#service pricing

[goodguygadgets]

DHL Express Philippines Adjusts Rates for 2025

Get ready for DHL Express Philippines pricing update! Starting January 2025, prices will rise by 5.9% to boost service stability and support businesses. 📦🌏 #DHLExpressPhilippines #Logistics #GoodGuyGadgets

DHL Express Philippines has announced a pricing adjustment of 5.9% that will go into effect on January 1, 2025. As the leading international express services provider, DHL Express aims to sustain its dependable service for customers navigating an increasingly complex logistics environment. DHL Express Philippines announces its annual price adjustments. An average rate increase of 5.9% will be…

[3amfanfiction]

You call husband!price from the nail salon. Your toes were already done and you had just moved over to the tables to start on your nails.

I’m starving, can you bring me something to eat? You ask in a pretty voice, pouring on the sweetness as if he could ever say no to you.

Within 10 minutes he’s walking into the salon, food and drink in hand. You smile as he looks around the open room, searching for you with a stern look on his face. His mouth is a harsh line under his mustache and his eyebrows are furrowed into a slight frown of concentration.

That look breaks into a warm smile as he locks eyes with you across the room. His face softens as he gazes at you, your hands outstretched while your nails were being worked on. He takes steady steps towards you, moving through the bustle of customers and technicians with confidence.

Love. John greets with a kiss, bending down to press his lips to yours.

He sits in the open chair beside you before pulling items out of the bag he brought with him

Within moments you were happily munching away, pausing every so often as John brings your drink up to your face, holding the straw steady for you before dipping another chicken nugget in sauce and bringing it to your mouth. His palm cupped underneath to stop any splatters from dripping while you sit there looking pretty for him, getting your nails done 💅

Next || Story Repository

[casuallyhollering]

not watcher fans organizing a way to gift a bunch of subscriptions to their new streaming platform to fans who can't/won't pay for it.......full fucking offense, can y'all go buy an esim for someone in Gaza

[shininas-ideals]

Dazai's birthday throughout the years

Everyone deserves a happy birthday

[batboyblog]

Things the Biden-Harris Administration Did This Week #31

August 9-16 2024

President Biden and Vice-President Harris announced together the successful conclusion of the first negotiations between Medicare and pharmaceutical companies over drug prices. For years Medicare was not allow to directly negotiate princes with drug companies leaving seniors to pay high prices. It has been a Democratic goal for many years to change this. President Biden noted he first introduced a bill to allow these negotiations as a Senator back in 1973. Thanks to Inflation Reduction Act, passed with no Republican support using Vice-President Harris' tie breaking vote, this long time Democratic goal is now a reality. Savings on these first ten drugs are between 38% and 79% and will collectively save seniors $1.8 billion dollars in out of pocket costs. This comes on top of the Biden-Harris Administration already having capped the price of insulin for Medicare's 3.5 million diabetics at $35 a month, as well as the Administration's plan to cap Medicare out of pocket drug costs at $2,000 a year starting January 2025.

President Biden and Vice President Harris have launched a wide ranging all of government effort to crack down on companies wasting customers time with excessive paperwork, hold times, and robots rather than real people. Some of the actions from the "Time is Money" effort include: The FTC and FCC putting forward rules that require companies to make canceling a subscription or service as easy as signing up for it. The Department of Transportation has required automatic refunds for canceled flights. The CFPB is working on rules to require companies to have to allow customers to speak to a real person with just one button click ending endless "doom loops" of recored messages. The CFPB is also working on rules around chatbots, particularly their use from banks. The FTC is working on rules to ban companies from posting fake reviews, suppressing honest negative reviews, or paying for  positive reviews. HHS and the Department of Labor are taking steps to require insurance companies to allow health claims to be submitted online. All these actions come on top of the Biden Administration's efforts to get rid of junk fees.

President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden announced further funding as part of the President's Cancer Moonshot. The Cancer Moonshot was launched by then Vice-President Biden in 2016 in the aftermath of his son Beau Biden's death from brain cancer in late 2015. It was scrapped by Trump as political retaliation against the Obama-Biden Administration. Revived by President Biden in 2022 it has the goal of cutting the number of cancer deaths in half over the next 25 years, saving 4 million lives. Part of the Moonshot is Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), grants to help develop cutting edge technology to prevent, detect, and treat cancer. The President and First Lady announced $150 million in ARPA-H grants this week focused on more successful cancer surgeries. With grants to Tulane, Rice, Johns Hopkins, and Dartmouth, among others, they'll help fund imaging and microscope technology that will allow surgeons to more successfully determine if all cancer has been remove, as well as medical imaging focused on preventing damage to healthy tissues during surgeries.

