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26 Time Management Tips

Laundry.

Do you know what all of those symbols on your clothing tags mean? We didn't either, until now:

The truth about help.

Stacy-Marie Ishmael wrote this blog post about signing up for Fancy Hands: 

After years - years - of dithering, I signed up for Fancy Hands sometime around midnight on the Tuesday of a week during which my calendar, my inbox and my immune system all seemed to be conspiring against me.

It was similar to the situation that prompted me to sign up for Task Rabbit last year: three months of being silently mocked by the bag of clothes I'd earmarked for charity and which I failed, every single day, to deliver to Goodwill.

I quipped then that as I've gotten older, I've become more willing to exchange money for time. This continues to be true.

In the 19 hours or so since I coughed up for their basic service, the virtual assistants at Fancy Hands have:


  • scheduled five meetings for me (which involved creating calendar invitations and sending them to all participants - this service is free with their subscriptions)
  • sorted out a fairly involved but entirely solvable with a lot of Googling type-query that I've been putting off for not quite three months, but close. This is what I emailed my 'virtual assistant', whom I've dubbed (at least for the purposes of my address book) Patrick G Jeeves, to figure out: "restaurants eligible for DiningDough.com AND Either 3.5+ (preferable 4) stars or higher on Yelp OR higher than a 7.5 Explorer rating on FourSquare." I also asked that the list includ the Yelp and/or 4SQ link. That took “Ana R” all of 90 minutes.

There’s a certain amount of letting go required in all this. The list “Ana R” prepared would never be identical to the one I’d have put together…had I ever gotten around to trying.

And there’s an element of acknowledging that I cannot do everything, be everything, all the time.

If the first step is admitting you need help, the second is letting someone help you.

Stacy speaks the truth! 

App-happy.

Our team has been working towards this day for a long time...

We are thrilled to announce the official launch of the Fancy Hands iPhone app! 

You can download it for free here, and if you're new to Fancy Hands, find more information about our service here.

Ta-da!!!

The dashboard screen: 

The task screen: 

You can hold the "new request" button down and speak your request directly into your phone.

You can type out your request if you want to, but no typing is needed! 

You'll be able to refer to all of your previous tasks right on your phone. Anytime you need the information, there it is: 

Our assistants are celebrating like this: 

And our app developers are taking a little break.

TaskRabbits!

By now, you know how to use your Fancy Hands assistants. They can accomplish anything for you that can be done from a computer or a phone, including: 

  • Making reservations
  • Doing research
  • Administrative support 
  • Travel research
  • Placing phone calls
  • Scheduling 

Now our assistants can help you get things done beyond the computer and phone. 

We’ve teamed up with TaskRabbit to easily connect you with people who can help you in person. 

TaskRabbit is a website and mobile app for outsourcing errands and jobs to background-checked individuals in your community.

Here at the Fancy Hands HQ, for example, we needed coat hooks to be installed. 

So we sent a Fancy Hands assistant this message: 

Please find someone who can come today during our business hours and install six coat hooks in our wall. They should have their own drill and level and other needed tools. 

The assistant replied: 

Hello, the lowest TaskRabbit bidder for this job is Frank, a handyman with all of his own tools. He will do this job for $50 and he can be there in two hours. Does this work for you? 

And voila, we got hooks! 

When you use your Fancy Hands assistants to hire a TaskRabbit, you won’t have to create your own TaskRabbit account, and you won’t need to spend time posting your ad or viewing the various bids for your job.

We’ll take care of everything for you; just send your Fancy Hands assistant your request. Once a handful of bids have been placed on your job, your assistant will let you know what the lowest bid is and ask you to confirm the charge. 

You’ll be billed to the credit card that you used to sign up for your Fancy Hands account through our secure servers – as always when you make a purchase through our system, no one will see your credit card number.

So relax! You can now say things like: 

Please have someone pick up my alterations from Barney's and my dog from daycare and deliver them to me at my house. 

