Business

Roofer

Wayne — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:16:55 -0400

I highly recommend Top Hat Roofing. I know the owner, David, and his family, and they're good people. He is very conscientious, a hard worker, and he'll make it as painless a process as possible. Check him out, have him take a look at your roof, and he'll tell you if the recent storms have earned you a new roof, potentially at no cost to you.

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Discount Tire

Wayne — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:12:59 -0400

I have had wonderful experiences and great prices at Discount Tire (http://www.discounttire.com) in Lilburn. They were respectful, helpful, very quick, and they even took back a set of tires that I just didn't like, replacing them with another set—no questions and no extra charges! I plan to return for all my tire needs, and I recommend them without reservation.

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Weathers Corp., GBC

Wayne — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 08:46:49 -0400

Weathers Corp., besides being leftist, has taken to spamming—in violation of federal law, for whatever that's worth today—to promote their new GBC (Gwinnett Broadcasting something-or-other). Consider this a friendly warning.

In case it's removed from their site, here's the Advisory Board for GBC (a regular "who's who" of inbred, corrupt good ol' boys):

Bruce Baldwin
Gwinnett Braves

R.L. “Butch” Conway
Gwinnett County Sheriff

Douglas Cotter
Dawson Fine Wine & Spirits
Cotter Properties

Rep. Melvin Everson
Georgia State Representative

Bill Gentry
Wild Bills Atlanta

Wayne Hill
Nashill Associates

Adrienne Hollis
Gwinnett Medical Center

Keven Lake
National Real Estate Data

Caryn McGarity
Gwinnett Convention & Visitors Bureau

Emory Morsberger
The Morsberger Group

Bert Nasuti
Gwinnett County Commissioner

John Oxendine
Georgia State Fire & Insurance Commissioner

Mark Rountree
Landmark Communications

Anthony Rodriguez
Aurora Theater

Sen. David Shafer
Georgia State Senator

Alex Silva
SBX Technologies

Tammy Shumate
Brand Mortgage
Grayson City Council

Judy Waters
Community Foundation for Northeast Georgia

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YouTube violates rights

Wayne — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:15:40 -0400

Praise In Motion has legal rights (at a pretty penny) to use songs in its performances, on its DVDs, etc. Recently, PIM began using its performance videos and homemade videos as training aids via YouTube. They were marked private, available only to PIM dancers, and they were well within PIM's purchased rights. YouTube, however, unilaterally and without notice deleted the audio tracks off several videos and removed even the video (and accompanying audio) from others. The only mechanism available to "challenge" this unannounced violation was automated and flawed. Appropriate information was provided to YouTube about PIM's legal rights to the songs, but these were seemingly ignored.

Whatever mechanism YouTube is using to protect dubious copyrights is highly flawed and utterly fails to account for contractual, legal rights. Execution appears capricious at best, malicious at worst. (One is forced to wonder if there is a religious prejudice in YouTube's staff.) With the potential for YouTube to destroy videos unilaterally, without notice, and without effective recourse, YouTube proves itself an all but useless service, easily replaced by alternatives, including home-grown ones.

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Sirius XM: BAD!

Wayne — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:53:32 -0500

In a depressed economy, XM Satellite Radio stupidly thinks that raising rates will make them more money. (Even a high school understanding of basic economics disproves this idiotic theory.) Needless to say, we dumped 'em. Cancellation is a painful, difficult process, too. Here are many recent complaints about XM. Beware.

Want decent radio? Search the thousands of [free] online radio stations. You're sure to find a few dozen or hundred to your liking. It may take a bit more time to collect your favorites, but it'll be worth the effort.

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Bad roofer

Dave — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 08:29:52 -0400

A while back I mentioned that we had our roof replaced. While our experience with our homeowner's insurance company was quite good, our experience with the roofing company that we went with, Academy Roofing, was not.

Things started off fine, as they often do in the sales phase of the process. The salesman for Academy met with the inspector from USAA. This is as much for his benefit as ours, but we found it reassuring. (I have since learned that other roofing companies do this, so Academy is not providing a unique service here.) We did not know how much of our settlement to attribute to the presence of Academy's representative, but we appreciated his effort.

