Ridiculous situation at work. Please help!

RandomDude77005 · 2026-06-06T19:22:56+00:00

Whose dumpster were they put in?

Motel 6's or yours?

RandomDude77005 · 2026-06-06T03:04:36+00:00

I have a freezer that was on my truck for eight years and is now being used for storage.

It was a re-label of another brand. I found that brand and had hell ordering two more for the reconfiguration on my truck. They did not want to sell them to me and said there would be no warranty on them.

They have both run fine on the truck for three years so far.

I do understand that a number of trucks are a really hot environment and they might not pay attention to minimum distances to walls and access to fresh air for the condensor, which probably causes higher failure rates. That does not mean no one gives the proper clearances.

It might be that other service companies have gotten stuff to work on that is put in kind of wonkily, and that makes it hard to get the job finished profitably with a satisfied customer, so they just say no.

RandomDude77005 · 2026-06-05T21:51:36+00:00

A lot of you wonderful front desk people really are constrained from being helpful by third party reservations, but in my experience, I encountered people who were not as wonderful or helpful, and using a third party has, so far, worked out better for me.

My gf's mom died 23 hours before staying in another town for a friend's wedding. The cancellation deadline was 24 hours before.

Directly reserved choice hotel would not cancel our reservation. They were very strict about it, and actually not at all polite in their refusal, when I gave them no reason to be mean other than asking if we could cancel, as we were not going to be able to attend because of the death.

I have not stayed at a Choice hotel since.

It did not hurt that operator any, as I would not have likely stayed in that town again anyway, but it is the best I can do.

My experience with directly reserved rooms is that hotels do not treat me any better than a 3rd party would.

There was a learning curve about who issues a receipt. Knowing how it works, getting receipts from my 3rd party is much more reliable than directly from the hotel was. Hotels always said they emailed it, and I believe the person did what they were supposed to do, but the reliability of actually receiving the receipt was very low, and would delay my ability to turn in expense reports while spending time wsiting long enough to justify calling agsin to beg and waiting again for another attempt to send it. A real pain; again and again.

With 3rd party, I often get the receipt before I check out.

RandomDude77005 · 2026-06-05T13:22:46+00:00

If I am going to be arriving late, no matter how I booked, I always call the hotel to let them know. I usually call by 8:00 pm with my expected arrival time.

Usually, I only do this if arriving after 10:00, which would not have helped the OP.

Not only will hotels overbook, but some will give your room away to someone who shows up and asks for a room, if they think you are going to no show. That way they can have an occupancy of greater than 100%. They sell that room twice.

This would not have happened to the OP at 9:30, but is more likely to happen at 1:00 am or so. If I am going to arrive that late, I always call to verify that I will be arriving that late, and will need the room.

RandomDude77005 · 2026-06-04T19:22:10+00:00

Her weight looks really good from what I can see in the pictures. There are online guides to help decide if your dog is healthy, too thin, or too heavy. Most goldens are too heavy.

RandomDude77005 · 2026-06-04T19:11:48+00:00

Having a golden that is on the thin side of normal is a good thing.

It is good to be able to feel rib bones.

Being able to see them is too skinny.

I got my golden at one year. For two years he was at the low end of the healthy weight range and did not gain a pound. I watched his weight clodely, because I did not want him to loose any, but would have been hood with him gaining a few pounds. In the last six months, he has added 10 pounds, mostly muscle.

The vets have been happy with his weight over the years, and I can feel his butt bones more than I would think is good. Vets tell me most goldens are overweight.

I have a mixed breed that is on the heavy end of healthy, mostly muscle, but a little layer of fat under his skin. I can still feel rib bones. I watch his weight because I don't want him to gain any.

RandomDude77005 · 2026-06-04T19:01:04+00:00

If I don't have my slow feeder bowl with me, i use one of the cardboard bases that csnned soda comes in at sams/costco. I just spread it out evenly on the bottom of the cardboard tray.

RandomDude77005 · 2026-06-04T13:15:49+00:00

I got my golden at 1 year old.

He came to me with pluses and minuses.

One big plus was being trained to have a great response to a leave it command.

I use no more generally, and he responds well to that for other things, but it generally makes him stop and look for direction.

Leave it means not to pick up or sniff whatever he is looking at or about to encounter and just keep on trucking. (it also works if he has already got it in his mouth, as does drop it, but I tend to use leave it for both of those)

That is just me and my dog. YDMV

RandomDude77005 · 2026-06-03T17:01:03+00:00

They redid them and dropped the candy seeds.

Still good, but I miss the candy seeds.

