Satisfaction guaranteed

I purchase my groceries at the local HEB grocery store. I like the prices and selection. They have their own in house HEB brand which is reasonably priced. They also have a discount in house brand called Hill Country Fare. On the back of each one of their products they have a satisfaction guarantee that states: We hope you are satisfied with this product, if not, we will cheerfully refund your money. I bought a bottle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil a few weeks ago. It did not taste very good so I thought I would put their guarantee to the test.

Nowhere on the bottle is there any information about who to contact for a refund. I decided to start with the Hill Country Fare website. Hill Country is owned by HEB so I was directed to their website. I found a customer care line to call (1-800-432-3113). After navigating through the phone tree I was put on with a customer service representative named Fred. He told me that I could return it to the store I purchased it at for a full refund. I told him that I did not have a receipt and I could not remember which location I purchased it from. He said that if I present the credit card I used to purchase the item they could look it up. I fired up my Kia and drove over to the HEB I thought I purchased it from.

The bottle was half empty when I set it on the customer service desk. The clerk must have been in high school. I told her that I wanted to claim the satisfaction guarantee because I did not like the taste of this olive oil. She asked for my receipt. Instead I handed her my credit card and explained what the customer service agent had told me about being able to look up the item. After punching a few keys she asked me if I would like the amount returned to my credit card or would I prefer cash? Great Success!

This all went really smoothly. The clerk was even cheerful too which I was not expecting. They proved that they truly stand behind their offer. It is nice to know that there are still companies out there that do what they say they will.

New used car.

After my trusty Lincoln decided to break down again I decided to break down and buy a new used car. I have always driven a used car. Not being a car guy I have just driven whatever becomes available in the friends and family inventory at a good price. All I really want is something mechanically sound. Both of my jobs require me to have reliable transportation so when something goes wrong with my car my level of stress goes through the roof.

Before buying a new used car I went to my bank to secure a car loan. Improving my credit has been a little hobby of the last few years. At the time I spoke to Chase bank, my score was around 740. I assumed that getting approved for a car loan was similar to getting a mortgage. I would be approved for a certain amount based on credit worthiness and income. apparently that is not how it works at Chase. You go find a car first, give the information to the bank then hope that they approve you for it.

I did not like the idea of spending the time to find a suitable car only to be denied right at the end. My stepfather recommended that I try a local credit union. I walked into the nearest one and had a video chat with a loan officer over the internet. I explained that I would like to borrow around $6,000 to buy a used car. After giving him my info he processed my loan application my request was denied. Even though I had good credit, he said that since I had no payment history on a similar installment type loan they would not approve it. Apparently 100% on time repayment of my credit cards was not enough to overcome this hurdle.

With this information in mind I thought that I would have to hang onto my Lincoln a bit longer and hope just it didn't break. This lasted for about a month. The pistons started misfiring again when I was way outside of town on a delivery. At first I thought it was bad gas but after trying out a gas cleaner that did not clear up the problem I took it to auto-zone to have the codes scanned. They said it was a misfire in the 1st and 8th cylinder. I knew all about this as I had it "fixed" about 6 months ago for about $1,700. I figured all in I spent over $4,000 to fix a car worth about $1000 on the Kelly Blue Book website if it was in "good condition".  Mine was in whatever below "fair" is. I saw an almost identical car listed for $400 on Craigslist. It was time to cut my losses and let the car retire to the junk yard in the sky.

Lincoln Cartier 1998

 

I called my father and he agreed to co-sign my loan if I could not obtain one alone. I had been looking around at all the other cars on the road to see what was popular. I saw a lot of Toyota, Nissan and Kia vehicles cruising around. I kept thinking that it would be cool to drive a Kia Soul. I had forgotten that I had rented one and driven it on a trip to Vegas a few years ago. I found a used Kia Soul online at the local Kia dealership and took a Lyft to go for a test drive. I have a large body, so my main concern was, would I have enough room in this car? Driving the Lincoln was like cursing around town with your entire living room. Would my stomach mash up under the steering wheel? I fit just fine and the car drove well during my test drive. I told the salesman that I would like to buy it.

