A Mama's Rant

My Office Depot Rant Or What Is My Time Worth?

I had been looking for a two-drawer metal filing cabinet, but all ones I saw were $50 to $70 - too much for a piece of crappy office furniture. I'd do better getting a used one at a thrift store.

Then I saw Office Depot was advertising a two-drawer Office Depot Value™ Brand 2-Drawer File With Caster Kit available in silver, putty, charcoal and stone for $29.99.

I was willing to pay $30, but didn't want to drive all the way into town and back - an hour's trip including shopping time. Since Office Depot offers free shipping on purchases over $50, I went online. Odd thing was that while I could find the product, it wasn't listed for the price on the flier. I wondered if it was an in-store special.

Off to Office Depot I Go

Even though I suspected the sale flier had a misprint, wasn't it within my rights to ask for the advertised price? Since I already had to drive part way to the store to drop the kids off at karate, I thought it was worth my time to go by and check it out.

When I got there, the young man in the furniture section couldn't find the file cabinet on the floor. When he looked it up in the computer, he didn't see it listed at the sale price. (I had brought the flier with me.) He got his manager who told me there was only one left in the back. He reluctantly gave it to me for the price on the flier even though he pointed out that the flier was incorrect.

Not the Bargain I Hoped for

I added a few other things to my cart, and checked out using a $10 off coupon I had as an Office Depot rewards member. I drove home thrilled to get a file cabinet for $20 that would normally go for $70 full price.

A couple of days later I unpacked the file. It was damaged! Not only was I ticked off, but I had a dilemma to deal with. Should I be happy with a banged up bargain? Or should I take more time out of my busy schedule to return it? CRAP!

Putting a Price Tag On My Time

A friend of mine, Millionaire Mommy Next Door, tells you to put a price tag on your time.

So far I had expended an hour's worth of time to save $50. In my freelance writing business, I aim for a $20 per hour minimum net. So I did pretty well there. But if I returned it, I would lose money:

• 1 hour to get the original file - $20
• 1 hour to return it - $20
• 1 hour to get a new one from a rain check (there were no more in the store) - $20

TOTAL = $60 worth of writing time to save $50 - NOT WORTH IT!

I ended up keeping the cabinet. It was functional, and the damage wasn't noticeable since it's in the closet. I'm still pissed about it though. 

What would you have done, kept it figuring you took advantage of a mistake and got a pretty good deal? Or would you have returned it, insisting on a perfect cabinet at the flier's price?

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WELCOME TRI-TOWN.COM READERS

I've been Dooced on the Tri-Town.com boards.

The post that angry_parent is referring to is These Are the People in My Neighborhood? and I do stand by these words. It would be easy for me to pull the post, apologize, and/or hide behind my computer monitor. Instead, I won't. I truly believe that our school system at large - not just out here in Carbon Valley and not just in our district either - suffers because parents don't care. That was the point of my post.

But with your newly elected PTO president, things should be getting better. Sharon is a terrific mom, a classy lady, smart, generous, and very interested in education and improving her neighborhood. What a boon for your school!

Be like Sharon. If you're so passionate about your neighborhood and school, do something about it. Hold a fundraiser. Complain about the overcrowding to the school district...that's what the folks in Erie do. Attend PTO, town, HOA, and school board meetings. Volunteer in the classroom. Form a committee to better maintain the school's lawn (something neighbors have been complaining about for a long time).

And as far as being the "self absorbed person that feels she is doing all of the work for her school and not getting the high amounts of credit her personality feels she deserves..." I deserve very little personal credit for getting the charter school up and running. It was a huge TEAM EFFORT of our staff, parents, kids, the Carbon Valley community at large, and a handful of board members (and some professional help too - lawyers, consultants, CPAs, real estate brokers, some nice folks at the CDE, et al.)

Honestly, if I had to leave the area tomorrow, I'd be sad that my kids wouldn't be at the school anymore. But I wouldn't miss the board position. It's a ton of work - and a lot of grief, brain damage, and stress - for an unpaid volunteer job.

