: I'm not calling. I gave you guys a shot and now I'm moving on. Thanks anyway.

Comcast: Okay FMF. We respect your decision. I am sorry to know you are no longer interested with us. Just to set proper expectation, please notify us once you have decided to cancel your service with us through calling 1800-934-6489.

FMF: I will. Thanks.

Comcast: Please be advised also to return all Comcast owned equipment for you not to be charged for it. You are welcome. Is there anything else that you want me to help you today?

FMF: No. I'm signing off.

I'm not sure what would have happened if I had called the number. Maybe it was some sort of escalated call center that was a bit more lenient on pricing. Then again, I've been escalated before and they don't really offer you that much savings.

Of course I could always go with DirecTV, but it's just trading one devil for another. Plus they have to drill holes in my roof, something I'm not excited about.

When all is said and done, I'll probably simply decrease my package and see how much I can save. I get way more channels than I need, but I'm guessing that the channels I want are the first to drop off if I downgrade.

Ugh. Add another hassle to the to-do list. I can't wait until we get some solid, viable competition to cable companies. I know there are options out there now, but none are comparable IMO and they don't offer the soccer games I want to see.

Anyone else dealing with the pain of cable TV?

Is Buying a Car from Costco a Good Deal?

ESI Money is now offering a free ebook titled Three Steps to Financial Independence. Get your copy here.

MSN Money recently covered the Costco Auto Program, the service where Costco helps members buy a car. Members contact Costco, get directed to a participating dealer, and go to the dealer to receive a car and a pre-negotiated price.

Because Costco has lots of negotiating power, the prices are pretty good. But can you do better on your own? Here's MSN Money's take:

"The Costco prices are very good prices," says Edmunds.com's Reed. "For some vehicles, probably close to within $500 of the lowest price possible."

So, the best you're going to do with this program is getting within $500 of the best price. Personally, I'd like to be within $0 of the best price!

Think about this: if you use Costco, there's now a third party involved in your transaction, one who wants a part of the deal/profit for itself, so it's going to be difficult for this arrangement to be the best price.

MSN Money continues:

The best new-car prices still come from hard-core research and flinty negotiation between buyers and multiple dealers in a competitive environment.

This is the route I go when using my system for buying cars. It seems to have worked out very well for me the past few times I've purchased a vehicle.

That said, not everyone likes to solicit multiple bids and haggle back and forth for the best possible price. Some people prefer a more "civilized" buying experience. I know my wife would prefer this route if she had to buy her own car.

Here's how MSN describes this:

If you're the type of person who dreads buying a new car, then the protected experience of a Costco Auto Program transaction has true value. Costco's price might not be the ultimate low price, but a pain-free transaction at a very good price can often be worth a couple hundred bucks.

And even if you like doing your own negotiations, starting with Costco can have some benefits:

But if you're a Costco member, using the Costco Auto Program makes sense most of the time. Even if you're a silver-tongued negotiator, having the Costco price in hand provides a good jumping-off point for the down-and-dirty of hammering out a deal.

I have never used the Costco Auto Program so I can't comment on whether I think it's worth the effort or not. I simply find the car I want and then start the online negotiation process. Involving Costco might give me a BIT more information, but is it anything that really adds any value? I can go online to see what the car costs as well as what others are paying for it, so what else do I need to know?

Anyone ever use the Costco Auto Program? Why or why not? If you did, how did you like it?

Macy's is Bogard

FYI, "bogard" is my kids' new favorite slang term. It means "bogus" (at least to us -- the urban dictionary has many different potential uses for the term and ours is #5. Some of the others are quite colorful.) We use it quite often to describe some thing or some one who has crossed the line in one way or another.

A couple weeks ago on a Saturday we decided to stop by Macy's (despite the fact that I hate Macy's) because we had been given a gift card for Christmas. My wife wanted to get a new toaster oven and they had one. The oven she wanted was originally priced at $44.99 (which is a rip-off price IMO) but it had been marked down to $19.99 (which made it a good deal.) We were dropping the kids off at our church any way, and since it was near the mall, we decided to stop by Macy's to pick up the item.

Now we had tried to do the same thing a couple times previously, but they were always out of stock when we got there. And they wouldn't give us a raincheck (more on that later.) We had always assumed that they had simply run out because it was so late in the ad cycle (we usually showed up near the end of the week for an ad that dropped towards the beginning of the week.) But we were about to learn that this wasn't the case.

We went to the appliance section of Macy's, arriving just before at 11 am on Saturday morning. We asked the clerk where we could find the toaster oven we wanted.

"Oh, those are sold out," she said.

"Can we get a raincheck for one?" we asked.

"No, we don't offer rainchecks on those. But if you like, you can order one."

That sounded like a good deal to us. We'd simply order one and then pick it up the next time we were in the area.

"It will only be an extra $5.99 for shipping," she noted.

What!!!!!????? They are going to charge me an extra $5.99 (which is an extra 30% for those of you thinking the same thing I was) because they don't have a promoted item in stock? That's bogard!!!!

As you can imagine, we declined.

Then, she made it worse.

When we declined, the clerk felt compelled to justify why they were out of stock. She said, "Well, you know the ad broke on Friday. You should have stopped by then if you really wanted it."

What!!!!!????? The ad broke on Friday???!!!! That was YESTERDAY!!!!! It was early Saturday morning and we were one of the first people in the store (and the only ones in the appliance section.) So they had to have sold out in one day. And Macy's had to have known how popular the item was since they had run the sale previously. Yet it was our fault because we dared to show up the day after the ad broke.

Bogard, bogard, bogard!!!!

Let me just reiterate how much I hate Macy's. It's yet not as bad as Sear's but worse than Best Buy IMO. But Macy's is gaining. It's amazing to me how anyone could list them among the top retailers in America. There's no way this company should be listed anywhere near the class of Costco, Target, and Meijer.

Ugh.

Free Photo Book from Costco

As I've said, we booked our recent cruise using Costco's travel service. They were the cheapest option (by $50 or so once all on-board credits were factored in) and they were a source we trusted (versus some travel agencies we'd never heard of -- just found on the web.)

A week or so after we got back from the trip, I received this email from Costco:

Dear Costco Traveler:

Thank you for choosing Costco Travel for your recent vacation.

In appreciation of your business, we are pleased to offer you the attached coupon valid toward one free custom photo cover photobook from the Costco Photo Center.

Please print the attached coupon, and follow the instructions to order and redeem.

We wish you great photo memories!

How cool! The coupon gets us a $24.99 photo book/album for free!

I thought this was just Costco being nice and delivering over-the-top customer service. I felt so special!!!! Then I found out that it's actually a promotion they are running (which I somehow missed). The details:

Book a vacation package or a cruise between 1/1/12 and 9/30/12 and receive one free 30-page 11 ¼” x 8 ¾” custom photo cover photobook.

Two to three weeks after you return from your vacation or cruise, you’ll receive an email with a coupon valid for one custom photo cover photobook.

Upon receipt of the email, go to Costco.com, click “Photo” and log on to the Photo Center. If you do not have a login with Costco Photo Center you must create one at this time.

When finished, your custom photo cover photobook will be available for pickup at the U.S. Costco warehouse you’ve selected. Free custom photo cover photobook offer must be redeemed at a U.S. Costco Warehouse and is not applicable for mail back orders.

To redeem this offer, present the coupon at the 1-Hour Photo department. Please note one free custom photo cover photobook per household and travel booking.

Offer valid on vacation packages and cruises purchased from Costco Travel. Not valid with other purchases at Costco Travel including: rental cars, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts and Best Western hotel-only program, houseboat rentals and gift certificates.

Ok, I feel less special now, it's just a promotion. But I'm still glad to get it. As my Granny used to say, "It's better than a stick in the eye." :-)

We haven't used the offer yet (we have until April 30), but I think it will be a nice keepsake. We get the Costco photo calendars every year for Christmas gifts and people love them, so I think we'll certainly be happy with the photo book. I'll let you know if they are particularly awesome or particularly bad.

Top 10 Retail Chains

Consumer Reports lists the top 10 retail chains in its March issue as follows:

1. Costco
2. Kohl's
3. JC Penney
4. Target
5. Macy's
6. Meijer
7. Sears
8. Sam's Club
9. Kmart
10. Walmart

In case you're wondering, the rated the stores based on quality, selection, value, checkout, service, and layout.

Here's my take on each of these:

1. I love, love, love Costco -- it's one of the companies I would (and do) promote for free.

2. We shop a lot at Kohl's for clothes and tennis shoes.

3. I haven't shopped much at JC Penney in the past several years. Not sure why I haven't...

4. I think of Target as "the upscale Walmart." We're in one at least once a month.

5. Really? I hate Macy's.

6. We shop at Meijer more than any other store on this list. I love their stores. Plus their charges ring up as grocery purchases so I earn 6% cash back on purchases there using my Blue Cash Preferred card. I also get 6% back on all the gift cards I buy there (Panera, Chilis, gas at Meijer stations, etc.)

7. I hate Sears more than I hate Macy's. Way more. I do not know how they made it into the top 10.

8. I haven't been into a Sam's Club in years since I belong to Costco.

9. Kmart is in the same boat as Sears IMO (since they are co-owned.)

10. Personally, I like Walmart supercenters. The store by us is not a supercenter though and is a bit run down.

How about you? See any stores on this list you especially like or dislike?

Funeral Add-Ons

Even before McDonald's asked, "Would you like fries with that?", American businesses were trying to add on items to the purchase of other items. For instance:

• "Would you like the extended warranty with that new car/TV/computer/almost anything electronic purchase?"


