A to Z: Selling Our House (Letter L)

April 12, 2018April 12, 2018 Shirleyjdietz10 Comments

Had an “angst day” today. While researching moving and storage options online, I ate a whole pint of Brookie Dough ice cream (which I found when I cleaned out the renter’s freezer). It was good.

“Lower the Price” starts with L

I’m getting so tired of the suggestion to lower the price for my things I want to get rid of, when the price is going higher for everything I need to get. How does that happen?

Today I posted some furniture for sale on Facebook Marketplace. I really like that option for selling things – it’s like having a garage sale without a lot of uninterested people involved. I often start getting responses in minutes.

But, just like at yard sales, online swap shops are full of bargain hunters that will usually offer half or less than my advertised price. (sad face) Sometimes I go with whatever is being offered because the objective is only to get the item out the door. Anything I get is a bonus. To be honest, some of the things I’ve sold were free to me and I had no idea what they would cost if I’d bought them. I list them as free items and they go pretty fast. The frustrating times happen when I have something nice to sell, something which I had to wait to afford, and paid for dearly.

As soon as I list it, Facebook Marketplace has an option for me to lower the price! It also gives me the prices of similar listed items for comparison, which is helpful, I guess. However, it gives me the same feeling as when I trade in a vehicle and the salesman starts telling me how little my car is really worth.

The really scary price lowering is probably going to happen when we start bargaining with a prospective house buyer. Deciding what to ask in the first place has to take in account that someone will offer a lower amount, almost assuredly. It also has to take into account that we are spending somewhere around $15K just to make the houses nicer for someone else. It is a bit of a numbers game and depends so much on the market, and the individual buyer’s love for a particular place.

I want to come away from this experience with the feeling that we have been fairly rewarded for the care and attention to this beautiful property. I also want to feel that we have passed on the blessing to the next owner and been fair to them. I am praying for this to happen and am confident that it will, even if we have to lower the price.

I Fell for It

June 29, 2017June 29, 2017 Shirleyjdietz4 Comments

I did it.

You know those ads that you see all over Facebook these days – the ones where a person’s wrinkles and bags disappear in the space of minutes while they fan their face? It’s all due to the fabulous cream they dab on in minuscule amounts. I’ve watched several of these “shows” over the past few months and decided it was time to see if they were giving me the straight scoop. I have good enough skin for someone my age but there are times when I’d like to make a few things go away. I ordered some.

But I waited until I got a good deal – a free sample with the only cost being the shipping and handling. I will try anything (not really) for $5 if it’s compelling enough. And then I left the country for two weeks where I couldn’t get on the internet easily and the husband, at home, was left in charge of the mail.

“Hey, you got a box with some skin creams or something in the mail.” Along with “There are some charges on our credit card that are strange. Did you order something from Beauty Store Online?” It was hard to deal with it from the other side of the world so I made a mental note to self. Self, when you get home, make sure these charges aren’t more than postage, and figure out what the strange part is.

Today was the day. Perusing our credit card statement, I found there were actually five charges, from three different company names, with three telephone numbers. Two were around $100 and three were $5 and under. So I started called the associated phone numbers to find out what was going on. At three of the numbers the same recording was played followed by some waiting music and then a hang up. At the fourth number, I connected with a real voice, from India most likely.

Fortunately, I could understand his English pretty well. And he could understand mine well enough to find my account and verify the charges. Next, he heard me ask for the account to be closed and the charges taken off. According to script, I’m sure, he offered the following information:

They didn’t have sample sizes, and the product needed to be used for longer to see results, so of course, they sent full size product. Didn’t I want to see results?

Next, I hadn’t responded to tell them how I liked the product so they had charged me for it. But since I was only expecting a sample (as stated in the ad) they would give me a chance to buy more at 50% off.

Next, okay if I didn’t want more. They would close my account and send me email verification. I would only pay for the product received.

Next, in my case (and only my case, mind you) they would take 50% off the price, since I was so upset.

Next, by special permission they would take 75% off the price.

As I was once again, calmly, telling them to close the account and take all the charges off or I was going to file a dispute with the credit card company, the connection was lost. Actually, I was kind of surprised that I stayed connected as long as I did. Almost every call I make gets dropped at least once, thank you Verizon.

Do you ever get surprises like this? I guess I deserved it. Most of the time I ignore ads, knowing that life can get complicated pretty quickly over the internet, with credit cards, and unproven companies. Yeah, I deserved it. Thankfully, the credit card dispute person was very helpful and compassionate and I ended up with no doubt that the whole matter will be resolved to my satisfaction.

I’m a Mary Kay girl and am sticking with what works (I even sell it – shame on me for experimenting). I’m going to work on loving my wrinkles and taking good care of them. Just sayin’, buyer beware….

20170629_165735-1 — Cute containers, but the stuff smelled a little strange.

Why Does This Seem So Familiar…?

October 8, 2013October 8, 2013 ShirleyjdietzLeave a comment

The world is big and full of people with computers. The internet is a busy, complex place full of new concepts, new words, new ventures. And only by having moved my journal from pen and paper to keyboard and cyberspace, I have entered this foreign land. So why do some things seem so familiar?

Today I am going to respond to a welcome confrontation. I was asked “what do you want?” It was an invitation to express my reasons for not joining a business of sorts that I don’t know much about. Who jumps into something right away because it sounds too good to be true? Well, me, in the past. I’m ex-Amway, and although I’m not ex-MaryKay yet, what it has taught me is that I’m not sales oriented.

So after innocently moving my blog to WordPress I have begun to get a few new followers. I look at their profiles. I watch their compelling videos. I wonder why they are following and supposedly reading me? Does it seem odd that young, energetic men would spend time reading about a 60-ish woman cleaning her house? My “you are being marketed” antennae are quivering…

Affiliate marketing is a new thing on my plate that I have to learn about before I chew, and swallow. Maybe a good thing, who knows. Some people are obviously making money through it and I do know that goods and services have to be advertised. Maybe even I will be using affiliate marketing to earn part of my income in the near future.

But what I want, really, is

to produce content that makes people think about their every day life,

to describe those moments that are common to us all,

to suggest they have purpose and value.

And after I have done some of that and know I’m succeeding in what’s really important to me, maybe then I will also earn a following and an income. Maybe. It’s my way of putting the horse first, then the cart. I’m just sayin’ I want to do it right.