Lighting Up My Garage

I previously just had 2 bulbs in front of garage and there were 2 bulbs on the garage door opener placed in middle of garage. When we upgraded our house to chandeliers, I used 2 of the left over lights that had 3 bulbs each in them. A bit better but still no way was there enough light. I thought of putting in Spotlights all over garage but i wasn't too sure of how well they would perform.

Then I came across these 48" Fluorescent Shop lights at Rona for $22.99 each that can take 2x T8 34watt Bulbs. The bulbs were extra with 30000 hours life for about $12 a pair. I bought 5 of them, along with 10 bulbs which cost about $193 inc. taxes. 

I also purchased 20m 14/2 Armored Cable for $50.85, one 4" Round Junction Box for $7.99 and 2x 4" Round Covers for $1.09 each.

I have a lot of shelves in the back, on the sides and on the ceiling. So I decided to put 3 lights in the rear and 2 in the front. I didn't used the chain hooks but i opened up the light and screwed 2 directly onto the 2 shelves on each side of garage and one directly to ceiling in the middle. For the 3 lights in rear I changed the wire on them to armored cable then wired them to the junction box that I put in the middle of the three lights. Then I used these rather than twister caps to connect up the wires. This is because it is hard to twist 4 wires together and these little push connectors are easier to manage if you have lots of wires.

I ran one wire to the from the junction box to my light connection in the front. In the front i changed the 2 lights also to these fluorescent lights and used the cover to cover up the Junction box. Again the lights were mounted directly to the cieling. For under $300 I had my whole garage lit up.

My Vinyl Wrap Kit

Dawn Dishwashing Detergent

- Solvent Based Cleaner, Grease Remover

- Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA)

- Lint-Free Towel or Lint-Free Paper Towel

Squeegee w/ felt tip

- Heat gun

- Utility knife - homedepot

- 3M 94 Tape Primer

- 3M Edge Sealer

- WrapCut Tape

- Cotton gloves

- Masking tape

- Tape measure

- Infrared thermometer (optional)
- Roller

Fixed the oven for 50 bucks Error Code F9 LG Double Wall Oven

Shame on LG for not supplying a $10 part part for my $4000 broken oven that is less than 2 years old and already thermostat is gone. So after 3 hours off being bounced back and forth on the phone to them and their local authorized appliance repair company Shaugnessey Appliance I had enough. At first LG told me i just give Shaugnessey Appliance their reference number and they can deal with it form there. Shaugnessey Appliance wanted me to set it up separately with thim which is $90+ tax for showing up abd diagnosing and then parts and labour. I wanted to go through LG. But last LG agent told me that since my oven is out of warranty and since they don't have any of their repair people in my area i have to do whatever Shaugnessey Appliance is offering. So I went online and found out that actually the F9 Error that was showing on upper oven is because thermosat is broken and i need to replace it with part number 6930W1A003X. LG However refused to sell me he part (against their policy for some reason) and no appliance place apart from Shaugnessey Appliance can actually carry LG Parts. Not only that the cherry on top is that I have to get Shuagnessey Appliance to come and repair my oven. Since their start rate was $100 I really wasn't looking forward to a few hundred dollar bill that they were going to make for me. I wasn't going to give up thoug so finally I found my part at Sears Parts Direct Canada. I gave them a call and gave them the part number. The part was $8.99 with fla rate shipping of $9.99. Total about $20. Within a week i recieved the part and asked my handyman to come over as I wasn't too confident on handling it on my own.

I googled "service repair manual for LWD3081ST" to see what i have to deal with and if i could do it myself. To my surprise I found it.

http://www.appliancefactoryparts.com/content/pdfs/148178-8.pdf

If you scroll down to page 22 section 3-7 you will see the thermostat and its location.

We turned off the breaker at the mains so no power at oven.
We took 6 screws out to detatch the wall oven from cabinet. Removed the doors and kept it aside.
The we put cardboard down on the hardwood floor to make sure we don't scratch it and slid the double oven out onto it.
Once we had access to the back panel we took the screws out and took off the back panel.
The Thermostat was attatched on with one screw. We took it out and put the new one in.
Then I turned the breaker on and tested the oven and guess what it was working absoolutely fine.
Turned breaker off and put everything back as it was.
All in all for 2 people who have never fixed an appliance before this took us under one hour easily.

