Darkoshi

Like trying to figure out why a recent order included a 2% sales tax on the food items (as expected), but when they shipped it and charged my card, they had reduced it to a 1% charge.

The sales tax here is always tricky to figure out (a 6% statewide tax, but food is exempt, plus two county-wide 1% taxes, plus more if it is a prepared food item). I couldn't find any indication that either of the 1% taxes was removed or changed to exempt food too.

The amount in question is 24 cents. It's not worth my time and effort trying to figure it out. I ought to just be happy to have been charged less. (Although if the rules changed, I want to know, as I use that info when doing my end-of-year tax forms.)

It's not at all worth spending any of my time on, much less an hour*. I know this, and I keep telling myself this, but I still can't let it drop. My mind keeps coming back to it and thinking of more ways to try to look it up, because surely the store, Vitacost, which calculated the amount right the first time, wouldn't have changed the calculation without a good reason. Although maybe they switched from one local tax calculation service to another one, and the one they switched to isn't calculating it right.

I have finally updated the amounts in my expenses spreadsheet, and have let it drop. But like I say, with things like this, I drive myself crazier than I am to begin with.

*I have something else I need to use those brain muscles on this weekend, my work's annual benefits enrollment period. If I finish that with time to spare, I have plenty of other things to that I need to do. NOT QUIBBLING over 24 cents in my favor, for quibbling's sake!

In other news, the SC state legislature is getting ready to completely outlaw abortion here. I am so disgusted. I have started contemplating the possibility of moving somewhere else.

For various reasons, California came to mind. But with all those wildfires, and what else was it? Weren't there some other big disasters there lately, why can't I remember...

And then also the cost of living. While I'm rather well off here, I might not even be able to afford it over there.

Qiao had his taxes done in February. The 2nd stimulus check was deposited to his bank account on 12/31/2020, but he didn't realize it until the IRS notice 1444-B finally arrived in his mailbox, which was after he'd done his taxes. Not knowing that he'd gotten the stimulus check already, his tax preparer claimed the recovery rebate credit for him on his tax return.

Once Qiao realized the mistake, we submitted an amended tax return to the IRS along with the appropriate payment.

Now the IRS sent him a letter saying they think he paid too much, and they're going to return the difference.

I double checked the amounts calculated by his tax preparer, and what I calculated on the amended tax return, and based on the instructions, they were correct. So I don't know WHY the IRS wants to give Qiao extra money back, but.... I guess it's not worth fighting them over it.

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On the other hand, I'm still waiting to get my 2019 federal tax refund! According to the IRS site, as of March 26, they had 2 million paper returns remaining to process. It looks like they'll be done in another month, so hopefully around then I'll either get the refund, or finally find out if my 2019 tax return was lost in the mail and needs to be redone.

I am now doing my 2020 taxes, and if I don't run into technical difficulties, will be submitting them online this time instead of by the mail.

Note to self: Don't buy Kroger store-brand potato chips anymore. They're not salty enough. And two bags (both probably bought at the same time) had oil leaking out the seam like the seam hadn't been sealed shut well enough.

I'm considering going shopping tonight, even though it's already getting late. Because I'm out of corn chips, and snacks are getting scarce. I've been missing having cookies, though the stores don't have ones I much like, so going shopping won't really help with that. I ought to go back to my place and bake some chocolate chip cookies.

I've still got 3 carrots, a pear, and a bag of Food Lion potato chips (not opened yet, so their saltiness is unknown). Some cake and peanuts. Snack bars. Other nuts. Chocolate. It ought to be enough. I hate being out of corn chips though. I should just deal with it and eat all the other snacks up. Completely. I can live without corn chips. Heck, I've got a shaker of salt.

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I was at my mom's place for the rental bed delivery, since she had to be at work at that time. The mattress turned out to be one of those foam ones, a "bed in a box". Ashley Furniture brand. Both it and the bed-frame were definitely new items; that was very apparent from the packaging. I checked Amazon, and the same bed-frame is on sale there for $150, and the very same mattress for $439.

So the $150 which my mom is paying for the first month is about a quarter of the actual price, or maybe even more if the wholesale price is less than what Amazon sells it for. Still, it seems that if RentACenter allows it to be rented for a single month, that they'd still lose money on it? Unless they take advantage of a free-returns deal from the manufacturer.

Maybe RaC makes it hard to return items, requiring them to be in pristine condition. Maybe most people end up keeping the items for multiple months even if they didn't originally plan to (which I suspect might end up happening with my mom).

