Art, Humor, Opinion 2 Comments »

I am in the market for a new murse. My current bag is a $30 brown canvas messenger bag that I got at Old Navy. It’s 14″ wide, 12″ tall, and 4″ thick. It has one, large main compartment taking up most of the bag’s space, a thin compartment in front, and a small pocket in back on the inside.

The bag is absolutely freaking great. I love how it looks: simple, solid colors with no logos and no visible fasteners (it’s held closed by a magnetic button under the flap). It’s comfortable as hell to wear, and the canvas doesn’t make any noise, so I can walk quietly with it, something that I just like to be able to do for some reason and that I can’t do with a nylon bag.

I have two problems with this bag, though:

1) Having only a big pocket, a little pocket, and a littler zippered pocket makes it really hard to keep things organized. I can use my books to brace smaller items in the main compartment to keep that section in order, but the other pockets usually end up getting jumbled around during the day.

2) I love the canvas, but I wish the bag could hold its shape on its own so I wouldn’t have to carry the big organizer folder in it to keep it stretched out. The softness of the material also sometimes lets objects in the back pocket jab me in the back. I’d simply not use that back pocket, but then I wouldn’t have room for all of my stuff.

So here’s what I’m looking for in a new bag:

• Brown or beige canvas with little or no nylon to keep noise down
• No logos
• A comfortable, unpadded strap
• No visible fasteners
• About 14″ wide, 12″ high, and 4″ deep — big enough to fit, say, four 15″ MacBook Pros stacked on top of each other
• Holds its shape on its own (a foam divider on the inside would take care of this)
• Padded in back just enough to keep me from feeling the bag’s contents jab me in the back (this would also be enough to get it to hold its shape)
• Organizers for gadgets
• Relatively inexpensive, preferably no more than $50

Does anybody know of anything like this? I can’t find anything that fits the bill online. The closest I’ve gotten has been Timbuk2’s line of messenger bags, which have the compartmentalization and free-standingness that I want, but are made of nylon, have straps, and feature a (admittedly subdued) logo. They’re also expensive compared to what I have now.

Old Navy has some new bags that are canvas and do have organizers inside, but they’re black, and I really like brown. What I’m trying to say here is, I’m a fussy little girl.

Maybe I’ll just mod the bag I have. I do have a sewing machine…

Opinion Add Comment »

Being frugal whenever possible is important. A common misconception about frugality is that it centers completely around saving money, but this is off by the skin of a nuance; it is also about asking for some. Money.

Asking for money.

Today, I will tell you how I got out of paying my cell phone bill for the next couple of months by exercising the timeless art of complaint.

The money to which I refer came in two installments. The first was during last week’s East Coast outage in AT&T’s data network. After reading reports that people were managing to get credits on their accounts for the service interruption, I knew I had to get in on it.

My first call to AT&T customer service didn’t go terribly well. I started by asking why the data service on my iPhone wasn’t working. The operator checked her computer, and didn’t find any reports about any outages. I pointed out an Associated Press story about the problem, and she simply repeated that she wasn’t aware of anything, but apologized for the interruption.

I asked to be credited on my account for the downtime, but she informed me that she wasn’t authorized to give me one. I attempted to call her out by saying that “a friend of mine” had gotten a $20 credit. This barefaced lie got me nowhere, and so I politely thanked the operator for her help and hung up.

Most people would quit at this point. Don’t. I knew better. I dialed the number again and got a new operator.

Changing tactics, I jumped straight to the point. “Hi. I was affected by the data network outage on the East Coast this morning, and would like to be credited for the interruption.” The new operator apologized and informed me, just as the previous operator had, that she was not authorized to credit me for service interruptions.

I then politely explained that I had needed access to my email on the road that day, and that I had lost business because of the outage. That lie worked. The operator told me that she could offer me a “one-time $25 courtesy credit,” which I accepted immediately.

It’s kind of dishonest, but hey. If it helps, call it an “embellishment” in your head.

So that’s credit #1. The second credit (the big one) came just an hour ago. My employer has a deal with AT&T whereby employees of my company are able to get a 25% discount on their service with AT&T Wireless. Naturally, I signed up, and began waiting to see the discount begin to appear on my statement, which it never did.

Confused, I called customer service. The operator explained that the discount does not apply to the first-generation iPhone, even though it does apply to the newer 3G iPhone. I wasn’t especially surprised — it’s a handy way to encourage people to upgrade. Nevertheless, I pressed the issue further, and the operator referred me to AT&T’s National Business Services line, disclaiming that they probably would not be able to do anything for me, but were probably worth trying. I thanked him and hung up.

The next call went much more nicely. After a silent, ten minute hold, I was connected to an operator, and I explained my problem, finishing my explanation by asking if there was anything that the operator could do for me. She told me that it was Apple’s policy not to allow discounted rate plans on the original iPhone, which I pointed out was kind of weird. She seemed to agree.

“What I can do for you, Mr. Merkler, is give you a one-time $150 credit on your account,” she said, which I asked her to repeat, which she repeated. Huh.

For about an hour on the phone, I made $175. That’s the same as making $175 per hour! No, really! The moral of the story: Call customer service numbers whenever there is a problem with one of your services. Most companies are prepared to credit you generously if you press them just hard enough, as long as you’re polite about it.

Finance Add Comment »