Draggar’s Universe

Not only does your latest ploy prove that you are selling out it shows your lack of sensitivity towards people.

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, take a look at this picture:

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Yes, that is a t-shirt you can buy with CNN’s headlines on it. Not only are they profiting off of the news, they are merchandising other people’s misery, a luxury previously only enjoyed by our insurance agencies.

This one (in the picture) is “Hit and run cop nailed by own dash cam”. OK, this one isn’t too bad but I actually saw one earlier today that said “hundreds feared dead from Myanmar typhoon”. Um, you want to sell t-shirts that promote a natural disaster that hundreds of people have died in and get 100% of the proceeds from it?

I honestly can’t think of anything lower, more evil, and selfish than any company has done in a very long time. Just when I thought things couldn’t get more thoughtless, they come out with this.

I guess it is time to find another news site.

Online auctions part two: For the buyers

Auctions wouldn’t work without the buyers (hell, any kind of selling won’t work without buyers). Buyers work with sellers to reach a price that is mutually beneficial for both parties. Yesterday I posted advice and hints on how people should post their items for sale in auctions, today I’ll visit the other side.

Buyers also need to be aware of inadvertent practices that can be rude and annoy sellers. Follow a few tips and you’ll be sure not only get good buyer ratings but also respect from a seller which may give you better prices down the road.

First, low-ballers.

I’m talking about the people who see an item and bid ridiculously low prices for the item. Someone posts a new car for sale and someone bids $1. Not only will you most likely not even be considered for the auction, but sometimes it can be a slap in the face to the seller or may be a target of ridicule from the rest of the community. Be reasonable; bid the lowest you think you’ll be able to buy the item for.

Mind open reserve prices and opening bids.

If someone posts that an opening bid is $500, don’t go in and bid $200, it just shows that you’re not paying attention to the auction. This will hurt your credibility.

Ask questions!

It is a buyer beware world out there. If at any point you are unsure about an item, the quality, etc.. ask. An honest seller will answer your question truthfully. If you bid on something and it turns out to not be what you thought it was (other than false advertising and misrepresentation) you only have yourself to blame. You will lose any protest because you should always ask questions before you commit to buying the item. Ask ask ask! (And sellers, respond to questions!).

Complete your sales.

This goes for buyers and sellers. Nothing is more annoying to one side than the other side backing out after an agreement is reached. It doesn’t matter the reason, it is still annoying to the side stuck with an incomplete sale.

Don’t be a crybaby.

Don’t post on forums complaining about a price or the product. You’re not the one selling it. If you don’t like the price, then don’t bid on it. If you don’t like the quality, then don’t bid on it. Nothing annoys a whole community more than a crybaby complaining that something is too expensive or not what they want. If it is set up to be too expensive, if the demand isn’t there then the seller won’t sell it.

Payment plans are not an option.

Unless you arranged this with the seller before you started to bid on an item, do not think you’ll be able to have a monthly payment plan to buy something. Have the cash on hand to buy what you want.

Leave honest feedback.

(This also goes for buyers and sellers) After all is said and done, you paid and you got your item and it is to your satisfaction, leave appropriate feedback to the other party involved. This helps them build a reputation and chances are they’ll leave feedback for you if you leave them feedback.

Disagreements and issues

(Another item that is for both parties). Do not air disagreements out in the open. Start with private messages. Things happen, that’s part of life. You could have agreed to a sale but in the time between then and when you send your payment something could have happened, they could have gotten busy, they could be sick or injured, or worst. Starting right off the bat flaming them publicly will not produce any good results. If private messages don’t work then take it to a public forum. Be respectful and honest but do not include personal information (other than a username). Stay away from personal attacks. Again, stick with the facts, “I paid on this day and never got it”, “I sent them a private message and they didn’t respond in several days” etc..

I doubt that my little blog here will drastically improve the auction process on many sites but hopefully people read these and did learn something. ?