Kia Soul 2013 

 

The car was listed at $5,999 on the website. It had close to 100,000 miles. It was in good condition. Some scratches and a small chip in the windshield. The sales person came back with a grid showing a bunch of options. Some how we were now talking $9,000. After looking over the sheet I asked if it was all necessary. He admitted that most were just options. I elected to remove line items like paint protector off the total. With tax, license and fees it was going to be $7,200ish. He also agreed to replace the key fob and get me a spare tire that was missing. I was happy and we proceeded to see about the financing.

This is when the bullshit started in earnest. I let it slip that I had been having trouble securing a car loan and that I had a co-signer available if I needed one. He looked at my credit and driving record and figured we could work it out. I told him all of my income was from 1099 work and it could be difficult to prove my income. He asked me to pull up how much I had made doing deliveries this year. Apparently it was an adequate amount for him to proceed. Then he showed me some options for different service packages. Some of these service packages would have added as much as $200 a month to my monthly payment. I told him I did not want a service package at all and that I would pay my repair expenses out of pocket.

This is when he used his trump card. He told me that the bank would feel more comfortable approving my loan if I had a service package attached to the deal. This was my pain point and he exploited it. I said that if that was the case I would take the lowest possible service package which was the bronze service package. This would make my monthly payments rise from $150 a month to $180 a month. I decided that I could afford that amount so we moved forward. He was able to get the loan approved. I put down $1,750. The interest rate was a bit high at 9% but I was happy that I was able to get the loan on my own. I drove home my Kia Soul that same afternoon and started to think up names for my new used car.

The finance guy had given me a large envelope of documents. I looked through them. The loan amount for the car was not what I was expecting. It said that if I paid off my car in the allotted time the total at the end would be $13,300. WHAT!?! That seemed insane. I looked through all the line items and found that the "service package", which I found out is more commonly called an "extended warranty" was going to add $3,000 to my loan plus the interest on that portion. The finance guy also tacked on another year and a half to the loan term to disguise the expense and keep my monthly payment low. Instead of 48 months it was going to be 66 months.

I was pretty pissed off. It said right on the service contract that it in no way had any bearing on a customers ability to obtain financing. He led me to believe that the service contract was essential to secure the financing. When I thought back to the way he phrased it in his office, he said that bank would feel more comfortable but he never did say it was required. Technically he did not lie about this, just misled me to get what I'm sure would have been a nice commission. Lucky for me the contract stated that it could be canceled within 30 days for a $50 fee. I drove into the dealership the next morning and asked for my extended warranty to be canceled. I was told that he was unable to cancel the contract until my plates and registration came in. He also asked me to strongly consider keeping it. I left his office so I could go find a place to calm down. I came in the next day and talked to a different person in the finance department who told me the same thing. I would just have to wait.

After I got back from my trip to Alaska, I drove back to the dealership to try once again to cancel my warranty. It was day 26 of my 30 day grace period so I was a bit antsy. The finance guy gave me the run around a bit more but finally relented. He handed me my plates, registration and a pamphlet on how to cancel the warranty myself online. He would not even take the time to fill out the paperwork for me. I'm sure most of his customers do not read the contracts over and just pay it so he must have been unhappy that I reduced his commission. The difference in cost is huge. Under the original terms I would have paid $13,300 total in five and a half years. By removing the $3,000 service package my car will end up costing $8,700 if I pay it off in four years. I intend to pay it off faster of course.

Was it smart to cancel this contract? They were providing a real service if the car broke down. It's not like they were just taking my money for nothing, right? The contract required a $200 deductible for each repair. It covered some types of repairs and not others. It would last for 36 months. If I got into an accident my insurance will cover it since I had to purchase full coverage in order to obtain financing. I will have to pay incidental car repairs out of pocket now. I bought it "As Is" so if the engine drops on the ground I could end up looking pretty dumb. While I do anticipate some repairs the car is only 6 years old so I expect it shall be worry free for the next few years, after which time the warranty will have elapsed anyway.

