Almost as bad as backyard neighbors who turn on their back lights for no reason.
Now, backyard lights… how bad can they be…? 1…2…4 lights? Try 10 full searchlight intensity bulbs… all installed 15-20 feet up ( so you can’t block their light ) aimed into my yard. But don’t forget the slat fence… the one with the long string of bulbs 12 installed on their side… the string that has all the 75W bulbs placed between the slats.
So that’s what…? Twenty-two backyard lights? When no other house on the block has more than four…?
As soon as the effing wind dies down, I’m taking the can of spray paint I bought today and touching up the front porch boards where Fat-Assed Demon Squirrel has been chewing the paint off. Then I’m going to mask up and prepare a spray bottle of one million Scoville unit hot pepper extract, and apply that to the boards. I am looking forward to hearing an agonized squawk and the scuttling of squirrel claws as he madly races for the pond.
I bought a second hand HP monitor on ebay. I know…fuck me.
It’s an HP 2511X monitor and just needs power cable. I bought one on amazon but it did not fit. So I try visiting the HP site.
FUCK!!!
I have to create an account. No help without an account, so that they can know and sell my email address.
OK, I created the account. Now help me. All I need is a power cable.
Sorry, no help. You have to tell us your serial number. I do not know the serial number. The serial number tag is not there. Is there an option for entering a MODEL NUMBER??? No, of course not, and fuck you. What is the serial number.
There seem to be multiple versions of the 2511X monitor from HP. (At minimum, a 12V model and a 19V model.) Not a surprise; in my experience HP releases different devices with the same model number. (Why? HP sucks, that’s why. I don’t generally buy HP products because of awful past experiences with them.)
And this is why…
Because it was for the wrong 2511X.
So how can you know which 2511X you have? With the serial number.
The serial number should be on the back, as in this picture:
If you received a monitor that has no such label, you’re probably screwed. The only other way to get it is to use the menu buttons to navigate the OSD (On Screen Display) and go to the information menu, which will give you the serial number. But of course, you can’t do that without power.
It’s possible that there are just two different versions of the monitor; 19V and 12V. In which case, figure out which power adapter you previously purchased, and then get the other one. As best as I can tell, there seem to only be the two different versions, so you basically eliminated one possibility already.
This is also not a bad idea. Their customer service number is 800-565-9917. If you get the right person on the phone, they might be able to tell you another way to identify what it is, and help you get the right part.
I would hope a company like HP still has actual people at their call centers…I tried calling the help line after my countertop oven put on its unsolicited fireworks show, and the only thing I got was a recording directing me to their website.
(They’re actually going to take the countertop oven back… They sent me a l prepaid abel, but I still have to find a box. They also want to send me a new oven, which I’m planning to politely decline.)
That bites. Any possibility of asking your eBay seller?
ETA: Also, how do you politely decline something from someone who won’t talk to you? Send it, unopened, to Carly Fiorina with a note saying “With my compliments”?
ETA ETA: Just had a thought: Looking at the DC adapters on Amazon, I noticed that it’s a barrel with an inner conductor. IME, the jack on the device should specify the required voltage input. It can be hard to see, as it’s embossed in the plastic, but have a look.
Health Care / Flex Plan reimbursement people: In order to reimburse your expense, we need a receipt and an itemized statement showing date of services, type of services, and the fact that it’s paid in full.
Doctor’s Office: Itemized statement? What’s that? And we gave you a receipt - it’s that little 2" x 3" slip which just shows the amount.
I’m so tired of explaining to the billing people at each and every doctor’s office that reimbursement flex plans need to see itemized statements and a receipt. You’d think that this would be an everyday thing.
I’m not sure planned obsolescence qualifies as a mini-rant.
I own a perfectly serviceable Hoover upright vacuum cleaner (model 20020w if anyone cares), that is facing imminent replacement because it is (expletive) IMPOSSIBLE to any longer obtain a replacement filter for this vacuum cleaner that is only 10 years old! Of COURSE we can’t have something that fits different models that would remain available longer, that’s just crazy talk!