• "Would you like stain coating on that new couch?"


• "Would you like preferred seating on your flight?"


• "Would you like the insurance package with your car rental?"

And on and on they go. Ugh.

But I didn't know that add-on sales had hit funeral homes. Or at least the extent of the add-ons. Sure, I knew they had some "extras" like upgraded casket options and the like, but I wasn't aware of the range of things offered as add-ons these days.

We recently visited a funeral home when a family friend passed away. We stood in line a bit while waiting to give our condolences to the family and while in line walked by a small table. The table had an electronic picture frame that rotated pictures. These pictures were extra services (add-on services really) that the funeral home offered. They included:

• Balloon release -- balloons released at some point as the deceased was buried


• Dove release -- white doves, no less


• Butterfly release -- this would be awkward in January in Michigan


• Military honors burial -- not sure what this entailed (flag? gun salute?)


• Graveside music -- guitar

Really? A dove release?

There weren't prices on the pictures but I imagined that each dove cost something like $50. Ok, I'm exaggerating (probably, who knows?) but simply the fact that all these things (and probably more we didn't know about) were offered really kind of shocked me. Whatever happened to a simple burial?

I'm sure some of you reading this will have more information on funeral home add-on options. If so, please share them with us in the comments below.

As for me, when my time comes my family can feel free to forego the doves, butterflies, balloons, and the like. Simply put me in an acceptable casket and throw me in the ground. Then have a big party with all the money saved. ;-)

Another Clueless Interaction with Best Buy

In the midst of Christmas shopping last month, my wife and I wondered into Best Buy. Why I went there after my last experience is beyond me, but I did find myself at the local BB.

In the course of talking to one of the sales associates, she mentioned a "great deal" for us. If we made a purchase that night and applied for the Best Buy credit card, we would get a $20 savings on our purchase.

I wanted to say, "Wow, a whole $20? That's be best deal I've ever seen!!! Can I get 10 of them?"

Can you feel the sarcasm?

The truth is, if I wanted to get a credit card to save a bundle on a purchase, I'd look at my list of the best credit card bonuses and get one of those. The hurdle to even get on that list is $250 in bonuses -- 12.5 times what Best Buy was offering. And most of the cards listed there have at least twice that level of cash/gift cards/other incentives available, offering $500 or more in bonuses.

But I didn't say anything. The young lady who offered it to us was very nice and likely clueless anyway -- she probably thought it was a great deal. But whether she thought it was a great deal for us or for her, I'm not sure. ;-)

Teaching the Chase Guy About Credit Cards

On a trip into my local Chase branch recently (it took me three separate trips to get them to link my Chase Sapphire card to my bank account -- long story why) I was talking to the guy "helping" me. We got to discussing how cool the Chase Sapphire card is. I defined "cool" as the color and the material (metal) while he raved about all the benefits of the card.

He "loved" the fact that the card offered 2 points back on travel for every dollar spent, 2 points back on dining, and 1 point on everything else. Uh, yeah. I could tell this guy was not experienced in the ways of the credit card world, so I decided to help him out a bit.

I said that I thought their best overall card was actually the Chase Freedom card (which makes my list of the best cash back credit cards and is a card I use personally.) He readily agreed and started raving about their 5% bonus levels. He also told me that I could earn even more with it since I had Chase accounts -- something I already knew.

I said I wished the card didn't have the $1,500 quarterly limit for bonuses. He agreed but said he thought the 1% cash back on everything else was pretty good too. I couldn't take it any longer and decided to introduce him to the dark side. ;-)

I showed him my American Express Blue Cash Preferred card and told him how it gives me 6% cash back on grocery purchases. Then I told him how I use it to buy gift cards at the grocery store and get 6% cash back on a whole host of purchases -- restaurants, gas, home improvement, etc.

He was dumbfounded. His mouth was literally hanging open. And he kept asking, "Really? Really?" I assured him that yes, it really did work that way.

In the end, he couldn't help me. The card offer had been in my wife's name, so she was actually the authorized user -- and she needed to fill out some paperwork (of course) to give me certain access. But I think I did help him. ;-)

Another Reason to Hate Best Buy

I just saw this and had to share it:

Talk about dropping the ball. Best Buy waited until as late as this week — mere days before Christmas — to admit that it’s not going to be able to fulfill the online orders placed by some customers. These are customers, by the way, who had made their purchases around Thanksgiving weekend, more than three weeks ago.

Yikes! It's gonna be a sad Christmas for someone. Thanks, Best Buy.

As if I needed another reason to dislike them...

Naughty and Nice Companies

Consumer Reports has looked at the shopping policies, fees charged, etc. for various companies and come out with a naughty and nice list. Here's who's naughty (mostly based on fees they try to tack on to the "regular" price or poor return policies):

• AirTran
• Southwest Airlines
• SiriusXM Radio
• Liberty Travel
• The Swiss Colony
• GameStop
• American Apparel
• RadioShack
• Verizon Wireless

Now for the nice list:

• REI
• Bi-Lo Supermarket
• Live Nation
• Costco
• Orvis
• American Express
• Microsoft
• Cablevision
• Amazon

The only one I deal with on the naughty list is Verizon and then only because that's where my company-paid phone is from. On the nice list I frequently do business with the following:

• Costco -- I am at Costco quite often. In addition to food we've purchased a cruise, TV, computer, tires (a few times), and glasses (a few times) at Costco. It's a great place to shop with great customer service!


• American Express -- I use two Amex credit cards: the American Express Blue Cash Preferred card and Costco TrueEarnings card. Both are on my list of the best cash back credit cards.


• Microsoft -- I use Microsoft products every day, but don't have much interaction with them as a company.


• Amazon -- My go-to place for web shopping. More and more of my Christmas shopping every year is done at Amazon.

How about you? Do you do business with any of these naughty or nice companies?

Bank of America and FIA Services Hard to Deal With

In my last credit card change update, I told how Bank of America was already making things difficult for me -- and I didn't even have a card with them yet. Well a few things have transpired since then, so I thought I'd give you an update. Here's the status:

• I did get approved finally for the Citi card that offers 2% cash back on all purchases for the first year (then goes to 1%). It also has 5% bonus levels, but they aren't in great categories. Since the card is my third-tier card in my current strategy, I really just need it for the 2% cash back as a back-up anyway.


• Once I got the card above, I changed my auto-pay accounts (again for the second time in a couple months since my credit card number was stolen).


• At that point, I called FIA Services to cancel the 2% "Schwab" card I had with them as well as cancel getting the new Bank of America card that was replacing it. The rude person who answered the phone informed me that he could not do anything with the Bank of America card -- that I would need to talk to Bank of America. I told him the last person I had talked to (when I called in a month ago) said they could help me, but he said they couldn't (and he was quite blunt about it.)


• In addition, he said that if I canceled the FIA Services card that I would forfeit my current rewards due. What???? Since I have a $3,000 balance with them at 2%, this meant that I'd lose $60 by trying to cancel a card that's going to expire anyway. So I figured I'd just keep the FIA card and let it expire on its own. Not sure why I wanted to cancel it anyway at this point since it's about ready to self-destruct.


• He told me the Bank of America card has already been issued (how he knew that and yet couldn't help me cancel the account is anyone's guess), so I'll simply cancel it when I get it (supposedly) any day now.

Is it just me or are some companies making it as hard as possible to do business with them?

Why Your Bank Loves Auto-Pay

We've talked previously about bills we all should not have our banks automatically pay, but this piece from Daily Finance gives yet another reason to re-consider too many pre-set auto-pays:

Many of us have set up our bank accounts online to pay our bills and receive our paychecks automatically. These conveniences come with a steep price. As The New York Times reported Sunday, banks use auto-pay features to hold onto customers. Knowing it means figuring out how to shift all those auto-payments keeps many from switching -- even in the face of onerous bank fees.

According to the story, a marketing study by tech finance company Fiserv showed that using the Internet to pay bills, do automatic deductions and send electronic checks reduced customer turnover for banks by up to 95%. Other evidence that fewer people are switching institutions: In 2011, only 7% of consumers have switched banks in 2011, compared to 12% in 2010, according to surveys by Javelin Strategy and Research.

The switching factor is a big one IMO. I know for a fact what a pain it is to re-set all those auto-payments (and I only have a handful.) I recently had to do it once when my credit card number was stolen and then again soon after when I had to cancel the FIA Services credit card because the terms were changing. Pain, pain, pain.

Yes, I still use auto-pay and will continue to do so. It's convenient most of the time. But if there's ever a time you need to switch, the more auto-pays you have set up, the more trouble it is. And banks know that it's a hassle to change -- that's why they want us all to have as many auto-pays as possible.

Cruise Update

As many of you know, we have been thinking of taking a cruise to the Caribbean. It's been awhile since I've talked about it, so I thought I'd give you an update. Here's what has transpired since I last talked about it in July:

• The summer happened, we got busy, and the idea of taking a cruise went on the back burner. I watched sites every other week or so to make sure the cruise we wanted was available (we knew which one we wanted to take) as was the type of cabin. I also looked at the prices, thinking they would decline over time. They didn't.


• Sites I looked at included Costco (which had the cheapest prices but the lowest on-board credit -- though it still worked out as the "best deal" by $20 or so), CruiseCompete.com (which has travel agencies bidding on your business), and American Express (which has an annual travel benefit if you book with them).

• Summer led to soccer season (my son plays and we both referee) and the next thing I knew it was October. It was time to decide and get things booked.

• Then the World's Largest Cruise Sale hit. Every room on every site seemed to evaporate almost overnight. Travel agencies were hard to reach (by phone and email). The cruise world went completely bonkers.


