Category Archives: Shopping

Being one who justifies his fanatical comparison shopping by the public good side-effect of keeping markets efficient, I am particularly irked by the tactics of mattress sellers.

As is well known, most mattresses sold in the US are made in a small number of factories. In order to make comparison shopping hard, the mattress provide “unique” product lines to each major retailer. By making minor adjustments to the fabric or something and changing the (almost inevitably ridiculous) model names they sell under, Sealy and the like make price comparison shopping impossible. And they allow each possessor of a 'unique' line to make price-matching guarantees that they know are meaningless since no one else carries goods with the same name.

That's why I'm glad there is a Mattress Comparison Index which (says it) tells you which silly name is comparable to which other silly name.

Even armed with this information there is still a lot of product out there and field testing these things is both ridiculous and not particularly informative. It's easy to dismiss many mattresses as too soft or too hard, but that leaves a large range of choices, about none of which I feel confident about how they will feel in a year.

I wanted to illustrate this with a picture of Li'l Abner in his role a professional mattress tester, but while I could find some of him, there were none of him at work, which somehow seems fitting.

Incidentally, I was surprised to learn that professional mattress testers really exist!

You can't (or can no longer) get Amora Dijon Mustard in the United States.

Ever since UM switched employees to Humana, I've tried, when we needed some sort of medicine, to use the online pharmacy for mail-order delivery. Cranking up mail-order delivery is a pain as you have to fill out a form and mail (not fax) them the actual prescription. It's supposed to be cheaper. And, once you have it in their system, refills should be easy, just use the web form.

Not.

I've gotten the same error message Every. Single. Time. Over a six-month period.

This feature is currently unavailable. Please check back with us again shortly.

You may also contact our Customer Service Representatives at the number listed on the back of your ID Card.

So yeserday when I got the emailed reminder to go to the web site to order a refill and AGAIN it didn't work, I called customer service not just to order my refill by phone but to find out why their pharmacy is always down at any time of day or night. I had to speak to three people, the last of whom said a fourth would call me back. (Humana's online presence may be appalling but their telephone customer service people are actually unusually nice and even at times very helpful. They're certainly better than most computer companies.)

And indeed, someone did call me back in less than half an hour. But she couldn't reproduce the error. Yet, I could. “What version of IE are you using?” she asked. “I'm not,” I explained. And that, it seems is The Problem. And there's no work-around except to use IE. And they've known this for a long time.

I think in this day and age, with Firefox having a significant market share, and IE so notoriously insecure, it's pretty bad not to support Firefox. But why I'm blogging this complaint is that nowhere on the web site, no not even in the error message do they explain what the problem is. It would not be hard to detect the browser and say, sorry, our site only works with IE. It would have saved me and no doubt countless others a lot of time and frustration.

I have just discovered the Mouse Print blog [link fixed], which is dedicated to 'exposing the strings and catches in advertising fine print.' In short, catnip for obsessively rational consumers such as I.

I particularly like the attempt to figure out how much ham you get when you buy one in the store. Who knew that there are such major distinctions between ”cooked ham”, “cooked ham with natural juices”, “cooked ham, water added”, not to mention the suspiciously labeled “cooked ham and water product — x% of weight is added ingredients” which apparently can be as little as 17% meat, plus fat and water.

Consumerist blog: Southwest Nearly Lets Liver Transplant Patient Die Because He Wouldn't Buy 2nd Ticket.

Yes, you read that right.

Richard Brown nearly died on Sunday, January 21st, thanks to reckless indifference by a Southwest Airlines ticket agent.

A dying hep-C patient, Richard, secured an appointment at the Mayo Clinic. After getting turned down, he was referred to the University of San Francisco.

When he went to board in Scottsdale for California, the ticket agent refused to let Richard fly unless he bought another ticket, due to his weight.

The weight gain is due to water retention because of his failing liver. Richard lives on California Disability Pay and had no funds to pay for the extra ticket. The flight was not sold out.

The ticket agent didn't care when shown Richard's medical papers, saying, “each airport has their own rules and these are ours, no extra seat, no boarding.”

…

Richard, not having access to readily available funds, could not afford to purchase another seat. Indeed, various family members contributed the only spare change they had to give Richard a mere $300 for meals and incidentals. Again, the plea for help fell on deaf Southwest ears.

Richard contacted his mother via a collect call, who in turn immediately called Southwest's customer service, which turned out to be a myriad of transfers and wrong numbers. Customer service agent after customer service agent, each Southwest agent transferred Mrs. Diffey to a wrong number and refused to help, even once to the baggage department in Texas.

Until finally, an agent in Dallas named Becky offered to pay for the ticket herself.