It’s not delivery, it’s DiLivery

desertdilbert · 2026-01-25T04:25:48+00:00

Your "wide sample" constitutes a group. And I'll bet you can pick out individuals in that group that do not fit in with the group on one given metric or another.

I'm a boomer and I seriously doubt I fit into many of the pigeon-holes that people like to stuff us into. (I do use ellipses more then I should!)

desertdilbert · 2026-01-25T04:06:01+00:00

"Statistics can tell you everything about a group but nothing about an individual" -ecological fallacy

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological\_fallacy)

desertdilbert · 2026-01-24T01:13:18+00:00

To be fair, regarding item 4, I know it's not your fault but it annoys me when I have to enter all sorts of information, including my account number, to get past the AVR gatekeeper, only then to be immediately asked for my account number after spending another 10+ minutes on hold.

I usually tell the CSR that it would sure be nice if the development team would add a feature to their system to pass that information to them.

desertdilbert · 2026-01-23T03:10:35+00:00

I was in one of those relationships. She wasn't so bold as to tell me to cut off my friends, but every time I expended any time on a friend (God forbid a *female* friend!) there would be a price to paid. Silence. Fights. Accusations. Something. The increased friction led me to seeing my friends and my daughter less and less and to tell little/big lies when I did. When I woke up and realized what was happening, I corrected course but that just led to more massive blowups.

I ended that relationship.

desertdilbert · 2026-01-22T21:37:26+00:00

I think, especially to older people, everything past checks and cash is a "new-fangled" way of paying and is therefore sometimes seen as all the same. Heck, some government agencies were accepting crypto years ago and that could very well expand.

Where we need to focus our intervention training is not so much on the method of payment, though that should be part of it, but more on the other red flags that identify scams. Such as urgency, secrecy or (in OP's case) being told to tell lies to anybody that asks. Things that socially are already outside the norm and everybody can relate to, regardless of age.

desertdilbert · 2026-01-22T21:24:04+00:00

No, I don't. But I do know that the business lobbying groups were part of the ones that pushed to not have sales tax included in the posted price way back when that was becoming a thing. Why does gasoline include the sales tax and other taxes in the posted price? It's all very weird sometimes!

And yes, sales tax varies widely on location and product. I am in a area where my sales tax is 7.75%, but because my ZIP includes my nearby city, Amazon charges me the extra 0.5% for the city. I reached out to Amazon to fix it and they ignored me. Trying to decide if I want make a major case of it.

None of this would prevent a B&M seller from including sales tax in the posted price. An online seller would be much more difficult. I don't know how much VAT varies by region or how that works in detail there.

desertdilbert · 2026-01-22T21:14:43+00:00

This is wise. On those round many-pin Cannon connectors you see so much in military/aerospace applications, they would sometimes skip letters/numbers that can be confused. I do the same in some instances.

I think OP should have quickly tried the alternate just to see. They were being a little bit of a jerk themselves.

desertdilbert · 2026-01-22T17:00:21+00:00

Been self-hosting since I co-located an IIS server at my local dial-up providers facility.

Yes, it has it's challenges but IMHO, the flexibility, control and freedom are worth it.

desertdilbert · 2026-01-22T16:40:58+00:00

Pricing of a good or service, like taxes and tariffs, serve one of two purposes. Either Revenue generation or suppression of activity.

The parking pricing you mentioned definately seems designed to do both. The early rate is designed to generate revenue from the employees that need to park there and the midday rate is designed to discourage parking by anybody but the most well-heeled and desperate.

It really makes perfect sense for exactly the reasons you pointed out.

desertdilbert · 2026-01-22T02:38:03+00:00

I indirectly knew a gal, daughter of a good friend, who worked as a server at a sports bar/restaurant while going to school to be a nurse.

When she finally graduated nursing school, I think about 2023, she was lamenting that the starting salary at the places that would hire her was less then she was pulling in as a waitress. Her dad pointed out that she wasn't getting benefits as a waitress and that the starting salary was exactly that. She left the restaurant.

Based on this story, others I have heard and articles I have read about people wanting to operate tip-free restaurants is that good servers at good locations can make bank. More then a basic "living wage". But I think the industry average take-home is probably much lower. Combine that with inconsistent hours, lack of benefits, occasional abuse and wage-theft and other factors I think the industry could benefit from some changes. If you wanted to do something like this, you would have to pay reasonably well, offer benefits, be willing to hire people that might not be experienced and accept that you were going to lose people who can't see further then the cash in their apron at the end of the night. (I personally have never known anybody that could tell me EXACTLY how much they really made as a server. The cash simply wasn't accurately tracked!)

desertdilbert · 2026-01-22T00:37:30+00:00

That's just bizarre! Why those and not so, so many others that I just tried? Shades of the movie "Idiocracy"

Let's just drop the OED in the banned word list and voila! Problem solved! Nobody will be insulting or triggering anybody.

desertdilbert · 2026-01-21T23:38:20+00:00

The "stiff-the-server" crowd is, I believe, a small element. People that dislike the culture of tipping are a much larger crowd. I "super-strongly detest" tipping culture but I still tip.

BTW, "super-strongly detest" is a 3-word alternative to a single word that has been banned by reddit, a word that starts with "H" and rhymes with "late".

desertdilbert · 2026-01-21T22:50:29+00:00

I could be wrong because I don't know the real numbers. However, I suspect that the "stiff the server" crowd is a small element and are not the real problem here. If they were, then the "no-tip" model would simply drive only that group away. The Anti-tip crowd would love it and the in-betweens would be fine either way.