• I spent a couple harried days trying to decide what to do. I looked at pricing options, different dates (the cruise we wanted left/returned on three different dates, so we had some flexibility), cabin differences, etc. But as soon as I'd get a cabin I liked at a price I wanted, it was gone. It didn't help that I was traveling during this time and not as quick on the draw as I usually am.


• As I narrowed the field, my first call was to American Express. They offered the same price everyone else did but with no on-board credits (others had $400 credits or more!) They did offer a week at a luxury hotel in Mexico (I believe), but I really didn't want that. And after talking to the agent there a bit he basically said they are the "high service, high cost" provider when it comes to cruises. Mark them off the list.


• I then called Costco to book a room since they had the best price -- even better than what I was getting on CruiseCompete.com (CC). Plus I know Costco and trust them -- I didn't know any of the agencies on CC. One problem though, Costco didn't have any more of the type of room I wanted.


• So I looked at the CC companies, checked out their reviews, and emailed one, saying I wanted the specific room and the specific price they quoted me (which was close to Costco's price.) I heard nothing, a day passed, then I decided to call them. By the time I did, they didn't have any of the room type I wanted available. Ugh.


• So I went back to the drawing board, looking at various dates (I had stuck to our preferred date up until now), room availability, and type of room. I re-did a CC submission and got a pretty good deal on a room that was one notch above what we were looking for. I called the guy immediately (and I mean I got the email, checked the site on my phone, and called him IMMEDIATELY) to get the room we wanted at the price I was quoted. We spent 20 minutes on the phone before he told me that he couldn't honor the rate I was quoted -- that the actual price was $1,000 more. What? He said it was probably a mistake by their "quoting agency." Uh-huh. Needless to say, I wasn't happy with them (FYI, the service was Cruises-N-More) and was NOT going to book with them at $1,000 extra.


• Eventually, I went back to Costco and booked a room that was TWO notches higher than the one we really wanted. It was the same price as the room one notch above what we wanted on a later date, so I felt "ok" about that. Plus we can afford it and it will make for an as-good-as-possible experience for us. If we don't like cruising the way we'll be going this time, we won't like it at all. Besides, it's been a few years since we've had a nice vacation, so if you amortize the cost over several years, it's not much at all. Is that enough self-justification for you? ;-)

Now I need to get flights, a hotel room (we're going in a day early), passport information, etc. -- lots and lots of details to put together. I'll give you all a re-cap at some point, either as I'm in the process (if there's enough interesting information to share) or after we're done. And once it's all over I'll share all the details -- where we're going, what we're seeing, how much we spent, and so on. I may even include some pictures. :-) Stay tuned!!!

Don't Pre-Buy at Best Buy Unless You Want to Risk ID Theft

I love Batman. I always have. I think it's mostly because he's a super hero without super powers. Thus he has to rely on skill, cunning, training, and determination to get by. Oh yeah, and gadgets that are only affordable for a billionaire. Good thing he's loaded. ;-)

As such, one of my all-time favorite video games is Batman: Arkham Asylum. It came out a few years ago and was widely hailed as one of the best super hero video games ever. I resisted buying it for some time (not wanting to be disappointed), but eventually gave in and had a blast playing it. So much so that I KNEW I was going to buy the sequel.

You may have heard that the sequel is now out. Batman: Arkham City came out a week or so ago, but I wanted one of the "extras" that came with pre-buying the game. After looking over all the options, I decided that the "play as Robin" was the one I liked best. This meant I needed to pre-buy the game at Best Buy since they were the only ones that had the Robin feature.

I first stopped by my grocery store and purchased a Best Buy gift card so I could get 6% in cash back rewards on my purchase. Then I went to the store, ordered the pre-buy, and put down a $5 deposit. A few days later (after the release date) I went into the store to pick it up at Best Buy's "store pick-up" counter.

The young lady that waited on me asked for my receipt and I presented it. Then she asked to see my driver's license. I assumed that she wanted to verify that I was the person that had purchased the pre-buy (though my receipt would seem like good enough verification), so I showed it to her. She then started entering my driver's license number into her register. The conversation then went like this:

Me: "What are you doing?"

Her: No response.

Me: "Are you putting my driver's license number into your system?"

Her: "Yes."

Me (tone starts to become agitated): "I don't want you to do that. Why are you doing that?"

Her: "It's a federal law."

Me (now really agitated and a bit louder, said in a sarcastic manner): "A federal law? Really? It's a federal law that you need to record my driver's license number to buy a video game?"

Her (backing off the "federal" part): "It's a law."

Me (still agitated and sarcastic, though less loud): "A law? It's a law that you need to record my driver's license number to buy a video game?"

Her (getting to the truth): "It's Best Buy policy."

At this point I asked her why, she said that's the way they handled all their pre-buys, and that was it. I wasn't really interested in getting the details and the damage was already done -- they had my driver's license number in what I'm guessing is a less-than-secure system. Ugh. (FYI, they may say it's secure, but is anything really secure completely? And can their sales people access the info? And you're telling me there's no other way to track/verify/etc. pre-buys?)

Here's the deal: I don't like my Social Security number, driver's license number, or any other sensitive, personal information in some company's "system" -- especially when there seems to be no valid reason for it. And if I had known about this in advance at least I would have been able to make the choice whether or not it was worth it. But they simply sprang it on me, took the info, and that was that. Terrible customer service and a bad policy IMO.

So for those of you who may be thinking of pre-buying something some day at Best Buy, you now know that they'll demand your driver's license number at pick-up. You can make the decision for yourself whether or not you're up for this. As for me, I give Best Buy a big thumbs down for both the fact that they even require this information as well as for how they handle it (keeping it secret and then demanding it when you come for pick-up.)

Then again maybe it's no big deal and I'm just an old fuddy-duddy. What's your take on the situation?

Is Angie's List Worth the Cost?

When it comes to buying something or hiring someone to perform a service, nothing is better than a good recommendation from a friend. Almost every time we've had a shopping need where we were not sure who to use (when we needed a plumber, when we bought a furnace, when we looked for a carpet cleaner, etc.), we called up some friends and asked who they used. Knowing that a company did a good job for a trusted friend makes you more confident in hiring that organization.

Angie's List takes referrals to a whole new level. The site claims to have over 1 million members who leave their opinions (over 40k new reviews each month) on a wide range of businesses and services. To get access to this information, you must join the site for roughly $40 per year (FYI, the price list is VERY hard to find -- they don't make it easy to access -- and is here). Then you can review recommendations from many different people on a wide variety of services you may want to purchase in your area (though I'm guessing that results will vary substantially by city -- it depends how many active participants there are in your area).

Of course, you could do the same the old-fashioned way, but Angie has a response for that. From their FAQs:

Naturally, you probably will ask your neighbors for their opinions. Angie's List can give you unbiased experience with hundreds of companies—something your neighbors can't.

I've wondered whether or not this service was worth the cost. I have not subscribed yet since I doubt I'd get my $40 back in value. Then again, I could be wrong. So I thought I'd ask you:

Is anyone a member of Angie's list? If not, why not? If so, do you think it's worth the price and why?

I'm guessing we'll have some very interesting responses. ;-)

Still Great Customer Service from Costco

A couple months ago I went in for an eye exam. My doctor said my prescription needed to be adjusted slightly (I should have told her the old one was fine in retrospect -- I could see completely well with it) and gave me a new one.

Over the next month I shopped all around looking for the style of glasses that I liked (and, more importantly, ones my wife and daughter liked/approved.) We finally found a set at Costco. I would have purchased the glasses there anyway since I was tired of looking for the right pair, but it turns out that the Costco glasses were the best price we could get (my wife had bought glasses recently and done the comparison.) Even though other places got more insurance money from our provider, Costco glasses were still the best net price. So it was a win-win to find great glasses at a good price.

We ordered the glasses and Costco called us when they were done. We picked them up a few days later and as I put them on, I noticed that something was "off". I attributed that to changing from one prescription to another. But as I wore the glasses the next two weeks, it wasn't getting any better. Then I got to the root of the problem: I could see marginally better far away, but my vision up close was worse. In fact, I couldn't even read my watch any longer.

So I went back to my doctor. They noted that the change in my new glasses was just in one eye compared to my old prescription and that the change was the smallest increment possible (the why change it, anyway?) But they did say that my sight should be better far away (which it was) but worse up close (which it was.) I told them I'd prefer to go back to my old prescription and they agreed that this was acceptable. I asked what I should do with the glasses (which, by the way, they had confirmed were made to their new prescription specifications) and they said that I should take them back to Costco for a new lense -- that it was common for Costco to make changes like this if needed.

I was skeptical. After all, Costco had done nothing wrong. They gave me the glasses I selected with the prescription as written. Would they really change my glasses for free? I didn't think so. I wouldn't have if it was my business.

So I went back to Costco, fully prepared to pay at least some sort of adjustment fee. I told them what had happened and there were no questions at all. The lady took my glasses and the new prescription and told me they'd call when the new glasses were in. They called us a few days later and we picked them up. Easy as pie!

Since I often complain when I get poor service, I also try and note when I've received good service from companies -- and this was an example of great customer service IMO. Perhaps it is common for eye providers to do what Costco did for me and perhaps it's not. But I was certainly impressed with how they handled the situation and it made me more likely to make other major purchases there.

