Category: Uncategorized

If it is on the shelf and mismarked, that is the policy; if it is misstated or deceptive it is illegal, that is the law.

As I was talking to the woman, trying to get her attention and see the logic behind what she was doing, another customer contributed her two cents.  “She’s just doing her job,” she said.

I tried to sneak in before 8 but the store was already crowded.  Half the self-checkout area was open.  The woman was looking at a computer three feet in front of my little area.  I told her the bottles of soda I was buying were not ringing up properly.  It’ll correct at the end, she said.

When the end came I said again that it wasn’t happening.  She walked away without saying anything.  It was 18 cents per bottle.

It wasn’t a line, it was more like a mob.  Now the place was crowded and I still standing there.

The woman who calmly sided with the really strange woman manning the computer is absolutely right.  She was doing what she is told to do RE the 19 cents.

It is deeper or more complicated than have or have not.  If it hadn’t happened before I would have been way more compassionate.  I was beginning to put together a theory.

I still say there is more to it than grunt or snob, rich or poor, worker or employer, or customer or seller.

I don’t believe that.  I think if you are given a wrong and potentially illegal order it is you job to question it.  Some people will question it and there are other people like me too.  In this case I know where it comes from (the manager) and you should question it.  If you don’t it is just a bunch of yes people following a lot of bad orders.

Is it illegal too?

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/i-hope-i-can-quit-working-in-a-few-years-a-preview-of-the-us-without-pensions/2017/12/22/5cc9fdf6-cf09-11e7-81bc-c55a220c8cbe_story.html?utm_term=.8b29df0ec5d3

Denver Post.

Strange times.

As I approach 60 and retirement,

1.  Free phone.
2.  Free health insurance.
3.  Social security.
4.  Reverse mortgage.
5.  Reduced property taxes.

These are all government programs.  And here’s the kicker:

6.  Roth IRA withdrawals do not count as AGI (or MAGI), adjusted gross income, at age 59 1/2.  That is unbelievable.  Who said America isn’t a great country?  This is all within an environment of not paying any income taxes at all.  It is really hard to believe but it is true.

That’s right.  If you live off an IRA you may qualify for Medicaid.  At least that’s what happened to me when I went to sign up for Obamacare.

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I can still write here if I turn the volume up and use a large fan.

 

If you shop and someone makes you an offer that’s where it starts.

The movie and the book are fantastic.  Have you ever seen the TV show The Paper Chase?  One of the nuggets is contract law.

An offer is made, it is accepted, and money changes hands.  That is where it starts.  But customer satisfaction goes so, so much farther.

 

“The epitome of customer service and satisfaction.”

 

How do you win at customer satisfaction?  You always win.  You always win because you are always free to leave.  It is like the stock market or a lot of things, if it is too stressful or risky, get out.

Maybe there are no great alternatives.  Maybe or even probably you are not thrilled.  If that’s the case you can still be satisfied.  Just forget it and accept it for what it is.

It is not about proving you are right, it is about making choices you are satisfied with.

And now, virtually everywhere, there are more choices and it is easier than ever.  You can go with the big guys or find niche offerings if you want.  You can quickly collect information.  And it works to make everyone better and in all directions.  It is really easy to complain.

The top companies are the ones who excel in this environment.  By now it is all in place and it is there to use if customers choose to.

 

T. Rowe Price.

It does remind me of ancient marketing 101 and market share.  I think the top three are Vanguard, Fidelity, and Schwab.  T. Rowe Price could have done it but they either chose not to or failed, and it is almost certainly the latter.  I was stunned to find they still conform to long, long ago “correspondence teams” for communication with customers.  For employees, they don’t let you use email or phones.  For customers, you are receiving email from someone you have never even spoken with or communicated with.  It is hearsay.  It is terribly unproductive and generally a pain in the ass for all involved.

You know how they say it is always wise to review your insurance policies every few years?  It is time to take the money and run.

In a broader sense, you can tell when they lie, hide, and cover up.  That is always a big clue.  Poke ’em a few times and see how they respond.  Are they state of the art or a fraud?

If you look closely you can see Bernie Madoff.  The SEC doesn’t prohibit email communication, customer service, and solutions.  Nor does it have to be behind a firewall on a website filled with your promotions.  About that…  you should make customers want to go there, if only your crummy Android app worked; BTW, you can’t log in on my Android browser either.

The reason they don’t do it is because their customer service representatives are too unskilled and enabled to handle it.  If they start putting things in writing they’re going to get caught.  A lot.  When you start arguing with customers about arbitrary and incorrect account naming, and how it affects arbitrary and inconsequential account handling which results in very real customer transactions–and then refuse to fix it–you are sleazy.  You are preventing customers from freely moving their money and you are just like Bernie Madoff.

william_stromberg@troweprice.com; bill_stromberg@troweprice.com.  In years past I would have sent it but that would just be an unnecessary clue and that’s another reason why this business is so fascinating and why this one company is so dumb.  Also, for a number of reasons, I think it would just be pointless.  You can see it everywhere.  It is not a customer focused company.  It is the same company that not too long ago used to require faxes.  The ceo is a finance guy.

They don’t even provide email service or support.  They don’t have weekend or evening customer service hours.

Why build and operate a huge customer care center in Colorado Springs if you are not going to use it evenings and weekends?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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If I ever go out of business as a blogger, or go into business as a blogger, that will be my bane:  finishing stories.  RE the one below, I realized I am disappointed in her because I think she can do better.  I also realized disappointment is where my involvement ends.  I sure was hoping you were farther along with the moving-on process but that sounds more like changing someone than any other type of involvement.

