text:
Michael C. Hall, who starred on "Dexter," has listed the Ronald Colman estate home in Hollywood Hills for sale at $2.35 million.
Designed and built in 1926 for Colman, a British actor who straddled the silent and talking film eras, the Spanish-style estate features a main house, guest house and tennis court-turned-garden on a third of an acre.
Features of the walled property include a courtyard garden and outdoor dining area, a media room, a wine room, five bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms and 4,600 square feet of living space. There is a three-car garage.
Hall, 42, starred as the murder-minded main character on "Dexter" since 2006. Before that he was on HBO's funeral-home drama "Six Feet Under" (2001-05). Hall will star in the film "Cold in July," later this year.
He bought the property last year for $1.95 million, public records show.
Josh Myler and Jeff Kohl of the Agency in Beverly Hills are the listing agents.


text:
Pre-schedule Your Blood Drive Visit!
Every morning in the 30 days leading up to Comic-Con (from June 18 to July 17), we're going to offer our "Toucan Tip of the Day," a tiny tidbit of terrific information that we hope will help you enjoy the show just a little bit better. Sign up for our RSS feed (click the button on the right sidebar) to get all of our tips and stay informed on upcoming news about Comic-Con 2013! To view all of our Toucan Tips, please click on the "Tip of the Day" link under Categories at the top of our sidebar on the right.
We've updated our Blood Drive page and you can now pre-schedule a time to donate blood while at Comic-Con. The Comic-Con Robert A. Heinlein Blood Drive, held in conjunction with the San Diego Blood Bank, has been a part of the show since 1977. Over the past 36 years, we've collected 12,488 pints of blood from Comic-Con attendees ... and we're not even vampires! (Well ... most of us aren't.) Be a hero at Comic-Con and donate the gift of life to this most worthy cause and get a goodie bag, plus free True Blood stuff (those guys ARE vampires!), and our eternal appreciation. And as fabled science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein said when he first started this tradition 37 years ago: Pay it forward. Click that link above and schedule your appointment!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Dover chefs team up to fight for healthy hearts.
Ancient physicians recognized long ago the heart as the body's most important organ. While some of their assumptions were wrong – they thought it controlled emotions or that it moved air instead of blood – they got the basic idea right.
Today, a healthy heart is recognized as the key to overall good health. Exercise, a good lifestyle and proper nutrition all are important in keeping your heart in good shape.
With that in mind, four respected Delaware chefs are teaming up in a friendly competition to emphasize the heart's importance to one's overall well-being, and how taking better care of your heart means taking better care of yourself.
The Chefs Fight for Your Heart program is the brainchild of Ludovic Bezy, head chef at Michele's Restaurant at Dover Downs Hotel & Casino. He is joined by Chef James Harrison of the Clarion Hotel in New Castle; Chef Ryan Cunningham of Bonz Restaurant at Harrington Raceway & Casino; and Chef Hari Cameron of a(MUSE.) Restaurant in Rehoboth Beach.
Cameron was selected as the winner in the group's first competition in 2012.
The event has the support of Delaware middleweight boxing champion Dave Tiberi, who emphasized how good nutrition kept him trim over his 28-fight career in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It is sponsored by Delaware Heart and Vascular, P.A.
Bezy started Chefs Fight for Your Heart two years ago following the death of his 48-year-old brother Frederic, from a massive heart attack.
"I thought I needed to do something to make a difference in how people eat and to show the community there is a better way to eat," he said.
One of the ways to do that is to teach children and their parents how to fix nutritious meals and to encourage lifestyle changes that will help people stay slim after they've lost weight.
Part of that is encouraging people to stop and think before they put food in their mouths, particularly snack foods, which often are high in salt and fat.
Bezy and his fellow chefs said they encourage families to plan their meals and then shop for the ingredients together. That way they know what's in everything they eat.
"You can buy a pizza, but do you really know what's in that pizza?" he said.
During their competition, the chefs plan to make their dishes less haute cuisine and more family oriented. Harrison and Cunningham said that means staying away from butter, which they use often.
Cameron said he plans meals similar to that of the meatloaf he prepared last year, which included bison meat, said to be much leaner than beef.
Also on hand was Bayhealth cardiologist Dr. Vincent D. Abbrescia, who said diet has a major effect on heart health.
"There are many … studies that directly relate dietary intake with development of atherosclerosis, or plaque buildup in the arteries," he said.
Better nutrition, Abbrescia said, "is directly related to the reduction of cardiac disease and cardiac events."
The event will come to a head on Nov. 2 with what's been dubbed the Knockout Dining Main Event at the Harrington Raceway & Casino, when the chefs debut their dinners with Tiberi acting as judge.
Tickets for the event are $35, and proceeds will go directly to the American Heart Association.
For more information, visit www.chefsfight.com, or call (302) 423-4387.


text:
MetraTech to Host Customer Success 2012
Customer Success Event to Unpack Key Disciplines Driving Quantifiable Customer Engagement
November 19, 2012 --
WALTHAM, MA -- (Marketwire) -- 11/19/12 -- MetraTech Corp., the leading provider of commerce, billing and compensation solutions, today announced that it will host the Customer Success 2012 event exploring key strategies software as a service (SaaS) and online businesses need to incorporate into their customer success models to drive deeper customer engagement, increase recurring revenue and customer lifetime value. The event will take place on Thursday, November 29 at the MetraTech headquarters in Waltham, Mass. from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET. Virtual attendance is available as well.
Customer Success 2012 will feature an expert panel challenging each other's perceptions as to what ultimately drives customer success. Presenters include Patrick Campbell, CEO at Price Intelligently; Joe Baz, CEO at Above The Fold; Brian Rogers, vice president of customer success at Apptegic; and Jim Williams, vice president of marketing at Influitive. Curt Raffi, marketing lead for MetraTech's cloud-based commerce solution, Metanga, will moderate the panel. The panel is designed for SaaS and online business leaders seeking to lower churn and unleash quantifiable customer success by focusing on:
- User experience
- Pricing models
- Clickstream analytics
- User community
Advanced registration for live or virtual attendance is required. Event details and registration are available online via eventbrite. You can also follow event news on Twitter by searching #Success12.
About MetraTech
MetraTech Corp. offers an innovative approach to billing, compensation and customer care. We empower organizations to embrace change through a unique agreements-based billing and compensation solution that models and supports fluid, personalized, multi-party agreements. We automate business processes and business models to address rapidly changing or complex business strategies. Our products are deployed globally, and our customers use MetraTech to innovatively create and securely collect revenue, provide settlement to partners and manage their customer lifecycle in 12 languages, 28 currencies and 90 countries. Customers include Concur, The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), CETIP, the City of Chicago, Microsoft, PGi and LifeLock. The company is headquartered in Boston, with offices in San Francisco, Paris, Rio de Janeiro and London. MetraTech is a venture-backed, privately held company whose investors include Accel Partners, Meritech Capital and Vesbridge Partners. For more information, please visit www.metratech.com and www.metanga.com.
Embedded Video Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=2158764
Tracy Duprey
[email protected]
Copyright @ Marketwire


text:
RBC.com | Français | | Contact Us
About RBC > Media Newsroom > News Releases > 2014 RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards opens call for nominations
TORONTO, January 7, 2014 - Canadian Immigrant magazine is pleased to announce the call for nominations for the RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards of 2014.
For the sixth year, Canadian Immigrant magazine and title sponsor RBC want to recognize and celebrate the stories and achievements of outstanding Canadian immigrants who inspire newcomers and Canadians alike. Associate sponsor Chevrolet is also back on board for the second year.
"Who inspires you? That's the question we're asking," said Margaret Jetelina, editor of Canadian Immigrant. "We want to share the stories of immigrants from every corner of the country who have chosen Canada as their home and made it better for being here. We need your help in uncovering these inspiring people."
Some of the winners from previous years include dancer/choreographer Wen Wei Wang, entrepreneur and community leader Zahra Al-Harazi, NBA superstar Steve Nash, former Governor General of Canada Adrienne Clarkson and many more, including entrepreneurs, artists and community volunteers.
This national people's choice award is unique in that it allows Canadians to first nominate and then vote directly for individuals who have made a difference since their arrival in Canada. More than 31,000 votes from across Canada were cast in the 2013 awards program.
"Nominating someone as a top Canadian immigrant provides people with an opportunity to recognize role models who have made a difference in, or who have made a significant contribution to this country," said Christine Shisler, Director, Multicultural Markets, RBC. "We have seen some incredible past winners who have made significant contributions, and we can't wait to hear this year's motivating and inspiring stories."
A nominee can be someone who has moved to Canada and, since immigrating, has contributed to the diversity and success of this country and/or its people.
Achievements can be either professional or personal. Nominees must hold landed immigrant (Permanent Resident) or citizen status in Canada, and must reside in Canada.
"The RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards recognize people who have shared their passions for Canada as they earned significant achievements and realized their dreams," said John Roth, Vice President for Chevrolet in Canada. "The Chevrolet Ingenuity Award will further recognize the efforts of a truly inspirational individual."
Nominations can be made by visiting canadianimmigrant.ca/rbctop25 until February 27, 2014, 11:59 pm EST. A distinguished panel of judges will review all nominees and present a list of 75 finalists who will be profiled online in March, after which all Canadians can vote for their favourite nominees.
The 25 winners will be announced in June 2014, and will be recognized in the July print edition of Canadian Immigrant magazine and online at canadianimmigrant.ca. Winners will also receive a commemorative plaque and $500 towards a charity of their choice provided by RBC. Chevrolet will once again be selecting one winner for its special recognition: the Chevrolet Ingenuity Award. This year's media partners are the Toronto Star, Metro, CBC, Sing Tao and South Asian Focus.