I went into the dealership thinking I was sharp since I had spent time selling phones for Verizon. I was completely bamboozled even though I had seen some of the inside tricks of the trade. Turns out there is a lot more to learn about selling. In the future I need to be better about not putting myself into a pressured situation where I need to make a decision quickly. It was fortunate there were some consumer protections to help me get out of the contract. It would have also been smart to read over the fine print before signing the documents instead of being in a rush to get the deal done.

What should I name it?

Leaky Tire Update

A few weeks ago I patched up one of the tires on my Lincoln. I assumed that this fixed the problem forever and went about my life. Until last night. I was doing a few evening favor food deliveries. I pulled into Chick-fil-A for a large order. The customer wanted 9 of the 4 mini chick combos and 3 milk shakes. I was told that they only serve the mini chicks for breakfast but I could order the large platter which would include a few extra minis. I told him that I would not eating it so it really did not matter to me. Little did I know that in less than an hour I would be eating it, and my words.

I went back to my car, mapped out the location to my customers house which was about 13 minutes away and began to back out of my parking space. Immediately I could tell one of the tires was flat. I pulled into a new space to check it out. Yes, the front passenger side was flat and a bit shredded. I thought it was the back passenger that was the problem before then I remembered I had the tires rotated when I had the patch put on. I sure am lucky to have this go flat in a parking lot and not while going down the highway.

I'm not a mechanic but I have changed a tire before on my old Sonoma pickup truck when I was living in Salt Lake City. I thought it would be a lot easier this time since I had shoes on instead of slippers. I have been cursing the day I bought this car from my uncle but to his credit there was a full sized inflated spare in the trunk along with a functional jack. I also received a little help from my "bonus dad" as he likes to be called. He likes to buy us boys a flashlight every year for Christmas so I also had a nice flexible flashlight in the trunk. That was helpful since it was dark out. I could have probably figured it out with the ambient light from the Chick-Fil-A but this was much easier.

I pulled everything out of the trunk and started fooling with the jack. I couldn't figure out how the handle was supposed to fit into the jack. For a while I thought it was missing a part. A guy came up and asked me if I needed a hand. I showed him my predicament. He showed me how to put the handle properly into the jack. He told me he would give me a hand while his wife was inside ordering chicken. We took turns jacking up the car and taking off the lug nuts. With the two of us it only took about 10 minutes. He said his name was Moses. I thanked him for his help and gave him my card. I told him if he ever needed a hand with something to give me a call. 

By this time the milk shakes had melted. I asked my favor handler what to do with the food but he just told me to eat the food or throw it away. They had already assigned another runner to that delivery. I ended up taking it home and feasting on Mini chicken sandwiches and delicious Chick-Fil-A sauce. I put the shakes into the refrigerator and they were pretty good after an hour. Through some oversight in the system I ended up getting paid for that run even though I never completed the order. Score.

The next morning I went to go look for a new tire. I had canceled an appointment with the discount tire down the road and left them a bad review for trying to get me to buy a new tire instead of patching the old one. The thought of having to talk to the same salesman only a few weeks after this incident was not appealing. Instead I started driving over to the Walmart auto care center near my house. I took the back way to avoid the highway if I happened to get another flat. On the way I saw this sign.

 This was a guy operating out of a metal pole building selling used tires. I thought what the hell. I want to get rid of this car soon anyways, why not save a few bucks and buy a used tire. I followed the signs to savings. 

There was an older gentleman sitting under a tent in the back. I explained to him that I needed a used tire. He took one look at my spare and said, "do you know that your lug nuts are on backwards?" Clearly he was a pretty sharp mechanic. I told him I was no mechanic and he laughed. I pulled my tire out of the trunk and he went though his inventory to look for a matching size. After a few minutes he told me that he didn't have an exact match but he had one that would work but it was just a bit narrower than my current tire. I asked him if it would fit and be safe to drive. He said it would be fine on there so I told him to go ahead and rig it up. After a bit of calculation he told me it would cost $45 for the tire and instillation. He needed cash since his credit card machine was either broken or non-existent. I drove over to Chase to pick up the cash and when I got back he had the tire mounted on the old rim. This guy must have worked on a pit crew as a younger man. He had those tires swapped in about a minute. Really a master tire craftsman. Hopefully this tire will last long enough for me to drive this car to the junk yard after I obtain a loan for a new one.