Please get the oil changed in my Batmobile, fill it with gas, and return it to the garage. 

Please send a makeup artist to my home to prepare me for my news conference.

Please book a housekeeper to come clean my home. It’s no castle, just a simple two bedroom.

TaskRabbit is currently available in:

  • Boston
  • SF Bay Area
  • San Antonio
  • Austin
  • Chicago
  • Seattle
  • Portland
  • Los Angeles
  • Orange County
  • NYC

We love finding new ways to simplify your life! 

What Did We Learn Today?

Our founder and CEO had a great idea: to start a series sharing some of the random tidbits of information that our assistants learn as they're doing research for our clients. 

We'll never share anything too specific, to protect our clients' confidentiality (of course we always get the permission of our clients before we reveal their names and actual reqeusts on the blog). 

Let's take a peek into the Assistant Files and see what they're up to today...

There are at least 14 active patents for sports bras. -Michelle F. 

Android apps are generally Java-based, and iPhone apps are generally based in Objective-C. -Mandie S. 

Coffee makes your blood vessels constrict, causing your blood pressure to raise and your heart to beat faster. Being dehydrated makes your vessels constrict. Apparently, drinking a glass of water before you drink coffee will make the coffee less effective, because the water will cause your vessels to be more open. -Briana K. 

There is a totally awesome app that measures rooms for you. No need to hand measure them anymore, you just point your phone in the direction & the app gives you the measurements... how cool is that?!! -Kelley P. 

Rockstar has discontinued their caffeinated chewing gum. -Juls N. 

All Hands.

Integration is the name of the game lately at Fancy Hands HQ.

We want to add as many options as possible for your work delegation! 

We started with Google Calendar

Next came Basecamp

Then Do.com

Then it was Evernote's turn. 

Today: Asana

The way it works is simple: 

  • Add [email protected] to your project.
  • Pick tasks that you don't want to do.
  • Assign those task to Fancy Hands.
  • Watch as they get marked as completed.

If you haven't used Asana before and are curious about it, check out their website here, and some articles here: 

Asana Unveils Android App

Asana Unveils iPhone App

Asana Is Great & Free!

Fancy Hands is putting some magic into yours! 

Change is hard. Stress is harder.

Gabriel Weinberg is the CEO & Founder of DuckDuckGo, an angel investor, and the co-author of Traction

He wrote this blog post about his experience as a Fancy Hands client: 

"I find myself recommending virtual personal assistants to people quite frequently (among other services). I personally use Fancy Hands. (No, they did not ask me to write this post.)

I don't think many people I've recommended it to have converted, however.

It's a way of life change, and those are hard to make. 

"What do use it for?" is the standard question. To answer that question more effectively, here are my last twenty tasks (abridged):

  • Find me a high-quality black yoga mat on Amazon Prime.
  • Find me replacement hardware for this Restoration Hardware table.
  • Schedule an oven repair given these error codes.
  • Make dinner reservations tonight.
  • Schedule our regular painter to come out and give us an estimate.
  • Schedule our car to go in for a recall and mirror replacement.
  • Find out why our corporate filing never went through.
  • Find the gross profit margin, revenue and # of users for a variety of tech companies.
  • Buy us a membership at a local kids museum.
  • Sign us up for sewer insurance.
  • Help me find an interview of Ira Glass interviewing Terry Gross.
  • Get a kick-plate for our new fridge, which was missing from the packaging.
  • Research co-working spaces in Brooklyn given some parameters.
  • Figure out how to replace the glass on a phone cheaply.
  • Figure out how to replace a custom wood vent in our house.
  • Schedule our other car to go in for a battery and radio fix.
  • Find a place to donate some specific furniture to.
  • Schedule our regular electrician to come out.
  • Fix a messed up order with Verizon FIOS.
  • Schedule a shower door company to come out and give us an estimate.