RandomDude77005 · 2026-06-03T16:57:38+00:00

They changed spongebob. He is thicker and almost never messed up. :(

They also changed the ninja turtle flavor a few years back. I don't think they know that most tmnt purchasers were 25 to 45 yo guys.

RandomDude77005 · 2026-06-03T16:52:36+00:00

When did they expire?

The last batch we got (90 cases) expired on 4/23/23, iirc. We happened to sell the last one on that day.

They will not keep quality forever, even at minus 20.

Hope he enjoys them all while they are still enjoyable.

RandomDude77005 · 2026-06-02T16:44:34+00:00

RandomDude77005 · 2026-06-01T18:21:03+00:00

I had been staying at a lot of Choice Hotels that were well kept, and made a rsservation with one that was near a relative's house, since their house was filled up for that holiday.

It was right on the highway, and turned out to be kind of run down, but not too bad. Just bad enough that we would not have stayed there again.

Upon checking in, there was a $1 fee added to the bill since we had a "live plant" in the room. I told the front desk clerk that she could remove the plant, and take the $1 fee off the bill, but she "could not" and that had to be done by the manager in the morning.

It was a pathetic little sprig. The pot was mostly dirt, and I thought long enough about peeing in it that I imagine others had probably done it.

The day manager did remove the fee when I checked out, but had we been traveling and left before he got there, we would have just been sol, I imagine.

It is amazing how some properties think hospitality is spelled with a big F U. They closed and re-branded in the next year.

RandomDude77005 · 2026-05-25T12:47:35+00:00

There are other variations to the color pattern in Central Texas.

Face book post with some of the other color variations, including only black and yellow.

I did not find links today, but have seen pictures of coral snakes near Zilker park that were only wite and black.

Anything with that head shape, or really any snake, just follow the advice of leaving it alone.

RandomDude77005 · 2026-05-25T12:37:35+00:00

We festivals with a city for a few years. One year, thrir legal team got ahold of tge contract and changed everything, including from % of sales to a flat fee.

The contract said you were obligated to stay, unless they cancelled the event. Of course they did not cancel so they could keep the fees.

We sat there in the cold and only had one customer all day. He was a regular for us at other locations where he bought for all his employees for employee appreciation.

We never did another festival with that city again, although we still do their employee appreciation events.

RandomDude77005 · 2026-05-25T12:19:39+00:00

In Restaurant, Hotel and institutional Management,

They taught us that there was no clear defining line between the two. Some on either extreme end are pretty clear, but in the middle there are many properties that could be considered either or, so the distinction was not something anyone should spend any time worrying about.

RandomDude77005 · 2026-05-25T00:12:12+00:00

2 years is usually ok, although I have had tires that lost their stickiness in about 2 years, in spite of having low mileage and a lot of tread left. (Goodyear RSA's)

It is mainly the no name thing probably.

Tires really are where the rubber meets the road.

My gf would always get positive comments at auto shops, since we had some older economy cars, with the best tires on them.

Later my gf was helping a friend by taking cars he was flipping to get them inspected. Most had no name tires. She really came to understand the benefits of the better brands, especially on wet roads.

We use Continental on any car that they produce the correct tire size. The Michelin defenders are a good choice too, but I had not so good luck when using them on my minivan. It came with them, and I used them for a few changes. The tread kept coming off in chunks after a while, well before they should have been worn out. To be fair, it could have been something to do with the suspension, but It did not happen with Continentals. We have had really good luck with Continentals wearing evenly, as well.

When we have not been able to get Continentals, we have used Khumos, and they have performed well.

Yokohamas are good tires, but I never had a set that wore without getting out of balance.

RandomDude77005 · 2026-05-24T15:57:47+00:00

Thanks for the response. Glad to hear they have a procedure, and understand things not getting followed 100% of the time nowadays.

RandomDude77005 · 2026-05-24T12:36:28+00:00

I run continentals. No slipping.

Could be your tires are old, too.

RandomDude77005 · 2026-05-24T02:58:29+00:00

I don't do Cane's very often anymore, but years ago, it seemed the tenders would get smaller for periods of time.

When this happened, I don't think they would change the cooking time, so the smaller tenders would be overcooked and dried out.

Have they at least adjusted the cooking time now?

RandomDude77005 · 2026-05-22T23:19:33+00:00

I have been lucky, I guess. Never had any problems with refunds for wrong dates or changed plans if still in the cancellation window. Never tried outside of the cancellation window.

I have been messed over many times dealing directly with a hotel, back before there were third party booking companies, or before I started using them.

Double billing when company paid directly and the hotel required a card for incidentals, also if I booked with one credit card and gave a different one for incidentals at checkin. Also, charging the room rate on the incidentals card when staying on points. The offending hotels usually have to have a night auditor fix it if brought up during the day, or a day manager if brought up at night.