Bank of America Already Hard to Deal With

Here's an update on my new credit card strategy I posted a couple weeks ago:

• I received all the notices from Bank of America saying my FIA Services card was being converted to a Bank of America card. I have until the end of October to use my 2% cash back card. After that it converts to the 3% gas/2% groceries/1% everything else Bank of America card. (FYI, I get 6% back on gas and groceries -- plus other things -- by using my Amex Blue card and gift cards purchased at my local grocery store.)


• So trying to be proactive, I called BoA and told them I wanted to use the FIA card until October 31, but to cancel the BoA card so it was never sent to me. Their response? They couldn't do that -- I would have to call back again and cancel it. I told them I was trying to save them time and money (so they wouldn't have to go to the expense of sending me a new card) and myself time (so I wouldn't have to call back) by calling now and setting up the process. They couldn't do that. The set-up was "automatic" and "in the system" and there was no way to set up a cancelation in advance. I asked when the new cards would be mailed out so I could call before that happened. They didn't know. In other words, they were about as helpful as Comcast.


• I did go ahead and apply for the Citi card I mentioned. My wife was pre-approved, but I wasn't, so I still need to wait and see if we both made it. I'd be surprised if we didn't.

Anyway, here's a shout out to Bank of America: if you'd like people to do business with you, you need to have something called CUSTOMER SERVICE. I don't even have an account with you and you're already making it hard to do business. So why would I actually want to enter into any association with you?

My On-Going Battle with Comcast

It all started with a letter from Comcast in July:

Dear Valued Comcast Customer:

Effective August 16, 2011, a subscription to Digital Starter of a higher digital tier of video service will be required to receive the Sports Entertainment Package. Our records indicate that you do not currently subscribe to at least Digital Starter.

It went on from there, but the basic idea was that I either needed to increase my service package or my access to the Fox Soccer Channel (one of the main reasons we have cable anyway) would be cut off. Since my annual contract was up in a couple weeks, I needed to negotiate the entire package anyway.

But before we get to that, here's what I've gone through with Comcast the past two years:

• We Got Cable TV


• Why I LOVE Comcast!!!


• Comcast Blows It and then Saves It


• Comcast Blows It, then Recovers, Again


• Comcast, Round #3


• My Comcast Saga Continues

If you don't want to read all of those, here's the summary:

• I got Comcast cable on a one-year promotion.


• They messed up, they made it right, they messed up again, they made it right again.


• As a result, I ended up with the equivalent of the Digital Starter package though I was paying Digital Economy rates (and technically was a Digital Economy customer).

Through all this I had been paying $30 to $35 per month for a good number of channels, HD/DVR, and the Sports Entertainment Package (which we buy for the Fox Soccer Channel but has the pleasant side effect of giving us the NFL Channel and Red Zone too.)

So I began the painful process by contacting Comcast online via Twitter -- telling them I wasn't pleased with the change that was making my Sports Entertainment Package go away. They told me they would have someone contact me the next day. No one did. And they didn't the next day either. So I contacted them. They said someone would call me the next day. They didn't. Then, finally, they called -- several days after our original contact. Ugh.

I talked to the guy on the other end of the line, told him my position (I wanted the soccer channel and wanted to see what offers they had available.) He immediately went into sales mode, telling me how they had GREAT deals when you combined TV, internet, and phone services with them. I told him I wasn't really interested -- that I simply wanted cable from them. He gave me the following choices:

• Stick with Digital Economy (technically my current service). This would cost $55 per month, I would lose many channels (since the free ones they had been giving me because they messed up would be going away), and I wouldn't get the Sports Entertainment Package (no soccer.) I would get the HD/DVR though.


• Move up to Digital Starter. This tier would replace what I currently had entirely. That's the good news. The bad news was that the cost was $85 per month. Really? Yep, that's the going, "regular" rate.


• Move up even higher to Digital Preferred. This would get me everything I had PLUS more channels (and more in HD.) The cost was $64 per month for six months (on promotion.)

As you might imagine, I was not pleased with these options. The first choice didn't even get me what I wanted (while increasing my costs $20 per month nonetheless!). The second was way too expensive -- I was prepared to pay a bit more (like $50 per month for what I currently had), but not $85. The final one was the best price/features deal, but it put me on promotion and I knew I'd have to fight it out again in six months. There was no good answer.

He and I had a "discussion" at that point and it got a bit heated. During the conversation he kept bringing up the great savings they had if I would add my internet and phone to the package. I was not about to do that. Why would I want to put my two other services into the get-you-in-with-a-good-price-then-jack-it-way-up-in-a-year game? No way.

I told him I'd call him back with my decision. After considering my various options over the next week -- and the costs, time and hassle factors associated with each -- I took a page out of Congress' playbook and kicked the can down the road. I took the Digital Preferred package. We LOVE it BTW, but I'm afraid it will cost $200 a month when it comes up for renewal in February.

Since then, I asked all of you what you pay for entertainment services to see if what I was paying (and potentially could pay) was out of line. It wasn't. Many of you pay much more, though some pay much less. What I got out of that post was that there are various needs/wants in entertainment and various ways to satisfy those needs. In addition, options are changing quickly so what may be true now may not be true in a year -- and options that don't exist now may exist in a year.

Anyway, here are some thoughts from me on this issue:

• Is it any wonder that the cable industry is losing record numbers of customers? If their model is to get someone used to paying $35 per month to now pay $85 per month when the deal expires, that's a bad model IMO. Then again, it seems to be working on enough customers. Check this out:

Pay-TV providers offer those great deals upfront because most people will continue to pay the bill as it rises, said Bob Sullivan, MSNBC's Red Tape columnist. "They count on our laziness," Sullivan said. "They know we hate little things about change, what economists call switching costs, like losing track of where our favorite programs are on the dial. Is ESPN 206 or 35? . . . Even the most vigilant among us let it go for a few months before we complain. All this is baked into their business model."

• I would love to see a pay-per-channel model since we don't use 98% of the channels we have, but I don't think that will happen until the cable companies have their backs up against the wall.


• My plan is to watch the Comcast offers and try to get another TV-only one when/if it appears. Once they get off the Triple Play offer (which goes through September, I believe), I hope they will get a bit more aggressive on the single-service offers. We'll see.


• Another option I've considered is simply turning off the TV completely and "going dark." Many of you do this and if my options are limited in February, I might too.


• Comcast's day is coming where they're going to reap what they've sown. Options for entertainment viewership are growing by leaps and bounds and there's going to come a day when most people can get most of what they want in other ways. And when they can, they will leave the cable companies in droves. Now if those companies hadn't had poor service and hadn't tried to charge an arm and a leg for their products (with little to no competition), then perhaps more customers would stay. But they won't hang around given how Comcast has dealt with its customers.


• Is it any wonder that Comcast was voted the Worst Company in America for 2010? And if you think they must have improved since they didn't win in 2011, let me put it this way: it took BP flooding the entire Gulf of Mexico with oil to knock Comcast off its "worst company" perch (BP defeated Comcast in the Final Four). That speaks pretty poorly of Comcast IMO.


• Then again, this could sound like whining (which it is, in part.) Comcast is allowed to charge whatever prices it wants and deal with customers however it wants, right? Then I have the right as a consumer to decide whether or not I want to pay their rates and deal with them. The mere fact that I'm currently with them says that they are offering more value to me than the cost I'm paying. Otherwise, why would I be a subscriber? So maybe I should just shut up, huh? I could/should, but that wouldn't be nearly as much fun. ;-)

That's where I currently stand. I'll let you know when things change and the success (or lack of it) I have when the time comes around.

P.S. I found this post after I wrote this piece. The advice on how to save on cable costs won't work for me based on what I want to watch, but it may help some readers.

What Do You Spend on Home Entertainment?

I'm entering my third year of "dancing with the devil", also known as "buying cable service from Comcast." I'll detail my dealings with them in a future post, but before I do, I wanted to ask you all the following:

What do you spend (per month) on home entertainment?

I'd like to know what cable (Comcast, Time Warner, etc.), movie (Net Flix, Blockbuster, Red Box), web service, etc. you use to watch shows/movies at home, how much you pay per month, and what services you get (HD, how many channels, etc.) -- or if you do none of this at all (or have an alternative strategy.)

I want to compare myself to the average FMF reader and see where my spending is versus yours. So if you'd let me know what you do and how much it costs, I'd appreciate it. (FYI, I'll be using this information for my upcoming Comcast update.)

Five Bills Not to Automate

Yahoo lists five bills not to automate as follows:

• Mobile Phone Bills
• Insurance Payments
• Utilities
• Gym Memberships
• Cable Bills

Here's what I do with these:

• Mobile Phone Bills - My phone is paid for by my company, so there's no bill for me to handle.


• Insurance Payments - Do people really put these on auto-pay? I never even considered it.


• Utilities - I do pay for utilities with auto-pay. Their reasoning is that if you do this you'll miss looking at details of your bill and could miss some problems. I still get the bills electronically and look them over each month, so there's really no issue IMO.


• Gym Memberships - I have a membership at my local pool and they don't take credit cards or any sort of auto-pay, so it's not an issue.


• Cable Bills - I can't imagine a scenario in which I would give Comcast access to my credit card or bank account except maybe temporary insanity or coma. Their bills are wrong a good amount of time and dealing with them is tough as it is -- imagine if they simply sucked money out of my account in advance and I somehow had to fight to get it back. I'm guessing that would be a losing cause.

In short, I only auto-pay with companies that I trust. Everyone else gets paid one at a time as the bills are due.

How about you?

Dying American Stores

Yahoo lists eight once-great American store chains that are now dying as follows:

1. Sears
2. Dillard's
3. OfficeMax
4. Office Depot
5. The Home Depot
6. Foot Locker
7. The Gap
8. J.C. Penney

My take on these:

• Sears - Is it any wonder they are dying?


