Rant #1

My amazon marketplace store got shut down :(. Thanks to amazon.com’s bogus A-Z Guarantee, and stupid consumers.

This A-Z Guarantee is great… for buyers, but it royally shaft’s those of us who sell. I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. Many sellers on Amazon write about this on amazon.com’s messageboards, and the feeling is all the same. We get kicked in the ass because of dumb consumers who dont read product descriptions.

I’m throwing up a huge middle finger in the air to these dumb consumers. Why can’t you people read the item descriptions before clicking on “buy???” Too often, I get idiots who buy my items, but do not read the description, and a week or two later, I get an email from amazon from the customer. Most of the time I can work it out by offering a partial refund, but sometimes I get the jerks who want to draw it out for weeks through the A-Z Guarantee. I really don’t want the item back, and both buyer and seller lose money this way.

Amazon needs a seller-protection-plan. If idiot consumers aren’t smart enough to read the description, dont make the seller foot the bill! How are we as sellers going to know if the buyer will send the item back? I know I’m waiting for some items still, and these buyers have their refunded money, and my item!

Why can’t selling items online be what it once was? Not only amazon, but ebay and countless others have made it so complex and money hungry. Maybe it’s time to get out of the biz, or create my own store, no amazon or ebay strings attached.

Apologies.

Sorry folks for not writing in May or June. It was such a crazy time for me, and it still is.

May and June were Wedding and Vacation season for me and my family. We were out and about.

Stay tuned for a future post on ‘em… maybe.

NOTFWD.com meets have started!!!!

I love rolling out every Saturday and driving with these guys. We have a blast! This past weekend I took some video, and I’ve just uploaded them!

Last week, we had a great turnout. Many Miata’s, Elise’s, Exige’s, Forester’s, WRX’s, RX-8’s, 350Z’s, 240SX’s… just to name a few.

Enjoy the video’s! (If you can, watch it in High Quality mode, looks way better!)

Enjoy!

- Richie L

 

Welcome to Failtown: Local Service Department Blows!!!!

I know, harsh words. But read on for my reasoning.

 

One day, I called to ask how much an extra set of keys for the “MR-2 Spyder” would cost. The lady on the other end asked “are you sure that’s a Toyota?” When I finally got some parts prices, it was absurd. About $100 for the key (it is a chipped key, mind you), and $40 for cut and program. In my experience, and those of others, good dealers do this as a courtesy. Strike 1.

 

Even though they were already on think ice in my book, I went in one day to have them check on the faulty hood latch TSB, and to check if my MR-S had the keyless entry. According to SpyderChat, I do. I have the flashing light on the dash, and a sticker in each window saying, “Toyota Security System”. I Thought this would take about 20 minutes, 45 max. I was there for almost 2 hours. This wasn’t some busy time either. It was an early Thursday afternoon, with 2 other people in the waiting room. Those two people were mom’s getting oil changes and got there after me. In fact, they left before I did.

When the service guy finally got back to me in the waiting room, he said the hood latch was $150+ and the install was $40. He forgot to check the keyless entry for me. He went to go check it, this took him all of 5 minutes. He said the car didn’t have it (I was skeptical), then he goes on to try to sell me on an aftermarket keyless entry for $300 or with the alarm option for $400. I was firmly raising the BS-Flag at this point. I wanted to get my ass out of there as soon as possible, but it took another 15 minutes for the cashier to ring me up. By now, I was surprised they didn’t give me some sort of $40 “estimate charge…” Strike 2.

 

I asked the guy afterwards, ”Since this is a TSB…” then he cut me off. ”3 years 36000 miles.” I would’ve gone on to say, “and a factory defect there’d at least be a discounted fee, if not free-of-charge?” but he didn’t let me finish.

Don’t ever give business to this hole of a service department. I think they’re trying to make money off of parts sales, as I’ve heard of others getting keys for $38 cut/programmed. And they have absurd pricing on simple service. $40 to cut and program a key!?

There was no rapport in this place. Not like a good shop, where you can talk to the guys in the Service Department and see what’s going on with your car. This place on the other hand, was cold and ignoring.

My sneaking suspicion is that because they are situated in an affluent community, they can nickel-and-dime you to death, and Mr. and Mrs. Northshore won’t notice a $450 charge when you just go in for an oil change… as long as you “explain” it to them. In fact, I witnessed this first hand. 

The lady before me in the cashier line was appalled at her almost $500 bill. She had just come in for a scheduled service. She was contesting the charge, but then the tech guy came in and “explained” it to her saying that the car was just recently out of warranty. She sighed and signed at the X. Strike 3.

 

In my opinion, the Northbrook Toyota Service Department fails on all levels.

Not all Dealerships and Stealerships… but this one is.

-Richie

(FOR SALE) Flexy-style Camera Tripod

Currently posted on:

• 4/4/08 Amazon.com
• Nowhere else… yet.

These are great. You can mount your camera almost anywhere with these things! Realllllllly suuuuper flexy! I tested this out with my Canon Rebel 350D, and it works with it, but just barely. It would work great with small point and shoots, even larger “prosumer” style cameras, and even lightweight camcorders. It is an “off-white”/gray color.

I have a strong feeling that these are simply Joby GorillaPod rebrands. They look exactly the same, and have the same mounting design to the last detail. Those retail for $25

If you’re looking to buy directly from here, I’m looking for $19 (+3% Paypal) shipped anywhere in the US and APO/FPO. I will ship to other countries, but it’s more expensive.

You can send a PayPal payment to RichiesRandoms@gmail.com. It would be best to email me beforehand, just to make 100% sure I have it in stock. Use my Half.com or Amazon.com links if you want to use a Credit Card.

