Britax Frontier Booster Car Seat

When MetaGirl was on the way, we decided to reserve MetaBoy's car seat for her and upgrade him to a new one. After much research and help from a little birdie with much experience on the topic, we chose the Britax Frontier Booster Car Seat.

• Britax is a great brand that seems to consistently work on improving the safety of their car seats. We trust the brand.
  
  
• The seat has a five-point harness seat and can be used until he's 80 pounds, or up to 100 pounds as a booster seat.
  
  
• MetaBoy can easily climb into and out of the chair, which was impossible in his old car seat (Britax Decathlon Convertible Car Seat).
  
  
• It's so much easier to buckle than the Decathlon. I wish we had gotten it so much sooner.
  
  
• It has cup holders, though he doesn't use them. They seem to be a bit awkward at his age, though he might appreciate them when he's older.
  
  
• On the down side, I've read some people's comments that the seat is quite hard to install. MetaDaddy installed it and said it wasn't too hard at all. Maybe he just knew the trick, engineer that he is. Me? Well, there's a reason I didn't install it. And there's a reason that when the printer stops working, my reaction is "help, help, help!!"

Overall, we're quite happy with the seat. We currently have both seats in my car, which means that if we're each taking a kid, only MetaDaddy or I can go out. We've decided to get a second seat for MetaBoy to put in MetaDaddy's car. It's important to me because if he and MetaBoy go out, for example, I'd like to know that MetaGirl and I can go out too in the event of an emergency (e.g., we're out of chocolate). Besides, some day she can move into that seat, so it's a preemptive purchase.

On that note, I saw that BabyCenter has a sale on Britax car seats. I was going to buy it there, but at MetaDaddy's suggestion I decided to check Amazon's prices. It turns out that they have the same discount. And while my experience in purchasing and returning items with BabyCenter has been pleasant, as Amazon Prime members, we get free two-day shipping via UPS. BabyCenter ships via FedEx Ground, which is terrible when it comes to home deliveries and customer service (not to mention this). I avoid them at all costs.

If I had the wherewithal, I'd consider buying from Hip Monkey. They have a price match guarantee (they say to email them a link to the lower price and they'll match it), free shipping, no sales tax, and 100% of the net proceeds go to The Kyle David Miller Foundation to help purchase car seats for children in need.

Avoiding Unwanted Calls and Catalogs

Things that annoy me: junk calls and junk mail.

Two things to consider so as to avoid unnecessary excess in your life.

First, the national Do Not Call registry started about 5 years ago to help consumers get off of telemarketer's lists. However, it's not a permanent solution. If you signed up when the program started, your registration might expire soon. To find out, go to the Do Not Call registry to confirm if and when you registered, and consider re-registering to avoid those *pleasant* dinner-time calls starting "Can I speak to the head of your household?"

On a similar note, Green Girl in LA, who now writes for the L.A. Times blog Emerald City, brought catalog relief to my attention. I hate all of the unwanted catalogs I get in the mail. I always mean to call companies and ask them to take me off of their mailing lists, but it doesn't always happen. When I do, it's a chore. Name, zip code, address (exactly as it appears), source code, customer code, blah, blah, blah. They're usually pretty nice about it, as am I, and they tell me I might get a few more catalogs since...whatever. It's all automated. They should be able to update things sooner than a few months.

Given the chore it can be to call some of these catalog companies, some of which have silly hours (e.g., 5PM EST), the online alternative is tempting. You have to give Catalog Choice your information (e.g., name, address, etc.), but they claim they'll remove your name from the mailing list of the company in question. I suspect the information has to be exact since that's the feeling I get whenever I've called, but the website doesn't suggest precision. Though I hate to give out my personal information, I tried it. We'll see what happens.

Lower Customer Service Standards

Have you felt like the customer services at your favorite corporate stores and such is lacking recently? Perhaps your favorite airline -- the one where you have all of your airmiles -- isn't going the distance for you continued service?

Marketplace's segment on Customer Relationship Management, or CRM, breaks down the new buzz word with companies looking to increase their bottom line. Instead of rewarding loyal customers with excellent service, they now work extra hard to troubleshoot customer service. That is, if they've treated you badly historically and suspect that one more incident might send your business elsewhere, then they ramp up the smiles and deals to keep you from writing them off for good.

The article's example:

"If I've already had two flights canceled in the past six months, the airline might predict that any further mistreatment might cause me to take my business elsewhere. In fact, having tons of frequent-flier points might even hurt your chances, because airlines don't have to worry as much about giving inferior service to loyal flyers who will tolerate just about anything to earn more miles."

The problem, as Ian Ayres points out, is that companies aren't using data to keep you happy, they're using it to keep you from leaving. It's just another sad truth about our society today. Everything and everyone is so disconnected that we really don't see each other as people, but numbers. It's nice to go into a little mom and pop shop and get advice, a smile, and a wooden toy. It might cost a little more money than the big box stores, but keeping places like these in business is what will keep that balance in our daily lives.

