Posts filed under 'scams'
Last weekend I ordered an ATI TV Wonder Elite from Amazon for $77.99 for transferring some home videos. That was near the lowest price I found and was still cheaper than many after I upgraded from FREE Super Saver Shipping (5-9 business days) to Standard Shipping (3-5 business days) for $6.17 more. It was shipped Monday at 11:30pm. If you count that last 30 minutes of Monday, we are at five business days and it is still 400 miles away. But once I realized it was PM I guess I can’t be that upset with DHL. But Amazon’s delivery estimate said October 5, 2006 - October 16, 2006. October 16 is ten full business days from when it was shipped. It is hard to believe it won’t be here Tuesday (Monday is Columbus Day) since it is already in Texas, but if that estimate turns out true, I will have waited half a month for shipping less than 2,000 miles.
Looking into this a bit further I have discovered shipping begins with DHL, but through their DHL@home service, the package is actually delivered by the local post office. And of course, the post office is known for their speed and reliable delivery. DHL’s webpage says Standard Delivery is 2-4 business days and Deferred Delivery is 2-7 business days whatever that is. It appears DHL handles shipping up to your nearest (major?) post office so assuming you live anywhere near the post office, it should only take a day or two to make it the last bit to you.
I think we can assume DHL is including postal service delivery time in their estimate. So how does a max of seven days (for Deferred Delivery) turn into a possible eleven? I am not very good at math so I will let you figure that out. Even if the estimate doesn’t include the time it takes the postman to deliver it, once it has reached your city, it should not take four more business days which would get you up to the Amazon estimate.
And for those who think the Amazon estimate is just being safe, read “Why DHL Sucks” about 3-5 day shipping taking 7 business days. When I pay for 3-5 day shipping it better arrive in five business days. If I was willing to wait that long I would have chosen free shipping like usual. When I order on the weekend and actually pay for 3-5 day shipping, that means I want to use the item the next weekend.
I remember back when 3-5 day shipping meant you often would get your item in three days and sometimes it might arrive in two days. Those days are long gone. When I track non-DHL shipments, they often reach my city pretty fast and then sit there for a day or two before they do final delivery even if it is Friday so they don’t over shoot their low arrival estimate.
October 6th, 2006
Have you been computer shopping and noticed that most low cost machines don’t come with Microsoft Office? You might find it comes with a time limited trial version of Office. Maybe it has Microsoft Works instead. It isn’t unusual to find a machine with a stand alone version of WordPerfect. And then there are the dirt cheep machines that leave you with no word processor.
So assuming you are the kind of person that doesn’t shoo the salesmen away till you have already decided, you point out that this machine doesn’t come with Word. He acts surprised a machine wouldn’t come with it and says you can get it for only $100 more. You think, wow that is a really good deal since I thought it costs more than $300 for Small Business Edition or more than $400 for Office Professional. What, I can install it on three machines? That is an amazing deal! The whole machine I was looking at costs only $400 why would I spend almost the same for one piece of software when the salesman is pushing it for $100.
Did you mention that you needed this new computer for your business? Yes, the salesman asked what you needed the system for and you told him it was for your business. Did you mention having any students in your family? No, why would that come up, this is a business purchase. Did you point out Works Suite comes with Word? Yes, but he responded that for a business you might need Powerpoint and Outlook. Clearly he knows you are buying this for your business.
Is this an isolated incident? I don’t think so. I have heard this several times over the past few months at different computer and office supply stores. It helps makes the computer sale plus $100 of software and the salesman isn’t going to get in trouble with Microsoft for your business not being eligible for Student Edition, just you. He can always say you told him it was for your kids homework.
So what are the legal alternatives since Microsoft is charging insane amounts for their office suite? Well, my choice is WordPerfect Office which does a good job with most Word documents. Though at $250, its Standard Edition isn’t that much less than MS Office Small Business Edition. Microsoft Works Suite is also a good choice at $100 since it comes with the previous version of Word (which usually is good enough). There is also just plane Microsoft Works for about $50 if you just want a simple word processor and don’t actually need Word for compatibility. But if not having actual Word doesn’t bother you, there are Open Office or AbiWord which are completely free and read and write Word documents.
If you are interested in learning more about Microsoft licensing, ZDNet has a quiz. I was pretty surprised by a few of the answers.
Update April 2, 2007: I can no longer find anything about who qualifies for what version on Microsoft.com. The “not eligible” link above now points to the Internet Archive’s copy. Microsoft must not want you you are not allowed to use it till their lawyers show up. The page I previously linked to now redirects you to the main Office site. Looking up Office Home and Student 2007 at some retailers gives you this information:
- This product is for non-commercial, non-commercial location, educational use only.
- This is a personal learning license for qualified educational users only. (Example: In a household, only the students are eligible to use the software, however parents can use the software when assisting students.)
- You can install this edition on up to three (3) PCs in your home.
- This product does not qualify for future upgrade pricing or installation(s).
- You may not transfer your usage rights to another individual or allow them to install the program at another location.
- You are only eligible to use this product while you are a qualified educational user.
- Microsoft provides only installation support for this product.
That is pretty significantly different from the 2003 version:
- You must be a qualified educational user or a household member of a qualified user when you acquire this product.
- You’re restricted to using this product for non-commercial (non-revenue-generating) use.
- You can install this product on up to three computers or devices in your household.
- You can’t transfer your usage rights to another individual.
- You are still eligible to use this product after you or a member of your household no longer qualifies as an educational user.
