If you log into the printer’s “website” (basically, just enter the printer’s ip address in a web browser), you should be able to turn all that internet printing crap off.
I have an HP Deskjet, and yah, the software does configure everything to use internet as default. You can disable that while installing the driver, but HP does make a point of hiding the settings
My work HP always works through the company servers, even if it’s doing a local copy job. This way compliance might track a violation. I have no problem with this given it’s a financial office and “Wolf of Wall Street” rules should not apply.
But it’s that which opens up the capabilities for silly management like prohibiting printing of an address on an envelope.
I just keep a version of the older HP Scan software that doesn’t need the internet connection and as long as one of the machines on the internal network has it, everything seems to work ok.
I have no issue with things going through the company server, it’s uploading documents to HP’s server that I take issue with.
Once I’ve got the internet crap disabled, I’ve been able to scan using Irfanview’s twain support. Been trouble free enough for what I need.
Another thing that annoys me too is the way the installation always sets up the printer as direct connection instead of using my home wifi network, regardless of what I tell it to use. Again, I have to use the printer “website” to change it back to what I want
I’ve just gone through a 1 hour and 15 minute phone call, escalating to 3rd level. Prior to that chat with 3 reps.
In the last 3 weeks, I have had 5 instances of Amazon Prime not delivering items in a timely manner. I thought I would complain.
One person offered a “free month” of Amazon Prime. Another, three free months. The last person offered a $15 credit, “three times her limit, but it happened more than once”.
I hope, that even at the rates they pay the Indian call center, that I wasted more than $15 of Amazon’s money.
I refused the $15, saying that was an insult. Earlier this year an Amazon-fulfilled item came - an empty envelope. I had to get a return label, and return the empty envelope with a note saying it arrived empty.
Where I work, if I systematically promise, fail to deliver, and charge clients for the promised service, that’s called “fraud”.
I understand that Walmart’s Plus service is more reliable and is taking a lot of business from Amazon. I’m considering my options. I don’t use Prime Music or Prime Video. Prior to Covid, they delivered on the promise. Post Covid, they think they have reset customer expectations and can get away with anything. I am seriously considering cancelling.
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Must be some regional thing as my stuff arrives on time and has for years.
Delivery is inconsistent here in Central Florida with Amazon ( And UPS, And Fedex only the USPS is consistent if slow. )
I’ve put items in the Amazon cart that were prime two day delivery that when I check out are bumped up to 4 - 6 days. I don’t know how many I’ve canceled because of that. What’s crazy is if an item is next day it will be next day in the cart and arrive the next day like clockwork.
Then there was the time the Amazon driver got lost in the rural acreages to the east of us. Wandered around for 1 1/2 hours before finally moving west to deliver my package.
Mark Gosdin
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Their customer service has taken a huge nosedive, especially post-COVID. I had a delivery driver put my package at my door step, take a photo confirming delivery then pick up the package and take it back to his truck; he opened it and took half of the contents, then put it back at my door step. I got it all on my ring doorbell. Unreal.
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I stay with Amazon as the best source for some items. During COVID they literally could not keep up with demand and lagged for days and days. After COVID they get me stuff in 1-2 days but have tried everything to reduce the number of deliveries to one-day-per-week. They routinely offer me $1.50 media credit for delaying an order, particularly for ordering more than one thing at a time. So, at my wife’s prodding, I wait to order two things I need and collect the credits for the movies she wants to watch.
They’ve become tricksters with viewing movies – setting the default to “buy” rather than “rent” if you’ve got enough credit to buy. Some of their outside vendors and recommendations have become Ebay-level sleaze.
But profits. But a near-monopoly. But a huge lobbying budget to keep the cash flowing.
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I’m in North Central Fl and like I noted I’ve had no issues in the years I’ve been a Prime member. The issues with Amazon is that they drop a delivery date on you without first ensuring they product you have chosen is within their distribution center, unless it just happens to be in stock in a Amazon fulfillment center. FYI: While a fulfillment center processes and ships orders directly to consumers, a distribution center is a waystation within the wholesale portion of the supply chain where manufacturers deliver products to be distributed to retail outlets. We have distribution center 15 miles from the house, south of the Daytona Speedway and a Fulfillment Center in Deland which is 25 miles from the house and lots of locations up in Jacksonville. But that’s not saying others are not having issues. I guess we just have been lucky and we order something about every week. .
What was the outcome of that?
After a long support chat explaining I’d be returning half the contents for a full refund due to driver theft of the other half, they accepted my explanation and did issue a full refund. Something similar happened a few months later, with the entire contents being taken. That was also caught on video and sorted out, but wow! I didn’t have these issues post 2020ish. Not sure what changed between 2019 and now, but it’s a shame.
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Maybe hiring was lax during the pandemic. Since they needed anyone and everyone, they resorted to hiring the criminal element in order to get the job done.
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This isn’t a new issue with delivery drivers. Long, long ago the US Postal Service stopped handling specific items because of driver theft. Hundreds of years ago various countries introduced Registered Mail to handle obvious theft targets such as gold bullion. Transportation is a rough industry.
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I’ve had good luck with delivery of boxes of garage tile squares. Big heavy boxes. Curiously, each box I’ve ordered has had some damage on a corner, as if someone peeked inside.
And didn’t want anything to do with the contents.
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This is not audio-related …
I am, again, deluged (it seems to be a periodic thing) with random “offers” for positions in absolute shit-hole places in the yuckiest recesses of the US (places I literally would not visit during the day without a gun, a vest, and a police escort).
All are 6-month contracts. All are in-person/on-site. All require relocation at my own expense. And all are in some random, should-have-died-years-ago-and-probably-never-should-have-been-created-in-the-first-place, technology/language/platform.
And of course, they don’t pay even half market rate for what they’re asking, let alone half MY contract rate.
Curiously it’s always (and I do mean always) one very specific type of “recruiter” that does this - regardless of the role, the company or their company.
I’d mind less … if I was actually looking for work …
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Does this come in as email? SPAM filter?
LinkedIn.
For my email, I just have it setup with an approved-senders list. If the “from” address isn’t in that list, it won’t even make it to the “spam” or “junk” folder (I’ll never even see it).
I just can’t imagine they find takers for such incredibly shitty roles … even among people who ARE looking for work.
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I’ve received those types of contract offers for years and years. Many used to come from Indian staffing firms, and some plainly hadn’t reviewed my resume. They often latch on to a random keyword and spam everyone they can find. In my experience these offers typically happen when a prime staffing firm cannot fill key roles and puts them out to be filled by a bunch of bounty hunter recruiters. Sometimes 2-3 firms tried to “represent me” to the client for a job I already knew about. The actual prime contractor pay rate is likely 2x or 3x what they offer, but the small guys need a thick margin to put in the effort to find someone.
Years ago I rejected one firm’s contract offers a dozen times through many of these small bounty hunters. It was a job I DID NOT WANT in a place that was umpteen miles from nowhere. Every time I said no they upped the rate until I couldn’t say no. My successful negotiation tactic wasn’t actually a tactic.
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Makes sense, particularly the farmed-out/bounty-hunter 3-rd-company-in-the-deal part. Would help explain the stupidly low rates.
Even at 3x … they wouldn’t be great rates (well maybe for what they want me to do … but certainly not for what I actually do).
Funny that it comes in waves. And that so much of it is in the same location (even comparing years apart).
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