Vice-President Harris announced a 4-year plan to lower housing costs. The Vice-President plans on offering $25,000 to first time home buyers in down-payment support. It's believed this will help support 1 million first time buyers a year. She also called for the building of 3 million more housing units, and a $40 billion innovation fund to spur innovative housing construction. This adds to President Biden's call for a $10,000 tax credit for first time buyers and calls by the President to punish landlords who raise the rent by over 5%.

President Biden Designates the site of the 1908 Springfield Race Riot a National Monument. The two day riot in Illinois capital took place just blocks away from Abraham Lincoln's Springfield home. In August 1908, 17 people die, including a black infant, and 2,000 black refugees were forced to flee the city. As a direct result of the riot, black community leaders and white allies met a few months later in New York and founded the NAACP. The new National Monument will seek to preserve the history and educate the public both on the horrible race riot as well as the foundation of the NAACP. This is the second time President Biden has used his authority to set up a National Monument protecting black history, after setting up the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument on Emmett Till's 82nd birthday July 25th 2023.

The Department of The Interior announced $775 million to help cap and clean up orphaned oil and gas wells. The money will help cap wells in 21 states. The Biden-Harris Administration has allocated $4.7 billion to plug orphaned wells, a billion of which has already been distributed. More than 8,200 such wells have been capped since the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2022. Orphaned wells leak toxins into communities and are leaking the super greenhouse gas methane. Plugging them will not only improve the health of nearby communities but help fight climate change on a global level.

Vice-President Harris announced plans to ban price-gouging in the food and grocery industries. This would be a first ever federal ban on price gouging and Harris called for clear "rules of the road" on price rises in food, and strong penalties from the FTC for those who break them. This is in line with President Biden's launching of a federal Strike Force on Unfair and Illegal Pricing in March, and Democratic Senator Bob Casey's bill to ban "shrinkflation". In response to this pressure from Democrats on price gouging and after aggressive questions by Senator Casey and Senator Elizabeth Warren, the supermarket giant Kroger proposed dropping prices by a billion dollars

[bethanydelleman]

Also when it comes to Henry Crawford's promotion of William in Mansfield Park vs. Darcy's saving of Lydia in Pride & Prejudice, people praise Darcy to high heavens for doing it in secret and shame Henry for doing it in the open. Except they are totally different circumstances!

Darcy knew, 100%, that Elizabeth disliked him and did not want to marry him. If he had saved Lydia in the open, it would have been a total dick move because it would create obligation and it would be on someone who rejected him. So he does it in secret and good on him.

Henry Crawford has not been refused, he thinks Fanny likes him, "For—for very little more than opportunity. Mary, she is not like her cousins; but I think I shall not ask in vain.” And he's not crazy to think this, we know from the narrator that Fanny's behaviour towards him has changed, "She had by no means forgotten the past, and she thought as ill of him as ever; but she felt his powers: he was entertaining; and his manners were so improved, so polite, so seriously and blamelessly polite, that it was impossible not to be civil to him in return." Sure, he overestimates this civility, but it is there.

So he's giving a gift to a woman he's proposing to, with absolutely no idea that she will refuse him. It's overly presumptuous for sure, but it's not as evil as people want to make it out to be.

Now Willoughby and his freaking HORSE...

[pure-oddity]

(PT2) Had an idea for a kind of open relationship with price and -

Captain price who leaves an open offer on the table for all his subordinates. He's a good Captain, a caring and attentive Captain. Likes to give what's his a reason to stay his. So he offers up his attentions and services, helping the needy sergeants and the high-strung lieutenant relax and just let go for a moment.

Offers the same to you, much to your embarrassment. You've walked in on him with the boys more than once.

Soaps mouth stretched wide around the Captains cock, nose pressed against a full happy trail while he drools and cries.

Heard Gaz's breathy whines, sat on his captains cock while the man fists the sergeants cock.

And through the crack of a door watched as the big bad ghost is bent over and fucked tenderly, ears straining to hear hushed praise and words of affection.