• Dillard's - I can't say that I've ever shopped at Dillard's.


• OfficeMax and Office Depot - We usually go to Staples because it's closer and I don't see much difference between the office-supply stores. And the only things I buy at Staples are those that are on sale - I'm not a regular shopper there.


• The Home Depot - Menard's is our first choice of home supply store and Lowe's is second. HD stores just seem old and dated to me. That said, they do have some rose spray that I can't find elsewhere, so I'll stop in now and then.


• Foot Locker - The last time I was in FL was 1995.


• The Gap - I have never shopped there.


• J.C. Penney - Penney's used to be a regular go-to spot for us as a family. But we haven't shopped there in years.

So, where do we shop instead of these places. Some of our regulars:

• Walmart - Good for cheap, basic staples.


• Target - Good for higher-quality basics (when you need them) and some clothing.


• Costco - Great for everything! ;-) We're there every other week or so.


• Meijer - We shop Meijer at least a couple times a week for groceries and pick up general merchandise there as well on occasion. We also often get gas at their stations since they are quite competitive -- even with Costco -- and I can get 5% back on my credit card versus 3% back at Costco.

How about you? Do you shop at any of the "dying" stores? If not, which stores do you like best?

Kudos to Discount Tire

A few weeks ago, our next-door neighbors had their roof re-shingled. A day later, I had two roofing nails in one tire of my Highlander (after only 14,000 miles of wear.) Who knows if the two events were related, but it seems like an awfully strange coincidence that they happened so close together. And no, I didn't say anything to the neighbors.

The nails were jammed deep into the tread, but the tire wasn't losing air (thankfully). The day after we discovered the nails, my wife took the vehicle to the nearest tire shop -- which happened to be Discount Tire.

I didn't know much about Discount Tire at that point (other than knowing the name) and assumed they would either fix the tire and charge us $20 or so or tell us that the nails were so far in that I needed a new tire completely.

My wife called from the shop and said they thought they could fix the tire. Sweet! They said it would be FREE to do so. Even sweeter!!!!! And they wanted to know if I needed my tires rotated. I actually did need it in 500 miles or so, but since my wife was there, I asked how much they would charge. They would charge nothing to do it -- again, it would be FREE! Of course, I took them up on their offer.

I had never been to Discount Tire, never bought anything from them, etc. They were not doing this to reward a good customer. Apparently, they repair flats/problem tires and rotate tires for everyone for FREE! Very cool IMO. They just moved onto my list of places to consider when I need a new set of tires (which is probably why they do free repairs and rotations.)

Since I'm the first person to complain (and quite loudly) when I have a bad experience with a company, I also want to be sure to give a shout-out to businesses when they do something right. In this case, Discount Tire did right by me and deserves a round of web applause. ;-)

What to Buy and Not Buy at Warehouse Stores

Kiplinger does a "deal or no deal" piece on what you should and shouldn't buy at warehouse (or club) stores. Their thoughts:

• Caskets: DEAL
• Beer: DEAL
• Diamonds: NO DEAL
• Designer watches: DEAL
• Televisions: DEAL
• Tires: DEAL
• Appliances: NO DEAL

Here's my take on these:

• Caskets -- Is it just me or does it seem strange to buy a casket at a club store? Uncle Charlie just bought the farm and what do we do? We go off to Costco to pick him up a new home! Then again, I'm guessing that funeral homes have rather nice mark-ups when they sell you a casket, so why not? Anyone out there ever shopped around for a casket? Anyone buy one at Costco?


• Beer -- I don't drink beer, so I can't comment on this one.


• Diamonds -- Last diamond I bought was 20 years ago for my wife's engagement ring. If I bought her one now, she'd ask me why I was wasting hard-earned money. ;-)


• Designer watches -- The last designer watch I bought was...NEVER! And I don't plan on buying one either.


• Televisions -- We got our last TV at Costco and I can say that it was a great deal. We purchased it a year and a half ago or so and I'm still seeing prices for similar TVs that are ABOVE what we paid (on "sale" at Best Buy and the like.) In addition, Costco will add an extra year on to the warranty when you buy a television from them AND they have a tech hotline you can call with any questions on set-up, operation, etc. I doubt if I'll ever buy another TV somewhere besides Costco (as long as they keep their prices low and service high.)


• Tires -- Pros to a club store: Great prices. I've looked all around for tires several times and Costco was certainly the best price each time -- especially with the coupons/discounts they run regularly on Michelin and other tires. Cons to a club store: You can't make an appointment for the free tire rotation they give you. So it's first-come, first-served. That's fine if you're #2 in line and they'll be done with you in 30 minutes. Not so great if you're #10 and it will be two hours.


• Appliances -- We used to buy all our appliances at Sears, but since I now hate Sears shopping there is out of the question. So we shop around and haven't even looked at warehouse stores (and probably won't after this review.)

How about you? Do you agree or disagree with their findings? Anything you'd like to add?

If You're Not Happy, Tell Someone

A month or so ago, our family went to see the movie Thor. The kids and I had been looking forward to it for some time since I often played Thor in our PS3 game Ultimate Alliance 2, and he was, as the kids say, "a beast." For those of you who don't know, that's a good thing.

We researched the film to make sure it was appropriate for the kids. The reviews we read said that the movie was action-packed (which we wanted), but overall good (no scantily clad -- or no clad -- women and Thor was a decent guy, as opposed to Tony "Iron Man" Stark who is of questionable moral character.) So we decided to go and headed off to the theater on a rainy afternoon.

We were sure the movie would be ok for us all. However, there was one problem we hadn't considered. The previews.

Of the seven or so movie trailers we watched, almost all of them had some sort of image or language that we didn't approve of. In particular there was one of a woman who must have been naked most of the movie because the scenes they showed were way over the top (in our opinion.) It was brutal. Those 15 minutes seemed like an hour. Ugh.

Once the movie started, all was well. As we had read, there was action, but Thor turned out to be a guy we admired (in the end) and the movie was free of sex and very little (if any) bad language. It was a great movie and I can't wait for the sequel.

As we walked out my wife said she wanted to mention the previews to someone and asked who I thought she should talk to. I told her the best person was the manager, but that saying something probably wouldn't make a difference (my thinking was that the previews were set by "corporate" or the movie studios and one theater couldn't do anything about them.) She said she still wanted to say something, so off she went. I went out to the car with the kids and we drove home (we had come in separate cars -- from different locations and met at the theater.)

My wife arrived home a few minutes after we did. She said the manager was very nice, heard her concerns, and said the theater would remove the preview for the one especially offensive movie. The manager thanked my wife for making her concerns known and gave her four free movie passes for us to come back and watch a movie in the next 30 days. As you might imagine, we were thrilled with the outcome -- and especially the free movies!!!!!

So the moral of the story is this: if you're not happy with a product or service from a company, tell someone. The worst that can happen is that they will ignore you and you'll have to decide whether or not you want to do business with them again. But they just might surprise you, respond the way you would hope they would, to try and keep a customer happy. That's what this theater did and we certainly appreciated it. We'll be going back there for sure and will be telling our friends to do the same.

What Grocery Store Has the Best Prices?

A few months ago I wrote about how Walmart claimed to save people money even if they never shopped in Walmart stores. Then recently I found a similar claim in an Aldi Sunday ad.

The top part of the ad featured a bar chart and read "% who attribute their favorite grocer with providing low prices". The results were as follows:

• Aldi -- 94.2%
• Walmart -- 77.2%
• Costco -- 71.7%
• Meijer -- 64.9%
• Kroger -- 54.7%
• Safeway -- 37.3%

A few thoughts from me:

• There's more to buying groceries than price, of course. Selection, convenience (how far from home), food quality, and so on all factor into the equation. It's not just about price.


• That said, I do think Aldi has good prices. I also think the same of some others on the list above too.


• Note the wording on the question. It says "their favorite grocer." I wonder why it just doesn't say "% who attribute the following grocers with providing low prices". Yes, it's a different question -- and I wonder if the results would be different.


• We shop at Aldi, Costco, and Meijer for groceries (we don't have a Super Walmart in our area -- so there are limited groceries). Most of our shopping is done at Meijer because it's a very nice (new) store, has everything we need (and more!), and is close to our house. We supplement what we get at Meijer with purchases from the other two as well as local stores.


• No matter where you shop, you can save money if you do it right: know regular prices so you can identify good deals (have a price book), shop sales with coupons, stock up on great deals, buy store brands, etc. This is generally how my wife shops -- getting good deals here and there for overall great savings.

So what do you think? What's your take on the best place to find low-cost groceries?

My Thoughts on Groupon

I've been subscribed to the email-per-day-coupon-offer-site Groupon for about three months now, and I thought I'd share my take on the service with you.

But before I do that, here's a piece from US News on why they are shunning Groupon. Their reasons for disliking the service:

Here's why I'm not interested: I don't want a daily temptation to spend money I should probably be saving. Sure, it's possible that Groupon would one day send me an offer on something I need to buy anyway, saving me a few bucks. But the main purpose of coupons and every other kind of retail come-on—whether delivered by catalogue, email, cell phone alert, or teleportation—is to separate consumers from money they'd otherwise put in the bank. Consumers don't need to be persuaded to buy things they need; the whole purpose of marketing is to convince people to buy things they don't need.

In other words, they don't want the temptation to buy something they don't want/need.

Now, here's my take on the service:

• First of all, it's free (just had to state that for anyone who doesn't know.) So it's not costing me anything to try it out.


