Satisfaction guaranteed?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEB7WbTTlu4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdxmOieIgnc
Guarantees are everywhere. They're used to help people shopping for a car to buy one brand over another. Kia and Hyundai, two Korean carmakers offer 10 year/100,000 mile warranties on the powertrain of any new car they sell. Mercedes Benz only offers 48 months/50,000 miles. So is a Kia a better buy than a Mercedes? If you believe that, I have a bridge you may want to buy. It's near Brooklyn.
So what happened to the guarantees offered by retailers regarding delivery of orders before Christmas? How do these businesses earn back the trust of those customers whose gift didn't get there on time? How did this happen?
It isn't entirely the fault of UPS. Yes, they planned badly. Yes, they should have anticipated increased volume and been able to handle it. But part of the blame falls squarely on those retailers who were relying on UPS to get it there on time.
The holiday shopping season was shorter this year. Thanksgiving marks the stat of the shopping frenzy and it can fall on any day in the range of November 22nd to November 28th. This year it fell on the last day, November 28, 2013. In 2012, it was on November 22nd. That's a big difference in the number of "shopping days" available.
Then retailers made a decision that made the situation even worse. In the face of what appeared to be declining sales, many of them extended the "last moment" to order online with delivery before Christmas guaranteed. 70 retailers, including Toys R'Us and Dick's Sporting Goods were allowing people to place orders as late as 11:00 p.m. on December 23rd and promising delivery before Christmas . A promise they didn't keep. With UPS handling more than 50% of the shipping of E-commerce purchases, it was a recipe for disaster.
Gift cards and refunds of shipping fees aren't going to make people happy. It will just make them less irate. Nor will it engender trust in the system when it comes time to make purchases next year.
* * *
Speaking of guarantees, just when and where did retailers like Target guarantee the security of your information when you make a purchase in the store using a credit or debit card? I missed that iron-clad guarantee. Please point it out to me.
Now there are multiple lawsuits being filed against Target by shoppers. Target does have a duty to protect the data of their customers as best they can. But what most people don't understand is that here in the U. S., we use older technology with our charge cards. They have the good old magnetic strip and therefore are highly vulnerable to hacking. Outside the U. S. charge cards have computer chips which are much more secure. When a hacker can steal your credit/debit card data by being near where you swipe the card, with the right equipment, the vulnerability is strong. However, that's fixable.
The other issue I have with these lawsuits is that unless someone's account was actually looted by the hackers or their accomplices, I don't see where these victims deserve anything other than nuisance-level compensation. If I had shopped at Target during that period with my debit card, I'd have had to call my bank and get my card cancelled and replaced. I had to do that earlier this year when the bank detected someone trying to use my card without permission. The bank notified me, and did all the work themselves. It's a minor thing...unless of course you have money stolen and have to jump through hoops to get it back.
So here's a tip. Get a pre-paid debit card. One with the lowest fees possible. Link the card to your regular debit card or bank account. Move only the money you need to spend to the pre-paid card, just before you spend it. There is no risk to this system. It's an extra layer of security.
* * *
The people who run Children's Hospital of Oakland have made a misstep in the situation involving Jahi McMath, the teen girl who was declared brain-dead this week. Apparently the family has found a facility that is willing to take over the care of Jahi and the family wants to move here there. The hospital is "resisting" the transfer request.
Part of the reason they are refusing to cooperate is that this transfer would require the insertion of breathing and feeding tubes into the child, surgically. They claim it would be wrong to perform further surgical procedures on a person they believe is already dead.
They should just do the surgery, let the family move their daughter and try to minimize further fallout, including the wrongful death lawsuit that is certainly being drafted by some attorney, somewhere.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
A&E blinked and has reinstated Phil Robertson. That's their prerogative. This is all about the bottom line and if they feel keeping him on the show as they film for a future season is the right thing to do, more power to them. If those who find his comments unacceptable choose to boycott the program and the network, and the show's sponsors, so be it. That is also their prerogative. Now maybe this story can die out.
If people think that long-term unemployment benefits should be extended yet again because otherwise the people who will lose their benefits won't be adding to the economic recovery; then everyone should get a nice big check from the government every week, to spend.
I called Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas and asked about pricing for tickets to see Britney Spears. The best seats available on the dates I wanted were $375. I told the agent they'd have to pay me more than that to sit through her show and hung up.
Taylor Swift taking time out of her life to Facetime chat with a dying eight year old girl is scorned by some, but I think she did an amazing thing. Good for her.
The reports on the Sandy Hook shooting are out and will probably be talked about a lot. I glanced at some and lost interest. There really isn't much data that appears to be new, just more detailed than before. Adam Lanza was obsessed with mass shootings, and had serious mental problems. We knew that already.
I think it's kind of funny that the real-life man that the character played by Christian Bale in "American Hustle" had a comb-over just like they used in the film.
I wonder if people who park in places they aren't supposed to (red curbs, posted no-parking zones, etc) realize that even though they plan to be there a short time, turning on their flashers is just like lighting up a "I Shouldn't Be Here, Ticket Me!!" sign.
India should stop trying to ratchet up the pressure on the U.S. in this dispute over the arrest of their Deputy Consul General in NYC. India needs the U.S. a lot more than the U.S. needs India.
If Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott had a "sexless marriage" as reports claim, how did they have four children?
* * *
December 27th in History:
537 – The Hagia Sophia is completed.
1512 – The Spanish Crown issues the Laws of Burgos, governing the conduct of settlers with regard to native Indians in the New World.
1655 – Second Northern War/the Deluge: Monks at the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa are successful in fending off a month-long siege.
1657 – The Flushing Remonstrance is signed.
1703 – Portugal and England sign the Methuen Treaty which gives preference to Portuguese imported wines into England.
1814 – War of 1812: The American schooner USS Carolina is destroyed. It was the last of Commodore Daniel Patterson's makeshift fleet that fought a series of delaying actions that contributed to Andrew Jackson's victory at the Battle of New Orleans.
1831 – Charles Darwin embarks on his journey aboard the HMS Beagle, during which he will begin to formulate the theory of evolution.
1836 – The worst ever avalanche in England occurs at Lewes, Sussex, killing 8 people.
1845 – Ether anesthetic is used for childbirth for the first time by Dr. Crawford Long in Jefferson, Georgia.
1845 – Journalist John L. O'Sullivan, writing in his newspaper the New York Morning News, argues that the United States had the right to claim the entire Oregon Country "by the right of our manifest destiny".
1911 – "Jana Gana Mana", the national anthem of India, is first sung in the Calcutta Session of the Indian National Congress.
1918 – The Great Poland Uprising against the Germans begins.
1922 – Japanese aircraft carrier Hōshō becomes the first purpose built aircraft carrier to be commissioned in the world.
1923 – Daisuke Namba, a Japanese student, tries to assassinate the Prince Regent Hirohito.
1927 – Show Boat, considered to be the first true American musical play, opens at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Broadway.
1929 – Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin orders the "liquidation of the kulaks as a class", ostensibly as an effort to spread socialism to the countryside.
1932 – Radio City Music Hall, "Showplace of the Nation", opens in New York, New York.
1939 – Erzincan, Turkey is hit by an earthquake, killing 30,000.
1939 – Winter War: Finland holds off a Soviet attack in the Battle of Kelja.
1942 – The Union of Pioneers of Yugoslavia is founded.
1945 – The World Bank and International Monetary Fund are created with the signing of an agreement by 29 nations.
1949 – Indonesian National Revolution: The Netherlands officially recognizes Indonesian independence. End of the Dutch East Indies.
1966 – The Cave of Swallows, the largest known cave shaft in the world, is discovered in Aquismón, San Luis Potosí, Mexico.
1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 8 splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, ending the first orbital manned mission to the Moon.
1978 – Spain becomes a democracy after 40 years of dictatorship.
