The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

What to look for at this year’s Memorial Day sales

Planning to hit the stores on Memorial Day weekend to look for great bargains?

Many times, holiday sales are a lot of hype with savings just average.

However, dealnews.com is reporting that Memorial Day is different for a few product categories.

For the past two years, dealnews.com has seen many retailers offer respectable sales that feature sizable stacking coupons. In many cases, these extra discounts were the best dealnews.com had seen so far that year. In fact, 50 percent of Memorial Day branded discounts from 2010 and 2011 were the best it had seen since that February, if not earlier.

What makes up the bulk of those "best of the year" offers?

Sales from apparel retailers and a few home goods stores top the list. The hottest sales from last year, for example, included discounts from Perry Ellis, Last Call Neiman Marcus, ShopEcko, Designer Living, Pottery Barn, and West Elm.

Memorial Day weekend sales are timed well if you're looking for clothes, as spring apparel is already starting to see late-season discounts. A large stacking coupon will make for some good bargains. Expect to see promotion codes that take up to an extra 50 percent off, but more regularly an additional 30 percent to 40 percent off.

However, despite the good news within the apparel category, that doesn't mean all Memorial Day weekend sales are great. It's always an awkward period for electronics and summer-specific items such as patio furniture and grills will see better discounts the longer you wait in the season.

So, as you prepare to shop at one of the many Memorial Day weekend sales, first consider what you're looking to buy. Apparel is more likely to see the best discounts. But, in order to know whether that sale or coupon is something special or about average, check the comparison information that dealnews.com offers.

Copyright 2012, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Great photos provide a good consumer experience this week, while a big furnace bill disappoints

By Rita R. Robison

I’m getting joy this week in working on a photo project with a friend. However, I’m grumpy about paying a big furnace bill because the power outage wrecked a part in my furnace.

My best experience: Making a photo book for a friend

I noticed Kits Camera is having a sale on 12-inch by 12-inch photo books.

For years, I’ve wanted to make one for a friend who designs exhibits. We’re working on the book together. It’s fun and brings back a lot of great memories.

My worst experience: A big furnace repair bill

Several days after a power outage due to a huge winter storm, I came home and smelled something like electrical wires burning. A while later, my smoke alarm came on and off twice.

I called the fire department, but the firemen couldn’t find a fire. However, we figured out that when the furnace came on, the smell occurred.

Fortunately, a repairman was able to come that evening. I paid an extra $75 for an overtime cost.

The entire bill was $610. The power outage burned out a part in the furnace.

Copyright 2012, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Super Bowl 2012: More violent, sexist ads

By Rita R. Robison

Ads during Sunday’s Super Bowl cost $3.5 million for a 30-second spot, up from last year's $2.7 million.

Although the 2012 offerings seemed to have fewer ads where people were slapped or knocked down, the display again was marred by violent images.

Do advertisers and public relations firms think it’s acceptable to show ads depicting violence and sexism, where people head butted and bikini-clad women are shown because mostly men watch football?

Here are my awards for the worst ads airing during this year’s Super Bowl:

Unnecessary violence:

Dannon thinks it will sell yogurt by having a woman head butt a man, knocking him to the floor, after he won’t share the container of yogurt. In a Doritos ad, a man suspects his dog of killing and burying the family cat. The dog gives him a bag of Doritos to keep it quiet. The Voice stars think by fighting, breaking things, blasting out a wall, and having Betty White say a few words, you’ll watch their TV show. A sexy woman slaps a man, speaks in Spanish, whispers in his ear, dabs foam from a latte on a his lips, then it all melts away into the first time sensations of buying a Fiat 500.

Silliest:

Cars.com showed us a man so confident about researching cars on Cars.com that he’s grown an appendage with his head on it that comes out of his back. It’s his “confidence,” singing happily about the car in a high voice. Coke’s polar bear ads, one featuring a bear trying to keep the Coke away from the other bears, seemed silly. You have the best minds in the country working on these ads. Couldn’t they have come up with something meaningful? I also thought the Chevy Sonic ad was silly, with a car skydiving and bungee jumping. Bud Light focused on the silly again this year, with a dog fetching beer from the refrigerator and other places, attracting women along the way.

