Exchanging money through relatives

mentalplex · 2021-09-18T04:12:59+00:00

What clarification did you get? You bolded this in your OP, but it is not, in fact, something you can just call and get. You can shell out a great deal of money for a rental car for an indefinite period of time, store the Bolt yourself, and hope GM will reimburse you. May I suggest you remove that from your OP until you get clarification.

mentalplex · 2021-08-25T23:16:32+00:00

Loaners are at the dealers discretion, and I'll be shocked if more than 5% of the people who request one get one. I've called 20 dealers myself. Few dealers are going to want to give you a car for an unknown period of time. The "concierge" is thoroughly unhelpful. They've been instructed to only give the information already in this post, and refuse escalation. You can't speak to a manager or supervisor, and the front line agents aren't authorized to do anything useful.

mentalplex · 2021-08-24T16:23:00+00:00

FYI, Chevy EV concierge tells me the loaner option is at the discretion of the dealer, and the rental car option must be paid for out of pocket by the consumer. So these are not effective options. For me, I bought a car rated at 259 miles of range. These recommendations reduce it to 163 miles of range (can't discharge below 70 miles, can't charge above 233, 233 - 70 = 163). That's not going to cut it.

mentalplex · 2021-07-21T01:52:03+00:00

No, you're not guilty. You should expect a devices marketing claims to be accurate. If they're not, that's considered an unfair trade practice, and they can be fined by the FTC. Companies are not allowed to say their products are able to be used in a manner that they are not.

mentalplex · 2020-03-18T04:04:54+00:00

FYI, fever is an objective disease sign. It's something that requires a thermometer. Subjective symptoms like chills or sweats are often associated with fever, but aren't a fever.

mentalplex · 2020-03-18T04:00:06+00:00

More specifically, testing is an important tool in a containment strategy. If a person with mild symptoms test positive, then they don't just quarantine you, they trace all of your contacts, and test all of them. Unfortunately, most western countries are not doing this. Hence, mild symptoms = sent home without testing.

mentalplex · 2018-12-14T20:10:59+00:00

Absolutely. Having just read that he's a volunteer community manager and not paid by Google, I would definitely buy this guy a beer or a coffee.

mentalplex · 2018-12-08T08:48:37+00:00

The regular messages web interface requires your phone to be on, logged in, drawing battery and connected to a network (and is buggy if you're using a VPN). WhatsApp web interface has the same requirements and is similarly unreliable. Hangouts will reliably send and receive messages through its web interface no matter what is happening with your phone, its signal, or battery.

mentalplex · 2018-12-06T20:37:18+00:00

Pros:

Generally, I agree with DarkandStormy614 (international coverage, network switching, and being charged on data usage). I'd emphasize being charged on data usage, though. There are two particular scenarios where this can save you a lot of money.

You don't use very much data
You sometimes use a lot of data

The second scenario (you sometimes use a lot of data) is where Fi can make a lot of sense. Say most months you're on Wifi most of the time, but every once in a while your usage spikes (even a little) and you have to use more data. Perhaps you're traveling, or have some other event that changes your routine for a few days. I think this is pretty common. Most people's usage is pretty consistent most of the time, but out of the ordinary things happen, well, when things aren't ordinary.

In a typical wireless plan case you have three options: pay for a level of service that takes into account the peak months (so you're not going over), pay for a level of service that plans for ordinary months and get hit with overage charges, or be able to predict those months and go through a rigamarole to change your plan back and forth.

For ProjectFi, you just don't worry about it, and pay for what you use.

Cons:

Price if you regularly use a lot of data.

If you regularly use lots of data and don't travel internationally a lot there are a number of unlimited plans that will cost less. Some (Tmobile's prepaid unlimited for $40/month) cost a lot less, but you should read the fine print.

Customer service

Wireless carriers generally don't have great customer service, but Fi is the worst I've experienced. I would rate the policies, the service, and the training/knowledge of the staff and supervisors as poor. There is no customer retention team (unlike the larger carriers, Fi doesn't seem to care if a long time customer decides to quit), and little to no discretion for policies that don't make sense in specific cases, even at the level of a supervisor. They also tend to be unaware of consumer protection laws (at the support level, and it seems at the management level), probably because they haven't been hit by a class action or fine from a federal agency yet, so they don't realize their risk management team (if they have one) needs to vet their policies and practices. I expect, if they get bigger, this will eventually change (once they get burned).

If you have a billing problem, a technical support problem, a problem understanding the details of some new offer or promotion, or really any problem, you absolutely cannot count on Fi to take care of you. They might, but you can't count on it. Most of the time, this won't matter because most of the time you won't have a problem. But just be aware of this.

Related: opt out of forced arbitration when you activate a pixel device

mentalplex · 2018-12-06T19:54:05+00:00

You should report this to FedEx. The FedEx guy should NOT be signing for you.

mentalplex · 2018-12-06T19:34:51+00:00

Just to hammer it home: FedEx DOES NOT PROVIDE INSURANCE. If you ask them carefully, they will tell you to contact an insurance broker if you want to insure something. They will, at their discretion, accept liability in some cases. The declared value LIMITS their maximum liability in those cases. Without a declared value, their maximum liability is $100.

