Randy’s Blog

Are you kidding?  It would cost us more for Starr than our tickets.  LAME!!!    Looks like they raised their rates again.

United Airlines – Fees for traveling with pets.

Ok, Sadie and I were discussing things when trying to find some munchies at the airport.

Its rant time.

No more milk chocolate, only dark. Seriously, stop making waxy crappy lame flavored stuff.

Do better planning. Its the old, your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency for me. Work is always an example here.

If you commit to do something, do it, don’t do it half ass. Work has me frosted because some people are doing a lame job and I have to keep apologizing for other peoples shortcomings. Lame.

Stop the drama. If you have a problem, deal with it, don’t hide behind lame excuses. Live with no regrets, you’ll feel a lot better.

I want to be able to take my dog with me more often. In London dogs are allowed in restaurants, and can ride the tube. Here my dog i a second class citizen, no restaurants, no work, not on buses. Lame. And to boot if you fly with them in the cabin on an airplane, you pay $75 each way, and the count as your carry on. Give them frequent flyer at least. You can carry a kid on for free, let’s be fair. Don’t get me started on how much more behaved my dog is then your 5 year old kid.

So now I see charges from banks to use automated things like online banking or “convenience” charges for online bookings. First we saved all the money by automating the people out of the job and now we are charged more for that. I’d pay the fee if the products were cheaper. What did the computers ask for a raise?

Why do people, with all we know, still not recycle things? And I’m not talking about hard stuff like tough plastic or small appliances, easy stuff like glass and aluminum. Hasn’t the world been doing this for like 30 years??!!

Why do we have delays in airplanes? And I’m not talking weather delays or broken planes, the plane is here and we aren’t moving. Was I a surprise that its here? Maybe it’s needing a raise or again a lack of planning? Make up some time in the air, step on it, it’s not like there are any cops up there.

Fiscal accountability. I’m not talking about the awful mismanagement of the country. I’m talking about normal people. Don’t have money? Stop spending what you dont have. Stop blaming the banks, and recognize that if you hadn’t had taken 60k in credit cards and then refinanced that ARM and not mortgaged yourself to the hilt, you probably wouldn’t be in this spot. And while we’re at it, don’t penalize me for being smart with my money and assume I am now the charity.

Rant done for now…

Ok people, this one really grinds my gears.  I traveled a TON last year, but not until like August.  I traveled 40K United miles from August to the end of January, BUT only 23,698 of the required 25,000 to retain my Premier membership on United.  I got this card in the mail for how to get it back (pay $350, then travel 7500 miles in the next 90 days) which is great but it costs $350.   The biggest thing I like is that I get to travel in Economy Plus for free.  I though that was just lame until I was a regular member and had to see the cost to London, it was $195 a person!  When I book, Sadie usually gets placed by me, so it’s like saving $400 a ticket.  It does matter.  However, called United, hey please see my situation, about to go London, any way you could help me out?  NOTHING!  So I guess I’m flying 8 hrs, squeezed into the seat with Sadie in economy.  Bummer.  The thing is that Sadie and I used miles two times to fly last year (free is good) but if we had paid for the trip, I would have had my precious elite status back. 

Hassling with the company over petty miles people, is what grinds my gears.

Category summary from Jan 01, 2008 To Dec 31, 2008

Category summary from Jan 01, 2008 To Mar 17, 2009

sdsa

So it’s freezing here. The average low at the house for December (according to the weather station) is 19.8 degrees with the average high of 44 degrees. Ughhh.  The high for one day here was -3.5.  That’s negative 3.5.  Are you kidding??!!  It’s cold in the house, it’s cold in bed, it’s cold at work, the dog is cold, the cats are cold, the snow won’t melt..  When are we moving to Hawaii?

Cold weather, that people, it what grinds my gears.

Traffic Drops at Worst Time for Best Buy and eBay.

Ha ha.

In case you missed the link in that article:  http://www.marketingshift.com/2008/8/ebays-price-changes-irk-sellers.cfm

OMG.  I recently sold two things on Ebay.  I actually got a pretty good price out of it.  The customers are happy, but I am not.  Why?  Because between Ebay and PayPal, I paid over 10% in fees to sell and take credit cards.  I also paid over $12 for shipping, but that’s the government taking it (I used USPS), but percentage-wise shipping is only 6.9% of my take home.   So Ebay and PayPal (which is really Ebay) is worse than the government, and is now charging up the whazoo to take your money via PayPal (oh yeah, you probably pay with your PalPay credit card, so they get a piece too).  But hey, I’m a businessman, I understand economics.  Why shouldn’t they get their money?   Listen, it’s a matter of simple economics, I pay 6% to sell my house, I even paid 6% to sell our planes.  Why am I paying over 10% to sell some trinket?  It’s not like they guarantee anything on the item.    I found a recent I hate Ebay site, that I agree with.   Some people even now call it EPrey.  Nice.   Even the Fools have something to say on this matter, read the comments, the article must have been from a share holder.   I agree with the comment to sell on Craigslist.   There have even been boycotts on them.  I guess I’d rather pay their 10%, than invest in them.  Their stock lost almost 58% this year alone.   

High fees for sellers.  That, people,  is what Grinds my Gears.

Ok, so this one really grinds my gears.  I was paying off a business bill, it was overdue (damnit) and they offer pay by credit card, ok sounds good.  Sorry it’s a $5 charge and BTW we don’t take VISA.  WHAT!!!??!  Ok, so maybe, I’ll do it online.  Nope same charges.  I ended up paying by the electronic check.  Hmm.  We seem to be going backwards here.   I don’t know what’s up with the no VISA thing.  Anyways, people who charge for services that were normally not charged for and for something a computer is doing anyways, THAT really grinds my gears…

So I think I need a new category.  It’s for my many rants, it’s not so bad that it sucks, but it just bothers me.  Like some of the latest politics I’ve heard from many uninformed people.  So it’s out there a new category for me to use.