These are all from the last six weeks. We just remodeled our basement so there is a bit more house stuff, but generally I use it mostly for:

Scheduling (reservations, estimates, etc.).

Web research (purchases, lazyweb, etc.).

Making any phone calls possible I don't have to make (orders, support, etc.).

Arranging travel (booking, what to do, etc.).

Fancy Hands also has a common requests page.

If you're on the fence, I suggest buying an unlimited plan somewhere for a year. That will really commit you up-front and force you more than otherwise to make that way-of-life change."

We agree with Gabriel about way-of-life changes being difficult to get started.

We find that our biggest hurdle as a service provider is to

  1. provide our new clients with as much information as possible so that they totally understand how we can simplify their lives, and 
  2. get new clients to actually use the service once they sign up. 

It's frustrating to join Fancy Hands, pay for it, and not use it. 

So sign up...AND jump in! 

Nice Assist.

Our clients are thrilled to have an entire team of assistants working for them. 

With a team working for you: 

  • you can submit several requests at once, and different people can tackle them all at the same time. 
  • you have coverage seven days a week. 
  • each assistant has a different skill sets, and they choose to work on the tasks they know the most about, so you get the most knowledgable assistant for each job. 

But sometimes, it's nice to appear as if you've got just one assistant. 

And so we are pleased to introduce a new white-glove feature called Personal Touch. 

You can now create a specialized email account and make up a name for your entire team of assistants. 

Our founder Ted Roden uses the name "Lucille Bluth", so when he is setting up a meeting, he'll cc "Lucille" on his email and say to his recipient, 

"I've cc'd my assistant Lucille on this email, she'll help us find a time and place for our lunch."

All of your Fancy Hands assistants will now email third parties from the email address that you dedicate for them, and they will all answer to the name you've given them. 


This feature has been tested in beta for a while, and people have enjoyed getting creative with naming their assistant.

Harper Reed, the former CTO of Obama for America and Threadless.com, being light years ahead of his time and techno-focused, named his assistant Robot. And we suspect that some people actually believe that he built a Robot Assistant to manage his schedule.

Luckily for you, our assistants are all very real people, working and living in the US, ready to help you today. 

What will you name your assistant? 

Once you decide on a name, create an email address (either with a service like Gmail or with your own company's email address, like [email protected]).  

Then go here to set your Personal Touch up! 

It's a feature that we're excited to now offer for free with your Fancy Hands membership! 

FAQ'S:

Q: How does this work? 

A:

  • Set up an email account for your "assistant". Use your company's email services or any free service (like Gmail). 
  • Go here and enter the email address and name that you'll be using for your assistant. 
  • You'll be given an address to set that email address to forward to. Set that up through your assistant email account. 
  • Return to this page and you'll probably see this message: "We received an email regarding this account, you may need to click a confirm link."
  • Click on that line, copy and paste the confirmation link into a new tab in your web browser, and, while logged in to the email program (like Gmail) as the assistant, you will see a confirmation pop up that you're all set. 
  • Once you're all set, you can email "[email protected]", cc "[email protected]" and say something like, "Bob, I've cc'd my assistant Betty on this email, she'll work with you to find a time for us to meet", and Bob will hear from "Betty" to set your appointment. 
  • If you have your Google calendar connected to your account, "Betty" will add the meetings that she sets to it. 
  • If you have any problems, email support at fancy hands dot com. 

Q: How will I see who my assistant is from now on? If there's a problem, I won't know which assistant was working for me. 

A: You will still be replied to by the actual assistant working on your task. Only third parties will be seeing your chosen assistant's name. 

Q: How will emails going to third parties appear?

A: When you set up your assistant's email, enter the name that you'd like to appear in the email settings. You can choose a full name or a title, that's up to you, like 

-Lucille Bluth

or

-Assistant to Ted Roden (putting "Assistant to" in the first name field and "Ted Roden" in the last name field.)

The email will go to a third party with whatever words you've put in your "from" email settings. The address will be the address that your dedicated email is set to forward to (see example image below). 

