Guys like Rockin’ are always touting the importance of interaction with the great unwashed via the internet.
For every good comment I see online, there are nine ignorant ones.
I’m all for freedom of speech …. But also for freedom from speech.
Category: product complaints
this pingpong table is CRAP – Escalade Sports
I went online to Escalade Sports to email them my concerns about one of their products. … But Escalade has no contact by email.
Red flag. You can only telephone customer service … and only during Office Hours.
Have you tried to phone a customer service number lately? Forget it.
Instead I’ll post my rant here. On twitter. And on Facebook.
Model no T8098F sold by Escalade Sports of Illinois is garbage. I volunteered to try to assemble one. It was to be a Christmas present.
Problems:
• parts missing #30 and #31.
• too complicated
• difficult to assemble
• cheap parts
• table top made of particle board … are you surprised the warranty is only 90 days?
THIS IS A GAME TABLE. DO NOT SIT, STAND, LEAN, WALK OR JUMP ON TABLE! FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THIS CAUTION COULD RESULT IN PERSONAL INJURY AND/OR PROPERTY DAMAGE!
If you climb up on this table, it will collapse. … There’s no chance kids will climb up on a table, is there?
Worst of all, this table is shipped in 4 sections so you have a “join” in the centre of the table
No matter how carefully you screw the two sides of the top together, a ball will not bounce “true” off that join.
The T8098F pingpong table is CRAP. Don’t buy one. We’ll be returning ours to Escalade Sports via their distributor Sports Authority Canadian Tire. I’ll report back on how that goes.
Canadian Tire refunded the money without a peep. Thanks.
User Manual (pdf)
airlines to waste MORE of your time
Via #jeffjarvis Grrrrr. RT @JPBarlow:
The TSA, accountable to no one, imposes idiotic new rules which the public can’t appeal.
NY Times – Additional Layer of Restrictions Is Imposed on Airline Passengers
One idiot gets through screening in Amsterdam. Now hundreds of thousands of flyers every day will be even more inconvenienced. Unnecessarily.
Does taking off your shoes before boarding make you feel any safer?
Recall that Newark airport in 2006 flunked 20 of 22 security tests operated by undercover federal agents. They failed to spot items including concealed bombs and guns.
Even if all passengers are forced to fly naked, it still won’t be possible to 100% deter idiots who aspire to be martyrs.
This is “security theatre“, plain and simple.
Security theater consists of security countermeasures intended to provide the feeling of improved security while doing little or nothing to actually improve security. …
There seems to be no way we can protest over zealous security measures in airports. Aside from avoiding flying. Avoid flying via the U.S.A. if you can.
Sure U.S. airlines will over-react. But Air Canada was one of the quickest to jump on the bandwagon:
… Air Canada’s Web site read, “during the final hour of flight customers must remain seated, will not be allowed to access carry-on baggage, or have personal belongings or other items on their laps.” …
Another reason to fly WestJet, if you can.
Scotland’s biggest airline QUITS
I had a great deal this past summer, flying Glasgow to Calgary for CAD$227.24 on FlyGlobeSpan.
I drove them under …
Flyglobespan, Scotland’s biggest airline, has become the latest airline to go bust. The airline made the announcement yesterday, canceling all of its flights and firing all 800 of its employees.
The workers got a bad deal getting fired just before Christmas, but at least they get to suffer at home, unlike the more than 4,500 passengers left stranded in foreign countries. …
why you should hate Rogers Communication
To find out, read this article – Rogers charges for ‘free’ text messages
… The (Better Business Bureau) in Burnaby, B.C., has received 581 consumer complaints about Rogers Communications in the last three years. It has given Rogers an “F” rating for failing to resolve many of those complaints to the customer’s satisfaction. …
The big 3 Telcos in Canada (Rogers, Bell and Telus) are locked into an environment where they each try to out-do each other in how to deceive and over-charge their customers.
Most recently it’s been the cash grab of 15 cents per incoming text message. But all three of these companies are not trustworthy.
I call for government to regulate them. (This is one case where government regulation might be better than the so-called “free” market.)
They have better phone service in Bangladesh than Canada!
Politicians … No matter how you bungle with intervention into the Canadian telephone market, your voters will appreciate your efforts.
We hate phone companies even more than we hate politicians.
I’m watching closely the launch of the newest phone competitor, Wind Mobile. Here’s their first customer …
iPhone 3-year contract in Canada only
Does any other nation in the world have a mandatory three-year contract?