• There are an awful lot of useless deals. I don't need/want a manicure, car detailing, or sun tanning service. I wish there was a way to say "these are the types of deals I'm interested in" and only receive those. Adding in all the others simply is an extra email I need to handle every day.


• If you're not careful or don't have self-control, I can see where all the offers would get you to buy stuff you never even considered before -- adding up to a lot of extra/unplanned spending.


• The deals aren't that good. For instance, I recently received an offer to "save over $150" (or something similar) on a car detailing -- I could get it for $89. Driving by the detailing place on my way to work, I saw their sign offering the $89 deal to everyone. So yeah, I might be saving $150 on some theoretical "retail value" price that no one has ever paid, but I'm not saving versus anyone simply driving in to the business.


• It is kinda fun to see all the businesses you never knew were in your area. Not that I'd ever use them (probably), but it's fun to see what they've come up with each day.


• I did get lucky once (the only time I purchased a Groupon.) I called a friend and set up a lunch meeting for a place he likes. Two weeks later -- a day before our actual lunch -- I get a Groupon for $20 of food for $10 AT THE PLACE WE WERE GOING TO! Ch-ching! I snapped up a coupon very quickly and used it a day later, thank you very much.


• That said, the $20 of food for $10 had some restrictions. I couldn't get the daily deal (which was cheaper), I had to order off the menu (where prices were higher.) So my $10 savings was more like $7. Then I had to use it all at once. The cost of our lunches was $18 or so, so instead of wasting my last $2 I bought an extra salad for my wife (which she loved) and took it home that evening. So I ended up spending more than I intended.


• I wonder how many people buy the Groupon and then never redeem it. This piece seems to indicate that it's somewhere between 10% and 50% depending on the service. The reason I ask is because a co-worker of mine bought a Groupon a couple months ago. When I asked him how it had worked out (it was for a high-end restaurant) he said, "Oh, I'd forgotten about that. I need to use it." And he's a penny pincher too -- so if he forgot about it, I'm sure many more people do as well. I don't need to tell you what a bad deal this would be, right?

In the end, I really don't think much about Groupon. I'm planning on keeping the service for another month or so to see if it gets any better, but if not, I think I'll cancel it. Not enough value for me to justify keeping on the list -- even if it is free.

Do any of you use Groupon? Do you like it or hate it?

Thanks to Delta

You probably haven't noticed, but I have been gone (traveling for work) the past three days. I was on the east coast visiting customers along with a few of my co-workers. As such, I haven't been as active on the blog (but I had articles saved up) and in the comments as I usually am. I am now "back in the saddle" but digging out, so it may be a few more days until I get back to normal -- just in time for another trip. ;-)

As those of you on the east coast know, it was rather hot on Tuesday through Thursday (90's). Then the heat was broken by thunderstorms -- unfortunately just at the time I was trying to fly back home to Grand Rapids. The storms looked like they were seeking out to destroy my trip back home as they were at both my connecton city (Detroit) and my departing city (Boston).

I'll save you the mess that I lived through getting home last night, but let's just say my initial flight was delayed -- so much so that it looked impossible for me to make my connection. We landed at almost the exact time that my next flight was to take off -- and I was in row 31 of a packed plane. To top it off, when I finally did get out, the plane was at gate 20-something and my next flight was at gate 73. Ugh.

But the flight hadn't yet taken off, so I ran to the commuter train and then ran to my gate once the train dropped me off. I made the connection -- and so did about 10 others -- because Delta held the flight for us. I was very thankful that they did.

Now I know that they didn't hold the plane just to be nice. Of course there was a business reason (many paying customers) to keep it from leaving on time. That said, they did hold the flight and I was thankful that they did. And since I'm the first person to yell when a company does something I don't like, I also want to be the first person to notice when a company does something I do like. So with that said, I give Delta Airlines a great, big, hearty THANK YOU! I'm glad to be home. ;-)

Costco Debate: Is College Worth It?

Does anyone read the Costco Connection -- the free magazine the retailer mails to members and offers free in its stores? I always pick one up whenever I'm in the store (I'm in a group plan at work and the main account holder, the company, gets mailed a magazine). I usually find an article or two that I like as well as get to find out about some new products available at Costco. It's not a real page turner, but then again, it's free. ;-)

One section I do always check out is the "Informed Debate" column. In it, Costco discusses a question for the month, then asks six club members (three on one side and three on another) and two "experts" (one on each side of the issue) for their thoughts. Then, over the next month, Costco takes votes on the issue from members. The votes can be delivered online, via email, by fax, or by snail mail. In the next month's magazine, the vote is revealed for the previous month.

April's question especially caught my eye since we've discussed it here on FMF. It was:

Is college worth it?

Costco laid out the debate as follows in its opening statements:

• College is very expensive.
• Some say the cost is worth it because college grads make more, experience less unemployment, and are better prepared for life.
• Others say that the cost of college is not worth it for many people -- that they'd be better suited to get some sort of alternative training and enter a field that doesn't require a college education.

The three members who said college was worth the cost gave these reasons (I'll paraphrase):

• If you know what you want to do and it requires a degree, then it's worth the cost.
• You can find an inexpensive school, take steps to control costs, and leave college with a degree without financial hardship.
• Employers think those with college degrees are achievers and thus will be more likely to hire you.

The three members who said college was not worth the cost gave these reasons (I'll paraphrase):

• I don't have a degree and I get paid more than people I know who have one.
• Leaving college with a ton of debt (she said $140,000-plus) is not the way to prepare for a well-rounded and healthful life.
• Skills acquired on the job are more valuable than those gotten from a textbook.

The expert saying college was worth it said (I'll paraphrase):

• Technology is changing the economic landscape. To keep up and compete in a more-skilled environment, most workers will need college educations.
• Employers look for those with degrees and are willing to pay more to workers with one.
• Even in professions that supposedly don't need a college degree (he cites insurance salesmen and police officers), those with degrees make more and are better workers.
• Those with college degrees are less likely to be unemployed.

The expert saying college was not worth it said (I'll paraphrase):

• Too many people go to college these days and many who do would be better off getting some other sort of education or training.
• College is so expensive that the cost is often not worth the payout.
• The number of jobs requiring a college degree is growing far less rapidly than the number of new college graduates.
• Summary: excellent students (good grades, high test scores, and low chances of failure) should get a degree and poor students (with poor grades and test scores) should instead consider non-degree vocational programs or community college. Those in the middle have the toughest (not clear) choices and should first try the non-degree options and, if successful, then consider getting a college degree.

My take is that the answer is, like the answer to almost every personal finance question ever discussed, "it depends."

Sure, if the student is not prepared, borrows wildly for a degree where he can't earn much, and/or only finishes part of his education, then it's likely a bad decision. On the other hand, if the student applies himself, does well in college, and leaves school with little to no debt and with a good-paying job and bright career prospect, then it's likely a no-brainer.

As the second expert said, the situations in the middle of those two extremes make for the debate. Overall, my opinion is that going to college is more often worth it than not as long the student leaves with a reasonable amount of debt based on his expected profession. I think the gap between going to college and not going is shrinking, but that on average you're still better off financially with a degree.

What's your take?

How to Win Friends with Coupons

We stop by Hobby Lobby once a month or so -- either to buy some sort of small box/treasure chest to give as a gift (with gold $1 coins) or for craft supplies for my daughter. For us, the rules for shopping there are as follows:

• Never buy at regular price -- their regular prices are ridiculously high. I would never buy something there at the normal price unless it was a very low cost (a couple bucks) or rare item that couldn't be found elsewhere.
• Buy on sale if you can -- Hobby Lobby has several large departments/sections of the store on sale every week. These are usually 50% off and are rotated around week to week. This is when we usually buy our blessing boxes.
• Buy with a coupon if you can't get it on sale -- Sometimes we need something right away and it isn't on sale. No matter, we subscribe to Hobby Lobby's email coupon list and almost every week we get a 40% off coupon good on whatever we want (non-sale items). Not as good as a 50% off sale, but close. There is a limit of one coupon per person, so we usually print off four of them -- one for each of us. Then if we need to, each person can pay for an item separately, allowing us to buy up to four items at 40% off.

We needed some items recently, so we printed off our coupons and headed to the store. Luckily, all but one of the items we wanted was on sale at 50% off. As we checked out and were ready to leave, my wife turned to the next guy in line and asked if he had a coupon for his item (it was some sort of crafting tool -- looked like it was about a $20 item). He said something like, "No, they don't have coupons for these." My wife handed him one of the extra coupons we had and he said "thanks" softly since he didn't know what it was.

He read it quickly as we were walking away and realized that my wife had just saved him a decent amount of money. He yelled after us something like, "Hey, thanks a lot!" very enthusiastically and we could hear him talking and laughing with his friends about how much he was going to save. It was a nice feeling to help him out.

Anyone else ever done this? Or perhaps you're a bit more premeditated than we were. Anyone do this ON PURPOSE (print out coupons in advance with the intention of giving them to people) rather than by chance like we did?

Two Pet Peeves I Have with Vanguard

As most of you know, I'm an index fund investor. And my company of choice for investing is Vanguard. Overall, I like the company, its philosophy, and its low-cost investments, but I do have a couple pet peeves with it as follows:

• Their website stinks. I've used it for many years now and I still can't figure out how to navigate through it much of the time. I guess those low cost guys are loathe to spend some money on a decent website, huh? ;-)
• Their response time to emails is an eternity. When you send them an email question, they promise that they'll get back to you in 48 hours. 48 hours????? What, are they timing themselves with a calendar? Isn't this the internet age -- when responses, especially to email, can/should be lightning fast?

