Double Cross

Something was not right at my house this afternoon. The house kept getting colder and colder. Doh! The heat was not working. And the temperature was dropping. Initially I thought we might need to bunker down and get help tomorrow. However I later rethought this because it is supposed to get very cold tonight.

I tried calling my HVAC company. They did not pick up the phone. It was the evening. They must have went home. Looked up a new company. They came over within 2 hours. They figured out the problem pretty quickly. They quoted me a large fee to fix the problem. I confirmed that the cost would cover everything, and there would not be "other problems" that would cost me extra. The guys assured me there would be no more cost to get the heat working.

It took only 30 minutes for them to replace the parts and get the heat cooking again. I was taken aback by the final bill. It was almost 20% higher. I said this was not the quote I was given. Well they said there was a big service charge added. Then there was tax to deal with. The time to be clear about all these extra charges was when they gave me the quote, not when they were looking to get paid. In the end we split the difference. However the damage was already done. Poor communications make these guys look like crooks to me.

Now if I am in a bind again, I would use these guys. Two things are clear. They charge a lot. And the try to add on all kinds of garbage fees at the end. Too bad. They could have obtained a customer with their expertise.

eBook Sales Scam

Some dude had a great eBook headline. He made $40k in sales from one eBook this past year. That got my attention. He wrote about a hot new technology just as it was gaining traction. It was a very specific subject with a lot of interest.

This guy had me up until the point where he tried to sell another eBook on making money wit eBooks. Doh. Initially I had no reason to doubt this guy made $40k large. Now that he is trying to sell me something, the scam detector went off in my head.

Now I am not saying that this guy did not make any money on eBooks this past year. It is just that there is a conflict of interest here. Of course he is going to claim to have made a ton of money if he wants me to believe him and buy his scheme.

Heck. In this light, $40k don't look like much. You got plenty of other people claiming to have the eBooks to teach you how to make millions. Why stop at 40k? I wish this guy had just stated the facts and documented his win. I can't blame him for trying to make a buck. But that puts him in the company of a lot of other salesmen. So much for eBook sales excitement.

Ebay Tactics

You must read this Reddit poster's story about tricking an Ebay scammer. Here is the basic story. He put up some sports tickets on Ebay. Someone won the bid for $600 each but backed out in the end. It was took late to find another buyer. What this guy did was precious.

So he gets a throwaway phone number. He calls the bidder up, telling some sad story about how he wants to go to the game with his son, and would offer a ton of cash for the tickets. The bidder then contacts the guy and tells him the deal is still on. Guy collects cash.

The big time win was when the bidder then tries to pawn the tickets off for more money. The guy reveals himself and tells the bidder to get bent. Bamm. This is actually an age old scam technique. In this situation, I believe the ends justified the means. Check out the full story using the link above.