We now have 3 TelCos offering the iPhone. Not one of them decided to compete by offering a 2yr contract, standard in the U.S.A.
No iPhone for me. … Or maybe I do need to unlock an iPhone 3.
no rent-a-car in Maui
For the first week on Earth’s most popular island I did have a rent-a-car.
But I gave it up for my second week.
Why?
Normally I feel it’s essential to have your own wheels when traveling in the U.S.A., but (hopefully) Maui is different. They have a pretty good public transportation system called Maui Bus. And I’ll be several days this week on foot in the middle of a volcano in Haleakala National Park.
The cost of a rent-a-car is about double what I paid only 2yrs-ago. Over $50/day … plus fuel. The agent at Dollar insisted I buy the $13/day extra insurance. INSISTED.
Fuel is US$3.24 / American gallon. But I had to pay $4.39 in distant Hana. (Don’t you wish you owned that service station, the only one on that side of the island.)
The average holiday maker in Maui spends $171/day. … My target budget is about $40. Ha. So far I’ve spent at least $70/day despite sleeping in a tent.
Yesterday I moved into the Banana Bungalow hostel. Nice.
They offer “free” tours each day. Have a great kitchen. Free WiFi.
The location is in historic (rundown) Wailuku town, the administrative centre of the Island. Low rent. There are no suitcase tourists here. We mingle with locals, a racially diverse crowd of Asian, European and Pacific Island descent.
It will be a different Maui experience. I won’t be able to stop and gawk anywhere as I did with the car. Tooling all over the island. The highlight of Maui so far has been the motor touring, actually.
Having a rent-a-car was a worry though, in the States. I don’t trust insurance companies to deliver if I did have a major problem. They’ve been devaluing the payoff for claims in recent years. And I don’t really understand the specifics of …
Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) or Loss Damage Waiver (LDW)
Personal Accident Insurance (PAI)
Additional Liability Insurance (ALI)
Personal Effects Coverage (PEC)
Do YOU have confidence you’re actually covered when you rent a car?
downloading library audio books
Yup.
I finally did it.
Downloaded an audio book from my local public library website. And transferred it from a Mac to my iPod.
For years audio books have been available. But I found it impossible to download them to an Apple computer.
The Calgary Public Library opted to partner with a company called OverDrive, Inc. . (boo, hiss)
I doubt there’s a more complicated, difficult way to download an audio book than the disaster called Overdrive Media Console. You must choose from downloads in 12 different formats!
Complicated, or what?
In the mean time iTunes, Amazon and Audible downloads are one click from any computer. Dead simple.
… OverDrive has faced criticism from some libraries and library patrons for its use of digital rights management protection technology from Microsoft on the audiobooks it distributes. This form of content protection prevents Apple Mac and iPod users from using digital audiobooks from their library’s download website on their Apple devices.
In March 2008, OverDrive announced that it would distribute a collection of around 3,000 audiobooks in the MP3 format. These audiobooks will be compatible with most digital audio players including the iPod.
On November 19, 2008, OverDrive also released the OverDrive Media Console for Mac, which allows Mac owners to download and listen to MP3 audiobooks from their library on a home computer. …
They’ve done everything they can to keep their downloads off the #1 listening device in the world. Especially if you use an Apple computer.
I’ve yet another reason to hate digital rights management protection technology from Microsoft.
Libraries … If you don’t want me to “borrow” audio books, no problem. But don’t pretend you offer this service, then make the process so difficult borrowers want to kill themselves.
My advice. Dump OverDrive, Inc.
There’s no “fixing” that mess.
Canadian government wants to read your email
I can’t understand why Canadian politicians are so easily influenced by the big American lobbyists.
Lobbyists must think Canada is a back door in the battle to win American legislation. Unhappily for them, Obama is no friend to those clinging to outdated copyright law.
This time it’s the Liberals adding even more intrusive provisions into legislation.
From Boing Boing:
… C-27 is the Canadian anti-spam bill that comes out of committee on Monday. The opposition Liberals have proposed amendments which appear to have been drafted by copyright and telecom lobbyists. They would allow for surreptitious installation of computer programs and – even more outrageously – would allow copyright owners to secretly access information on users’ computers. …
Read the full details on the blog of Canada’s best watchdog, Michael Geist:
The Copyright Lobby’s Secret Pressure On the Anti-Spam Bill
From that link you can contact Industry Minister Tony Clement. Or other Canadian politicians to weigh in with your opinion.
I did.
Rick McCharles 