The Week I Spent My Life Savings At REI

This Week:

What did the Ford technician say about my van issue?
Spending my life savings at REI for their anniversary sale (okay not actually).
Does good customer service actually make a difference?

May 2023

Su	M	T	W	Th	F	S
30	5/1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31	6/1	2	3

Where In The World Was I?

Denver, CO

☕️ Coffee Shops

Pinwheel Coffee
Griffin Coffee
Frank & Roze
Queen City
Brew Culture Coffee
Metropolis Coffee

I went to a new coffee shop this week! What the heck!

I was in LoHi walking around and walked by Metropolis Coffee. I had no idea it was there. I don’t remember seeing it on Google Maps and didn’t have it marked.

It’s fun to throw a little novelty and spice into the mix. I’ll definitely be back.

A week or two ago I did some reflection on my choice to quit my job and pursue this lifestyle. This week I packaged it up into a blog post.

Selling The 4Runner Update

TL;DR:

Reduced the listing price.
2 new leads, met with one so far.

This content was originally hidden upon publishing.

It was kind of a slow week this week… Except for two things.

A potential buyer reached out early in the week. We met up, he test drove it and really like it. However, like everyone else, the price was just a bit out of his budget. But, he said we’d both sleep on it and if we could come to a deal, he’d very much be interested.

He said this was the first 4Runner he took a look at and doesn’t usually buy on the first one, so he said he’d be around.

I more or less kept that in my back pocket this week.

Another potential buyer reached out late in the week, but as of Sunday morning we haven’t met up yet.

I reduced the price of the listing from $34,250 to $31,750 this week after the deal fell through last weekend. I thought it might stir up some more interest, but it kind of seemed to do the opposite… Besides these two, it was kind of a slow week in terms of leads.

I’ve made a decent amount of progress planning for backpacking this week, so the 4Runner is starting to become the new biggest blocker to doing some of the other tasks.

The longer this goes on, the more I’m like “ah I’ll just take whatever to have this process done with” 😅.

Will this upcoming week be the one?

Who knows…

The Value Of Customer Service

So as part of travel planning, I’ve been looking for a good new travel-friendly credit card.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve card came to the top of the “best credit cards” lists many times. It has a hefty yearly fee, but potentially worth it if you travel enough, which, I’m now actually planning to do.

I’ve been a “cash back” card kinda guy so far. BUT that’s changing this year…

*Image courtesy of https://dailydrop.com/pages/our-top-credit-cards*

Anyways, I applied and my application got put into review.

I had put my private mailbox address on the application and Chase wanted proof that I physically resided there, which, would be literally impossible.

I tried my driver’s license. No luck.

I was out of options.

My next plan was to try to call customer service, explain my situation, and just pray. I had lost hope that this application would go through.

Fast forward a couple days and I’m at Frank & Roze. I had taken a break and was standing outside getting some sunlight when I happened to look over to my right and see a “Chase” building at the corner.

Lightbulb! 💡

So at about noon, I mustered up my script and walked over.

After walking in and briefly explaining that I was looking to get help with a credit card application, I was introduced to an employee in the back. I explained that my address isn’t a residential address and he asked if I had something else like a bank statement verifying this address.

I did! So I sent it over as he got on the phone with the internal support team.

About 10-15 minutes later, they had me approved!

I was NOT expecting that and was absolutely stoked.

I walked in, they resolved my complex situation in a professional and respectful manner, made me feel important (“Yes I’m here with Mr. Peter and I have his Chase [other card name] credit card in front of me”), all without any back and forth over email.

As I was walking out, I thought “man, that’s super nice, I might open more accounts with them!” To be able to walk in, talk to someone real, and have my issue resolved in a matter of minutes.

It reminded me of a lesson from The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco where he recommends to “deploy superior unexpected customer service” in your business.

Now I understand.

Spending My Life Savings At REI

A big item on the travel planning list is packing and clothes.

I feel like I’ve been to REI every single day this week…

Fortunately for me they had their anniversary sale this week, so I saved some money!

Unfortunately for me they had their anniversary sale this week, so I spent a lot more money than I expected to! 😅

I’ll probably release my full packing list once everything’s finished up!

Transit Transmission Issue Resolution!

After waiting 3 WEEKS for my Ford dealership service appointment, the day finally arrived!

Side note, thank god I didn’t cancel it like I was thinking because my typically vehicle service place wasn’t able to do what I needed!

The service advisor I met with was super friendly.

As she was getting my information she said,

“Is this renovated? Like do you live in it?”

“Yep”

She said “okay first off, that’s incredible, I’m super jealous!” and then took more of my information.

She said that they’ve gotten a couple people like this that bring their vans/RVs in for service that they live in full-time and that they try to be really accommodating to their situations.

Wow, back to “deploy superior unexpected customer service,” I felt understood and that was huge.

I felt like I didn’t need to fudge the truth or not reveal information to her…

After a couple hours, they finished the diagnostic!

Side note: For some quick background context to those who haven’t followed along with this long process… Back in December I started smelling some burning smells coming from the front of my grill. I thought it was a transmission issue (eek!), but after poking around one day, I determined it was a coolant leak in one of the tubing connections.

The technician who took a look at it said that it was most likely a broken vein in the radiator and showed me how there was coolant coming down the back of the radiator.

Yay! Resolution!

Un-yay! The quote for getting a brand new radiator to fix it was $1400!

Since it wasn’t determined to be absolutely critical (also given I first noticed this like 6 months ago) and that I’m planning to travel abroad (and have the van sit), I decided to not get it fixed just yet.

I might flip flop on that in the future, and definitely will get it replaced eventually, it’s just a matter of when.

At the very least, I know what’s wrong and that the rest of the van is looking good.

Not a full resolution, but enough of a resolution to feel good.

Walks And More Walks

The weather has just been fantastic lately. I’ve also been trying to take more walks after dinner and support this change by adding “I walk after I eat” to my daily affirmations.

The goal is to stop watching YouTube after I finish eating (deemed to be “unnecessary” YouTube, whereas watching while eating I’ve deemed to be acceptable). Getting out and walking should (and has started to) help disconnect my mind so that I can more easily do other good habits (meditate and read) in the evenings rather than be suction-cupped to my phone with no way out.