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The Alleged Utter Incompetence Of Some Businesses.

The Alleged Utter Incompetence Of Some Businesses.

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October 2020

AAA keeps changing our separate billing that my wife and I have for our separate accounts.  For example, I have a personal umbrella insurance, to only cover me, but all of a sudden my wife appears on the billing for this account.  I was sent a rebate check for an account that my wife was paying for.  They keep changing our billing.

The Week Magazine had me log in with one of my e-mail addresses and then gave me an account number.  I tried to renew the publication and used my e-mail address in the first login field and the account number in the second field.  This did not work. I called customer service and they said to add one or two zero’s before my account number and see if that would work.  It did not.  I decided to select the option that I forgot my password.  I had this company send me the procedures to reset.  I followed those procedures.  I was asked to check my e-mail for the account.  Nothing appeared in my e-mail account or my junk folder.
I then went to this web site: https://theweek.com/login.   My login did work using my e-mail and account number.  This process took way too long to complete.

COSTCO  sent me, by snail mail, an offer for receiving a $20 shop card if I signed up for a auto renewal for my account.  The offer described going to Costco.com.  They gave me a Membership Number.   I already had a COSTCO login for my account with them.  When I went to that web site address and logged in there was absolutely NO indication,  no offer, to get a FREE $20 Costco Shop Card.   

POPULAR MECHANICS sent me a snail mail bill showing that I owed $12.00 but if I pay now I get a -$3.00 reduction making my new bill $9.00.  Included in the snail mail envelope was a small flyer “PAY INSTANTLY AT pay.pooularmechanics.com.  I do not like making out checks and mailing the payments so I went to their web site address.  At that web site they allow me to pay the full amount but not the three dollar savings.    I decided to call them and wade through their rather long automated phone responses to talk to a liver person.  That person was able to give me the discount.  Why is it that the letter they sent me included a web site for payment card which failed to offer the discount?

BEST GUESS:  It is my best guess that these companies utterly fail to shop their own product.  What I mean by this is they do not seem to take the time to try to put themselves into the role of customer and try to log into their test customer account, view their account, buy their product.

ANOHER ISSUE:   It pains me to spend extra time to get anything completed that goes beyond normal expected time to complete any purchase or resolving any problem.  I do not have time for YOUR company problems.

 

Posted: October 2, 2020
Updated: October 5, 2020

AAA Battery Roadside Service Is Shockingly Impressive.

AAA Battery Roadside Service Is Shockingly Impressive.

AAA Battery Roadside Service Is Shockingly Impressive

My wife and daughter tell me that our Toyota Camry will not start up.  I ask them to turn on the head lights and they look dim.  I get my volt ohm meter and read just over 9 volts across the battery terminals.  I tell them to use another family car and I will go get another battery.  I have changed out car batteries in the past and it is very easy, should take a couple of hours to shop for a replacement and swap it out.  I look at the date code sticker on the battery and it shows being over 6 years old.  But, all of a sudden I remember seeing AAA battery service vehicles from time to time.  Our family has AAA Roadside Service (California) and I call their number (800-AAA-HELP).  They can get a person out within 30 minutes, I was told.  The battery cost is just over $100 and the service call is included in us paying for AAA roadside service.   The local company who contracts with AAA, Brea (California) Towing, service technician shows up in about 10 minutes.  He checks my AAA card and pulls out two test equipment boxes, analyzer and I think a battery.   He uses the large analyzer to scan the car VIN identification tag in the drive door frame and knows the year of the car immediately and thus the battery needed for my car.

Camry-Battery-Being-Tested

 

He hooks up the analyzer and quickly determines that the battery has a bad cell.  He then checks our charging system and finds that it is working fine.  The tester prints out two paper reports, one he keeps and the second he hands to me.

Below is partial copy of the print out form the tester that I was given showing that our battery has a bad cell.

AAA-Battery-Service-Test-(cropped)

 

He removes the analyzer and inserts a backup battery across the car power terminals while he replaces the old battery with a new one.  The reason he does this is so we do not loose the saved radio stations stored in the car radio.  The technician has our battery in his truck and installs it.  Their batteries all say AAA but I am told they are made by Interstate Batteries.  The battery we received had a CCA (cold crank amps) of 700!  The whole process is completed within the time they told me the service technician would arrive, 30 minutes.  I was shocked at how fast this whole repair process took.

My analysis:

  • The whole process was incredibly, shockingly, fast.
  • I was guessing that the battery was bad (good guess).  For this company to come out with a very sophisticated tester and pinpoint the problem to be the battery and not the charging system is very important.
  • The battery cost was very reasonable ($119.88 total).  I checked and my research shows that I actually saved money by using this service, about $30.
  • I got a CCA rating that is impressive, 700.
  • The battery has a 3 year free replacement and a 6 year limited warranty.
  • The car radio saved stations do not get erased.
  • I did not have to drive to a store and pick up the battery.  I did not have to drive back to the store to return the bad battery.  I did not have to do the installation.
Need Advice For Visiting First Part Of Tip: Amsterdam?

Need Advice For Visiting First Part Of Tip: Amsterdam?

A group of 8 adults will be visiting Amsterdam, May 2014.  We need hotel, restaurant, and points of interest ideas in Amsterdam.  We would love to stay 4 days in a hotel by a canal.  We need 4 rooms.  If you have a recommendation to make, please share with us.  Send an e-mail to captain.mclaren@gmail.com

We plan on sharing our reviews of everything about the trip including travel, hotel, restaurant, and places we visit and make reviews in this web site.

Following is what we have discovered so far during the planning for this trip (End of November 2013):

  • Flights into Amsterdam typically arrive early in the morning.  Hotel rooms do not offer up their rooms until about 3pm.  Hotels charge about $40 to $50 for early book in.  Our AAA travel agent said that this is a money maker for the hotels.  My daughter came up with this solution.  Because we need 4 rooms, only pay for one room early book in and everyone store luggage and freshen up during the early hours using this single room.
  • Tip from my son: Use Firefox browser and go to File > New Private Window.  This method should keep the web site booking companies form seeing your interest in any particular hotel and raising the rates if you visit a page frequently.
  • Our top recommended trip web sites for Amsterdam:
    • Booking.com.   I just love the Amsterdam map with all the hotel pins.  I can zoom in and out.  When I pass my computer mouse over any map pin, I get a quick look at price.   We want to stay in the “Canal Belt”, 16 and 17th century waterways and Booking.com worked for me:
      • Singel
      • Herengracht
      • Keizersgracht
      • Prinsengracht
    • Kayak.com does a good job of presenting all your choices.
  • After using a good web site search and finding your top three or more hotel picks, then go to the hotel web sites directly and see if you can get any better deals.  In the United States, this almost always works but we have never been to Europe before.  Here are the  reasons why we like to compare web vacation web sites and hotel web sites.  The booking web site has to make a profit.  Some times the rooms are located in less desirable locations.  Some times the hotel can offer better prices, secret offers or perks.  My daughter discovered that some hotels give better rates for AAA, senior citizens and advanced purchase by visiting the hotel web sites directly.  When you go to any hotel web site examine it carefully as some money saving promotions are another page or two away from the home page.
  • We have been very impressed with AAA travel agents.  We have booked our flights and tour in November 2013.
  • Look into getting a credit card with an imbedded chip and rewards.  AAA is not offering a Visa card with some pretty nifty rewards.  Europe is not credit card magnetic strip friendly.  We applied and got accepted for AAA Member Reward Visa cards.  The rub is that you must ask for the chip.  We had to ask Bank of America for the chip after we received the cards without it; quite annoying.