Positive Verizon customer service
Posted by WoB in Free, Spending Money, Technology on July 31st, 2009
I went to the local mall to buy an over-researched replacement for my old mobile phone. I wound up getting the Verizon enV Touch, which I recommend to anyone who doesn’t want to pay for the Blackberry data package. It is an unbelievable phone that does just about everything that a Smartphone can do. Anyways…
While at the counter waiting for her to ring me out, the lady and I were talking and somehow we got to what phone my wife had. As soon as I told her which phone, she asked is she was having problems with it. I told her that she had been having a few problems with the touch screen and she said that it was a rather common problem. She offered up that if my wife were to come in and explain that to the service department, they would offer her either new firmware, or a replacement to a newer version of the phone. I asked her when the cutoff time would be for them to offer her a new phone and she told me that if she didn’t report the problem by the time the 1 year warrantee ran out, then we’d be out of luck. That deadline is the middle of September.
I thought that was great. My wife had been dealing with the phone for almost a year, having difficulty pushing buttons on a particular section of the screen. She wasn’t making a big deal about it, but I tried to use it a few times and got really frustrated.
She was at the mall at the time and when she wandered back in, I told her to bring the phone to the service counter and ask for the upgraded software. I figured that that might be enough, and if it wasn’t, we could always go back in and trade it in for the newer model in a month or so.
As of right now, she has decided to go back in and get the replacement phone. There was a giant difference between the old and new software, but it still has issues.
I figured that she might as well get as much time out of her old phone as she could before trading it in for the new one. So if anyone has the Samsung Glide, go to Verizon and get a replacement or if it has been a year, at least get the software upgrade. It adds some cool features that I feel you are missing out on.
I’ll post again if she is unable to get the new phone for free, and the article will not be as upbeat.
Best use on an hour
So you’re sitting down reading these words that I put together. Seems like a nice relaxing thing to do, but could there be a better use of this time?
If this article prompts you to spend one of the most beneficial hours you’ve ever had, then no. There are only four things that you will do in this hour. Give it a try.
1) Organize your important papers. Things like deeds, mortgages, leases, life insurance details, warrantees and other things. Put them all in one place and anything new that comes in should be put there directly.
2) Start a tax folder. You need your W2, and you won’t get that until January or February, but there are things that should go together to help you get organized for when you do your taxes. Things like the tax preparer’s bill from last year, educational expenses, and receipts from the home depot. With all of these things together in one folder or box, it’ll be much easier to find a spot to put these types of things when you get them. Here is a more complete list if you need one.
3) Start using bill pay at your bank. For more on this check here.
4) Set up a budget. For more on this check here.
OK, so it might have taken you an hour and ten minutes, but I promise that you will be much more prepared for the future. If you haven’t started this list yet, do it. Don’t hesitate.
Free weekend activities
The art of living below your means gets a lot easier if you are able to find things that you like to do that don’t cost money.
The people at The Simple Dollar have a great list that you should really read through. Some of them are not for me but a few of them are great ideas. They are things that they recommend doing during “money free weekends” which seems like a pretty cool idea. They aim to set aside a weekend or two a month that costs nothing.
In order to start a money free activity, a friend and I have started a weekly softball game. We meet at 2pm every Sunday and play softball for a few hours. I have started a website for it that you can check out here. It has been great. We’ve had a game every Sunday for over two months and we’ve had a great turnout. Each week we’ve had between 18 and 25 people get in on the fun. If you’re not in the area, start one up.
The best way to get one started is to get a bunch of friends that want to play and post it on craigslist.org for a few more. It is a great way to get outside and get some people together. You even get a small amount of exercise, especially if you get solid hits.
Keeping your accounts safe
Posted by WoB in Savings, Technology on July 23rd, 2009
In this age of technology, we seem to keep amassing accounts for new sites on the internet almost daily. There are user names and passwords to remember for each of them. It is tough enough for you to remember them all, but what should happen to all of this should you die?
Most of the accounts that you have don’t really matter, but there are probably some that you wouldn’t want to slip away.
You had better have an online savings account by now, and if the statements only go to your email address, they might be lost. This is especially scary if you should become incapacitated. You would likely need this money to help pay for good medical care.
You might have an online digital photo stash, which had less monetary value than sentimental, but it should not be lost just because the account is forgotten.
There is a service called Legacy Locker that promises to keep all of your online accounts together in one area. It allows you to pass on access to each account to anyone you choose.
They also allow you to write personal “Legacy Letters” to anyone you want that would be distributed automatically. I’m not sure that this service makes up for a lack of a will, although I’m sure that you could write a will up as one of your letters.
If you don’t take advantage of this service, you should at least give some thought to the things that would need to be found. I keep a password list saved somewhere where my wife could find it. None of the passwords are actually on it, but there are clues for her to get to the password, just in case it goes public.
I have accounts all over the place; pictures over here, bank accounts over there, money with poker sites and PayPal. For most of these accounts, I have online statements. There is not too much money floating around other than the savings accounts, but it would be a shame to lose it all. I have most of my online pictures on my hard drive. I put them on the internet for backup purposes mainly.
I’m not going to bother creating another account by using this service, but I will update my password list so that nothing important is missing.
Google Voice reviewed
Posted by WoB in Technology on July 17th, 2009
I use a ton of Google’s products so, I believe for that reason, I received an email from Google offering me a Google Voice account. I had never heard of this service, but it sounded interesting so I decided to give it a try, both because it was free and because it sounded like it had cool features that might allow me more functionality with my cell phone; I always strive for this.
As soon as I accepted the offer, I was tasked with choosing a new phone number. There were tons to choose from, so it took me a long time to finally select one that I would like giving out. The tool they provide you when selecting a new number was great. You could choose a zip code and it would show the local numbers for your town, or you put in your area code and it again gave you a list of them to choose from, I could keep selecting the More button and I could have gone through thousands of numbers.
In addition to that tool, I could type in numbers or letters and it would scan its database and give me numbers either nationally or locally that met my selection. I tried 1111 through 9999 and there were none available, so I wound up choosing a 1010 number. I figured it would be an easy number to remember. Now that I had selected a new phone number, I had to choose what would happen when someone called. I chose to have it ring my cell phone because I don’t have a landline. If someone calls this number, it rings me just as a normal call from them with their caller ID listed. This is the cool part. It asks the caller for their name and when I answer the phone, it says “you have a call from John Smith, would you like to take the call, send them to voicemail, send them to voicemail and listen in while they are leaving it, or take the call and record it.” All of these features work really well.
It’s not like I’m going to never give out my regular number anymore, but if I am going to be giving my phone number to someone that I don’t really know, or if I am going to enter it into a form, I will use this new one. It allows me some flexibility and a really easy way to screen callers.
I can also choose numbers to block, or different voicemail greetings for different people. I can also listen to my voicemail on the computer and chose which one to listen to first.
When a call is missed, or a voicemail is left, I get a text message or an email sent to my phone. This is cool, because if my phone is off or I am in a bad service area, I will know if I missed a call from someone that didn’t leave a message.
I’m sure that I haven’t even scratched the surface of what is being offered, but so far, it has been a great feature. Let me know if you have any specific questions and I’ll try to get an answer for you.
As of right now, Google voice is only available by invitation, so if you want it, sign up here to get on the waiting list.