It's this latter point that drives me the most buggy. You can probably guess that I have a good amount invested with Vanguard -- enough to make me a "preferred" client of theirs. And yet they can't respond to me faster than two days? Ugh. (Yes, I could call them, of course, and I do when I need a fast response. But why can't they communicate they way I like them to? I am, after all, the customer.)

I've had this issue for quite some time, but what made me write about it now is that I stumbled upon a study showing what people expect from their financial advisors when it comes to response time. The summary is that 93% expect an email to be answered within 24 hours or less (56% expect a 12-hour turnaround or less). So Vanguard's 48 hours seems a bit long in light of this, doesn't it?

Now to be totally forthright, I have to say that the study is about what millionaires expect from their financial advisors. But I'm lumping Vanguard into the advisor category since they are an "advisor" in a broader sense.

So, what's your take on the issue? How long do you expect to wait before you get a response from a financial services company (Vanguard, Fidelity, Schwab, etc.)?

My Take on the Brands People Love Most

Main Street lists the brands people love most (brands with the most customer loyalty) as follows:

• Best Company for Laptops, Cell Phones: Apple
• Best Quick-Serve Restaurant: McDonald's
• Best Online Retailer: Amazon
• Best Coffee Chain: Dunkin Donuts
• Best Airline: Southwest
• Best Wireless Phone Service: AT&T
• Best Bank: Wells Fargo
• Best Automotive Company: Hyundai
• Best Discount Retail Store: Wal-Mart
• Best Social Networking Site: Facebook

Here's my take on these:

• I considered getting an Apple computer when I got my latest laptop in the fall, but I just couldn't pull the trigger. The combination of price (much more expensive), having to learn a new system, and questions of compatibility are what did it in. That said, my kids LOVE and Apple product and think it's much better than any similar item.
• The only reason I ever stop in a McDonald's these days is that we're driving back from vacation and need a quick breakfast (egg McMuffin.) Other than that, I stay away from McDonald's since I think their food is pretty gross. We prefer Wendy's. Same products but better quality IMO.
• I love, love, love Amazon -- do tons of shopping there. They are great all the way around. Probably 50% of my Christmas shopping this year was from Amazon.
• I don't drink coffee and seldom eat donuts (unless they are free at Krispy Kreme) so I can’t really comment on this one. Haven't been in a Dunkin Donuts in years. But I am surprised that Starbucks wasn't #1 here.
• We don't have Southwest at our airport, but friends who do rave about them (and their prices.) Rumor is that we may get one -- I hope so. A bit of price competition is healthy for all. ;-)
• Really? AT&T? I thought Verizon was always rated #1 (by Consumer Reports.) I have Verizon because that's what we have at work and my phone is paid for by work.
• We don't have a Wells Fargo branch here, but what makes them so good? Do they give out free cookies? Aren't all banks basically the same?
• I was surprised to see Hyundai listed as #1. Not that they are bad, in fact, I've heard great things about them. But above Honda, Subaru, and Toyota? Not in my book. And not for many Americans, it seems. FYI, our last six cars have been Honda, Nissan, Honda, Subaru, Toyota, Toyota, so maybe we're biased. ;-)
• I think Wal-Mart is "ok". In many areas, it's good, but we don't have any Super Walmarts here (we have Meijer instead -- and Meijer is pretty good IMO) and the "basic" Walmarts leave a lot to be desired.
• Let me just say that I don't really get Facebook. Yes, I know that over half of American adults are on it, but really, what's so great about it? The functionality is pretty poor IMO and who really wants to keep up with 200 of your "closest" friends? Ok, you can now bash me for bashing Facebook, but I still won't see the appeal of it (at least at the mania level it seems to be at now.)

How about you? What do you think of these brands?

Dear Sears, This is Why I Hate You

To Whomever May Be Listening at Sears:

Three years ago, you made my life a nightmare with what you call "customer service." It took me writing you a public letter before you finally did the right thing. Of course you made the "solution" into a nightmare of its own until my local manager decided to save your bacon. Anyway, let's just say that my satisfaction with you was less than acceptable.

But that was a while ago. As we all know, time heals many wounds, and being the forgiving kind (kind of, when my wife forces me), our family tried you once again recently. Here's what happened:

• Thursday, January 27 -- Our washing machine (a Kenmore) starts acting up. It fills up with water, but the spin cycle won't empty the basin. We call some friends for recommendations on who they use to repair their washing machines. We call a couple service places, but since it's a Kenmore, both suggest we call Sears repair (since Kenmores have some "special considerations".) My wife calls just to check and you say you can come out the next day. She waits to decide until I get home that night and we agree to go with you. She calls and the soonest you can make it is Tuesday, February 1. Ugh. But we say that will work and schedule an appointment for the ever-convenient "sometime between 8 am and noon" time frame.
• Tuesday, February 1, 9 am -- You called to let my wife know that we'd be the last appointment of the morning.
• Tuesday, February 1, 12:30 pm -- My wife reschedules my daughter's dentist appointment that was for 1:50 pm because you're not there yet.
• Tuesday, February 1, 2:40 pm -- My wife calls you and you say you need to reschedule the appointment due to the weather. (Note: we have an impending snow storm that is supposed to hit THIS EVENING at 7 pm or so, but there's no weather going on right now. Not one flake of snow!!!) You tell my wife that your workers cancelled our call at 1:00 pm before they left for the day. My wife let your scheduler know that she wasn't pleased and asked her when they were planning to call to tell us our appointment was canceled! (There was no response.) We're now rescheduled for Friday, February 4 between the ever-convenient times of 10 am and 2 pm. My wife asked if we would be compensated in any way for our time and trouble and was told "no."

So, this is why I hate you. You act in any way you like and expect people to take it. Well, I'm not taking it. Here's what I'm doing about it:

• I'm writing this post. If seen on my site alone, then "only" 15,000 people or so will read it. However, I have a few connections to much bigger blogs and I plan on using them. I'd like to get 100,000 people to read how you jacked us over. And I hope they take the following steps with me...
• I will not be shopping in your stores again. I've already skipped buying a lawnmower (True Value), a TV (Costco) and snowblower (Lowe's) from you recently. Now, you'll miss all future purchases as well. When we need new appliances, they won't be Kenmores. When I need new tools, they won't be Craftsman. When I need anything, it won't be coming from you.
• I won't be shopping at Kmart either. Yes, I know you are owned by them, and I don't want anything to do with either of you. When you treat your customers like dirt at one part of the company, am I expected to believe they'll be fairly treated elsewhere? I don't think so.

It's unfortunate that it had to come to this. A simple phone call to say, "We can't make it today, we're very sorry" would have probably been enough. An offer to come out and do the repair for free (or half price -- or something off!) would have probably been ok too. But no, you couldn't be bothered with a phone call and can't even make a situation right when it's your fault.

And so, this is why I hate you...

Why I Do and Do Not Like Best Buy

I don't go into Best Buy that often. Why? Because I don't need most of what they sell or I can get it (usually cheaper) from another source. But I paid them a visit the week after Christmas and the trip reinforced my thoughts about the chain. Namely:

I don't like Best Buy in particular for two reasons:

1. It always seems like it's a zoo in there -- people crawling all over the place. I guess that's good if you are Best Buy -- not so much if you're a customer. (Before someone points it out, yes, this was the week after Christmas so what did I expect? But almost EVERY TIME I go into one of their stores, they are swamped with people -- regardless of the day, time, etc.)

2. It's likely they won't have what I want. I went to buy a video game that was on sale. Their ad had dropped on Sunday and I was in the store Monday night. The game was one that had been highly rated but that had been out for over a year. They didn't have any in stock. Could I get a rain check? Sure. Then I waited 10 minutes while the clerk figured out how to enter and print a rain check for me. Ugh.

That said, I do like Best Buy for one good reason:

Their sales people are extremely knowledgeable. My wife and I talked to a "kid" (probably 20 years old or so) in the camera department who had a pretty good handle on the differences between one product and another -- the trade-offs, costs, etc. He asked good questions to find out what we were really asking and I was impressed with both his knowledge and demeanor. In general, I've found their sales people to be very, very good -- they inform without being pushy to get you to buy something.

So those are my thoughts on Best Buy. What are yours?

Walmart Saves You Money Even if You Never Shop There

Shortly after Thanksgiving we received a sale flyer from Walmart in our newspaper. On the front page was an image of a Walmart receipt with the items blurred out. But on the bottom it said (in very large, clear lettering):

We help families save an average of $2,800 a year, no matter where they shop, based on Walmart's impact on the economy.

This made me think of a few things:

• I'm assuming they mean that when Walmart moves into an area that other businesses have to lower their prices to compete, so even if you don't go to Walmart, you save money. Does this sound to you like whet they mean?
• I wonder if it's true.
• Is this a good thing to say in an ad or not? I understand that they mean to say "we're looking out for you to get you the best price" but don't they also imply "why shop at Walmart when you're saving by shopping other places?"

What's your take on them using this phrase?

Big Italy from Pizza Hut: Small, Bad Pizza

The other night we were headed back from car shopping and needed a quick meal. I suggested we pick up a new Big Italy pizza from Pizza Hut. We had just seen one advertised on TV and it looked great. It's billed as three toppings on an "almost 2-feet" in length pizza for only $12. What's not to love, right?