About Canadian Immigrant
Attracting more than 400,000 readers each month and over 100,000 visitors a month online, Canadian Immigrant is a national magazine, distributed in Toronto, Vancouver and in key centres across the country, which helps new Canadians build a successful life and home in Canada. Its mandate to inform, educate and motivate provides easy-to-access content for newcomers looking for information from careers, education and settling in to culture and business. Our website, canadianimmigrant.ca , offers daily editorial, forums, tools and resources to further help newcomers across Canada. Canadian Immigrant is a division of Metroland Media Group, a dynamic media company with more than 100 community and daily newspapers in print and online, as well as innovative websites including wheels.ca, goldbook.ca, flyerland.ca and localwork.ca.
About RBC
Royal Bank of Canada (RY on TSX and NYSE) is Canada's largest bank and one of the largest banks in the world, based on market capitalization. We are one of North America's leading diversified financial services companies, and provide personal and commercial banking, wealth management services, insurance, investor services and capital markets products and services on a global basis. We employ approximately 79,000 full- and part-time employees who serve more than 15 million personal, business, public sector and institutional clients through offices in Canada, the U.S. and 44 other countries. For more information, please visit rbc.com .
RBC supports a broad range of community initiatives through donations, sponsorships and employee volunteer activities. In 2012, we contributed more than $95 million to causes worldwide, including donations and community investments of more than $64 million and $31 million in sponsorships.
- 30 -
For more information, contact:
Canadian Immigrant
Sanjay Agnihotri, 905-454-4344 Ext 227, firstname.lastname@example.com
Jill Anzarut, 647-313-5778, firstname.lastname@example.com
Adria MacKenzie, 905-644-6044, email@example.com


text:
25 U.S. Code § 311 - Opening highways
prev | next
§ 311.
Opening highways
The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to grant permission, upon compliance with such requirements as he may deem necessary, to the proper State or local authorities for the opening and establishment of public highways, in accordance with the laws of the State or Territory in which the lands are situated, through any Indian reservation or through any lands which have been allotted in severalty to any individual Indian under any laws or treaties but which have not been conveyed to the allottee with full power of alienation.
(Mar. 3, 1901, ch. 832, § 4, 31 Stat. 1084.)
LII has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references LII.


text:
Quote of the Day
The shortest answer is doing.
Lord Herbert
The fundamentals took control of the short term oil price direction over the last two sessions even though there is still no sign that any of the massive QE programs are going to end anytime soon. Today the main event will be U.S. Fed Chairman Bernanke's testimony before joint Congressional economic committees as he once again updates the world on the state of the U.S. economic recovery. As is always the case when the Chairman speaks the market will parse his every word to see if there are any signals coming out that suggest how much longer QE3 is going to last.
Back to the fundamentals… although the API oil inventory data often times is misleading it was certainly bearish across the board (see below for more details) and yet another sign that oil fundamentals remain weak at best. There are currently no signs from any of the internal or external data points suggest that oil demand is heading for a growth spurt anytime soon. So the battle between a weakening oil demand picture versus the support coming from the very accommodative monetary policies in the developed world economies continues with the winning side flip flopping back and forth as we have already seen over the last 24 hours.
After losing its widening momentum late last week, the July Brent/WTI spread has breach the $8.25/bbl technical support level and remained below this level for the entire trading week so far. The spread is back in its narrowing trend (at least for the moment) even after the API reported (in last night's report) a modest 471,000 barrel build in Cushing crude oil inventories. The API and EIA reports have been very consistent in their reporting of Cushing crude oil stocks and as such I would expect a similar build in this morning's EIA report.
So far the market has not been placing much emphasis on the upcoming June maintenance schedule in the North Sea as the Brent/WTI spread continues to slowly decline. Even though Cushing crude oil stocks increased this week the possibility that additional refining capacity should return in the mid-west increasing crude oil demand the current narrowing of the spread may garner some fundamental support.


text:
Two words ( or in Biden speak 4 words) The Kennedy's
A. I think the tax code is broken
B. We know why Governor Romney did not want to release his tax returns
In January 1999, a trust set up by Mitt Romney for his children and grandchildren reaped a 1,000 percent return on the sale of shares in Internet advertising firm DoubleClick Inc.
If Romney had given the cash directly, he could have owed a gift tax at a rate as high as 55 percent. He avoided gift and estate taxes by using a type of generation-skipping trust known to tax planners by the nickname: I Dig It.
The sale of DoubleClick shares received before the company went public, detailed in previously unreported securities filings reviewed by Bloomberg News, sheds new light on Romneys estate planning -- the art of leaving assets for heirs while avoiding taxes. The Republican presidential candidate used a trust considered one of the most effective techniques for the wealthy to bypass estate and gift taxes. The Obama administration proposed cracking down on the tax benefits in February.
While Romneys tax avoidance is both legal and common among high-net-worth individuals, it has become increasingly awkward for his candidacy since the disclosure of his remarks at a May fundraiser. He said that the nearly one-half of Americans who pay no income taxes are dependent upon government and believe that they are victims.
Romneys effective income tax rate in 2011 was about 14 percent. He has also enhanced his familys wealth by moving assets worth $100 million into a trust while taking steps to avoid paying any gift taxes. The trusts value isnt counted in the $250 million that his campaign cites as Romneys net worth.
The bulk of the trusts income comes from Romneys interests in Bain Capital funds, hedge funds and other investments, according to his 2011 tax return. The return doesnt show how much Romney paid for these holdings, nor the value assigned to them when he gave them to the trust, so its unclear how much in total the trust has saved in gift and estate taxes.
People like Mitt Romney make a lot of money, but they pay very little income tax, said Victor Fleischer, a tax law professor at the University of Colorado who has written extensively about private equity and taxes. Then by dodging the estate and gift tax, they are able to build dynastic wealth. These DoubleClick documents really show that tax planning in action.
The Obama administration estimates that closing the loophole Romney used would bring the federal government almost $1 billion in the coming decade.
Thats a laughable under-estimate, said Stephen Breitstone, co-head of the taxation and wealth preservation group at law firm Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone LLP. A single billionaire could pay $500 million more in estate taxes if these trusts are shut down by the Obama administration, Breitstone said.
Romney or his trust received shares in DoubleClick eight months before the company went public in 1998. The trust sold them less than a year after the IPO. The trusts sale of the DoubleClick stake made it possible to save hundreds of thousands of dollars in estate and gift taxes.
Multimillionaires use such trusts to avoid those taxes in three ways. First, they can assign a low value to assets they donate to the trust. Second, when the trust sells assets at a profit, the donors can pay the relatively low capital gains taxes on behalf of the trust. By doing so, they leave more money in the trust, untouched by the much higher gift tax. Third, by paying those taxes, they can reduce the pile of wealth eventually subject to an estate tax when they die.
High net-worth individuals often use trusts as a legal means of giving money to their children while incurring the least possible taxes. In 2010, about 3 million U.S. trusts and estates reported more than $91 billion in income.
The type of trust used by Romney is so important to the wealthy that ending its tax benefits would put an end to much of estate planning as we know it, Breitstone said.
Romney has vowed as president to cut the gift tax rate and repeal the federal estate tax altogether -- calling it the Death Tax. In its Believe in America jobs plan released last year, the Romney campaign said that this tax creates a series of perverse incentives that encourages the most complicated and convoluted tax-avoidance schemes at tremendous cost to all involved.
The Romney campaign did not respond to a list of questions about the tax avoidance transactions.
When it released his 2011 tax returns last week, the Romney campaign said in a statement that the Republican nominee has scrupulously complied with the U.S. tax code, and his income is reported and taxed at the applicable rates, and he has paid 100 percent of what he has owed.
Use of these types of trusts has grown as the wealthy employ increasingly sophisticated techniques to avoid both estate and gift taxes on money they transfer to their families.
A longtime target of Republicans, the estate tax currently imposes a 35 percent rate on estates greater than $10.24 million for a married couple. The gift tax -- intended to prevent individuals from avoiding the estate tax by giving away assets before death -- imposes a 35 percent tax on a married couples transfers above $26,000 in a year or $10.24 million over a lifetime. The top estate and gift tax rates were 55 percent during the 1990s, when Romneys trust was established, and they are scheduled to rise to 55 percent again next year.
The formal name for Romneys shelter is the Ann and Mitt Romney 1995 Family Trust. Capital gains, interest and dividends from its holdings accounted for about a quarter of Romneys 2011 income of $13.7 million.
Romney set up his trust in 1995 when he was chief executive officer of Bain Capital. At the time, trusts were a common estate planning device at the buyout firm, securities filings show. Other executives establishing trusts that same year included Joshua Bekenstein, one of the original Bain Capital directors, and Robert F. White, one of Romneys closest political advisers, who described himself as the nominees wingman in a speech at the Republican National Convention last month.
Bain Capital directed questions for Bekenstein and White to a spokesman who didnt respond to them.
Romneys vehicle is known as an intentionally defective grantor trust or by the acronym IDGT -- hence the nickname: I Dig It. Such trusts permit donors to give potentially unlimited amounts to children free of estate and gift taxes.
Heres how they work: the person setting up the trust, like Romney, contributes assets such as an interest in a fund or shares in a company. If he makes that contribution before those assets appreciate -- particularly when they are privately held and difficult to value -- he can claim the gift tax obligation is low or non-existent since the declared value is low or zero.
If the trust generates any income -- such as by selling stock -- the eventual tax bill is the responsibility of Romney, not the trust. By paying the capital gains tax, which was 20 percent in the late 1990s and is now 15 percent, he can avoid depleting the funds in the trust -- in essence making an additional donation thats free of gift taxes.
That benefit in particular makes this type of trust a more powerful driver of wealth transfer in estate planning than almost anything else, said Breitstone, the wealth preservation attorney.
