A Second Use For Laundry Baskets

Ever have to cart a load of grocery bags into the house and you don't want to have those plastic bags dig into your fingers?
Ever have your groceries boogie around the floor of your car on the trip between the store and home?
The solution: take an empty laundry basket with you and leave it in the car. You can likely load up six bags of groceries in a single basket. They won't migrate while you drive. When you carry the groceries into the house, you can use your hip as spare hand to steady the laundry basket.

Tags: groceries laundry labour saving
Categories: Household

How To Get A Refund For A Defective Game or DVD

This idea comes from this website: Confessions of an IT Hit Man

In short here's the process:

• Get a game or DVD. If it's defective return it.
• They won't let you do a refund on an opened product. They will let you do an exchange for the same copy of what your purchased.
• When you have your unopened copy and your receipt, then do the refund. It's not opened, so you should be able fight your way to a refund by citing their own rules.

Tags: retail sales customer service
Categories: Retail

Business Revenge: The Super Sale

People love sales. People love those crazy 1-cent sales. What if you have a business that despise? What if you could punish by giving them business?
You could go to some crappy neighbourhood and pamphlet it with flyers: $1 haircuts; $5 blue jeans; first fifty people get free video rentals-- you name it. Remember: poor people are both budget conscious and scrappy. You tell that something is free and they'll be there. Tell them they can't have it and there will be hell to pay. When they show and find out there's no sale, they'll be pissed. And, they'll be pissed at the shop they're standing in.

Tags: business sales customer service
Categories: Business Revenge

You Deserve A T-Shirt Today

Go to your favorite secondhand store and cruise for employee secondhand golf shirts. You've seen the poor schmucks who wear those. Eventually they quit and toss their shirts into a giveaway bin. Gather a bunch of shirts of one type, then organize a public demonstration of "affection" for your target business. Think about how people would feel if the fast food staff of a restaurant were chowing down on their product then started to roll around in agony. Not a ringing endorsement.

A troupe of people did something like this at Best Buy to great effect


Tags: jokes customer service
Categories: Practical Jokes Culture Jamming

Blame The New Guy

Primo coupons are out there, but the better they are, the harder they are to cash in. Take for instance these great coupons we got for $3 off at the movie concession stand. They were valid Sunday to Thurday. What do you do on a Friday when you want to use these coupons? Look for the new guy.
The new guy is confused. He doesn't have any extra swag (like the little pins the theatres give their staff when they don't sneeze in the food). He's pushing a broom or trying to figure out where the 4'x4'x4' popcorn machine is. He's dumb. Newbie break into one of two subsets: the dim and hesitant. The hesitant are no good. They will ask someone who knows what's going on and you'll be busted. The dim will see $3 off and accept your coupon as cash.
It's about time we starting using idiots to our benefit.

Tags: coupons customer service
Categories: Theatres

Movie Popcorn

Ever want butter on your popcorn? Theatres now charge extra for that. How do you get extra butter for same amount? Ask for it in the middle. The concession drones always put butter on the top. If you ask for it in the middle, they will put it in the middle and on the top.

Tags: movie popcorn
Categories: Theatres

Sony BMG class action settlement

Did you buy a BMG/Sony CD then put it into your computer to play it? If so, Sony gave you a bonus. A bonus so profound they didn't even mention it. They installed a rootkit on your computer to counter copying. If they make you angry, join the class action settlement vs. BMG. The settlement isn't worth much, but it's worth more than nothing.

