Following up on last week's guide to creating a shortcut to Windows' Safely Remove Hardware dialog, the How-To Geek weblog details how to set up a shortcut or hotkey to immediately eject a specific USB drive, particularly handy if you typically only use one USB drive on your computer. The guide uses previously mentioned app USB Disk Ejector in conjunction with its command line options to create simple shortcuts for specific drive ejection. When you're finished, you should be able to instantly eject any drive with a couple of quick keystrokes without clicking through menus. These shortcuts would be perfect to index with Launchy for quick access.

A Ritz camera salesperson writes in to give you the skinny on scanning, digital prints, and which memory cards are just a ripoff.

I have been working for Ritz Camera/Proex for about three years now and it's really starting to get on my nerves, but I thought I'd share some of the ways they screw you over as a customer and potential employee.

1. The E.S.P. or Extended Service Plan- This plan is alright. You pay quite a bit for security. The only good thing about it is if you do drop your camera they will cover your negligence. Only problem is, is that depending on where you bring the camera in the U.S. most likely for any repair out of Ritz/Proex it will take about 2 months to get your camera back and thats the quickest.

2. Prices- We have price matching, but it has to be the exact same product, the other store must have it in stock, and we have to call the other store to make sure that the customer isn't lying. Then we call a district manager and half the time they don't answer so you stand there and stare at the customer until they leave and go buy it at the other store. Not to mention cameras are a much better deal online all the time, any time.

3. Memory Cards- They try and make us sell you "Ritz" memory cards before Sandisk or Panasonic. They are all the same. Ritz claims theirs are "faster," but they are the EXACT SAME CARD. You're already dishing out 300$ for a camera, get the cheapest card that will hold the most.

4. Products- As employees we are required to push at least 4 products on you. While I refuse to do it and stick close to the finishing lab, everyone else has to. Most of the time they will tell you that they are a certain price only to find when you get to the register that the price is higher. This is because you must have our Image Rewards Card.

5. Image Rewards Card- Claims it uses a system that collects "money back," but I have yet to see that come up from frequent customers. For 16$ this lovely little piece of plastic can be yours. Unless you are doing actual 35mm film this card isn't worth it. It literally takes pennies off digital prints. You have to do tons of digital prints in order to get your monies worth.

6. Prints- We have what is called Big Print You which is the "New Digital Standard!" It's a bunch of crap. You are paying ten extra cents for half an inch of paper. It's not worth it. Take the time and make 4x6's. 4x6's still fit in albums and frames. Big Print You fits in some, but you have a small selection.

7. Scanning- Scanning is 2.50$ per print. Ridiculous! Most of the time I don't charge it and just say I forgot. Everyone else normally does it. 2.50 a scan, and you can only scan one at a time with a maximum of ten then the software makes to start another ten. It takes forever. By a cheap scanner and you'll save a ton of money if you think you need to scan a bunch of photos.

8. Demo Cameras- We sell them to you and you don't even know it. Everyone's grubby hands have probably been on your camera. It's probably been dropped at some point, not to mention the boxes we get shipments in from UPS look like they've been kicked all the way from the home office to our store. We sell demo cameras at no discount, we just clean them up and put them in a box. Then we are told to lie to you and tell you it's brand new.

9. Employees- Be prepared for a job that offers no movements in pay. They have a company policy that allows you to take quizzes that your manager and service manager have to sign off on then give to your district manager that then gets you a small raise. Most of our employees have finished these, got them signed, and turned them in. We all still get 8$/hr. The district manager claims he "never got them." I've heard this same excuse has been used with other stores too with different district managers. Also there are "Sales Incentives" that are supposed to be your commission. These are pennies and on like 5 things in the store. Most of the time it's all taken away in taxes.

10. One Hour Photo- Yeah right. Half the time our machines break down because they are about as old as I am and the company is too cheap to fix them. So with the new "One Hour or It's Free" deal we have now, we can just say that the machine is broke and that voids the deal. I'll just give you your prints free. If there is a chance that our machine is working alright, in reality we can probably get your prints done in about 15-30 minutes unless you have a ton of them. Also ordering your prints online saves you time in a mall and the smell of fish that the printer gives off. So do that.

(AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Trey is upset. Four times in the past year, Macy's has reduced the credit limit on his card without advance notice, even as his card membership level keeps going up. (Apparently he really likes liked to shop at Macy's.) "I lit into them for not advising me of my credit limit decrease, especially considering just three days before I received a brand new Macy*s platinum card in the mail, where they had the perfect opportunity to let me know it was now only $800."

In the past year, my Macy*s store account credit limit has adjusted four times without my knowledge. Each time the credit limit has dropped from $1,500 to $1,200 to $1,000 to $800. Each time the drop occurred I only found out because I was in Macy*s and the cashier rudely told me my card declined. Rather than helping me with the situation they sent me up to their 'courtesy' phones that are linked straight to their credit department. Each time was equally embarrassing and felt like I was being sent to the principal's office for my due punishment. Each time I called I got the bad news.

So when I called the credit department in store today they told me my limit had be downgraded again and that they'd transfer me to the credit department (I thought I was already speaking to them) to see if I could have an increase. The man rudely advised me no I could not - not like I exactly asked considering I was simply transfered away from the original agent. So that was that, I left the store head hung low without a purchase in hand. I will not buy their merchandise without their coupons because its simply overpriced otherwise and you can only use the coupons with their stupid credit card.

Well, today I was fed up with this ever moving credit line that leads only to in store embarrassment. As I headed to the parking lot my temper boiled. I made a special trip out to the mall and spent a lot of time, that I did not have, finding the items I wanted to purchase. Having been the fourth time this happened to me was enough! As soon as I got in the car I called the credit department on my own cell phone and went into a tirade. I lit into them for not advising me of my credit limit decrease, especially considering just three days before I received a brand new Macy*s platinum card in the mail, where they had the perfect opportunity to let me know it was now only $800. The women on the other end became insta-defensive of Macy*s inane and unpublished procedures on not letting their customers know their credit limit. I said that I was sink of being embarrassed by rude customer services associates and like a well trained robot she read from her 'Customer Service 101" script of platitudes and fake apologies. I was then extremely angry and screamed you can be as "nice" as you think you are being, but shove it - cancel my account! I won't be embarrassed in your store again!" She then replied off of her script again "If I issue you a 15% off shopping pass, is their anyway I can prevent you from closing your account today?" I said "No! I already have about 20 stupid coupons at home that all have about a 112 exclusions anyway - plus my card doesn't work!" She then retorted angrily "Well the account is closed!" I then hung up.

They do not publish your credit limit on there website where you can check your account activity, nor when they issue you a new card. I know this for a fact because in the past year I got upgraded from their basic card to a gold card and then last week to a platinum card. So as I ascended their credit ladder of customer proof of purchase I was downgraded in credit limit (each upgrade corresponds with a dollar amount spent during the past year). I do not receive paper statements so I have no idea if they publish the credit limit there; I rely on my online statements as I do not like crap clogging up my mailbox.

Macy*s and I are friends off! I spent ungodly amounts of money at that store in my life especially considering what I earn per year as a student! Nothing makes me instantly pissed like a customer service person reading a script like a robot. They have no compassion for people and their problems. I have worked countless jobs in customer service from being a bagger at a grocer to one of those people on the other end of the phone in a call in center and it takes not an ounce of effort to show a person compassion for the misgivings of the company - might I add without giving the company an admitted black eye either. From the original customer associate in the store that sent me away to the courtesy phones to the three other people I spoke along the rocky road to account closure they could have easily assuaged the situation. Anything from a mere "I'm sorry about that, I'll certainly let my supervisor know of your concerns regarding our policy on advising customers of their credit limits - can I have you contact information so we can get back to you?" Or, "You had a rude associate in the store? Do you know their name so we can address this so you or any other customer never gets embarrassed again!"

Oh well, just another bad customer service experience and another store that will lose my business. I didn't really need the extra debt anyway!

That was going to be our advice anyway, Trey—just avoid the department store credit card altogether. Oh, and don't bother with Macy's crappy coupons.

(Photo: Getty)

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

If you were wondering if you'd ever hear another peep about that Freescape digital media ecosystem that Polaroid trumpeted in January, here's your answer. Quietly launched on the firm's own website, the Freescape 4360 (also known as the MPU-043315B) is a WiFi-enabled portable media player packin' a 60GB hard drive, a rechargeable Li-ion good for 16 hours of audio playback (just 4 hours with video), a 4.3-inch 480 x 272 resolution LCD, an FM tuner, TV output and support for MPEG4, WMA, WMV, WMA, MP3 and JPEG formats. Mum's the word on a price or release date, but without handling a few more formats, we can't see any Archos / Cowon / iriver lovers switching sides for this.