In 2008, a presentation by an attorney at Boston law firm Ropes & Gray LLP, which represents Bain and Romney, laid out a strategy for avoiding gift taxes by conservatively stating the value of assets put into a trust. The firms chairman, R. Bradford Malt, is the manager of Romneys family trusts.
In the 2008 presentation at a legal education conference in Boston, a partner at the firm, Marc J. Bloostein, outlined various strategies to minimize the estate and gift tax bills for private-equity executives.
Bloostein, who didnt respond to a request for comment, said it was common during the 1990s for lawyers to advise clients to value their stake in a funds future profits -- called carried interest in the private equity world -- at zero for gift tax purposes, according to his presentation reviewed by Bloomberg News. This could permit the donors to avoid a gift tax on the contribution, even if that compensation became very valuable. In 2005, proposed regulations from the IRS discouraged the practice.
Romney, Bekenstein, and White all had DoubleClick shares wind up in trusts. In June 1997, DoubleClick announced a $40 million investment by a group including Bain Capital, eventually giving the buyout firm a 17.7 percent stake in the Internet marketing company.
Like at other private-equity firms, Bain managers were permitted to co-invest personally in the firms deals. Romneys DoubleClick filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission inidcate that he or his trust received some of the companys shares as a co-investor, and others as his stake in Bains future profits, or carried interest.
Romney did make a big profit for his heirs. Romney, or his trust, received the first batch of DoubleClick shares in June of 1997, when Bain made its initial investment in DoubleClick.
In February of 1998, DoubleClick went public. Its shares nearly quintupled over the next 12 months.
In January 1999, Romneys trust sold $746,000 worth of DoubleClick shares, for a gain of about $674,000, or an almost 1,000 percent return, according to an attachment to an April 30, 1999, filing by Romney with the SEC. The three-page attachment contains the details of trades by dozens of Bain investors that got DoubleClick shares.
Because those shares were already in the trust before the sale, no gift or estate tax would be owed on the trusts receipt of that cash. And according to the tax law governing an I Dig It trust, Romney, not the trust, would be responsible for paying any capital gains tax triggered by the sale, potentially as high as $140,000. Gains in the trust for Romneys heirs remain free of gift taxes and potential estate taxes.
Romney sold additional DoubleClick shares in at least two other transactions, securities filings show.
DoubleClick was purchased by Google Inc. (GOOG) for $3.2 billion in 2008.
Public exposure of Romneys various tax avoidance tactics may spur legislation cracking down on them, according to Breitstone.
Romney uses every trick in the book, Breitstone said. Its going to be harder to do tax planning in the future. Hes bringing attention to things that werent getting attention.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jesse Drucker in Rome at firstname.lastname@example.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonathan Kaufman at email@example.com
Two words ( or in Biden speak 4 words) The Kennedy's
Did he break any laws? No. Did he follow the tax code correctly? Yes.
The guy's entitlement reform plan calls for means testing Social Security and Medicare to reduce benefits to RICH PEOPLE in order to save the programs for the rest of us. His tax reform plan promises to be REVENUE NEUTRAL tax reform that simplifies the code and reduces loopholes and deductions in exchange for reduced rates. Same for the corporate code. For liberals here that don't understand economics the term revenue neutral means the dollar amounts don't change. He has promised that the progressive nature of the tax code would not change.
Romney's trust notwithstanding, extended unemployment benefits end 12/31/2012.
I wonder what the hopelessly unemployed are going to do after that.
Food stamps? Welfare? Those programs are going broke.
What's Obama's plan for these people?
Back to the OP....yeah, I'd much rather that money goes to the federal government. They have absolutely have shown that they know how to use it wisely.
taxes aren't the problem. the debt-based monetary system is the root cause of the problem.
Mitt Romney.
God is great. Mormon loves money. Give me more. To harvest.
Sent from my Double-Wide using Semaphore...


text:
Our focus is to bring authentic indigenous knowledge to our audience through traditional elders, story tellers, ceremonial leaders, and medicine and healing arts practitioners.Learn More
For many years we have recorded our elders at the Natural Way Program and archived their video and audio recordings for posterity.Learn More
The Earth and Spirit Council is a non-profit organization that depends on individual, foundation and corporate support to fulfill its mission.Learn More
We are here because we believe that the earth needs people who feel a deep spiritual connection to all that lives. The Earth & Spirit Council provides, encourages, and promotes these connections. If you are a person who exalts in the natural world, who weeps at the destruction of Earth's species, and who wants to connect with others who feel the same, welcome home.
At the heart of the Council is the idea that the spiritual dimension of life offers the greatest untapped reservoir of power, imagination, and courage for meeting the challenge of the damaged earth and calling humanity into a new relationship with the natural world. We seek to change the present cultural view to a bio-centric view that honors and respects the interconnection of all life, actively seeking out indigenous elders from all traditions to help us in this effort.
We hope you'll join us.


text:
I love all my distress inks from Tim Holtz. I use the ink pads, the re-inkers, the daubers and the distress markers too.
Always like to buy the refills for the distress pads and then if the colors are discontinued I have a refill.
Great color - love the sale/disc price! - love the video by Tim Holtz!! I got all 3 colors of the Limited set.


text:
I have worked for RadioShack for 2 years now. I have worked my way from employee to Management, and have dealt with all kinds of crazy things throughout that time. These are a few things for everyone: For customers: Our Return Policy is extremely lenient, but this is a BUSINESS that we run. For all returns, we do need to ask your personal information, that is for the fraud department. This protects you, as well as it protects the business in case stealing starts happening from the inside.
Checks do take 15 days to process through OUR system, and we cannot bypass this, we will lose our jobs. I know most of you reading this are completely honest people, but there are people who aren't. My store has been a victim of fraud that has happened this way before, and when it does happen, it is taken out of management's personal paycheck. Our return policy is 30 days to get your cash/credit back. Beyond that, if it is in perfect resellable condition, we can give you a gift card. There is no other place that can do this, and yes, we do believe in customer service.
If your item is broken because YOU broke it, again, it is taken out of management's personal paycheck. The back of your receipt says it needs to be in "new, resellable condition". Putting a fuss so your item is refunded may make the difference of a manager being able to pay rent or put food on their child's dinner table because YOU broke it. If it doesn't work due to actual defect, we are always more than willing to refund or replace, you don't have to worry at all.
Treating employees or managers with disrespect does not get you anywhere. Just because we may not have a store the physical size of Best Buy does not mean we do not know how to run a business. So many times I see parents come in with their young children and start SCREAMING at one of my employees because of this or that. Do you really want to teach your children that having a temper tantrum loud enough will get you somewhere in life? Stay calm, keep yourself in check, and generally we can work with you on whatever you need or want.
Service plans truly are worth it on a lot of things. True, not everything. But cell phones, digital cameras, home phones, anything more than $100 bucks it should be something to seriously consider. This is not just so "we make money". It's to protect against what YOU do to it. Your kid takes the item out in the rain. Someone spills something. You blow a speaker. You yank on a cord wrong and it comes loose. There is a bad storm and something got fried. Don't get mad at us because we offered it to you. Every electronics store offers these, and it's for a reason.
Electronics are made of such fine components any part could overheat for this reason or that. The biggest thing you should consider buying service plans on are anything that could need a battery replacement. So many times I have customers come in so mad because they have to spend $80 on 4 new batteries for their 4 handset phone, when 2 years ago someone offered them a $10 replacement where they could have gotten them for free. RadioShack is the only place I've heard of that gives you the free batteries included. Take advantage!
Females in your RadioShack generally know more than the males. Don't just pass us by. We had to work harder to get to where we're at, because there are more sexist people than not out there. I've been a manager for 2 years now at my store, and many times even in a full suit I will greet a person at the door, and they will walk right past me to my newest male associate to ask for advice on some electronic component. Guess who the male employee comes to if he doesn't yet know the answer? Me, and generally yes, we do know the answer. Keep this in mind.
If you ever do have an issue, especially related to customer service in a store, talk to the manager! If they're not there, call the next day and get ahold of them! That's what we're here for. If we don't know that one of our employees disrespected you in some way, or you feel didn't treat you fairly, talk to us! We can fix most issues for you ourselves.
To employees- If someone comes in screaming, irate, how you handle it can really change a lot of things. If you have questions on how to handle a customer like this, please don't hesitate to talk to your manager. Our goal is to keep customers and make them happy, not fight and snap back at them. Do not take it personally, most angry customers had something else frustrating happen that perhaps one little thing tipped them over the top. They are just there to vent, you can generally have them leave with a smile.
To FEMALE employees: Yes, there are a lot of sexist people in the world. Males and Females alike. Just remember, you worked your way up just like anyone else, and don't let it get to you. Unfortunately being looked past because you are a female is part of the job. If you take your time and really show them you know what you are doing (and yes, this is a lot of extra work sometimes) they will always come back to you.
One of my RadioShack mentors is a woman. She has been at her store for 15 years now. It took her a long time to Win over her customers, but now she has built such a strong customer base that people come in from an hour away just to see her, and she is always busy with customers. She generally pulls in literally her entire stores sales plus some on her own. Learn your job. Yes, you need to learn it better than anyone else because you WILL be tested. Take pride, it will pay off.
The entire point of this is basically if you are an employee, see where the customers are coming from. If you are a customer, treat us with respect, do not try to "get away" with things (because most businesses that I've ever dealt with are much more strict on whatever policies- check up on this if you don't believe me). We are here to run a business. In return, we will always bend over backward for you.
NEVADA -- As an employee at RadioShack it is very difficult to get by financially. They expect so much from me and pay me $7.65 an hour, plus commission. But, at the store that I work at it is such a dead store and we get no business. Therefore, there isn't much to make in commission. We are required to take numerous training modules when we are first hired, and throughout our employment we are required to take a new training every two weeks or so.