Instead of violent Snickers ads showing Betty White being tackled in a backyard football game during or Roseanne Barr being downed by a huge log, Mars made a big deal this year about introducing a new M&M with a chocolate colored shell, Ms. Brown. A partygoer accused her of being naked, and Mr. Red whipped off his shell.

Most sexist:  

Teleflora may have hit an all time low with a sexy woman getting dressed, then saying through red-pursed lips, “Give and you shall receive.” Go Daddy.com takes two guys to the “cloud” populated with scantily clad women. The McLendon Hardware offering shows a father giving advice to his son before his wedding. It sounds like it’s going to be sexual information about what he should learn to do to please his wife, but instead it’s about getting good tools. In “A Dream Car for Life,” Kia uses a scantily clad flag girl and fills the stands bikini clad women. H&M spent 30 seconds slowly moving over David Beckham’s tattooed body, and briefly, his briefs.

Most irritating:

GE’s offered several ads to pump up the company’s image. If GE was going to spend that kind of money, they should have thought of something interesting.

Unfortunately, the Super Bowl featured ad after ad for violent movies, which along with the violent ads and player clashes, added to the overemphasis on violence. Among the movies advertised were “John Carter,” “Star Wars – Episode 1 in 3-D,” “The Avengers,” “G.I. Joe,” and “Act of Valor.”

For more information on the best and worse Super Bowl ads, see The Wall Street Journal’s “Super Bowl Ads 2012.” To vote for your favorite ads, go to NBC Sports Network’s “Super Bowl Admeter.”

Copyright 2012, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Recall of the Week: HeathCo motion sensing wall switches due to electrical shock hazard

By Rita R. Robison

HeathCo LLC is recalling about 75,000 Heath/Zenith and WirelessCommand motion sensing wall switches. 

When the switches are in the auto mode and the light is off, a small amount of leakage current passes through the electric circuit, including the socket. If consumers fail to disconnect the power at the circuit breaker and make contact with both terminals inside the socket while replacing the bulbs, there is a risk of an electric shock.

No incidents or injuries have been reported, HeathCo and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said in a statement.

The recall involves Heath/Zenith and WirelessCommand motion sensing wall switches with model numbers listed here.

The wall switches replace a standard household wall switch and are designed to turn off the attached lighting load when motion is no longer detected in the room. They come in white or ivory. The brand name and model number can be found on a label located on the side of the switch.

Manufactured in China, the wall switches were sold at mass merchants, electrical distributors, hardware retailers, and online retailers from August 2007 through August 2011 for between $20 and $25.

Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled wall switches and contact the company for a free wall switch replacement.

For additional information, contact HeathCo at 855-704-5438 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. CT Monday through Friday, email hzproductnotice@heathcollc.com, or visit the company's website at www.heath-zenith.com/hzproductnotice.

For details on other recalls, see www.recalls.gov.

Copyright 2011, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

What were your best and worst consumer experiences this week?

By Rita R. Robison

Which consumer happenings cheered you this week and which ones made you want to scream or weep? 

Here are my best and worst consumer experiences this week:

My best: Having a place to store paper towels and toilet paper

Although I’ve seriously cleaned out my garage two or three times, work still needs to be done.

However, when my daughter came to visit this summer, she sorted her boxes in my garage and helped me sort some of my boxes, too.

One positive result is that I now have space to put the paper towels and toilet paper I buy in cases on the shelves. That works better than leaving them in boxes on the floor.

My worst: Safeway telling me how to vote in a sign on its front door

In Washington state, citizens will vote Tuesday on Initiative 1183, a measure that would privatize liquor sales thus allowing supermarkets to sell it.

When I went to my local Safeway on Halloween, a sign on the front door said “Yes on 1183, Benefits Taxpayers & Vital Public Services.”

 When I asked the assistant manager about it, he said his store received the poster from Safeway’s corporate headquarters. The instructions that came with it said to post it on the front door.

The assistant manager didn’t seem concerned when I told him that I, a 30-year customer, would be taking my business elsewhere.

