Ok, why are people "embarrassed" when their card is rejected? Don't allow a computer authorization message to make you feel bad. The computer isn't saying you are a bad person, it's just saying that for whatever reason it is not going to give the store an authorization code for the purchase, or that it *thinks* there are insufficient funds (whether that's true or not is a separate question) or whatever. Don't let it weigh down on your self-worth or self esteem.
Trust me, I work in retail and it happens multiple times a day. It can be a problem with the bank account, the authorization network, or whatever. Who cares. It says absolutely nothing about the person whose card it is.
Apparently, this was your first brush with anti-fraud account monitoring. I am sorry you were inconvenienced.
However, all you have to do if this has happened is to inform the credit card company that it is actually *you* using the card and that the purchases are valid. Have them put the sale on hold and go stand outside the checkout line and call the 800 # on the back of the card while you are in the store (the store might even let you use their phone if they think they will get a sale out of it) and tell the customer service rep that your charges were just rejected. They will say "oh yes, I see that your account was flagged by our fraud monitoring system" and you say,basically "well, it's me, please allow the charges" and they will, after asking you some verifying info.
I would not recommend making charges and "building up" your credit usage to avoid this when a simple call to the credit card company fixes it. YOu can even call them beforehand (and should) if you are planning on doing something unusual like traveling to another part of the country and charging two thousand dollars on the card when normally you never use it. They will put a note on your account so that your charges get approved.
I had the misfortune of buying what I believed was a car from a private seller on eBay but it turned out to be a dealer who had eBay accounts all over the place and after being conned I managed to connect the accounts to eight other accounts using telephone numbers and different cars he had sold and soon discovered other people were also looking for the same scam artist
In the first instance DO NOT CONTACT eBay as they are particularly keen to hide such activities from the public in an attempt to reassure members that it’s safe on eBay and will hide behind the data protection act if asked for detail needed in order to take action yourself.
DO REMEMBER TO SAVE OR PRINT the pages relating to any wrong doing before eBay removed them and changes the data in order to claim that you were not in fact the winning bidder as happened in my case and don’t be put off perusing eBay when they suddenly start replying to you complaints in a foreign language such as Flemish.
You can be sure eBay collected it fees from the person who conned me and have access to IP Addresses and bank details to stop these people opening a new account so from a commercial perspective they are on the side of the criminals however help is at hand with site such as www.Ebusters.co.uk, www.GoofBay.com which helps monitor and catch these criminals.
Shill bidder are rewarded by eBay and just in case they go too far in pushing the price up then eBay comes to the rescue with second chance offer so get it out your head about eBay helping protect members as they are not the solution when they are part of the problem and remember that the next time you suddenly find you won after all.
One last little tip is to save your time from complaining on eBay forums as you will soon discover such unfriendly topics are weighted to quickly disappear off the bottom of the screen and don’t believe all them cars that went unsold with no reserve at £0.99 with no bids as it’s a clear manipulation of the data by eBay as I have witnessed this myself.
I'd be happy if people in toilets had the courtesy to flush, period.
I've been into a public toilet at a restaurant. Where out of about a dozen toilets 8 still had crap in them. It may have been more, but I gave up after that.
Now mind you that was an extreme case. And may have been a deliberate act by some group (that many at the same time, it had to be a conspiracy.)
But still all too often I enter a stall, and find unfinished business.
Wow, people are putting money into 0% yield investments? I agree with weakonomist. It seems smarter to just put your money in an FDIC insured checking/savings account or just pay off debt. If you can stomach the thought of putting money into the financial turmoil of the current markets, you could do well (in a few years) by dollar cost averaging into some index funds.
My personal staples are pasta, cheap meats (hunks of beef and some SPAM on the side), and lost and lots of fresh vegetables.
My number one trick is clememntines, peaches and pears. You can toss a couple into a paper bag on your way out the door; just as convenient as chips and a hell of a lot tastier (and healthier). Fruit rules!
Get good at making a great breakfast strata or coffee cake. Make it your signature gift. The people hosting the party will be very thankful in the morning and they don't feel presured to serve it that night.
A CD and T-Bill are different animals. Most importantly, you can easily sell a t-bill you bought, there is no clearinghouse for CDs. This is why t-bills are so popular.
I like #4 and #5. I might also recommend buying Canadian and European currency. Or gold, but I don't dabble in such things, I'm a #3 guy myself.
So I guess what you're saying is that it would make better sense to leave my personal life insurance as is at the present $200,000.00 and just take out a Mortgage Life Insurance Policy for the difference between that and what I owe on my home which is $280,000.00?