You deny yourself to the point of hysteria. High strung, vicious, teeth bared and biting at friend and foe alike. Until you can't. Until his fingers look too good, and your thighs part open at the rumble of his voice. With wet eyes and trembling lips you try to beg for what you want - only to be hushed by your captain because -

"I know what you need darling, it's alright. Captains got ya' "

[alwaysbewoke]

[syoddeye]

now i’m thinking about reader setting off the over-sensitive smoke detector at their new place and having to explain to the handsome crew of firefighters that responded to the call that no, there’s no fire, they’re just a shitty cook.

to add to your humiliation, they dispose of your burnt-to-a-fucking-crisp dinner and make a fuss about you not having anything to eat.

kyle catches how his mentor’s drinking in this person’s appearance, clearly endeared by their embarrassment and manners.

so kyle mentions that it’s a good thing it’s john’s turn to cook for the station that night, and there’s always extra.

you try to decline, that you couldn’t possibly intrude, but the man who introduced himself as soap insists. a visitor, especially one like yourself, always brightens up the place.

next thing you know, you’re being helped into the truck, sandwiched between john and the guy in the skull mask.

something something insert pun about fire.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Greedflation, but for prisoners

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me TOMORROW (Apr 21) in TORINO, then Marin County (Apr 27), Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

Today in "Capitalists Hate Capitalism" news: The Appeal has published the first-ever survey of national prison commissary prices, revealing just how badly the prison profiteer system gouges American's all-time, world-record-beating prison population:

https://theappeal.org/locked-in-priced-out-how-much-prison-commissary-prices/

Like every aspect of the prison contracting system, prison commissaries – the stores where prisoners are able to buy food, sundries, toiletries and other items – are dominated by private equity funds that have bought out all the smaller players. Private equity deals always involve gigantic amounts of debt (typically, the first thing PE companies do after acquiring a company is to borrow heavily against it and then pay themselves a hefty dividend).

The need to service this debt drives PE companies to cut quality, squeeze suppliers, and raise prices. That's why PE loves to buy up the kinds of businesses you must spend your money at: dialysis clinics, long-term care facilities, funeral homes, and prison services.

Prisoners, after all, are a literal captive market. Unlike capitalist ventures, which involve the risk that a customer will take their business elsewhere, prison commissary providers have the most airtight of monopolies over prisoners' shopping.

Not that prisoners have a lot of money to spend. The 13th Amendment specifically allows for the enslavement of convicted criminals, and so even though many prisoners are subject to forced labor, they aren't necessarily paid for it:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/02/captive-customers/#guillotine-watch

Six states ban paying prisoners anything. North Carolina caps prisoners' pay at one dollar per day. Nationally, prisoners earn $0.52/hour, while producing $11b/year in goods and services:

https://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2024/0324bowman.html

So there's a double cruelty to prison commissary price-gouging. Prisoners earn far less than any other kind of worker, and they pay vastly inflated prices for the necessities of life. There's also a triple cruelty: prisoners' families – deprived of an incarcerated breadwinner's earnings – are called upon to make up the difference for jacked up commissary prices out of their own strained finances.

So what does prison profiteering look like, in dollars and sense? Here's the first-of-its-kind database tracking the costs of food, hygiene items and religious items in 46 states:

https://theappeal.org/commissary-database/

Prisoners rely heavily on commissaries for food. Prisons serve spoiled, inedible food, and often there isn't enough to go around – prisoners who rely on the food provided by their institutions literally starve. This is worst in prisons where private equity funds have taken over the cafeteria, which is inevitable accompanied by swingeing cuts to food quality and portions:

https://theappeal.org/prison-food-virginia-fluvanna-correctional-center/

So you have one private equity fund starving prisoners, and another that's gouging them on food. Or sometimes it's the same company. Keefe Group, owned by HIG Capital, provides commissaries to prisons whose cafeterias are managed by other HIG Capital portfolio companies like Trinity Services Group. HIG also owns the prison health-care company Wellpath – so if they give you food poisoning, they get paid twice.

