Welcome to the CCS-Digital newsletter. Inside you will learn a number of things to improve your online experience, from scams to avoid, useful free software, discounts and deals available online and more.

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Hope you had a happy thanksgiving and wishing you happy holidays.

The discount code of spring18 (upper or lower case) will give you 5% off orders of $20 and up.

We are no longer sending out email reminders of the newsletter.
As you are probably aware, if someone makes a purchase from a site, that site has the right to add them to their mailing list. This is not considered spam as long as there is an easy way to opt out. We do NOT add people to our mailing list unless they specifically request it. The email for our newsletter contains no ads, just a link to the newsletter online. It also begins by saying one can be removed from the list just by replying with remove.

Despite this, a few morons signed up for the discount and then reported us for spam. A few sites (AOL, Yahoo) will block a site or even an entire server on the basis of 2 or 3 spam complaints. Customers emailed us with questions and our replies were blocked because of the complaints of a few morons. On top of that, we could not even remove them from our list because in some cases their emails were forwarded to other IDs and the complaining ID was not even on our list.

Then there are the actual spammers who spoof IDs. Someone called to complain that she received 200 emails from bestinkandtoner.com. We never send mail from that domain. Some spammer spoofed that ID (which is very easy to do and there is no way for us to prevent it). It did NOT go through our server. A knowledgeable person can look at the email headers and figure out where it really came from. But AOL, Yahoo and other lazy companies don't bother. If it says Bestinkandtoner, then Bestinkandtoner must be blocked. I wonder how much spam is sent from AOL and Yahoo IDs and how they would feel if other ISPs blocked all their email over it.

So we will not be sending out any emails about the newsletter to cut down on complaints. You can visit this link at the beginning of each month to see the latest newsletter. It still won't solve the issue of spoofing.

Get money back on almost every purchase you make!

Join Rakuten for free and get $10 off your first qualifying purchase and a percentage back on subsequent qualifying purchases. No fees, no minimums, totally free! I have been a member for almost a year now and it's nice to get those paypal payments for doing nothing except buying things I would have otherwise bought anyway. Join Rakuten

Ink Talk

Reduced Shipping Costs and Time on Canadian Orders

We located a supplier in Canada who will ship directly to Canadian customers. This will reduce both the shipping cost and the amount of time it will take to arrive. For credit card orders, you should see a lower total than what the website showed, once your order has been processed. For paypal orders, you should get a refund of the difference. If you want to know what your order will cost before placing it, choose Other Payment Methods. We will get notification of the order and reply with a total. You can then decide to proceed using paypal, credit card or other payment method.

Excerpt from Bloomberg article on HP

The HP 63 Tri-color ink cartridge retails for $28.99 at Staples. Stuffed with foam sponges drenched in a fraction of an ounce of cyan, magenta, and yellow dyes, that ink, which needs a refill every 165 pages, is ridiculously valuable. The solvents and pigments HP scientists concocted were so overpriced that the company could afford to sell its hardware at steep losses and make it up in ink and toner sales. The 1,000-liter vats of ink at HP’s manufacturing hubs might as well have been filled with Dom Pérignon.

Far from the grand vision of the HP Way, the executive team spent a significant portion of its research and development budget on ways to make its printers less compatible with other companies’ cartridges. An HP spokesperson says the company doesn’t prevent the use of refilled cartridges that have a genuine HP chip. (Not true. HP sued companies which were refilling their cartridges but lost)

In February 2019, HP projected its first decline in quarterly printer supplies revenue in years. This wasn’t some isolated issue. A critical mass of fed-up customers finally seemed to be sick enough of HP’s high cartridge prices to try generic ink resellers or, in some cases, counterfeiters.

Compatible Epson Cartridges Nearly Impossible to Find

We have been warning people for months that it will become very difficult to get Epson compatible cartridges. Customs has been stopping shipments from entering the country. Epson has been going after suppliers. Covid has also hurt imports. Our biggest suppliers stopped providing Epson cartridges. We have removed some models from our site and prices on other models are moving up. Don't wait for the last minute.

