What annoys you? (2 Viewers)

[Johnny Angell]

I didn’t mean to be so shallow.

Sometimes we need a “groan” button.

 

[mylan]

I didn’t mean to be so shallow.

That's okay. Its all just water under the....well you know...

 

[Kevin Hewell]

You've deeply offended my pool (see what I did there? View attachment 100983

I want to go to mylan's for a pool party!

 

[Mike2001]

This is a tale of woe for all those who hope for the survival of brick and mortar stores.

We are in the process of revamping our yard this summer and, in the process, will need some new patio furniture. My wife would prefer not to buy furniture online because she would like to make sure the furniture will be comfortable and well built.

So this morning we are cruising around SoCal looking for furniture and happen to wander into Ashley Home Store. We are accosted at the door by a sales associate who informs us that they do not have much outdoor furniture in store, but walks us back to the one piece they do. Lo and behold, we really like the one piece they have, but the price seems on the high side, even though it is supposedly 40% off list price in a sale that will expire on the 4th of July. But we like the piece so we take it’s dimensions and head home to see if it will work in the space.

At home, we cut out cardboard cutouts and lay them down on the deck and it will work. It looks like it will, but to verify that we got the dimensions right, I go to Ashley’s website and look up the piece. What do you know, the online price is literally half of the price in store. The website shows a 20% discount vs MSRP. And shipping is free, where in store they would have charged us $300 for delivery. (Both could deliver in early August, so it is the identical delivery service.)

So while happy to order at the reduced price, we came away somewhat disgusted at the rank dishonesty and serious lack of ethics of the B&M store. If we had actually paid the inflated price and then found the lower price on their own website, we would have been outraged. I’m halfway tempted to go back to the store tomorrow and call them on it.

 

[Malcolm R]

Not to defend them, but I think many of the Ashley stores are franchises where the local owners probably have some ability to set their own prices and policies that may be different from the online store that is likely corporate-owned.

Sort of reminds me of the early days of online shopping when many retail stores said the online store was essentially a different business, even though owned by the same company with the same name, and they would not price match the online prices.

If you complain, I would likely try and contact the corporate office rather than the local store, informing corporate about the over-inflated local prices and excessive delivery fees that are tarnishing the Ashley brand name.

 

[BobO'Link]

This happens all the time at various businesses who also have an online presence. Walmart is a huge offender. I recently needed a wifi router for my mom's house so looked up what was available at the local Walmart. I found one that appeared acceptable at a very good price so gave the info to my daughter to pick up while she was out. When she returned with the router and I looked at the receipt it was *$20* higher than the online price. Now... Had I gone in myself I'd have called them on it and had them match the online price (which they'll do *if* you point it out). It rather infuriated me that the price was that much higher in the store.

That brings up another annoyance and solution to the first:

Fortunately, the management for the device is poorly implemented and *requires* setting up an online account to properly access (you can bypass this but the interface has fewer options), something I refuse to do, and it kept dropping connections so I ordered a better brand (one that allows full, local, management without requiring an online account) and just returned that one to Walmart.

The crappy router was Netgear - from what I discovered researching how to bypass the requirement for an online account just to set the thing up was this is a "feature" of all of their routers (it can be bypassed but is a royal pain and has to be done *every time* you want to change a setting). At least I know that now and will avoid their products in the future.

 

[Tony Bensley]

This happens all the time at various businesses who also have an online presence. Walmart is a huge offender. I recently needed a wifi router for my mom's house so looked up what was available at the local Walmart. I found one that appeared acceptable at a very good price so gave the info to my daughter to pick up while she was out. When she returned with the router and I looked at the receipt it was *$20* higher than the online price. Now... Had I gone in myself I'd have called them on it and had them match the online price (which they'll do *if* you point it out). It rather infuriated me that the price was that much higher in the store.

That brings up another annoyance and solution to the first:

Fortunately, the management for the device is poorly implemented and *requires* setting up an online account to properly access (you can bypass this but the interface has fewer options), something I refuse to do, and it kept dropping connections so I ordered a better brand (one that allows full, local, management without requiring an online account) and just returned that one to Walmart.

The crappy router was Netgear - from what I discovered researching how to bypass the requirement for an online account just to set the thing up was this is a "feature" of all of their routers (it can be bypassed but is a royal pain and has to be done *every time* you want to change a setting). At least I know that now and will avoid their products in the future.

"Trapped in a net" gear sounds more like it! Netgear is definitely one to avoid!

 

[BobO'Link]

"Trapped in a net" gear sounds more like it! Netgear is definitely one to avoid!

Yeah... they get good reviews but that little "gotcha" is never mentioned (at least that I've found). I absolutely do not see why an account with the vendor should be required to manage a router of any type. That's forced registration, forced monitoring, and can give them access to your device (via backdoor tools that "only they" have access to). Such forced management access often leads to subscription models for updates or advanced feature access.

I also see no need for a phone app or ancillary program to set up such devices when going to a local, usually dedicated, IP address gets you the management interface (it will on a Netgear but takes you through a "easy setup" that forces online registration/account setup to complete - you have to unplug the WAN cable and wait for the online site to time out before it'll give you local access - plug the cable back in and you'll immediately be taken back to that registration/account setup page even if you've set up the device while off line).

Anyway - I installed a D-Link at her house and looked at TP-Link (which I use). Both of those allow full, local, management. The D-Link isn't quite as advanced as my TP-Link but those controls aren't needed at my mom's house and the D-Link was less expensive.

 

[usrunnr]

Practically everything irritates me these days.
Or so I have been told.
How irritating is that?

