i'm not really an expert, nor can I say i've ever stolen from a photographer, but this article is interesting to me because there does seem to be so many different business models and policies for different types of products.
Imagine if I got to bill like a photographer even though I am a web designer? Charging for each visit to the page, instead of as a one time fee and giving up the rights to the original "art" of the site.
Or, imagine if I charged like a cell phone provider for my web hosting services, by the minute.
The only thing I have learned is that it's good to be in charge, and to be the one making the rules. Create your own platform, and have people play your game instead of the other way around.
I feel like it's sort of wrong if you agreed not to copy the photos. What my hubby and I did for our wedding photos was to order the digital disk and made sure that we can print as many as we can. Then we printed our album and prints at Snapfish which is cheaper than the photographer's fee. Our photographer is happy with the fee we paid him for being at the wedding and we did all the printing and album arrangement on our own and saved a bundle.
You're breaking the law. How far do you need to go to save some money? This shouldn't be it. You're stealing from the photographer. This is their copyright. It's like passing off some published Stephen King book as your own. Sure, you may not be selling the pictures, but it's still against the law.
The interweb works fine, but the consumer has to know what he/she is buying. There is no fine print on the website, the website lists the two pay-as-you-go plans very clearly; in fact, in bold it says: 'WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND PAY AS YOU GO UNLIMITED TALK' and demonstrates the savings. You saved a whopping $40 by buying an entry level phone on the site as opposed to simply going to one of our stores supporting retail and having a human explain things. I 'port' numbers from other carriers all day long and rarely have a problem, the only time is when the customer does not have their OSP (old service provider) info correct; do not blame at&t for that, blame Virgin for a sorry customer service interface. Sorry about all that, but sheesh . . .
Thanks for the informative post - it jives closely with the post i have on my blog today about getting FREE movie rentals all the time with the Redbox movie machines at mcdonalds:
Virgin Mobile doesn't let you do that, I tried with several phones. It has to do with the fact that Virgin Mobile has to basically activate the phone for you, and they won't do it with anything other than a VM phone. My wife had a beautiful Motorola phone but it wouldn't fly with VM.
Can you not simply buy a new phone and switch SIM cards? I've done this several times. You have to pay for a new phone but you can keep the plan and number.
The virgin mobile phones has to do with deals between the prepaid company any and the phone manufacturers?
Either way, the sub par phones are totally worth it for me in exchange for an amazing service (and the privileged of staying far, far away from contract services, ugh). I may upgrade to the snapper or go back to the K10, depending on finances.
There are some things that you can only learn from first-hand experience. But, to the extent that you can learn stuff without first-hand experience--from your parents and teachers, from watching your friends, from seeing your neighbors, from the TV and the news and the internet--there's a huge payoff in short-circuiting the costs you'd have to pay for first-hand experience.
This is where culture can pay off big. Culture can help you know that too much is more than you need without you having to actually buy too much stuff before you know. But you need to go with the culture of, let's say, Benjamin Franklin, rather than the culture that says "borrow whatever it takes to keep up with the Joneses, and hope to luck out with a winning lottery ticket."
Of course, it's never just one thing. You can only learn so much from your cultural background and your upbringing. At some point, you have to give it a try yourself. Because, sometimes, your culture and your family are wrong.
There's always an opportunity in difficult times. With interest rates this low it expands the opportunity to save money or make a wise investment. Great post Xin!
The best part about Southwest is that if you change your flight itinerary, they don't charge you a fee - you just pay the difference in the airfares (I used this when I had booked a $99 flight from Houston to Las Vegas, but later found a $114 flight straight from San Antonio the week before Christmas). If you don't mind the lack of plane food (who WOULD?), Southwest is a great option, and their prices aren't generally too bad either. They frequently have airfare sales also, which I have delivered to my inbox, which is how I discovered my Christmas deal! :o)
The downside is that if the flight costs LESS, you can rarely if ever get your money back, and I think you have to go through some ridiculous process to try to get any of it back!
You can wash them and re-use them. Wood is naturally anti-bacterial, and once they're washed, they aren't "dirty." Toss them when they wear out. The bamboo sticks are very sturdy and last for a long time. My family has done this for fifty years.
If you're really cheap, take them home from the restaurant after you have used them.
...the accent was a thick Indian dialect following an obvious scripted routine. But if this CSR was in America, I'll have to take your word. It's a bit odd though to say "don't use the internets" as that would imply att.com is not a reliable way to buy service and should be avoided. Something AT&T would not advocate as it cuts out a lot of the middlemen and reduces their prices. Plus, the refurbished phones we wanted weren't available in any of stores we visited. Hardly a good choice for the consumer.
My paradox is this: until I made enough money to be in a situation where I could choose what to purchase, I could choose not to waste money on stuff I didn't need. I had to try out "the good stuff" to know what it was like. Then, I had to have enough money (or know I could make enough money) where not wanting it wasn't "sour grapes".
