We live half an hour away from Six Flags Great Adventure amusement park in Jackson, NJ. Every year, we would buy a family season pass to the place. The economics are pretty straight-forward: A single visit to the park is so expensive that even if you go just twice during…
Consumer energy markets have been deregulated for a few years now. A household in New Jersey has a choice of buying their electricity and/or gas from a range of suppliers. In theory, that gives the consumer the opportunity to shop around for the best rates and save a bundle on…
Among the recent junk in our mailbox, Natasha received a cruise offer. Straight to the recycling bin, normally. Except! This one was addressed to her maiden name, correctly spelled in all its 13-character glory. And yet, it had our current address. How would a marketing company be able to tie…
Along with uncounted others, I have been unpleasantly – to use a mild term – surprised by Netflix’s changes in the pricing structure announced a couple of weeks ago. Without offering me any additional services or perks, they decided unilaterally to jack up my monthly subscription 60%. Noting the uncanny…
When I went abroad for the first time while owning an iPad, I decided to try out AT&T international 3G plan. The verdict: Never again, it’s a waste of money. The plan is supposed to be for a full month, but the data allowances are ridiculously un-balanced towards minuscule amounts…
For the third time in about a year, Cablevision is in a dispute with a content provider that prevents us from watching channels that we like. First, it was HGTV and The Food Channel (no big problem for me, much bigger problem for Natasha) – “blackout” lasted for about a…
When I first settled in New York City, the single public transportation fare was $1.10. Today, it’s $2.25. More than 100% increase over the course of nearly 20 years. Adjusting for inflation, however, it comes to only about 32% over that time. At the beginning of this month, New Jersey…
A friend was buying event tickets online. She typed in her credit card number and all of the required information and received the following response on the screen: Your transaction could not be completed because of Reason #2. Who designs these things, anyway?
It turns out that even in this age of DIY web-enabled travel planning, a good old travel agent has its uses. Case in point. Natasha is planning a half-week getaway for the two of us and, as always, she has spent considerable time online figuring out the most enticing place…
I know quite a number of technology people with strong opinions about Microsoft and its products. Usually, not too positive ones. That does not prevent most of those people continue to use Microsoft products all the time, especially seeing how PC software have always been easier and cheaper to come…
Natasha was shopping for new beds and mattresses before we could move into the new house. She walked into a local franchise of Sleepy’s. The shop was empty save for a lone salesperson. He eagerly approached his prospective customer and offered his help. What followed was an in-depth investigation of…
So I had 11 direct inquiries about our timeshare week that we put up for donation a while ago. I turned everybody away and, lately, directed them to contact the sales department of the closing company dealing with my donation. The closing company did not make any contacts with me…
I only once, in passing (look for Florida in that post), mentioned on this blog that we own a timeshare. Without going much into pros and cons of such a possession, we have long concluded that it would be to our benefit to get rid of it. I had our…
In the first few months upon our arrival in England, I occasionally ranted about what I perceived as inadequate customer service prevalent in British business. (Various older articles filed under Customerography make mention of our aggravating experiences in that regard; one of the best examples was in this article.) With…
A few weeks ago, one of our most important appliances – the food processor – started malfunctioning. As soon as it was plugged in, it would start whirring and would not stop unless unplugged. While theoretically still usable, it became a nuisance to operate, scuffling some of Natasha’s most favorite…
If anyone cares how the call limit debacle ended, feel free to read on to learn how it surprisingly concluded to my [almost] entire satisfaction. When the phone bill came a couple of weeks ago, I immediately called the customer service and disputed the charges on our calls to Russia.…
I have not mentioned the concept of the call limit in the past, and yesterday we unwittingly ran afoul of it. In a nutshell, when a landline phone service is being established in the UK, the phone company determines the monetary limit that the customer should stay under during any…
Say, you browse a store, any store, and come across an attractive item that is on sale. You’d be lukewarm to the idea of obtaining said item at its original listed price, but an ability to buy it at a discount closes the deal for you. Now, suppose, as you…
I have written before (say, here) about the calling plan that we have in the UK. The name of the plan is TalkTalk and it is with the company called Carphone Warehouse. For a basic monthly charge of £20, we do not pay anything at all for landline calls. And…
Tying a few of old threads today. Since the last time I wrote about my year-long adventure with the gas service, it has finally reached a closure. It took over a month to properly register with British Gas that the meter at our house was not the one that was…