Wellpath delivers "grossly inadequate healthcare":

https://theappeal.org/massachusetts-prisons-wellpath-dentures-teeth/

And Trinity serves "meager portions of inedible food":

https://theappeal.org/clayton-county-jail-sheriff-election/

When prison commissaries gouge on food, no part of the inventory is spared, even the cheapest items. In Florida, a packet of ramen costs $1.06, 300% more inside the prison than it does at the Target down the street:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24444312-fl_doc_combined_commissary_lists#document/p6/a2444049

America's prisoners aren't just hungry, they're also hot. The climate emergency is sending temperatures in America's largely un-air-conditioned prisons soaring to dangerous levels. Commissaries capitalize on this, too: an 8" fan costs $40 in Delaware's Sussex Correctional Institution. In Georgia, that fan goes for $32 (but prisoners are not paid for their labor in Georgia pens). And in scorching Texas, the commissary raised the price of water by 50% last summer:

https://www.tpr.org/criminal-justice/2023-07-20/texas-charges-prisoners-50-more-for-water-for-as-heat-wave-continues

Toiletries are also sold at prices that would make an airport gift-shop blush. Need denture adhesive? That's $12.28 in an Idaho pen, triple the retail price. 15% of America's prisoners are over 55. The Keefe Group – sister company to the "grossly inadequate" healthcare company Wellpath – operates that commissary. In Oregon, the commissary charges a 200% markup on hearing-aid batteries. Vermont charges a 500% markup on reading glasses. Imagine spending decades in prison: toothless, blind, and deaf.

Then there's the religious items. Bibles and Christmas cards are surprisingly reasonable, but a Qaran will run you $26 in Vermont, where a Bible is a mere $4.55. Kufi caps – which cost $3 or less in the free world – go for $12 in Indiana prisons. A Virginia prisoner needs to work for 8 hours to earn enough to buy a commissary Ramadan card (you can buy a Christmas card after three hours' labor).

Prison price-gougers are finally facing a comeuppance. California's new BASIC Act caps prison commissary markups at 35% (California commissaries used to charge 63-200% markups):

https://theappeal.org/price-gouging-in-california-prisons-newsom-signature/

Last year, Nevada banned any markup on hygiene items:

https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/NELIS/REL/82nd2023/Bill/10425/Overview

And prison tech monopolist Securus has been driven to the brink of bankruptcy, thanks to the activism of Worth Rises and its coalition partners:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/08/money-talks/

When someone tells you who they are, believe them the first time. Prisons show us how businesses would treat us if they could get away with it.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/20/captive-market/#locked-in

[luck-of-the-drawings]

OOOH BABY THIS ONE WAS A LONG TIME COMING. NIGHTMARE NIGHTMARE NIGHTMARE!!

YOU THOUGHT IT WAS A DAY LIKE ANY OTHER. A DAY OF ADVENTURE WITH YOUR CLOSEST FRIENDS. OH HOW TIGHTLY YOU HOLD THEM TO YOUR CHEST, AND OH HOW TERRIFYING IT IS TO WATCH THEM GET EVISCERATED BY SOMETHING YOU DONT UNDERSTAND. MAYBE IF YOU JUST LISTENED A BIT MORE, IF YOU LET THE SMART ONE LEAD THE CHARGE, THIS WOULDNT HAVE HAPPENED. ONCE AGAIN YOUR IMPULSIVENESS LEADS TO DISASTER. HEAR ME NOW, YOUNG TIDESTRIDER, YOUR STUPIDITY WILL BRING THE DEMISE OF EVERYTHING YOU WERE BORN AND FORGED TO PROTECT. HOW COULD THE PROPHECY HAVE CHOSEN SOMEONE SO USELESS? I BET YOU WISH YOU CHOSE THE RIGHT LEVER. FAILURE.

[governmentmandatedryujinstan420]

I FORGOT TO THROW OUT AFTER THE EPISODE RELEASED NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[sergle]

hiii sergle do you have any thoughts on the 2nd try try guys thing? curious to hear your opinion!!

i'm so glad you asked bc i love giving my opinion..... first things first, this is REALLY FUCKING FUNNY, the way that Watcher fumbled the bag so badly when they made their announcement probably gave the tryguys a lot of data to work with. obviously everyone is comparing the two things, but in this instance, I actually think the streaming service thing makes more sense, and is done in a better way, with less guilt tripping and more like, Hype. so the most relevant thing, nothing about the youtube channel is going to change, no previously free content is going to be paywalled, new videos are going to keep airing. so somebody who missed the news or isn't inch rested isn't going to have a different experience at all. new shows are going to be on there, but also they're Already On There. like, a lot of episodes. stuff is going to be released earlier on there, uncensored videos, new people showing up (tryguys already has a lot of Talent), and live ticketed events that they normally charge for are gonna be included in the subscription. so like, this sounds justifiable as a thing that you'd Pay For. Watcher was going to put their whole back catalog behind a paywall, they only had a couple of shows plus One New Steven Food Show that was gonna go on their streaming thing, and they were going to stop posting to youtube except for the first episode from each new season of a thing. and the Watcher one was still priced a dollar higher. and they have a very small cast of talent. also, it was a Streaming Service, but it was still something you could only watch in a browser, not on a TV or anything. so it was just a website. the one that tryguys have is actually an app you can have on your tv. like on a roku or whatever. so I think that's another point in its favor. you can't launch a "streaming service" that you can't even watch on your tv.

