Jane's Place

Sleazy tactics by Comfort Inn

2011-04-03T16:12:00.000-07:00

Hey folks - Wanted to warn you to read your hotel bill if you stay at any Choice Hotels. Here's what happened to my husband and me when we stayed at a Comfort Inn in Medford, Oregon.

When my husband signed in for a room for the night, he was asked to initial a place on the form to "acknowledge that there is a safe in the room with a limited warranty." He assumed this was the Comfort Inn saying it was not responsible for stolen items and to use the safe if we were concerned about our items being stolen.

We did not use the safe.

The next day when we went to check out, we got the bill and there was a charge of $1.50 for "Safe w/ ltd warranty." I asked the front desk what this charge was about and was told that customers are automatically charged this $1.50 for the safe. If customers do not use the safe, they must tell the desk the next day to have the charge removed.

She said Choice Hotels requires hotels in its chain to automatically charge all customers for the safe and make it the customer's responsibility to have the charge removed the next day if they do not use the safe.

This obviously is a scheme by the hotel chain to increase their revenues by adding a small charge to bills, knowing that a huge number of people do not closely read their hotel bills. My husband had no idea based on initialing the form the night before that he would be charged for the safe. A charge was never discussed.

Other Choice Hotels besides Comfort are Quality, Rodeway Inns, Sleep Inns and Clarion.

Read your bills!

Birding Software

2010-09-23T20:02:00.000-07:00

Here's a chart showing birdwatching software (U.S.) for cell phones, desktop and the Web, some of it free.

http://birdingwashington.info/software/

Run-flat tires

2010-07-18T13:18:00.000-07:00

There are serious downsides to run-flat tires. Let's get the pluses out of the way first.

One plus is that if you have a flat, you can continue to drive on the tire for ~50 miles and, thus, might be able to get to a safe and convenient place to have the tire changed. That means, of course, that you aren't stuck in the dark or in bad weather on the side of the road having to do the dirty work of changing a tire.

Another plus is that you do not need to sacrifice the space to store a spare tire. In my van, that means that there is enough room for a transmission so that I can have four-wheel drive and there is also room to store the rear seats when they fold down so that the cargo area goes totally flat. This is wonderful. I love the all-wheel drive and I love the spacious, all-flat cargo area.

OK, here are the negatives.

I have a 2005 Toyota Sienna minivan. I now have close to 48,000 miles on the van and I have already gone through two sets of tires. That means that I am getting about 24,000 miles on a set of tires. (In truth, I got 32,000 miles on the first set and 15,000 miles on the second set.)

Why did I get only 15,000 miles on the second set? One of the tires apparently got a nail or screw in it at some point early on and leaked air. We were traveling in another state and I went to a Toyota dealer who refused to work on it, saying he didn't have the equipment or training. He referred me to a local tire dealer, who repaired it for $20. The official word is that you cannot repair run-flat tires, but this tire dealer did so. After the repair, the tire still leaked, but at a much slower rate. When I got back home, I took the car to the Toyota dealer who originally had put the tires on and they claimed there was nothing they could do. I continued to drive on the tires and just filled the leaking tire with air every week or two. Finally, the tire blew after I'd put about 15,000 miles on this set of tires.

My husband was driving the car and was about 80 miles from home at the time. He turned around to drive back home and got to within about 25 miles when the tire shredded to the point where he could no longer drive. He had to be towed to the nearest Toyota dealer, who told him that he must replace all four tires, because there cannot be more than a 2/32nd-inch disparity in the tread between any of the tires. Installing just one new tire would violate that rule, so all four must be replaced. Run-flats are more expensive than regular tires.

Total bill for the towing ($175) and the four new tires installed was ~$1400.

Soooo, $1400 for 15,000 miles on the tires. Not good.

Cons of run-flat tires:

1) You are advised not to repair run-flat tires, even though it appears that you can repair them. A repair probably reduces the life of the tire.

2) It is difficult to find places that will agree to work on run-flat tires. Many places, even car dealers, simply wash their hands of run-flats.

3) If a single run-flat tire has a problem, you likely will have to replace all four tires, oftentimes even if the other three tires are in good condition.

4) Run-flat tires are significantly more expensive than regular tires.

I would implore the automotive and tire industries to come up with a better solution than the current generation of run-flat tires. The current state of affairs is simply unacceptable.

When I bought my Sienna minivan new in 2005, the dealer never uttered a peep about "run-flat" tires. I had no idea that the van had run-flat tires and I had no idea what run-flat tires were. When I found out, I was not pleased. I will think twice when I go to make my next car purchase.

New Web site for birders

2010-04-22T11:30:00.000-07:00

My husband Randy Robinson just created a new Web site for people who want to visit Washington State to find birds. This steers birders to information about where to go to find birds, which birds will be found, where to stay, etc.

http://birdingwashington.info

2009-06-09T10:34:00.000-07:00

OK, I've finished my review of the System76 Starling Netbook. You can find it at: http://tinyurl.com/lkexet

Feel free to return to this site to comment.

New System76 Starling netbook

2009-06-05T12:05:00.000-07:00

I recently bought a new System76 Starling netbook and will post a review soon.

2008-02-06T17:07:00.000-08:00

Today I was shopping on the Internet for a Valentine's gift for a friend and also to find lodging in New Zealand for our upcoming trip. I found myself to be very frustrated and thought I might make some suggestions to people or organizations who are trying to sell something online or attract customers.

1. DO NOT require your customers to fill in a bunch of information such as name, address, credit card number, recipient address, etc. before showing them the final price of the item they are attempting to purchase.

How do I know whether I want to buy it if I do not know the final price I will have to pay? And if I decide I don't want to buy it, then why would I want to waste my time filling in all of these forms? Perhaps you feel you want to trap me into investing so much time that I will buy in spite of additional fees that might be added on to the price at the end, but you won't. You will just anger me and make me abandon your site before filling in the forms.

2. If you have a Web site for your B&B or your motel or hotel, please give the visitor complete information so that they can make a decision as to whether they are interested.

Give the prices for the rooms and describe the rooms clearly.

For example, tell us whether the room has a private bathroom or whether we will have to go across the hall to the bathroom or whether we will be sharing the bathroom with others -- and, if so, how many others? Tell us what is in the private bathroom -- a shower or a tub or both?

If you say something is a studio or a suite, please explain what you mean by this. I can't tell you the number of sites I've visited where I have not been able to figure out what the room will be like, how many it will accommodate, and in what kind of beds, with how many rooms, etc.

Here's an example of an adequate description:

Queen studio. $120 per night, including all taxes and fees. Accommodates two. A medium-sized room with a single queen bed, a desk, easy chair, a private bathroom with shower, toilet and sink, free television with 50+ cable channels, a telephone, free high-speed wireless Internet connection, small refrigerator. No view.