Just a note, here, about Batteries Plus on US 19 in Clearwater. First, I
took in a battery for an APC BackUPS 400 to be replaced. The battery the
guy sold me had smaller crimp terminals than the one I brought in. The
guy mumbled something about having to stock the one or the other kind,
and I could just crimp the terminals and make this one work.
Crimp the terminals on the inside of my UPS?! So the next time I get a
battery with the _proper_ crimp terminals, they won't work? Arggh.
The battery fits and apparently works. Time will tell. But the excuses
annoyed me.
<rant>
But here's the best part. I wrote the guy a check, and he gave me one of
these slips that said, "You agree for us to destroy your check and debit
your account...." Argghh! If I'd wanted the guy to debit my account, I
would have given him my debit card. It's not a question of having the
money in my account; that's not the issue. I want that check to come
back to me cancelled. I want that check number to show up on my bank
statement, not some debit number listed on another part of the
statement, where I have to remember what that $30 was for. If you're not
going to accept personal checks, post a sign out front of your shop that
says so. I'm forewarned, and I'll go elsewhere. Or give you a credit
card.
There are likely folks who disagree with me, who do a lot of online
banking and such. Call me a luddite if you like, but I work with
computers, and I don't trust them with access to my bank account, I
don't care whose computers they are. I don't give people my social
security number, either. You get a check from me, and that check says
you can pull X amount out of my account, over my signature. No more, no
less. I don't give people my checking account number and then say, "Hit
my account for X, and oh by the way, I trust you." I have no idea what
kind of network these folks are connected to, what safeguards they have
in place or anything.
Plus, not many people realize that you have certain fraud and abuse
protections as a consumer when you use a credit card. This isn't true
with debit cards, and I doubt it's true with one of these "check
substitute" services. I work with a merchant service in my business (the
folks that clear credit card transactions with your customers). Every
few months, these guys hit my account double. Happens with all the
merchant services I've used. They usually correct the problem the next
day. But these guys do this for a living, and _they_ make what could be
costly mistakes. And I'm gonna trust some switcheroo service I've never
even heard of before?
Pet Supermarket pulled this crap on me a while back, and told me this
was the "wave of the future". Right. If so, then I'll start shopping
exclusively with credit cards, where I have some protections. I wrote a
scathing letter to their home office. Batteries Plus will get the same.
Not that it will do any good. It probably is the wave of the future.
Anyway, I gotta get back to my butter churn. After that, the horse needs
shoeing.
Oh yeah, and I install software in /usr/local. Grrr.
</rant>
Paul
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