Sign up here:
https://secureweb.rustconsulting.com/sonybmgcdtechsettlement/Claim.aspx

If you bought one of these CDs:

Artist	Title	UPC
40 Below Summer	The Mourning After	79301828982
A Static Lullaby	Faso Latido	827969277225 or D161263
Acceptance	Phantoms	696998901629 or D161429
Alicia Keys	Unplugged	82876674242 or 82876731662 or D165215
Amerie	Touch	827969076323 or D161365
Amici Forever	Defined	82876688832 or D161495
Angie Stone	Stone Love	82876562152 or D153051
Anthoney Hamilton	Coming From Where I'm From	82876521072 or D150669
Art Blakey	Drum Suit	827969363720 or D162083
Babyface	Grown & Sexy	82876705682 or D162090
Backstreet Boys	Never Gone	82876696112 or D165187
Backstreet Boys	Never Gone (Target)	82876705342
Backstreet Boys	Never Gone (Walmart)	82876702442
The Bad Plus	Suspicious Activity?	827969474020
Bette Midler	Sings the Peggy Lee Songbook	827969510728 or 828767481524
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club	Howl	8287671601 or D162369
Bob Brookmeyer	Bob Brookmeyer & Friends	827969429228 or D162087
Britney Spears	Hitme - Remix	82876740622
Buddy Jewell	Times Like These	827969287323 or D161532
Burt Bacharach	At This Time	827969773420
Cassidy	I'm A Hustla	82876687072 or 82876680732
Celine Dion	On Ne Change Pas	827969773628
Charlie Wilson	Charlie, Last Name Wilson	82876694292 or D162168
Charlotte Martin	On Your Shore	82876606762
Chayanne	Cautivo	037629681921 or 37629681822 or 37629588626
The Chieftains	Live From Dublin	82876671372 or D160913
Chris Botti	To Love Again	827969482322
Chris Brown	Chris Brown	82876733222
Citizen Cope	Clarance Greenwood Recordings	82876521142 or D154185
Clay Aiken	Merry Christmas	82876626222 or D161935
Cook, Dixon & Young	Volume One	82876673342 or D162089
The Coral	The Invisible Invasion	827969474723
Cyndi Lauper	The Body Acoustic	827969456927
Dave Matthews Band	Stand Up	82876687962 or D165167
David Gray	Life In Slow Motion	82876710682 or D165217
The Dead 60's	The Dead 60's	827969445327
Deniece Williams	This Is Niecy	827969381427
Dextor Gordon	Manhattan Symphonie	827969358122 or D162084
Dido	Dido Live	82876658099
Dido	"White Flag" W/Enhanced Features (Maxi Single)	82876603552-0
Dion	The Essential Dion	827969267028 or D161439
Earl Scruggs	I Saw The Light With Some Help From My Friends	827969279328 or D162399
Elkland	Golden	827969203620 or D161431
Emma Roberts	Unfabulous And More: Emma Roberts	827969395028 or 827969768426
Faithless	Forever Faithless/ENH	82876710142 or D162102
Flatt & Scruggs	Foggy Mountain Jamboree	827969280126 or D162400
Foo Fighters	In Your Honor (Bb Version)	82876705282
Foo Fighters	In Your Honor	82876680382 or D265002
G3	Live In Tokyo	827969768525
George Jones	My Very Special Guests	827969256220 or D200250
Gerry Mulligan	Jeru	074646549827 or D162086
Horace Silver	Silver's Blue	827969385623 or D162082
Imogen Heap	Speak For Yourself	82876725322
Jane Monheit	The Season	827969772126
Jim Brickman	Grace	82876679792 or D161456
Jim Brickman	Grace (Provident Version)	82876687952