 

Now is the time to get a printer

Just about all the printer companies are jumping on the rip-off bandwagon where every printer needs a different cartridge. It used to be that a company would release 5 or 10 new printers a year and all would use the same cartridges. By making each printer use a different one, they know that the market for any one cartridge model will be limited so compatible manufacturers won't bother to make it. On top of that, they issue firmware upgrades via the Internet so even if you find a compatible cartridge, if you allow the upgrade to run, it will stop working. HP has put expiration dates into the chips so they will stop working. Epson has put unique serial numbers and doesn't allow the same number to be used twice. This has made their new cartridges very expensive.

For these reasons, we urge people to get one of the "older" printers now - the ones which still work with compatible cartridges or a new printer from Canon or Brother who have not yet jumped on the rip-off bandwagon. Otherwise you will be paying a fortune for ink. There are printers where the ink cost as much or more than the printer itself. HP and Epson have some inkjets where the cartridges are over $100 a set. HP has at least one where cartridges are $400!.

Right now the best inkjet is the Canon Maxify MB2720, currently $100 which uses cartridges in the $5 range. These cartridges are about 3x the size of standard cartridges (hence the name maxify) with about 1,000 page yield. Details on Best Printers. So far it seems the Canon models are not subject to the Epson firmware upgrade scam which follows but it's always a good idea to reject any upgrades a printer company tries to foist on you.

Texas AG May Sue Epson Over Dirty Tricks

I was a staunch advocate for Epson products for over 20 years but no longer. If you want all the details, you can read Epson dirty tricks.

Beware the firmware upgrade
Epson releases firmware upgrades which are sent to you via the net. All these do is prevent compatible cartridges from working. With single-use cartridges, most people use them within a few months of purchase so by the time the upgrade arrives, they are used. (Though we do get customers who hold them for months and then complain later - after running an upgrade - why they don't work. This is why our "official" warranty is 60 days. It's impossible to protect people from their own actions.) With refillable cartridges, people expect to use them for a long time. Then they run the upgrade which renders the cartridges useless.

Need a speaker for a user's group?

I have given online presentations to users' groups. If you have a group which meets regularly who would be interested in hearing about computer-related topics, drop me a line.

 

New Scam Bypasses Paypal and Credit Card Protection

I wanted to warn people about a new fraud which gets past paypal and credit cards. Someone sets up a fraudulent site like http://wansionlineshop.com/ offering items about 20-40%% below regular prices. The customer pays (as my daughter did) using a credit card through paypal, believing the promises of "protection." The first thing to happen is the seller raises the charge by 15% after payment has been made. When we contacted paypal, they said the charge was made as an authorization - not a charge - so the seller can change it. This is done without the buyer's knowledge or consent. When faced with this scam, paypal immediately refunded the extra charge, but not the original charge. I would think that when faced with proof of fraud, they would shut down the account and refund everything but that is not how they work.
 
After 8 days go by with no proof of shipping, we added to the dispute asking for a full refund. Seller then posted a tracking number of an item shipped that day. Several days later, tracking shows item was delivered, only we didn't get it. We called the Post Office and were told it was sent to a completely different address. Paypal says too bad, it shows delivered. We asked them why they don't make the seller show proof of where it was sent. Paypal's own terms say you must ship to the confirmed address. This proof is very easy for the seller to obtain. USPS Click-N-ship, stamps.com, endicia etc can all generate a report showing the tracking number and the address.
 
We then contacted the credit card. They said as long it shows a tracking number, seller is covered unless WE can prove we didn't get it. We would have been better off lying and saying we received an empty box. The local Post Office refused to give us that letter. Due to these rules, a scammer can ship an empty box to a confederate or to a random apartment building and then use that tracking number to "prove" he shipped out the order and the buyer gets scammed. Paypal, the credit card and the post office don't care.
 
I contacted the USPIS (Inspection Service) where one can report fraud and filled out a form. A few days later, I called them. The representative was friendly and agreed to send us an email stating that package was not sent to our address. Based on this, Paypal refunded the payment.

 

Another reason I am not an Amazon seller

Fifteen years ago, I applied to become an Amazon seller. They sent me instructions for creating a file to upload the items I was selling. After uploading, I checked my account daily and my items did not show up. I emailed Amazon several times and was given useless answers. Then they charged me a $2 commission on sales even though I hadn't made any. When they couldn't produce any records of sales, I canceled my account.

On Thursday, 11/26/2020, I received an email stating that my items were rejected because they violated Amazon's terms, with no further explanation. I was tempted to ask what terms were violated, but the answer will probably take another 15 years to show up.

 

Inspirational, amazing and fun

Artificial intelligence is not a threat to humanity. Natural stupidity is. family pays for his wedding after man saves daughter from drowning  
  Sweet story about an orphan and a special police officer. Get the tissues ready. When Red Balloons Fly - short video  
  Can Alzheimer's and degenerative diseases be treated by flashing lights?  
  Scientists cure diabetes in mice. Is a cure for humans at hand?  
  Kroger hires homeless woman who slept in the parking lot  
  teenage McDonald's employee pays for family's meal when mom forgot her wallet. she raises $32k for him on gofundme  
  british woman adopts 14 Tanzanian orphans  
  man walks into jewelry store, comes out with a kidney  
  former drug addict donates kidney to cop who arrested her  
  anonymous kidney donor turns out to be someone she knew  
  tiktok community raises $12k for 89-year-old pizza delivery man  
  couple returns $15k coin set forgotten in home by previous owner  
  teenager returns $135k in cash found next to ATM  
  boy opens lemonade stand, donates 22,000 diapers to single mothers  
  during a staff emergency, restaurant patrons jump in to run the place  
  family celebrates daughter's memory by anonymously buying birthday cake for stranger  
  man donates 25,000 baseball cards to girl who lost hers in a fire  
  musicians put on a drive-by concert during covid  
  hotel manager befriends autistic guest  
  plane passenger befriends the autistic boy sitting next to him  
  handyman makes custom swing for 7-foot-tall boy with autism  
  her dad's food truck made $6 a day until she took to twitter  
  Uber driver helps 89-year-old veteran living alone  
  Uber passenger makes prothetic hand for daughter of driver  
  cop pulls over the man who delivered him  
  incredible that NYC was able to turn a dump into a park  
  little boy forms special bond with UPS driver  
  scammer begs "victim" to stop responding  
  14-year-old's breakthrough may help cure covid  
  possible cure for MS?  
  restoring sight to blind people gene therapy  
  more gene therapy  
  bionic eye  
  one-armed drummer with prosthetic hand  
  prosthetic works on water and land  
  antibiotics may work as well as appendectomy most of the time  
  scientists may have found a way to heal damage caused by heart attacks  
  waterproof, itch-free, breathable cast  
  solar panels can generate water out of the air  
  engineers create keyboard out of a piece of paper  
  solar chimney cuts energy costs by 50%, increases fire safety  
  students invent device which captures waste material eroded from tires  
  students invent vacuum which separates sand from micro trash  
  students invent self-sanitizing door handle  
  first ever waste-plastic-to-fuel plant in Indiana  
  adidas sells millions of pairs of shoes made of ocean plastic  
  man invents shoes that grow so poor children don't outgrow them  
  stronger and more insulated than glass, biodegradable, transparent wood  
  woman invents car which can be driven while in a wheelchair  
  electronic synthesizer can play music with fruit  
  Dont worry be happy played on kitchen implements  
  Did someone capture ghosts at Gettysburg?  
  a 10-year-old girl challenged a famous drummer. not only does he concede defeat, he writes a song in her honor  
  3-year-old best friends reunited after 5 months of quarantine  
  apology brings two families together  
  customer forgets check for $424,000. waiter tracks her down and returns it even though she did not leave him a tip  
  do animals have compassion? some amazing videos  
  couple taking photos of lion they just shot get instant karma  
  wild monkey stuns woman by washing her clothes  
  funny animal photos  
  funniest amazon reviews  
  they left out mine  
  and another  
  more hilarious product reviews  
 

Until next time, have a great month!

izzy