I frequent a lot of boards that feature auctions. No, not like eBay where the auction itself is moderated and rules are set up as how an auction works. I’m talking forums where they’ll have a section for auctions. People post something they want to sell and others bid on it.

Unfortunately, it seems that the vast majority of the people who try to sell items on these auctions don’t know much about how auctions work and in the end it really annoys a lot of the other people on the forum, especially those who are trying to buy the item that is being auctioned.

I’ve decided to write a quick blurb showing people what different terms and acronyms mean in the auction world.

First, the most over used AND misused term:

BIN

BIN stands for “Buy It Now”. It is NOT THE SAME AS AN OPENING BID or a reserve bid. A BIN is a price that you will instantly stop an auction to sell it. You’ve decided on this price and when someone says “SOLD AT BIN” or bids the bin, the auction should stop. Continuing it on is dishonest and unfair to the person who wanted buy the item at the BIN. It’s like going to a car dealership, offering to buy a car at sticker price, and as your signing the paperwork someone else walks in and says “$500 over sticker price!”. Sure, it’s great for the seller but dishonest and (IMO) unethical. You posted the BIN price, your risk if someone is willing to pay more.

“Reserve”

A reserve, my least favorite part of an auction, is a mysterious price that someone sets the lowest amount they’d sell something for. Sure, you can start bidding at $1 on that nice car, but they have a hidden reserve that they won’t tell anyone (usually a few cents below the BIN). Personally, I’d rather see and use an opening bid (below) and would never use a reserve. It’s sneaky and only dupes people into believing that they might get a bargain when bidding starts at a very low price.

Sometimes people will tell you the reserve (which then becomes an opening bid) other times they will not.

Opening Bid

An “opening bid” is an amount where you start the auction and SHOULD BE the absolute lowest that you’ll sell the item for. A low opening is often a gamble, if it is far below what the item is worth then it will spark bidding but you may not get what it is worth (if your opening bid on a diamond necklace is $5 and only one person bids on it, guess what?).

A high opening bid will guarantee you a better price but fewer people will bid on it. I’ve seen items that sat for sale since no one bid on it because the opening bid was too high but would have actually fetched more if the opening bid was lower.

Liars / exaggerators

What ever you do, do not lie or exaggerate descriptions about your item. Don’t say that baseball card is in mint condition when a tear is down the side. Don’t say the car has 10,000 miles on it when it actually has 25,000. People will catch it, even if after they buy it and leave you negative feedback, which will tarnish your reputation on the forum / site.

If people post questions, please answer them. How would you like to walk into a store and ask the sales reps a question only to have them ignore you? Not answering questions in an auction is the same.

Price ranges

I also see people “Looking for offers in the $xx range”. This means that they are looking for offers between $10 and $99. If you’re not planning to sell it for less than $100, then DON’T SAY “looking for offers in the $xx range”. Again, this is dishonest. It’s like using a BIN as an opening bid.

Follow these simple rules and you’ll not only be able to have good auctions (as long as what you’re selling is in demand) but you won’t annoy other site members.

Tomorrow (hopefully) : Tips for auction buyers!

I don’t know if many people here caught this program on the Discovery Channel (Life After People), especially since many of you are outside the US and I don’t know if it was broadcasted out of the US.

They basically go over what would happen to the Earth if hu8mans just disappeared one day, everything would be left in tact as it is the second we all disappeared. They go over buildings corroding and collapsing, houses crumbling, cars rusting and how animals would adapt. (It’s a fascinating program, I recommend anyone to watch it).

They discussed that pretty much the only man-made item that may survive for the next generation of intelligent life to see would me mount Rushmore. The favorable conditions where it is (low erosion, cooler climate, elevation, etc..) as well as it being carved out of granite would make it the least vulnerable item in our civilization (the statues of Petra and other similar ones could last, but sandstorms would sand them down). As long as tectonics keep it in favorable conditions it could be visible that it is not natural for millions of years. (This is unlikely considering the possibility of global tectonic shift / polar reversal, but possible).

