My father died with an insolvent estate in April 2022. He had credit card debt on his death in the amount of around $20,000 owed to 3 different credit cards. On the advice of a lawyer friend, I sent letters to all of his creditors shortly after his death advising that his estate was insolvent and that there were not enough funds even to pay his funeral expenses. This action was supposed to get the creditors to close their files.
Instead, the files were turned over to the collection agency of Phillips & Cohen who send me letters and call me nonstop requesting payment of my father's debts. I have written to them repeatedly explaining that the estate is insolvent but they will not stop hounding me. (I do not respond to their phone calls but just communicate with them in writing)
Does anyone have any experience with this and/or know of any way to get them to stop? Rather than being able to grieve my father's death I mostly just feel angry at him for leaving me with such a mess and dealing with this is really upsetting.
Thanks for any suggestions.

I need some help getting on track, I've mostly been doing what I think is right in investing but I know I've made mistakes and I'd like some help shoring up my knowledge and how to act to get on a better track.
Here is me in a nutshell:
I'm 35 and make about 110k a year.
My company offers private stock that gives me options every year. I currently have about 150k in vested and about 80k unvested. It grows at about 7.5% a year and I put in 10% of my salary into it.
I have a Roth IRA with about 35k in it and about 80k in some stocks/funds at Edward Jones. I know this is a huge mistake but I was/am dumb and didn't realize it. I know I need to switch to something else but I'm unsure how and to whom. I have Navy Federal Credit Union and I did notice they now have some kind of automated investing program you can sign up for, for a few dollars a month.
I have about 40k in a HYSA right now. My emergency fund, based on bills and lifestyle, would be about 20k.
Car loan is sub 3% interest rate and I owe about 10k
House is 3% interest rate and I owe about $150k
I save about 25k of my salary each year on top of the 10% that goes into my company's stock program. I pay my IRA out of that 25k.
What is your advice for me?

But a battle looms in the coming days to get it through Congress
https://www.economist.com/united-states/2023/05/28/americas-debt-ceiling-deal-means-it-should-now-avoid-armageddon
Even in a sharply divided Washington, DC, politics-as-usual sometimes works. America has a history of debt-ceiling drama, staring into the abyss of a government default before reaching a deal at the last minute. This time, too, the familiar pattern has repeated itself. Intense negotiations went down to the wire. But President Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, resolved the final points of an agreement in a phone call on the evening of May 27th.
Some feared that this time would be different. Such is the depth of the partisan divide in Washington nowadays, and so ardent the radicalism of the extremists in both camps, the worry was that a compromise might prove elusive. Republicans were demanding budget cuts on a scale—equivalent to about 25% in real terms—that was unacceptable to Democrats.
Yet the looming deadline concentrated minds as usual. The “X-date”, when the country might be unable to pay its bills unless Congress raised or suspended the debt ceiling of $31.4trn, was fast approaching. Although Janet Yellen, the treasury secretary, had on May 26th moved back her estimate of the X-date from June 1st to June 5th, time was running short to reach a deal and get it through both chambers of Congress. The consequences of a debt default, the first in America’s modern history, would be dire: the shock from disruption in the biggest sovereign-debt market, accounting for about one-third of the global total and underpinning pricing in financial markets everywhere, threatened to reverberate through every economy around the world. The gravity of the situation led Mr Biden to cut short his trip to Asia after the G7 summit, and prompted desperate speculation about whether there might be hitherto untested ways around a crisis, for example by invoking the 14th Amendment, in effect declaring the debt ceiling unconstitutional.
So the breakthrough achieved on May 27th came as a relief. The deal, if it gets through Congress, will suspend the debt ceiling for two years. That conveniently puts off any future debt-limit drama to beyond the presidential elections of 2024. There will be limits on some government programs over those two years, meaning non-defense spending will be flat in the 2024 fiscal year instead of growing, though the cuts will be far less swingeing than Republicans originally wanted.
Details of the deal were due to be released on May 28th. It reportedly includes new work requirements and time limits for some people on food stamps and some other safety-net programs (though there will be exceptions for homeless people and veterans, and Mr Biden resisted any new work requirements for Medicaid, the health-insurance program for the poor). Among the more contentious spending cuts, the Internal Revenue Service will get $10bn less than previously planned to enforce tax-collection. The agreement includes some modest provisions aimed at helping speed up environmental reviews of energy projects, a sensitive issue for progressive Democrats, though Republicans are not alone in complaining that such projects too often get bogged down by problems of permits. But military spending, and spending on veterans’ care, will still grow. And the White House has resisted any unwinding of Mr Biden’s landmark laws, such as the clean-energy investments under the Inflation Reduction Act.
An effort to sell the deal has begun on both sides. Mr McCarthy said it would bring “historic reductions in spending” and “rein in government overreach”. For his part, Mr Biden said: “The agreement represents a compromise, which means not everyone gets what they want.”
A measure of that compromise is that it has already produced noisy disgruntlement among radicals on both sides. For the Republicans, the House Freedom Caucus is said to be exploring ways to make the bill more radical. On the Democratic side, progressives are complaining that it goes too far.
Such discontent means that the deal’s journey through Congress will be bumpy. The clock is still ticking. The House is in recess but will return to consider the deal on Wednesday.
Albeit grumpily, and despite opponents on both sides, the deal seems likely to win approval, with support from Democrats and Republicans who are unwilling to push America (and world markets) over the brink. Any celebration at such an outcome should be tempered by the fact that the two-year horizon of the debt-ceiling suspension almost guarantees that you can pencil in renewed fears of debt Armageddon in 2025. But for now, at least, the center in America has held.