I make a distinction between charitable giving and giving to people that I know. And I don't give expensive gifts to people I don't know unless (1) they request it and (2) I have reason to believe that it will improve their life in some substantial way (i.e. not cause them more problems than joy, like an iPod is wont to do).
Those who give to others should do so in a way that fits their own values.
Well, there you go. No need to go assigning terms like "paternalistic insecurity" to it.
with the Anonymous person who asks why we are all so squeamish. Everyone poops, everyone farts. Big deal.
While I've very occasionally flushed a second time to make sure everything went down, I'm proud to say I've never courtesy flushed just for the sake of covering a sound or a smell. What a waste of water.
Yes, I was one of those people in retail-20 years to be exact. I have seen it all and nothing surprises me. But as for someone working in retail being stupid here's my story.
Started as a cashier, worked my way up to a part time night manager and then continued working my way up to become a store manager. Oh, and after becoming a manager, I became a district manager where I oversaw 10 stores that grossed a million plus each along with 200-300 employees depending upon the season. And, I did this by the time I was 32. No cashier is stupid.
Seriously? Who cares if it smells, if you make noise, or whatever! It's a natural process people! I've never understood why so many people are squeamish about how their bodies are meant to function. In the grand scheme of things, it's really not important.
I'd never heard of a courtesy flush until now. It sounds like an incredible waste.
To posts #8, 9, and 11, if you let it soak a bit, it'll soften and go down just fine. You don't have to send it down "in batches" to keep your toilet from over flowing.
I don't know about anyone else, but I try to have those number 2 type bathroom visits at home, where we all know what poop and gas smells and sounds like. If I'm stuck away from home and just have to go, I do the courtesy flush thing. Living green is good, but not when it causes others to feel green around the gills. Moderation in all things, as my mama always said.
I worked retail off and on throughout my student years, and this post brought back a lot of memories. It was honest work, and I wasn't ashamed of it. I learned that commission-based sales is bad for customer service.
Where I live in Australia is still in the grips of a drought and water restrictions, which look to get tougher with summer approaching, and so we are very careful about the water we use.
Like the European toilets discussed, we have a dual flush system and I have never had any problems with blockages with only one flush, no matter what the, for the want of a better word, load is. I do worry just how much toilet paper you guys are sending down there if this is an issue for you, and if maybe we should be more worried about the trees used than the water wasted.
The idea of flushing continually or in batches seems very strange to me. But then when I was in the US I couldn't get over the vast amounts of water your toilets seemed to use anyway.
Considering how obsessive some of you seem about the matter I feel that telling you what my niece was taught at school about flushing could send you all into shock, you have been warned.
"If its yellow, let it mellow (ie don't flush)
If its brown flush it down"
It is a requirement to treat the water before it can be release back into the river or ocean. When you double flush, there is the extra chemicals, bacteria, and energy it cost to treat the extra flushed water. So the less you use, the less you have to treat. There is the environment cost of producing chemical, bacteria, and energy used in the treatment process.
Though water is a renewable resource, because of people moving into areas like the Las Vegas or New Mexico, where there is naturally little water, you still have to get the water to those places (energy used to transport the water), etc.
So no matter how renewable the resource there is still an environmental component to it.
In our house, if we have a major poop that also requires major wiping, we flush the poop first, then wipe and flush the tp. Much better than a clogged toilet that requires a plunger and several flushes to clear.
for those with shy hinnys, picking a time to go when there is less traffic always makes me feel better, you can make all the noise you want and no one knows
The best line to get when you're working in retail on a holiday. "It's too bad you guys have to work on *insert holiday here*" You just want to look at them and tell them that you wouldn't have to be working on (oh, say Thanksgiving) if they didn't insist on wandering out to buy a puzzle book, candy bar, and a bottle of pop.
The next best line is when it's mid-August in Iowa and the air conditioners are on the fritz. So it's probably 85 plus degrees and you are stuck wearing black pants and a tshirt and people come in wearing shorts, tank tops, and sandals and say that it's just so hot in here.
Retail is definitely a field you have to be "born" to do. I worked just over four years in retail. Two different companies and three different stores. I'm lucky I made it out alive and stayed out of jail. Although with some of those people.... I swear not a jury in the world would have tried to convict me... ;)
i noticed when i first put the ingredients together it was not bubbling. i came back about 7 hours later and it was but it was very small bubbles almost like it was boiling is this normal?
also when i came back the mash had dropped in the pot about 3 inches
Is there a code for this unit? Please advise. Thanx!
Ok, why are people "embarrassed" when their card is rejected? Don't allow a computer authorization message to make you feel bad. The computer isn't saying you are a bad person, it's just saying that for whatever reason it is not going to give the store an authorization code for the purchase, or that it *thinks* there are insufficient funds (whether that's true or not is a separate question) or whatever. Don't let it weigh down on your self-worth or self esteem.
