Category: shopping

A positive negative

Leaving a negative review on a website is harder than you think. Especially on manufacturers’ web sites. The reviews are often moderated and any negative feedback is quickly policed. Even one-star reviews politely written are quickly removed or responded to in a way designed to remove the impact.

One time I tried leaving a negative review for a big ticket item on a popular UK home DIY website. It was an honest review about the quality of the item and lack of customer support when I complained. I quickly received a response saying my review failed to meet their feedback policy and would not be posted. They did not tell me why it failed or how I could correct it. I changed the text but left the one star and it failed every time. All other reviews were at least four stars. So I left the original text and gave it four stars. It was accepted.

I conducted some research and found that others had also figured this out and were using it as a way of leaving negative feedback. They would give the item they were reviewing four or five stars but the text would be negative pointing out all the flaws with the item. It appears that this technique is bypassing a weak filter, possibly human, designed to flag any review of three stars or less for a more hands-on review, or in some cases an outright rejection.

It does call into question how useful such review sites are if they can be gamed in such a way. I’ve learned not to trust reviews on the actual product or service’ website and to use an independent review site, and maybe even more than one.

Just turning up as opposed to booking

I hate booking in advance.

The deals are sometimes better, but not always. Don’t get me started on hidden fees and on-line booking fees. Shouldn’t it be cheaper as I’m not dealing with people?

With advanced booking you can secure your place or item, but then you have to consider changes that can occur between now and then. The weather, illness, availability, etc etc.

Booking just stresses me out. Sometimes I’ve gotten lucky and got a deal. Other times I’ve been burned, badly.

To book or not to book.

It’s like phishing scams. They use the same techniques. Seriously. Book now while there’s still time, still availability. So you book only to find there was plenty of availability all along and now tickets are half price. Dammit!

So I prefer to just turn up. To chance it. To pay the gate price, the door price, on the day. I don’t get burned. And occasionally I get a deal. 

The art of complaining

There was this guy once, Michael Winner, who was a master at the art of complaining. He would not bat an eyelid at complaining to a waiter if there was something wrong with his meal. Surprising really as it’s not the British way. We just accept the mediocre service and move on. Well, in-person anyway. Online is another thing. The beauty of anonymity and all that.

The reason I started thinking about this is because I’ve received some really bad service recently. Why is that? High prices but slow service and bad quality food or products. It’s as if some businesses don’t even care. Once they have your money you can get lost. Not happy? Hard luck!

Just show the British stiff upper lip and carry on.

Not me. I’ve started complaining. I’m fully embracing my grumpy old man stage of life. If I’m not happy they will hear about it.

Not that I’m getting refunds or apologies. Nope. I need to master my technique more. Or maybe shop where people actually give a damn.

Virtual retail therapy

On occasion I enjoy some virtual retail therapy.

It’s that feeling you get from browsing online stores but maybe not always buying. You have money and the plan to buy something, but buying is not the end goal, enjoying the virtual window shopping is.

Browsing the latest books looking for something new from your favourite authors, or maybe something You’ve not read before. Looking for clothes or gadgets, or maybe even window shopping for something bigger like a holiday, car, or house.

Virtual retail therapy can be a pleasant pastime. Unless you do it often and buy a lot. Then it can become a problem.

For me though I can quite happily drift from one virtual store to the next from the comfort of my own home.

Tracing a purchase

There was a suspicious entry on my credit card bill.

I check all my statements. It has proved to be a useful exercise in the past. Erroneous entries, double entries, and incorrect sums, to name but a few things I’ve spotted over the years.

In this case it was an unrecognised entry for a bar in another county. A bar I’ve never been to, and a county I haven’t visited in many months.

Now a few years ago I would have just picked up the phone and called the credit card company and asked them to explain the transaction. But I’ve become pretty nifty with the old OSINT knowledge. So I put on the deerstalker and started investigating…

First I looked up the company. They had been trading for a decade and their business was listed as bars and restaurants. Plural.

Next I looked at my diary and emails to work out where I was on the date of the entry and several days before, as it can take a couple of days for a payment to be processed. I had visited one reastaurant for a spot of lunch. I checked the restaurants web site but nothing obvious revealed a connection to the bar listed on my statement.

Next I downloaded a PDF of the restaurant’s example lunch menu and worked out what I had ordered including drinks and the estimated bill with taxes etc. We had a match. But still I had to prove it.