Q: How can a third party contact my assistant? 

A: You will start the conversation by cc'ing your assistant on an email to a third party. They can respond to your assistant either by replying to the dedicated email that you set up (example: [email protected]) or the forwarding address that they see in direct communication from the assistant (as may happen if the assistant reaches out to the third party directly to follow up.)

Q: What signature will appear in the body of the email? 

A: When you're setting up your account here, our website will ask you what name you'd like to use. That's the signature that will appear at the end of an email. 

Q: I tried to click the confirmation link once I set up my Gmail account to forward and received this screen from Google: "We’re sorry, but your Gmail account is temporarily unavailable. We apologize for the inconvenience and suggest trying again in a few minutes. You can view the Apps Status Dashboard for the current status of the service."

A: You need to be logged into your "assistant's" Gmail account to confirm. If you are logged into another Gmail account, the confirmation process will not work. 

An email exchange will look something like this: 

Should I check my email?

Fancy mention.

You might know him from Childrens Hospital, Hot Tub Time Machine, or The Daily Show. I know him because we worked together on an Oscar-award winning film called What Happens In Vegas

OK, fine, it didn't win an Oscar. But some guy named Oscar saw it, and he said it was pretty funny. 

Anyway, Rob Corddry is known for being productivity and tech-obsessed, so when I started working at Fancy Hands, I knew he'd love to hear about us. 

Rob's wife and assistant have really enjoyed being able to outsource their busy work to us.

In an interview with Brett Terpstra, Rob explains how much Fancy Hands has helped. 

Brett said that it sounds like the type of stuff that our company does are the things that he asks his own wife to do. 

That's a great takeaway for all of you husbands out there...if you're leaving the unpleasantness of life for your wife to handle for the both of you, imagine how happy she'd be if you gifted her with a membership to Fancy Hands. 

A membership to Fancy Hands? As little as $25 a month. 

Harmony in the home? Priceless. 

(Interview with Rob Corddry and Brett Terpstra of Systematic -

We're mentioned at 45:30) 

 

This Is How I Work.

Check out Tessa Miller's full profile of Ted on Lifehacker here

Current gig: Founder/CEO, Fancy Hands

Location: New York, NY

Current mobile device: iPhone 4S

Current computer: 11" MacBook Air, occasionally plugged into the 27" Apple monitor

One word that best describes how you work: Slouching


What apps/software/tools can't you live without?

I spend most of my day in Emacs, which is the only text editor ever invented (it's also a Tetris client, operating system, and punchline). I use Alfred mostly for launching programs and finding files, but recently started using it to view and edit my clipboard history. That's been a game changer. I take a lot of screenshots for some reason and use Skitch for that (version 1—the new version is a totally different app). And of course: OmniFocus, Evernote, TextExpander, 1Password, and Chrome.

What's your workspace set up like?

At the office we have one 40-foot long table that we all sit around. I'll sit there part of the day, at the shared standing desk part of the day, and I'll spend some time on the couch. At my apartment I have this super old desk that I bought from a Goodwill in Portland. It doesn't really fit (space-wise) in our apartment, but I love it.

What's your best time-saving trick?

I try to never do anything twice. If I find myself doing something over and over, I figure out a way to automate it (via Fancy Hands, or Text Expander, or IFTTT). If I find myself thinking, "I should do that thing" more than once without actually doing it, it's pretty clear that I'm not going to do it. So I figure out a way to hand it off to someone else or realize it's not worth thinking about anymore. 

What's your favorite to-do list manager?

I put everything into OmniFocus, but I'm less consistent with working on things on the list. Occasionally I'll go through the list and purge almost everything.

Besides your phone and computer, what gadget can't you live without?

That would be my wife's camera. It's not that I use the camera itself, but she takes tons of pictures of our two kids and I'll check her flickr feed a few times a day or more often when I'm working longer hours. I get more enjoyment out of that gadget than almost any other. I'd probably give up my iPhone before her camera.