Second thought, oil. I watched another program on the History channel about oil, how it affects us and our civilization and how it is formed. First, look at the conditioned that are needed for it to be “created”.

Oil fields are nothing more than gargantuan (and that is an understatement) grave yard for prehistoric life. Marine life swam into a dead zone in the ocean (like what we’re starting to see form in today’s oceans) and it dies, then floats to the bottom. The pressure and chemicals in this dead water helps preserve the corpses and over millions of years it forms oil. These dead spots happen when the global temperatures rise and the ocean temperatures rise, like what the climate was like back in prehistoric times (when global temperatures were much higher than they are today). These corpses also capture a lot of carbon that is in the atmosphere / climate and keep it away (in the oil) thus removing carbon from the atmosphere, reversing greenhouse gasses.

Two things come to mind.

1) It is very possible that there was another civilization of intelligent life on Earth millions of years before humans came up (exactly like what the Star Trek Voyager episode called “Distant Origins” or “Displaced” was about). Any sign of them would be long gone today whether they went extinct or moved onto other planets. Throw in the Discovery program, “The Future Is Wild” and we can assume that crustations (squids specifically) are the next likely candidate to take over some 5-10 millions years from now.

2) Using oil releases all that trapped carbon into the atmosphere, thus creating a greenhouse effect and creating another climate not unlike what the climate was like when the oil was starting to form (warmer for the dead spots). We could be creating the conditions for oil to start forming in the ocean for the next intelligent species to arrive.

I’ve come to the conclusion that oil is the Earth’s way to either test it’s dominant / intelligent species or as a balance (global species / respect balance, not US vs. OPEC kind of balance)..

The Earth gives us this resource that makes our lives and routines very easy for us but at a severe cost. It could test us to see if we can harness these powers yet not damage the Earth (like what carbon emissions have the potential to do) and if we cannot, it starts the reset button that takes millions of years to reset (either driving modern life to extinction or forces us off of the planet).

Thinking of that, it makes you wonder how many of these cycles has the planet gone though? Even if each cycle takes 100 million years, the earth is over 4 billion years old which means we could be on as many as the 40th cycle, each civilization being erased from the future generation’s views. The previous generation harnessed oil from the one before them as we are harnessing the oil from them today and we’re creating the environment to create more oil for the next generation some 10 to 100 million years from now.

Gamestop, what is up with this? I see you sell used games at a “discount” which is really nice but, what is the point of it when the used game is $29 and the new is $30? You don’t see any other industry that does this. Do you see used cars just a few dollars below the invoice for an identical new one? Nope.

Yes, some of the games are $2-$5 cheaper, but when I see several used games that are $1 less than a new one, then I’m buying the new one. $1 is worth not having a game that was over-played by someone else, breathed on, handled, and so on. I can go to a pawn shop and probably get the same used game in the same condition for 1/2 the price (and I should!).

Come on guys, change your policy. Don’t insult our intelligence be claiming “discounts” on used games that don’t have the box, manual, or anything else, just a game, when the new version is only a dollar or two more.

I have a large area to cover for my job and it includes many retail stores.

Every day I hear of people claiming “false advertising!” A product isn’t the same price as a different sized one that is advertised. False advertising! A name brand doesn’t have the same brand as a generic. False advertising! Stores add in sales tax, false advertising!

To the people who cry this when there really isn’t any false advertising, get your f-ing head out of your ass. There is false advertising all around us and it seems that no one is complaining about that but are quick to cry foul with they are wrong.

What do I mean?

Let’s see here. Look at a fast food commercial. You see that burger, all juicy, with tons of lettuce and tomato on it. It’s smothered in ketchup and lots of cheese is on it. Yum! You go out to get one of those burgers and you’re lucky if any condiments are on it, let along the lettuce and tomatoes. False advertising? Could be, but we all chalk it down as “advertising”.

