Some Blog Site

Since we own a couple of vehicles, we occasionally get mail about those vehicles.  Usually the mail has to do with vehicle maintenance or warranties.  Today I am sharing one of the warranty notifications with you.

The reason for sharing this letter is to show how to tell it’s not a good program. Take a look at the whole letter, above, and then look at this particular excerpt, below.

For those who can’t see the image: it says “Due to the nature of this program, we can only authorize your vehicle for 72 hours from the receipt of this notice.”

One of the reasons to distrust it is that it pretends to be related to a dealership by using the words “Dealer Warranty” prominently.  But it’s not from a dealership at all.  It’s similar to those coin companies that have the words “US” or “Federal” or “Mint” but are not related to the actual US Mint at all.

Anyway, these guys are offering to extend my factory warranty (with their own warranty).  But our vehicle has been out of warranty for about 30,000 miles and 2 years.  Oh, and only my vehicle qualifies, so it must be an exclusive program that I should feel privileged to join.

If you look at the whole letter, you will not find a date anywhere. How do I know when the 72 hours expires? What I forgot exactly which day I received it? How do they know what time my mail arrives?

It’s not 3 days – it’s 72 hours … from when I receive the notice. They can’t know when the offer expires, but I need to “call immediately”. That’s one of the ways to tell a scam – being told that urgent action is required and being pressured for a decision. That’s especially true when the person applying the pressure is the one who will be taking money from you (or getting you to give them your money).

Hey! Isn’t that what’s being done with the president and congress right now? “We need a stimulus package, and we need it right now. We need to take 800 or 900 billion dollars from the taxpayers, but we don’t want to think about it too long. Don’t delay, vote now! Urgent action is required.”

Unfortunately, I can’t just toss the government’s requests in the trash like I do other junk mail.

“For wisdom is protection {just as} money is protection, But the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the lives of its possessors.”
– Ecclesiastes 7:12

I have the driving habit of avoiding bits of paper or plastic that are on the road, especially if they were just kicked up by a vehicle in front of me.

Sometimes a vehicle will drive by a piece of trash sitting in the road.  The wind from the car will swirl around the debris, causing it to tumble or dance along the road.  If it’s near the lane markings, I will swerve slightly in order to avoid it.  If it’s in the middle of the lane, then I just run over it.

Either way, after I have gone by the spot where the thing was, I watch my mirrors carefully to make sure that it didn’t get stuck on my car somehow.  I will keep checking both the side mirrors and the rearview mirror until I see the paper or whatever it was.

I have seen another car with a plastic grocery bag stuck to the bottom of the car.  And the person’s just driving along with no clue that they have it.  And I don’t want that to be me.

If I do see the debris in my mirror, then I can relax and continue with my drive.  If I don’t see it after several seconds, there’s not much I can do.  So I keep driving.  I don’t do anything differently, but I do like knowing that nothing’s stuck to my car.

I had that problem once.  A fast-food sandwich wrapper ended on my antenna, and I did not find it until I stopped at my destination.  So I had been driving down the highway with paper stuck to the middle of my antenna, like a flag on a flagpole.  I wasn’t embarrassed while I was driving, because I didn’t know that was there.  But it was rather embarrassing to see my car once I got out of it.

Oh well.

“Even when the fool walks along the road, his sense is lacking and he demonstrates to everyone {that} he is a fool. ”
– Ecclesiastes 10:3

My earlier post had been about how sports seasons need to be distinct seasons and not last the whole year.  This post applies that same idea to holidays, mainly Christmas.

What prompted this was the local radio station‘s switching to the all-Christmas-music format on November 1st.  At least they waited until after Halloween.  But I’m still boycotting them temporarily.  Until Thanksgiving, I am skipping right past them (and any other Christmas-music stations) during my normal station-flipping during my drive home each day.