Finally a response to a few people:

WHEN IN DOUBT, BLOG IT OUT

Today's complaint is about ecampus.com, a used bookseller than sells through Amazon.com. Last week I purchased a used "LIKE NEW" copy of Hot Text: Web Writing that Works. Here's the listing

Price	Condition	Seller Information
$17.66	Like New	Seller: ecampus_com (Safe buying guarantee) Rating: 88% positive ratings over the past twelve months (16480 ratings). Seller has 36253 lifetime ratings. Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days; Ships from KY, United States. Expedited shipping available. See shipping rates Comments: Great Condition. Fast, Reliable Delivery. We guarantee correct edition. Expedited shipping available. Used copies may contain some highlighting.

As you can see it's described as "LIKE NEW" and in "Great Condition." My copy arrived promptly. However, the cover was scratched and bent, as were the first and last 50-100 pages. There were also two stickers on it - one on the spine, the other on the back cover. It looked like a new book that had been damaged by improperly stacking it on top of a smaller book.

So I emailed ecampus.com's customer service asking for a further discount or partial refund since I feel I didn't pay for a damaged book. Here's the response I got.

Our listing was for a used book, not a new book. That is why it had bending in the pages and cover. The used book was sold for $17.66, and the list price for a new book is $40.00.

Best regards,
Christina D.
Customer Support Specialist
A Book Company, LLC

Well, maybe they should have listed it as "Used book with bent pages and cover" instead of "Like New." Duh.

It's not worth my time and expense to return the book, especially since it's in usable shape. So I've left them a lousy rating and complained to Amazon.com since the description was waaaaay off.

Oh, and of course I put this out on the blogosphere...

UPDATE: Well, Amazon has made the effort to correct the situation by offering me an additional 10% off the book and a $5 gift certificate good towards my next purchase. Still can't recommend buying from ecampus.com. But as usual, Amazon does a great job making sure I'm happy.

NOT VERY TASTEFUL AND RATHER SIMPLE-MINDED

About a month ago I attended a Tastefully Simple party at my friend, Julie's home (she's a consultant). Tastefully Simple is one of those multi-level marketing things, like Pampered Chef or Southern Living at Home. It features gourmet food products that make your life easier - dip mixes, spices, jams, beer bread mix, etc.

I wrote about the party on my cooking blog, This Mama Cooks! I raved about the products (they were pretty darn tasty) and I provided a link to Julie's consultant site.

After thanking me for the post, and getting a couple of sales out of it, she forwards me an email from the home office:

Hi Julie,

I received the following link from another consultant furious with this site. There are multiple policy violations on this site Julie. Even if this is not your site, you must talk to this individual and have her remove all Tastefully Simple Intellectual Property from this site. There can be no company name, product names, links to your website or to Tastefully Simple. Can I have you talk to this individual and have this information removed as soon as possible? I am going to check this again in 2 days to ensure that this information has been removed. If it is not, I am going to have to give out a policy violation to you since it is your name on the website. Let me know if you have any questions for me Julie.

Thanks,
Travis Bruns
HQ Office Live Coordinator
Tastefully Simple
travis.bruns@tastefullysimple.com
EXT. 1724

O.K., they had me dead to rights on the product photos and names, since their privacy/copyright policy does state that they can't be used without permission. Even so, asking me to take the entire post down - especially the link to her site - seemed a bit outrageous. It just smacked of a violation of freedom of the press which I assume covers bloggers, too.

WORKING MOTHERS MAKE KIDS FAT

As usual, the media is going out of its way to make working mothers feel guilty. As Jim Williams of CBS reported on August 16, 2005, there's a supposed link between working moms and child obesity.

(CBS) With an obesity rate in this country triple what it was 30 years ago, scientists are now exploring the role a woman's job may have on a child's health.

Whether you blame school vending machines, fast food, or too much TV, American kids have never been fatter. Now, Wellesley College professor Phil Levine has found a link between working mothers and childhood obesity. One finding in his study was particularly surprising.

“That effect tends to be concentrated among upper income women,” he said.

But by upper income, we're not talking about the country club set. The study is referring to families with a total household income around $80,000.

Professor Levine believes working moms are so strapped for time they may be forced to take unhealthy shortcuts like swinging through a drive-thru for dinner.

