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Stirred UP

I just bought a travel trailer private party from a younger man who spent the whole visit with his face glued to his phone which was blowing up with texts. Like most private party sales buying by check just isn’t an option and pulling a large amount of cash from an ATM isn’t possible so we agreed I would go look at the rig and if I liked it I would leave a small deposit on Sunday then get cash from my business account Monday or Tuesday then pick it up Tuesday evening after I get truck ready. Well, I liked it and since my business accounts are all connected to PayPal and a few other payment processing gizmos I said “hey, you want me to just send you a deposit by PayPal. Then I won’t need to run and grab some cash?” And the guy says “that would be cool, I was actually thinking about that but then I’d have to pay a fee...” (I think he was probing for me to pay the fee) so I just suggested sending as a friend to avoid the fee because if I gave him actual cash I wouldn’t have any protections anyway.

Anyway, I was the one that suggested the PayPal payment but when it came to actually doing it I had no idea how to make it happen. It took me so long to figure out the guy was actually getting mad and was pretty much willing to forget the deposit. BUT it was by doing that deposit via PayPal (I only offered to do it because I knew I had some funds in that PayPal account) I learned my bank accounts were linked to the PayPal account and I could effectively use PayPal as an electronic check that immediately cleared (or appeared to clear) so the seller could feel comfortable completing the transaction. Clearly the voidin bank services is being filled by pocket technologies
 
This miserable weather.....
Yesterday I got to work late. I started at the drivers door to clean the car off and had to clean it again to get in the car....
White out half the way there....
We got over a foot of snow yesterday. It was a balmy 7 degrees out when i left for work this morning... and its supposed to be raining and almost 60 by sunday!?!?
What the heck????
 
I dunno, sounds like a good deal. A day of beautiful white and then it warms up and all the mess is gone.
 
The warmer is definitely better, but you cant acclimate to the weather when its 60 degrees different every 2 days.
Plus the ground was soaked already, then a foot of snow and forecasted at least 4 days of rain.... it's going to be a sloppy mess...
 
Aaron said:
If I block a scam robocall number, why in the world would I still want to hear the voicemails it leaves? So now I have to use an app that automatically answers and hangs up.
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I've been trying something lately and so far it works. When I get a call from a number I don't recognize, I accept but don't make a sound. After about 10 seconds it hangs up and none of them have called back yet.
 
Aaron said:
I've been trying something lately and so far it works. When I get a call from a number I don't recognize, I accept but don't make a sound. After about 10 seconds it hangs up and none of them have called back yet.
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Quiet before the major assault. I just hit ignore normally but when are the phone companies going to deal with this?
 
I started waiting to talk to someone and then asking what the company name was so I knew who to report to the FCC for spamming do not call list numbers. They hang up immediately, but it has reduced my unwanted calls to almost nothing.
 
This stupid ### #### ####### piece of #### boiler!!!!! I swear when I finally get it replaced, I'm going to take it out and shoot it in it's stupid face!!!!!!!!
 
ShawnF said:
This stupid ### #### ####### piece of #### boiler!!!!! I swear when I finally get it replaced, I'm going to take it out and shoot it in it's stupid face!!!!!!!!
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I hear baseball bats and stomping are also good methods of destruction.
 
ShawnF said:
This stupid ### #### ####### piece of #### boiler!!!!! I swear when I finally get it replaced, I'm going to take it out and shoot it in it's stupid face!!!!!!!!
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Dang Shawn, sorry the boiler is going all Murphy on you again. No jokes from me, I know it's the last thing you need happening when the weather is cold and you've put a hard day in at work.
 
The last couple months UPS has sucked doing deliveries. They used to put the package nicely by the door, hide things behind our planters if no one was home. Now I regularly find things tossed on to our front lawn, out in the open. It’s like an extra 10 steps to the front door people...
 
