• Write down important phone contacts. A lot of people who regularly use cell phones don’t memorize a lot of important numbers. If you lost power and your cell phone died you’d have problems contacting people even if you had access to anther phone.
• Don’t forget to get a water filter. Lots of people just focus on getting bottled water but you’d be surprised how fast you go through bottled water. If you have a Brita filter or equivalent you can even start storing water in various containers in preparation beforehand. You’re also able to do things like fill your bathtub with water in anticipation of bring cutoff from water and safely filter that water for consumption.
• Keep some cash on hand. It can be useful for buying things not only from other people but from stores where the power might be out.
• Have plans on where to meet up in case of evacuation. In the case of an evacuation have multiple plans on where to meet up.
• Have a backup method of cooking food and boiling water. For most people with a backyard grill this can easily be done by a bag of charcoal or gas of propane. If your gas is cutoff you might be stuck eating cold food.
• Get portable flashlights for walking outdoors. When my power went out the street lights went with it. I noticed some people walking around outside without any flashlights in hand. This is extremely dangerous as drivers may not see you.

I was fortunate to not have any food spoilage because when my power went out I was able to hook up a portable generator my father uses for camping to the refrigerators. The Verizon FiOS device in my house had a battery backup unit which allowed it to continue working despite the blackout. I was able to get internet by plugging the router into the backup generator. Having a laptop and access to the internet made the blackout easily bearable.

It’s a great way for merchants to advertise locally but sometimes things can go awry. One of the most common issues I’ve seen is that merchants (especially small ones) are unable to handle the huge volume that results because of a popular GroupOn. Merchants are able to cap the offers but some don’t for whatever reason.

Recently I witnessed this situation personally with the website DiapersDirect.com. The GroupOn was for $50 worth of merchandise for $25 on June 23rd. It’s almost a month later and my stuff still hasn’t shipped out. I proceeded to their website to find out why.

Currently on their website they’re offering updates specifically titled “GroupOn Update” detailing their progress dealing with the huge volume they experienced. It turns out they offered this deal nationwide in a ton of locales and they’re a very small company with only 4 employees. They didn’t expect the GroupOn to be this popular nor the redemption volume to this high so early on. Hopefully I’ll get my order soon and the company survives this whole ordeal.

The sign states “AS OF DEC. 1, 2001 NO VISA, MASTERCARD, AMERICAN EXPRESS, DISCOVER, DEBIT OR ANY OTHER CREDIT CARD TRANSACTIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED WITHOUT THE PROPER IDENTIFICATION”. In the past I wrote a post entitled “Top Five Credit Card Myths” and the ID requirement was myth #1. Check out that post if you want to see the sections of the merchant agreement that state ID is not required.

The policy at this IHOP clearly goes against the merchant agreement with Visa, Mastercard, etc. To add that they even state in the next part of the sign “SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE, WE ARE JUST FOLLOWING CREDIT CARD COMPANY PROCEDURES”. No, you’re not! Also if anyone called their bank or credit card company they would inform you that a merchant can ask for ID (or anything else) but cannot make it a condition of acceptance.

Normally if it’s a mom and pop shop instituting a minimum charge or ID requirement I wouldn’t care but IHOP is suppose to be a national franchise. This policy is clearly a local one put in place by either the uninformed franchisee or manager. The part where the sign says they are following credit card company procedures is the part that bothers me the most because it probably leads some people to believe the ID requirement is true. I use to work in a business that took credit cards and people would be fuming when I didn’t ask for identification even if their signature was similar to the one on the back of their card.

You get an e-mail from American Express stating your order was denied and why. You are also given a number to call for American Express Gift Card services.

The frustration starts when you call American Express Gift Card customer service. I’ve had repeated calls about several orders and I get increasingly annoyed each time. First I’ll tell them that my order was denied for going over purchaser limits and I believe this is in error. They will ask for the order number and then put me on hold to do “research”. After a couple minutes they will come back on the phone and repeat what I just said to them in that I was over purchaser limits. I have to then explain to them why I’m not over the purchaser limits and they usually agree after using math to figure out my last successful order was more than 14 days ago.

Here’s where it gets really frustrating and 2 or 3 of the customer service reps have tried to pull this one. They will tell me to call my bank and get the issue fixed with them. This is clearly not the issue at all because the charges do go through and it’s the gift card services department at Amex that denies the order, not anyone else. The biggest frustrating factor is that the CSR simply doesn’t know how to solve the issue so they are trying to get you off the phone.

The biggest issue lies in the fact that these agents that you are able to talk to on the phone have no ability whatsoever to approve or deny gift card orders. The last person I spoke to the on phone finally admitted this, they are simply there to take orders and whatnot. There is also no way to contact the back end which approves/cancels orders.

