April 29, 2007 at 3:23 pm · Filed under Sports
Roger, Richard and myself went for a ride up to Burnaby mountain this morning. It was a great day for riding, it was sunny and mildly warm. All in all it went very well. I was happy with my general fitness (which can barely be called “fit”), and I rode most of the way, getting off the bike only a few times. I did notice that riding tricky stuff (tricky for me) is quite the binary thing. I was either riding everything, or if I lost my confidence for a little bit I would start walking past everything. As for wipe-outs, I managed two endos. One endo was while I was walking the bike. The other end resulting in me getting trapped under my bike and having to commando crawl out from under it, which was actually a lot worse than the crash itself.
April 29, 2007 at 3:17 pm · Filed under Just Stuff
We went to Vancouver Yamaha on Saturday to see what’s what with the repair and bill to date. Things were fairly positive with shop, although I’m still going to be out a lot of money. Here’s the breakdown of the repair. They’ve charged me for a battery, coil and CID. Each of these parts are around $110. They’ve agreed to put back my old battery, as it likely is not a problem. They insist that both the coil and CID are kaput, and I’m not too surprised. They’ll return them to me and i’m going to try and double-check the coil. As well, they only charged 4 hours labour. They still insist there was bad gas in the scooter which I just don’t believe is true, although it’s possible. I do know that the gas was pretty dark, but that doesn’t mean it was a problem, may it’s just a new formulation/mix. Regardless, 4 hours of labour isn’t too bad considering some of the troubleshooting they did. $90/hr of labour gets expensive real quick. The last outstanding issue was the gearing. The slip clutch was seized and they rebuilt it in 2hrs. Again, not excessive. I guess that when I pushed the scooter 20 blocks I seized the clutch. Go figure, I thought it was a great idea to push the scooter there and save $70 in a tow. Instead I wasted $120 extra.
April 21, 2007 at 8:13 pm · Filed under Just Stuff
I just realized today that someone has left me a negative feedback on ebay. It is obviously a retaliatory feedback because I had left the other person (the seller) negative feedback. I’m not sure how often this happens on ebay, but it doesn’t surprise me. On many occasions I have received emails from other ebay users where they say things “Thanks for doing business with me. If you leave me positivie feedback I will do the same for you.” While I don’t really like the way that these things are passed along, it isn’t a big deal because almost every one of my ebay experiences have been positive.
The root of this particular auction with the negative feedback is very simple. I bid on a waterproof camera case for my Canon digital camera. I chose this particular auction because it was advertised as being new, and it included the case, a carrying strap, silicon grease and anti-fogging liquid.
After winning the auction, I paid within a few days using the payment method (Paypal) preferred by the seller, and included the neccessary charges for shipping and handling. Within about 2 weeks the item arrived which I thought was pretty good timing. The case was in pretty good condition although it wasn’t new. There were marks on the lens that indicated that it had been used at some point. Nothing else was included in the shipment. Clearly the items were not sent as advertised. A few days later I sent an email to the seller via the ebay messaging system. Because the message went through ebay I don’t have a copy of it. I basically said that the item was not received as advertised and that I wanted to talk to the seller in order to come to some agreement. I still didn’t receive a response from the seller after about 3 weeks so I assumed that he was blowing me off. At this point I left him feedback: Seller’s feedback
It didn’t take long after the negative feedback that I finally heard back from the guy. On April 8 I received a message from skymountainlake via ebay. The message read as follows.
“Hi, I am sorry, I did not get your message on time.recently I could not find
the coming stuff, so if you take off that feed back you left it to me,I
will send $5 refund to you. please let me know if it is ok.
Thank you”
The message came from the email address li_da610@hotmail.com
Okay, so this is not big deal. I didn’t know much about removing feedback and I don’t need $5. So I sent an email to li_da610@hotmail.com which read:
“Hello,
It looks like it is impossible to remove/delete feedback.
However, two members (you and I) can agree to mutually remove feedback.
Information is here:
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/account/withdraw-feedback.html
If this was an honest mistake, then I do not mind going through the =
process of mutual feedback removal. You do not need to leave feedback first,
although of course you are entitled to (good or bad, it is up to you). =
Once we submit a mutual feedback removal form, you will not be able to leave
feedback.
Since the comments are kept but the rating is removed, I may wish to first
reply to my own feedback and say that the seller made an honest mistake.
Then we fill out the form. The negative feedback is removed and the
comments remain.
Regards,
Doug”
I figure that was a nice enough response given the situation. On April 9 I get another email from the guy, only this time it is from the address junexue88@hotmail.com. The email read
“Hi,
Please take off the feed back you left it to me, then I will send $5 refund
to you. if you do not do this,I will send a same feed back to you.
Thank you”
It was at this point that I realized that I was dealing with an asshole who doesn’t know how to read. If he could read, he would know that a person cannot remove feedback. I told him this, and even sent him a link in ebay that describes the process. On top of this, the guy is blatantly threatening me and basically trying to bribe me for a positive feedback for $5.
I then responded to him again. I probably should have known at this point that I was wasting my time but what the heck.
“Hello,
It looks like it is impossible to remove/delete feedback.
However, two members (you and I) can agree to mutually remove feedback.
Information is here:
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/account/withdraw-feedback.html
If this was an honest mistake, then I do not mind going through the process
of mutual feedback removal. You do not need to leave feedback first,
although of course you are entitled to (good or bad, it is up to you). Once
we submit a mutual feedback removal form, you will not be able to leave
feedback.
I do not need $5 back from you. However, I am interested in hearing why you
would send “same feed back to me.” I paid promptly as required, why would
you leave negative feedback? I left you negative feedback because you did
not send items that you advertised on your auction and you did not respond
to my email sent through ebay.