On Tuesday, I wrote a post about it on my blog, the Boomer Consumer, a reader blog on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer website. Wednesday, I called Safeway’s corporate headquarters to request a comment from its CEO Steven A. Burd on Safeway’s policy for putting political advertisements in its stores.

It’s Sunday, and I’ve received no reply, although I called about it on Friday and send an e-mail to the Safeway Press Office.

I’m outraged that Safeway has the audacity to tell citizens how to vote.

We all know corporations rule the world, but when my neighborhood grocery store tells me in a sign on its front door how to vote, it’s too much.

I oppose I-1183 because it would make more places where under-aged teens could buy liquor and I don’t trust corporations not to jack up the price when they get control.

After Costco, Safeway is one of the biggest contributors to the Vote Yes on I-1183 campaign, with a $50,000 contribution. Costco’s contributions are so enormous, a record-breaking $22 million, they’re currently being featured in the advertisements against I-1183.

Copyright 2011, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

What were your best and worst consumer experiences this week?

By Rita R. Robison

Which consumer happenings cheered you this week and which ones made you want to scream or weep? 

Here are my best and worst consumer experiences this week:

My best: Getting my fence painted before the heavy rains started

I wanted the contractor who helps me with home repairs to stain my fence and paint the eves and the back of the house.

He said he’d get back to me with an estimate, but as the nice, hot days of August rolled by, he didn’t follow through.

Instead, I selected another firm. I wasn’t sure what kind of stain to use, so I had three painters come to the house to give me a bid. I had difficulty choosing among them. The company with one of the lowest bid couldn’t do the fence spring.

I remembered the name of a painting company I’d hired about six years ago to paint three sides of my house. The firm did a satisfactory job, so I hired them.

Luckily, the weather forecast indicated we’d have five days of sun. The fence dried out, and the workers were able to stain it. They did the eves and the back of the house, too.

I’m glad my fence was stained this fall. It was beginning to grow moss in places and had areas of mildew growth.

My worst: Dealing with young, inexperienced workers

Since paint fumes make me sick, I didn’t watch the workers as they cleaned my fence and stained it.

Since I had a meeting at 2 p.m., I couldn’t check the fence with them when they’d finished. When I looked at it, I found dirt on the bottom board of the backside of the fence in the backyard. And, there were two bricks sitting against the fence, indicating that the workers hadn’t stained the fence there. In addition, in two dozen places, stain streaks were running down the fence.

I left a message for the owner. He came the next day and cleaned the back of the fence and stained it. He also tried to fix some of the streaked areas, but said too much bleach caused a few of them.

The owner helped the young worker who painted the eves and the back of the house. The job was satisfactory.

I also had problems with young, inexperienced workers when my roof was installed. One of them broke a window when a ladder slipped. He also was rude to me when I told him to clean the grass and slugs off the metal panels before they were installed on my home. He told me to do it myself.

I’d like to be able to hire workers for jobs that I need to have done on my home that are experienced enough to do a good job.

Copyright 2011, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

What were your best and worst consumer experiences this week?

By Rita R. Robison

Which consumer happenings cheered you this week and which ones made you want to scream or weep?

Here are my best and worst consumer experiences this week:

My best: Great produce at the food co-op

After picking out a tiny organic watermelon at the Olympia Food Co-op, I found a huge mango.

When I got them home, I discovered they’re about the same size.

The watermelon is yummy. I can hardly wait to try the mango.

I love the wonderful, fresh product at the co-op. The bulk nuts also are the freshest of any store in town.

My worst: Low-quality customer service from a fence company

Seven years ago, I spend a lot of money having a new fence installed. When the worker laid out the fence in the back, it was too low, right at ground level. When I asked him about it, he wouldn’t redo it and put it up higher.

I wrote a letter to the company about it and other mistakes and miscommunications when the fence was completed. I never heard from the company. I thought I’d wait and see what happened.

When I was checking my fence prior to its being washed and cleaned, I noticed one section was badly bowed. Not only did the worker build the fence too low, he also put it right on the base of a huge cherry tree in the neighbor’s yard. As the base of the tree grew, the fence bowed.

The company came to fix the bowed section. The two workers marched into the yard and replaced the boards. Instead of raising the fence about six inches like we talked about, they raised it 12 inches.