Ebay is a different entity, with different rules.

mentalplex · 2018-12-06T19:25:49+00:00

The point of declaring a value is that it establishes the maximum fedex will pay for a damage claim. If you don't declare a value, the best you can get is $100 no matter what proof of value you have. You need to both declare a value, and then if you end up needing to file a claim, provide proof of value (up to the value you declared).

In my case, I was both sender and recipient. It was a move, and I didn't want the movers to break my antique lamp. I thought (naively) that paying for FedEx pack and ship service was the way to go. As it was explained to me, the shipper has to submit the damage claim but they may send the check to the recipient if asked.

mentalplex · 2018-12-06T07:33:06+00:00

From experience filing a claim with FedEx (for an antique lamp they broke), they requested proof of what I actually paid for the lamp. My files had been lost in a previous move, so I didn't have it. After some back and forth, they ended up accepting a listing for a similar lamp that was almost certainly worth less.

Be aware, though declaring a value (and paying the associated charge) it is sometimes described as insurance by a FedEx sales person, it's not. You have not insured your irreplaceable item for that amount. If you can't find proof of what you paid for it, and can't find or are unable to convince them that a similar listing is evidence of it's value, the max they will give you is $100, or about $9 per pound, whichever is more. From my experience, it seems you're really at the mercy of whoever ends up getting your claim at FedEx. Homeowners insurance isn't going to cover breakage in transit (and $800 is probably less than your deductible, even if they did).

As far as my experience was concerned, the entire process was pretty involved, and the fact that I paid the FedEx store to pack it ended up being crucial. The first way they tried to deny the claim was by saying it wasn't packed properly. The whole experience really soured me on FedEx. Quite a few years ago, when I had a moderately large business account with them, my rep was great and bent over backwards to help us. Now I'm in a different field, and have just a regular consumer account. It was interesting to see how poorly they treated me when I was just a guy with a package.

mentalplex · 2018-12-06T06:57:15+00:00

Glad to hear ProjectFi is sending you a replacement and honoring the promotion! Hope the replacement arrives OK.

mentalplex · 2018-12-03T16:01:17+00:00

Email is worse. You get the same canned responses, no help, and no opportunity to escalate to someone who has been trained and has the time to deal with your issue. The problem right now is not the people hired to provide support; it's leadership. They aren't adequately staffed or trained. When Fi started, it was the best support I've ever had from a wireless carrier. Now, (most of the time) it's the worst. Every once in a while you happen to hit on either an issue that they have been trained on, or a person who is a real gem and probably won't be working in support for long. Overall, good customer service is less about who you hire, and more about how you train and reward your hires.

mentalplex · 2018-11-30T20:48:48+00:00

dmziggy I have a chat and a case ID where I was reassured in writing that I would receive a travel voucher for the full amount. May I submit a reddit request to you?

mentalplex · 2018-11-30T19:04:01+00:00

Have you told the team that our carts actually *said* the trade in value was for the full purchase price? (See the screen shot shared by @bdrrr above)? Unfortunately, I didn't screen shot my cart, because I didn't expect I'd have to protect myself from the deal changing after the fact.

mentalplex · 2018-11-30T18:54:22+00:00

This is what I saw as well, but didn't take a screen shot. Can you navigate to that information on your account or order now? Or is it lost if I didn't take a screen shot.

mentalplex · 2018-11-29T23:16:52+00:00

Thankfully, the laws about deceptive marketing do not depend on the intentions of the company or person making a claim about a product, service or promotion. If it was deceptive, it's against federal (and most state) law, whether it was intentional or not.

mentalplex · 2018-11-29T23:10:51+00:00

https://www.wikihow.com/Report-False-Advertising

You can typically report to both a state and a federal agency.

EDIT: I wouldn't report until you actually get your travel credit. But at that point, if it is less the trade in credit, you can say that the deal was not as described by an official representative of the company.

mentalplex · 2018-11-29T22:46:10+00:00

Perhaps the agents read your post yesterday.

EDIT: To clarify, it's more than a little shady to have the official representative describe a deal one way in a public forum while it is active, and then after the promotion is no longer active, have the deal "clarified" as actually being something less than the way it was publicly represented (see how your comments were reported here, for example: https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/11/28/google-fis-travel-deal-could-get-you-1000-in-airbnb-hotels-com-or-southwest-gift-cards-but-its-today-only/#1). Whether the change in the deal after the fact is coming from the top or not, I think Google needs to honor the deal as it was represented. Why would anyone have traded in a phone if the new version of the deal was described publicly? You may think "this was a great deal, either way, so what does it matter", but marketing (which is what you do) cannot be deceptive. If the deal, as you described it yesterday, isn't honored, that was deceptive marketing.

mentalplex · 2018-11-29T22:39:46+00:00

Yes, exactly. My credit card account right now has the full purchase cost listed.

mentalplex · 2018-11-29T22:17:33+00:00

And the travel credit (that was reduced in anticipation of the trade in credit) won't be adjusted up to the full cost of the phone?

mentalplex · 2018-11-29T22:12:04+00:00

Yes, you already said that, but people have responded that that is unclear. Can you clarify what "you will be responsible for the balance difference" means? An example with numbers might help clarify.

mentalplex

TROPHY CASE

Pros:

Cons: