Here we go again. Just when we thought we were getting enough of a screwing from the shippers who advertised one type of shipping and then used another, we now have yet another contender in the ring for slow shipper of the year. DHL Global Mail.
First off it frosts me to see a merchant state they will ship my order by FedEx and have the FedEx logo emblazoned all over their site. Then find out after the order is shipped that it has gone out FedEx SmartPost which in reality should be named StupidPost since it can take ten days for a package to travel a relatively short distance that U.S. Mail alone could handle in a few days. It starts out with FedEx and eventually ends up in the hands of your postal carrier for delivery. You note I said eventually since sometimes it doesn't happen for a long, long time. I've had packages never show up and the services point fingers at each other as to who lost the item. In many cases this is not even "free shipping", so you end up paying for the slowness too.
UPS Mail Innovations is no better. Merchants advertise they will ship by UPS and then use this snail-like service. They have the same modus operandi where the package starts out with UPS and at some point is transferred to the USPS for further handling and then carriage to your home or post box. One of the HUGE glitches in both of these systems is that the package can sit in a postal distribution center for days before it is transferred to the local post office because the paperwork has not been sent electronically to the Post Office to match the package. Or, the electronic paperwork is there and the package has not arrived, so you have no idea where the package actually is, but it is "in transit."
Enter DHL Global Mail, the new kid on the block. Or maybe that should be the new kid on the blockade as merchants find cheaper ways to get our mail to us slower and slower. Frankly, you need to complain and complain loud if you find your order is being shipped this way. Be careful to look at your order and ask how it's being shipped. Tell merchants if they ship this way you won't do business with them.
One example is Amazon's "Super Saver Shipping" which is supposedly "free". A shipment costs $9.49 or about ten percent of the value of the item and that is deducted as "free shipping". However, my FedEx regular shipping would only take 5 days and would cost no more, so why ship via Smart Post and let the customer wait 8 days? Because the merchant let me think I was saving over nine bucks while they were probably paying four or five at best.
Holiday season will be coming, thousands will not receive their gifts on time to give them for the holiday and you can thank the merchants who use these snail trail oozing services for that. And yourself if you don't ask first. The bottom line is to just say no and spend a couple of extra dollars for Priority Mail or some service that gets you what you want when YOU want it! Or get a shipping account and make the merchant charge the shipping to you! That's a novel idea they don't like because they can't pad the shipping costs!
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Respect for the Disabled...or Better Yet... Differently Abled
Both my son and I are disabled American Veterans and damned proud of it. My disabilities are internal and don't often show, so most people would never know unless they know me, or see that it's one of those days I use the disabled placard at the local shopping center. Pain is a silent and individual disability that takes your joy out of life slowly and insidiously, but some is always there, unless you want to become a slave to medications. I prefer not to become so.
My son's disability resulted in his voice changing and difficulty breathing due to a chemical inhalation accident while serving in the U.S. Army. As a result, he is required to take multiple medications and carries inhalers that may be needed to save his life if his breathing becomes in jeopardy. Perhaps his greatest disability is people...because his high pitched voice doesn't sound like it should come out of a good looking six foot man, one who doesn't seem to bear any outward marks of his challenges in life. And people think that's funny sometimes. Maybe they think he's making a joke. He isn't. If he had another voice, he would gladly We all thank God every day he has a voice and is with us, because he might not have made it. Any voice he has is a gift from God and we're just happy he can tell us he loves us, as we love him.
My son and I have worked, given back to our communities and maybe we're just differently enabled. Sure, they're called disabilities, but getting through the days, weeks, months and years is a whole new challenge that brings out your best. We've raised families and made a good life for them and deserve respect from those who might see us as any different from themselves. Sure. we're different. We've raised above those disabilities and lived a good, productive life. That makes us special! And it makes anyone with disabilities special who makes it through another day and on to the next with hope for a better day tomorrow.
You see, we were volunteers in the service of this country and proud to do so. Nobody made us go, we did it because we wanted to serve our country. No matter what anyone might think of the current administration, or the politicians in office, there is one thing for sure. America's service men and women are willing to place their lives on the line for not only every American, but for others to give them a chance at the freedom we so much enjoy.