 

[jcroy]

Yeah... they get good reviews but that little "gotcha" is never mentioned (at least that I've found). I absolutely do not see why an account with the vendor should be required to manage a router of any type. That's forced registration, forced monitoring, and can give them access to your device (via backdoor tools that "only they" have access to). Such forced management access often leads to subscription models for updates or advanced feature access.

I also see no need for a phone app or ancillary program to set up such devices when going to a local, usually dedicated, IP address gets you the management interface (it will on a Netgear but takes you through a "easy setup" that forces online registration/account setup to complete - you have to unplug the WAN cable and wait for the online site to time out before it'll give you local access - plug the cable back in and you'll immediately be taken back to that registration/account setup page even if you've set up the device while off line).

That brings up another annoyance and solution to the first:

Fortunately, the management for the device is poorly implemented and *requires* setting up an online account to properly access (you can bypass this but the interface has fewer options), something I refuse to do, and it kept dropping connections so I ordered a better brand (one that allows full, local, management without requiring an online account) and just returned that one to Walmart.

The crappy router was Netgear - from what I discovered researching how to bypass the requirement for an online account just to set the thing up was this is a "feature" of all of their routers (it can be bypassed but is a royal pain and has to be done *every time* you want to change a setting). At least I know that now and will avoid their products in the future.

Kinda annoying when everything becomes an IoT device.

Recently there was a nasty virus/trojan, which was wrecking havoc on an external hard drive model I have. I haven't used this drive in over the past month, and won't plug it in for now.

Apparently if these western digital external drive models are connected/interfaced online, this virus/trojan does a "factory reset" which essentially erases everything on the drive.

NVD - CVE-2018-18472

nvd.nist.gov

Malware blamed for remotely wiping WD My Book Live users' disks

Hard drive maker recommends users disconnect the cloud storage devices from the internet to protect their data.

www.cnet.com

Not even a ransom demand. It is just total destruction outright.

 

[Mike2001]

When she returned with the router and I looked at the receipt it was *$20* higher than the online price. Now... Had I gone in myself I'd have called them on it and had them match the online price (which they'll do *if* you point it out). It rather infuriated me that the price was that much higher in the store.

The price difference for the patio dining set between Ashley’s physical store and their web front was $1700.

 

[BobO'Link]

That's outrageous! FWIW - I'd have taken a walk on them with the $300 delivery fee.

 

[jcroy]

The disconnect between online and offline retail prices for the same item, seems to be very common for few remaining bookstore chains I've shopped at over the years.

In the end, it is a waste of time to be shopping for books at offline chain bookstores. The only reason I ever walk into an offline bookstore these days, is mostly to buy a coffee in the morning or check out the dump bins. (Dump bin book titles rarely ever show up on the bookstore's online web page).

 

[Tony Bensley]

[deleted post]

Deleted posts!

Seriously, the post I made yesterday, while not in any HTF rules violations, was in my opinion, too in the heat of emotion for me to leave up as is.

Basically, for if on the unfortunate occasion you have to get your meds at an alternate pharmacy due to your regular one being closed Sundays, it would be really nice if the central online info included the proper code/s for whatever medical coverage, so that the good medical/pharmacy people helping me didn't have such a hard time. I almost had to go another night without my Latanoprost eye drops for my eye pressures over that boondoggle!

CHEERS!

 

[BobO'Link]

The disconnect between online and offline retail prices for the same item, seems to be very common for few remaining bookstore chains I've shopped at over the years.

In the end, it is a waste of time to be shopping for books at offline chain bookstores. The only reason I ever walk into an offline bookstore these days, is mostly to buy a coffee in the morning or check out the dump bins. (Dump bin book titles rarely ever show up on the bookstore's online web page).

Until a tornado destroyed the part of the mall it was in we were down to only a Barns & Noble store (at one time we had 4 national chains). I only went in to check the "Bargain Books" or pick up an "order online and pick up in store" item. They've said they're not rebuilding. I'd say I'll miss them but I'd gotten to where I only went in every couple of months.

 

[Jeffrey D]

I just reserved a rental car to go on vacation- picking up 3 weeks from Friday
(seems like I always have to spend money on a rental, and drive the company truck to the yard). They’re quoting a price of about $100/day for a Chevy Malibu. I feel like I’m getting gouged.

 

[Tony Bensley]

Until a tornado destroyed the part of the mall it was in we were down to only a Barns & Noble store (at one time we had 4 national chains). I only went in to check the "Bargain Books" or pick up an "order online and pick up in store" item. They've said they're not rebuilding. I'd say I'll miss them but I'd gotten to where I only went in every couple of months.

I can relate to the being to very few brick and mortar outlets, in general. For me, this predated the pandemic, but even more so over the last 16 months. There are so many places we went to when we first moved back to London almost 3 years ago that are now shuttered for good.

 

[TJPC]

I just picked up lunch at A&W -- 2 bacon and cheese "Uncle Burgers" and 1 diet root beer. Price? over $25.00! Yikes! What is the old saying? I just wanted lunch, I didn't want to buy the place!

 

[Malcolm R]

Fast food ain't what it used to be. Meals for one person at Five Guys are usually approaching at least $15. Combo meals at Burger King or McDonald's are nearly $10. A single breakfast sandwich at McDonald's this morning was over $4.

 

[Tony Bensley]

Fast food ain't what it used to be. Meals for one person at Five Guys are usually approaching at least $15. Combo meals at Burger King or McDonald's are nearly $10. A single breakfast sandwich at McDonald's this morning was over $4.

Post pandemic pricing?