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Calling Customer Service

5/29/2020

     Are you one of these people who absolutely cringes at the thought of calling an 800 number for customer service? Having to push buttons or speak to an automated computer? “REP-RE-SENT-A-TIVE!” “OP-ER-A-TOR!” “HU-MAN BE-ING!” I certainly am. Any time I think about having to call my online auction site or cell phone company to get something resolved, or struggling to understand someone with a heavy accent (whether it is here or abroad- it's me, not them!), it almost seems worth it to pay the extra $10 they just hiked my bill for no reason, yet I do it, because every dollar counts.

     A friend of mine told me one day not to long ago, and it makes total sense... calling a big corporation and you encounter someone who is brash or gruff, who may be having a bad day, or merely isn't very good at their job? Don't get angry, start swearing, or worse. Here is the one simple solution: Hang up and call back.

     Whaaat? Am I so daft that I have never thought about this before? Super duper simple. Most of the time, these REP-RE-SENT-A-TIVEs are not taking notes on your call. I recall a bunch of years back, I got rid of my land line phone (back in the times of dial-up Interwebs) because it was an added expense that honestly did not make sense for me anymore. I called V-Corp (name withheld to maintain their anonymity... you know who they are... <wink>) to disconnect my land line. They did so, without bothering to tell me that (derp) this would also disconnect my Interwebs. It took them seconds to disconnect it, and after two weeks and dozens of phone calls, I still did not have Interwebs.

     If that had been present day, I would be paralysed because my business relies on the Interwebs, especially now, during the Zombie Apocalypse. Point being, every time I would call back, meticulously writing down dates and times that I called, and names of people I talked to (which I am convinced are bogus made up names anyway), I would have to retell my story over and over from square one, because every time I would speak with a different REP-RE-SENT-A-TIVE they didn't seem to know what I was talking about (in the end I ended up changing companies, and doing away with any V-Corp relations entirely).

     More recently, I had to call my current company, S-Corp, because of an increase in my bill. The first person I spoke with was surly and brash, and very unhelpful, almost seeming to take pleasure in my mounting acrimony. Guess what? I started getting very frustrated and then remembered... hang up! Call back! I did, and while the second REP-RE-SENT-A-TIVE gave me basically the same answer, she put it in such a way where I wasn't so exasperated about it, offering to put me on an email list for future offers.

     A side note here, don't hesitate to ask if the companies offer a discount. S-Corp offers discounts for people who work at the local colleges, and a friendly gent at the local store slyly offered, “You work at Tiny Town College, don't you? I think I've seen you there. You haven't received your discount for that. Let me see that you do... <wink>”. That was an added and unexpected bonus as well.

     So that is my advice to you, Faithful Readers. Next time you are on a call and the RE-RE-SENT-A-TIVE is not pleasant, helpful, or giving you the answers you want to hear? Hang up. Call back! Just a tip from your old pal, moxy.!

     Enjoy the weekend. Stay safe!

     ~m.

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Don't Trash It, Sell It!

5/23/2020

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Happy Friday, Faithful Readers! How was your week? Did you get a chance to get outside on the nice days? I finally caved and mowed the lawn. It seems to be some sort of a contest for the neighbours around here to mow their lawns the earliest, or the most often. Once one does, it sets off a chain reaction of others following suit and doing theirs... I was being a scofflaw, but it was time.

Let's talk about sales, baby! The average US household has hundreds if not thousands of dollars of unused items in them. That collection of old cameras in the drawer? Unused electronics? Old toys? Unused decorations? Plenty. The fact is, some of these things get tossed in a drawer or on a shelf, and you forget you have them. Moreso you forget that they still have monetary value.

I have been doing my own quarantine sorting the last few weeks. In a sense, this declutterer has become somewhat of a tidy packrat, if you will. As I may have mentioned, when I moved two years ago, I got rid of all of my yard sale inventory before I moved, not knowing where I was going. My online auction inventory, however, was a different story. Every time I would come across something that I thought had value, I would stash it in a tote labeled “Online Auction Inventory”, and stash it away.

Well, Faithful Readers, as many of you know, out of sight, out of mind. A few totes snowballed into many... when I moved, I think my friends and family helped me make 7 (SEVEN!!) trips in a 15 (or 17?) foot box truck. All those “Online Auction” totes got stored in my shop in the basement, thought about, but never dealt with.

So thank you, Zombie Apocalypse (and Ethel, my little kick in the arse) for giving me the time and motivation to finally get some ish done. We didn't have any yard sales last year partly because there was simply so much else going on, and partly because my “Little Kick in the Arse” (L'KITA?) was in Florida. Also because my inventory was low due to me getting rid of, well, all of it.

Yet we are back! Kicking butt, taking names. Zombie Apocalypse has forced a lot of us to make sudden and unexpected changes, one for me has been delving into mostly online sales. What sales that have been conducted locally have been conducted outside, I leave product and sanitising wipes, buyer leaves cash and takes a wipe if necessary. Buyers sometimes wear masks, sometimes not. Cash gets sanitised. Everyone is safe.