So shame on you LG for really poor customer service and product support. I will think twice before buying your product again.

Plastidip on Winter Wheels using Rustoleum Flexidip

Since i wrapped car matte black i had been itching to do something to my wheels to make em stand out. So I thought of plasti dipping my winter tires gloss black.


Total Cost = 4 Cans of Matte Black Flexidip @ 10.49 ea

4 Cans of Rustoleum Gloss Black Orotective Coat @ 7.99 ea

Plastic Sheets @ 1.25 ea

Masking Tape

Before i got started i cleaned the alloys to the best of my ability.

  Using plastic sheet which you can buy for $1 from the dollar store i covered my tires and then used masking tape around edges so i dont get any paint elsewhere. Also tires are laid on one sheet too so I dont get any paint on ground below.   First coat of plastidip. I think i put it on too heavy. There was a few drips etc.   Some chips but gonna do a couple more coats.         Plasti dipped all 4. Waited about 10-15mins between coats and 45mins to dry. before doing clearcoat.         Finished Product

Wrapping my Land Rover LR3

7 year old car. wrapping in mate black.
       
    

Fleebay and Paypal Explained for Buyers

 

After buying 100s of items on ebay here is a bit of advice for buyers on eBay.

1. Always check description very carefully and make sure everything is as described and you haven't overlooked anything.
2. See Youtube videos and try and google the product name to see if anyone has reviewed it or made a video on it. It'll give you a much clearer idea of the product before you purchase it.
3. Make purchase from ebay and I have only paid through Paypal because I find them safe to pay through. You will not need to pay any fees if you are a buyer.

How Paypal works

Paypal is a mediator between the seller and the buyer. It works for both.

1. If you have problem you can start a dispute within a particular time frame. That is 45 days from date of transaction. Normally, if you are buying stuff from abroad it takes 3-4 weeks to get to you anyway. So you are only left with about 15 days in order to try out item make sure eveyrthing is good.

2. If you start a dispute and seller asks you to end the dispute, the seller is trying to scam you. DO NOT CLOSE A DISPUTE UNLESS YOU HAVE REACHED A RESOLUTION. Because then you can not ever start anoter dispute and it is completely upto seller to give you a refund, and yes you will never get your money back. e.g., I wanted to get my older phone unlocked but wasn't with my previous provider anymore so i had to get my phone unlocked through third party. i contacted a few and went with the cheapest option of $49. The guy send me his PayPal address via text message. So I paid him and then he asks for $10 more. So I said no and ask for a refund. His action made be wary and i opened a dispute. the guy flips and says if I don't close dispute he is going to blacklist my phone and that i and ruining his paypal history. All this is a lie and a pressure technique. I immediately phoned paypal and described to them the situation and not only they added this report on his account so if he tries to do it again they will close his account, they immediately escalated the dispute to a claim and the guy was forced to give me back my money. And as far as blacklist is concerned the cellphone provider has record of me as the original purchaser of phone and if he did try to blacklist my phone (i'm guessing he worked for a company celling cell phones or something like bestbuy) he'd be easily tracked down.

3. You can also ask for a partial refund because sometimes items can be too expensive to send back. For Example, i ordered a set of wheels for my landrover from the states. I paid around $1200 after shipping and taxes and the seller said they will fit my vehicle. When I went to get them installed it turns out the front ones were hitting my caliper so they had to take it off and put my old ones back on. I had to buy spacers that cost me another $300 in order to get those wheels on. I started a dispute on PayPal and asked the seller to go half on the spacers which i thought was fair. So the seller did end up refunding me $150 to avoid the hassle and it worked out really good for both of us.

Do Customs Clearance Locally on Low Value Goods and avoid Brokerage Fee

Self Clearing remotely is only for low value items that are valued at Maximum of $2500 CAD. This is only for Personal items. For business purpose the process is slightly different. What you need to do is track your parcel and once it has cleared customs, phone your courier and ask for a Cargo Control Document or Manifest. They can email it to you. Print it out and take it to your local CBSA office along with your invoice and payment receipt. Pay your tax and collect the B15 form form the customs officer and then send the B15 form to your courier company to give proof that you have paid taxes. If in meanwhile your package is being delivered show the B15 form and receipt to the delivery person as proof that you have already paid the taxes. If you haven't done the payments and your package is beibng delivered tell delivery man to hold package at local facility and that you are in process of paying taxes yourself to avoid brokerage fee.

