Author: admin

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WebHostingBuzz

My love affair with local seo services and cheap host: http://www.webhostingbuzz.com/ is quickly coming to an end.

When I initially started using them I had some pretty signficant up-time issues.   They agreed to move me to a different server.  The same one that a buddy of mine is using for his blog that has worked out well.   During my outages, his site was always still up.

Then out of the blue, on Christmas Eve no less, they decided to move me.

Since I control the dns of all my domains externaly (not with them) all my stuff broke.

If you want:

  • A webhost that will move your stuff without notifying you.
  • A webhost that will let you chat online with pre-sales support but not post sales support.
  • 12 hour ticket turn around, only to have to go through everything again to get your stuff fixed.

Use: http://www.webhostingbuzz.com/

All of this is exacerbated of course by the fact that my broadband is non-existant, so that already puts me in a bad mood.

Granted the hosting is somewhat cheap, but it should be a little more reliable than it’s been.  Especially when my recent issue was self inflicted by them.  A little notice would have been nice.   For the price of hosting, I somewhat expect an issue per-year.  But they are running well above that now.

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Dear Santa

Maria put this together with Molly’s help.  Thought some might enjoy..

dearsanta

Giant stuffed animals (not real ones).  🙂

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The Ohio Salvage Title Process

What a pain.

In June we purchased a nice/reasonable teenager car (1998 Escort ZX2).  Fairly low miles, good tires, with heat and AC for $1500.

Last week it was wrecked, or rather run into in a parking lot incident.   The damage wasn’t all that bad, but the suspension was broken.

IMG_3156 IMG_3163

The person was covered by Progressive.  All in all the claim service has been decent.  The problem is they won’t use any used/remanufactured/aftermarket suspension parts.  So the cost of fixing the suspension pushed passed the value of the vehicle.

Hence, it’s "Totaled".

It’s still a decent car given it’s purpose.  Good gas mileage, working AC, etc.

So we’re taking the settlement, minus the buy back ($250) and we’re going to fix it.   Cost to fix: ~$1200-ish.  that does not include a new bumper, but does include beating out the dent in the fender so it’s not so bad.  Remember, teenage driver, to/from school and work is it’s primary purpose.

So, the Salvage process goes like this.

To get the settlement from Progressive I have to convert the Title to salvage.  Cost: $5.00.

I then have to bounce next door and buy a Salvage Inspection Certificate.  Cost: $53.00.

The car is now Salvage and as such is not licensed to be on the road.  (We can’t drive it).  It will be fixed tomorrow or Saturday, but we’re stuck.  We can’t drive it until our inspection date which generally runs 30 days out.   The body shop had an inspection certificate which they claim is transferable so they made the inspection appointment for us for Dec 22nd.  So we’re without wheels until then.

We now wait for the car to be repaired, and for Dec 22nd to roll around.   We are permitted to drive it to the inspection location (on the certificate).

Once it passes, we then have to go back to the Title agency and convert the title to rebuilt salvage.  (Another $6.00).   Then again bounce next door to the registrar and pay to have the plate put back on it (Another $4.50).

The little costs add up, but it’s more the time and running around that’s a big pain in the butt.

It seems to me that this whole process could be streamlined for instant rebuilds like ours.   I recognize that most of them don’t go this way, but the typical 30 day lag for the inspection for instant rebuilds is a big inconvenience. 

Another fine example of how efficient our governments are.