You see a commercial for a flashy new cell phone and they’re browsing the web at speeds that would make any T1 user jealous. You go out and but the phone but the web surfing is very slow. False advertising but we chalk it down as advertising.

Car ads claim “up to 50 miles per gallon” but you’re lucky if you ever get that.

So, why is it when people think something isn’t right, don’t understand a promotion, or when they want to abuse the system that it is false advertising but when it is blatant and in our faces, it is advertising?

One of the most obvious advertising campaigns that show phones have five bars everywhere or the person asking someone on the phone if they can hear them. They make it believe that you’ll never have no service and never drop a call. If someone, on any wireless network in the word, has never had no service and has never dropped a call then they are either damn lucky or a liar.

Advertising loves to show us the extreme good in something knowing damn well that the vast majority of us will never experience this exaggerated best. Why is that? Do we just live with it knowing this or don’t care. I don’t know either but unfortunately it has become an accepted part of our society to see what the products we buy will never do in the ads that are supposed to show us what they do.

So people, before you go to a store and claim false advertising when they’re trying to add sales tax or won’t give you the sales price on an item that isn’t on sale, think about what’s really going on in our lives with false advertising.

Let this be a lesson to people, hang up and drive!!

My wife and I were heading to dinner last night and we need to stop at the supermarket to pick something up. We were heading to a 4-way intersection. We had a green light but noticed an ambulance was heading westbound and our traffic was stopped.

And then it happened.

An SUV going north stopped blocking an eastbound lane (not west bound traffic and it is a 3 lane road not including turning lanes) to try to let the ambulance go though. Another SUV behind them rear-ended them (pretty hard).

We rolled our eyes at the stupidity of the person who hit them then saw something horrific. A motorcycle was in front of the SUV stopped in the right lane (which was blocked by the accident), I’m assuming to help or call for help. A car had sped around the accent vehicles (ignoring the ambulance) just in time to hit the motorcyclist. He hit with such force that the car went over the motorcycle, the cyclist, and over the guard rail to ride on it about 10 feet then slam back down to the ground. We I saw the motorcyclist he was trying to pull himself off of the street and his legs were bent in directions that legs aren’t supposed to go in.

Luckily there were already two police cars in the intersection and the ambulance was able to stop for a few seconds, I’m assuming to call dispatch to let them know what happened and give details, before heading to their call. We pulled into the supermarket (southwest corner of that intersection) and I watched what was happening when my wife ran in to get a few things. Luckily, another ambulance and a rescue were there within 5 minutes.

The part that is pissing me off the most is that the driver of the car was STILL ON HIS CELL PHONE TALKING (he was holding the phone up to his ear). Obviously he wasn’t paying enough attention to see the accident, the ambulance, or the motorcyclist and obviously his conversation was more important than the poor motorcyclist that he had just most likely broken both legs (at the least).

Yes, I work for a major wireless communications provider but I firmly believe that most of the people out there who talk while driving (not using a headset or other hands free) are distracted and do not have full control of their vehicle plus are not aware of their surroundings.

Nikola would be proud, IMO. He was a genius when it came to electricity. Yes, Thomas Edison discovered how to harness the power of DC (direct current, a consistent flow of electricity) electricity which is what most of our appliances use and what batteries supply but Tesla harnessed the power of AC (alternating current, the “flow” fluctuates in a sine wave pattern (a very brief and simple description) which can easily be carried though smaller wires. If we only had DC power our power lines would be several feet thick.

Nikola invented what was later called a “Tesla Coil”, similar to a plasma sphere globe but with no globe and the lightning bolts that shoot out of it put on an incredible display.

Well, it seems people have taken this invention further. They connect one to the sound output of a PC or the MIDI output of a keyboard and play music with the Tesla coil. Yes, music. I’ve wanted to build a basic Tesla coil and still plan to when I have some disposable income.

Well, I’ve found a few YouTube movies featuring musical Tesla coils and what better demonstration than classic games from the NES?