So when you see, or hear, a person who has or might have a disability, be respectful. First of all, Thank God or whoever you pray to, that you don't have to bear the cross that person has to bear. Second, if that person is a veteran, Thank God again that there are people like him or her that will stand up for you and this country, so you can live how and where you do. And, yes, even defend your right to be a jackass and giggle or sneer or smirk if you find you have to. But maybe, before you do, take a trip to the local Veterans Hospital or Rehabilitation Center and look at some of the people there and imagine if they were you. How would you feel if the giggle or smirk or comment were pointed your way....huh?
My son's disability resulted in his voice changing and difficulty breathing due to a chemical inhalation accident while serving in the U.S. Army. As a result, he is required to take multiple medications and carries inhalers that may be needed to save his life if his breathing becomes in jeopardy. Perhaps his greatest disability is people...because his high pitched voice doesn't sound like it should come out of a good looking six foot man, one who doesn't seem to bear any outward marks of his challenges in life. And people think that's funny sometimes. Maybe they think he's making a joke. He isn't. If he had another voice, he would gladly We all thank God every day he has a voice and is with us, because he might not have made it. Any voice he has is a gift from God and we're just happy he can tell us he loves us, as we love him.
My son and I have worked, given back to our communities and maybe we're just differently enabled. Sure, they're called disabilities, but getting through the days, weeks, months and years is a whole new challenge that brings out your best. We've raised families and made a good life for them and deserve respect from those who might see us as any different from themselves. Sure. we're different. We've raised above those disabilities and lived a good, productive life. That makes us special! And it makes anyone with disabilities special who makes it through another day and on to the next with hope for a better day tomorrow.
You see, we were volunteers in the service of this country and proud to do so. Nobody made us go, we did it because we wanted to serve our country. No matter what anyone might think of the current administration, or the politicians in office, there is one thing for sure. America's service men and women are willing to place their lives on the line for not only every American, but for others to give them a chance at the freedom we so much enjoy.
So when you see, or hear, a person who has or might have a disability, be respectful. First of all, Thank God or whoever you pray to, that you don't have to bear the cross that person has to bear. Second, if that person is a veteran, Thank God again that there are people like him or her that will stand up for you and this country, so you can live how and where you do. And, yes, even defend your right to be a jackass and giggle or sneer or smirk if you find you have to. But maybe, before you do, take a trip to the local Veterans Hospital or Rehabilitation Center and look at some of the people there and imagine if they were you. How would you feel if the giggle or smirk or comment were pointed your way....huh?
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Chevy Volt...It should have been called the Chevy Dolt
Once again, GM sold the government a bill of goods on the Chevrolet Volt, the wonder car that would soon be flooding America's streets with amazing fuel mileage and beating the crap out of the imports.
It didn't happen and it isn't going to happen. Reports released yesterday show the Volt will probably die from a terminal discharge sometime in the near future, unless GM can con the Obama administration to throw more money at a sinking ship.
Here's the latest IBD Editorial:
August 7, 2013
Chevrolet's Electric Volt: Is Failure Within Its Range?
It didn't happen and it isn't going to happen. Reports released yesterday show the Volt will probably die from a terminal discharge sometime in the near future, unless GM can con the Obama administration to throw more money at a sinking ship.
Here's the latest IBD Editorial:
August 7, 2013
Chevrolet's Electric Volt: Is Failure Within Its Range?
"Gone Green: Nearly a year ago General Motors was losing almost $50,000 for each Chevrolet Volt it built. Now GM's business model, driven by trendy environmentalism, calls for it to cut the price and lose even more money.
The green lobby wants more hybrids and plug-in electric cars on the roads. Therefore the president wants 1 million electrics humming around by 2015 — and the car makers have to ignore market reality under pressure to do what the environmentalist-political complex demands.
Even if it makes no sense.
In September of last year, we said "Obama's Government Motors needs to shut down the Volt line indefinitely" — not just for the month it planned to halt production — then restart the assembly lines only when it could make a profit on the car.
In May, we noted: "The market for electric cars is so weak that consumer costs are approaching almost nothing."
Here it is August, and the Volt, the car that USA Today calls the "supposed" star of General Motors' portfolio, is back in the news.
This time it's because the automaker is going to drop the price by $5,000. USA Today reports that with "a full $7,500 federal tax credit, the price is cut to $27,495," a figure that doesn't include some state tax credits.
