Oh The Joys of Gotchas

Sometimes I wonder about people.

Are they largely just incredibly stupid, or largely evil, or both?

Other times I figure it’s just the interaction of some amount of evil with some amount of stupid that amplifies both.

Then there are the days when, despite knowing better, I supply the “stupid”.

Today was such a day.

Having gotten tired of the flaky internet in the hotels, and thinking that living at StarBucks was not a long term solution, I decided to get a “WiFi Hotspot”. Did some general research that showed the Telco’s wanted a very long term contract, lots of $$$/unit of use, and one good file download could blow through the monthly allotment, I was not fond of them. The “also ran” folks had better deals, with more data and often no contracts. So I’d decided on “one of them”.

I’d not quite done all my “due diligence”.

On the way back from getting new tires (another story, below…) I stopped at a Metro PCS store. I’ve used their phones before, and while coverage is lousy out in the woods, it’s usually fine in metropolitan areas. I’d figured their data product would likely suit my needs. Usually unlimited services on the phones for a fixed rate / month. Turns out you must have one of their phones to have a “hot spot” as they use the phone AS the hot spot. OK, Next…

Verizon wanted $50/month for a couple of GB. More money to flow as soon as you wanted to do more…

So I saw this sign. “Unlimited 4G”. $50/month for fast, $35/month for “fast enough” (6 Gb/sec and 1.5 Gb/sec IIRC). Sounded good. The sales girl was cute and having a bit of difficulty with English for the complicated bits. I swapped to Spanish. I asked “Does this work all the way from Kissimmee to Disney?” and was assured it did. (As I’m haunting hotels from one end of Highway 192 to the other, and up toward Sea World, that would define my area of concern. Assured it did, I decided NOT to do my usual “Dig Here” on things like coverage area and “terms” and actually read the contract. About $115 later I’m out the door with the “hot spot” gizmo and the first month $50 service.

Back at the hotel, I find it has no coverage.

Now, back at Starbucks, I’m looking at a “coverage map” that runs out 1/2 along hwy 192. I did a ‘war drive’ with the gizmo connected. It fades out at Mile Marker 10 or so, just BEFORE the hotels I like most. Sigh.

Shoulda woulda coulda… I’d not done “my usual” of “verify it ALL before buying”. Used a debit card, not credit card, so no recourse to “disputed payment”, and AS I walked out the door, saw a very small B&W sign informing that “all sales of {this device and service} were non-refundable”…

So “what to do”. Suck it up and let the $100 lesson reinforce my “usual behaviour”? Take it back for a refund anyway and at least give them a bad day out of it? (What good is that, as they were “nice but dumb” folks… can giving them grief make them less dumb?) Sigh.

They did say “store credit only”, so I might try a ‘swap for Metro PCS” just to test it out.

Or not.

OK, so I pull over next to a hotel I don’t like (Grand Palms Orlando – who not only do bait and switch on prices but want a $5 added fee for either credit card OR debit card…) where I’m about at the limit of coverage and decide to at least test the device. Click “google.com” and up comes the “redirect to the provider site to accept terms and conditions” (not available in the store…) Turns out one of the terms and conditions is a waiver of your “no call list” rights so if you put your phone on the ‘do not solicit’ list they are exempted. Another is an explicit statement that they can SPAM call your phone (even cell phones, and explicitly at your cost) even with explicitly listed Robo-Callers, and try to sell / shove stuff down your thoat. As I’m not “into that”, I’m glad I gave them the “valid but never answered” number (land line).

So I’m definitely not signing up for their stuff, and I’m likely going to try returning it. OTOH, I’d rather be getting other things done on the weekend… So “tomorrow”, I’ll be headed back to the store in the Hispanic part of Kissimmee and seeing what happens. Maybe.

Who are these folks? The seller is a ‘no-name’ phone shop in a mall. Don’t remember the name. Maybe on a receipt somewhere. If I see it I’ll add it. The “service” is “Clear” at:

http://www.clear.com/

Where I looked up a coverage map at:

http://www.clear.com/coverage

It looks like this right now:

Clear not covering near Celebration and Disney

Notice that all the tower symbols are to the right in the green, not near I-4 that runs near all the major employers nor along 192 near all the hotel row? Basically useless for anyone wanting to be near either of those two major corridors or in the parks. (As the spouse is coming out to visit and loves Disney, I’d hoped to have a way to connect while waiting for her to finish spending all my money ;-)

Oh Well.

