Lifehacker Australia

Would You Buy E-Books From A Bookseller?

It works for technophobes, who don’t want to post their credit card details online, but in the end it just pushes the prices up for the rest of us.

Somebody is going to start offering the brand new novel with the inflated price, and piggybacking on one of the authors previous books.

Really, if you’re buying a brand new book, shouldn’t the ebook come included as well, it’s the same material, just different medium.

Does Buying A House Make Sense?

@steve. Rental prices are ridiculously high at the moment. Landlords just refuse to drop their rental prices.

However, By the time you’ve paid land rates, interest rates, inflated prices for a house (by the amount of the new home-buyers grant), maintained the house, repaired the house, done the gardening, paid capital gains tax, real estate agents, insurance, etc. It adds up to be quite a bit.

In fact, I’ve been advised that borrowing to invest in shares works out to be financially better off for quite a few people. And it’s a good way to make the money your saving for a deposit work for you to get there quicker.

What does everybody else think?

Know When To Avoid The Restaurant Special

I’m impressed by the turn of conversation here to cookbooks as a segway.

tips: depends on the country, some waiters get a good wage, some get half a wage (australia), and some get no wage (US). You wouldn’t avoid paying a contractor just because they don’t get an hourly salary, what’s all this talk I keep hearing of letting US waiters get by on $2 an hour because you don’t want to tip?

Why tip the Matre De? They didn’t do the work, tip the waiter.

If you didn’t get table on time, maybe complain to the people sitting at your table before you, who were told politely that there was another table coming at 7, but stayed till 8pm, and the other couple who took your table because they turned up an hour late and had to be sat at the table that was a backup for you.

But finally, why do people feel they have the right to go off at the waiter, the retail assistant, and yes even the call centre worker?

Would you cop the insults people give to these guys if they went into your work? I’m serious. If they came up to your desk, and told you that your report was sloppy, badly presented, and they had to wait too long for it. Would you cop it? And then you go and work your arse off, only to find that a couple of reports later, the next person complains about it being too long, doesn’t like the new presentation? That’s what I thought.

If you wouldn’t cop it, don’t say it to the people that serve you.

Phil

Failed Travel Transactions On The Rise

Rex have got to be the worst by far.

I booked a flight an hour before check in. They cancelled my flight because there weren’t enough people on the flight to justify flying. That’s bad business. If I had of booked by phone, they might have told me the flight was cancelled.

They wouldn’t waive the fee to change my friends trip even though one of his closest friends developed a terminal illness which made him change his plans. The fees outweighed the price of the trip.

I’ve got about four more stories about the company. I would refuse to fly with them, but they are the only airline who cover a regular trip that I take in a single flight. They weren’t prepared to offer any compensation in any case.

On another note, Qantas were fantastic when I missed my boarding, they rebooked me at no extra cost.

@B8Two: there is nothing wrong with “Debit” cards for chargebacks, you have the same right to appeal charges. The only thing they can’t do is be used to hire cars, because the car hire company can’t use them for a deposit.

Saving Money With Off-Peak Travel

A good followup article for this one would be inter-city travel. It should be easy for you Angus.