COSTCO GAS

Went down to $2.31 today. THE PRICE LEADER!!!!

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Telemarketers

What to do about annoying telemarketers

(1) The three little words are: 'Hold On, Please...' Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt. Then when you eventually hear the phone company's 'beep-beep-beep' tone, you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task..

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Motel 6 Problems

Many times have had problems with the keycards that they give you. Several times I have gone to my room there (on the 2nd or 3rd day, etc.) and found the card would not open the door.

Here's what happened in Lake Tahoe this past June.

We were staying at the one on Highway 50. After we parked the van I walked over to the room. Pulled out my 'key card' and attempted to open the door. Oh gosh. Wouldn't open and the rain was coming down quite hard. My wife stayed outside the room while I walked over to the office IN THE #(#$ RAIN, getting wet along the way. I asked them if they changed the code, like a lot of Motel 6's have done in the past. The said no...and told me that I must have put the card near my keys or credit cards. Usual response by these people. I actually had my card inside my top coat pocket away from everything. So, they reprogrammed it and I returned to the room and opened the door. This must have been around the 7th or 8th time I had to get my card re-programmed. Some of these motels automatically de-program the cards at noon time and I am sure that is what happened. And they have been 'trained' to tell the customers that it is their fault because the customer placed the card near a set of electronic keys or next to credit cards.

And then, it happened the following day also and I had my card located in the top pocket of my WINTER coat once again. We arrived back at the motel around 6:00 and I had to walk back over to the office and got the same rhetoric from them.

You can read more about the event we did in Lake Tahoe where we had rain, snow, wind, cold tempteratures. You think that's in November? No, uh uh. That was over Memorial Day weekend this year. Last weekend of May. Anything goes in Lake Tahoe. One of our ugliest weekends ever.

This has happened to me in Fresno, Tucson, Yuma and a couple other places. This happens espectially if you are staying more than two nights. I specifically have to tell them not to deprogram my card and have been making it a point to keep the card in a separate pocked, not near anything. But it's still happened and they try to tell me that it is my fault.

I wish that some of the other motels had rates close to Motel 6 because I would go there. However, being a vendor, we all have to stay at the least expensive motels. Some, believe it or not, do sleep in their vans at the events, which is something I have tried a couple times and it just doesn't work out. If I were doing the event by myself, than I could probably do it, but I have to give my wife (and I) a half-way decent place (warm and out of the weather) to stay at night.

So people, when you spend a night at Motel 6, keep those darn key cards away from anything (especially car keys, credit cards, etc) because when you go back to your room and find that they have re-programmed your card and can't get in, you have a good argument on your behalf and their B.S. just does not walk.

Top of the Line Marketplace

A number of people had told me that the Top of the Line show in Visalia at the Convention Center was supposed to be a good show. This event was held from Nov 7-9. From what I have heard, sales were somewhat slow and they had at least 30 fewer booths. Of course, I wasn't there so you are not hearing this from the horse's mouth.

I had considered doing the event, but over head was pretty high. Booth fees, gas and motel and with this economy, we all are down in sales as people are holding onto their money and do not want to part with it. You have to turn these people upside down and shake the hell out of them to get that money out of their pockets. When vendors sign up for events, they really have to analize where the money is going to come from and what they consider their net profit is after adding in those three expenses AND cost of merchandise sold.

This has probably been a pretty good event over the years, but just like every other show, it looked like more of the same. I decided to 'go cheap' and stay just outside the Bay Area so we would have added expenses.