First a correction:  no, you and I couldn’t get close and I certainly wasn’t a third husband.

Anyway, I stopped with the last email.  I didn’t read Walt’s end or contact anyone further.  And I never, ever checked blog stats to see who is reading what may be below.

Yes, it is “you” and it is written in the second person.  It is weird to see some of the things written in third person referring to “her.”  It was only because other methods failed.

This guy has a lot of problems.

 

http://tucsoncitizen.com/morgue2/1996/11/09/148749-broke-triano-kept-optimistic/

The car that was bombed and he died in wasn’t his, it was his construction executive partner’s.  Hickey declared bankruptcy four years before Triano.  Gary Triano sold the car to Hickey for $8000.

Someone on the internet wrote that she had tried to sell the story for a movie shortly before her arrest.  The book isn’t very good and it is not clear where she gets some of the wild, fictionalized scenes.

Triano’s is a story about a ponzi scheme until the end.  He had never been in jail and there was nothing suggesting he was close.  They were just civil judgments and debts, mostly to individuals.

The divorce was about money-grabbing but it was a situation so awful getting out was something anyone would do.  He managed to avoid formal bankruptcy for years all the while refusing to acknowledge it or change his lifestyle.  He had no real job–he didn’t create or build anything–or source of income.  Again, it was a matter of these people, the investors, who did business with him.  Obviously it was ludicrous to think that that wouldn’t dry up.

Like Bernie Madoff and the rest his life must have been lies, stress, and even violence.

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Jo Ann: [to Nick] Mr. McKussic, it seems, has been engaged in his business for purely romantic reasons, whilst you have been engaged in romance for purely business reasons.

That was easy.  You can find anything on the internet.

I listened and I heard, music in a word.

We’ll change the subject and talk about…  Bre-X.  The movie isn’t very good I’ve already avoided enough drunk, sloppy, loner Mathew McConaughey movies.  It’s not really about a mining swindle, it is about a stock scam.  David Walsh wasn’t a miner, he was a stock broker.

 

https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=10602854930248621198&q=trina+wolf&hl=en&as_sdt=4,206

They say criminals want to be caught.  No.  It is more like they cannot connect the dots.  They cannot see the bigger picture.  It is too much a part of them.  It is bound to come out.

I don’t know what fake news is because nobody has to believe anything.  This is real, but is a summary so concise there has to be more to it.  It flows so logically, and it is so well-written, that you have to believe it.

There are different perspectives and individuals, some right, some wrong, and all human.  But do you really want it to come to that?  Filed forever:  four hours supervised custody every two weeks.

There’s another document and a different database that I will read too.  It is the heretofore losing perspective.

I wanted to check the dates.  January, 2014.  My time began in 2015 at the time another unmentioned life-changing event occurred.

Ten stitches and the abuse I have never been able to figure out, but she had full custody in the beginning because of it.  Then there’s the incident concisely summarized and “men’s rights” took over.  Over the course custody went from half to one third to this.  To me it seemed like there were plenty of opportunities for a be-there, compromising, loving parent that may not have been taken.

Bribes.  Conspiracies.  MLB in South Dakota.  Brainwashing.  The Bozeman Symphony.  And there was more scorn than I’d ever heard:  “I built that house,” $2,000 a month, prenuptial, and having to buy into the business.

Want to get caught?  No, just history repeating itself.  Remember Holly Howard Wolf?  It is a perch and a lifestyle that is hard to “divorce” yourself from.

There are two things I heard over and over:  1) It is because I left him and 2) I only have a two-year degree.  How those play in, or what they mean, I don’t know.  Pardon me, there are three things.  He is rich and powerful.  That one you can see a little bit.

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Just an update until some things are finished.  If you look for them there are many, bios about people who will grow old with very little savings.  The recent Wapo post put it bluntly and cruelly:  it will widen the divide between those who do and those who don’t, or those with or without.

The stock market is a way to keep in touch with things from North Korea to healthcare.  It is, when it falls, it will really put Trump behind the 8-ball.

For months now really smart and experienced people have been saying the U.S. stock market, with all its value and influence, is an overvalued bubble.  It is on a par with the worst recessions or depressions in history.  Then, over the past quarter or half a year, it went up farther.  There hasn’t been a meaningful correction in something like two years.

By valuations I mean, are these companies worth this much?  For the most part they’re the same companies from five, even ten years, ago.  Earnings and the economy are strong, but are they really worth two or three (or more) times what they were a few years ago?

For me, five, six, seven years of 17% returns, then 27% over the past year, is not sustainable.  It is also “wealth creatable.”  It is more than just savings.

“This is what we have been waiting for” one of the many, in the news analysts said maybe 6 or 9 months ago.  Specifically, the man was referring to low interest rates, strong profits, low inflation, and strong growth.  That is true.

It is not sustainable.  There are (at least) to components to stock pricing, 1) underlying fundamentals (profits, economy, etc.) and 2) market sentiment.  Right now they are both sky-high.

Trump is the least popular president in history.  He represents a lifestyle most people cannot relate to.  He is not going to change.  The next three years, beginning with the mid-term elections, may have a lot to do with his replacement.  Recently, lower corporate taxes, is perhaps his final–or just another–bubble.

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