My mom didn't ask whether RaC will pick the items up for free, or if she'll have to pay for that. We certainly won't be able to fit it back into the box that it came in. For that matter, it won't even fit into the plastic cover it came in, due to mattress's foam expansion, so how could one cover it to keep it clean in transport? In the mattress encasement that I ordered, perhaps?

While browsing Amazon, I found that they even sell "bed in a box" mattresses with innersprings!

While at my mom's house, I wore my surgical face mask for a good 3 hours straight, and it didn't bother me much. Even though it was about 90 degrees in the house to begin with, and even with the A/C turned on, only got down to 87 by the time I left. It's good to know I can do that when necessary. Besides setting up the bed frame and mattress for her, I also fixed a problem with her printer. That turned out being a known issue with a Windows update, for which another special Windows update was required.

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There are several topics in this post for which none of my existing tags are very good matches.
Rentals. Mask-wearing. Mattresses.

After pumping gas at Circle K today, I noticed the price shown under my pump was the credit card price instead of the normally 10-cent-cheaper debit card price, even though I had inserted my debit card.

The marquee on the big gas station sign showed an "easy pay" price of 10 cents less than the credit card price, but I'd never seem them refer to debit cards as "easy pay" before

When I got home, I divided my total charge by the number of gallons I had pumped, which confirmed I'd been charged the higher credit card price.

It turns out Easy Pay is a new debit card specifically for Circle K. Sheesh. I don't want to have to carry around another card, and remember another PIN number. That's enough to make me switch gas stations. But then again, I like the idea that using Easy Pay would automatically email me a receipt.

And then I read this:
Nearly 80 percent of credit card skimmers were found at this 1 gas station chain (In Arizona, in 2018).

Criminals can install a skimming device inside the electronic guts of a fuel pump in less than eight seconds, officials said. Hidden behind panels, the small strip of wires is invisible to the public.

Gas pump and ATM skimmers: How to spot and avoid them

Gas pumps received a three-year extension on EMV transition in 2017, meaning fuel pumps will continue to be a fertile field for fraudsters with skimmers until October 2020. EMV chip technology has reduced fraud at the checkout counter since the EMV liability shift in October 2015.

Until fueling pumps read EMV chip cards, gas stations will be “one of the last bastions” for thieves, says Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center.

Update, 2020/02/26:
Since originally posting this, I've noticed that this Circle K's credit card price (which is now the same as their cash price) matches the cash/debit price of other nearby gas stations. So even without using an EasyPay card, their prices are still competitive. At least for the time being.

Remember that song I bought on iTunes, which was so much trouble to buy?

Not only that, but in addition to the price of the song I bought, iTunes charged me an extra $1 which they are now refusing to give back. When I initially contacted them about it via their Report a problem link, they replied by email that it was only an "authorization hold on my credit card" and that it would automatically drop off in an unspecified amount of time. I was dubious, as the $1 had been taken from my PayPal balance (which I told them), not from a credit card. However, I found a PayPal page which indicated that those kind of charges might take a month to get refunded, so I decided to wait that long to see, before bugging iTunes about it again. The $1 never got refunded.

After the month was over, I tried contacting iTunes again via the same link (twice!), but even though upon submitting the report, the confirmation page states that they'll get back to me within 48 hours, they haven't, either time. I didn't even get the immediate "We'll be in touch" email response like I did the first time. So it seems like their system is purposely ignoring me now. (Why? I can't figure that out.)

I had also tried disputing the charge via the PayPal site, however none of the choices PayPal provides for the reason of the dispute seemed applicable. I clicked what seemed the most relevant one and chose answers to the remaining questions that were presented to see what would happen, even though none of the answers were applicable. I thought I'd be given an opportunity to either Submit or Cancel at the end, and that I'd choose Cancel and maybe then try a different initial option. But after selecting the answers, I was only shown a message like "Well, you said you received the thing you ordered (ie. the song), so you can't dispute the charge."

Now when I try clicking the link to dispute the charge again (thinking that maybe I'll select a different initial reason this time), the link doesn't work ("Sorry — your last action could not be completed"). I suspect it is because they previously decided that I have no grounds for dispute.
ARGH.

I do still have the option of calling the PayPal customer support phone number. Maybe I could find an iTunes phone number.

It is only $1 they stole from me. It's not worth the hassle. But it's not right.

Update, 2017/08/19:
I still wasn't getting any response via Apple's Report a Problem page. So instead I contacted Apple support via chat (from that support page, I selected the links for: iTunes - iTunes Store - Purchases, Billing & Redemption - iTunes Store Account Billing - Chat). During the chat, the Apple rep reiterated that the $1 charge was only an authorization hold, and told me to contact PayPal; that PayPal should credit me the $1 back.