So I think I give up.

Here’s the deal. The minimum donation is $25. If you donate $25 or more I will create a new post linking to your blog thanking you for your donation and giving a general description of your blog. You get to feel good about yourself in addition to the link to your blog. Put your blog’s title in your donation so it’s easier to tell who it’s from. Leave a comment on this post also.

You’re also free to donate if you don’t have a blog and just want the good karma.

Here’s a link to my fundraising page.

What’s truly annoying is Chase closed all my accounts without warning. I even had a credit balance on one of my cards. I know that Chase is trying to reduce consumer lending risk but if they can seriously profile me as one than something is wrong with their evaluation methods.

I’ve never paid late, had a payment bounce and pay my cards in full each and every month. Although I’m not an extremely profitable customer that pays interest out the ass I am definitely an extremely low risk customer.

What makes the experience worse is the conversation with the “account managers” at Chase who I truly hope are low level employees. They would make statements like “well, your credit history is kinda short”. Well, that makes sense since I’m 22 years old and I’ve only been legally able to obtain credit 4 years ago! Yes I’m young but it’s experiences like that make individuals bitter enough to never do business with Chase again.

I will update if there is any more news.

Ryanair is known for being a no frills discount carrier with cheap flights between many European cities. They’re also known for charging fees for everything from checking baggage to checking in online.

Supposedly the good news is Boeing won’t comply with Ryanair’s request because they believe it would compromise passenger safety. Why supposedly? I believe the whole thing is a publicity stunt. I highly doubt Ryanair would go this far to maximize revenue. However the whole publicity stunt worked because Ryanair is so known for no frills that announcing these “plans” had every media outlet reporting on the matter.

It’s weird that they would cut pens first before cutting those 5 second commercials on television that would tell you the time and temperature.

Pricing

First let’s see how much it costs to get to Boston and back using various different methods available (Rail via Amtrak, Bus via Bolt Bus and commercial airlines).

Amtrak charged $64 for a seat in coach on their regular train service and $92 or so for the express train (less stops). The difference in time is that the express train gets to Boston 45 minutes faster at 3 hours and 30 minutes versus 4 hours and 15 minutes.

The Bolt Bus charges $8-$15 each way. Tickets are on the cheaper end if you book earlier (a week or two in advance). The ride is approximately 4 hours give or take depending on traffic conditions.

As a reference airfare tickets from NYC area airports to Boston are generally $250-$300 and duration of flight is 1 hour and 15 minutes. However let’s not forget what a hassle air travel is compared to bus/train due to airport security.

I was surprised at how pricey Amtrak was. Sure it’s cheaper than taking a flight but when comparing against longer distances such as NYC to Chicago it’s cheaper a lot faster to take a flight. Also the Bolt Bus is astronomical cheap compared to Amtrak. I’m surprised it’s not more economical to move people in bulk using the rails or Amtrak can’t figure out how to get prices down to that level.

Amenities

The Amtrak train is spacious and has big windows letting you enjoy the scenery. Each row of chairs had it’s own power port and an overhead rack for small baggage. There are bathrooms in every car and a snack car offering various snacks. What’s truly disappointing is that there’s no wifi at all! I expected wifi because the Bolt Bus amazingly offers free wifi.

The Bolt Bus was truly a bargain in terms of pricing and amenities. There are leather seats and power ports to accompany each seat. The free wifi also helps in keeping you busy for the 4 hour ride. Although not as spacious and roomy as Amtrak it’s not exactly cramped either.

Conclusion

I’m going to avoid taking Amtrak in the future. For short haul trips such as Boston I’ll take the bus. For longer destinations I’ll fly. It’s a huge deal breaker that Amtrak doesn’t have wifi and the prices are out of line with what they should be. The extra comfort space offered by Amtrak doesn’t justify the price and time it takes to get from point to point.

Here’s the real kicker: Amtrak is a government owned and subsidized entity. I don’t know if that means they should be able to offer cheaper tickets or the state they are in now is right where they should be.

Normally I don’t watch either show live because of their late night time slots. Therefore I use the subscribe feature on Hulu to have new episodes automatically added to a queue which I can watch at my convenience. Comedy Central’s website offers nowhere near the functionaly that Hulu offered. It’s a lot more inconvenient to catch up on these two shows.

Sadly to say this will probably mean I won’t be able to watch these two shows as often as I would prefer. I wonder if Comedy Central measures the amount of viewers of their shows on Hulu vs viewers through their own official website. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a huge drop off in online viewers. Note that the streamed episodes on Hulu included commercials just like regular TV.