1979 – The Soviet Union invades the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
1983 – Pope John Paul II visits Mehmet Ali Ağca in Rebibbia's prison and personally forgives him for the 1981 attack on him in St. Peter's Square.
1985 – Palestinian guerrillas kill eighteen people inside Rome, Italy and Vienna, Austria airports.
1989 – The Romanian Revolution concludes, as the last minor street confrontations and stray shootings abruptly end in the country's capital, Bucharest.
1996 – Taliban forces retake the strategic Bagram Airfield which solidifies their buffer zone around Kabul, Afghanistan.
1997 – Protestant paramilitary leader Billy Wright is assassinated in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
2001 – China is granted permanent normal trade relations with the United States.
2002 – Two truck bombs kill 72 and wound 200 at the pro-Moscow headquarters of the Chechen government in Grozny, Chechnya, Russia.
2004 – Radiation from an explosion on the magnetar SGR 1806-20 reaches Earth. It is the brightest extrasolar event known to have been witnessed on the planet.
2007 – Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated in a shooting incident.
2007 – Riots erupt in Mombasa, Kenya, after Mwai Kibaki is declared the winner of the presidential election, triggering a political, economic, and humanitarian crisis.
2008 – Israel launches 3-week operation on Gaza - Operation Cast Lead.
2009 – Iranian election protests: On the Day of Ashura in Tehran, Iran, government security forces fire upon demonstrators.
Famous Folk Born on December 27th:
Johannes Kepler
George Whitefield
Sydney Greenstreet
Nikolay Kamensky
Louis Pasteur
Marlene Dietrich
Oscar Levant
William H. Masters
Werner Baumbach
Charles Sweeney (commanded the aircraft Bock's Car on the flight to drop the atomic bomb on Nagasaki)
John Amos
Cokie Roberts
Mick Jones
Gerard Depardieu
Karla Bonoff
David Knopfler
Maryam D'Abo (Bond Girl)
Theresa Randle
Bill Goldberg
Eva LaRue
Fabian Nunez
Chyna
Savannah Guthrie
Carson Palmer
Movie quotes today come from "Die Hard 2" which featured John Amos as Major Grant":
John McClane: That punk pulled a Glock 7 on me. You know what that is? It's a porcelain gun made in Germany. Dosen't show up on your airport X-ray machines, here, and it cost more than you make in a month.
Carmine Lorenzo: You'd be a surprised what I make in a month.
John McClane: If it's more than a dollar ninety-eight I'd be very surprised.
#2
John McClane: Guess I was wrong about you. You're not such an asshole after all.
Grant: Oh, you were right. I'm just your kind of asshole.
#3
Al Powell: What's this about?
John McClane: Oh, just a feeling I have.
Al Powell: Ouch. When you get those feelings, insurance companies start to go bankrupt.
#4
Richard Thornburg: No you did not explain anything to me. All you did was shove me back here in this cattle car.
Stewardess: Sir, you were told when you boarded we were overbooked.
Richard Thornburg: Fine. Done. I accept that. But why in hell can't I get the first class meal my network paid for. Do you know who I am?
Stewardess: Yes. We've all seen your program. Your episode "Flying Junkyards" was a very objective look at air traffic safety.
Stewardess: It wasn't nearly as edifying as "Bimbos of the Sky." Was it, Connie?
Richard Thornburg: You think you're funny. You think you're funny. Fine. I've got your number.
Stewardess: And I've got yours. So park it, Sir.
Richard Thornburg: [sits down and sees Holly looking at him] Stewardess!
Stewardess: Mr. Thornburg, you cannot monopolize my time.
Richard Thornburg: You cannot put me near that woman.
Stewardess: Excuse me?
Holly McClane: He means he's filed a restraining order against me. I'm not allowed within 50 feet of him.
Richard Thornburg: 50 yards. So by keeping me in the section you are violating a court order. I can sue you and this airline. That woman assaulted me and she humiliated me in public.
Stewardess: [walks over to Holly and whispers] What did you do?
Holly McClane: Knocked out two of his teeth.