Aside from those whose egos demand that they use their cars to scream out their moral superiority as environmentalists, and maybe a few enthusiasts who dabble in the technology, does anyone really want these electric cars? Their dismal sales numbers simply do not justify their existence.
Sales of the Volt, the most popular electric vehicle, were only a little more than half of the 45,000 that GM expected last year. Ford built 1,627 Focus Electrics in 2012 and sold only 685 of them.
Foreign makers fared no better. Mitsubishi could sell only 600 of its i-MiEVs while Nissan sold fewer than 800 of its Leafs last year. Sales in 2013 remained stagnant until Nissan cut the price by $6,400 early in the year.
Yes, Tesla seems to be doing well. But remember: It makes a luxury car that appeals to the wealthy who buy them as toys. It's an outlier.
Meanwhile, Chrysler has wisely decided to stay out of the EV market until "consumers are willing to step up and pay for the technology," Automotive News reported this week. That's the way it should be.
Government involvement invariably introduces inefficiency, improper incentives and, in the end, failure."
Well said. Government encouragement, money and lack of foresight and oversight equals squandered taxpayer dollars. All the while watching the economy go south as those sad cars plow the streets at way below the cost to make them, due to subsidies paid by the taxpayers.
Here's the story from The Blaze, dated yesterday, August 16, 2013:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/08/16/whatever-happened-to-the-chevy-volt/
More detailed info on how, in 2012, the government spun the losing proposition in to great political press: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/seton-motley/2012/07/17/media-fail-chevy-volt-makes-gm-no-money-costs-taxpayers-hundreds-thous
How much money will the government throw at Green technology that fails? Just look at the record of the current administration and the back-room deals.
The green lobby wants more hybrids and plug-in electric cars on the roads. Therefore the president wants 1 million electrics humming around by 2015 — and the car makers have to ignore market reality under pressure to do what the environmentalist-political complex demands.
Even if it makes no sense.
In September of last year, we said "Obama's Government Motors needs to shut down the Volt line indefinitely" — not just for the month it planned to halt production — then restart the assembly lines only when it could make a profit on the car.
In May, we noted: "The market for electric cars is so weak that consumer costs are approaching almost nothing."
Here it is August, and the Volt, the car that USA Today calls the "supposed" star of General Motors' portfolio, is back in the news.
This time it's because the automaker is going to drop the price by $5,000. USA Today reports that with "a full $7,500 federal tax credit, the price is cut to $27,495," a figure that doesn't include some state tax credits.
Aside from those whose egos demand that they use their cars to scream out their moral superiority as environmentalists, and maybe a few enthusiasts who dabble in the technology, does anyone really want these electric cars? Their dismal sales numbers simply do not justify their existence.
Sales of the Volt, the most popular electric vehicle, were only a little more than half of the 45,000 that GM expected last year. Ford built 1,627 Focus Electrics in 2012 and sold only 685 of them.
Foreign makers fared no better. Mitsubishi could sell only 600 of its i-MiEVs while Nissan sold fewer than 800 of its Leafs last year. Sales in 2013 remained stagnant until Nissan cut the price by $6,400 early in the year.
Yes, Tesla seems to be doing well. But remember: It makes a luxury car that appeals to the wealthy who buy them as toys. It's an outlier.
Meanwhile, Chrysler has wisely decided to stay out of the EV market until "consumers are willing to step up and pay for the technology," Automotive News reported this week. That's the way it should be.
Government involvement invariably introduces inefficiency, improper incentives and, in the end, failure."
Well said. Government encouragement, money and lack of foresight and oversight equals squandered taxpayer dollars. All the while watching the economy go south as those sad cars plow the streets at way below the cost to make them, due to subsidies paid by the taxpayers.
Here's the story from The Blaze, dated yesterday, August 16, 2013:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/08/16/whatever-happened-to-the-chevy-volt/
More detailed info on how, in 2012, the government spun the losing proposition in to great political press: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/seton-motley/2012/07/17/media-fail-chevy-volt-makes-gm-no-money-costs-taxpayers-hundreds-thous
How much money will the government throw at Green technology that fails? Just look at the record of the current administration and the back-room deals.
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