I can’t believe that I’m resorting to Reddit to air out these questions, but at this point, I might as well express these sentiments to (hopefully) like-minded people. Let me state plainly what this post is about from the outset: it's about whether or not it’s really worth it to commit to what is essentially a lost cause. It’s easy for people to insist on having hope, but it’s much harder and more painful to confront the things we can’t change in the world.
​
I’m a recent college graduate who, for several years now, has had a sustained interest and passion in Palestinian liberation. I’m even considering volunteering for a Palestinian NGO in the West Bank this upcoming fall.For some context, I’m a radical leftist, anti-capitalist, etc., and as I struggle to build a future for myself post-college I find myself confronting my burgeoning sense of political nihilism. For me, there are two types of people in this world. On the one hand, there are those who live under the veil of ignorance who never question the world in which we live; and those people will be a lot happier in life since they never choose to confront their alienation. On the other, there are people like me who choose to confront the alienating realities of capitalism and want to change the world accordingly. As I look at this world; having a boss, no social mobility, needing money to have fun; and it becomes all the more clear that the “progressive” change I have sought to enact will likely never be actualized.
​
I first started paying attention to Israel and Palestine near the end of high school, during the Great March of Return. Unarmed men, women, and children were slaughtered by IDF forces because they dared to protest their confinement in Gaza. As I researched the so-called “conflict”, what struck me was the sheer scale of the pro-Israel proganda disseminated by Zionist organizations in the U.S. The central argument of these organizations was that criticism of Israel (especially criticism which “crossed the line” in the eyes of Israel’s political defenders) was disingenuously labeled as anti-Semitism.
​
What further angered me is how plainly disingenuous these arguments were; even the people who made these arguments didn’t seem to believe it, but they knew they could exploit the hypersensitivity to anti-Semitism in order to effectively control the Overton window when it came to Israel. These people obviously don’t represent all Jews, even though they claim to. But as Israel is engaged in daily massacres, these people have the gaul to claim that specifically Zionist Jews deserve special consideration over and above others in the human community.
​
I was particularly outraged by the assertion that anti-Zionism is comparable to anti-Semitism, and the various derivative arguments that stem from that position. I took this last line of argument somewhat personally because it just adds intellectual insult to injury; in order to take a position, I was forced to defend my ability, in essence my right to speak. And in the end, I would just get bogged down in a meta-argument over what was and wasn’t anti-Semitism. I mean really, there’s a way for someone to argue their cause without dictating what others should be allowed to say (but of course, that’s the whole point).
My investment in Palestinian liberation was further sustained by the culture at my college. The Zionist campus body politik held a lot of social power on campus, as well as real political power. And if anyone dared touch the issue of Israel/Palestine, they’d face the career-ruining allegation of anti-Semitism. Some student groups even choose to bar all discussion of the topic in order to avoid controversy.
​
I’m the kind of person who simply can’t live under a veil of ignorance, no matter how much I’d like to. I am a Marxist, I believe in proletarian internationalism and class struggle; and I’m against all forms of ethno-national oppression, Zionism and anti-Semitism included. Israel is a settler-colonial apartheid society that is dedicated to maintaining a Jewish demographic majority in historic Palestine at all costs, even if that means destroying the Palestinian people. The Palestinians, on the other hand, have been exhausted and fragmented with two rivaling corrupt governments, no international allies, and very little hope for ever achieving political freedom (let alone the establishment of a unitary, secular, democratic state that would be necessary for Palestinian liberation).
​
Hence, the reason I asked for “no Zionist apologetics” in the Title is because I hope there’s someone on this board who can sympathize without being disingenuous. I know that I’m just some WASPy college boy who is unaffected by the realities of the conflict; and I know that the change I wish to see in this world will likely never come to be. So what’s the point of continuing to exhaust my energies on what is tragically a lost-cause? Isn’t it better to just bite the bullet, come to terms with the evils in this world, and move on with my life?