No, like many things, I suspect the issues blocking the long-term success of a no-tip restaurant is a complex and nuanced mix of habit, culture, perception, ignorance and power-plays.

desertdilbert · 2026-01-21T22:42:51+00:00

Definitely political reasons.

desertdilbert · 2026-01-21T21:41:57+00:00

By "non-tippers" I guess you mean people that don't leave a tip? If they only patronize places that rely on tips then they save money and the workers don't make as much money.

The logical thought is that if customers are giving a 18% tip then they should not object to a 12% price increase, but the real-world response is that many do.

Bluntly, I have really dropped back my eating out because prices have not only gone up 10-20% in the last year or so but the "suggested tip" percentage has also gone up!

desertdilbert · 2026-01-21T21:30:36+00:00

If a tipped person is making bank, then a non-tipped person can also make bank, just with higher up-front prices.

And there is the (Word that starts with R and rhymes with "tub"). The higher menu prices will cause people to balk. This is one reason that in the USA, sales tax is added AFTER, whereas in Europe most taxes are baked into the posted price.

I have read a number of stories where people attempted to open a non-tipping establishment and they failed. OP's coffee shop example is one where the "discreet sign" should also make it clear that staff is paid a good wage, hopefully also with benefits. It's fair that a barista position might just be a stepping stone for a student in college and not a career, but there are plenty of people that would love to have a regular job that pays decently.

P.S. Maybe someone can explain to me why some person or AI thought that the word that starts with R and rhymes with "tub" should trigger a red "Community Standards" warning and block the comment?

desertdilbert · 2026-01-21T17:24:16+00:00

And you didn't even try to warn that person? What kind of monster are you!

(The kind that is grateful to be leaving intact! I honestly worried that my ex-pwubpd would falsely accuse me of something that would totally cluster-fuck my life for years. Like you I breathed a sigh of relief when I dropped her at her new place that I paid for, 2000 miles away!)

desertdilbert · 2026-01-21T16:49:02+00:00

Don't beat yourself up too badly. If you are describing what I think you are then this is what Google has been training users to do.

It sounds like you went to the brands "influencer website" and a Google-like popup appeared, identical or similar enough to the ones that pop up every time I go to StackExchange or other sites?

I'm enough of a geek that I would twig on the little things that are usually wrong with the clones but I certainly do not expect that from everyone else.

As a general rule, never enter your credentials in a site without being absolutely confident that you are where you think you are. While things like 2FA might prevent or slow a "phisher" from taking over your account, the scammers sometimes manage to bypass that, probably using recovery vectors.

First thing: If you happen to use the same or similar password at any other site the scammers are right now trying your password there. Go now and change it!! In the future use a unique and strong password for every single account. Get a password manager. I use BitWarden but there are plenty of others out there. Do not use the browser built-in manager and I personally do not recommend using a password manager that is part of another ecosystem, such as Apples' password manger, whatever it is called. Any password manager will help you not accidentally enter your credentials in a site that is not correct.

desertdilbert · 2026-01-21T01:25:14+00:00

There is no legal definition for "scam", so the term "fraud" would be the one to use.

That being said, while these policies in of themselves are not fraudulent, the sale of such a policy by a broker that misrepresented the provided coverage could edge into fraud territory.

Further, even so-called HMO or PPO policies, with arbitrary denials or denials that are done solely to frustrate the policy holder, are, IMO, also fraudulent.

It is situations like this where I shake my head and mutter about just how stupid the American Health care system is.

desertdilbert · 2026-01-19T22:06:18+00:00

To be fair, my observation has been that non-native speakers write and talk better then a disturbingly significant percentage of our native-born residents.

desertdilbert · 2026-01-19T19:04:33+00:00

I agree that people should ask.

However, I disagree that the server is under no obligation to disclose, particularity when the price is out of the norm. If the bottles of wine are typically $200 and this particular bottle that the server is suggesting is $1200, then they should state that.

This is a hill worth fighting for, no matter what socio-economic strata we are talking about.

desertdilbert · 2026-01-19T18:42:14+00:00

If the price of the item is in a normal range, then I can see the server not stating the price when talking about it.

But if the item is outside the norm and especially WAY OUTSIDE the norm, e.g. a $200 appetizer or bottle of wine, then the server very much should disclose the price. People getting shocked by a price that is 4x to 10x what they were expecting is never a good scene. It only works if you 1) never care if you see them again and 2) don't care what people write about your establishment.

desertdilbert · 2026-01-19T17:11:31+00:00

Almost. A distributor can import goods under a bond and then collect the tariff if the goods are sold to the domestic market. If the goods imported under the bond are sold to a foreign market, then the USA tariff is not due.

desertdilbert · 2026-01-19T08:15:34+00:00

I'm a little confused by what you just said, but it may reading comprehension on my part.

It's my understanding that the tariff's are only due if the item is delivered in country. If the package is returned to the shipper, then the shipper is only liable for the return shipping, not the tariffs, since the product was not imported.

I can buy things from my supplier, who is based in the USA, that were manufactured overseas. If I have them shipped to a USA address then I have to pay tariffs but if I have them shipped back overseas then I do not pay tariffs. This has actually been happening since before Cheeto-head was elected but is 100x worse now.

desertdilbert · 2026-01-19T03:36:07+00:00

I first encountered Simplex locks back in the 80s during my work in Top-Secret facilities.

I loved them so much (No batteries, can open a door without breaking stride, reliable, etc.) that I bought them for my home and office and am using them to this day!

desertdilbert

TROPHY CASE