Dr. Lee Kaplan is an obesity specialist. He says a possible relationship between career moms and childhood obesity is worth looking at. “There's some evidence that the generation of our children is the first generation in recent human history that will have a shorter life expectancy than their parents,” he said. “That's mostly due to obesity.”

Many women we talked to say they try, but they just can't do it all.

“It's hard to be successful at work; it's hard to be successful at home; you spread yourself really thin,” one woman told us.

“They beg me for time to go to the park,” said another. “In between work and cooking, I only have time to do it on the weekends.”

Dr. Kaplan says inspiring change will be difficult. “We're not going back to an Ozzie and Harriet lifestyle where we have mom sitting at home spending six hours a day shopping for food and making breakfast, lunch and dinner,” he said. “No one has that kind of time.”

Both Dr. Kaplan and professor Levine say this doesn't mean moms should stop working, but they agree it may be time for society to start looking for a solution.

(© MMV, CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Of course no one is blaming working dads, since moms are still responsible for most of the cooking and grocery shopping. But look at society. These kids are not walking to and from school each day, probably because they have activities before and after school and  have too much gear to lug around (sports equipment, band instruments, dance gear, etc.)

Then many upper income kids don't go to a neighborhood school but are bussed or driven to a better public or private school far away. Then many parents don't want their kids walking to and from school for fear of getting snatched or run over.

Also, between work, school and extra curricular activities, so many families are on the run that no one's sitting down to eat any more. I know several families who go through the drive through and eat pizza in the car on the way to sports practice no matter if it's mom OR dad who's driving.

Then there's stress eating. Everyone's getting fat because we're all soothing ourselves with sugar-laden fattening treats. Better than cocaine, I guess.

All in all, there are too many factors to take account of, so lay off blaming everything on working moms. All moms work - and dads too - whether it's inside or outside the home.

BUSY , PISSED OFF AND ALONE

I'm just too doggone...

BUSY

Honestly, I should know better. But I keep hoping when I say the work at My Charter School is lessening, it will stay that way. NOT! We have a charity golf tournament coming up to raise funds for our playground. The board member in charge of fundraising works part time and wasn't able to keep up. So when I stopped by the school for our Friday story time, I was given the assignment to market the darn thing.

(An aside - I want to give a shout out to Rhonda, our teaching assistant and co-owner of the Jazzy Bean coffee shop. She's the one who conducts the story time. Not only did she read to the kids and pass out juice and snacks, but she had them do a craft - a Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hat hat made with paper plates, paper strips, and stapled together. I was extremely impressed! Plus she's got a wonderful rapport with the kids. We're so lucky to have her on our staff.)

Here's what I've done today or have to do over the weekend:

• emailed the event listing to all the local papers
• listed the event on a Colorado golf website
• emailed local reporters in hope they will write a story about the event
• wrote an email to the parents which will go out Monday
• get 1000 fliers printed at Office Depot
• distribute fliers to local golf stores
• work with our Volunteer Coordinator to get people to distribute fliers around the Tri-Town area - post offices, rec center, local businesses and restaurants, libraries, etc. (If she can't get people, I may have to distribute the fliers myself.)
• drop off fliers at school
• go to the Firestone town meeting on Thursday and ask the trustees to sponsor the breakfast and a foursome
• discuss further marketing ideas at the next board meeting
• go by the Comcast office to get a form to advertise on their free cable access channel (This is the hardest advertising to write since you only have so many lines and so many spaces per line. I've done it before for our enrollment sessions and the preschool program and it takes forever to do.)
• emailed the owner of Saddleback Golf Club to see what's being done at the course to market the event (luckily she's a very supportive charter school parent)
• emailed some of my husband's coworkers to form a foursome. (Thanks Uncle Pete!) and another friend, who unfortunately declined
• emailed the mayor of Firestone, who's also my chiropractor, to find out how I get on the agenda and if I should only talk about golf tournament or should I also give the town trustees an update on the school

LAZINESS

I was saddened by the student attitudes in an article I read in the Denver Post last Thursday:

Members of the Cresthill team were genuinely enthusiastic when explaining their results and conclusions, but none of them wanted to become scientists, either.