What everyday thing are you better at than anyone else?

I'm really great at ignoring the badge numbers on my phone. I don't care how many app store updates there are or unread texts I've received.

What do you listen to while you work?

We have a company Sonos and everybody adds albums to that, but when it's time to put headphones on, I listen to Menomena almost exclusively. I'm a bit obsessed.  

What's your sleep routine like?

I go to bed between midnight and 2 AM most nights. I have two of the world's most amazing alarm clocks to ensure that I never sleep in. They wake me up between 5 and 6 AM to do things like "have juice," "play with trains," and "go to the playground."

What's the best advice you've ever received?

"Go that way, really fast. If something gets in your way... turn."

Ted's home phone screen

Evernote-worthy.

Our developers continually push themselves to integrate our service with other useful platforms to make your life easier. 

We're pleased to announce that you can now link your Evernote and Fancy Hands accounts here, enabling your your requests, your assistants' responses and attachments to automatically archive directly to Evernote.


You'll be able to access them from your phone, on the desktop, and anyywhere else that you use Evernote.

By now, if you don't use Evernote yourself, you've probably heard productivity pros speak about how much they love using it. 

Lifehacker editor Whitson Gordon just wrote this article on finally seeing the light and making the connection about how useful Evernote truly is. 

The key to being an early adopter is to approach new technologies with patience and flexibility.

We are all so programmed to cling to our routines and what's comfortable, even if that way of life isn't allowing us to be our best. 

Services like Fancy Hands and Evernote are designed to simplify your life, and once you get the hang of using them, you will find yourself amazed. 

Our founder, Ted Roden, says, "The great thing about Evernote is the more that goes in, the better it is. Everything you have is in one place. I set mine up to automatically save my Tumblr likes and Foursquare check-ins. Now when I think, 'What was that awesome thing I saw on Tumblr?' I can find it in Evernote much easier than tryhing to find it on my Tumblr dashboard."

One of our clients sent this to us yesterday: "You guys have easily added 4 more hours into my days."

Statements like that are why we come to work! 

Give the Evernote integration a shot, and let us know how it works for you. 

Unfamiliar with Evernote? Check out their website as well as these articles:

Evernote shortcuts

Tips from Evernote's CEO

Going Paperless

Evernote magic

Best seat in the house.

Good Grooming.

Gone are the days when women would handle all of the wedding planning and men would just show up at the altar.

In today's world, weddings require teamwork. 

Fancy Hands client Bellowser was a groom who got in on the action, and he added Fancy Hands to his party planning team. Our assistants can handle all of the research and legwork that you don't want to do or don't have the time to do.   

He wrote about his experience here


When my wife and I were getting married, we often outsourced the research and scheduling process to Fancy Hands, my favorite virtual assistant service.

Fancy Hands is an affordable virtual assistant service aimed at the common man. It is an incredibly useful service that allows anyone to hand off repetitive or menial tasks to reliable web-based assistants.

Fancy Hands packages start at $25/mo for 5 tasks, which means you’re only paying someone $5 to do something you really don’t want to do.

The help Fancy Hands provided to us during such a hectic time was invaluable, and something we would recommend to anyone who is feeling overwhelmed while planning their wedding.

To give an example of how Fancy Hands helped us plan our wedding, here are a couple emails we sent back and forth: 

The Photo Booth

Query:

Hello!

Could I get a list of no more than 5 companies that rent out photobooths in the Denver area, with their contact information (email, phone, and url), and rental and delivery costs for a 5 hour event?

Response:

I found 3 photo booth rental companies in your area. Attached is all the information that you need. 

The Rehearsal Dinner

Query:

Hello!

I am planning the rehearsal dinner for my wedding in October and need some prices to help work it into the budget.