Stewardess: Would you like some champagne?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdxmOieIgnc
Guarantees are everywhere. They're used to help people shopping for a car to buy one brand over another. Kia and Hyundai, two Korean carmakers offer 10 year/100,000 mile warranties on the powertrain of any new car they sell. Mercedes Benz only offers 48 months/50,000 miles. So is a Kia a better buy than a Mercedes? If you believe that, I have a bridge you may want to buy. It's near Brooklyn.
So what happened to the guarantees offered by retailers regarding delivery of orders before Christmas? How do these businesses earn back the trust of those customers whose gift didn't get there on time? How did this happen?
It isn't entirely the fault of UPS. Yes, they planned badly. Yes, they should have anticipated increased volume and been able to handle it. But part of the blame falls squarely on those retailers who were relying on UPS to get it there on time.
The holiday shopping season was shorter this year. Thanksgiving marks the stat of the shopping frenzy and it can fall on any day in the range of November 22nd to November 28th. This year it fell on the last day, November 28, 2013. In 2012, it was on November 22nd. That's a big difference in the number of "shopping days" available.
Then retailers made a decision that made the situation even worse. In the face of what appeared to be declining sales, many of them extended the "last moment" to order online with delivery before Christmas guaranteed. 70 retailers, including Toys R'Us and Dick's Sporting Goods were allowing people to place orders as late as 11:00 p.m. on December 23rd and promising delivery before Christmas . A promise they didn't keep. With UPS handling more than 50% of the shipping of E-commerce purchases, it was a recipe for disaster.
Gift cards and refunds of shipping fees aren't going to make people happy. It will just make them less irate. Nor will it engender trust in the system when it comes time to make purchases next year.
* * *
Speaking of guarantees, just when and where did retailers like Target guarantee the security of your information when you make a purchase in the store using a credit or debit card? I missed that iron-clad guarantee. Please point it out to me.
Now there are multiple lawsuits being filed against Target by shoppers. Target does have a duty to protect the data of their customers as best they can. But what most people don't understand is that here in the U. S., we use older technology with our charge cards. They have the good old magnetic strip and therefore are highly vulnerable to hacking. Outside the U. S. charge cards have computer chips which are much more secure. When a hacker can steal your credit/debit card data by being near where you swipe the card, with the right equipment, the vulnerability is strong. However, that's fixable.
The other issue I have with these lawsuits is that unless someone's account was actually looted by the hackers or their accomplices, I don't see where these victims deserve anything other than nuisance-level compensation. If I had shopped at Target during that period with my debit card, I'd have had to call my bank and get my card cancelled and replaced. I had to do that earlier this year when the bank detected someone trying to use my card without permission. The bank notified me, and did all the work themselves. It's a minor thing...unless of course you have money stolen and have to jump through hoops to get it back.
So here's a tip. Get a pre-paid debit card. One with the lowest fees possible. Link the card to your regular debit card or bank account. Move only the money you need to spend to the pre-paid card, just before you spend it. There is no risk to this system. It's an extra layer of security.
* * *
The people who run Children's Hospital of Oakland have made a misstep in the situation involving Jahi McMath, the teen girl who was declared brain-dead this week. Apparently the family has found a facility that is willing to take over the care of Jahi and the family wants to move here there. The hospital is "resisting" the transfer request.
Part of the reason they are refusing to cooperate is that this transfer would require the insertion of breathing and feeding tubes into the child, surgically. They claim it would be wrong to perform further surgical procedures on a person they believe is already dead.
They should just do the surgery, let the family move their daughter and try to minimize further fallout, including the wrongful death lawsuit that is certainly being drafted by some attorney, somewhere.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
A&E blinked and has reinstated Phil Robertson. That's their prerogative. This is all about the bottom line and if they feel keeping him on the show as they film for a future season is the right thing to do, more power to them. If those who find his comments unacceptable choose to boycott the program and the network, and the show's sponsors, so be it. That is also their prerogative. Now maybe this story can die out.