AT&T Goes Anti-Green

Just a reminder of the mindless actions taken by corporations and the recent power of the consumer.

The NY Times reported on a blogger who posted a video of her 300 page AT&T bill for her fabulous new iPhone. Most of the line items in the weighty bills she and her iPhone toting compatriots were for text and internet data transfers, all of which were at a charge of zero. So the bills wasted ridiculous amounts of paper and fuel for transportation. How did no one at AT&T figure this out before the ginormous shipping bill was generated?

To this, I say Grr.

Thankfully, customers complained and AT&T responded:

"Apple iPhones around the country were displaying this text message: 'We are simplifying your paper bill, removing itemized detail. To view all detail go to att.com/mywireless. Still need full paper bill? Call 611.'"

Rite Aid's Awful Customer Service

We used to have our prescriptions filled at Rite Aid because it's close, open late, and parking isn't a problem. However, it wasn't cheap, the customer service was terrible, and prescriptions were never ready in a timely manner.

When I was pregnant, I needed a prescription filled, and a friend was going to pick it up for me. My doctor called it in, and I called Rite Aid to confirm. They seemed busy, but gave me a time frame. I did a follow up call, and it wasn't ready. I called again, and it wasn't ready. I kept getting the brush-off and they stopped answering my calls at one point. Finally, someone answered and I really started to lay into her. It was hours later and my doctor's office would be closing soon. The person I was on the phone with said she'd get it done and call me back within 30 minutes. She didn't. I called my doctor's office and asked her to call the prescription in to another pharmacy. This new place, Horton & Converse, was so much better. Despite having never been there, they were able to accept my insurance information over the phone, fill my prescription, and allow my friend to pick it up without any trouble. They're only open 9-6:30 during the week and until 1 on Saturday, but unless we have an off-hours emergency, I don't foresee ever using Rite-Aid, Walgreens, or any other large corporate store again. I later called Rite Aid to leave a complaint, but I never heard back. I have no doubt that they just don't care about one lowly customer.

So at Rite Aid, I experienced years of:

Bad customer service
Long waits
Understaffed pharmacy
Large, carless corporations

Why did I tolerate this for so long? I hate knowing that I just put up with it because the hours seemed convenient, but in all honesty, I seldom needed a prescription filled late. In my attempt to patronize smaller stores, I've found such better attention and customer service. Prices can be higher, though not necessarily. And at the end of the day, patronizing small stores assures they'll be around when you realize you just don't want to be ignored by the Rite Aids of the world.

If You're a Business User...You May Not Like Apple Right Now

And no, I'm not obsessed with this new iGadget that happens to be a phone this time around. Well, maybe a little.

Turns out that there's a catch for business users, per CNN Money.

"Apparently, if you ever had a corporate discount on your account or if you were ported from Cingular to AT&T after the merger, your account ends up with a "business code" on it. After spending another 30 minutes on the phone with AT&T and Apple - and sending a nasty note to Apple tech support - you get a courtesy response: "We realize that this is not a business phone and are working diligently to fix the known problem." Which apparently takes a full 24 to 72 hours to fix.

"Upon reading the fine print further and wading through some legalese, it turns out that if you are a CRU (Corporate Responsibility User - someone who uses their phone primarily for business and a company pays for it) or a SLB (Split Liability Billing User - someone whose employer is responsible for part, but not all of the wireless bill) you have roughly 3 options:

1. Sign up for a new "consumer line" phone and get a completely new phone number (Now, correct me if I am wrong here, but doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of the iPhone?)

2. Activate the phone and then associate it with your company, but lose any discount you might usually get.

3. Return the darn thing."

So, if you fall into any of those categories and you bought an iPhone, you're probably more annoyed than enamored with your new toy right now. On the bright side, it comes in a pretty box, no?

American Airlines Changes the Rules

My husband and I love to travel. Over the years, we've been pretty faithful to American Airlines, and we've accrued a good few miles by:
-always trying to fly AA or a carrier in the One World Alliance
-having an AA miles credit card
-using it for business travel (my husbands employers preferred carrier)

However, some recent changes have changed our mile accrual pattern:
-since having a child we don't travel as much as we used to
-we changed credit cards because research on the benefits of credit cards that accrue miles reflected a loss of benefits over the past few years. We got a Starwood card instead which offers us more options on spending our accrued points.
-my husband's employer recently changed preferred carriers

As a result of these 3 changes, we haven't used our account much lately. And while the points used to expire after 3 years, they now expire after 18 months. This does not improve our image of the airline industry. We still fly a few times a year, and that will only increase again as our son gets older, but I can't say we'll be very faithful to AA any more. The cost of cutbacks, I suppose.