I have had so many problems with this company. Some of which I think is absolutely wrong and wouldn't happen in any other work place. I worked at a different store before this one and I had a customer come in multiple times a week asking me for my phone number and if I wanted to go skiing with him or numerous activities. Keep in mind, I am 19 and he was about 42. I refused his offers many times. He called the store asking for my number.
Finally, I told him I was 17, thinking maybe if he thought I was a minor he would leave me alone, right? Wrong. He continued on and on. I had asked my manager many times to get this guy to stop, my manager told me "If he keeps spending money in our store I'm not going to say anything to him." I was shocked. Seriously, he is harassing me and you're just going to let him get away with it.
Finally, I asked my DM if I could transfer to another store. He asked my reasoning, so I told him exactly what happened. He told me that it was not a valid reason to request to be transferred. He said I needed to fulfill my duties to the store. I once again was shocked. Seriously, fulfill my duties. My goodness. After that call I called HR. I was transferred in three days. After I got transferred it seemed as if he was trying to retaliate against me. He told me I was on a week trial.
Basically, I had to prove myself 'worthy' to work at RadioShack. Since, I need the job, I just acted like normal and did my normal tasks. I did call HR again to complain about the retaliation. He (my DM) also yelled at me for taking a couple of days to cut out, organize and place 500+ price tags. I flat out said to him, I would LOVE to see you do it in one shift, then I will know that it is possible.
I really wish that I could find another job, but in my area there isn't much. I just can't stand working at RadioShack any longer.. People have posted on here RS employees don't care about their customers. I personally do care. I take my time to help each and every customer. I have quite a few customers that go out of their way to come to my store. I feel that I have to be considerate of the customers because if I was their customer, I would expect the same service.
RS expects you to sell cell phones out the wazoo. Honestly, everyone already has a cell phone. People may want to upgrade, but who wants to sign another 2 year contract. It's stupid. They have idiotic 'goals' that you must meet. You have to sell so many dollars per hour per ticket. You have to sell so many dollars worth of batteries. You have to have accessories with cell phones, mp3 players, TV's, laptops...
If you don't sell accessories with those, your percentage goes down and you get written up. If you don't sell enough service plans (extended warranty) you get written up. If you don't sell your 'required' goal for cell phones for the month you get written up.. If you fail to meet your "goal" more than twice (I think) you get fired. We used to have a policy that if a manager didn't get 7 cell phones sold in a week he was fired. WTH?
Not that many people are going to come to RS to buy a cell phone. Yes, our prices are a LOT cheaper than other stores, and we do not have mail in rebates. But, what average customers knows all of that? We have to do planograms almost constantly. We have to work our butts off for nothing. I'm just sick of trying to meet their 'goals'. They are just a bunch of dumb ignorant people sitting up in offices making rules that they think people can abide by. Sorry RS you're wrong.
CALDWELL, IDAHO -- I just signed up for a new contract with Sprint about a month ago and I went back to the store where I had started my service because the phone that I purchased was having issues. I ended up getting a different phone. It was a bit more than what I wanted to spend but the sales representative ** had guaranteed that if I came back into the store that weekend the store was going to have a sale on the phones and I would be able to get a price match on the phone meaning that they would give me the sale price that the phone was selling for that day.
So I went back just like he said. I explained my situation to the sales representative that day and he stated that they were not allowed to do because I had passed my thirty days of return policy. I explained to him my conversation with ** and told him that I was just in here three days prior. The sales representative told me that ** did not know what he was talking about. I responded by asking then why is he an assistant manager. I had no choice but to leave feeling betrayed and lied to.
The next day I got a hold of ** at the store, told he what had happened at the store. He told me that they should have been able to have gave me that price match. He had me go down there and when I got there he told me he had some bad news, they were not able to do the price match because I had already went over my thirty days but I told him what he had guaranteed that I would be able to get some of my money because I had just paid more for this phone compared to the phone I had prior and it had only been three days that went by.
He apologized and told me that he could do nothing, maybe just give me back the old phone back with the additional money that I had paid for the new phone. I told him that was fine then he said that he would have to get an okay from his manager and give me a call back. An hour went by until they returned my call and it was not even him. It was another employee that told me that there was nothing that they could do for me about my refund so then I asked to speak to the store manager. She told me that there was nothing they could do for me.
I explained to her that if ** would have not told me about the sale that was happening and his verbal guarantee of getting a price match I would not even have been in this mess. She didn't care, she didn't even offer a apology for the false statement that her assistant manager **.
As for ** I felt like he just ignored me and avoided himself to call me back and apologize for false assurance. I would of really have appreciated if he would have just stepped up and stated that he was wrong but he didn't. He allowed others to do his dirty work for him. I strongly recommend to not allow ** to sell you a phone because he gives false information just to get people to purchase a phone.
Be very aware that if you give Radio Shack the "personal" information required to buy a cell phone and service for that cell phone, you are open to having your identity stolen or that you may become a victim of fraud. Just a week or so ago, my wife attempted to purchase a new cell phone and add a line to our existing Sprint account. Looking at the "deals" from RadioShack on line, we decided to get a deal from them and made the online order process, which then has you call a phone number and a calling code.
The sales person whom will handle this "order" is NOT in the USA. They require you to give them all your information which is your social security number, Sprint Account information, address, etc., and they claim they will handle your order from that point on. What you do not know is that you are NOT speaking to a person whom actually is a RadioShack employee, you are talking to a person in another country, someone that can do anything they want with your personal information.
Someone that works at this company that takes your personal information used my wife's information to apply for a T-Mobile phone and T-Mobile service. My wife nor I never gave any authorization for this to take place, as we are Sprint phones and Sprint network and Sprint customers, period. However just today we got a letter from T- Mobile saying that the application for a T-mobile phone and service was declined, and that such was due to a credit report from TransUnion.
Now whomever it was that worked for the company that processes your orders from which you think is really Radio Shack, entered into the TransUnion information, and "updated" work history for my wife, and gave company name and dates of places that she NEVER worked at, ever. If not for the letter from T-Mobile, we would not have known anyone had done anything illegal with her personal information at all.
The letter gave a number for us to contact TransUnion credit reporting agency which then confirmed that someone had entered the work history and made the attempt to purchase a cell phone and services from T-Mobile. This new work history is Banks and Shipping companies that are well known internationally but NOT at all in the USA, thus if you live overseas and NOT in the USA those names are common names of places a person may work.
The locations of places that are taking the orders on behalf of RadioShack are in other countries, in locations such as India and Manilla. Not all of their employees are going to be honest folks. We have had to notify all the banks, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc, that someone has stolen my Wife's Identity. Eventually we talked to a person at the "world headquarters" for the company that takes the phone orders for RadioShack and they also take the same orders for Wirefly.com and are connected to "whereismyorder.com". This world headquarters or home office is located here in the USA.
The representative that I talked to at this "home office" did not want to admit that the sales person used my wife's personal information to buy a T-Mobile phone and entered false information into a credit application for this T-Mobile phone and service. However he did say the sale persons may have done so to insure we get a phone and a service. WTF is that?
We never asked for T-Mobile phones nor services, we never authorized such a purchase and we had no notification from anyone that an attempt would be made for such a service/cell phone and in no way had we ever gave a sales person any work history, period. This company that is a vendor for RadioShack and Wirefly has my Wife's personal information in their systems. How many crooks overseas can use it, we don't know?
We have now to fill out a "fraud packet" from T-Mobile and file a police report to have any further action take place to find out who working for this vendor for RadioShack and Wirefly to be caught for their illegal activities. My personal advice, do not trust making a purchase for any phones or services from this places. This entire ordeal has damaged my wife's credit reports and we still have no idea what other use the crook at that company will use the information/identity they now have. RadioShack and Wirefly and the rest of those crooks can kiss my rear end, I will NEVER do business with them again.
Curious really... any females out there ever feel like right off the bat someone does not want your help because you're a girl? It's hard to explain but when a total stranger comes in (most the times it's a male but there has been a handle full of females as well) looks you up and down while your greeting them and asking them if you could assist them in anything and they look around a couple times and stare at a male employee and completely walk by you as if you were not even there to go talk to the guy instead.
I could go on and on with different situations that have occurred but to just generalize it. Now I've been with the company for almost 2 years now and we've gone through plenty of people. I have been here the longest by 8 months and all the newest associates are male. 95% of the time when the situation I described at the top happens, the male associates comes to me with the question the customer had. Ironic. Even then most the time the customers can't even look at me in the eyes while I talk and STILL second guess what I say.
The other associate that has been here second longest is female too. She and I both agree that in certain situations it's very apparent and others it's hard to tell. My manager has seen it happen as well. Had a customer ask me how to connect a DVD player to his new flat screen. Gave him the right answer but he insisted on repeating everything I said as a question which brought me back to trying to explain (even draw it out) in a different way.
After grabbing the HDMI, Component, Composite Cables and turning our store display TV around to show him all the different ways of achieving his goal he still told me he did not understand because it still was not working. Got into the whole conversation of what it may to be and to narrow down the problem he was having. After 30 minutes of getting nowhere I excused myself to get my manager for him because he may be able to explain everything different from me so it made sense and he smiled.
My manager was in the back which is right next to our TV's so he heard the whole conversation and got up before I could even ask to help this guy out and my manager laughed and said I said all the right information same as he would of said. He went out there told the guy what I had been telling him off the bat and that was that. Guy ended up buying composite cables because he did not have any and was out of the store within 2 minutes of my manager speaking with him.
One more real quick one. One of our regular customer comes in, wants a car charger for his five year old pantech cell phone. Look around, tell him we do not carry that one in store. He has a friend with him. They whisper to one another. I offer to look online if he is not in a rush. They agree. Whisper some more. While I am looking his friend suggests to his friend to look at KMART. I tell the guy with the cell phone he could try but I doubt it because the pantech charger is not that popular.