J-Kwon	Hood Hop (Edited)	82876583672
J-Kwon	Hood Hop (Ex)	82876576132 or D152470
Jon Randall	Walking Among The Living	827969208328
Judd & Maggie	Subjects	82876692492 or D161949
Kasabian	Kasabian	82876664282 or D161062
Keith Anderson	Three Chord Country	82876662942 or D161674
Kings Of Leon	Aha Shake Heartbreak	82876645442 or D160912
Leo Kottke/Mike Gordon	Sixty Six Steps	82876689092
Life Of Agony	Broken Valley	827969351529 or D161228
Maroon 5	Live	82876709742 or 82876699522 or D200606
Mary Mary	Mary Mary	000768353721 or 827969294826 or D162005
Montgomery Gentry	Something To Be Proud Of: The Best of 1999-2005	828767532424 or 827969498224
My Morning Jacket	Z	82876710672
Natasha Bedingfield	Unwritten	827969398821 or D162095
Neil Diamond	12 Songs	827969477625 or 827969781128
Nivea	Complicated	828766715620 or D161353
Nodesha	Get It While It's Hot (Maxi Single)	82876566902
Our Lady Peace	Healthy In Paranoid Times	827969477724
Patty Loveless	Dreamin' My Dreams	827969448120
Pete Seeger	The Essential Pete Seeger	827969283523 or D161441
Raheem Devaughn	The Love Experience	82876537232 or D161600
Ray Charles	Friendship	827969456422 or D161917
Rosanne Cash	Interiors	827969365526
Rosanne Cash	King's Record Shop	696998699427
Rosanne Cash	Seven Year Ache	696998699724
Sahara Hotnights	Kiss & Tell	82876626892 or D153473
Santana	All That I Am	82876597732 or D165199
Sarah McLachlan	"Fallen" W/Enhanced Features (Maxi Single)	82876601432
Sarah McLachlan	Afterglow Live	82876644942 or D260346
Sarah McLachlan	Afterglow Live	82876645432
Sarah McLachlan	Bloom (Remix Album)	82876697982 or D162345
Shel Silverstein	The Best Of Shel Silverstein	827969472224 or D162100
Shelly Fairchild	Ride	827969035528 or D161531
Silvertide	Show & Tell	82876644022
Silvertide	Show & Tell (Ex)	82876609892 or D154573
Soundtrack	Xxx: State Of The Union	82876679222 or D161437
Soundtrack	Xxx: State Of The Union	82876681092
Stellastarr*	Harmonies for the Haunted	82876688812 or D162194
Susie Suh	Susie Suh	827969244326 or D161094
Switchfoot	Nothing Is Sound	827969653425 or 827969643723 or 827969458129
Syleena Johnson	Chapter 3: The Flesh	82876610932 or D162447
Teena Marie	Robbery	827969381724
Tha' Rayne	Didn't You Know (Maxi Single)	82876566882
T-Pain	Rappa Ternt Sanga	82876734472 or 82876732002
Trey Anastasio	Shine	827969642825
Van Zant	Get Right With The Man	827969350027 or D161459
Various	So Amazing: An All Star Tribute To Luther Vandross	82876624722
Various	Songs Brown Hotel	82876714112
Various	Relaxation: A Windham Hill Collection	82876629422
Velvet Revolver	Contraband (Bb Version)	82876665102
Velvet Revolver	Contraband (Ed)	82876605242
Velvet Revolver	Contraband (Ex)	82876597942 or D153163
Vivian Green	Vivian	827969076125 or D161824
Wakefield	Which Side Are You On?	82876685072 or 82876681352 or D161648
YoungBloodZ	Everybody Know Me	82876733402 or 82876731752
Yung Wun	The Dirtest Thir(Ex)	82876607672 or D154246
Yung Wun	The Dirtiest Thirstiest	82876609492