[Via ShinyShiny]

 

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Graham says:

I heard a Con Ed commercial today on the radio, in the NY area. Thankfully, you may now report that you have no electricity, online.

Ya know, for those times when you have no power, but your computer and internet access are not affected.

This should be sponsored by Starbucks, because that's where you're going to use it.

Report an Electric Service Problem/Check Status [ConEd]

This Eject Powerstrip is an even more refined version of this raise me up powerstrip, adding a larger, foot-usable eject base and wider plugs for wider AC adapters. What's the point? One, so you can unplug stuff with your foot without having to bend down under your desk, and two, allowing you to unplug certain plugs that are slightly too tight for their own good. Would we get one if this were real? Yes, if it wasn't all that much more expensive than a standard powerstrip. [Core77]

Conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh was having problems with his Mac. A program called Time Machine wasn't restoring his emails properly and repeated calls to Apple Support were fruitless. Based on complaints in online forums, he wasn't the only one either. So finally he complained about it on-air and that caught Apple's attention enough to assign an engineer to go fix it (the guy had to delete the "null mail folder" and rebuild it in the internal directory with the terminal command). That's the power of leveraging your voice . But you don't need to have your own radio show, just deploy some of the technique that we described in "The Ultimate Consumerist Guide to Fighting Back" or in our interview with Ron Burley to get real customer satisfaction.

Rush Thanks the Apple People [The Rush Limbaugh Show]

polls - Take Our Poll

Google is like the elephant that never forgets... and it knows all of your personal information. Do you trust it not to be "evil?" Or is Google just a nice name for "Big Brother?"

Sony is a member of former Worst Company in America winner, the RIAA. When its not fake blogging, it can be found installing a rootkit on your computer and finding lots of ways to void your warranty.

This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2008 series. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america/

STILL OPEN FOR VOTING: Ticketmaster vs Wachovia, Facebook vs The American Arbitration Association, Comcast vs Menu Foods
(Photo:Jeff Sanquist)

Allen Harkleroad of GMP Services writes, "A warning to all Sprint corporate customers that have dedicated access (T1's, etc.) if you are out of contract Sprint may be gouging you and claiming outrageously high local loop charges as the cause."

Harkleroad was told four times by Sprint reps that they had to pay over $950 per line in local loop costs—but it turns out local company Frontier Communications says they only get around $250 per connection from Sprint. So where does that other $700 go? Probably to help pay for that dead weight called Nextel. If you're a Sprint business customer you should know that you're possibly being gouged—and, if you were told the same thing as Harkleroad, lied to about the reason.

Harkleroad claims the amount he was overcharged comes up to $38,000 over two years, but we can't come up with that amount using our advanced math skills: 2 lines per month with overcharges of $700 for each one is $1400 per month, times 24 months is $33,600. It's still a huge amount, especially for a small company.

After he posted his story online, Harkleroad was contacted by Sprint over the weekend:

Update March 16, 2008 12:42pm. I got a call yesterday (Saturday 3/15) from Linda Moreno of Sprint's Executive and Regulatory Services. We had a pleasant and informative chat and was advised that she/they would get to the bottom of the issue. I agreed to give her and Sprint till Wednesday (March 19th) to resolve the issue to my satisfaction.

We're interested to see what Sprint comes up with in the next 72 hours...

(Thanks to Owen!)

"Screwed by Sprint to the tune of $38,000.00 " [DesignerToday]
(Photo: Getty)

Filed under: Household

Apparently, traditional powerstrips are in dire need of an overhaul, as the Eject Powerstrip is just one of many replacement concepts we've seen float by in the past several months. Nevertheless, this brilliantly engineered design essentially allows users to eject plugs leading to devices not currently in use in order to keep consumption of "vampire power" to a minimum. Additionally, any ejected socket is automatically turned off in order to keep your meddling youngsters safe from electrocution. Now, if only we weren't so ashamed about leaving our current strips out in the open, we'd really be infatuated with this idea.

[Via GizmoWatch]

 

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