Now, when I say “totes snowballed”, I am not kidding. I believe that it ended up being... 20-25 large totes worth of stuff earmarked for online auction. I decided with Ethel's help, we were going to start going through things, deciding what to estate sale and what to online sale. Things that would only yield $5-10 online isn't worth my time and effort (and fees). We are still hoping to have an estate sale (my estate!) of sorts at some point, thankfully I now have yard space where if necessary, I can distance tables 6 feet apart, and possibly allow a certain number of people to shop at a time. Time will tell.

All that being said, where, besides the yard, is a good place to sell things locally? I have been using Craigslist for years, however that seems to be waning in popularity. Next stop has been Faceyspace (Facebook) Marketplace, with mixed successes. So where else?

Interwebs to the rescue! Also, with mixed successes. My sister says the sites like OfferUp and LetGo are wildly popular in Arizona, but here in Tiny Town, I am finding that is notsomuch the case. Try looking into sites like these, NextDoor.com has a selling feature, Marketplace offers selling to a vast audience, and I literally just now found that Instagram has a Shoppable Posts feature if you have a business account (which from what I understand is free!).

Other options are more specific, like ThredUp, PoshMark, Tradesy, or Vinted for clothes or jewelry, or Chairish or Trove for furniture. Keeping in mind that depending on your location, some of these may or may not be available. Also in cases such as eBay or Amazon, while they advertise to a global audience, there will be fees.

One more caveat: I highly recommend taking good quality pictures, and many of them per item. As with eBay, I am allowed up to 12 pictures per auction, so I try to do as close to 12 pictures that makes sense. Blurry, grainy pictures are not going to help you sell things as well as good quality, bright pictures. If possible, take photos with a blank background such as a plain wall of a sheet behind your item if possible... and please, we all know that your Pupper or Kitteh is adorable, however keep them out of the photo (a pet peeve for me is the “Dog not included” comments on posts).

As an option, I offer one more suggestion: Hire a professional to sell your items for you! Feel free to reach out to me, I definitely do consignments!

Have a great weekend, stay safe, stay calm. If you have any questions, send me a message!

~m.

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Sticky Notes!

5/15/2020

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Good morning, Faithful Readers and happy Friday! Pulse check! Are you surviving the Zombie Apocalypse? How was your week? Are you feeling okay?

I was talking with a friend a while back about blog posts. It seems that I have been stagnant as of late, after having a year long spate of posting once a week. I was feeling like people don't read what I write anyway, except the occasional spammer. Do you know who reads what I write? Me. And I think I am pretty darned good at it.

So I asked her: What should I write about? What do people care about? What is going to pique interest? “Sticky notes.” she replied. “Everyone loves them. Everyone uses them. They are a universal tool!” I have to admit, she is right.

Well, lets talk about sticky notes, then! Big and little, many different shapes, sizes, and colours. Do you use them? I know at my old place in Tiny Town, the dining room was my makeshift office, and the wall was absolutely covered in sticky notes! Different colours, different sizes... if I was doing research and wanted to bookmark some information, I would write it on a sticky note and stick it to the wall above my desk. My office looked like the scene in one of those movies where the Investigator is looking into a case, and they have all the clues leading up to finding the Murderer tacked to the wall...

My grocery list? Written on a sticky note. Delivering or picking up a sale and need to write down the address and phone number of the person? Sticky note. Splitting the cost of a bill and want to let a housemate know what their due is? Sticky note. Reminder to put out trash or recycling? You get the idea. I hoard my coveted sticky notes. Whenever someone moves or a student is leaving, and they give me sticky notes, I do my little happy dance before storing them away.

A little bit about the history of sticky notes: A sticky note (or “Post-It” note) is a small bit of paper, originally a 3 inch by 3 inch square of yellow paper with a re-adhereable strip of tacky glue on the back made for attaching notes to documents or surfaces, multiple times if necessary. In 1968, a gent named Doctor Spencer Silver, a chemist at 3M company, was trying to invent a super strong glue, but through trial and error inadvertently came up with a surprisingly weak one. For the next five years, he tried to promote his glue with 3M, with no luck.

In 1974, a colleague of Doctor Silver's at 3M, one Arthur Fry, grew to come frustrated with the fact that he was trying to bookmark pages in his church choir hymnals, but they kept falling out. He recalled Doctor Silver's adhesive and tested it out on his hymnals. Success! He could mark the pages, and not only that, he could remove then and reapply the without marring the pages!

In 1977, Art Fry convinced 3M to launch the notes, originally named “Press 'n Peel” notes, in four cities with little success. In 1980, after a successful product test in Boise, Idaho, 3M relaunched the product as “Post-It” notes. Shortly after, they became a global success! It is also researched that the original canary yellow colour was also a complete coincidence, as the original 3M team that tested the prototype used leftover canary yellow paper from a nearby laboratory!

So there you have it, Faithful Readers! Sticky notes celebrate their 40 year anniversary this year, and what in the world would we do without them??

Stay safe, stay sane, stay calm. Until next week, stay groovy!

~m.

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