Once we inked the agreement, we had to wait a bit for them to deliver the materials. They said that there was a delay in obtaining the shingles we had ordered. Since we had no way of verifying this, we had to take them at their word, but unfortunately, this delay proved to be a foreshadowing of the future when it came to dealing with these guys. As for the actual installation and the roof itself, we are basically satisfied. We have a few quibbles about things that can't be changed, but there were no deal-breakers in the process. Now, that's not to say that there weren't some things that we wanted them to touch up. I have a friend who is a home inspector, and he went up on the roof for me to look it over. He found some minor issues (a nail sticking out, a small number of holes) that Academy needed to address. And thus began the problem, or part of it.

I talked to a couple of different people at Academy (the sales guy, somebody at their main office) and told them about the punch work. I was assured both times that they would talk to the person in charge of scheduling repairs, and he would contact me about getting on their schedule. Days went by, and it never happened. I got the direct line of this person and talked to him. He said he would contact me about getting on their schedule. Days went by, and it never happened. I talked to the sales guy again (about something else -- see below), and he made noises about them being understaffed. (Sorry to hear that, Mr. Sales Guy, but that's your problem, not mine.) He assured me that I would get a call about the repairs. We didn't.

To be fair, we did eventually get a call about scheduling the repair. Unfortunately, the call occurred on Rosh Hashanah, a sabbath day, during which I never bothered to turn on my cell phone. Furthermore, they were giving us less than a day's notice -- we were supposed to call their tech that same day to schedule a time when he could come over. I contacted them the next day and scheduled an appointment for a few days later. No one showed up. I wound up talking to the sales guy, who told me that we was surprised when our repair had been rescheduled (meaning from the date I had set after the sabbath). Apparently, they were a no-show because they had rescheduled our appointment without bothering to tell us. I told the sales guy rather sharply that he had better inform us when the new appointment was. For once, he came through, and they finally completed the repairs -- about five weeks after we first asked them.

The other issue that we had with them was with price. Not long after the roof went up, we got an invoice from the company. However, the price they were charging was higher than what we had agreed to pay. The agreement was for the amount of the insurance settlement plus a specific amount for some upgrades we had ordered. The invoice included a note saying that it reflected a price increase that went into effect at the beginning of August. Now, our roof went up on August 4th, but the materials had been delivered the previous week, in July, so a price increase couldn't have been applicable. Regardless, we weren't going to pay more than the price on our written agreement, so we withheld the money until we could get a correct invoice.

I eventually got a call from the sales guy to talk about the money. I told him about the price issue. He asked to see the insurance paperwork, which I faxed to him. He told me that my calculations were not correct because I had not included sales tax (which was included in our settlement, just on a separate page in the report), and I of course agreed that the sales tax should be reflected on the invoice. However, even with that inclusion, the invoice was about $65 higher than the agreed-upon price. The sales guy assured me that he would alert the central office of the change, and that he would fax me an updated copy of the invoice that same day. He did neither.

Over a week later, I got a call from someone at the central office concerning our unpaid balance. When I called her back, she still had the old, incorrect balance. I explained the situation to her and told her that the sales guy had copies of our settlement agreement. I gave her the corrected figure, and she said she would talk to the correct person in the office (apparently, she was the "billing" person, but she needed to get the information to the "invoice" person), and that we should expect a corrected invoice. A few days later, we did receive another invoice -- for the old, incorrect amount. Another call to the sales guy resulted in more promises and assurances, all broken. Eventually, the same week that the repairs took place, I was able to secure a corrected invoice from the sales guy.

During this entire episode, our position -- stated quite clearly to all Academy -- was that we had the money and were ready to pay, if only they could take care of these two things. The fact that they stalled for weeks and then took care of both issues within a day of each other leads me to suspect that this whole thing was an orchestrated effort on their part to try to get out of the repair, and to squeeze a few extra bucks out of us. Of course, I can't prove this, and frankly, I would rather not believe that, but under the circumstances, it is plausible.

Needless to say, we will not be talking to Academy the next time we need a roof, and I recommend that no one else does, either.