overall, I think it tracks, they've been a business for a lot longer and they've started a bunch of new shows to go on there, the announcement video wasn't Whiny and Guilt Trippy, it seems like they put more thought into this. also I got a free trial to poke around, which, I do like that that's an option. timing could have been better, some people are being pussies about it in a major way, which is to be expected, and I am basically ambivalent to it, I don't plan on paying, but it seems like it's had a lot more thought put into it, and it could actually be sustainable as a platform running alongside their youtube channel. done correctly, it could be their Mythical Society. if it flops, they aren't alienating their youtube audience.

[captocie]

i've just seen another post asking what the gender neutral or nonbinary word is for "sir" or "ma'am" and i'd like to put forth "em" as a solution.

"sir" comes from sire, "ma'am" comes from "madam." "em" then, comes from "eminence" as in "will that be all your eminence?" or "will that be all em?"

it's short and quick to say, like both sir and ma'am, and it's gender neutral and stems from a word denoting nobility like both sir and ma'am

[evenmyhivemindisempty]

Okay, as much as I find the “Corinthian is a sex worker” HC’s interesting, it *is* sort of funny how much they’ve caught on considering in the comics he canonically *solicits* men for sex, not the other way around.

[pure-oddity]

Quick n dirty part 2 of the Open relationship with Captain Price (essentially poly 141 tbh) feat.Gaz!

You avoid him after, face hot with shame at being reduced to more animal than human at his hand. He's thorough, observant, and so unwavering you have to retreat lest you drown in his attentions (what he wants).

But your captain is patient. Understanding. Good things come to those who wait! The man is more than willing to wait out the silly little voices in your head that make you run from a good thing - and he IS a good thing. The best in fact.

So he doesn't bat an eye when you slink into his office late at night, thighs clenched and lips bitten raw.

Huffs a laugh when you apologize for needing him again.

"Don't worry about that sweetheart, you're no worse than Soap. C'mere , I'll get you sorted."

Spends the evening with fingers playing in between your legs before slowly stretching you on his cock. He's not a small man by any means, so he feeds and fucks you slowly - inch by inch. Till you're stuffed full and open mouthed, eyes glazed. Limp and pliant in your captains capable hands. His thrusts smooth and steady, hitting spots that leave you breathless. You see him pick up the phone more than you heard it ring. Watch his face pinch in slight frustration as his thrusts turn ever so slightly punishing. His hand keeps your wails from spilling out as he finishes the call.

You're bent over his desk while he hones in on the spot that makes you drip, snakes a hand down to rub along your sex. Orders you to cum, and like a good soldier you listen. Your vision goes white and you aren't sure of the noise that escaped you, if it was a noise at all. Feel your captain fill you , sit down with you snug in his lap while he makes another quick call. He holds you the whole time, whispers praise at "being so brave, knowing you needed me and letting me do my job. Came to me all on your own. So wonderful, everything I could have asked for."

You don't even notice when Gaz walks in, hardly register the gentle hands that whipe the sweat off your brow.

But you do recognize that he's the one guiding you to your room, slipping in the sheets next to you

"Captain got called in for an emergency, s'why he can't be here with you. Sent me to take care of you, love"

And take care he does. He rubs away the ache in your thighs at being spread so wide. Kisses you gentle and smooth while you come back to yourself. Grounding and solid. Doesn't flinch when you recoil, hesitant and unsure.

"He said you'd be skittish after. Ghost tends to be too, it was the same for me in the beginning. It's hard, enjoying yourself huh? Letting yourself be taken care of for a bit. It's okay, I promise it is."

His words sooth exposed nerves and bring forth a tentative calm. What your mind thinks tomorrow is irrelevant. Right now you'd like to kiss Gaz again, and he smiles when you tell him as much.