Could I please get a list of 3-5 restaurants in the Denver area near the Comfort Dental Amphitheater with private rooms that can accommodate 50 people, and pricing breakdowns for each one (including room rental, food, and alcohol). I have $2000 allocated in the budget for this, but the closer to $1000 you can get the happier I will be.

Response:

Here’s a list of what I found out for you – seems like McCormick and Schmicks might be the best bet and if you call them to negotiate it seems like they’re willing to work within your budget.

The DJ

Query:

Hello!

Could I get a list of around 5 wedding DJs in the Denver area? Please try to get the following information:

- Availability on October 1st 

- Hourly rate (don’t get an event rate, it isn’t descriptive enough for me)

- The DJ’s website

- Upcoming public events (so I can hear them live, if possible)

On a side note, if they have standup comedy experience, that’s a plus (although, a specific qualifier, so not at all required)

Response:

Here’s a list of the info you’re looking for.

Another wedding success! 

Punctuate It.

Time for some new standards, no? 

Morning music motivator.

Time management tip for your mornings: make a playlist exactly the length of time that you have from the time you get up to the time you need to leave the house.

No more checking the clock.

Make the last three songs your favorite high-energy tunes. That will not only warn you that it's time to wrap things up and leave, but you'll dance out the door with a spring in your step.

Meet Mandie: Assistant

If you're a Fancy Hands client, you've probably had Mandie as an assistant before. 

She's completed over twleve hundred requests for our members. 

She came to visit us for lunch at the Fancy Hands HQ office last month, and being from a small town, she was pretty excited to eat "actual Chinese food from Chinatown!"


WHERE DO YOU LIVE? 

Sumter, SC - Shaw AFB - I can see the flight line from my house. Any f-16 fans?

WHAT ARE YOU GOOD AT? 

Anything that I set my mind to. 

WHAT IS YOUR WORST QUALITY? 

I don't always think before I speak. I can be blunt and passive-aggressive. 

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST RISK YOU'VE EVER TAKEN? 

Quitting two jobs and packing up all my belongings into my little car and moving to Louisiana. It was the best mistake I ever made, and I'd do it again.

WHAT'S THE MOST MEMORABLE REQUEST YOU'VE SEEN FROM A CUSTOMER? 

I once worked on a very involved task where I found and purchased a specific stuffed animal for a hospital patient that wasn't available in the hospital's gift shop. Then I arranged for the gift shop to receive the purchase and deliver it to the patient's room. 

Another time, I contacted an international brewery that doesn't sell their product in the US and convinced them to ship their beer to NY for a client. I contacted the ABC Board of NY and US Customs to make sure the beer wouldn't get hung up by either agency. 

WHO IS YOUR SPIRIT ANIMAL?

According to the Almighty Google: an otter. 

According to my imagination: a green-polka-dotted alien.

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE SONG?

Angtoria - Six Feet Under is Not Enough

WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?

Paying off about 20k in debt in 2 years by working my butt off; I'm ashamed I was so stupid to begin with. 

WHAT ARE YOU NORMALLY DOING ON A SATURDAY NIGHT?

I'm getting too old and have too many adult responsibilities to "celebrate" EVERY weekend, but I like going to the Art Bar for nightlife. 75% of the time I'm working. 

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO THE 16 YEAR OLD VERSION OF YOURSELF?

Don't do it! I was really a stupid kid when I was 16. Luckily I was just smart enough to not get caught. 

Time is money.

Focus! Or, take a nap and send us your work to do. 

323 minutes saved.

"I love your service. It's changed my life, and I keep finding new ways to make it useful.”

Fancy Hands customer Chris sent this comment into our support team. Feedback like this makes our day, of course, because our goal is to simplify our customers’ lives and leave them feeling less stressed. 

Chris has made: 

  • 96 requests

His Fancy Hands assistants have: 

  • Placed 177 phone calls 
  • Spent 323 minutes on the phone 
  • Sent 10 emails

Chris allowed us to share some of his recent requests with you all.