Before I could get through our IGO part of our website they leave. I tell them to have a nice day and sorry we did not have it in store. They ignore me. Two customers that were in the store the same time as them walk out with them. I see all four of them outside talking and displaying the man's cell phone. One of the other customers that went out after them comes in with the guys phone yells my manager's name out to get his attention and yells across the store very mad as to why we could not get that man a charger (did not say car charger, just charger).
My manager who was unaware of the conversation I had had with the owner of the cell phone, tells the other guy that we do have chargers. Gets into the whole: upgrade now get a new phone with a charger for less than you would pay for a charger alone. Guy looks at me and looks back at my manager and says good and runs out of the store. Well.... that does not fix the car charger part but what do I know... Is it just me or has anyone else had anything of the sort occur?
I work at Radio Shack and I have seen some current and former associates on here and for the bulk of it their comments/reviews go something like this: "We don't get paid enough to provide excellent customer service." "We are expected to know too much." etc, etc, etc.
For the record none of them are saying anything short of the truth when they say an employee there gets Minimum Wage plus commission. At that same note how exactly does that have anything to do with the way you treat a customer. Does that mean that if I got paid 10 dollars an hour that I should do more for the customer? I don't think so, call me sort of old fashion but I believe the if you do quality in your work you'll reap the rewards later.
Maybe it's not in the form of a raise but it could be in the form of a promotion. Or maybe even the simple fact that if you actually make the customer feel that you actually give a damn they will come back and guess what? You will get MORE on your paycheck oh my god what a concept I never knew this!
Second off it is not a federal offense to refer someone to another store or even referring them online for a better deal. 90% of the time people I refer come back, you know why? Because at the very least if RadioShack doesn't have it YET AGAIN at least they know I'm good to point them in the right direction.
Third off I am not getting these people making statements like "If we don't sell cell phone we are threatened and fired!" I plain and simple do not like selling the post-paid phones. For the simple matter of it's a huge headache because if something goes wrong the first person to blame is of course, the people you bought it from. However such I am not going to the extent of saying I DON'T CARE about your cell phone not working. I do care, the problem is I do not have the proper authority to fix your problem if it is big enough.
My final point will be this issue about, "old people," of course because these old people don't like these young whippersnappers right? These, "old people" is what gives me a bigger paycheck each week. When these people come in and ask for me I get the sale, do they care that I am young? Some do, but the majority like me because at the very least I at least act like I care and provide them with what they need, even if I am having a bad day.
Have I been told off? Sure, have I resented some of my customers? Of course but that doesn't affect the way I treat the MAJORITY of my customers. The idea if you say it rude you're not getting anything from me is a bogus concept at best. I won't go all out for a rude customer but I will get them what they need to the best of my ability. I like to think I make more than my, "meager restitution."
I have read several reviews about bad customer service people have received. The truth is that most of the "bad customer service" is due to the ignorance of customers. First off RadioShack is not there to fix your crap. If you bought a telephone from Walmart ten years ago and it stopped working don't bring it in to Radioshack to try to have an associate fix it.
Honestly it is a huge waste of time for us and we probably don't care because even if we are able to fix it for you, you are just going to say thanks and walk away. It's nice of you to say thanks but really we get nothing for helping you and you don't buy anything. You can't expect us to care that much about your broken items.
Second if you think a Radioshack associate is pushy, it's because we have to be or we will lose our jobs. If we go a week without selling a cell phone, RSSP, batteries, or accessories, we get written up. If you think about it, you would be pushy too if your job depended on it.
Third, a lot of people say that Radioshack employees don't know anything. Half of the time we do know but you are too stubborn to listen to us. Elderly people at the worst with this. Since I am in my twenties old people come in and assume that since I am so young I know nothing and they won't deal with me. Most of the time they ask for my manager. I will tell old people something but they will not believe me, then they talk to my manager who tells them the same thing and suddenly now they understand what I told them.
Another thing that will get you bad customer service is when you walk in, 90 percent of the time you will be greeted, when you say you don't need any help, we assume that you don't need help. So when you decline the help we offer don't expect us to stay by you so you can ask us questions that you stated before that you didn't have.
Another thing is that we don't know everything about everything that is carried in the store. And sorry to burst your bubble but hardly anyone that works at RadioShack has a masters degree in electronics, so maybe we don't know everything. As it turns all those people with degrees in electronics don't want to work for radioshack.
Last thing, if an employee seems upset because you are returning something it's because we are probably losing money on our pay checks. I'm sure that if you were in our situation you would be upset as well. I know it's hard to believe but Radioshack only pays minimum wage plus commission. So if our paycheck get even smaller it just makes matters worse.
If you do need to return something, return it for a just cause. Let me let you in on a little secret, the company name is RadioShack not "rent-a-shack" so don't just buy something cause you need to use it once then return it. It's a waste of our time and we know when people do it. Finally, if you return something because it "does not work" it's probably because you do not know how to use it.
Every time I get a "it didn't work" return, I try it out, and I would say about 85 percent of the time, guess what it works!! Shocker. So if you get an employee that "doesn't care" it's because we get paid next to nothing and most of us are just working there to have some income while we are looking for another job.
ANKENY, IOWA -- This guy fulfills every single one of the stereotypes of salesmen. He was pushy, convincing, and I actually thought that he liked me as a person and wasn't just looking for a cheap sale. I went into the Ankeny Radioshack looking for a cable, but soon got into a conversation with a clean-cut person who started me on the topic of cell phones. To be honest, he didn't lie to me, except perhaps by omission.
He ended up selling me an AT&T phone with "3G coverage." I forget what it's called all that's under the battery is a bunch of numbers. Surfing the internet from my phone was enticing, because I hate to be stuck at the office or at home waiting for an email that never seems to come on time. He said that he routinely got speeds that were in approximation to a DSL line. I have a DSL line, and I knew that it was a good thing, because mine was very fast, and I didn't have to wait for pages to load like I used to.
Needless to say, I was told that internet wouldn't be an issue in terms of cost, that the phone came with an unlimited data package. The bills are sort of steep in my opinion, but that's not what I am complaining about. What I AM complaining about was how I was treated when I returned with the phone and all the paperwork about a week later (to the day it's been about a month since this whole problem has been resolved).
What sent this whole chain of events into play was that I talked to a techie coworker who stated that my phone was not '3G' capable, and even if it was, '3G' was not available in my area. What?! He was so insistent that it was! I also noticed that the phone was NOT as fast as DSL, and I talked to my coworker some more. He pulled up some tool and showed me that my speed was 7 kb per second.
I don't know what that means exactly but he said that it was about 100-times slower than DSL. I soon realized that when I tried to go to another more high-data site than my original email inbox (the thing that I checked the most). So I took the phone back and told him about it. He stated, almost verbatim, that "he [coworker] didn't have a clue as to what he was talking about." I told him that I did tests and it looked like my friend was right. He told me that I didn't know what I was talking about!!
So, I just asked him if I could return the phone. He said I could as long as it was within a month. I said "OK it's within a month here you go," but he needed to see my receipt. I was told when I purchased the phone that my receipt would be kept track of electronically!! Hence the forceful taking of my personal information, which I disapproved of. I told him about this but he said that the electronic receipt didn't count, that I needed the original.
I was getting frustrated at him at this point, but I kept a cool head, because I knew that I wouldn't get anywhere with anger. So I said that I would be back with the receipt and went to my house to look for it. I found it and returned. This time, he stated that it was too far out to be returned. Did this guy think that I was an idiot?? He turned and smirked at a coworker.
I asked to see a manager and that's when he got hot under the collar. He said "He's not here." Then I was going to ask him for a card of his but he said "I AM the manager!" His face was red and he was furious at me. I guess that he thought I was going to complain about him, but if he had stopped there I would have just looked for a resolution to the whole situation and gotten return for the phone.
He swore under his breath at me and started maniacally asking me if I knew who he was. I said that his nametag said **. He asked me if I knew who his grandfather was. I said no and that I just wanted to return the phone. I was still not upset but I was getting frustrated at this schizophrenic behavior.
He took the phone out and said that there was a scratch on it, and the phone had to be new. He showed it to me and I couldn't really see how a scratch of that size could be a factor in returning the phone. Then he said that he would be back and he walked off. He must have been gone for ten minutes and then he came back and started typing on the computer. I just stayed over by the TVs because I didn't want to upset him anymore. Then he started asking me for information and he finally did the return.
All in all, this ** guy has some major issues beyond the scope of the job. I have later learned from my3cents that workers are paid on commission basis, which could have been the reason why he pushed me so hard to get the phone. However, I don't think that I deserve to be treated as I was. No one does. I don't deserve to be mocked openly by someone who obviously thinks himself too good to be working for Radioshack..
I may consider going back to Radioshack, because it still has a lot of stuff that I find interesting, but definitely not at that store while he is working. Hopefully his behavior can be changed with some counseling, but besides that, until it is, I don't feel that he is suitable for that sort of work. He is too emotionally charged to perceived wrongs, in my opinion.
Anyway, this is not a complaint about a whole company, but rather of a given individual. I don't hate Radioshack now, despite him, and neither should people who read this. Just please be weary of the Ankeny store, and of a person there who obviously has some issues with you returning phones and interfering with his commission.
I have seen a few different situations regarding the Service plans we offer at Radio Shacks across the United States of America (and Puerto Rico). Having read a number of reviews while online searching about my beloved Company, I discovered some discontent about the RSSP (RadioShack Service Plan). I would like to break down the reasons a person should or should not purchase a RSSP.