Did I come out ahead by getting the tire patched in the first place? I would say no. I spent $25 to get the tire patched and then another $45 for a used tire. I could have likely bought a brand new tire for less than $100. Then there was the time, hassle and inconvenience to have to drop a delivery. This could have happened on the way to a trivia show which would have been a major problem. The stress of not knowing if it will continue to break down is wearing on me. The emotional and financial cost to maintain this vehicle is just too high. I'd like to think this is how a person gains wisdom but maybe wisdom in this case is just not trying to cut corners all the time. Apparently wisdom means really means expensive lesson.

 

Travel Hacking

When doing deliveries on the weekend I end up spending a lot of time in my car. Sometimes as much as 25 hours in a 3 day period. In order to prevent myself from going stir crazy I like to load up some Podcasts. The Joe Rogan Experience (http://podcasts.joerogan.net/) is my favorite along with The Mad Fientist (https://www.madfientist.com/) and The Bigger Pockets podcast (https://www.biggerpockets.com/podcast). What I like about podcasts is that I can select the topics I want to hear about without too much commercial interruption. Plus these particular podcasts are free to download. I used to listen to the BBC and NPR all the time in the car but the news has become too depressing. I thought I would miss it but I don't. It's really easy to load up 20 hours of podcast and then go cruse the town delivering emergency tacos to the drunk and hungry.

While listening to the Mad Fientist podcast, one of the guests introduced me to travel hacking. The basic concept is that you sign up for a new credit card that has a travel bonus. Usually the terms are something like spend $4,000 in 3 months and you will get 40,000 travel miles or some other reward as a new customer. That would be equivalent to about $400 in free travel. After you have obtained the bonus you close the card and pick a new one with a new bonus.

The problem I had with this system is that I didn't think I could hit the spending thresholds each month since I do not spend that much money consistently. I would need to spend around $1,300 a month or so to hit those limits. Then an unexpected opportunity arose.

I was living in a house with two roommates. We were each paying out landlord $500 a month for rent in cash. We also split the utilities which was another $50 a month. Our landlord unexpectedly needed us to move out so he could rent the house to a friend of his. We were bummed out but liked living together so the 3 of us rented a 3 bedroom apartment down the street for about the same price. I told my roommates that I would like to put the entire rent on my credit card and have them pay me in cash so I could obtain some credit card bonuses. They agreed to do that. Each month I am now putting not only my rent onto a credit card but their rent as well. It comes out to about $1,600 or so each month. With that kind of spending it was been simple to hit those spending targets. One draw back is that the apartment company charges a 1.75% fee to make a credit card transaction each month which comes out to about $28 each month. In the end it still comes out in my favor. 

The first card I tried this on was the Chase Sapphire preferred card. The deal was if you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months they will give you 50,000 chase ultimate rewards points which can be redeemed for cash, travel, hotels or other perks. I easily hit this spend in 2 months and converted my points for a cash back reward of about $550. Nice.

The next card I picked was the Chase United Explorer Mileage Plus card. The deal on this card is that if you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months you receive 40,000 United Mileage plus miles. Additionally, if you spend $8000 in the first 6 months you will receive another 30,000 miles. I hit my first target and received the 40,000 miles. I then used these miles to book a flight that would have cost around $400 on United for $11.20. I'll be shopping around for another credit card as soon as I hit the final target for the current one.

A nice side benefit of this is that my credit score has gone up as well. I have a 100% on time repayment rate and my credit score is hovering around 740. It might dip a bit when I cancel one of my cards to obtain a new one but it will be worth it as long I can keep getting bonuses and not paying interest. I'm not sure how much longer the credit card companies will be offering all these bonuses but getting a couple of free flights a year is big for me so I hope they keep it up. What is also nice is that I am self employed so I can plan my vacations around the times of the year when the flights will be cheaper so the miles can go quite a bit further.