Please see the attached email I sent you yesterday. I was prepared to send
mutually remove feedback, but I do not like your threat to leave “same feed
back to you.”
You need to respond to me with an explanation of your threat, and whether or
not you wish to proceed with the mutual withdraw feedback.”
I didn’t have any intention on retracting feedback unless the guy came up with a damn good explanation. In any event, I never heard from him again until I saw his negative feedback on me.
feedback
The email messages (outlook messages) and auction details can be downloaded HERE if anyone is interested in seeing the actual correspondence.
April 21, 2007 at 8:02 am · Filed under Interlude SOF kayak
I now basically have the frame together for the Interlude.
Here is a list of some of the issues I’ve encountered during the build.
1. I needed to clamp/jig the keel to keep it straight while putting the boards onto the frames
2. thickened epoxy was used to hold the boards to the frames and it seems to be strong
3. after the epoxy cured, I drilled holes and inserted 3/16″ dowels to pin the boards to the frames. I used PU glue to hold the pins
4. I found it very finicky to cut the board ends (chines & gunwales) in order to meet flush with the stern and bow plates
5. the bow and stern plates are epoxied in place with dowels
6. I had to remove two knots in my chines, and filled these holes with thickened epoxy
7. I’m not sure if my frames are deep enough, maybe I should add some extra support…?
8. I’m not sure exactly how I will finish off the bow/stern plates. It looks like other people add small deck plates to tie/hold everything together
9. I’m not sure what I’ll use to seal the wood. shellac? polyurethane? tung oil? epoxy (too expensive)?
April 20, 2007 at 6:54 pm · Filed under Just Stuff
Okay peeps, I’m looking for some advice. All you armchair lawyers, or people that play lawyers on tv, please chime in. Two months ago to the day I took my 2005 Yamaha Vino 125 to Vancouver Yamaha for repair. At the time I was not able to start the bike. I had been having difficulty starting it when it was cold, and finally it just would not start at all. 2 days prior to taking it to the shop I did have it running (although it was hard to start) and it ran fine at that time. In fact, once started it was not possible to tell that there was something wrong. So on that faithfull Saturday I pushed the scooter approximately 20 blocks to Vancouver Yamaha.
After few weeks I hadn’t heard anything back so I called. I spoke with the mechanic and he said the first thing they did was empty the tank and clean the carb because I had bad gas. He said that he knows bad gas when he smells it, and that I had diesel in the tank. After this, the bike still wouldn’t start so he replaced the ignition coil. That still didn’t fix the problem so they ordered another part and were waiting for it to come. I phoned again about 3 weeks later and they were still waiting for the part. Finally today they called and said that the part was in. It turns out they had to replace the cdi, and this got the bike running. However, the mechanic said that when he test rode the scooter, the bike was starting in too high of a gear and that there was no low end power. He asked if the scooter was like this before and I told him no, that it ran just fine the last time I drove it. He asked if they should repair it and I said that they should. Afterall, I didn’t take my scooter to a shop just for kicks and laughs. Prior to working on the gearing, the current bill is up to $850.
It should be pretty obvious that there are several problems with the above situation. First of all, there is the ridiculously assertion that I had diesel in the tank. That is completely illogical and absurd. I have a receipt from the gas station where I filled up 2 or 3 days prior to taking the scooter to the shop. That gas station does not even sell diesel. There is no way that there was diesel in the tank. That alone tells me that the mechanic is maybe a bit mixed up and apparently too proud to admit that he screwed up. Next is the coil replacement. I have to think that replacing the coil should fix the problem if the coil was actually broken. The chances of having a broken coil AND another issue that prevents the bike from starting would be extremely small. Next is the issue of the cdi. From what I can gather, it was the cdi that was causing the problem all along. I would also guess that the cdi is the most expensive part of the repair so far. Finally is the issue of the gearing. The scooter worked when I brought it in and I fully expect the bike to be returned in the manner in which it was dropped off. I wonder if me pushing the scooter did anything to it?
Some of my general questions include:
1. Will I be able to convince them to drop any charges related to the diesel? I will likely ask for a sample of the “bad gas”, and will refuse to pay or threaten small claims court if they cannot produce the sample.
2. Will be able to convince them to drop charges related to the coil? I will likely ask for the old “defective” coil, and will refuse to pay or threaten small claims court if they cannot produce the old part.
3. What can I do about the cdi? It is inconceivable to me that I can incur such a high cost repair on a scooter that has 5000km. I may try to talk to Yamaha Canada about this. It looks to me that my 20 month old scooter which originally cost $3400 is going to cost me $1000 in repairs for things that simply broke down. I haven’t had any accidents or abused the scooter in any way, and I have records of completing all of my scheduled maintenance.
4. I’m not sure what to make of the gearing. It worked when I last drove it. Who is responsible for this repair?
Perhaps Vancouver Yamaha will be top notch in dealing with me. I haven’t tried any negotiating with them yet, as I just heard from them today. Maybe they’ll be really good about it. I’d sure like to know what my options would be if I run into problems though.
April 9, 2007 at 3:11 pm · Filed under Technology
From Wikipedia….
Price Gouging: a frequently pejorative reference to a seller’s asking a price that is much higher than what is seen as ‘fair’ under the circumstances.
Blackberry data plans from Rogers Canada
0.5MB = $25
1.0MB = $40
25MB = $60
200MB = $100
Blackberry plans from T-Mobile USA
unlimited use = $30
Call me crazy, but are we getting ripped off by Rogers here in Canada? Rogers has a monopoly (a persistent market situation where there is only one provider of a product or service) on blackberry in Canada.
(leave a comment if any of the above links get broken… thanks)