I will make references to the real scenarios I have seen in my job for your benefit. When not to buy- If you are a particularly hard handler of your products, you should not buy a RSSP. It covers normal wear and tear. It does not however, cover if you let your portable DVD player fall into the wrong hands and the hinge gets snapped. If you work in Construction, do not purchase a RSSP on your phone. If it falls off the roof of a worksite and cracks the screen, it will not be replaced. In fact if you are going to crack the screen of anything don't worry about the RSSP... it won't help you.
If you use your Cellphone around water, do no buy the RSSP. In mid 2008 they began covering "Minor" humidity Damage. We really just tell you it doesn't cover water damage. Because it doesn't. It covers Humidity Damage, that means the water indicator in your phone has turned LIGHT PINK. Not Red and definitely not the shade of red where it has gotten so wet the sticker peeled off some. In the beginning I saw a phone that had been in the rain all night get sent out and replaced. Since then the rules have been tightened significantly and you really are only going to be able to bring Humidity damage in.
If your product is Likely to be stolen. Don't buy a RSSP. I know, bad things happen to good people. But The Vast majority of people rarely have things stolen. Cell phones are a major risk item. If your child had lost more than one phone in the past two years, don't get the RSSP on their phone. If you Have your phone stolen or lose it frequently, don't get a RSSP.
When To buy- When you are purchasing an item that will be used every day and is plugged into a power line constantly. The world is Fallible, if you have something plugged in all the time. The odds of it getting fried with a power surge is higher. Also, for those of us with surge protectors, be aware that phone lines and Television cables can carry a surge just as easily. A major benefit of the RSSP is that in the event of a power surge you will be protected.
If you are able to maintain a level of protection to your product. That sounds like an entirely exclusive statement, but you don't have to be an old lady that only calls on her phone once a week on Sundays to protect your investments. Simple things like Keeping cords out of reach of your pets and children can make the RSSP a good investment.
If the Item has a Rechargeable battery. You really want the RSSP. I've never purchased anything at a Radioshack that had rechargeable batteries without the RSSP. As long as you get the two year plan, you get a new battery for your product once a year. In the case of cordless house phones it gets each handset a new battery once a year. That sort of savings racks up really fast. I've seen people of all tracks of life save 20 bucks a year on batteries. Not even a joke.
There are things that will make your life easier with a RSSP- Get the Terms and conditions with the purchase. The little booklet will give you all the information you will ever need. You don't need the receipt to use a RSSP. You just need to know the phone number you put on the RSSP. We can look you up by that alone. But if you bring us the receipt with it, it makes our life easier.
Any associate or manager who tells you we cannot call in to get your product sent out for repair is being lazy. I love my company and I would like to believe that no one in it would be like that but I've seen it happen. If you run into this, simply ask for the number of the next highest rank in radioshack. The district office number is a particularly good resource. The next highest level will more than likely make up for whatever shortcoming the first had.
I would also like to think customers are all completely honest people, but on the safe side, Don't worry about trying to scam the system because your child/dog/significant other broke something. The rules are very definite and getting angry at an associate for following them just makes the poor associate feel terrible on something they didn't deserve the abuse for.
If you keep these things in mind, you should have a very knowledgeable basis for if a RSSP is right for you. Don't feel bad about saying no if you know buying it is a waste of your money. As a side note. To Consumers who have been turned from Radioshack because of bad experiences with the RSSP, I urge you to give us another shot.
A lot of improvements have been made to our company in recent years and You have to consider that Assurant (our RSSP handlers) is in fact an entirely different company and sometimes we simply don't have the power at the store level to deal with their inner workings. Be Patient and we will work our hardest to solve the problem for you.
KETTERING, OHIO -- I went to the Radio Shack store on December 17, 2008 and at 5:34 pm I placed an order through a sales person and was told it would be shipped to the store to save me the shipping cost. I gave him my information and my credit card and was told that it might not be here before the 26th unless I wanted to pay for the faster shipping, which I declined. I was given a 2 page receipt showing what appeared to be all the pertinent information> There was nothing on this receipt about any refund or return policies (special or otherwise). On 12/17/2008 at 5:34 pm I received an email.
The next morning 12/18/2008 (prior to 10:00 am est) I called the online customer service and asked to cancel the order and said I did not want it put on my credit card. The young man I spoke to said it was in processing and he did not know if it could be canceled. He said I would get an email which would state if it had been canceled or shipped. He told me that if it could not be canceled, I would have to wait until it came to the store to cancel my order.
While this states there will be a return form included with the package - again there is no specific information and nothing about not being able to cancel the order when it comes to the store. On December 23 I receive a phone call from the store telling me my package is in. When I get to the store, I said I wanted to cancel the order and the man said that they would have to ship it back and then I would get my money back. I said I did not like that, I did not want the product.
He said that was the only option. I then had to sign a paper saying I had received the item and then another paper stating I was returning the item. That sheet a note that stated that I would receive my refund within 10 to 15 days after they receive the product back at the processing center.
When I got home, I called the customer service line and asked to speak to a supervisor - he said the same thing and said he could not do anything to help me. I feel this is totally unreasonable and unfair as I was not given any of this information at any time during the entire 7 day process, plus I never had actual possession of the product at any time.


text:
Over the past week, the Hot Topics included MLS transfer rumors, the U.S. national team year in review and the possibility of Maza Rodriguez returning to Mexico.
Refresh yourself with the article, check out the comment Goal.com editors chose from one of the website's users and see our response. And let's keep the discussion going!
|Top five MLS stars likely to leave in January
User: Cesar
Wasn't Andy Najar one of the players in the Olympics? They were one of the most impressive teams and look to be real good in the future. More of them deserve to be in Europe. I know that one dude Espinoza left already. Best of luck to him and the other Honduran players. Hope one day CONCACAF could be more than a two trick pony.
Editor response:
There have always been talented teams in CONCACAF, with Honduras being one that regularly produces high-end talent. The group from the Olympics was no different. That doesn't always translate to having a good senior team, but the gap in talent in CONCACAF is probably smaller now than it has been since the mid 90s. Honduras has an exciting young group, Jamaica could pontentially add a couple of quality players to its team and Costa Rica has never lacked in pure talent. Even Panama has a couple of young players who are worth watching. The 2013 Hexagonal should be fun too, but the qualifying cycle for the 2018 World Cup is where I expect one of the top two may be in for a shock.
-Allen Ramsey, Goal.com USA Chief Editor
|U.S. national team 2012 year in review
User: bnizzlesub4
I want to know why the Italian game wasn't even mentioned. I thought that alone as a huge leap forward for America. To beat such a stingy team on their turff was my favorite moment of the year. Yes, there were issues with the national team in some key qualifying games, but I feel the quality of American Soccer has never been higer. We might not 'win' as much but the foundation for the type of players and system look better than at anytime in the history of the American game.
Editor response:
I agree that the Italy win was definitely a landmark moment for the U.S. men's national team this year, as was the win in Mexico. Both were confidence-inspiring events that proved that the U.S. can win in places where it never had before and ended with the U.S. men walking away with earned respect. In terms of the grand scheme, though, those wins were nowhere near as significant as the triumph over Spain in the 2009 Confederations Cup, another instance in which it seemed as if the U.S. was ready to launch to greater heights. Even more, those two wins came in friendlies during a year in which World Cup qualifying was ultimately what mattered, and in both games, the U.S. did little to dictate the match and instead defended valiantly and scored opportunistically. It seemed that no matter how much the U.S. was able to prove against those world powers in hostile environments, it did not necessarily translate into vast accelerated improvement and success against some of CONCACAF's mediocre opponents in qualifying. Whether those experiences can help in the tough matches that await in 2013 will ultimately determine how important they were.
-Avi Creditor, Goal.com USA Editor
|Should Maza Rodriguez return to Liga MX?
User: allende05
he is still our most experienced defender so i doubt it will hurt his chances. i mean, look how long it took for rafa to finally get pushed out of the team. what i am concerned about is his mentality. he still has the skills to play in europe and i think this stop with stuttgart has hurt his confidence a bit and will take him a while to recover. i hope that a la liga team swoops in at the last minute to pick him up though. i think he can still be strong for us through 2014.
Editor response:
Maza has proven himself in Europe for years now. It's normal that a guy his age and with his track record could be homesick. As you point out, Maza is Mexico's most experienced defender along with Rafa Marquez, and yet he's still struggled to see playing time in different spells with Stuttgart. I don't think it's such a bad thing that he would want to come back. Players coming in from Europe have had a varying effect on the Liga MX, but guys like Gerardo Torrado and Lucas Lobos were able to maintain their level for years. With younger players shipping out to Europe soon, having a guy like Maza will only be a boon.
-Eric Gomez, Goal.com Mexico Chief Editor


text:
Brief SummaryRead full entry
The genus includes many economically important crops, garden vegetables, and herbs, including onions (A. cepa), shallots (A. cepa var. aggregatum), French shallot (A. oschaninii), leeks (A. ampeloprasum), scallions (various Allium species), Welsh onion (A. fistulosum), garlic (A. sativum), wild garlic (A. ursinum) and chives (A. schoenoprasum). Global production of onions was more than 73 million metric tons (harvested from 3.6 million hectares) in 2008, and over 22 million metric tons of garlic (from nearly 1.4 million hectares; FAOSTAT 2011).
Alliums are also planted as ornamentals. There are over 150 species and cultivars that have been developed for garden use, with colors ranging from white to blue to shades of purple, and flower heads up to the size of a softball (Davis 1993).
The Allium genus is taxonomically difficult and species boundaries are unclear. Most authorities accept about 750 species, but estimates range from 260 to 860 (Hirschegger et al. 2010, Rahn 1998). The type species for the genus is Allium sativum. The Allium genus was formerly placed in Liliaceae, and later in Alliaceae, but the 2009 classification by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group treats Alliaceae as subfamily Allioideae of Amaryllidaceae (APG 2009).