I emphasize. I had to scrap a Black & Decker two-motor electric lawn mower I really liked, just because replacement blades were no longer available. And I was afraid that the old ones were worn to the point where they might fly apart.
My Eureka vacuum is a household model that uses the same parts as their Sanitiare commercial model - so replacement parts are still available. (Knock on wood.)
Given the increasing focus on just how “throwaway” society has become, I would agree that it’s bigger than a mini-rant! The bowl on my otherwise perfectly nice KitchenAid 7 cup food processor has completely worn out – the locking mechanism has broken off the handle, there are significant stress cracks where the handle meets the bottom of the bowl, and as a result I have to use a toothpick to depress the switch that operates the processor. Replacing the bowl wouldn’t be a problem, except that I can’t find one for less than $90. A new, equivalent KitchenAid food processor can be purchased for the same price (or less, with sales or coupons).
Amazon’s need to make whatever you are looking at seem like the BEST THING EVER!!! using whatever made-up categories they choose just so the item can be top of the list.
I wanted some fitness bands.
One of them was “#1 in Acme Fitness Bands” (not the real company name) - where, of course, Acme only sells one fitness band item though Amazon, so if they’ve sold even one unit, this thing is #1. Another one was “#1 in free weight storage racks”. But… this isn’t even REMOTELY a “free weight storage rack”.
I look at price, average review/number of reviews. the pros and cons from the reviews, and the features of the thing. The “#1 in some specific category” is useless. It’s like when you are watching a baseball game, the batter is adjusting his gloves for the 15th time, and to fill the time they’ll mention that the guy has the record for the most number of RBIs with a runner on 3rd base on a Tuesday when the sky is overcast in an open stadium when hitting against left-handed pitchers with a mustache.
The good news is that you can purchase both options on Amazon and return the one that doesn’t work. Or both if you bought a pig in a poke and the monitor is actually a doorstop.
Oh, same here. It’s really sort of pathetic - and does anyone fall for it??
My ROTD (Rant Of The Day):
Last Wednesday, I broke my foot. I saw an orthopedist on Thursday, who confirmed my self-diagnosis, gave me guidelines for managing it (boot or surgical shoe), and said he wanted me to take high-dose vitamin D weekly for a couple of months, and that he’d send the prescription to my pharmacy.
Several visits to the pharmacy over the weekend for other reasons yielded “not ready yet”. I finally PHONED them, Wednesday (note: this was 6 days after the visit), and it was confirmed that a) they had received the request, b) they didn’t have it in stock, and c) nobody had sent in an order to get some in.
Now, normal procedure is that when a prescription is presented, that they don’t have, they let you know, and put in an order to get the needed medication, which typically comes in a day or so. Neither of these happened.
So I called this morning. Nearly 48 hours after the previous call. Not only did they not have it in stock, it STILL HAD NOT BEEN ORDERED. I’m not proud to say that I yelled “For crying out loud, it’s been EIGHT DAYS” (I did apologize a minute later).
They were able to find a store that had it in stock. A 20 minute drive away, mind you, which means I need to take an hour out of my day to go fetch it.
The same location has done similar things to me in the pasts - once taking 3+ weeks to keep saying “not in stock, we’ll order it”. In both cases, it came down to the wire: what was not especially urgent became so, because I was about to leave town for several weeks.
Kudos to the person who answered the phone at the other location though: he asked me what instructions I’d beene given for taking it. I said “um, one a week, I think”. Turns out, the prescription said “one a day”. He spotted that the instructions were rather unusual, as this stuff is not normally taken daily.
Amazon also has a habit of placing books that promote health quackery and anti-science drivel into inexplicable categories. A semi-facetious example would be taking a fast-selling book titled “Why Covid-19 Vaccines Alter Your DNA And Turn You Into A Newt” and proclaiming it “#1 in Medical Genetics”.