Tags: BMG Sony CDs rootkit
Categories: Lawsuits CDs spyware

How to Make A Lawyer Very Expensive

If your opponent hires a lawyer, bury the lawyer in paper. Product every last document possible in a slow trickle. This onslaught of relevant but insignificant paperwork will make your opponent's legal bill hefty. The lawyer may not be able to discern the wheat from the chaff and miss relevant information. The sensible lawyer may tell their client to defend themselves. But then, lawyers are not always sensible.

Tags: lawyers small claims money
Categories: Law

Business Revenge: The Super Sale

People love sales. People love those crazy 1-cent sales. What if you have a business that despise? What if you could punish by giving them business?
You could go to some crappy neighbourhood and pamphlet it with flyers: $1 haircuts; $5 blue jeans; first fifty people get free video rentals-- you name it. Remember: poor people are both budget conscious and scrappy. You tell that something is free and they'll be there. Tell them they can't have it and there will be hell to pay. When they show and find out there's no sale, they'll be pissed. And, they'll be pissed at the shop they're standing in.

Tags: business sales customer service
Categories: Business Revenge

How A Lawless Town Can Have Low Crime

Springfield's Chief Wiggum once said: "We can't go around 'policing' the city." Most police have that mindset. I've heard police suggest that victims of theft do go looking for their stolen property in pawn shops as that would only make for trouble. They once told a break-in victim that they couldn't press charges because they didn't have proof that the accused committed a crime (they said this in their first conversation with the victim). When a semi truck driver ran a solid red light and nearly killed several cars full of people, the police said they couldn't do anything because they didn't see it happen. Why is this laziness so rampant? Crime rates. Police have to address reported crimes. Solved crimes are a percentage of reported crimes. If they get 10,000 reports and solve 100: they have a 1% success rate. If they get 200 reports and solve 100, they have a 50% success rate. Cases they can shun that could be hard to solve, they will stay away from. Sometimes they will give you lip service, listen to your case, and say something like "We'll get right on it." In other words, "Go away. It's a almost coffee time again."

Remedy:

• Demand to fill out a complaint. Police don't destroy their own paperwork. If you haven't put your name on a complaint and signed it, it isn't a reported crime.
• Go over their head. Complain to the government body that oversees your police (usually this is the police board). Tell your story to the media. If your crime involves (or may involve) other victims, get the name of the resistant officer and tell them that you will pass their name to all of the other victims. He won't want to go through this 5 or 10 or 20 times, so he may act on the complaint now.

Tags: police crime law
Categories: Law

How To Piss Off Fast Food Places

All of these tips work better during the lunch rush.

• Ask for sandwiches with half sauce. They will have to make it from scratch, guaranteeing it's fresh.
• Ask for fries without salt. Because they have only one chip bin, they have to toss the fries, clean the bin and make a new order sans salt.
• Get your lunch and if service is not ideal, complain to the manager. They will give you a credit for a free lunch if you mention their name and explain that it's a make up meal for bad service. There's no clear connection to the complaints and free meals, so there's no clear indication that you can do this only once per complaint.
  

Tags: fast food customer service
Categories: Fast Food Restaurants

Wheel & Deal Canadian Tire Money

Wheel and Deal Canadian Tire money. $1 in Canadian Tire coupons is worth $1 of Canadian Tire merchandise and nothing in the real world. You can go into Canadian Tire with $1000 in these stupid coupons and walk out with the goods. Decide what side of the fence you want to be on: the Canadian Tire money seller or buyer. Then, go on eBay (http://search.ebay.ca/Canadian-Tire-money). It's a win-win situation regarding of who you are. Either you get a discount money for use at Canadian Tire. Or, you get cash in exchange for coupons.

Tags: retail sales customer service
Categories: Retail

Tales of the Jumping Moose is alive!

What is this?
This is a site devoted to shortcuts through modern day life. I have a lot of tips.

Why is the Jumping Moose the mascot, the symbol of our site? Years back, a friend told me this great story that he had to relate to an insurance adjuster:

"He was driving down the road one day. A moose jumped in front of the path of his truck and totaled it."

"The moose jumped?" the insurance adjuster asked.

"Yes"

"They you're totally covered. Had the moose walked onto the road, you would be at fault. When the moose jumped it became a flying object and drivers are not responsible for impacts of flying objects that strike their vehicles."

Because that moose was airborne a second before the accident and a second after, the driver got a mulligan. Our world is full arbitrary, stupid technicalities. People who make the most of those technicalities get to slide through life. Why shouldn't you? This blog is devoted to all of life's shortcuts.