So if anyone else is thinking of buying this stuff, for that use, at least “now you know”…

Tires

The “flip side” of that experience was with “Discount Tire” in Orlando and Kissimmee. Stellar service, good prices, and remarkable speed. My only one complaint is minor (trivial, really, and won’t apply to 99%+ of folks. Wanted 5, they stock in 4).

I ‘swapped rims’ before heading to Florida and put on some nice H Rated (130 MPH) Sumitomo tires that I love. Sadly, these tires were about 7 years old and nearing ‘end of service’. I figured they would get me here, but not back. They did. The fronts were starting to be a bit smooth on the outside edge. (The SLC does that as it lets you turn very fast, but at the cost of some outer edge wear to make it happen. As I like turning fast, I’m “good with that” ;-) The rear tires measured out at 2/32 (yes, inches. I’m comfortable with that and been using it for my whole life. It works FINE.) At 2/32 things are a bit marginal in the wet (though the Sumitomo tires have a silica tread compound that is hydrophylic and stays stuck to the road when wet rather nicely… but no longer made in my size…)

So I went looking for tires.

Now the old Mercedes (and some others like old BMW and old Ferrari IIRC) have 14 inch rims. Not used by anything “modern”, tire makers have started to discontinue high speed tires in 14 inch. They still make cheap tires in S rated (112 mph) but no H. As the SLC can blow through 100 MPH pretty easy when passing someone (in Texas some speed limits are 80 mph, and doing 90 mph usually doesn’t get a ticket, so we’re starting to look at ’20 mph more than cruise’ and that’s easy to do do… Now add in “110 (F) in the shade and there ain’t no shade” and the heat load can start to be an issue. Having melted tires before, I’m not fond of the experience.

The only H rates I could find were some Nankang from Sears for $90 (and likely ‘special order’) and some very expensive ones from Coker who specialize in antique fitments…

A nice Vredestein classic pattern at “only” $275 / tire with “limited stock”… I’ve had Vredestein tires before. First hydrophylic tire I ever had. On my old Honda, I swear they held the winding mountain roads better when wet than when dry. Just loved them. But not at over a $Kilobuck for a set of tires. The alternative Michelin XWX is running at $440 a tire. Gulp.

Yes, both of those tires are “V” speed rated, so 240 km/hr or 149 mph. Sigh. Love to have a set, but not when it takes a whole paycheck, for them from Coker. (The Vredesteins were about a $90 from the OEM last they had them.)

So I compromise. I’ve had the Nankangs. An OK tire. A bit heavy and stiff, but workable. Decent tread life, but not a stellar ride nor does it ‘age well’. When the son was heading to Chicago, I did a ‘tread check’ but not a ‘years check’ (as they put the date code on the INSIDE where it’s hard to read). He had 2 X old Nankangs on the rear. About 1/2 way from Salt Lake City to Denver one of them started throwing chunks of tread. IIRC, they were about 10 years old. I drove out here on a 10 year old Goodyear on one corner (with a ‘worn shoulder Sumitomo in the spare’) just to use it up some before tossing it, but it was still supple. I’ve also driven around on 12 year old Michelins (could not get the damn things to wear out ;-) and the “standard” is that a tire that’s over 10 years date code is not to be sold, which implies it ought to work a while after sale… (some places set that to 5 years for sale, figuring you can wear out cheap tires in 5 years…)

The point? IF these tires are on this car for the next 10 years (easily possible as I swap between cars) I’d rather have something softer that ‘ages well’. I’d also rather have silica tread compound and / or better wet traction. I’d managed to slide the Nankangs once or twice with hard braking in rain.

So I compromised and went with “only” T rated tires. 118 mph. Yeah, only 6 mph more than S, but that matters. Pushing 120 is unlikely to happen without noticing it. Now, one tiny little problem… THIS year of cars had the Idiots In Washington mandating no speedometer read over 85 MPH. After that, you get to guess. OK, some folks sued, and won, when they flipped cars or got broken / killed having no idea what speed they were going, and that was overturned by the courts as A Very Bad Idea. But this car is original. So over 85 MPH, “I’m guessing here”. (I prorate the tach… but it’s an automatic transmission so some slip might be involved…) My “best guess” is that it starts being slow to increase speed about 110, and tops out about 125 or so. Or maybe 130 with the wind at your back. Thus the H rated. So I’ve only “gone there” once or twice to see what to expect and calibrate my senses to the car. I’m pretty sure I know when it’s ‘near 120’. Slow rate of increase, a tiny bit ‘floaty’ in the front starting to happen (or maybe just more sensitive to the wind gusts that were happening then…). Basically, something I’m likely to notice. Even passing someone in Texas in the middle of nowhere and starting from 90 MPH. A 28 MPH “gain” is not going to sneak up on me. I think it is ‘close enough’.

