consumer awareness

Children Based Product Recalls [Consumer: Rattles, Teething Rings & Cell Phones]

January 13, 2011

Children Based Product Recalls [Consumer: Rattles, Teething Rings & Cell Phones]

Read the full article →

Receiving Weird Phone Calls Does Not Mean Following Their Instructions

November 24, 2010

Receiving Weird Phone Calls Does Not Mean Following Their Instructions

Read the full article →

Pottery Barn Kids to Recall Repair Drop-Side Cribs [Consumer]

July 14, 2010

Consumer awareness Product Recall:  Pottery Barn Kids is recalling its Repair Drop-Side Cribs due to the possibility of entrapment, suffocation and fall hazards Name of Product: Pottery Barn Kids drop-side cribs, and about 82,000 have been distributed.  It was sold via Pottery Barn Kids. The hazaed is that the cribs’ drop-sides can detach if some [...]

Read the full article →

25% Retroactive Rate Increase By Allied Waste [Consumer]

May 10, 2010

Zoinks!  This consumer got his bill in the mail for my trash collection agency, Allied Waste, in San Carlos, CA. and if I had not been chatting with my neighbor, and prepared for the bill, I”m not sure how I would have taken it. I know there’s little I can do about it, and things [...]

Read the full article →

Getting Huge Discounts on Luxury Cruises [Consumer]

April 30, 2010

Today, we discover how you, the consumer, can save a boat load of money (O.K., that was a pun) in booking Luxury Cruises. Here’s the deal:  When cruise companies need to fill ship cabins if it looks like cabins aren’t selling, they allow the organization called Vacations To Go to sell the unmoved merchandise. The [...]

Read the full article →

Google Street View Collected WiFi Addresses? [CONSUMER]

April 27, 2010

When people first started whining about privacy issues when Google’s Street View cars started capturing “interesting” images in public, my first thought was to get over it.  If you’re doing something in public, it’s for the whole world to see.  And in this era, that’s a literal interpretation. If you don’t want to be seen [...]

Read the full article →

Get A FREE Coffee from STARBUCKS [Consumer Alert!]

April 13, 2010

If you bring a reusable travel mug to Starbucks on April 15th, you can get a free brewed coffee.  This is all part of a drive to make people aware that switching from paper cups to reusable cups can save trees, and if enough of us do this, we can save forests.  It’s not a [...]

Read the full article →

Free Day At Disney Theme Parks [Consumer]

February 26, 2010

Disney wants to meet a goal of creating 1 million volunteers who might donate a day of their time to a service for humanity and other such causes. If you do volunteer at one of these services, you’ll get a “1-day, 1-theme park ticket to Disneyland® Resort or Walt Disney World® Resort, free.” You need [...]

Read the full article →

Logos and Designations On Realtor Names [Consumer]

January 29, 2010

When you’re actually taking the time to pick a realtor to represent you in either purchasing or selling a house, many factors come into play.  (At least I’d like to think that.) One major factor is image.  Image can be everything.  This BSII (Bull S*** Image Impression) is very important in creating a comfort zone [...]

Read the full article →

High Speed Rail Through Peninsula Is A Done Deal! [Thoughts]

January 5, 2010

Did you know that the proposed High Speed rail project that is going to cut through hundreds of homes in the San Francisco Bay Area’s Peninsula region, the one that is still under scrutiny, is a done deal? Yea… me too. On 11-4-08, voters did not read their voter pamphlets on the High Speed Rail [...]

Read the full article →

Rodale Forces A Calendar On Its Customers [Consumer]

December 31, 2009

A product review, sort of.  Do you remember back in September of 2009 how I lamented the fact that Rodale Spammed my inbox with literally hundreds of SPAM, I mean marketing material from ALL their partners?  Rodale does provide a means to opt-out of an email, but you need to do it for each client.  Rodale reps [...]

Read the full article →

CFL's From Walgreens Aren't Cutting It [Consumer]

December 30, 2009

CFL‘s (Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs) are supposed to be the most innovative use of electricity to date.  They last forever and cost less to run.  That in theory, is supposed to save you money. That is, unless you purchase them from Walgreen’s. I snagged a few boxes of the 4-pack CFL’s from Walgreen’s about 6 [...]

Read the full article →

Round Table Pizza Having Huge Pizza Sale December 21st [Consumer]

December 16, 2009

If you’re a Round Table Pizza fan, you might appreciate the fact that I live near the original Round Table Pizza that started the entire chain… located in Menlo Park, CA.  That Menlo Park store is a having a sale. Round Table Pizza’s 50th Anniversary Dine Like it’s 1959 Special Monday 12-21-09 Large Pepperoni or [...]

Read the full article →

That SoB Consumer

November 7, 2009

It irks me to see stupid, shady or questionable business practices. As a consumer, I’d like to be aware of good shopping practices or habits and pass on things I experience.  Whether it be something I found to be a positive or negative experience, if I shared it with you, you can benefit from the [...]

Read the full article →

Consumer: New Credit Card Laws Have A Dark Side

November 4, 2009

When the government said no more excuses, it’s time to cap the credit card companies and their fees for everything possible mode of operation, we thought that was cool. But wouldn’t you know it if the damn credit card companies aren’t making last ditch efforts to rip off their own customers.  To rip us off, [...]

Read the full article →

What Your Real Estate Agent Doesn’t Say

July 23, 2009

ABC News put up an article titled What Your Broker Wont Tell You and the message they say is ” There may be plenty your agent is not telling you.” They then have a real estate guru go over some points, and my observations in () are included below: What the Broker Might Not Tell [...]

Read the full article →

Real Estate Contract Awareness

July 19, 2009

Contract Awareness When you are in the middle of a contract, how the contract is written, or abridged or modified can sometimes make or break a deal. For example, if in your contract you say you will have a lender letter with full approval in 2 days, you have to do that. If that letter [...]

Read the full article →