He’s a pro when it comes to using our services to make his life easier. 

REQUEST: 

I have an old Patagonia Retro-X fleece that I love, but the zipper has recently failed and it's hard to zip/keep zipped now.

Patagonia products are supposed to have a lifetime warranty. Can you contact Patagonia and inquire about how I should go about having my fleece repaired? They don't make the Retro-X anymore, and the fleece is custom embroidered, so I'd prefer not to replace it. There is a Patagonia store in my town, so I can drop it off if necessary.

ANSWER: 

Your nearest store is: 

Patagonia Seattle 

2100 First Ave 

Seattle, Washington 98121 

Phone: (206) 622-9700 

Fax: (206) 448-2334 

Store Hours: 

Mon-Thurs: 10am-6pm 

Friday: 10am-7pm 

Saturday: 10am-6pm 

Sunday: 11am-5pm 

Zipper repairs can be done at this location without bringing in any forms from the website. Repairs take 1-2 weeks. I called and confirmed this today. 

REQUEST: 

I currently have a dentist appointment scheduled for March 5th at 8am, but now I have an all-day meeting that will conflict with that appointment.

Can you call and reschedule that appointment for a better time sometime that week or the following week? Please find a time that works on my calendar and schedule it for me.

ANSWER: 

Your appointment has been changed to Wednesday, March 6th, at 11:00 am, and I made that change on your calendar. 

REQUEST: 

Can you please give me a wake up call at 5:50 am PST / 8:50 am EST Thursday morning to make sure I'm up? It's been a late night.

ANSWER: 

I’ll be happy to call you at that time! 

REQUEST: 

Can you call Palates and Pairings and see if they have a spot available for the 2/22 7pm painting class? If so, book or put me on the waiting list immediately. If they need a credit card number, you can call me and patch me in.

ANSWER: 

I spoke with Keith and he added you to the waiting list. I gave him your phone number and will call you if something opens up. 

REQUEST: 

Can you find out what the parking laws are in my neighborhood? Someone parks in front of our house often and blocks our front gate access. I’m wondering if our rights are being violated and if there’s anything we can do about it. 

ANSWER: 

Unless you live in a zone that allows for a parking permit (and you do not), anyone is allowed to park in front of your house, so long as it's not for more than 72 hours and within 5 feet of a driveway. If they are blocking your gate access, you can call parking enforcement. Here are links to more information.

REQUEST: 

Can you call my storage center and confirm my new move-out date? I extended my contract through 1/23 and I have a 6-day grace period, and I just want to confirm when I need to be out by.

ANSWER: 

I called your storage center. They said that your contract ended yesterday, and you have until January 29 to move out. However, if you need to extend your contract, they will allow you to pay day-by-day. 

REQUEST: 

I've had some problems with my Alaska Airlines member number. Whenever I try to use my number to buy tickets, I’m told it’s invalid. Can you please contact Alaska Airlines and see what is going on? 

On a recent flight, I had the ticket agent look up my number and she couldn't find anything, so she gave me a new member number. Can you have those accounts merged? And while you're at it, see how far back I can get them to count past flights.

ANSWER: 

I called Alaska Airlines and your original mileage number is older than three years old and was discontinued for a long period of inactivity. There is no way to get it re-activated. Your new member number is active and I can call back to add any mileage credit that you’d like me to if you've flown within the past 6 months. 

Annoying tasks? Completed...painlessly! 

Small

3

Requests a month
$6/request
-20%

Medium

5

Requests a month
$6/request
-20%

Large

15

Requests a month
$5/request
-12%

XL

30

Requests a month
$5/request
-12%

All Plans Include...

  • Submit requests via website
  • Submit requests via email
  • Submit requests via text
  • Submit requests via phone calls
  • Your requests roll over
  • Referring new users, get free months
  • Tons of usage stats
  • Recurring Requests
  • 3rd Party Integrations
  • VIP Customer Service
  • HUGE SAVINGS

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