I've had my snake for three or four years and recently realized that she has begun to have symptoms but I am a minor and my family cannot afford a vet visit.
It may be connected to the fact that last feeding she had a mouse that was a bit big for her and she ended up pulling it into the water dish resulting in her somehow almost drowning herself. This has never happened before, I think she might have caught something from it. Almost a week afterwards (today) she's begun to sneeze like crazy and occasionally opens her mouth slightly to breathe. I only noticed it today.
Additionally, I'm worried she may have slight scale rot in one spot. Her enclosure hasn't been in the best shape recently because of schedule issues and other life and family related problems. We did thoroughly clean her enclosure today and tried to make it better for her. I'm going to make sure to pay more attention now.
I don't know what to do, I just want her be okay. if anyone has some suggestions that would be great, thank you.

Last year in july of 2022 we applied for the CR1 visa while I was in Ecuador.

I came to the US with my tourist visa to visit my husband. While I am here he suggested that we should apply for the adjustment of status to speed up the process and for me to stay with him.
The National Visa Center recently approved the first steps of the CR1 visa, which means that after paying the fees and submiting the requested documents I will have an interview in Ecuador (it could take several months for the interview to be scheduled).
I understand that the CR1 visa after approval it comes immediatly with a temporary green card of 2 years.
Is it possible and is it worth it to apply for the adjustment of status while I am in the US?
With my husband we really would not want to go through long distance again.

Last year in july of 2022 we applied for the CR1 visa while I was in Ecuador.
I came to the US with my tourist visa to visit my husband. While I am here he suggested that we should apply for the adjustment of status to speed up the process and for me to stay with him.
The National Visa Center recently approved the first steps of the CR1 visa, which means that after paying the fees and submiting the requested documents I will have an interview in Ecuador (it could take several months for the interview to be scheduled).
I understand that the CR1 visa after approval it comes immediatly with a temporary green card of 2 years.
Is it possible and is it worth it to apply for the adjustment of status while I am in the US?
With my husband we really would not want to go through long distance again.

Selling various graphics cards. Was used mostly for mining and some light gaming. Everything was purchased in October 2022. Everything has been cleaned, recently tested, and works great. GPU’s were never under any stress, even in the summer. All items listed below come with the original box and cables (aside from EVGA FTW3 Gaming 1080 TI). I have taken the time to inspect and thoroughly test every item that's being offered for sale. I have also gone through and painstakingly replaced the original thermal paste (13.8W/mk Thermalright TF8) and thermal pads (12.8 W/mk Thermalright Odyssey) for each GPU. Performance and thermals (incl. GPU hotspot temperatures) are excellent across the board.
All sales will be shipped by USPS Priority. I will send you a tracking number and pic of box if you like. My packing is excellent. Will give discount for multiple purchases. Prices include shipping to CONUS. Only looking to sell, no trades. Payment can be via PayPal F&F or Crypto. Around 92101 for local purchase.
I have 16 confirmed trades in SteelbookSwap if that helps
EVGA FTW3 Gaming 1080 TI = $145 shipped or $120 local
ASUS ROG Strix OC Edition RTX 3060 = $160 shipped or $130 local
Gigabyte Gaming OC 12G RTX 3060 = $160 shipped or $130 local
Gigabyte AORUS Master 8G RTX 3060 TI = $190 shipped or $155 local
Gigabyte Vision OC 8G RTX 3070 = $260 shipped or $205 local
ASUS ROG Strix OC Edition RTX 3070 = $240 shipped or $195 local
EVGA XC3 Black RTX 3070 = $250 shipped or $200 local
EVGA XC3 Ultra RTX 3070 = $250 shipped or $200 local
ASUS ROG Strix OC Edition RTX 3090 = $670 shipped or $600 local
Gigabyte Gaming OC 24G 3090 = $635 shipped or $570 local
ASUS ROG Strix OC Edition RTX 3080 = $500 shipped or $440 local
Gigabyte AORUS Master 8G RTX 3070 = $250 shipped or $200 local
MSI Ventus 3X OC Edition RTX 3070 = $230 shipped or $225 local
Zotac Twin Edge OC Edition RTX 3070 = $230 shipped or $225 local
Zotac Twin Edge OC Edition RTX 3060 TI = $190 shipped or $155 local
EVGA FTW3 Ultra RTX 3060 TI = $200 shipped or $160 local
ASUS ROG Strix OC Edition RTX 2080 TI = $270 shipped or $215 local