I started searching for both the restaurant and the bar’s trading names together, and found one article on Facebook about the bar’s owners venturing further afield and branching out into smaller venues in nearby counties. Eventually I located an article that linked both the bar and restaurant.

I now knew that this was a valid purchase. But how many other people that ate there and paid by card and looked at their statements like I do would think, hang on a minute, what’s this? There was nothing on the menu or in the restaurant that informed me that my bill payment will show up on my statement as X. Nothing. And they were paperless in that they did not do printed receipts.

At least I now know that the transaction wasn’t fraudulent. And I found yet another use for my ever growing OSINT skills.

New old stock

I came across this expression recently, “new old stock”. 

Apparently it means that something was made or manufactured some time ago but was never sold and is technically still classed as new. 

I found this expression confusing, like an oxymoron. How can something be both new and old? In this particular instance the item was an electronic device that had been manufactured a year ago, placed in storage, and was never sold. So technically it is still new, mint, boxed, etc. However the firmware was out-of-date and needed updating. So if the item is taken out of its box and the firmware is updated, is it still new old stock or is that technically refurbished?

What if some electronic specification or industry standard had changed since the item was manufactured and a part was changed. Is it then still new old stock or is it now reconditioned, or refurbished?

I used to know a freelancer who worked for DELL as a field engineer repairing laptops. DELL would ship a load of parts for laptop models still in warranty so that the engineers always had what they needed in stock. When certain models became out of warranty DELL did not want the spares back so these engineers would sell the parts online for extra cash advertising them as new old stock or like new.

I find it interesting how we define an item’s value in terms of how old it is and how much, if any, use it has had. Bare in mind that something that has been in storage for a long time does not necessarily equate to something that is as good as something manufactured yesterday. I’ve known electronic devices that have been in storage for months and even years to revert back to factory defaults, to have corrupt memory, or for the battery to completely drain, or leak, to the point that it is no longer fit for purpose.

When considering purchasing new old stock it’s worth considering how much time is represented by the “old”. How long has it sat on a shelf? Both new and old are parameters of time. Consider the difference between the new (date of manufacture) and old (today’s date).

When does it get classed as refurbished? When it is taken out of the box and refreshed with new software? Is that classed as still new?

I hate supermarkets

Or at least I hate visiting them in person. I do like the bargains and the choice, but I prefer my orders to be delivered than actually having to go to one myself.

Finding stuff can be tricky. Then there’s all the people getting in each others way, banging trolleys, baskets, and bags into you. And don’t get me started on parking. I worked on a system for car insurance once. Supermarket car parks are one of the most common places for car accidents. It’s as if people lose the ability to drive when they enter a supermarket car park. You’d think with these modern cars with all the technology on-board that people will be able to park more easily. Yet the amount of dents and scrapes I’ve seen tells me otherwise.

If I can, I avoid supermarkets in person.

Retail

No one likes paying retail.

The retail price is the starting point. You find out what something retails for and then you try to get it cheaper than that. The cheaper the better.

Paying retail is for amateurs. It’s paying the maximum. Why pay the maximum? Shop around, source deals, hunt for vouchers and discount codes. Add it to your basket and wait. Wait for the price you are willing to pay. Wait however long it takes. Prime day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Bank holiday or Boxing Day sales. Just wait.

Everybody loves a bargain.

Time-restricted loyalty

I’m not a fan of these time-restricted loyalty cards or apps. You know the ones I mean. Popular with beverage sellers or entertainment venues. Your Nth whatever is free, but only if you use it by X date. Time-restricted.

The idea of a loyalty card was to encourage customers to frequent your business more than the competition. We reward loyalty by giving you something free in return. On your Nth visit or purchase, have a free X on us.

Only now this loyalty is time-restricted until we change the card design, or update the app, or next month, whichever comes first. We appreciate your loyalty but the clock is ticking.

That’s the price

I hate it when you know that people are price gouging, or that you can buy something cheaper elsewhere, or online. But I want it now. Convenience buying, and pricing.

I’ve come to realise something: That’s the price.

It comes down to supply and demand. People are free to set the price of something to whatever they want, no matter how you feel about it. You don’t have to buy it, but if you do you have to pay the price stated.

Either pay it or move on. What’s the option? There’s no point moaning about how someone is ripping people off. So what, it’s called commerce. If people are willing to pay it then there is sufficient demand for it at that price. Otherwise they’d lower the price.

That’s the price.