So I disputed the charge via the link on the PayPal site again (the link was working ok now - maybe there's a time-out period for how often you can click it?) This time, I selected the option for reporting a Billing issue, and an "issue that's not described". I attached a copy of my Apple support chat, and submitted the report. Within 24 hours, PayPal sent me a reply that they had accepted my claim and credited the $1 back to my account.

So finally, the problem has been resolved.

I wanted to send some money to my sister, and she suggested MoneyGram as she'd used it before without a problem. She'd used it at a CVS location to send money to someone. I checked the MoneyGram website to see what the fee would be, and it showed $11.50. That sounded reasonable; less than a wire transfer at least. The website also indicated that you could do transfers directly via the website, instead of going in person to one of their locations like CVS. The website also showed that you could do transfers from your bank account as opposed to only from a credit/debit card. Using a credit card would result in extra cash advance fees, which would be bad. It wasn't clear if a debit card would result in such a charge or not, so I wanted to avoid that too.

So this evening, I go to their website again, enter my bank account info, and go to do the transfer. But then it showed the fee as $89.99 - almost 12% of the amount being sent!!!! Their online fee is much higher than their physical location fee. Not only that, but the option for selecting my bank account was disabled with a message "Note: Bank Account is unavailable for U.S. to U.S. sends." Why didn't they say that in the first place, before I entered my bank data!? Their "Learn More" page only says "You can either pay with your credit or debit card, or directly from your bank account" - it doesn't list any such restriction.

So I left the MoneyGram site and instead did a direct transfer via my bank's website, with NO fee at all. (which sort of surprised me, or I would have selected that option to begin with.)

The house's side door has a motion-activated light fixture mounted by it. The lights always attracted moths and other flying insects. To prevent the bugs flying into the house, I always had to slip inside the door and shut it quickly, but sometimes moths still got in. Now I've replaced the two bulbs with LED bug light bulbs. It's amazing the difference that makes. Light! And yet absolutely no bugs flying around in the light! The light is yellow, but that's no problem. I should have done this years ago.

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Qiao bought a set of lithium battery-powered yard tools. At first the hedge trimmer looked scary to me, with all the sharp teeth. But it is easy to use. So easy that I have to remind myself to be careful with it. It's so much easier than using clippers to cut individual stalks, especially for the jessamine bushes on the fence.

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Cyber bank robberies... North Korea to blame?

North Korea Linked To $81 Million Bangladesh Bank Heist
Obama strikes back at North Korea

...or maybe not North Korea, exactly?
Vietnamese bank hit by cyber heist
North Korean Cyberhacking Redux: The Bank Heist Cases

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The unstoppable march of the upward inflection?
High rising terminal
(aka "upspeak")

A lady was talking on TV a while back, and I wasn't interested in whatever she was talking about, but was fascinated by her manner of speech. Her sentences kept ending on a rising note, as if she was asking a question even though she wasn't. It was much more pronounced than the audio samples on the first link above. When I recently came across that page, I realized that maybe it wasn't a peculiarity to her, but a common way of speaking, where ever she was from.

Then I realized the similarity of that to another manner of speaking which at first struck me as odd. Some people insert phrases like "you know what I mean", "you get me", "you know what I'm saying?", "you know?" in the middle of each sentence and/or after each sentence. They don't necessarily pitch it as a question, nor even slow down waiting for feedback - it just seems to be how they are used to speaking.

The rising pitch is similar, in that the speaker sounds like they are asking the listener if they understand or agree with what is being said, except without adding any extra words in.

Then again, maybe that is just my biased impression of it, and not what is actually intended by the speakers.

Vocal fry register : Speaking in the lowest register of your voice, where it makes a creaky grating sound. I do that sometimes, and didn't realize there was a term for it.

Apparently there's been a lot of criticism of how young women speak these days.

From Upspeak To Vocal Fry: Are We 'Policing' Young Women's Voices?

From the audio samples given in that NPR broadcast and elsewhere, women using vocal fry in their speech sounds totally normal to me, and not bad. The upspeak can be a bit disconcerting to me, but not much so. That one lady I mentioned hearing speak on TV had a much more pronounced and unusual version of it, which is why it fascinated me so much. I wish I had written down who the speaker was.

How My Mom Got Hacked - malware that encrypts all your files and requires a bitcoin ransom payment.

...they almost always honor what they say because they want word to get around that they’re trustworthy criminals who’ll give you your files back.”

Welcome to the new ransomware economy, where hackers have a reputation to consider.

3 Myths that Block Progress for the Poor - Gates Foundation annual letter.

via andrewducker