Friday, March 11, 2011

Making Free Money Online

On Monday evening, I watched my 1st, The Final Word host Lawrence O’Donnell.
When O’Donnell laudably attempted to emphasis the audience’s interest onand hopefully previous, Charlie Sheen trainwreck interview, courtesy of the tragic undertow that threatens to pull Sheen under for beneficial, I used to be overtaken, not through the pulling around the thread, and therefore the voracious audience he serves. It did not make me unfortunate, it developed me angry.

On the subject of celebrities, we will be considered a heartless nation, basking within their misfortunes like nude sunbathers at Schadenfreude Beach. The impulse is understandable, to some diploma. It may be grating to pay attention to complaints from people who get pleasure from privileges that the majority of us cannot even contemplate. If you should can’t muster up some compassion for Charlie Sheen, who can make even more funds for a day’s give good results than many of us will make inside a decade’s time, I guess I can’t blame you.



With the fast pace of events online and therefore the data revolution sparked by the Web, it’s really effortless for the technology market to consider it’s exceptional: frequently breaking new ground and executing points that no one has ever executed in advance of.

But there are actually other types of business that have by now undergone a number of the very same radical shifts, and have just as terrific a stake while in the foreseeable future.

Get healthcare, for instance.

We typically think of it as being a huge, lumbering beast, but in reality, medicine has undergone a sequence of revolutions in the previous 200 years which are at the least equal to people we see in technology and specifics.

Significantly less understandable, but still inside of the norms of human nature, is the impulse to rubberneck, to slow down and take a look at the carnage of Charlie spectacle of Sheen’s unraveling, but from the blithe interviewer Sheen’s lifestyle as we pass it during the correct lane of our every day lives. To be sincere, it might be tough for folks to discern the big difference in between a run-of-the-mill consideration whore, and an honest-to-goodness, circling the drain tragedy-to-be. On its own merits, a quote like “I Am On a Drug. It’s Termed Charlie Sheen” is sheer genius, and we can not all be expected to consider the full measure of someone’s life each time we hear some thing funny.

Rapid forward to 2011 and I am endeavoring to examine indicates of staying a bit more business-like about my hobbies (largely audio). Through the stop of January I had manned up and started to promote my weblogs. I had put together several unique blogs, which were contributed to by pals and colleagues. I promoted these actions by way of Facebook and Twitter.


Second: the small abomination that the Gang of 5 around the Supream Court gave us a yr or so in the past (Citizens Inebriated) actually includes a bit bouncing betty of its personal that may particularly very well go off with the faces of Govs Wanker, Sacitch, Krysty, and J.O. Daniels. Given that this ruling extended the notion of “personhood” to each companies and unions, to try to deny them any proper to run within the legal framework that they had been organized under deprives these “persons” of your freedoms of speech, association and movement. Which suggests (after yet again, quoting law school skilled family members) that possibly the courts need to uphold these rights for the unions (as individual “persons” as guaranteed through the Federal (and most state) constitutions, or they've to declare that these attempts at stripping or limiting union rights need to apply to leading corporations, also.





It's been more than three years since we received any confessions from an employee at Staples. Thankfully, Staples vet Dave decided to write us with the insights he gleaned from his time at the office supply superstore.



1) The managers have a ton of power, the front line employees have very little. If you want to negotiate, get an exception, have a question, or were told one thing and are now being told something else, just ask for a manager. Managers can make pretty much anything happen and are extremely sensitive to customer complaints.



2) Tech work is the lowest priority. Everything else comes first even if it's something as time insensitive as putting out stock. The reason is that everything else is evaluated in some kind of metric, tech work being finished in a timely manner is not (or at least it's never enough of a priority to let front line employees know). This may not seem like a big deal, you wait a few extra hours maybe a day or two, but it exponentially increases the likelihood of error because the tech doing the work is constantly being pulled away from the task at hand, making it far easier to forget what needs to be done, what had been done, and other details of the work at hand.



3) Price matching is pretty much an absolute sure thing so long as it's from a bricks and mortar store. Just bring in some evidence in the form of a flyer, photo, or even have them call to confirm. This is especially useful when combined with...



4) Online coupons are all over the place. Google around on a weekly basis and many times you'll be able to find coupons for 15% off an entire order, sometimes they'll go as high as 25% off. They're not tied to a specific person, or account, and they'll be good over and over again until they expire. If you're shopping for a specific item wait till a brick and mortar competitor puts it on sale, price match it and use the coupon.



5) Staples makes almost nothing, and sometimes loses money, on PCs, especially laptops. As a result, Staples focuses very strongly on selling you a bunch of crap with the PCs. Crap they make a lot more money on. This is why if you try to dash in, buy a laptop and dash out you won't be dashing anywhere. Staples has set up a system to eat up at least 20 minutes of your time, in an attempt to sell you extended service plans, tech services, accessories, and anything else. Most of the metrics Staples uses and pays attention to are focused in this area (the biggest of these is called Market Basket and is essentially the cost of everything bought except the PC that is sold in each transaction with a PC). If a sales associate is letting laptops fly out the door without attaching any other sales to it he won't be there long. As a result it can be difficult to buy just a PC. You'll be hammered with how you need to buy extended warranties for a good bit of it, you'll be asked for lots of information so they can record it for their records (this is mostly an attempt to slow you down so you can't make a quick purchase), you'll be told any number of things to drive up the market basket number. A sales associate would far rather you not buy at all than buy just a laptop, so expect roadblocks to be thrown up if you make your intentions obvious. One associate in a nearby store was notorious for telling customers they were out of stock and would send them to another store to avoid an accessory-free sale.



6) The Up Front Agreement is Staples' attempt to get low-paid, high turnover employees to sell more. There's nothing really to know here except that Staples explicitly touts this as a way to make the customer feel as if they are in charge when really the sales associate is in charge. Not a shock that's what they intend, but a bit more honest than I expected.



7) You get to be an Expert or manager by selling, not by being competent. So if you're dealing with an EasyTech Expert they may know what they're talking about when it comes to fixing your PC, but they definitely know how to sell.



8) Sales end on Saturday night and new ones begin on Sunday. If you find an old tag that's expired they will still honor it so long as you point it out. I once saw an expired tag honored that was out of date by over a year.



9) The Copy and Print Center is by far their most profitable area. As a result they will make it right if you complain, they will re-do the order to correct issues even to the point of if they screw it up enough times giving you your corrected order and your money back. About the only thing they won't do is actual design work, so you'll need to bring in your order already ready to go. If you do need design work done they can send it out to be done, it's a little expensive but I never saw a complaint. Also, you will be upsold here to nicer paper, its not much more and does make a big difference if it's a project you want to impress with. I wouldn't have believed that before I worked in the CPC, but it does.



Thanks to Dave for sending this in. If you have some insider info about the store you work at (or used to work at), send us your confessions at tips@consumerist.com with "confessions" in the subject.












Source: http://removeripoffreports.net/ online reputation management

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