Fred Sandsmark's Blog

Jane and I are at the Exploratorium, attending the eclipse-watching party. The eclipse itself is happening in far eastern Brazil, traversing (not sure that's the right astronomy term) the Atlantic Ocean, and crossing north Africa; the Exploratorium's cameras are in Turkey. Jane's friend Ron Hipschman is one of the emcees for the event; currently, there's Brazilian music and dancing on the stage. Strongly caffeinated beverages (coffee, Mountain Dew, some sort of energy drink) are available for the masses, and sleeping bags are sprawled out on the floor.

Jane's friend John McDonald is here, working as a roving astronomer. He just explained to me the phases of the moon, in a way an English major can actually understand!

My friend and former colleague Alan Phinney is featured in an article in the Alameda Newspaper Group about actors who have real jobs. A nice story, worth reading. Jane and I saw Alan in The Crucible at the Hillbarn Theatre in Foster City on Friday evening -- a very good, and chilling, production.

I'm nearly done with my tax return. I looked at some of the industry-specific audit guidelines (thankfully, none apply) and found this rogue's gallery of audit candidates:



(You can click the picture to see the image larger; then click the back button to return to the blog.)

I can see how any or all of these characters might be prone to cheating on their taxes. My only question is, are there enough "Foreign Athletes and Entertainers" working in the United States for the IRS to have drawn up industry-specific audit rules?

A few weeks ago I mentioned my unhappiness with Chase due to their unhelpfulness regarding an email phish I received.

Today I read a story about a guy who submitted a torn-up Chase credit card application, using a different address and phone number than was on the solicitation. It worked -- the guy got a card. Scary.

I'm not a Chase account holder, and at this rate I can't think of a reason why I might want to be.

After a hiatus of over a year, I decided last week to put a couple of things -- old electronics -- up for sale on eBay. The site now has a couple of nifty tools that I found helpful.

First is a much-improved My eBay page. The most fun thing: a column that shows how many people are watching your item for sale. I had a dead Apple Airport Base Station (Graphite model) that languished with no bids for five days, and then sat with its low opening bid of 99 cents for two days. (My sales strategy is to set a low opening price and no reserve, in hopes of getting people caught up in the hunt.) In the old days the lack of bids would have made me nervous, but now I could see that several people were watching the item, so I didn't panic. At least not too much. Anyway, the item sold for $5.51 -- lower than I wanted, but at least more than the opening bid. All of the bidding happened in the single last minute of the auction. By the way, the buyer got a good deal because I badly miscalculated the shipping costs. (Another of my rules is to set a flat shipping cost and not mark it up. My rules come from also being a buyer, I guess.)

Second is a nifty shipping label tool. When an auction is complete and paid, eBay (in cooperation with the USPS) can help you print a prepaid mailing label, charging the postage to your Paypal account. The label even includes free delivery confirmation. One thing I learned: if I'm going to sell more, I need to get a scale.

This second new feature is, I think, expressly made to help individuals who sell on eBay. It's been my contention for some time that the number of professional, bulk sellers actually hurts the community aspect of eBay; the site has moved away from its person-to-person roots. For a while I thought this presented an opportunity for an upstart, but now I'm not so sure; it would be hard for a startup to get traction against a company, and a brand, as huge as eBay. It's nice to see the company making things easier for individuals, at least.

I'm feeling a bit of pride today, because yesterday I successfully completed one of the trickier Mac upgrades: I installed a larger hard disk in my iBook (an older model, a G3/600 Late 2001 [dual USB] -- specs here).

I won't go into details, because some very smart people have already done so (including iFixit, M. Uli Kusterer, and an unnamed Geocities user in the UK. I used all three of these step-by-step documents, but still ran into a few snags of my own -- the main one being that disconnecting the power and speaker wires between the upper cover and the main logic board of the computer is much tougher than indicated. I also found a screw missing -- scary, when one step requires you to remove twelve tiny screws -- but I realized that the problem was probably left over from when Apple replaced the disk (under AppleCare) a few years ago.

I'm not going to post a series of pictures of the operation, because each of the three links above has plenty. I'll just post two, showing the computer in its most dissasembled state:




The pictures aren't very good because I had the camera in the wrong mode. Apologies there.