Trust me, I work in retail and it happens multiple times a day. It can be a problem with the bank account, the authorization network, or whatever. Who cares. It says absolutely nothing about the person whose card it is.
Think about it.
Apparently, this was your first brush with anti-fraud account monitoring. I am sorry you were inconvenienced.
However, all you have to do if this has happened is to inform the credit card company that it is actually *you* using the card and that the purchases are valid. Have them put the sale on hold and go stand outside the checkout line and call the 800 # on the back of the card while you are in the store (the store might even let you use their phone if they think they will get a sale out of it) and tell the customer service rep that your charges were just rejected. They will say "oh yes, I see that your account was flagged by our fraud monitoring system" and you say,basically "well, it's me, please allow the charges" and they will, after asking you some verifying info.
I would not recommend making charges and "building up" your credit usage to avoid this when a simple call to the credit card company fixes it. YOu can even call them beforehand (and should) if you are planning on doing something unusual like traveling to another part of the country and charging two thousand dollars on the card when normally you never use it. They will put a note on your account so that your charges get approved.
It really is a feature, not a bug.
I had the misfortune of buying what I believed was a car from a private seller on eBay but it turned out to be a dealer who had eBay accounts all over the place and after being conned I managed to connect the accounts to eight other accounts using telephone numbers and different cars he had sold and soon discovered other people were also looking for the same scam artist
In the first instance DO NOT CONTACT eBay as they are particularly keen to hide such activities from the public in an attempt to reassure members that it’s safe on eBay and will hide behind the data protection act if asked for detail needed in order to take action yourself.
DO REMEMBER TO SAVE OR PRINT the pages relating to any wrong doing before eBay removed them and changes the data in order to claim that you were not in fact the winning bidder as happened in my case and don’t be put off perusing eBay when they suddenly start replying to you complaints in a foreign language such as Flemish.
You can be sure eBay collected it fees from the person who conned me and have access to IP Addresses and bank details to stop these people opening a new account so from a commercial perspective they are on the side of the criminals however help is at hand with site such as www.Ebusters.co.uk, www.GoofBay.com which helps monitor and catch these criminals.
If your not convince that eBay are involved in such illegal activities then see http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/24/ebay_shill_lawsuit/ that will maybe change your mind.
Shill bidder are rewarded by eBay and just in case they go too far in pushing the price up then eBay comes to the rescue with second chance offer so get it out your head about eBay helping protect members as they are not the solution when they are part of the problem and remember that the next time you suddenly find you won after all.
One last little tip is to save your time from complaining on eBay forums as you will soon discover such unfriendly topics are weighted to quickly disappear off the bottom of the screen and don’t believe all them cars that went unsold with no reserve at £0.99 with no bids as it’s a clear manipulation of the data by eBay as I have witnessed this myself.
I'd be happy if people in toilets had the courtesy to flush, period.
I've been into a public toilet at a restaurant. Where out of about a dozen toilets 8 still had crap in them. It may have been more, but I gave up after that.
Now mind you that was an extreme case. And may have been a deliberate act by some group (that many at the same time, it had to be a conspiracy.)
But still all too often I enter a stall, and find unfinished business.
Wow, people are putting money into 0% yield investments? I agree with weakonomist. It seems smarter to just put your money in an FDIC insured checking/savings account or just pay off debt. If you can stomach the thought of putting money into the financial turmoil of the current markets, you could do well (in a few years) by dollar cost averaging into some index funds.
Hi there, if you want to get Green Switch for you home, office, or Hotel, go to
www.greenswitchteam.com
or email sean.ronan@greenswitchteam.com
Have a great day.
Sean
FYI- you can split the switch so the the plug for the clock does not get shut off when the green switch is enabled.
My personal staples are pasta, cheap meats (hunks of beef and some SPAM on the side), and lost and lots of fresh vegetables.
My number one trick is clememntines, peaches and pears. You can toss a couple into a paper bag on your way out the door; just as convenient as chips and a hell of a lot tastier (and healthier). Fruit rules!
Get good at making a great breakfast strata or coffee cake. Make it your signature gift. The people hosting the party will be very thankful in the morning and they don't feel presured to serve it that night.
A CD and T-Bill are different animals. Most importantly, you can easily sell a t-bill you bought, there is no clearinghouse for CDs. This is why t-bills are so popular.
I like #4 and #5. I might also recommend buying Canadian and European currency. Or gold, but I don't dabble in such things, I'm a #3 guy myself.
Thank you Nora.
So I guess what you're saying is that it would make better sense to leave my personal life insurance as is at the present $200,000.00 and just take out a Mortgage Life Insurance Policy for the difference between that and what I owe on my home which is $280,000.00?