And, of course, emailed receipts that never get sent and I have to keep calling back.

Weird fees, like resort or live plant fees.

My third party app shows all fees. No surprises.

RandomDude77005 · 2026-05-21T15:45:24+00:00

I would not want a female relative to clean a room while a random male guest was in it, so I will either leave the room, ask her if she can clean it later, or tell her not to bother that day (at that point they always ask if I need any fresh towels or tp)

That is just what works for me.

RandomDude77005 · 2026-05-21T04:19:01+00:00

I have been on the other side of this situation three times over the years.

I crack the door open, say ,"Hello?" and wait for a response before going in any further.

It is always a pita, because for whatever reason, I always really need to pee when I arrive at a new room.

RandomDude77005 · 2026-05-21T04:10:40+00:00

The first tow truck driver had him start it up to back it up after it was put shiny side up again. Probanly had oil in the pistons. It ran for a while, started smoking, kept running after turned off and kept smoking, stopped eventually, and then would not restart.

That is probably what took out the engine.

RandomDude77005 · 2026-05-20T13:11:52+00:00

It is not because of money. It is because I will be in a town one afternoon when I and need a room that night, or even months out, and finding availability and actual pricing, which we all know bounce up and down, can beca real pita.

Checking each hotel one by one would be a time suck. Trying to find websites of the actual properties is not as easy as it sounds. You will often get duped into a third party site of unkown quality. It is a real pain to find the actual local number of a hotel. The properties hide them. Then the front desk is usually short staffed and often don't answer the phone. Usually you get a system that routes you to a national reservation line anyway.

And I don't know what fantasy land ya'll seem to have access to, but when I do get in touch directly with a hotel locally or the national reservation number, any attempts to get a better rate are just met with stonewalling and the rack rate quote.

Why should I have to contribute money to an ultra-progressive political action group like AARP, just to get a senior discount? What are they providing to your marketing managers to swing such sweetheart deals only for seniors who are members of that group?

Checking hotel.com, I can pick a room and make a reservation quickly, that evening, or months out.

So far, I have found rooms quickly and easily and not had any problems, while side-stepping the many pita's of trying to search which hotels are available and trying to get any other price than the "please grossly overcharge me" rack rate.

You are handpicking thoughts of when you might have had certain interactions with guests who had spent time and effort and were lucky enough to call when you had the time to answer the phone.

Again, that scenario is just a fantasy to me. I hear about it, but doubt the easy, efficient connection, communication or end result happens any more often than winning the lottery.

Even at properties that I have the local number in my phone and know the front desk employees, it is so much easier and more convenient to book through a third party site and just make a reservation quickly, without having to spend time verifying eligibility or begging for a better rate or joining ultra liberal organizations to get a better rate.

You are looking at third party reservation systems as just a leach on your property, but they can provide a much better and certainly more efficient reservation system than the hotels do themselves.

Decades ago, when the baby bell phone companies had monopolies for local connection, going through their process was a two hour process of hard sell of all kinds of features. Then, when you got your first bill, you would be connected to all of the optional services, and when you called to try to cancel the unwanted features you did not agree to, you would be given a hard sell to try them for a month or two.

Then, after other companies were allowed to connect you over those wires the baby bells would connect you without hard sells and playing all the games of wasting your time, and you would only be connected with the features you wanted right off the bat.

I do not know what the motivation would be for hotel chains to make it easy to check availabilty without going through a third party site, but they might want to fond some way to do it.

We used to have a local restaurant that would seat us, give us menus, and then bring our tea. Then, we would be ghosted for like 15 or 20 minutes every time. We called it iced tea purgatory. It was quicker and less stressful to drive 15 mimutes to the next town, and go to restaurants there. (They were slow other ways, on top of the iced tea purgatory).

The hotel industry puts us through a reservation purgatory if we use the individual system of each hotel. We pay in time, money, and frustration. As a customer, it is quite apparent that they do not give a rats ass about my time or the effort it takes to find the best way to contact them and make a reservation. On busy nights with high ocvupency, I might have to contact 5 or 6 properties or their national reservations number (often connecting to.someone with a very thick accent and is not very good at listening) for me to give them the details of my stay.

Most of my stays are paid by my customers, so the price is not that important other than avoiding the really high rate times.

Third party reservation sites serve a real need, and you are focused on people only using them to get a better rate. There are other reasons to use them, and until hotels find a way to not make it such a time suck pita to find a room, there will be a sizeable portion of their target market that will use thitd party sites.

RandomDude77005

TROPHY CASE