Get flexible today!

-Richie

 

• Availability: 4/6
• Condition: Super-NEW-tastic!!!

 

Initial D! Whoo! (fan-subs>english dub)

I’ve been an Initial D Fan for many, many years. I remember hearing about it first when i was a wee tyke in Junior High School. It was then, and is now, good stuff.

Recently, I decided to start re-watching all of it, from 1st Stage to 4th with everything in between. I have yet to finish 4th Stage completely, but damn, it’s still just as good as I remembered. This time around, I decided to “try-out” the English Dub by Funimation…

All I have to say is, “wow, that shit sucked.” I almost made it all the way through 1st Stage with the Dub, but by the last five or so episodes, I’d had enough. It’s like the show was completely different. I loathed it. The reason I decided to try the Dub was because I would watch the episodes before I went to sleep, so I really didn’t feel like reading text on the screen. I know most super-anime-otaku would say that watching it in Japanese is the only way to go, and for the most part, I’d have to agree. But then again, a properly done Sub has it’s place in my library.

The three places where the Initial D Dubs lacked was:

1. Character Names - “Yo Tak!” Cole, Iggy, Natalie, Maya, Simone, Kent, KT, Ry….. that all equals lame-sauce, enough said.
2. Personality Change - I don’t know if it’s just me, but the characters seemed different. “Tak” seemed more into racing and more “energetic” than O.G-stylz Takumi.
3. Story Diversion - For the most part, this stayed true to J-Spec, but there were some weird differences that I picked up because I knew it was different when I had seen it in the subbed version. Some instances, Natsuki’s enjo kosai action was dialed down, and instead of Mako/Maya saying she was gonna give up her virginity to Iketani/Cole became, “I’ll be your girlfriend.” That made the whole story arc weaker.
4. Soundtrack!!!! - I think this in most fans books (mine too) is the worst omission. The rap/hip-hop track in the English Dub is really lame. It doesn’t go at all with the battles. The Europop simply enhanced the experience and grew in energy as the battle raged on.

Note: I also began to miss the JDM voices. I know this is something that has to be changed with a Dub, but I missed hearing Shingo’s sadistic laugh during the Gum-Tape Death Match.

Anyway, on to the rest of the series. Going back to JDM-Mode was awesome. You could obviously see the advances in the animation from series-to-series. My favorite was when they started going cel-shaded (4th Stage). Not only did it look the best, but I felt it flowed more with the rest of the show.

It’d be really cool to see the entire series reanimated with 4th Stage animation style. It would look soooooooooooooo good!

I haven’t finished the entire series, so I’ll have to finish that up and post about it later.

Fan-Subs 4Ever!

-Richie

April Fools… awesome-sauce.

I had wanted to Rick-Roll everyone for April Fools, unfortunately, so did everyone else. YouTube, ThinkGeek, they both Rick-Roll’d ya.

It’s all good, I got a bunch of people, whether it be through IM or on forums. it was good times! Got a bunch of people multiple times.

I don’t just send people to the YouTube link either, I send them to my favorite “browser-crasher” Rick-Roll. I don’t know why people don’t like the song that much, I find it to be quite catchy. The campiness of the video is classic too! You haters should take the time and just watch the video sometime!

I also would find myself using the Rick-Roll prank dialer. It’s hard to know if it works 100% of the time, but the image in your head is good enough.

Rick-Roll “browser-crasher” - ***use at your own risk***

Standard YouGotRickRolled link.

I heart the Rick-Roll.

-Richie

Time for Spring Cleaning!

Oh man, where to begin. Even though this cold Chicago winter has not yet let up, it’s time to start cleaning up around the house.

My “new” bedroom is in shambles. It used to be my Grandma’s room, then guest room, and then an impromptu storage closet for all the other crap we didn’t want in the other rooms! I had been sleeping on a foam mattress for 4 years, and I decided that I needed a real bed again.

This new room is full of old furniture from when I was a kid, and a lot of stuff from my sister. Knockoff Louis Vuitton purses, hats, books, and weirdest of all… a huge bag full of underwear. Right now, I kind of have it so that one half the room is mine, while the other remains messy. I need to clean up both sides… sigh.

Cleaning, rewarding in the end, but annoying during.

-Richie

(FOR SALE) So many books! So many VHS tapes! aaahhhh!111!!11

So I started this little internet business because I needed to organize some clutter. I hate clutter by the way (more on that in later posts). I found a ton of books, text and otherwise that haven’t been opened in quite awhile, some decades, and others that were brand new. I decided to put them up online and start my own Amazon business.

Also in my cleaning endeavors, I went through our old DVD’s and VHS Cassettes. Many of those are up too.

I’m glad to say, the clutter is much less, and I’ve moved a lot of merchandise. Sometimes it feels like it’s too slow…blah! Eventually, I’ll donate the stuff to charity.

Half.com Shop     Amazon.com Storefront

Buy something?

-Richie

My favorite recent discovery… Internet Radio

It’s good stuff. I’ve always been a big radio listener, especially lately, since all my music had been lost in lame-ass hard drive crash. That actually happened in December 06, but I’ve been lazy to reacquire all of those LP’s.

But enough with this digression. Internet radio! Awesome! The quality is great, and I like to listen to the DJ’s and the random selection of music. It’s fun to listen to the obscure foreign stations, which sometimes play similar music to here, but often play their own stuff.

If you haven’t tried it out, I urge you to! Standard radio quality doesn’t even compare

Listening to radio online,

-Richie