This has been a great system so far. I am looking forward to planning some more trips now that I have a way to drastically reduce the cost of airfare. Combined this with staying at an Airbnb or couch surfing and you have the makings of a very reasonably priced vacation.

    

Leaky Tire

When things go wrong with my car I get stressed out. I have never had an interest in anything mechanical. I need my car to get to trivia and to do my delivery job so it is imperative that I keep it in working order. I know this. I also have this other urge called not wanting to spend money on my car. In a perfect world my car would just run. I don't enjoy taking my car in to the shop since I am pretty much ignorant about how to keep it running when it breaks down. These two urges battle each other in my head until either something breaks and I have no choice be to bring my car in or someone rides in my car and comments on some broken thing and I feel like I should get it fixed since I assume they know more than I do. This is not a good system but that's how my brain works and I have come to accept it.

The rear passenger tire has had a slow leak for a couple weeks. I walked by this tire a bunch of times, saw that it was getting flat, then proceeded to do nothing. I probably would have kept doing this for a while longer until fate intervened. I was putting my gym bag back into my trunk after a workout when I heard someone try to get my attention. I thought it was a hobo asking for money but when I turned around it was an old Mexican man and his wife. He must have been in his 70's. I wasn't sure what he wanted until he pointed at my tire and said, "your tire, es flat." His English was pretty rough but it was much better than my Spanish will ever be. I said "gracias." They continued to walk towards the grocery store. If this guy is going out of his way to tell a perfect stranger that his tire is flat, it must be pretty obvious that I need to fix this.

I drove to the nearest gas station and found an air pump. I was about to ransack all the change out of my car but the pump accepted credit cards. Technology. After putting some air into the tire, I considered it fixed forever and promptly forgot all about it. 

Fast forward to a week and a half later. My tire is getting flat again. I never saw this coming. More action would need to be taken. There is a discount tire down the street from my apartment. After pulling up one of the employees came out to see what he could do for me. Once he knew of the leak in my tire he got to work inspecting all the tires. Then he looked at the spare. A few more questions followed and he took me into the waiting room for a tire report. He informed me that the other three tires were in ok shape but the flat one would need to be replaced. When I asked him if they could patch the tire he ignored my question and then showed me some new tires. The fact that he did not even address my question made me a bit suspicious. I had worked at Verizon as a salesman for a while. I remembered my boss telling me that the solution to any phone problem is a get the customer to buy a new phone. I felt that I was getting a similar treatment so I stalled. I told Jeff the salesman that I didn't get paid till Friday but would like to set up an appointment to get a new tire this Saturday. 

After this he directed me to the air station and one of the attendants checked my air pressure and filled my tires. When he got to the flat one he said that the machine would not fill it since the tire pressure was too low. I'm not a tire engineer but this demonstration seemed a little fishy and I was already a little suspicious. I drove back to the gas station and used the air pump which worked just fine a second time. 

I needed a second opinion so I called up my step father who had worked in auto sales. I asked him the critical question: was I just being cheap or was the guy at discount tire telling me the truth and I needed a new tire. He said to check the tire and see how worn it was. As I looked down to do this I noticed that there was a drywall screw sticking out of the tread in my tire. Huh. Neither of the attendants had noticed this which finally destroyed any sense of confidence in their abilities. 

After this revelation I called up a Goodyear affiliate and asked if they could repair the tire. As long as the screw is not in the side wall it would be no problem. He said it would cost about $21 and they would be able to complete the work today. They ended up fixing the tire in about 30 min. 

Did I learn anything? Just because someone presents themselves as an expert does not mean they have your best interest in mind, or that they care about saving you money. I should also remember not to drive on a low tire for weeks at a time. I was lucky that it was able to be fixed this time. Who needs new tires for a 21 year old car anyways?

 
 

Modern day foraging.

After driving around all evening delivering food it was time to decide what I was going to eat for dinner. I pulled up to Rosa's Cafe to place my last order of the evening. The restaurant was down to a skeleton crew so I knew the order was going to take longer than normal. I sat down to wait.