Allium species occur in temperate climates of the northern hemisphere, except for a few species occurring in Chile (such as A. juncifolium), Brazil (A. sellovianum) or tropical Africa (A. spathaceum). They vary in height from 5 cm to 150 cm. The flowers form an umbel at the top of a leafless stalk (scape). The bulbs, which are usually tunicate (covered with a papery skin), vary in size across species, from very small (around 2–3 mm in diameter) to rather large (8–10 cm). Some species (such as Welsh onion, A. fistulosum) develop thickened leaf-bases rather than forming bulbs.
Allium species produce chemical compounds (mostly cysteine sulfoxide) that give them a characteristic onion or garlic taste and odor. Folk medicinal uses of Alliums are numerous, and considerable research has focused on identifying and examining compounds for medicinal use. Allicin, derived from garlic, is used for fighting fungal infections and parasites, lowering blood cholesterol, and promoting circulatory function (Biser 1998). Preliminary European findings suggest that a diet high in onions and garlic is correlated with reduced risk of several cancers (Galeone et al. 2006). However, some onion species are toxic to cattle, cats, dogs, sheep, and goats (Cope 2011, Merck 2011).
Some Eurasian Allium species have escaped cultivation and naturalized widely in North America. A. vineale is reported invasive in Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia, and is classified as a noxious weed in Hawaii and California (USDA Forest Service 2006). In Arkansas, wild onions and wild garlic (Allium spp.) are classified as noxious weeds.


text:
AROSA, Switzerland - When on the road with small children, parents have the formidable task of leading them to experiences of surprise and joy that are mixed with security, balance and comfort. That is why, for our ski vacation this year, my wife and I chose to bring our toddler, Ryan, to Arosa, a winter resort in the Swiss Alps. Reached either by train or a famously twisting mountain road, Arosa has traded on its relative inaccessibility to make itself into a genteel and engaging family destination.
Day-trippers and weekenders, as anxious as they are everywhere to cram a good time into a few hours, are relatively infrequent here because it is hard to make a quick journey by road to and from any of the major Swiss cities. Visitors to Arosa tend to come and to linger. When families arrive, it can be in caravans stretching for three generations: The grandparents, who first discovered Arosa, still come, even if they no longer ski; the parents take to the slopes; depending on the age of the kids, they are either just learning to ski or are being taught how to snowboard without crashing into one another. Arosa is filled with walking trails for those who once skied or who snowboarded or never did, and at several points when we skied, we had to break for pedestrians crossing our path.
With 43 miles of runs and 13 lifts, Arosa is comparatively compact by Swiss standards, and yet there are four complete kids' areas where children can learn to ski in safety, under the patient and expert supervision for which Switzerland is famous. Across the mountains of Arosa, children in color-coded vests follow in line behind blue-and-yellow uniformed instructors like ducklings trailing their mothers. They learn the Swiss method, which stresses technique and attention to what the mountain is telling you in the angles of the slopes, in the weather and in snow conditions. It is mixed with a uniquely carefree Alpine celebration of the fun of it all.
When you ski like a Swiss, you embrace the predominance of nature, respect it and follow its lead, all in the service of having a good time. The instructor/ guide we hired for a day, Bruno Tobler, had a big smile, engaging personality and a hawk's eye for correct technique, which we practiced under his supervision. After a few decades of skiing, I believe I am at last getting close to correct Swiss form; the small children who scooted past us behind their instructors seemed poised to reach that goal a week from Thursday, latest.
Ryan, exposed to it all for the first time at just over 3 1 / 2years of age, skied for a bit - I'm estimating about two, perhaps three minutes. It made no difference that Swiss children younger than he were already on skis. Instead, he developed other interests. He liked sledding with other toddlers in the child-care center at the ski school. He liked the play room as at the two hotels we visited, and the staffers and the children he met there. And he developed a taste - surely to become lifelong - for Swiss chocolate.
Surprisingly to us at first, we found ourselves following our son's lead. Typically, and at my wife's enthusiastic insistence, we ski the whole day through, but in Arosa, we slowed down, not only to spend more time with Ryan, but to experience the other pursuits that an Arosa-style mountain trip integrates into your day.
For instance, one night I tried curling for the first time. I have always wanted to master a sport originating in Scotland, if only to show my wife and her Scots-Irish (and part-Swiss) family that I'm up to it. Curling is Scottish shuffleboard on ice: instead of a disc, you shove a forty-pound stone down the curling sheet. Someone else rapidly sweeps a broom in front of it in an effort to alter range and trajectory. Although my teammates were as new to the sport as I was, and one of them had to divide her new devotion to stones with attention to her sleepy eighteen-month-old daughter, the competitive spirit took hold, and stones slid back and forth with ever greater force and accuracy. I turned out to be our star player (given that none of us was really all that good), and I carried our little team to victory.
One afternoon, my wife joined me for an hour's lesson in cross-country skiing, which proved to be more aerobic than downhill but much easier to pick up if you already know how to get down a mountain on skis. The cross-country area is a golf course in summer, and we next had what can only be called an aerobic stroll through the course and the surrounding woods (taken by sliding on two narrow boards).
The key, in short, to understanding a comparatively low-key resort like Arosa is to forsake expectations of aggressive fun. As a New Yorker, in the Hamptons summer resort complex, I all too often see the attitude of "I'm going to have a good time now even if it kills me - or maybe you." In Arosa, you trade such meditations for a Swiss acceptance of harmony and balance.
Nothing could better illustrate Arosa's easy gentility than our hotels. I use the plural because two of them came so highly recommended by friends, in the end we decided to audition both in order to make up our minds for next time. (The answer, of sorts, is in the information box below.) Both are on the edge of town, minutes from each other by foot. We started at the Tschuggen Grand Hotel, which has a private, luxurious ski lift that Ryan saw as a ride in itself and indeed had the feel of a roller coaster in the uphill segment of its track. The newly renovated lobby, by the Swiss designer Carlo Rampazzi, is sophisticated but traditional enough in execution to maintain a mountain feel. La Vetta, the gourmet restaurant, carries a Michelin star. Unlike similar hotels in St. Moritz, however, you do not need to dress in business or even formal attire for dinner, and the large number of restaurants (five plus the Cigar Lounge, which we only saw during a smoke-free moment), made dining on-campus possible without ever repeating our choice of venue.
The Arosa Kulm has a somewhat more informal feel, even as it is run with the same fine attention to guest services. There is no private lift here, but you have only to walk across the street and take two short people movers to the nearest gondola, and up you go. The Arosa Kulm also has many restaurants, including the Ahaan Thai, which specializes in Thai cuisine, the Swiss-educated king of Thailand having formerly been both a skier at Arosa and a guest at the hotel. On our first day, the weather was so mild, we took our lunch on the terrace of our room, which had a mountain view.
Throughout our stay in Arosa, there were many small moments of serendipity. One night, there was a concert at the Bergkirchli, a demitasse mountain church dating from the late fifteenth century. As the audience in the full, small nave watched the snow fall through arched windows, Thomas Weber, an accordionist from Zurich, and Franco Mettler, a woodwind player from the nearby city of Chur, delivered everything from Bach to "The Godfather Waltz." We exited to free hot punch, offered in the gently falling snow. On another night, at the Tschuggen, a combo played old favorites after dinner at the Grand Restaurant, the hotel's main restaurant, as our toddler danced with my wife, and the small children of a couple from the Lucerne area danced with their father. From a lobby window on the next evening, we watched a show put on by the ski instructors to the music of ABBA, followed by fireworks.
There was even serendipity of a kind in the traditional regional meal at the Tschuggen's Buendnerstube restaurant, followed by family bowling at a two-lane alley inside the restaurant itself. (The Arosa Kulm has a similar in-house alley.) And for me, there was total serendipity on our last full day, when it snowed and my wife, being the more enthusiastic skier, went up to the top of the highest peak, the Weisshorn, and I stayed near the children's area to go sledding with Ryan. He still shares his memories with friends of how he and I went sledding together - and fell off! (I need a bit more practice, it appears.)
Arosa's comparatively small scale will change somewhat starting with the 2013-14 season, when a long-planned (and much debated) cable-car linking Arosa to the larger Lenzerheide area will open. Lenzerheide is more popular with day-trippers, and many residents of Arosa have feared that joining up with it will change their area's character. The advantage is that the link will about triple the total length of slopes you can ski on an Arosa pass. As for ambience: People from Lenzerheide may ski into Arosa to have a look, and skiers from Arosa will surely reciprocate, but when the lifts close, each place will stand on its own once more, and the family-friendly gentility that makes Arosa special will, I predict, comfortably prevail.
As people who have come back to Arosa time and again have explained to us, it is an atmosphere that makes you feel you can and should be a part of it.
GETTING THERE: We flew Swiss International. Do you want yet another story about Swiss service? When one of us lost his Mont Blanc pen when it fell from his pocket while sleeping in his fully reclining seat in business class, the purser all but pulled apart its upholstery in midflight, saving the author from the loss of his precious instrument. Tel: 1-877-359-7947; http://www.swiss.com.
STAYING THERE: Trying to judge between the Tschuggen Grand Hotel and the Arosa Kulm is fun but rather futile. In part due to its sophisticated decor, the Tschuggen comes across as more Euro-chic and consistently elegant. The Arosa Kulm counterbalances with Alpine conviviality and a relaxed quality familiar to premier ski hotels in the American West. The Tschuggen has the bigger and more dramatically designed spa, but the spa at the Arosa Kulm has more types of baths and saunas, including the scalding "Elephant Sauna," which has its own Alpine view. Headed by La Vetta, the Tschuggen has the better restaurants in-house, but the Stueva Cuolm, free-standing Tuscan restaurant of the Arosa Kulm (located in a traditional Alpine hut near a gondola base) served us our most surprisingly unique meal; even standards such as pea soup and Gluehwein - hot mulled wine - were delivered with new and clever complexity. So do what we did: Divide your time between them both and make up your own mind for your return visit.