My First Experience with UPS and Self Clearing

18th June 2015
Parcel was shipped. I phone UPS and told them I will be doing self accounting.

19th June 2015
I recieved call from UPS in the morning. I told them again I will be doing self-accounting. Ask them to email me invoice. I took invoice and original invoice form ebay and paypal to my local CBSA office. Paid 10% ($12.30 CAD) customs tax and got the B15 form. Came back home phoned UPS on international number and informed them i have already paid customs and have the B15 form on hand and aks them where to fax it to. At this moment in time package hadn't entered Canada.

Weekend

22nd June 2015

I missed a call from UPS in morning and a voicemail was left. I called the number left on voicemail and pressed Option 3. Informed them I have the B15 form and would like to send it to them. She said it still hasn't cleared customs and I need to wit until shipment is released.
An hour after it showed on my tracking that shipment was released. I couldn't remember the above phone number as i had deleted my voicemail so I phoned UPS international number and told them i was asked to phone when shipment was released to find out where to send the B15 form. The representative told me that she'll put in a request for a call back tommorrow between 8.30 to 4.30 am.
I looked up on my home phone record and found the number left on my voicemail and called them again. Explained to them I was asked to call back after shipment had been released. She had the exact same response as the previous person. So I guessed i should wait for a call.

23rd June 2015
I wait whole day and no call from UPS. I was so furious when I got home and wife told me there was a package she had to pay $25.80 COD for. I immediately phoned UPS and just snapped. I asked the agent why i was charged tax if I had already paid tax before and everything has been recorded under my account. Agent was very apologetic and after speaking to the spervisor the agent said I will get my money back provided I send them the B15 form but it'll be subject to a $15 fee (can't remember what for it was something ridiculous). I said this to the agent.

"You are kidding right. You do know what you are doing is illegal. I have already paid the customs tax and have the B15 form and you are charging me for what. If you do not refund me the money i will be taking this case further at my local CBSA office."

Agent put me on hold to speak with the supervisor with not much better response so I told the agent to just put me through to the supervisor since they are not being very helpful. After a few minutes the supervisor picked up the call and again the supervisor was apologetic for this. I agreed with the supervisor that she should apologise because this is absolutely ridiculous. I explained to her the situation. After 25minutes of grilling her and aurguments and with her having no proof as to why i should pay $25.80 extra if I had already paid tax and realising it is an error on their end she agreed to give me full refund and gave a reference number. The supervisor was well confused. She said tax in Saskatchewan was 5%. I constantly kept reminding her that paying the tax is not what I have problem with and that it is 10% in SK.

UPDATE: They took payment out from my credit card on 3rd July and I was told that I will get a refund of $25.80 within 10 days and that was on 25th June. Today is 17th July and I still haven't recieved the refund.

My Second Experience of Self Clearing with DHL

So I recieved text and call from DHL regarding paying taxes on my upcoming delivery of bulbs from China this time. Bulbs cost $25 USD and they were asking for $17 CAD for taxes and brokering.

I Phoned DHL on:

1-855-345-7447

Select Option 5 for Brokering, then Option 4.

I explained that it is a low value shipment and that I want to pay the taxes locally. Although at first the agent said that i would have to be at the border to do that, once I explained the low value shipment law to her for items under $1600 CAD and asked her to confirm with her supervisor, she did say I can go ahead and do that myself. I asked her to send me the commercial invoice. I printed out my Paypal invoice and Paypal payment receipt and took it to my local CBSA office.

When I went there the officer said I needed a Cargo Control Document or Manifest from DHL. So I phoned DHL and asked them to send me that instead. They emailed me the Manifest, it was about 7 pages long and then I forwarded the email to the CBSA officer's email address. Along with my papers and the manifest I paid a total of $2.90 tax with my Mastercard and took the B15 form. Once I got the  B15 form I scanned it and emailed it to:

codhold_ca@dhl.com

in Subject i was told to write Paid Duty & Taxes on Waybill Number: xxxxxxxx and attached the form and payment receipt. I was also advised to show the receipt to the delivery person to show that I have paid the taxes. I got an email reply very quickly from DHL saying that duties have been paid and that I should show this to delivery person. When delivery person came I wasn't home but my sister told him we had already paid taxes and he didn't ask for anything and gave the package.