At a lot of Mexican restaurants here in Texas have a salsa bar. You can help yourself to all sorts of salsa and vegetables. I looked over the options. They had salsa, chopped onions, chopped jalapenos, Pico de Gallo, tomatoes, Cilantro, Lemons, limes and other items that I had never seen before. I thought to myself, A hungry guy could make a nice omelet with all that stuff. Then it hit me, I was a hungry guy, I liked omelets. This is just crazy enough to work.

I started loading up the tiny containers. I figured that it would look like I was filling up these containers for my delivery order. Little did they know my devious plan. I had a lot of time to kill so I ended up filling 16 tiny containers which are shown below. Pico de Gallo on the left, then onions, Jalapenos and finally salsa on the right.

Luckily I had a dozen eggs and some shredded cheese already. I fried up all the condiments first then added the eggs on low heat and made a scramble. When it was all done I put the cheese on top to let it melt a bit then threw salsa on. Practically a textbook version of huevos rancheros. It only took me about 6 min to put everything together since the restaurant had already chopped everything up. I was very satisfied with my handy work. Looks a lot better than 80% of the junk food I delivered tonight. The saving were also a strong, fragrant, spicy additon that really elevated my enjoyment of the entire process. Delicious.

        

Free Chicken Sandwich

I was out and about delivering food this Saturday when I arrived at Chick-fil-A. It was jam packed as usual. There was a double line of cars surrounding the building. I decided to save some gas and go inside to place my customers order. 4 piece chicken tender combo with waffle fries and a Dr. Pepper. Pretty standard stuff until the cashier handed me the receipt.

Before I could throw the receipt in the garbage she stopped me. We locked eyes and she gazed deep into my soul and whispered seductively, if you fill out this survey within the next two days, you can get a free sandwich. Spicy or original. This sent a shiver down my spine and I was mesmerized by the thought of a free sandwich. As I waited to pick up my order I wondered if I could get another customers receipt too so I could fill out a couple surveys to get even more free sandwiches. It was then I realized that the survey does not print out on every receipt. Was I one of the chosen? I didn't have time to find out as my order was complete and I needed to get back into my car to deliver the food.

When I arrived home I logged on to the site. www.mycfavisit.com. The first thing the site asks for is the serial number on the receipt to prove that you actually went to Chick-fil-A and made a purchase. My customer made the purchase so I would be reaping the rewards of the survey without spending anything. I was taking advantage of a gaping loophole. They said very explicitly that I will need to provide my email and that if I do not, I will not receive my free sandwich. Pretty clever tactic. What they don't know is I maintain a bunch of fake emails specifically for this reason and also to leave poor restaurant reviews. Point and match. Jim Smith who has email address of derpk.klaus@gmail.com is my favorite fake account. Turns out he really likes Chick-fil-A.

At the end of my survey it said that it will take up to 24 hours for my digital gift card to arrive. Was there a problem at the digital post office? That is a long time to wait for a free sandwich. I went back to the home page and tried to enter a new serial number to see if I could win another sandwich with a different fake email. My original serial number was 4240308-01903-1351-0330-90 so I obviously tried 4240308-01903-0330-91 to see if that would produce another survey. Sadly, that did not work. Then I got on google and searched for "Chick-fil-A survey serial numbers". No numbers were listed. I did find a reddit thread about people asking about how they could get a survey for free but the discussion quickly descended into rude comments about each others mothers.

Finally, after hitting refresh about a thousand times my coupon arrived via my fake email address. I got a QR code that will entitle me to one free Chicken Sandwich. Hopefully that helpful cashier with the deep sultry voice will be there again to take my order of one free sandwich one packet of special sauce and one tap water. I'm sure she will be impressed. Maybe I can ask her to use her employee discount for me to get a side of waffle fries. Then I remembered that tomorrow is Sunday and Chick-fil-A is not open on Sundays because Jesus only eats fish on that day or something. Guess I'll have to wait another entire day for my spicy chicken delight. 

Here is an update from last week. Success!