I make a distinction between charitable giving and giving to people that I know. And I don't give expensive gifts to people I don't know unless (1) they request it and (2) I have reason to believe that it will improve their life in some substantial way (i.e. not cause them more problems than joy, like an iPod is wont to do).
Those who give to others should do so in a way that fits their own values.
Well, there you go. No need to go assigning terms like "paternalistic insecurity" to it.
with the Anonymous person who asks why we are all so squeamish. Everyone poops, everyone farts. Big deal.
While I've very occasionally flushed a second time to make sure everything went down, I'm proud to say I've never courtesy flushed just for the sake of covering a sound or a smell. What a waste of water.
Why don't we just stop saying "excuse me" when we bump into someone, too? That extra breath is using up valuable air.
Sorry to wait until I disagree to leave a comment. I enjoy all the Wise Bread bloggers tremendously. :)
Yes, I was one of those people in retail-20 years to be exact. I have seen it all and nothing surprises me. But as for someone working in retail being stupid here's my story.
Started as a cashier, worked my way up to a part time night manager and then continued working my way up to become a store manager. Oh, and after becoming a manager, I became a district manager where I oversaw 10 stores that grossed a million plus each along with 200-300 employees depending upon the season. And, I did this by the time I was 32. No cashier is stupid.
Seriously? Who cares if it smells, if you make noise, or whatever! It's a natural process people! I've never understood why so many people are squeamish about how their bodies are meant to function. In the grand scheme of things, it's really not important.
I'd never heard of a courtesy flush until now. It sounds like an incredible waste.
To posts #8, 9, and 11, if you let it soak a bit, it'll soften and go down just fine. You don't have to send it down "in batches" to keep your toilet from over flowing.
I don't know about anyone else, but I try to have those number 2 type bathroom visits at home, where we all know what poop and gas smells and sounds like. If I'm stuck away from home and just have to go, I do the courtesy flush thing. Living green is good, but not when it causes others to feel green around the gills. Moderation in all things, as my mama always said.
I worked retail off and on throughout my student years, and this post brought back a lot of memories. It was honest work, and I wasn't ashamed of it. I learned that commission-based sales is bad for customer service.
Where I live in Australia is still in the grips of a drought and water restrictions, which look to get tougher with summer approaching, and so we are very careful about the water we use.
Like the European toilets discussed, we have a dual flush system and I have never had any problems with blockages with only one flush, no matter what the, for the want of a better word, load is. I do worry just how much toilet paper you guys are sending down there if this is an issue for you, and if maybe we should be more worried about the trees used than the water wasted.
The idea of flushing continually or in batches seems very strange to me. But then when I was in the US I couldn't get over the vast amounts of water your toilets seemed to use anyway.
Considering how obsessive some of you seem about the matter I feel that telling you what my niece was taught at school about flushing could send you all into shock, you have been warned.
"If its yellow, let it mellow (ie don't flush)
If its brown flush it down"
It is a requirement to treat the water before it can be release back into the river or ocean. When you double flush, there is the extra chemicals, bacteria, and energy it cost to treat the extra flushed water. So the less you use, the less you have to treat. There is the environment cost of producing chemical, bacteria, and energy used in the treatment process.
Though water is a renewable resource, because of people moving into areas like the Las Vegas or New Mexico, where there is naturally little water, you still have to get the water to those places (energy used to transport the water), etc.
So no matter how renewable the resource there is still an environmental component to it.
In our house, if we have a major poop that also requires major wiping, we flush the poop first, then wipe and flush the tp. Much better than a clogged toilet that requires a plunger and several flushes to clear.
for those with shy hinnys, picking a time to go when there is less traffic always makes me feel better, you can make all the noise you want and no one knows
The best line to get when you're working in retail on a holiday. "It's too bad you guys have to work on *insert holiday here*" You just want to look at them and tell them that you wouldn't have to be working on (oh, say Thanksgiving) if they didn't insist on wandering out to buy a puzzle book, candy bar, and a bottle of pop.
The next best line is when it's mid-August in Iowa and the air conditioners are on the fritz. So it's probably 85 plus degrees and you are stuck wearing black pants and a tshirt and people come in wearing shorts, tank tops, and sandals and say that it's just so hot in here.
Retail is definitely a field you have to be "born" to do. I worked just over four years in retail. Two different companies and three different stores. I'm lucky I made it out alive and stayed out of jail. Although with some of those people.... I swear not a jury in the world would have tried to convict me... ;)
i noticed when i first put the ingredients together it was not bubbling. i came back about 7 hours later and it was but it was very small bubbles almost like it was boiling is this normal?
also when i came back the mash had dropped in the pot about 3 inches