Service Care, as a service to our customers, has launched a free newsletter that will remind subscribers when it's time to perform maintenance on their appliances and electronics.

This will be a very low quantity of emails per year, the majority of which will be seasonal notices that will remind you to do the little things that you can do yourself to save yourself money, increase the life of your appliances, and help to avoid unnecessary service calls.

Of course, we are happy to perform all of these services, but many people will want to do this themselves to save money (especially in light of the current economic troubles).

We're hoping that many people will subscribe, and we assure that their personal information is very safe (see our Privacy Policy).

Labels: appliances, diy, electronics, Service Care

From the Shelby County Reporter:

"HOOVER — The city of Hoover, along with the Hoover Fire Department, held an open house Sunday to show off the new Fire Station No. 9.

The station, located on Legacy Drive in Greystone, serves Greystone Legacy, portions of Greystone Founders and provides backup for the rest of Greystone, the U.S. 280 corridor and Inverness."

Hoover celebrates new Fire Station No. 9

Is the baby in that picture the Fire Chief or the Mayor? (cute picture)

Labels: Greystone, Highway 280, Hoover, Inverness, Shelby County

Read about their efforts, and how you can help here:

Local club offers hospital support

Labels: charity, Inverness, things to do

In an effort to protect its customers and promote their safety, Maytag has issued a recall on a series of refrigerators under the brand names Maytag, Jenn-Air, Amana, Admiral, Crosley, Magic Chef, and Performa by Maytag.

From the recall website:

Description: The recall includes certain Maytag®, Magic Chef®, Performa by Maytag® and Crosley® brand side-by-side and top freezer refrigerators. The affected refrigerators were manufactured in black, bisque, white and stainless steel. They have model and serial numbers printed on a label located on the top middle or left upper side of the refrigerator liner and have the following model and serial number combinations:

	Serial Numbers ENDING with	AND Model Numbers BEGINNING with
Side-by-side Refrigerators	CN, CP, YY, YZ	MZ
Top Freezer Refrigerators	CA, CC, CE, CG, ZB, ZD, ZF, ZH	CT15G4, CTB152, CTL151, CTM152, CTN151, MTB195, MTB215, MTB245, MTF195, MTF215, PTB155, PTB175, PTB195, PTB215

Consumers are recommended to visit this product recall site, and see if their refrigerator is affected.

Labels: Admiral, Amana, Crosley, Jenn-Air, Magic Chef, Maytag, Performa, recall notice, refrigerators

Congrats to Jeff Hager of Hoover for his ridiculously delicious sounding (and assuredly tasting) donut creation.

To find out where and how to get one, go to this article about donut award winner from Hoover.

Labels: fun, Hoover

Residents of Pelham, Hoover, and Vestavia (and anywhere else, I suppose)...

If you paid upfront money to Andrew Carlton Gannett of Gannett Tile for services that were not performed and don't know where to turn for help, please read this article:

Police looking for residents scammed by tile business

Labels: Hoover, Pelham, Vestavia Hills

Some interesting insight into China's growth and emergence as an economic super-power in the business world, and the need for students to consider preparing for communication with this culture.

Mountain Brook teacher tours China schools, historic sites

Labels: Alabama, Mountain Brook

Shelby County Reporter | Hoover Police looking for credit card thief (alleged)

Although I think the title of their article is legally dangerous, I wonder... do you recognize this guy?



Shared via AddThis

Labels: Hoover, Shelby County

Six Pelham, Alabama firefighters were grandfathered into a program that gives firefighters pay incentives to further their education. The incentives were temporarily withheld since the firefighters received the education at an unaccredited institution.

Read about the Pelham firefighters school pay issue here.

P.S. Service Care loves the fire department.

Labels: Alabama, Pelham

Michelle Luo, daughter of Dr. Ming Luo and Dr. Jun Tsao of Vestavia Hills, is a senior at Indian Springs, and has achieved a perfect SAT score.

That's a 2400 folks.

It should not be understated that this accomplishment was achieved while contributing a lot of community service and participating in a extra-curricular activities.

She should be proud (her parents, too!)

Congratulations!

Read article for details

Labels: Vestavia Hills

It features a wireless tuner, internet-capable (to a Panasonic server with select websites). But it's really all about the super-thinness of the TV, right?

Labels: Panasonic, TV

A local pet boutique in Vestavia is supported Two By Two Animal Rescue with a charity spaghetti dinner for dogs and their owners on August 22.

Check it out here!

Labels: charity, events, Vestavia Hills

After a three month remodeling, Walmart on 280 in Hoover has reopened, bringing it up to the standard of other more modern Walmarts.

Read about the 280 Walmart reopening here.