First, the Legend of Zelda!

It is short and sweet but the next one takes the prize, Super Mario Brothers!

I’d love to see someone do Bach’s Tocatta and Fugue in G Minor.

It is amazing how messed up laws are getting in this country (USA) along with the media in regards to dogs.

Recently, there was an incident involving a German shepherd and a landscaper in Princeton, NJ. The German shepherd’s name is Congo and the story can be found here.

In this article it seems pretty cut and dry. The German shepherd “mauled” a landscaper. Linda Stein made this quite clear in the article:

“Guy and Elizabeth James, the Princeton Township couple whose German shepherd mauled a landscaper who came onto their property on June 5, 2007,”

Too bad she didn’t include all of the facts and painted the picture of a German shepherd running to attack the defenseless landscaper.

Copy and paste this line into a Google search bar and be the judge for yourself:
+Congo +”German Shepherd” +”New Jersey”

After the first few links you’ll see that many facts were left out of the above article.
- The landscapers were an hour early and told to wait in their truck
- It was on the dog owner’s property
- The landscapers ignored this request and went into the yard anyway
- The German shepherd did NOT approach the landscapers in any aggressive way, the wife was trying to gather them up.
- The landscaper panicked and grabbed the wife to use her as a human shield causing her to fall to the ground
- Only then, after the wife fell did the German shepherd jump in to “protect” her.

While this is clearly a case of mistaken intentions, the German shepherd did EXACTLY what many people get dogs for and I would hope that my dogs would do the same. In the dog’s eyes, its alpha (the wife) was being attacked (how many times do adults knock themselves onto the ground and it is not an attack?). The puppies that joined in were only doing what their lead-dog was doing.

The landscapers made several mistakes which lead to the dog defending the wife. Yes, this is very unfortunate but people need to realize that you do NOT grab a dog’s owner right in front of the dog especially if the dog does not know you.

Luckily, the family won appeals and were able to keep the dog (after spending months in a shelter, which who knows what kind of psychological damage was done to the dog) but pay hefty fines and live with several restrictions on the animal.

I love the closing line in the article:
“”It was a good settlement for both parties,” James said. “The township got their protection and we got what we wanted.””

The township got protection from what? A dog that wants to protect its pack alphas? I guess we should let all criminals know about this township. This article (and the quote) is sending a clear message that you CAN enter someone’s property and grab someone and if their dog bites you in the act, you CAN sue them and press charges.

I guess I’m not surprised this is coming from the same state that killed Meghan’s Law and gave more rights to the child molesters than the actual victims.

Thank god that I live in an area where you CAN defend yourself and property and it’s already gone into the courts and they ruled in favor of the people protecting their property. I guess New Jersey doesn’t allow people to defend themselves (note: criminals, move to New Jersey!).

You catch more bees with honey than you do with vinegar. That old saying is so cliché but so true, especially when it comes to dealing with customer service representatives. Sadly, I’ve seen so many people feel that yelling, screaming, swearing, and general baby like temper tantrum throwing will get them whatever they want.

With me and many people I know it doesn’t. In fact, I’m less willing to help someone acting like a first grader who had the ball taken away from him.

I spent over 20 years in retail environments and currently in a support position. I’ve done it all, bagger or cashier at a grocery store, management, support, customer service, sales, technical sales, IT, and so on. I’ve been yelled at. I’ve been sworn at. Insulted, threatened, harassed, chased, attacked, etc. All that ever got these people was anything from being asked to leave the store to being escorted out by the local police department in handcuffs.

How can you get customer service to work with you? That’s actually pretty easy and would go miles further than yelling and screaming.

First, be polite. This is the most important. The person you are talking to, whether over the phone or in person, is actually a person, not a computer. They have feelings and are most likely not the cause of the reason why you are talking to them. They didn’t make your computer crash nor did they make you drop that call so don’t blame them. I’ve personally driven over 20 miles out of my way (each way) to help out someone because they were respectful and polite to me.

