Reports by Consumers

Yes, I guess this is a week of leverage for me. Earlier I was writing about how to finance your furniture…now, finance your domain name.

First, we checked the local Better Business Bureau (BBB) for members that are plumbing contractors. Next, we checked with the local agency in charge of licensing contractors to see if there were any complaints against the prospective BBB members who are plumbers. Finally, we checked with the manufacturer of the water heater that we were planning to get to see if they had any authorized dealers among the BBB members who had clean records with the licensing agency.

So Home Depot probably sells a lot of home appliances. Dishwashers, refrigerators and the like. Forget about the general terms like those, they aren’t anywhere to be seen. When users start the search for a home appliance, they are going to start with a more general term. They will narrow it down later to a model. Home Depot doesn’t start in the beginning of the search cycle, leaving that completely untouched. Fine, let’s say Mr. Customer has narrowed down his choices to a “Maytag Jetclean Dishwasher”. Since they have a whole page dedicated to this product, I’m thinking at least top five is where they should be.

Makers of these devices can to keep competition from mobile phones at bay by staying ahead of converged devices. Mobile phones must first and foremost provide robust voice services; anything else is secondary. Gaming handhelds have the distinct advantage of being designed specifically for games; and that functionality never takes a back seat to any other application. Screen size and resolution, controls and I/O, and other features are designed to deliver the best possible gaming experience.

He confirmed our worst fears--it was nothing that a plumber could come and fix. It was simply a matter of not enough people using the hot water. I suppose we could have tried to use as much water as the hundreds of students who are here during the term, but Thad had a better idea. An American family who is here this year to study Chinese had purchased and installed their own water heaters, so Thad told me to ask them where they got their heater, go and buy one for our flat and he would reimburse us the cost. I was in the middle of the lessons for "Tuesday", but this was important enough that I could juggle the schedule a bit and make an appliance run.

Write to your elected officials if you feel you’ve been barred from getting employment or renting an apartment due to a credit check. With outsourcing, down sizing, even the left over Dot.Com crash, there’s a lot of good workers being discriminated against due to their credit rating.

Like the old truism says, you get what you pay for. Often , people searching for comfort while they sleep are given many sleepless nights when they try to find parts or places to repair their adjustable bed when it breaks down. If you find a firm that doesn’t sound familiar to you, but seems to have a quality product, ask around, and talk to your local office of the Better Business Bureau or BBB. Another place to look for unbiased information is the Consumer Reports Magazine.

Speaking of cars, I brought the Lexus in for its 5,000 mile first service today. It was complimentary and the invoice didn’t state how much things would have cost had they charged me, but the people in front of me in the checkout line had this conversation with a young-looking, rather air-headish receptionist/desk worker:

These new lights are more attractive, smaller, fit into almost any fixture, and are getting cheaper. I started buying them when they were 10 bucks for a pack of three. They’re less than 6 bucks for three now. I’ll grant you that this is rather steep for what used to cost 1 dollar for three bulbs. But these lights will pay for themselves. They last for 5 to 7 years, and use less than a third of the electricity.

My work has a benefits probationary period of 120 days… that’s finally done, so today I signed up for my benefits. I didn’t need medical because we have opted to do that/offer that through the web company, so I got dental for the family, vision for myself (I think I’m going to start wearing 20/40 contacts instead of occasional glasses), additional group life insurance (work pays for a really small one, plus I have a ridiculous Universal Variable indepently) and cancer insurance.

The plumber informed us that we needed a new water heater. After going over our options, on both water heaters and warranties, we found that the bill would come to $1,933. Naturally, the first thing both my wife and I wanted to know was: “What can you do for us?”

Just how does a video recorder work? And how about fax machines, cars, washing machines, electric light, telephones, vacuum cleaners, and refrigerators? You'll find the answers here. This site is designed as a companion to the TV series 'The Secret Life Of Machines' written by Tim Hunkin, and presented by Tim Hunkin and Rex Garrod.