Labels: Highway 280, Hoover

Labels: recall notice, televisions, Toshiba

From Toshiba's updates and notices on their website:

To ensure the satisfaction of our customers and to maintain the integrity and quality of our products, Toshiba America Consumer Products, L.L.C. ("TACP") is posting this notice about the 40XV645U LCD TV. This is not a safety issue.

Recently, it has come to our attention that a small percentage of the 40XV645U LCD TVs that we have shipped may display horizontal lines on the screen. TACP can determine, based on the serial number, whether a particular 40XV645U LCD TV may experience this problem.

To determine if your 40XV645U is one of the few affected units, you will need the serial number.

----------------------------------

To check your serial number, go to Toshiba's updates and notices page and click on the link for Information for Owners of Toshiba 40XV645U Televisions. This will open a popup window with a box you can type your serial number into.

If you need service on your Toshiba television in Alabama, please contact Service Care and we'll fix it fast.

Labels: Alabama, recall notice, televisions, Toshiba

From a release from www.cpsc.gov. Visit the full page

Office of Information and Public Affairs

Washington, DC 20207

---

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 30, 2009 Release # 09-292

Firm’s Recall Hotline: (800) 734-4519 CPSC Recall Hotline: (800) 638-2772 CPSC Media Contact: (301) 504-7908 Firm’s Media Contact: (614) 761-2633 Sear’s Recall Hotline: (888)-549-5870

Frigidaire Recalls Clothes Washers Due to Fire Hazard

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: Crosley®, Frigidaire®, Kelvinator®, Kenmore®, Wascomat®, and White-Westinghouse® clothes washers

Units: About 35,000

Distributor: Frigidaire, of Cleveland, Ohio

Hazard: An internal defect in the washer’s drain pump can cause heat to build up, posing a fire hazard to the consumer.

Incidents/Injuries: No incidents or injuries have been reported.

Description: This recall involves the Crosley®, Frigidaire®, Kelvinator®, Kenmore®, Wascomat®, and White-Westinghouse® top load washers, 3.1 cubic foot front load washers and laundry centers.

*Not all serial numbers within these ranges are affected.

Model and serial numbers can be located as follows:

Top load washer = open the product’s lid, and the model and serial number are located inside the product’s lid, on the top, right hand corner.

Front load washer = open the door, and the model and serial number are located with other information at the top, center.

Laundry center = open the door to the dryer, and the model and serial number are located on the outer edge of the door nearest the door’s handle.

Sold by: Sears and other retailers nationwide from February 2009 through May 2009 for between $300 and $1100.

Manufactured in: United States

Remedy: Consumers should immediately unplug and stop using the machine. Consumers should contact Frigidaire or Sears (if unit was purchased there) to schedule a free repair.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Frigidaire at (800) 734-4519 between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m. ET Monday through Saturday, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.laundrypumprecall.com. For consumers who purchased their product at Sears, call Sears toll free at (888) 549-5870 between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. ET Monday through Saturday, or visit Sear’s Web site at www.sears.com

Labels: Crosley, Frigidaire, Kelvinator, Kenmore, recall notice, Wascomat, washers, White-Westinghouse

If you own a business website like www.servicecare.net, and you only serve a single country (or a state, even) you may find that you are frequently contacted by a few honest people from countries that you do not serve. But more likely, you will find your inbox stuffed with contacts from dishonest scammers from all over the globe, wanting to use someone else's credit card to buy services from you... or share the wealth from a Nigerian president/queen/emperor who's recently been mauled by vampire bats.

If you, like me, see no reason why anyone from Ghana, to pick a random example, would have any real need to view your website (since you don't ship any product overseas, for example), then why not go to a website that allows you to block an entire country from viewing your website.

In fact, you can block a whole bunch of countries if you like.

If this seems to defy the whole free internet, world-wide-globe idea, ask yourself if you would advertise in Australia for your shoe repair shop in Texas. Would you send mailers to Egypt for your hotdog stand in Newark.

No, you wouldn't.

I would be careful to advise that you might want to avoid blocking other states (if you're in the U.S.), but that's up to you. Frankly, I'm only blocking the countries that keep sending me spam and scam.

For those that didn't see it, go to www.blockacountry.com and consider making a donation, or at least a link (like I did, you see?)

Labels: business, scams, spam, web

I think this is great. Mt. Laurel, like all Alabama communities, should greatly benefit from a local library. This will allow the kids (and adults, of course) the convenience of a local source for good reading. In this computer age, I'm glad there are still libraries out there.

Here's an article detailing Praxair's donation: Mt Laurel library fund receives corporate donation

Labels: Alabama, Mt. Laurel

Congratulations Connor!

Read the article here to find out his particularly impressive Wednesday round at the Vanderbilt Legends Club in Nashville, Tennessee. That's good golfing.

Labels: Alabama, Hoover, Spain Park