I had to own enough stuff to know that I owned too much.
The same goes for community involvement. Until I could choose to cut back on work, there wasn't enough time to participate in politics (which is a lot of work). This speaks to comments in another thread where another Guest said folks should work two jobs if their job didn't pay enough -- if you're working all the time, you can't participate in your community or in the democratic process (except through voting).
AT&T is the king of nickel&diming. When I moved into my last place, I signed up for a 12-month DSL contract two weeks after I moved in (I had ordered the land line before I moved in). When I was ready to move out at the end of a year, I called to cancel my landline and DSL. I was told that since I was canceling the landline before the end of the DSL contract, that would terminate the DSL (they can't have one without another), and that would generate a $100 early termination fee. I told them I was willing to pay the full term of my contract, I just needed the landline canceled since I was moving out. I was told I couldn't cancel the landline without the DSL also being canceled, and I couldn't be billed for the remainder of the DSL contract (two weeks) if it was canceled.
After a couple of hours going back and forth, I hung up, contacted the rental management (great company), and asked if anyone was renting the place the next day after I moved out. There wasn't, so I called AT&T back and set the landline and DSL cancellation for the day the contracted ended, even though I was moved out and left an empty apartment. $20 vs. $100. Their inability to incorporate common sense into their billing practices and allow customers to honor their contracts under different circumstances lost them a customer for life.
I have nine years with at&t and share your disappointment with the level of service you experienced. I dispute the notion that at&t wireless transferred you to an Indian call center - we do not have Indian call centers. That is what you get for trying to use the internets, you should have gone into a retail store and they would have been able to get everything situated the first time. As a customer you chose your plan - not the company. Better luck next time.
If you want to clean your wool sweaters at home, hand wash them. Get a no-rinse wool wash (Soak and Eucalan are the knitting world's favorites--available online or in any yarn store), fill the sink with some cool water, and go to town. Lay flat to dry (after rolling gently between two towels to get out the excess water). The thing you really want to avoid with wool is hot water + agitation.
i'm not really an expert, nor can I say i've ever stolen from a photographer, but this article is interesting to me because there does seem to be so many different business models and policies for different types of products.
Imagine if I got to bill like a photographer even though I am a web designer? Charging for each visit to the page, instead of as a one time fee and giving up the rights to the original "art" of the site.
Or, imagine if I charged like a cell phone provider for my web hosting services, by the minute.
The only thing I have learned is that it's good to be in charge, and to be the one making the rules. Create your own platform, and have people play your game instead of the other way around.
Thanks for the thought provoking article!
I love Couchsurfing.com. It helped me out of a lot of jams. I'm glad to see it get some good publicity here.
I feel like it's sort of wrong if you agreed not to copy the photos. What my hubby and I did for our wedding photos was to order the digital disk and made sure that we can print as many as we can. Then we printed our album and prints at Snapfish which is cheaper than the photographer's fee. Our photographer is happy with the fee we paid him for being at the wedding and we did all the printing and album arrangement on our own and saved a bundle.
You're breaking the law. How far do you need to go to save some money? This shouldn't be it. You're stealing from the photographer. This is their copyright. It's like passing off some published Stephen King book as your own. Sure, you may not be selling the pictures, but it's still against the law.
You SHOULD feel guilty.
Awww... I used to live in San Diego. I'll be there in spirit. Best of luck Wisebread.
Be safe out there Jeff. We'll be rooting and praying for you.
Wendy
Yours is by far the superior deal! Thanks for the link love.
where is take one; the link is circular
I used to do a lot of couch surfing back in college. Those were some of the best times of my life. Way to go Jeff. Stay safe!
Check into geocaching and waymarking. Both of these can give you some new perspectives on your hometown, or wherever you are right now!
http://www.geocaching.com
http://www.waymarking.com
The interweb works fine, but the consumer has to know what he/she is buying. There is no fine print on the website, the website lists the two pay-as-you-go plans very clearly; in fact, in bold it says: 'WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND PAY AS YOU GO UNLIMITED TALK' and demonstrates the savings. You saved a whopping $40 by buying an entry level phone on the site as opposed to simply going to one of our stores supporting retail and having a human explain things. I 'port' numbers from other carriers all day long and rarely have a problem, the only time is when the customer does not have their OSP (old service provider) info correct; do not blame at&t for that, blame Virgin for a sorry customer service interface. Sorry about all that, but sheesh . . .
Thanks for the informative post - it jives closely with the post i have on my blog today about getting FREE movie rentals all the time with the Redbox movie machines at mcdonalds:
http://biblemoneymatters.blogspot.com/2008/01/free-movie-rentals.html
Hey great post! I can't wait to hear more of your adventures on the open road :) Like a modern day Kerouac you are :p
May you have a peaceful & interesting journey. I would definately offer my couch if you decide to do a UK tour.
Virgin Mobile doesn't let you do that, I tried with several phones. It has to do with the fact that Virgin Mobile has to basically activate the phone for you, and they won't do it with anything other than a VM phone. My wife had a beautiful Motorola phone but it wouldn't fly with VM.