If people think that long-term unemployment benefits should be extended yet again because otherwise the people who will lose their benefits won't be adding to the economic recovery; then everyone should get a nice big check from the government every week, to spend.
I called Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas and asked about pricing for tickets to see Britney Spears. The best seats available on the dates I wanted were $375. I told the agent they'd have to pay me more than that to sit through her show and hung up.
Taylor Swift taking time out of her life to Facetime chat with a dying eight year old girl is scorned by some, but I think she did an amazing thing. Good for her.
The reports on the Sandy Hook shooting are out and will probably be talked about a lot. I glanced at some and lost interest. There really isn't much data that appears to be new, just more detailed than before. Adam Lanza was obsessed with mass shootings, and had serious mental problems. We knew that already.
I think it's kind of funny that the real-life man that the character played by Christian Bale in "American Hustle" had a comb-over just like they used in the film.
I wonder if people who park in places they aren't supposed to (red curbs, posted no-parking zones, etc) realize that even though they plan to be there a short time, turning on their flashers is just like lighting up a "I Shouldn't Be Here, Ticket Me!!" sign.
India should stop trying to ratchet up the pressure on the U.S. in this dispute over the arrest of their Deputy Consul General in NYC. India needs the U.S. a lot more than the U.S. needs India.
If Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott had a "sexless marriage" as reports claim, how did they have four children?
* * *
December 27th in History:
537 – The Hagia Sophia is completed.
1512 – The Spanish Crown issues the Laws of Burgos, governing the conduct of settlers with regard to native Indians in the New World.
1655 – Second Northern War/the Deluge: Monks at the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa are successful in fending off a month-long siege.
1657 – The Flushing Remonstrance is signed.
1703 – Portugal and England sign the Methuen Treaty which gives preference to Portuguese imported wines into England.
1814 – War of 1812: The American schooner USS Carolina is destroyed. It was the last of Commodore Daniel Patterson's makeshift fleet that fought a series of delaying actions that contributed to Andrew Jackson's victory at the Battle of New Orleans.
1831 – Charles Darwin embarks on his journey aboard the HMS Beagle, during which he will begin to formulate the theory of evolution.
1836 – The worst ever avalanche in England occurs at Lewes, Sussex, killing 8 people.
1845 – Ether anesthetic is used for childbirth for the first time by Dr. Crawford Long in Jefferson, Georgia.
1845 – Journalist John L. O'Sullivan, writing in his newspaper the New York Morning News, argues that the United States had the right to claim the entire Oregon Country "by the right of our manifest destiny".
1911 – "Jana Gana Mana", the national anthem of India, is first sung in the Calcutta Session of the Indian National Congress.
1918 – The Great Poland Uprising against the Germans begins.
1922 – Japanese aircraft carrier Hōshō becomes the first purpose built aircraft carrier to be commissioned in the world.
1923 – Daisuke Namba, a Japanese student, tries to assassinate the Prince Regent Hirohito.
1927 – Show Boat, considered to be the first true American musical play, opens at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Broadway.
1929 – Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin orders the "liquidation of the kulaks as a class", ostensibly as an effort to spread socialism to the countryside.
1932 – Radio City Music Hall, "Showplace of the Nation", opens in New York, New York.
1939 – Erzincan, Turkey is hit by an earthquake, killing 30,000.
1939 – Winter War: Finland holds off a Soviet attack in the Battle of Kelja.
1942 – The Union of Pioneers of Yugoslavia is founded.
1945 – The World Bank and International Monetary Fund are created with the signing of an agreement by 29 nations.
1949 – Indonesian National Revolution: The Netherlands officially recognizes Indonesian independence. End of the Dutch East Indies.
1966 – The Cave of Swallows, the largest known cave shaft in the world, is discovered in Aquismón, San Luis Potosí, Mexico.
1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 8 splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, ending the first orbital manned mission to the Moon.
1978 – Spain becomes a democracy after 40 years of dictatorship.
1979 – The Soviet Union invades the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
1983 – Pope John Paul II visits Mehmet Ali Ağca in Rebibbia's prison and personally forgives him for the 1981 attack on him in St. Peter's Square.