-Tschuggen Grand Hotel; tel. +41-(0)81-378-99-99; http://www.tschuggen.ch. You can also reserve through The Leading Hotels of the World: tel.1-800-745-8883; http://www.lhw.com.
-Arosa Kulm Hotel; tel. +41-(0)-81-378-88-88; http://www.arosakulm.ch.
DINING OUT: We had a lovely dinner downtown one night at the Vetterstuebli, a respected hotel restaurant featuring regional cuisine. Tel. +41-(0)81-378-80-00; http://www.arosa-vetter-hotel.ch.
ACTIVITIES: Our cross-country afternoon took place outside of town on what, in the summer, is a quite challenging mountain golf course. Cross-Country Center Geeser, tel. +41-(0)-377-22-15; http://www.geeser-arosa.ch. Curling took place afterward at the town's ice rink. The evening ski show is performed three times per season, to a party atmosphere (complete with warm drinks served tent by the Arosa Kulm in a clubby tent).
DOWNHILL SKIING: We rented our nearly new equipment from Carmenna Sport downtown, but there are many fine rental places throughout. No matter what you forgot to bring, there is a store within walking distance from where you are to offer you a choice of replacements. Tel. +41-(0)81-377-12-05; http://www.carmennasport.ch.
Weekly lift tickets are on sale at four locations at the base of the mountains, and toddlers ride for free. For information on the area and lift tickets: http://www.arosa.com. For the ski school: tel. +41-(0)81-378-75-00; http://www.sssa.ch/en.
-Alan and Julie Behr


text:
I've already made all the jokes I can think of about thinking Ryan Reynolds is hot and I've also already made the joke about how I've made all the jokes so I'm pretty much out of material here. Let's just get to the point then and talk about how he's in talks to play the lead in a new film titled "Voices". The film is a dark comedy about a factory worker who accidentally kills a woman and begins to hear voices as he tries to cover it up. Then let's talk about those two pools of wonderment he calls eyes.
"Snow White and the Huntsman" director Rupert Sanders is apparently in talks to direct Tom Cruise in a dark new version of Van Helsing. I know people on the intertubes blow things out of proportion a lot of the time with crap like this but I'm 99% sure my eyes will shoot blood if and when I'm forced to watch this.
Troubling news from the "Chronicle" camp. It looks like the smart folks over at Fox have shot down Max Landis' script for the sequel because they just want the same film as the first. What Fox isn't taking into account is the first film wasn't very good. And that whiny kid's face was all annoying when he started tossing around cop cars and crap. And the first film wasn't that good.
Yes they're making a "ThanksKilling 3" and no there wasn't a "ThanksKilling 2" and yes the reason for that is 100% confusing. There's something about the killer turkey trying to find a copy of the second movie... which never actually existed... and then a lot of puppets die or something. I'm just lost.
I'm just going to come out and say it. Tobey Maguire is a creepy little man child. He weirds me out and I haven't slept well since I knew he existed. And now he's been added to the cast of the big screen adaptation of "Z for Zachariah". The film tells the story of a girl who runs the only farm left on the planet with breathable air after the world ends. Well I mean I guess it doesn't end. She's alive. People come and meet her. This doesn't sound so bad after all.
Everyone's favorite.... I don't really know, Lara Jean Chorostecki has been added ot the cast of the upcoming NBC show "Hannibal". She'll play Freddy Lounds in the series I've explained too many times to count so I'm not going to bother doing it again. I've still only seen "Silence Of the Lambs" so I have no clue what all this means.
Terry Crews is both lovable and frightening. It's kind of amazing. I wish I was him... a lot. And now he's been cast in "Scary Movie 5", a film which is both unnecessary and not wanted. Wait no, those two things mean the same thing. I'm awful at this. Anyway I don't know what role he's going to play but if I was going to guess I would say big hulky man who is afraid of everything. Just taking a shot here.
I know we're all still very upset about K-Stew-Pat-Son Gate 2012 and I'm not sure this new development is going to make things any better. It looks like Kristen Stewart has in fact been dropped from the sequel to "Snow White and the Huntsman." I know, it hurts. Apparently there's three films planned and K-Stew will no long appear in any of them. They may also go back and digitally remove her from the DVD version of the first film. Probably not though.
We debate who the sexiest person in this film is, and you might be surprised by the answer (okay, maybe not).
"Snow White and the Huntsman" is a Hollywood engineered butterfly crawling from a craggy, slippery, gooey cocoon. Throughout the film I couldn't help but imagine how incredibly different it would have been had it been made under looser financial and studio concerns. There are just enough weird, gross, and critically minded themes reappearing throughout that it makes the remaining 75% of what we are given that much more frustrating and exhausting. This is particularly evident in the way the film's main antagonist Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron) is framed.
Summer movie season is here in all it's popcorn filled glory. Though as fun and indulgent as this time of year is for film fans, it can often leave horror fans wanting. Yet a strong set of films is on the horizon that should keep genre fans relatively happy throughout their summer break.


text:
After going down to a defeat last week in the second round of the 2013 Brazil Open, the country's only ATP World Tour event, local star Thomaz Bellucci found himself booed off court by the home crowd at Sao Paulo's Ginasio do Ibirapuera. Though he knows this was primarily a sign of frustration and a typical fan reaction to disappointment, particularly in a country where behaviours drawn from the football world are all-pervasive, the negative reaction still cut deep.
Minutes later, when the downcast Bellucci was trying to explain his performance to the media, the player from Sao Paulo state went so far as to say that "it's not easy being a sportsperson in Brazil". On top of which it must be equally hard being a pro tennis player, a trade in which, however far you progress, the next defeat is often just round the corner.
Take the world No1, Serbia's Novak Djokovic, who in 2012 won six titles and established himself at the top of the global tennis tree. Yet for all that glory, even he found his efforts were in vain in a further 11 tournaments, which ended in the taste of defeat.
For the vast majority on the circuit, including current No38 Bellucci, a winner of three ATP titles in his career thus far, the win-loss ratio is even crueler. Put simply, playing tennis at the highest level meaning dealing with defeat often on a weekly basis, and in tennis there is nobody else to blame.
Experienced in coping with this scenario, Bellucci has also learned to take his football with a pinch of salt, being especially understanding with his beloved Palmeiras even when times are tough – such as when they were relegated to Brazil's second tier at the end of the 2012 season.
It is hardly surprising, therefore, that when speaking to FIFA.com about football in the days following the Brazil Open incident, the 25-year-old said "sometimes it wouldn't be bad to have another ten guys to share the burden".
FIFA.com: We know that you're a Palmeiras fan, but just how hardcore are you?
Thomaz Bellucci: It's true, my parents are Palmeirenses and that's how they've schooled me. (laughs) But, listen, I'm not that much of a fanatic. What I mean to say is that I always look out for their results, but I don't go to matches anymore and, more importantly, I don't get too down when the team loses. I get annoyed, but I don't let it affect my life. I even think that being a tennis player helps you cope better with those kinds of things. We play tournaments almost every week of the year and of course you only end up winning a small minority of them. Life has to go on.
I know how competitive football is nowadays, how many people play the game, how tough it is to make it as a pro and to get to play for a big club.
*On the subject of the fast-moving life on the circuit, are you still able to follow FIFA World Cups™?
*Wow, that [World Cup time] is a period which captures all of our attention and you manage to follow everything, wherever you are in the world. I remember that for the last one, in South Africa, we were in London playing at Wimbledon and every time Brazil had a match we made it our mission to find a cool restaurant with a TV which was showing the game. There's not much of a pattern to a tennis player's life, so while sometimes I'm in Brazil during a World Cup, most of time I'm travelling. A World Cup is something else. It's the best time to follow football.
*So, does talk even turn to the FIFA World Cup in the dressing room?
*Oh yes, there's plenty of banter flying around. It takes over all the conversations in the players' changing room. The Spaniards, for example, have been unbearable since they won the last World Cup, saying how they're the best. (laughs) Most tennis players chat about football a lot in the changing rooms: nearly everyone likes it and follows the game.
*On quiet days during tournaments, do people ever get together to kick a ball around?
*Ah, I know that a while ago that used to go on a lot, but the physical demands of modern tennis make it difficult for the players to get involved now. I don't usually play, specifically because I'm scared of getting injured, but the coaches are always having kickarounds. And, every so often, players get involved too, though it has to be a very laidback affair, because nobody can afford to get injured. If they did, it'd be really bad having to go on court with a knock and having to give a kickaround as the reason. (laughs)
*There's been a lot of talk about the stick you got from the Brazilian fans. Since you became a professional sportsman, have you changed the way you behave when watching games? Does it make you less likely to criticise a player?
*Yes, it does make a difference. You end up with a better idea of what professional sportspeople go through out on court or, in this case, on the pitch. But, on the other hand, every sport has its own peculiarities. One of the features of football is that it's a team sport, where you've got several team-mates to help you when you're having an off-day. And tennis, for its part, has a very unforgiving nature. On the one hand, you could be having a great day but your opponent simply plays better than you, which is ok. But then you might have a bad day – with stomach pains, not having slept or whatever – and even though you go on court wanting to play well, you can't manage it, and then on top of that you get criticised...
There are definitely days when it wouldn't be half bad to have another ten guys to share the burden and give you a hand! (laughs) So, each sport has its own characteristics. Both tennis and football are tough, enormously competitive sports and in Brazil even more so, where the attention football gets only piles on the pressure more. That's why I'm not someone who's critical. I know how competitive football is nowadays, how many people play the game, how tough it is to make it as a pro and to get to play for a big club. That's something I understand.