Can you not simply buy a new phone and switch SIM cards? I've done this several times. You have to pay for a new phone but you can keep the plan and number.
The virgin mobile phones has to do with deals between the prepaid company any and the phone manufacturers?
Either way, the sub par phones are totally worth it for me in exchange for an amazing service (and the privileged of staying far, far away from contract services, ugh). I may upgrade to the snapper or go back to the K10, depending on finances.
There are some things that you can only learn from first-hand experience. But, to the extent that you can learn stuff without first-hand experience--from your parents and teachers, from watching your friends, from seeing your neighbors, from the TV and the news and the internet--there's a huge payoff in short-circuiting the costs you'd have to pay for first-hand experience.
This is where culture can pay off big. Culture can help you know that too much is more than you need without you having to actually buy too much stuff before you know. But you need to go with the culture of, let's say, Benjamin Franklin, rather than the culture that says "borrow whatever it takes to keep up with the Joneses, and hope to luck out with a winning lottery ticket."
Of course, it's never just one thing. You can only learn so much from your cultural background and your upbringing. At some point, you have to give it a try yourself. Because, sometimes, your culture and your family are wrong.
There's always an opportunity in difficult times. With interest rates this low it expands the opportunity to save money or make a wise investment. Great post Xin!
The best part about Southwest is that if you change your flight itinerary, they don't charge you a fee - you just pay the difference in the airfares (I used this when I had booked a $99 flight from Houston to Las Vegas, but later found a $114 flight straight from San Antonio the week before Christmas). If you don't mind the lack of plane food (who WOULD?), Southwest is a great option, and their prices aren't generally too bad either. They frequently have airfare sales also, which I have delivered to my inbox, which is how I discovered my Christmas deal! :o)
The downside is that if the flight costs LESS, you can rarely if ever get your money back, and I think you have to go through some ridiculous process to try to get any of it back!
You can wash them and re-use them. Wood is naturally anti-bacterial, and once they're washed, they aren't "dirty." Toss them when they wear out. The bamboo sticks are very sturdy and last for a long time. My family has done this for fifty years.
If you're really cheap, take them home from the restaurant after you have used them.
...the accent was a thick Indian dialect following an obvious scripted routine. But if this CSR was in America, I'll have to take your word. It's a bit odd though to say "don't use the internets" as that would imply att.com is not a reliable way to buy service and should be avoided. Something AT&T would not advocate as it cuts out a lot of the middlemen and reduces their prices. Plus, the refurbished phones we wanted weren't available in any of stores we visited. Hardly a good choice for the consumer.
I agree with this article.
My paradox is this: until I made enough money to be in a situation where I could choose what to purchase, I could choose not to waste money on stuff I didn't need. I had to try out "the good stuff" to know what it was like. Then, I had to have enough money (or know I could make enough money) where not wanting it wasn't "sour grapes".
I had to own enough stuff to know that I owned too much.
The same goes for community involvement. Until I could choose to cut back on work, there wasn't enough time to participate in politics (which is a lot of work). This speaks to comments in another thread where another Guest said folks should work two jobs if their job didn't pay enough -- if you're working all the time, you can't participate in your community or in the democratic process (except through voting).
AT&T is the king of nickel&diming. When I moved into my last place, I signed up for a 12-month DSL contract two weeks after I moved in (I had ordered the land line before I moved in). When I was ready to move out at the end of a year, I called to cancel my landline and DSL. I was told that since I was canceling the landline before the end of the DSL contract, that would terminate the DSL (they can't have one without another), and that would generate a $100 early termination fee. I told them I was willing to pay the full term of my contract, I just needed the landline canceled since I was moving out. I was told I couldn't cancel the landline without the DSL also being canceled, and I couldn't be billed for the remainder of the DSL contract (two weeks) if it was canceled.
After a couple of hours going back and forth, I hung up, contacted the rental management (great company), and asked if anyone was renting the place the next day after I moved out. There wasn't, so I called AT&T back and set the landline and DSL cancellation for the day the contracted ended, even though I was moved out and left an empty apartment. $20 vs. $100. Their inability to incorporate common sense into their billing practices and allow customers to honor their contracts under different circumstances lost them a customer for life.
I have nine years with at&t and share your disappointment with the level of service you experienced. I dispute the notion that at&t wireless transferred you to an Indian call center - we do not have Indian call centers. That is what you get for trying to use the internets, you should have gone into a retail store and they would have been able to get everything situated the first time. As a customer you chose your plan - not the company. Better luck next time.
If you want to clean your wool sweaters at home, hand wash them. Get a no-rinse wool wash (Soak and Eucalan are the knitting world's favorites--available online or in any yarn store), fill the sink with some cool water, and go to town. Lay flat to dry (after rolling gently between two towels to get out the excess water). The thing you really want to avoid with wool is hot water + agitation.