1985 – Palestinian guerrillas kill eighteen people inside Rome, Italy and Vienna, Austria airports.
1989 – The Romanian Revolution concludes, as the last minor street confrontations and stray shootings abruptly end in the country's capital, Bucharest.
1996 – Taliban forces retake the strategic Bagram Airfield which solidifies their buffer zone around Kabul, Afghanistan.
1997 – Protestant paramilitary leader Billy Wright is assassinated in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
2001 – China is granted permanent normal trade relations with the United States.
2002 – Two truck bombs kill 72 and wound 200 at the pro-Moscow headquarters of the Chechen government in Grozny, Chechnya, Russia.
2004 – Radiation from an explosion on the magnetar SGR 1806-20 reaches Earth. It is the brightest extrasolar event known to have been witnessed on the planet.
2007 – Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated in a shooting incident.
2007 – Riots erupt in Mombasa, Kenya, after Mwai Kibaki is declared the winner of the presidential election, triggering a political, economic, and humanitarian crisis.
2008 – Israel launches 3-week operation on Gaza - Operation Cast Lead.
2009 – Iranian election protests: On the Day of Ashura in Tehran, Iran, government security forces fire upon demonstrators.
Famous Folk Born on December 27th:
Johannes Kepler
George Whitefield
Sydney Greenstreet
Nikolay Kamensky
Louis Pasteur
Marlene Dietrich
Oscar Levant
William H. Masters
Werner Baumbach
Charles Sweeney (commanded the aircraft Bock's Car on the flight to drop the atomic bomb on Nagasaki)
John Amos
Cokie Roberts
Mick Jones
Gerard Depardieu
Karla Bonoff
David Knopfler
Maryam D'Abo (Bond Girl)
Theresa Randle
Bill Goldberg
Eva LaRue
Fabian Nunez
Chyna
Savannah Guthrie
Carson Palmer
Movie quotes today come from "Die Hard 2" which featured John Amos as Major Grant":
John McClane: That punk pulled a Glock 7 on me. You know what that is? It's a porcelain gun made in Germany. Dosen't show up on your airport X-ray machines, here, and it cost more than you make in a month.
Carmine Lorenzo: You'd be a surprised what I make in a month.
John McClane: If it's more than a dollar ninety-eight I'd be very surprised.
#2
John McClane: Guess I was wrong about you. You're not such an asshole after all.
Grant: Oh, you were right. I'm just your kind of asshole.
#3
Al Powell: What's this about?
John McClane: Oh, just a feeling I have.
Al Powell: Ouch. When you get those feelings, insurance companies start to go bankrupt.
#4
Richard Thornburg: No you did not explain anything to me. All you did was shove me back here in this cattle car.
Stewardess: Sir, you were told when you boarded we were overbooked.
Richard Thornburg: Fine. Done. I accept that. But why in hell can't I get the first class meal my network paid for. Do you know who I am?
Stewardess: Yes. We've all seen your program. Your episode "Flying Junkyards" was a very objective look at air traffic safety.
Stewardess: It wasn't nearly as edifying as "Bimbos of the Sky." Was it, Connie?
Richard Thornburg: You think you're funny. You think you're funny. Fine. I've got your number.
Stewardess: And I've got yours. So park it, Sir.
Richard Thornburg: [sits down and sees Holly looking at him] Stewardess!
Stewardess: Mr. Thornburg, you cannot monopolize my time.
Richard Thornburg: You cannot put me near that woman.
Stewardess: Excuse me?
Holly McClane: He means he's filed a restraining order against me. I'm not allowed within 50 feet of him.
Richard Thornburg: 50 yards. So by keeping me in the section you are violating a court order. I can sue you and this airline. That woman assaulted me and she humiliated me in public.
Stewardess: [walks over to Holly and whispers] What did you do?
Holly McClane: Knocked out two of his teeth.
Stewardess: Would you like some champagne?
posted by me at 5:35 PM
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