The Vent and Rant Thread

[Wetdogeared]

For online sales if I'm asked to give personal info (i.e. email, name, address, phone number, name of your firstborn, etc.) before they'll reveal the shipping charges and taxes, 99% of the time I just back out - no sale.

The better online sites will ask you minimal info about your location and will estimate the additional charges.

Hate entering (and leaving) all that personal information just to find out that the shipping charges are prohibitive (4X or more the cost of the item).

Online sites, that you haven't created an account for, shouln't be able to send you email reminding you to continue and checkout with the items in your cart.

[Gardenman]

Originally Posted by Wetdogeared

For online sales if I'm asked to give personal info (i.e. email, name, address, phone number, name of your firstborn, etc.) before they'll reveal the shipping charges and taxes, 99% of the time I just back out - no sale.

The better online sites will ask you minimal info about your location and will estimate the additional charges.

Hate entering (and leaving) all that personal information just to find out that the shipping charges are prohibitive (4X or more the cost of the item).

Online sites, that you haven't created an account for, shouln't be able to send you email reminding you to continue and checkout with the items in your cart.

I make up a fake name and a fake adress in my town when they do that

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by Wetdogeared

Hate entering (and leaving) all that personal information just to find out that the shipping charges are prohibitive (4X or more the cost of the item).

Priority shipping was more expensive too, lol.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

Yesterday I printed out some signs to put up around the store (door, window, counter). Most people don't react to it. But the reactions I did get were negative. One customer went on a tirade about how our opening times are too limited; we should be open 365 days a year, twelve hours a day (from 8 am until 8 pm). Was this a regular customer? Nope, he came on his annual trip to the store. Besides the tirade he acted like a d**k, so guess who paid a little more than normal customers.

You know what? That customer is right... if you had been a huge white box retail store. Think MediaMarkt (for people from other countries: a large electronics retail chain) or Praxis (DIY retail chain). It's unreasonable to expect this from a small family-run store.

That said, I detest the fact that we have political parties that are STILL pushing for limited opening times and closing everything on Sunday "because our religion says so" and "people have to have a day off on Sunday" and "Nobody wants to work on Sunday" and "Nobody wants to work in the evenings."

Really? There are lots of young people employed that have a part-time job next to school for a few hours a week; that is in the evenings, or in the weekends. In café's, restaurants (as serving personnel), in retailers (to help customers find stuff), in supermarkets (refilling shelves, etc...) Many of the big retailers and supermarkets depend on that stuff being done as cheaply as possible, or prices would take a hike. Young people depend on those jobs for some extra pocket money. (And working for your stuff is good; not everything should be free.)

Just let stores decide when and how long they can be open. If a big retailer wants to be open 24-7, then let them, if they can find personnel to run the shop and they think they can get customers to buy a TV or laptop at 3 AM on Wednesday morning. If a local shop wants to be open from Wednesday to Sunday because having Monday and Tuesday off is more convenient to the owners, then let them. If they are closed for two weeks in July because of summer vacation, that is completely logical.

[ApK]

To avoid an excess of spam and scams, I'm generally pretty careful about providing my cell number and name online. If I have to give a site I'm not sure of working contact info, I use a usually use a custom one-time email address that I can trace back to the source and block if I get spam. I would only give my real name and cell number if it's some service I genuinely want to contact me, There are not many of those, but there have been several lately (doctors appointment systems, restaurant call-ahead seating, etc).
For the past week I have been getting daily SMS spam to my cell number, containing my real name. Someone I trusted has shared, sold, or lost control of my info. I'm really ticked.

[CRussel]

Not out of the question that it was your cell provider. The doctors' appointment systems would be in serious violation of HIPPA regulations if it were them.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Not out of the question that it was your cell provider.

That's possible. Did Verizon recently get a new, more Evil CEO, perhaps?

The doctors' appointment systems would be in serious violation of HIPPA regulations if it were them.

My money is on something in the "restaurant call ahead" category, if not that specifically, some other commercial service. I just can't remember exactly what I've used recently. My security precautions are still pretty good, but my memory, not so much.


P.S. Does anyone else get double line breaks when they post here recently? It might be since I switched to Firefox. I'll have to remember to try it with a different browser.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by ApK

That's possible. Did Verizon recently get a new, more Evil CEO, perhaps?

I'm not sure that's even possible.

My money is on something is in the "restaurant call ahead" category, if not that specifically, some other commercial service. I just can't remember exactly what I've used recently. My security precautions are still pretty good, but my memory, not so much.

Yeah, my thoughts as well. Though I have to say that ever since we moved to Telus for a cell provider, the amount of spam texts has certainly increased.

P.S. Does anyone else get double line breaks when the post here recently? It might be since I switched to Firefox. I'll have to remember to try it with a different browser.

Nope. But then I never use Firefox. Chrome or Edge, depending on what I'm connecting to.

[BetterRed]

I've been getting 2 SMS spams every afternoon for about a year, which correlates to me having to change my GP. So, my suspicion falls on HotDoc.com.au as the leaker.

My previous one-man-band GP did all the admin himself.

[ownedbycats]

I've gotten political spam messages on my phone. Which is completely legal under Canadian law. Ugh.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ApK

P.S. Does anyone else get double line breaks when they post here recently? It might be since I switched to Firefox. I'll have to remember to try it with a different browser.

I use Firefox as my default browser and haven't noted any issues with double line breaks.

[Rumpelteazer]

It looks like the ganglion on my wrist is returning, at least I think it's a ganglion. Last time (about three years ago) it went away on its own, but it did hurt a lot, radiating out, especially to my thumb. Now it is radiating out up my arm, though it isn't painful yet, more like a tired muscle feeling.

Every once in a while I get the tendency to bend my wrist when I'm asleep and "lock" it in place. It might not be cause, but at the very least it isn't helping.

I made an appointment with my doctor to get it looked at on Tuesday morning. I want to discuss if it's a good idea to get a brace/splint for during the night to prevent bending it. I don't think the bump is big enough to get the fluids sucked out of it. And I don't think the situation is bad enough to get it removed by operation, also because it went away on its own last time.

For now I'm limiting my crafting time, especially my cross stitching, to give it some rest. Which is annoying, because I'm just getting back into crafting after all that's happened in since August.

[tempest@de]

For those that receive the spam calls / messages, isn’t the Robinson list available in your country?

I’m on the Robinson list and It really works, before, my mobile phone company called frequently and since adding my name to the list I never received a contact for marketing reasons, I also added my parents and my brother and they also report to not having been bothered with marketing calls since then.

I sometimes receive a sms from some company with which I had some kind of contact before, but I can send an email requesting they delete my information, just have to send the phone number and they do it, it can take a few weeks but they do it, and if not I can complain to the Organization responsible for data protection in my country, if they don’t comply they can be fined, and the fines are steep so most companies take this seriously.

[Hitch]

Well, in the USA, we have the Do Not Call Registry and honestly, it doesn't work worth a damn. I get at least 3x calls daily. They clone phone numbers (my fave is the one that uses the phone # of my local power company, so I daren't block it....) and so on.

Hitch

[ApK]

Any legitimate marketing messages from a legitimate company can be stopped on request, and the Do Not Call registry limits most of those just fine. Problem is the vast majority of spam comes from con artists, criminals and other shady fly-by-night types, often off-shore, using fake or throw-away numbers and info, who have no intention of obeying any law or request and no fear of being identified and blocked or found and sanctioned (unless you mean "sanctioned" like when that Russian spammer got shot in the head).
Here's more of that "breaking news: water is wet" type info: Criminals don't obey laws.