Turns out some stores here will not install a T rated if the car is placarded H rated (in the EU I think that’s a mandate). But some will ‘down rate’ one step. BJ’s (a big box discounter) will not sell me tires, and only had S and T rated. Discount Tire would sell me T rated. Checking with the son, the Kumho’s listed were good in wet traction (Solus KR21). He had a set on the BMW and liked them. Nuff said, I bought a set of 4.

I showed up unannounced, bought a set of 4, and they put two guys to work installing them. About 1/2 hour, all told, I was back on the street on new tires. Smooth ride, great traction, stick in the wet. I’m loving these tires. AND, they were on sale for $48 each. All up, it was about $282? or so out the door. My only complaint is that the shop only had 4. So then I drove to another store and got the spare done too! ;-) As I have a full sized spare, any ‘road hazard’ doesn’t break the set, I just put the flat in the boot and keep on going. So I didn’t buy road hazard coverage.

I’m extremely happy with these tires, with all of 2 days driving on them (and maybe 100 miles?). Freeway, city streets, dry, wet. They don’t make much noise, and don’t squeak hardly at all in hard turns / breaking. Have only barely got them to slip a bit in the wet on hard acceleration on a paint stripe. Nice sticky tires.

So basically for the price of ONE Vredestein or about 2/3 of a Michelin from Coker, I’ve got a whole set of tires. And the guys doing the work were incredibly fast, professional, and friendly. Very impressive. ( I used the two stores along John Young Parkway – near Osceola parkway for one and near Sand Lake for the other. BOTH shops impressed.)

Yeah, I can’t floor it on the interstate and sit at full throttle for an hour. Can’t do that anyway as the police frown on it. ;-) Also ought not to go through Death Valley when it’s 130 F at 120 MPH. But they frown on that, too. (Doing it at 75 to 80 mph in a fully loaded Honda station wagon about 18 years ago managed to raise ‘goose egg’ separations in a set of Pirelli tires that had 44,000 miles on them… high speed in Death Valley heat is hard on tires ;-) That’s when I bought a new set of Toyo tires (about 1000 miles later when we figured out why the ride was getting increasingly crappy… in Oregon) that I also loved.

OK, so my “complaint” here is just the “gotcha” of tire companies deciding to stop making sizes and speeds that are still in use and laws / companies thinking you ought to throw away a fine old car because the tires are worn out. I’ve made this complaint before, but it is worth repeating.

Well, at this point, I’m likely set for the next decade or so. IF I’m still driving around at 70+ years old, and in the SLC, I’ll order a set of 15 inch rims and tires then. ( Tire Rack had them at about $200 / tire-wheel set or $800 for the 4, or $1000 for the whole car of 5. Somehow $350 total sounded better than $1000 total…) At that point, the SLC will either be shot, or a fully restored classic where spending a KiloBuck for tires or tires and wheels is “reasonable”… (We usually put about 4,000 to 5,000 miles a year on the SLC in a heavy use year when the other cars are available, so whenever ‘the fleet’ is here, the usage will drop. It’s about 8 to 10 years to use up a set of tires on it, given my usage.)

So all in all, I’m very happy with the tires, with Discount Tire, and with the results (though wish they would stock more than a set of 4 for old cars that take 5…) and not fond at all of the tire companies that think old cars can’t need fast tires, or the sellers who think I ought to throw away a Mercedes if I can’t get tires rated for 130 MPH when that’s 50 mph over the fastest speed limit I’ve seen anywhere in the country. A complicated “gotcha” as it is the interaction of three parties: tire makers, sellers, and the legal process.

End Notes

I also have a ‘lead’ on a nice studio apartment for less than the cheap hotel. So, with any luck, I’ll have more stable housing in the next week or two. Then I just need to get a ‘hot spot’ that works… or drink a LOT of coffee ;-)

One brick at a time, building up a more stabilized and comfortable (and wifi functional) life pattern.

Subscribe to feed