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[REQ] ($100) - (#Queens, NY, US), (repay $120 6/7/22-6/14/22), (Paypal)

Post contents

In need of $100 to pay some bills and for some basic necessities. Will pay you back in The given dates! Can also do a job for you. Basic typing jobs, some programming, editing, etc. just really need to pay this by the end of the month.

Hello, so I run a small online business and it's been going pretty well. Up until now I've been debiting customer cards £15 per month for my service.
However, recently I've started working with ads instead of relying on organic traffic and word of mouth. This means that I'm able to scale a bit quicker. I've found that £35 is my average acquisition cost.
Because I'm now paying £35 to gain new customers, I'd feel happier if I had some form of security that they will stay with me until this amount is paid off. I know it is common in the insurance industry etc. to lock customers into a contract. I'd like to do the same, if possible.
I feel that I can justify this because I don't charge any upfront fees and my pricing is very competitive. Is there a low-friction method of locking customers into 3, 6 or 12 month contracts in which they will be debited £15 per month?
Thanks for any help/advice!

I resigned from my job on the 19th of may and bonus pay out was the 26th. The bonus was for work done October 2022 -March 2023. I received a letter telling me my bonus and I can see the transaction in my bank account. The transaction after is a reversal from my employer. Is there anything I can do about this to be able to keep/get my bonus?

WTS: https://imgur.com/a/6xNdQT7
Hello everyone! Back again with a new post! Some new figured being listed and updated prices for others! Feel free to ask for more pictures!
All figures are well maintained, from a smoke free home. They come with all their original accessories and and shuppees shippers unless otherwise stated. Paypal G&S for payment and I have included shipping in my price listing.
Hot Toys MMS 591 The Dark Knight Returns Bat-Pod. $210
Hot Toys TMS042 Bad Batch Echo $260
Exo-6 Voyager Captain Janeway $200
Exo-6 Voyager Tuvok $200
Exo-6 Voyager Emergecy Medical Hologram $200
Ace Toys Power Ranger Set. These have never been displayed as I the Threezero set came out shortly after this which I got as well. Happy to sell as a whole set which comes with entire box and a shipper or rangers individually which does not have a shipper but will be boxed carefully.
Red Ranger $105
Pink Ranger $105
Blue Ranger $105
Black Ranger $105
Yellow Ranger $105
Whole set of 5 $480
Toys Era The Fiend w/ Glider. Never displayed. The fiend doesnt come with shipper but the glider does. Both will be packed carefully together. $250
PCS Collectables 1:8 scale Lord Drakkon $110
PCS Collectables 1:8 scale White Ranger $100
PCS Collectables 1:8 scale Red Ranger $80

Back in April of 2022 I became a victim of sextortion. I was 16 years old at the time and in a very vulnerable state. I began talking to this person I thought was a girl, and once the “girl” got what she needed from me she revealed herself to be a scammer who recorded everything. The scammer sent me screenshots of all my instagram followers and threatened to send send them if I didn’t cooperate. I tried telling him I was a minor and what he was doing was illegal, to which he responded “I don’t care” . In a desperate attempt I attempted to pay him, with little success. I was taking too long and he was loosing patients. My parents got involved and we called the police, but there was nothing they could do. Eventually the scammer lost patients and created a group chat on instagram with most of my followers. He posted my nudes to it and told everybody what it was. It was at this point I decided to report the images and block the scammer. A week after only 2 people from the group chat confronted me about the incident and they expressed their remorse. They told me they reported the images and they deleted the group chats.
Its been over a year and It is almost as if it never happened. The scammer never contacted me again, Ive never seen my nudes resurface, and no one has ever even mentioned it.
Despite this, the trama from the event still very much follows me. From time to time I get panic attacks about the event. I feel as though I I ruined my life and reputation. I worry that one day I will be just living my life and working on my career, only for the scammer to come back and jeopardize everything I worked for. I just want to be free and live my life. I just want to have fun and play. I just want to start building my career now that Im going to collage soon. But this trauma keeps coming back.
Im just worried that this will always hold me back.

