Todays Lady

Would you like to know how to get your car repaired and not get ripped off? Well now that's a silly question, I know unless you really don't care about giving someone your hard earned money. I know I'd rather spend that money on a great outfit. So I knew I had to get what I wanted or someone else would. I found that knowledge and some well timed complaints are great tools to get me what I want. As you keep reading you'll feel confident that you can get what you want even if you know nothing about cars, I'm not talking about taking a class on car repair, no something much simpler than that.

Check this out. Take a second and jot this down, there are some critical steps to take to keep from getting ripped off.

Essential steps to take before just complaining to a car mechanic

The set up, this takes a bit of work but it can save you thousands of dollars, plus you have to have ammunition to get what you want.

Get more than one quote about what's wrong with the car. Don't ever trust the first person you go to unless you already have an established relationship with the mechanic. Request an itemized quote.

Once you get this complain about how high the cost is, looked shocked, even if you don't know anything about what the repairs should cost.

At this point you'll often have them work to convince you that their costs are the best in town, or they'll sell you on some particular aspect of the shop. Don't fall for this.

Just walk away, let him know you'll get back to them.

Critical, ask how long the job should take be sure you jot this down you'll need this later.

1. Compare Based on the quotes go online or to a library and compare the costs you were quoted with the warehouse cost of the parts.

2. Call back anonymously and ask for the hourly rate and the mark up. Don't be surprised if you don't' get the mark up amount, that's easy to figure out.

Okay now let's make a simple comparison

If you take the total cost per part, and add in the hourly rate for the job what do you see?

For example:

If the hourly rate is $40.00, this will vary depending on the place you live and the shop.

And the warehouse cost for parts, compare this to the shop costs for the parts.

Hourly Rate $40.00 job 3 hours total $120.00

Parts from the ware house $300.00 now take away the total from

Parts from the Mechanic $ 400.00, mark up is $100.00.

So in this example the cost for the work is $ 120.00 + $100.00 = $220.00

Compare the quotes, who has the lowest?

Next choose two:

Revisit the shops dress nice but not too nice you don't want to give him the impression that you've plenty of money lying around the house.

Find out who would handle your repair, depending on what's wrong they may have one guy who specializes in this.

Complement the shop; tell them what caused you to choose their shop for business. Thank him for his time, and then let him know what you've learned.

Complain about the high prices of other shops in the area, tell him you appreciate that the markup is not as high here. But tell him you've found another shop that's similar in price and then ask him why you should consider this shop over the other.

Do this at both shops and then make your decision.

These valuable tips will keep your money where it belongs with you, not with someone who thinks they can get the upper hand just because you're a lady; complaining and knowledge, now you're armed to get what you want.

In our electronic age, it seems that everyone is either Twittering, Facebooking, MySpacing and so on. If you're not on the net, well, you're not connected. Guess who else is joining us on the net? You guessed it - the sexual predator.

A recent study done in February 2009 by MySpace revealed that they had over 90,000 registered sex offenders on its site. This is after a strict policy of not allowing sex offenders access. They promptly removed them. Guess where they went? Sentinel SAFE, a security technology firm that helps social networks identify sex offenders, found over 8,000 of them were lurking on Facebook. Needless to say, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

So you know they exist, but what can you do to protect yourself? Here are a couple of common sense checkpoints to keep in mind when you are posting online.

• Make sure that your "friends" are your trusted friends and note your security protocol as to what folks can and cannot see on your page
• Take a look at the pictures you are posting, especially of your kids. Are there bus numbers, school names, house numbers, recognizable landmarks in the background?
• Eliminate dates and times of where you are going or have been. It makes it way too easy to stalk you.

Remember, that once a predator can connect you with your child, all they need are a few basic details regarding pets, vacations, schools, employment and friends to convince your child they are not a "stranger" and to let them in the house, pick them up or leave your neighborhood.

Always look at what you are posting from the other side. Ask yourself, if I wanted to hurt my family, how could I use this information? Once you have the answer, fix it so it cannot be used or limit who has access to the information.

In today's world, sexual predators have more access to information about us than they ever did. Let's not make their jobs any easier by leaving the "internet door open" for them to come in.