"It took too much attention to detail, and I had trouble staying on task," said Chelsea Rames, 13.

"I don't have that much patience," said   Andrew Heaton, 13.

Susan Schmelzer, teen education coordinator at the zoo, was clearly frustrated with those responses.

"That's our society," she said, throwing up her hands. "We need to celebrate science more than we celebrate sports. Science should be on the front page. ... It matters because these are the kids that are going to be taking care of the planet."

Like the zoo coordinator, I too was frustrated by these kids. It took too much attention to detail! I had trouble staying on task! I don't have that much patience!

Good lawd, I wonder what's going to happen when they go to college (as if!), get a job or have kids. No wonder our society is falling behind in the sciences. No one wants to work hard or develop an attention span that lasts longer than a commercial break. LAZY attitudes equals LOUSY society.

So sad.

DEVILS & DUST

eBay, who cancelled my auction of old Weight Watchers materials because they "aren't for resale" has no problem with scalpers.

Today, tickets for Bruce Springsteen's solo acoustic concert in Denver next month, went on sale. As far as I can tell the $75-85 (not including fees) tickets are sold out. However, that's not official since they'll probably release blocks of tickets that are being held by the promoter when it gets closer to the show date.

But of course, the scalpers already have their tickets listed on eBay, all in the $200-300 range. And I'm not sure how they're doing it since most of the better tickets are only available at will call with ID. Buyer beware, I guess.

I read in today's Rocky Mountain Post that U2's fans blocked similar scalper sales by buying up all the tickets and reselling them to other fans at face value. And U2 in the past has sold tickets only through their fan club, which has cut down scalping as well.

But I think the only way to combat scalping is if eBay develops some guts and makes a policy of only allowing people to resell tickets at face value, plus a minimal service fee for shipping and handling.

In the meanwhile, I'll be scanning the airwaves for Springsteen ticket contests. But worse comes to worse, I'll have the Devils & Dust (due out April 26th!) CD and DVD and will enjoy the music of my fellow New Jerseyian from the comfort of my living room.

TODAY'S COMPLAINT - EBAY

Now, normally I'm Miss Goody-Two-Shoes. I like following rules. However, I'm pissed off about this. I listed for sale on eBay some old Weight Watchers materials from 2003-4 that I don't use anymore because I'm going to meetings again and getting the updated versions.

Then five days into my auction I got an email telling me it was cancelled (and all fees refunded) because Weight Watchers program materials were not for resale. I was told that if I attempted to relist the items, I could be thrown off eBay.

Fine and dandy with me except there are still tons of eBay listings of Weight Watchers program materials. (I've only relisted the dining out and food companion books since they're o.k. to auction.)

I'm really ticked off that I was singled out. Dammit, those other listings should be cancelled, too. Friggin' frustrating and totally unfair.

Anyone know who I can complain to at eBay?

TODAY'S COMPLAINT - UNDERWEAR

What is it about me and underwear? As soon as I find a style of panty or bra I like, I'm never able to find them again.

The bra style I've been wearing for years was discontinued. Luckily, I was able to buy four more before the store ran out. This should last me another year before I have to go bra shopping again. There's a reason why supposedly 80% of us are wearing the wrong bra size or style. We hate to shop for bras! Since there is so much difference between bra styles in the same size, you have to try on dozen before finding the right one for you. And trying that many on with two kids in tow is sheer madness.

I'm having the same problem with panties. The string bikini ones I had before from Wal-Mart are no longer being made. Luckily for me I found some really comfortable, all cotton, string bikinis at Target. But I had to go to two different stores to get them. Seems I wear a popular size and style, so the selection was pretty limited. I grabbed all the packages I could find, so I should be o.k. for awhile.

Of course, there were tons of underpants in other styles, sizes and colors. Target stockers, get a clue. There's a run on string bikinis in size 6. Stock up!

Of course, I never have a problem finding Big Bad Dad's boxer briefs in a variety of colors or Monkey Boy's Spongebob Squarepants briefs. Conspiracy theories anyone?

From now on I'm buying my underwear in bulk.