May 31, 2006
May 30, 2006
PayPal via SMS
I can’t believe I missed this in my post about useful phone numbers, but PayPal lets you send money via cell phone. Quoth Lifehacker:
To start sending money from your phone, log into PayPal and associate your mobile phone number with your account. I know. I hate giving away my phone number too, but PayPal’s already got my bank information, so that makes the voice digits seem like less of an issue. Once you enter your cell phone number in your PayPal account and set up a mobile PIN (separate from your account password), PayPal’s voice robot calls your phone on the spot and asks you to verify the PIN. Once the PIN’s matched, your phone is PayPal-enabled.
Then, to send someone else’s phone $5.50 in cash, text message PAYPAL (729725) the message send 5.50 to 7185551212 where the recipient’s phone number is (718) 555-1212.
PayPal doesn’t exactly advertise this (it’s buried in their help pages), but you can PayPal someone’s email address from your mobile, too. Just make your text message send 5 to editor@lifehacker.com instead.
The cool factor is pretty good, but I could see myself using this on the run, for splitting checks and things like that. Check it out.
How to take care of your customers
Pay attention, businessperson! I’m about to share a story of good customer service, and how you too can keep your customers from spending their hard-earned money at that piker’s store down the street.
A few days ago, I skipped down to my local McDonald’s hamburgery and bought an Asian Salad from the drive-thru. The salad comes with a little packet of sliced almonds, which provide a nice contract in flavor and texture to the greens and sweet dressing.
At least, they’re supposed to. I don’t know what these almonds tasted like, because when I opened the packet, I found the nuts covered in blue-green mold. I don’t mean a few spores here and there. This was a fully-functioning mold city.
I didn’t have time to deal with it then, so I just threw out the almonds, checked the rest of my salad for rot, and munched away. Eventually I called McDonald’s corporate headquarters and talked to a very helpful young guy who took my complaint and promised to forward my concerns to the franchisee. Okay, whatever. At least I bitched to someone.
To my pleasant suprise, I got a call Friday morning from the restaurant’s owner, a woman whose name eludes me at the moment. She was very apologetic and seemed genuinely interested in my complaint. She was pretty embarrassed that there would be problems with such a high-profile, much-ballyhooed product, and she pledged to investigate the matter.
She even offered to send me some gift certificates so I can come back in for free (hopefully) non-fungus-riddled food. I haven’t gotten them yet, but I figure it’ll be five bucks. Fine by me.
I am now once again a satisfied customer, and I’ll gladly go back to that McDonald’s, because that business proved it wants my patronage.
Matt Bramanti | May 30, 2006 at 9:54 am
Posted to Out and About, Houston, Reviews, Business, Food & Drink, Products
4 comments
Posted to Out and About, Houston, Reviews, Business, Food & Drink, Products
4 comments
May 29, 2006
Memorial Day
To date, well over a million American soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines have died in this nation’s wars, from Valley Forge to Fallujah.
To those men and women and their families, thank you for your sacrifice. As we celebrate Memorial Day, may we rededicate ourselves to honor your memories, pray for your souls and carry on your mission.
May 28, 2006
Useful phone numbers
Besides the standard numbers everyone carries around (girlfriend, mom, bookie), I’ve got a few reference numbers that come in handy on a daily basis:
- Free411 (800-373-3411): Just what it sounds like — free nationwide directory assistance. Every once in a while, you’ll have to listen to a short commercial before getting your listing. Interesting business model — if you’re looking for a business, Free411 will serve you an ad for that business’ competitor, and you can press ”1″ to be connected to the advertised competitor.
- 411Metro (800-411-6387): Same thing, less catchy name.
- Auburn Information (334-844-4244): The Foy Student Union at Auburn University. It’s the information line, where you’d call for campus schedules and things like that. Except there’s a tradition at Auburn of answering any question that a caller comes up with. It’s like having your own talking Google machine.
- TellMe (800-555-8366): This is a voice-driven service that offers the same sort of information you’d find on a portal like Yahoo — sports scores, news headlines, weather forecasts, stock quotes and the like. A cool feature is the ability to flag favorites that can be recalled whenever you call back from the same phone number. You can even play blackjack against a Sean Connery sound-alike.
- U.S. Naval Observatory (202-762-1401): This is the official time of the United States, as determined by a phalanx of atomic clocks.
- Audioblogger (415-816-0205): This service allows users to post audio messages to Blogger blogs. You can even jury-rig a WordPress conduit.
- The White House (202-456-1414): I’ve never called the president, but it doesn’t hurt to have his number in the cell. That way, if he calls in the middle of the night, it’ll show up as “President,” giving me precious extra seconds to sober up.
I also use a number of services via SMS text messages:
- Google SMS (text 46645): Send a text message to Google to retrieve quick snippets of information. I frequently use this to get phone numbers by listing type and area (”pizza 77079″).
- Houston Transtar Alerts: Sign up to get text messages from Transtar whenever there’s a major traffic problem on one of Houston’s freeways. This happens about a million times a day, so you can narrow down the alerts you want to receive by day, time, route and type. I get the Katy Freeway from 7-9 a.m. and 6-7 p.m.
- Yahoo Alerts: You can get text-messaged alerts on anything from sports teams to Amber Alerts to low airfares. I get the weather every morning.
- Verizon TXT Alerts: Same idea as Yahoo Alerts, but with a broader array of niches, many co-branded (Maxim, CNN, WaPo).
- Facebook Mobile: Takes the social-networking site and puts it in my pants.
In addition to these, why not get familiar with the rest of the N11 family? Here’s what’s available from my phone (a Verizon line in the 713 area code):
- 211: Community services, state benefits, etc.
- 311: City of Houston services
- 411: Directory assistance
- 511: Nothing
- 611: Verizon customer service
- 711: Relay Texas (allows relay calls to the deaf)
- 811: Service to locate underground utility conduits
- 911: Houston emergency services (Good friggin’ luck)
Then there are the toll-free customer service numbers that are nearly impossible to find.
- Amazon.com: 800-201-7575
- eBay: 800-322-9266
- PayPal: 888-221-1161
Got any more useful numbers? Leave ‘em in the comments.
May 27, 2006
RedZilla in the house
EDITOR’S NOTE: This post marks the first appearance of a guestblogger — the lovely and talented Diane Heilmann. Go easy on her, folks, or she’ll take it out on me.
Hello everybody. I’ve never blogged before, so I must admit that I’m a bit intimidated at the thought of having an audience. Matt and I are watching Saving Private Ryan right now. I guess if I’m going to write anything for a bunch of people to read, I’d like to thank everyone who ever has or is currently serving our country in the military. You have my utmost respect and appreciation. I admire your bravery and willingness to dedicate your lives to making life better for fellow Americans and people abroad. You are all in my thoughts and prayers. I hope everyone is having a good memorial weekend, and please keep in mind the people this holiday was made to honor.