The reason I am updating this is because someone I know just bought a new computer for what they thought was a really good deal (display model 10% off, a $200 rebate in store, and a free printer) and thought they got Microsoft Office. They did get Office, but only for the 60 day trial. I explained what they got and how much it would cost to buy the proper version of Office. Since it did come with Works, it will be $239 for the upgrade to Microsoft Office Standard 2007. They were pretty upset about not being told they were getting only the trial.
September 7th, 2006
I got a call today (Saturday) from Gateway wanting to check to see if I was having any problems with my recent purchace of a Gateway system. I am having trouble with the left mouse button only working half the time, but I didn’t want to get into that at the time, it still kind of works anyway. When I have nothing better to do I will call tech support.
But the reason I am posting is because the main purpose of the call was not to see if I was having any problems and get them fixed. It was to try to sell me a warranty since mine was only for 90 days. Now I remember getting a two year extended two year warranty on this machine so I was a bit concerned. She then clarified that I do have the extended warranty, this warranty is for my antivirus. I asked why would I want that, she had no answer and quickly ended the call. Now I do think everyone needs up to date antivirus protection, but you shouldn’t be tricking people into keeping up their subscription. I don’t really like the McAfee Security Center that came with the machine, it is bloated (though probably less than Norton) and keeps bugging me about updating SpamKiller which I disabled. I have yet to even register so my update subscription is no where near running out yet.
I don’t have any other virus protection on my machine though so I probably should do that soon as the definitions it came with are aging quickly. I am pretty careful about what I download, my email is scanned multiple times before it reaches me, and I rarely use Office or Internet Explorer so I am not that worried. After the trial subscription does run out I will probably be switching back to AVG Free. It seemed to be working fine on my previous machine, though it never had the opportunity to catch anything. I like how non bloated it is compared to the main alternatives. Scot’s Newsletter has a pretty good review of antivirus packages and AVG (though not the free version) came in third. Scot’s first choice, F-Secure, does sound pretty good though and is probably worth a trial.
Now that I have had this machine for a while, I guess you might wonder how I am liking it. I still hate the keyboard layout, I keep hitting the wrong keys and it still throws me off when using other keyboards. I do really love the battery life though. And I am still very happy with my non glossy screen which Dell has returned as an option. I guess I wasn’t the only one who didn’t like the glossy screens. I just wish they had done it a bit sooner so I could be writing what I can’t stand about Dell instead. That would easily have pushed me over to buying the Dell. Though now that I have this amazing battery life I am somewhat glad I didn’t.
August 5th, 2006
Yesterday I posted of my rabbit photo hunt, just in case anyone actually reads my blog, here is the explanation. For the last few years one of my usual April Fool’s pranks is to find a photo on my victim’s desk, scan it, edit it, and replace the original. This year involved a couple bald heads, tattoos and a spiky dog collar, and bunny ears and buck teeth.
Don’t remember how I ran across this, but Filmwise specializes in removing actors from photos. They leave the clothes and you have to guess what movie it is from. Very interesting. And very good photo manipulation skills. Since I am into photo manipulation a bit I was really impressed, what I do is not simple but compared to these mine are nothing.
I also found this when searching for a screen saver that flips the screen upside down (which I was unable to find). I was working on late April fools for work. No one at work to fool on Saturday, but it also gave me more time to prepare. How about a start menu that keeps avoiding you when you try to click it? Or a program to flip the screen (not screen saver as I wanted), but still pretty good. How about one that you can email prank people that open executables in email.
It acts like it is sending an email to everyone in your address book and you can’t close it. I just did it to someone I was otherwise unable to get today. She fell for it. I walked by and heard a lot of mouse clicking, must have been frantically trying to close it. 
It makes a pretty good case for why you should not open EXEs even from people you know. AOL’s spyware blocker did catch it, but not before it ran long enough to give her a good scare.
The Museum of Hoaxes has the Top 100 April Fools hoaxes of all time. Also interesting there is the list of real discoveries that were believed to be a hoax.
Since this post is partially about digital photos, this isn’t too far off topic. I found something to look into if you need photo organization and searching on Linux. It is imgSeek. It has lots of organizational stuff, lets you search by picture similarity, it even lets you draw what you are searching for and apparently finds things. My Linux box is slow and the hard drive is still nearly full so it will probably be a while before I try this out. In the mean time, Picasa is pretty good at managing my digital photos for Windows, but doesn’t offer nearly the image searching capability of imgSeek.
April 3rd, 2006
Rob Cockerham decided to see what would happen if he tore up a new credit card application, taped it back together, filled it out, changed his address, entered a cell phone number, and sent it back. Assuming you accidentally tore your application into 16 pieces, he has good news for you. Chase will happily send you a card. But assuming you tear up applications you don’t want and throw them away, this is good news for identity thieves.
Even better news is that Chase says they did the right thing in an interview with MSNBC. It seems there is nothing suspicious about a taped up application using a different address. Admittedly the address was his parents house which was a former address of his, but isn’t that worse? If you move and your mail isn’t forwarded, the new occupant of your former residence will now have your credit card application (not torn up) and your former address. Sounds bad to me.
I have been the victim of credit card fraud (I don’t consider mine identify theft), thankfully it was a small charge. But because it was small (less than $10) it was not caught by the credit card company. I only noticed it because of the really odd company name on my credit card statement.
My brother recently got it a lot worse. Someone got his number and started charging hundreds of dollars worth on the other side of the country. Luckily in this case, the company called to ask if they were legit charges. They have even called a few other times on bigger than usual purchases he actually did make.
Clearly they are working to combat credit card fraud, but it appears they are not doing enough to prevent identity theft in the first place.
March 15th, 2006