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Great Screwdriver

Wayne — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:32:11 -0400

I'm not recommending a business, per se, but a product. Ever since I saw a former coworker with this screwdriver, I have sought it myself--for years now. I couldn't remember the brand or name, only the features. Every time I went to a hardware store (a frequent occurrence), I looked for it. I finally stumbled across it at Home Depot in Tucker yesterday (29 & JC). Of all places, it was in the light bulb section. Go figure. It's the Klein Tools 11-in-1 Screwdriver/Nut Driver.

There is a cheap knock-off, some ugly and impotent orange thing, and it's easy to find, but it pales by comparison. The "11-in-1" is the best multi-bit screwdriver I've seen. It's compact, easy to change bits (especially without dropping them, pulling them from odd storage places, etc.), versatile, comfortable, and well built. While it may not have a huge selection of bits, what it has will suffice for the overwhelming majority of common jobs. If you carry only one tool--a real one, not a pocket tool--I recommend this one.

If you carry two tools, I recommend the Husky 8-in-1 Precision Screwdriver as your second. Its smaller stature means the bits must be stored in the handle, a slower and more cumbersome design. Nevertheless, for small jobs, it's the best I've found.

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Lillian Vernon Is Slow

Wayne — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:59:20 -0400

Lillian Vernon's online shopping is very substandard. First, processing of the order takes a full week (meaning they sit on it doing nothing for that time). Second, unless you pay unusually high rates for rapid delivery, their normal delivery mechanism is also amazingly slow. Considering first class USPS takes only 2-4 days to go most anywhere in the nation, 2-3 weeks for delivery is pretty sad. Third, no tracking information is offered via email. Fourth, the tracking information on the website is wrong. A number is presented and links to Fedex, for example, but the number is bogus--no carrier recognizes it. Last, Customer service is slow and provides no assistance when needed. Since most everything sold at LV is offered at a dozen other online stores (many for much cheaper prices plus cheaper and quicker shipping options), there doesn't seem to be much need for the inferior service of LV.

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Sonorix C3

Wayne — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 09:12:34 -0400

I received the Sonorix C3 bluetooth headset/headphones device several months ago as a gift. Not only is it a wireless headset, but it supports the A2DP profile (stereo headphones), too. There are several unique features of the C3. It clips to your shirt. It supports the use of any standard headphones; it has a 3.5mm jack. This last feature was especially important to me, as I am able to choose whatever headphones, earpieces, etc., that I desire. It has a built-in microphone for headset use. It has just three buttons, plus an on/off switch, and they're ergonomically easy to find by feel. It has a mini-USB charging port--nice and standard--so it can be charged off any USB port or via AC or DC USB adapters. The display is OLED, and the battery is Lithium Polymer, so it's got the very best components. The latest firmware (v2.6) has "mic boost" allowing you select the level of microphone sensitivity. The C3 has also won design awards.

I emailed Sonorix and asked for a pdf copy of the user manual. They replied not only with the manual (within hours) but also included a new firmware version and detailed instructions on upgrading the device. Everything went very smoothly. (With this new firmware, I picked up the new "mic boost" feature.) This is a rare breath of fresh air in customer service.

I recommend the Sonorix C3. It's an elegant device, well thought out, and the company obviously stands behind their products.

By combining the C3 with a stereo bluetooth transmitter, wireless listening is now an option for most any audio equipment.

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Kidsignments

Charla — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:21:18 -0400

Kidsignments is coming next week! Held twice a year, it's one of the largest children's consignment sales in the nation, limiting the number of sellers to 1,000! There is always a waiting list of sellers to get into this sale.

Check out www.kidsignments.com for all the details.

This is my third time working the event. I get the majority of all my kids' clothing there. They have brand name clothing at bargain prices, plus thousands of other items, including books (some homeschool and educational books), games, toys, costumes, dancewear (although it's mixed in with the regular clothing), baby furniture, etc. The second building is full of all the "big" stuff: outdoor playsets, big indoor playsets (kitchens), ride-on toys, bikes, kids' furniture (chairs, tables)... etc.

Take your homeschooler Wed. thru Friday to avoid the crowds and have a math / consumer economics lesson! We see other homeschool moms do this and it's great to see their kids pay with their cash.

Friday is 25% off day and Saturday is 50% off day. Any item that has a tag without an "NR" on it is discounted!

Post me your questions and I'll be happy to respond. I have a pretty good mental image of the layout if you're looking for something in particular.

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