So we ordered one, picked it up, and took it home. Here's what's not to love:

• It looks big on TV, but isn't that big in person. I'm estimating that it's the size of 1 1/4 large Papa John's pizzas. We normally get two of those for $12. It was the first time in a long time that we had eaten the entire pizza and wanted more. In short, it just wasn't big enough.
• Too much and not enough dough. Too much dough on the corners (there were pieces that were almost all dough) and not enough in the center (there was barely anything to hold the meat and cheese on the pizza -- and what was there was soggy.) Yuck!
• They charged us $12.99 versus $12. Not a big deal, but we called and the cost was not as advertised on the site and TV. Didn't find out why, but it made the total cost closer to $14.

Overall, not a great experience and one we won't be reliving again. Just thought I'd pass my opinion on to you. As always, your mileage may vary.

My Comcast Saga Continues

Here's the latest on my dealings with Comcast. For background, see this post and work your way backwards through the links.

My annual promotion with Comcast ($19 including tax for basic service plus sports package) was set to expire in early August. Here's the process I went through to deal with the issue (since I didn't want to pay the "regular" rate they wanted to move me to):

• In mid-July I called Comcast and asked for the best deal they could offer me. I didn't call "cold" but used a person that "my contact" (the guy who has been giving me Comcast's version of customer service for the past few months -- BTW, there was a mistake on EVERY bill they sent me) set me up with. I told the person I was direct to that my offer was expiring and that I was looking at options and pricing from various carriers. She was very nice and said the best she could do for me was $40.85 per month.
• I told here this was too high and she said that's the best she could do since she was only in "sales". But she could forward me to the "customer retention" (or whatever she called it -- something similar) department and perhaps they could help me. ;-)
• The customer retention person was less helpful than the sales person. She told me that the best she could do was $40.85 (the same thing I'd just heard!) and that was that (and she did it in a surly tone.) I said that was in no way acceptable and I set up a cancellation notice with her so that my service would end the day before the "new" rate "automatically" kicked in.
• I went so far as to have them send me a pre-paid box mailer so I could send back all my equipment. I was either going to go with satellite, antenna and web combo, or potentially give up TV altogether for awhile.
• I called DirecTV because I had a special offer through AAA (more on that in a future post), but by the time I added in a DVR (technically the DVR was "free" but I had to pay $5 a month for the DVR "service") as well as the soccer channel I wanted I was up to $45 a month for the first year. And I had to sign a two-year deal with them -- with the second year being around $70 a month. Plus I didn't want a satellite dish hanging off my house, so I decided to pass.
• At this point I started thinking about alternatives. I thought about getting an antenna for the local stations I wanted, then using a friend's satellite service and DVD recorder to record the soccer matches I wanted to see. This along with the web would certainly get me the programming I wanted to see most.
• But when I really thought about this option, I realized that the hassle wasn't worth it. It would take lots of time and effort to tape/transfer the soccer matches I wanted to watch. And without a DVR we would spend a lot more time watching the programs we would get (we can watch an hour show in 40 minutes with a DVR by skipping the commercials). In addition, we'd have to watch the shows when they occurred (unless we bought a DVD recorder) versus when we wanted to with the DVR, making TV viewing even less convenient. At this point, I decided I would stick with Comcast if I could get a decent deal from them (which I defined to be somewhere in the $30 per month range). In reality though, I may have paid the $40.85 per month at this point since an hour of my time is worth more than $40 and I would be wasting much more than an hour each month with my alternative arrangement.
• So I went to Comcast's online chat in early August (a few days before my current deal was set to expire). I had seen on other blogs how this could be a useful strategy at getting better deals than by calling in. After an hour online with someone who didn't speak (write) very good English and had a bad connection (he kept getting bumped off our chat), the rep told me that the best he could do was in the $50 per month range. Yikes! I asked if that was the best he could do. He said it was because I had a cancellation notice on the account and all he could offer me was the going rate. He suggested I call back to what he called a "local number", get the cancellation notice removed, then someone could help me online. I asked if the local number was really local since it was a toll free number. He said it was -- to call it and they would transfer me to the local branch.
• I called the number and, as I had suspected, it was a national sales number. That's the bad news. The good news is that the guy who answered the phone both knew what he was talking about (when he looked at my records) and was helpful. He told me that there was a one-year promotion on the package I wanted (Limited Basic plus Sports Entertainment package) of $27 per month. Not bad. Better than the $41 price and closer to my bargain-bin $19 one-year deal I had snagged previously. He also said that if I wanted substantially more channels that I could get the Digital Economy package plus Sports Entertainment package for $32 per month ($35 with tax. FYI, this is a savings of $15 per month, at least according to the guy on the phone. BTW, this includes HD and DVR as well.) Sold! I got what I wanted, a good number of extra channels, and a few channels the kids wanted (namely Disney) for less than what I was originally going to pay just for the basics. Plus I'd be saving time versus my alternative plan and I didn't need to do anything (including having equipment installed) -- Comcast was already hooked up at my house.
• I still had two days on my old deal (with the 300 channels Comcast had given me for free for messing up my cable previously), but by that evening the new package was implemented -- the new channels were on and the old channels were off. It's funny that it changed so quickly. Remember when Comcast had to ADD channels to my service? It was a two-week process and we had to be home for a service tech to do the work. But when it was taking off channels -- POW, it happened right away! Anyway, I didn't call to get my two days back. I figured it would be more hassle than it was worth and they'd probably mess it up anyway.

Here's what I learned in this process:

1. Don't cancel your service unless you REALLY want it cancelled. Doing so may limit the deals you can get. I thought it would be the opposite -- that they'd know I was serious and would deal with me -- if I cancelled. But this was not the case at all -- at least with Comcast and according to the guy online.

2. Saving by using the chat could work, but I don't think it's a slam dunk. I think it depends more on who you get to deal with -- either on the phone or online -- that makes the difference.

3. Keep trying if you want a better price. It could have been that the promotion that eventually saved me money wasn't available in July when I called. But I called back in August and it was. So if you don't get a price you like, wait a week or so and try again. Perhaps they'll be having a promotion on the service you want at that time.

4. Consider cost of time/quality when deciding what to do. I could get almost all of the programming I want and save a good amount of money if I went with my antenna/web/friend plan noted above. But is all that time and hassle worth saving a few hundred dollars a year? Not for me. Time/convenience is worth something after all, and in this case I was willing to pay a bit extra for it.

So I have another year-long deal with the devil. We'll see how it goes and whether or not I re-up next year at this time. A month into it, all is well. But I have a feeling the year won't be smooth sailing. ;-)

Something I Like: Applebee's 2 for $20

I go to Applebee's once a year. Every spring my son and I volunteer to referee at a local soccer tournament. It's an AYSO event, which usually means that there are no fees for refs, but since this is a tournament and teams pay to be in it, there is some compensation for refs. We get a shirt, some ref gear (not much), and all we want to eat from the concession stand (my son's favorite benefit.) ;-) In addition, we get a $5 Applebee's gift card for every game (per person) we ref.

This year we left the tournament with $65 in Applebee's gift cards. So a couple weeks later our family went to lunch on a Saturday to spend them. Our intention was to spend them all in one shot -- even buying things we normally wouldn't get (like drinks and desserts.) Our thinking was that we'd probably spend $50 or $55 anyway, so why not just go all the way and spend it all so we wouldn't be left with $10 in gift cards we'd have to come back and spend (and pay $30 or so ourselves for meals just to spend the gift cards.)

When we got there, we discovered that Applebee's had this "new" (at least it was new to us) offering called "2 for $20". You get an appetizer and two entrees for $20. They had a good selection and something everybody liked, so we went with two of the meals -- four entrees and two appetizers total.

By the time we finished the appetizers, we knew we weren't getting any desserts (we had skipped the drinks too.) We were too full already. Then our entrees came and they were HUGE. I finished mine (of course) though I must admit it was almost too much (I had the pasta). The rest of our group all had some leftovers which we took home for a meal the next day. When all was said and done, we had spent $46 (including tip) or so and had roughly $20 left in gift cards. A couple weeks after that, my wife and I visited Applebee’s again and had the 2 for $20 ourselves. With tip, we got our two meals for only $5 after gift cards.

Now I'm the first person to complain about bad products and poor service (as you all know), so I thought it was fair to share a good experience this time (for those who are skeptical, no, I am not being paid by Applebee's -- though if they'd like to send me something, I'd take it. ;-) ) I just wanted to share a positive experience with you all. The food was tasty and plentiful, and even if we had had to pay for it ourselves, it was a good deal. I think we may be visiting Applebee's more than once a year from now on.

Anyone else out there had the 2 for $20? What did you think of it?

Is Your Cable Company Good at Customer Service?

Here's an interesting piece that says cable companies are trying to be better at customer service. The details:

Cable TV operators are trying to treat their customers better. Consumers now can get a 30-day money-back guarantee from at least two major cable companies. Soon subscribers might set specific times for technician visits and get their orders confirmed in writing.

These sound like simple or even obvious steps, but they address longtime complaints about the cable TV business.

Cable companies are forced to do it because of intensifying competition from satellite TV and phone companies that offer video — and from people disconnecting subscription TV services altogether to watch videos online.

And people are leaving. In 2006, cable TV companies had 68.5 million video customers. The number fell to 63.3 million in 2009, according to research firm In-Stat.

Ha! After my recent experiences with Comcast, if they are trying to IMPROVE customer service, I would have hated to see what it was like before customer service "improved." ;-)

It seems lots of people have customer service issues with their cable provider. Why is this? Think it's because the cable companies were monopolies and could do whatever they wanted and get away with it -- and now that there's competition they have to be a bit more flexible? Or maybe it's something else. What do you think?

I have started collecting ads on my alternatives (DISH, DirecTV, etc.) My Comcast deal is up in August/September and I'm looking at ALL my options well before then to determine which is best for our family.