Second, body language. Be open and non threatening. Don’t stand there and cross your arms, stare them down, grit your teeth. This will only create a tense situation. Be relaxed, make eye contact (not daggers) when you are talking to them. Be non threatening.

Next, know your facts. Nothing will blow your credibility faster than inaccurate information coming out of your mouth. It easy sets the representative you’re talking to at an advantage and they will think that if you can’t get the facts straight. Know what you are talking about and what it means.

Also, don’t lie. We hate it when people lie to us and we know when people lie to us. If you’ve had your computer in for service several times before, trust me, I will look up the previous tickets. Don’t lie about time frames, outages, and the number of times you’ve called. We have that information handy so we know. We know when you’ve been in for service, we know about outages, and we know you’ve been waiting in the store 15 minutes, not the hours you’re claiming. Also, we can tell the difference between a mistake and a lie. A mistake is getting the number of dropped calls in a day off by a few. Lying is saying you drop all calls when the records show you’ve only dropped a couple.

And, listen. Listen to what the representative is saying. Feel free to repeat what they say. It shows us that you are listening and chances are that the representative won’t have to repeat themselves (they have plenty of other people to help). Have a conversation.

Stick to the relevant stuff. Trust me; they do not want to hear how frustrated you are because of traffic or your sick dog. “Woe is me” stories will only get you yawns and a tired look. Stick to the relevant stuff, yes, you need to be very logical with this. What happened, when did it happen, etc…

Be firm but be willing to compromise. Be firm about the issues you’re having but what you think may be a good resolution may be ridiculous in their eyes. Six months of free service because your HBO was out for two days is beyond reasonable. Credit for the two days is norm, maybe you’ll also get a partial month’s credit.

Feel free to ask questions. This is a two way conversation. If you’re unsure about something, speak up. The representative will assume you understand them unless you speak up (but don’t interrupt them). When they are done, ask for clarification if you do not understand what they said. Leaving with unanswered questions will only add to your frustrations later on.

Don’t get impatient. If you are in a line or have a number, don’t get mad if you’re waiting a reasonable amount of time. The representative may be busy with someone and they want to make sure that their customer is taken care of, chances are they will do the same for you.

One thing at a time! Don’t unload several issues all at once. Let the representative know you do have a few (or several) concerns but deal with one at a time. Getting all jumbled and multidirectional will only make the situation less efficient and more frustrating for both people involved.

Remember your please’s and thank you’s. Yeah, it sounds so grade school but these representatives work hard and probably have a harder job than you do (for most people, there are some jobs more demanding than customer service, military, police, fire etc, but not an accountant or a janitor). Those simple little words can go a long way.

Know when they can’t help you and when they won’t help you. Big difference. If they won’t help you, they don’t care about the policies and don’t want to help you. If they can’t help you, they may have policies restricting them from doing what you are requesting them to do. None of them wants to get fired just to make you happy, if they can’t help you,

Don’t be afraid to ask for a manager or escalate. Be polite about it. The representatives are not superman; they cannot do anything you want them to do. Due to abuse policies are in place that don’t allow them to do everything (see above). Managers usually have more leeway with the rules, as long as they have a good reason to and their decision is a good one for the business.

Be willing to give as well as take. Sure, it’s nice to be compensated for your troubles, but if you’re looking for free service, expect to pay for something in return, maybe a discount on the service or even a contract. Like most businesses, they aren’t here to give away everything.

If you feel your representative doesn’t want to help you or isn’t competent, ask to speak to someone else or a supervisor. For all you know it could be their first day on the job and they’re still trying to learn the ropes.

Some companies have automated phone call surveys. Remember, these surveys, unless specifically asking about the policies, are asking you to rate the customer service representative, NOT the policies. If you didn’t like the policy but the representative did a good job, don’t give them a bad survey, these surveys DO go back to their supervisors generally.