My favorite line from The Incredibles is something like “When everyone’s special, the no one is.” For the record, that line appears twice, but in two different forms.  The first one is by Dash, who says, in response to being told that everyone is special, “Which is another way of saying no one is. ”  The second one is by Syndrome, who says “And when everyone’s super, no one will be.”

That line, combined with the example of Marie Antoinette, gives a good idea of why seasons need to be short.  The longer they’re drawn-out, the more diluted they become.  Marie Antoinette, for those who don’t know, is attributed with having everything she wanted, so she was quite bored (“nothing tastes“).  Life was not enjoyable for her, because nothing was special.

Keep Christmas (and other holidays) special: don’t start anything Christmas-y  until after Thanksgiving.  I know some of you may think this post violates that principle.  I’m not saying don’t mention Christmas until then, just don’t promote it or start celebrating until then.

“But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.”
– Romans 8:25

Harrison Bergeron should be required reading.  It’s a short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., and it helps show why personal responsibility and achievement should remain more important than government programs.  The government should protect freedom of opportunity and a level playing field, but it should not enforce equality of achievement or a level outcome.

The government should be like a referee – ensuring that everyone plays fairly, but not making every game end in a tie nor making sure the teams are evenly matched.  So be wary whenever you hear anyone, especially a politician, speak favorably about redistribution of wealth.

“For the Scripture says, ‘YOU SHALL NOT MUZZLE THE OX WHILE HE IS THRESHING,’ and ‘The laborer is worthy of his wages.’
– 1 Timothy 5:18

In the business world, there is an old saying that there are three options for whatever you’re buying: price, quality, or speed – and you can choose only two.

A good example of this has been any retail item.  You can buy a certain item at a retail store, and you have chosen speed and quality.  You can buy the same item from a mail order or internet retailer and have it shipped to you, and you have chosen quality and price.  The store item is available immediately but for a higher price than the mailed item.  The mailed item will take a couple of days for shipping but will cost less.

The same concept applies to any business program, in particular regarding employees working on a project.  If a project needs to be done quickly, you’ll have to pay more by either paying employees overtime or hiring more people.  If it needs to be done quickly but you don’t pay more, then people will cut corners and do only certain items, sacrificing quality.  And if the project needs to have high quality and low price, then it will take a long time.

There are some articles that indicate that by improving quality, or by improving speed, you can reduce costs.  That is true, but it is true for a long-range purpose not individual projects.  Let’s say you bid on a project and you say that it will cost X and take two weeks to complete.  If the customer says that two weeks isn’t fast enough and he wants one week, you’re not going to be able to improve your processes enough to meet that demand.  What those other articles are talking about is long-term process improvement such that your initial quotes are improving.  But if you quote something accurately, changing one part of the “quality-speed-cost triangle” will affect one or both of the other parts.

If you are a manager, please pay attention to that concept.  Don’t demand immediate results from too few employees and then be surprised if problems appear later because of poor quality.

“each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.”
– 1 Corinthians 3:13

Due to excessive spam on this post, comments have been closed for this post only.

Apologies to Lenore Skenazy for the title. The best way for kids to have good self-esteem is to earn it.  How do they earn it if their parents don’t let them do things on their own?  Give kids the independence to try things.  If they grow up expecting their parents to always help them out and protect them from everything, then they will end up being adults who will expect the government to bail them out of any financial problems they get themselves into.  We wouldn’t want that now, would we?

“And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;”
– Romans 5:3-4

I mentioned to a co-worker that I was leaving work to go pick up my child from school.  I also mentioned that they card you now, when you pick up a child from school.  You have to show photo ID and the name on the ID must match a name that has already been provided to the school as an approved picker-upper.

He said that was much improved from his days in school and it’s a lot safer, not having just anyone be able to come in and take a child.  I reminded him of the statistics though, that most abductions are by someone who is known to the child, not by strangers.

His response was that to improve child safety, schools should release children only to people they don’t know.  Statistically, that would be safer.

I had no response, other than to tacitly agree.  That’s the problem with statistics.

“A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.”
– John 10:5