For the record, the disk I installed is a 40gb Toshiba purchased from Other World Computing for less than $90. I could have put in a much bigger disk, but this is an old machine and is used for recreational, around-the-house and occasional on-the-road tasks, not production. (Plus, 40gb is already so much more than the 14gb drive it replaced; upgrading to 160gb seemed downright silly for a non-production machine.)

I also bought a 512mb RAM stick from OWC for this upgrade, but it didn't work. I know the problem is not the computer, the socket, or my installation technique, because I re-installed my old 256mb RAM and it worked fine. I've requested an RMA.

I put Tiger on the iBook after the disk upgrade, and it runs nicely considering the G3 processor and the 384mb of memory. I suspect it'll be even happier at 640mb.

One postscript: in researching stuff for this upgrade, I learned that my iBook's code name was Marble. Nice, eh?

All of us who eye the Sunday circulars from computer and office-supply stores for bargains knows the come-on of rebates. "Thousand-dollar product for five dollars" the big words trumpet, while the fine print lets you know that you need three combined rebates to actually get that price. Several years ago, writing for Slate, Carol Vinzant went so far as to call rebates a scam. "Stores use secret actuarial calculations to figure out what kind of rebate they can offer. And, increasingly, they employ brutal tricks to prevent shoppers from cashing in," she wrote.

I almost fell victim to one such scam recently. I bought a Samsung Syncmaster 910 MP monitor for Jane for Christmas from Office Depot. It's a pricey monitor, but made affordable by $100 worth of rebates from Samsung and Office Depot. The rebate form called for me to submit the original of the UPC, so I made a point of asking the salesperson where exactly it was; it wasn't visible on the box, because it was covered by OD's own inventory sticker. He told me the inventory sticker was what he had scanned so it was what I should send in.

No surprise, I suppose, that I received an email from the rebate fulfillment house soon after sending off my application.

Dear F Sandsmark:
You are receiving this notification because you have not complied with the terms of the offer due to the following reasons:
Original/Copy of UPC code(s)or SKU Number(s) needed were not included.
Required documentation was not included in submission - i.e. Rebate Form, UPC Code, Store Receipt, Invoice.

Original or Copy of Receipt, Invoice or Packing Slip. Received
Copy or Original Rebate Form. Received
Copy or Original UPC Code. Not Received

Please note: It is possible you submitted a barcode other then the required 12-digit UPC barcode. The 12-digit barcode is located on your product packaging. For more information on UPC barcodes visit www.expressgroup.com/faq.asp

Obviously I couldn't send the UPC, because it was under the sticker I had peeled from the box. Fortunately, this email included a postal address, so I wrote a very detailed letter, with much documentation and another copy of all the materials, explaining exactly what had happened. I also cc'd Chuck Rubin, Office Depot's president for North American retail, at their Florida headquarters.

Not long afterward, I received the following email:

Mr. Sandsmark:

A copy of your correspondence to our Rebate Service Center was forwarded to my attention in connection a rebate for a Samsung monitor purchased at our Office Depot store location in Hayward. I understand why you are concerned. Rebates represent a tremendous value to businesses and consumers, but nothing can be more frustrating than when something goes wrong. It is never our intention to mislead or inconvenience you, and I am very sorry that this process has been so time consuming for you.

Our company wants to ensure that every customer who qualifies for a rebate receives one, and in reviewing your request, I have seen that you purchased the correct item and complied the best that you could for the rebate submission. I am taking the liberty to have the $70 rebate processed from our Corporate office. Please allow approximately 20 business days for processing and it will be sent to you by US mail.

All of us at Office Depot appreciate your business, and whenever there is a problem, we will do all that we can to make it right. Should you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,
Debbie White
Coordinator, Executive Customer Relations
Office Depot, Inc.

I am convinced that Ms. White is a real person who was assigned to deal with these problems; I've left her email address off of this blog posting out of respect for her privacy. I give Office Depot a nod for doing the right thing, and I encourage others who have problems with Office Depot rebates (or any other rebates, for that matter) not to give up. Write to the company, let them know about your displeasure, and get what's coming to you.