I went to get my SUV inspected this week and I get a call that the brakes didn't pass. What? I just put new pads on the rear calipers in the fall of 2018 and now they are telling me it's metal on metal. I heard the noise and thought I'd check it out when I changed over my winter tires to summer. I also planned to replace my rotors and really thought the noise was the pad rubbing on the rusted crust on the very outside of the rotor. Here's what stirred me up.....

So I ask what it would cost the place to slap a pair of pads on it to pass inspection. $200!!! Um, mid grade pads from NAPA only cost $36 for all 4 pads on both rear calipers. Then the lady scolded me about replacing the rotors so I asked what that would cost for both rear rotors and brake pads.....wait for it $600!!! I told them to fail the inspection and I'll do the work. Both rotors, and pads cost me $166.00. It took me a couple of hours because I decided to clean the clips and lube the slide pins / clips and other parts of the caliper because it was quite obvious my pad got hung up. To me that's just outrageous what they want to charge. On a lift, it's a 25 minute job for a mechanic and they charge you by a book that they flip open that tells them that the labor time is 1.5 hours instead of the actual time it takes. I also took the time to season the rotors and pads which I doubt they do at the repair place - doubt they would take the time to lube the slides and pad clips etc.....Sorry to rant if any of you are mechanics here.
 
Blade-meister said:
I went to get my SUV inspected this week and I get a call that the brakes didn't pass. What? I just put new pads on the rear calipers in the fall of 2018 and now they are telling me it's metal on metal. I heard the noise and thought I'd check it out when I changed over my winter tires to summer. I also planned to replace my rotors and really thought the noise was the pad rubbing on the rusted crust on the very outside of the rotor. Here's what stirred me up.....

So I ask what it would cost the place to slap a pair of pads on it to pass inspection. $200!!! Um, mid grade pads from NAPA only cost $36 for all 4 pads on both rear calipers. Then the lady scolded me about replacing the rotors so I asked what that would cost for both rear rotors and brake pads.....wait for it $600!!! I told them to fail the inspection and I'll do the work. Both rotors, and pads cost me $166.00. It took me a couple of hours because I decided to clean the clips and lube the slide pins / clips and other parts of the caliper because it was quite obvious my pad got hung up. To me that's just outrageous what they want to charge. On a lift, it's a 25 minute job for a mechanic and they charge you by a book that they flip open that tells them that the labor time is 1.5 hours instead of the actual time it takes. I also took the time to season the rotors and pads which I doubt they do at the repair place - doubt they would take the time to lube the slides and pad clips etc.....Sorry to rant if any of you are mechanics here.
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Glad you have the tools and ability...nerdy me would have to pay...
 
GearNoir said:
Glad you have the tools and ability...nerdy me would have to pay...
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I used to think brakes were hard because my Dad always told me there are two things you don't try to do yourself: electrical work and brake work. Well my brother in law is a Toyota master mechanic and he showed me how easy it was to replace your brakes and walked me through it. YouTube can help too and I usually check that one time before attempting it. Good thing too because there's this little rubber piece that you have to pry out of your old rotors and put it in your new rotors. I bet you could do it Chris. If you can change a tire, you could definitely put brake pads on your car.
 
I agree the prices charged by mechanics are out of line when compared to the actual time needed to do the job, even when you consider non-skilled time. I think the old time tables are way out of date and certainly not reflective of the time it might take a mechanic to do the job. I completely understand the rights of a business to charge for services and for a guy who had a skill you/I don’t to to be able to get paid for that skill. I just think the prices should be reflective of the time, effort and skill set not your dependency on the end result. A brake job is terribly easy and rather routine, but does require some skill time and effort. Doing it right and with skill is worth a bit extra but wow, that’s pricey.
And I agree, with a little video guidance and some of the same tools you used for your plumbing jobs you could certainly do your brakes. @GearNoir
 
This is the second time that UPS has taken it on themselves to change the delivery address that I gave to the shipper. The first time the package made its way to me eventually but this time it just appears to be lost. They sent it to an address across town for some reason.

And the claim process is convoluted and just sends me in circles. I'm about to cross stores that ship by UPS off my list whenever possible.
 
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