I also asked them to raise two other sections of the fence where huge roots from other large trees are causing the fence to begin to bow. They said they wouldn’t do it.

All these fence problems could have been avoided if the fence company’s worker hadn’t built the fence at ground level and placed the fence on the base of a huge tree.

I guess what I’ll do is ask the owner of the rentals next to me if I can have the roots cut on his side of the fence. Then, they’ll be cut on my side and removed.

Copyright 2011, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

What was your best and worst consumer experience this week?

By Rita R. Robison

Which consumer happenings cheered you this week and which ones made you want to scream or weep?

Here are my best and worst consumer experiences this week:

My best: Getting the right tool for the job

I finally picked out a company to paint my fence. My usual contractor was going to do it, but he got busy. The warm days of summer melted away.

The painters are coming Tuesday to pressure wash the fence with a chlorine solution. In addition to trimming my shrubs to get ready, I’m washing the fence and digging the dirt out from under it.

When I went to the hardware store, I picked out a small shovel with straight edge rather than a spade shaped one and a narrow trowel. I saw tool with three prongs on one side and a scrapper on the other. I thought it was too heavy, so I didn’t buy it.

However, after using the shovel and trowel, I found I needed something stronger. I went back to buy the tool I thought wouldn’t work well. It’s great for scrapping the dirt from under the fence.

It also will work well for removing moss from my flowerbeds, but that’s another project for another time.

My worst: Low-quality customer service from Regence

This year, Regence has taken over the administration of my health care plan.

I can’t believe how slow Regence is in processing claims.

I thought the former company was bad, with a six-weeks wait for claims to be processed. But Regence is much worse.

When I called to complain, the customer service representative said Regence realizes it’s behind. It has hired more claims processors, and they’re working evenings and weekends.

Regence is five to six months behind in processing insurance claims. I’m having to pay bills now from the beginning of the year because my deductible hasn’t been met. It’s unreal. It’s September.

Copyright 2011, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

What were your best and worst consumer experiences this week?

By Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Which consumer happenings cheered you this week and which ones made you want to scream or weep?

Here are my best and worst consumer experiences this week:

My best: Finding a new hotel in Bellingham

 

The strong chemicals used in most motels really bother me. I often stay in bed and breakfasts to avoid them.

Since I have family that lives in Bellingham, I like to travel there often. On my last visit, I found a small hotel that uses less toxic chemicals in Fairhaven, a historical village, now part of the City of Bellingham.

My sister and I enjoyed staying there.

 

My worst: A dispute with my gutter company

Since I won the lawsuit about my failed metal shingle roof, I’ll be getting another type of metal roof soon.

My new roofing contractor said I could use my current gutters for my new roof system.

Since my gutters are starting to rust, I decided to call the gutter company that installed them to see about what warranty is provided.

The company has been sold, so the new owner came out. When I tried to show him where the rust is, he was grumpy. He said he didn’t see any rust. I showed him photos of the rust.

He stomped off, saying he’d contact the manufacturer and get back to me. I haven’t heard from him. 

Copyright 2011, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Recall of the Week: Ryobi ¼ sheet sanders due to laceration hazard

By Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

One World Technologies Inc. is recalling about 300,000 Ryobi ¼ sheet sanders

Pieces of the fan can break off from the fan assembly and be ejected from the product, posing a laceration hazard to consumers, One World Technologies said in a joint statement with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The firm has received 31 reports of broken fan pieces being ejected from the sander, including two reports of minor lacerations.

The recall involves Ryobi brand sheet sanders, model S651D. The sander is blue and black. The word "Ryobi" is on the left side. The model number can be found on the data plate located on the side of the sander just below the handle.

Manufactured in China, the sanders were sold at Home Depot, Gardner Inc., Tap Enterprises, Direct Tools Factory Outlets, Amazon.com, and ToolKing.com from June 2005 through August 2010 for about $30.

Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled sander and contact One World Technologies to receive a free replacement sander, the firm and the commission advises.

For additional information, contact One World Technologies Customer Service at 800-597-9624 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday or visit the firm’s website at www.ryobitools.com.

For details on other recalls, see www.recalls.gov 

Copyright 2011, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist