My cable and phone company call it REGIONAL. Not Global.
You asked, I answered.
Heh.heh heh. I chose not to respond to silliness.
A great resource as long as your provider doesn’t throttle the hotspot. I have unlimited data but… My T-Mobile phone throttles it to 3G unless I upgrade my service. It is a great idea to test that out before you need to use it.
During hurricane Ian, my power was out, DSL and cable internet was down but my cell phone based internet still worked once I get my generator running. I have a 5G home modem and router. it was wicked slow for a few days since it was likely wildly overloaded and had system hardware issues but it worked. It took weeks to months for the other systems to recover.
A couple years ago some buddies and I rented an RV to attend the Sebring 12 hour race weekend. We used his 5G phone (the only one of the 4 of us to have 5G then) to hotspot a Roku unit to stream the race so we had access to commentary and race position updates.
So the Craftsman rototiller needed a belt and I didn’t want to pay Sears $20 or whatever it was. I went to the parts store and, like you, got one that was that was 1/2 inch off. The one 1/2 longer slipped on the pulley and didn’t turn the tines part of the time. So, I got the one 1/2" shorter and it kept the tines turning all the time. Conclusion: proprietary parts that are intentionally designed to be available only from the retailer. Not the only time I have had this problem with Sears products.
Dad’s had good luck at Tractor Supply getting what he needs for the Sears lawn tractor and mower, rototiller was sold years ago. Sears had been dead to us years before they closed due to a subpar response to a goodwill request after being loyal customers since the early 70’s.
Thanks for that tip. I have gotten blades for Craftsman stuff and John Deer there. Never tried belts.
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Ya have to remember sears never made anything themselves, just contracted it out to Mtd or whoever. Changed all the time. That’s why the model numbers were so long.
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Yeah, belts are a b!tch for small equipment. They don’t build in much adjustment. Few years back, I was in a bind for my simplicity snowthrower. There’s a shop a decent ride from me but the guy there is unreal so I always go there.
I walk in and ask for a traction belt for my model. He doesn’t need to look anything up, he already knows the belt number and that he doesn’t have one in stock. It doesn’t matter what I come in looking for, this guy almost never has to look it up. He could do that for a 25 year old tractor I had some years back. So it’s no fluke.
So he says he’ll order one but if I need one today, here’s a belt number you can probably get at HD or Lowes that will work in a pinch. He was right, of course. And I got the OEM replacement a week later. By then, the other belt was starting to slip but got me through.
That’s the key right there, computers to look up parts.
I’m sure I’m not the only to remember car parts stores before computers. Books thicker than bibles sitting side by side, a car guy behind the counter who knew how to find anything in those books.
Today if the computer can’t find it, the clerk can’t either.
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And far too often, even IF the computer finds it… the clerk can’t!
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I have used both parts catalogs and computer parts catalogs, computers are so much better.
Computers can show bin location, dealer and warehouse inventory and price. With paper catalogs you need to refer to a current price list.
Look up a part on Rock Auto, takes 45 seconds. Would you rather use a row of catalogs 6 feet wide?
I don’t have a greater impression of counter men of 40 years ago, there are good and bad in every decade. If you only have access to chain discount auto parts stores, that is the problem. The counter men at Chief and Checker auto parts were no better than Auto Zone today.
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I learned on those thick parts catalog’s in the mid 90’s, we looked up parts for a particular vehicle as our classroom lesson every morning. Each student had a set of book, computers were on the counter but it came in handy a few times to pull a book and walk over to the car. Worked for a predecessor of Oreilly’s until 1999.
I visited a nat’l chain auto parts store just the other day and actually had a pretty good customer experience. I was able to find what I needed straight-away, right on their shelves. I took it to the counter, where they had 5 staff members manning the cash registers, total wait time maybe 3 minutes The only two negatives were (1) that the staff members looked to be pretty unhappy, no idea why; and (2) one of the customers was allowing their two children to play with toy cars right in front of the cash registers.
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If the computer says “Quantity: 1”
That usually means that there are NONE…!
How many kwezlin times has that happened to me…
As a customer, that situation doesn’t bother me much , as long as the staff say they will order it from their warehouse and phone me when have it in within a day or two. And when I return they are able to figure out where they put it after unloading the part off the warehouse truck.
Pisses the hell out of me!
hmm … Does that bother you b/c you believe that’s never supposed to occur? i.e. the list of inventory should always exactly match the actual stock? Or b/c there’s some sort of computer programming error and the computer knows there are none in stock but show “1” anyway.
Knowing a little bit about computer inventory, additions and subtractions require a warm body to hit the keyboard or scan the item. Doesn’t always happen. Plus the theft issue. In taking inventory, I have seen three people do the count and come up with three answers. Life can be frustrating which is why frustration needs to be saved for really important stuff.
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I always trust a human over some machine.