From their website:(The average scale score for students in DoDEA in 2022 (282) was higher than that in 1998 (269) and in 2019 (280). In 2022, the percentage of students in DoDEA who performed at or above NAEP Proficient was 55 percent. This was greater than that for the nation's public schools (29 percent). Can someone go in depth as to why this is? Do they get more funding for their schools or what? Are the teachers better? Etc. Thanks in advance!

*a significant amount of money
​
In August 2022, I loaned my dad $5000 so he could buy hunting property. The agreement was that he would pay me back in several months when he got back pay from his disability - since he was recently approved for disability. We never agreed on an exact date.
Well, he never got his back pay and I still don't have any money. On top of that, my savings have been dwindled and I barely have enough for rent on June 1st. In April (last month), I told him i needed money in May. He agreed.
I reminded him towards the beginning of this month again that I needed it back so I could pay rent this month. I sent a reminder today saying I didn't want to have to sue him and garnish his disability and that I'm extremely pissed off at him for using this money for leisure when I am struggling. He replied back finally and said that he's trying and needs to sell stuff.
I don't know what to do. Any advice here? His plan was to get a mortgage and use some of that money to pay me back and my sister (who also loaned him 5k). I don't think he'll ever get a mortgage with no income and a used car.
I'm extremely angry at him and feel hustled. I cursed at him over text, told him to sell the property, sell his car, to stop using other people's money to buy things, etc etc. But, I'm angry. I'm not going to be able to afford to eat soon or afford gas to work. I'm genuinely starting to resent him and letting it affect my relationship with him. We have always been close, too.
​
tl;dr-I loaned my dad 5k so he could buy hunting property. Haven't been paid back. Now I need the 5k for rent since my savings is spent. What do I do?

Spots: 150@$1  Total Price: 150$
Make and model: custom benchmade bugout with bronze hardware/frag scales
Price Justification: https://www.reddit.com/Knife_Swap/comments/13l0kc3/wts_benchmade_griptilian_benchmade_bugout/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1
Timestamp: https://imgur.com/a/N4CljSv
Escrow: me
Description: PLEASE BE THOROUGH. EXPLICITLY STATE ALL ISSUES : my personal benchmade bugout, blade is modded and has been sharpened and acid washed. Knife Has Bronze clip, backspacer, all screws are bronze, black aluminum frag scales, minimal wear. Axis lock has the little glow in the dark on the face side. Overall blade looks good and action is superb. Solid knife.
International shipping: nope
Add no notes when paying please 🙏🏻 or I’ll beet you

PayPal Info: https://www.paypal.me/wjinak?locale.x=en_US
​
Tip BlobAndHisBoy
Number of vacant slots: 0
Number of unpaid users: 1
Number of unpaid slots: 2
This slot list is created and updated by The EDC Raffle Tool by BlobAndHisBoy.
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Hello! Would like some advice please. Sorry I'm not sure if this is the correct way but here goes.
Income 120k annually Experian Credit Score 694 Spending about 6-7k monthly between necessary purchases/groceries/eating out/fun purchases and traveling for vacations 2-3 times a year.
Capital One Venture- 10K limit, primary everyday card including bill pay (opened 09/2022) Discover it secured- 200 limit, for monthly Netflix subscription only (opened 02/2023) Bank of America unlimited cash rewards- 2600 limit, for monthly gym subscription only (opened 04/2023) Citi American Airlines AAdvantage Mile up- 1k limit, for monthly spotify subscription only (opened 03/2023)
Also, I recently got approved for a Hawaiian Airlines Mastercard 15k limit ,which I was going to start to use as my everyday card. Should I be utilizing one card over the other? I do not usually let balances carry over, 3 of my cards are on autopay and I try to pay my primary card in full every month. I'm not sure if I have too many cards or if I should be closing one or more of them. Please advise and thank you in advance!

Hi ecommerce - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry pretty closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Each week I post a summary recap of this week's top stories, which I cover in depth in the newsletter. .

1. STAT OF THE WEEK: 70% of e-commerce shoppers experienced shipping delays without any reason provided by the business for the delay. Faced with that experience, 90% of respondents said they are less likely to buy from a brand again after a poor online shopping experience, while 29% say they are increasingly willing to share a negative review online. – According to Koerber .
2. If some of Temu's deals appear too good to be true — it's because they are! An analysis of the company's supply chain costs by WIRED shows that Temu is losing an average of $30 per order as it throws money at trying to break into the American market. Most of Temu's subsidies are in the form of free international shipping, with even a small package costing the company around $14 to ship to the US (although it offers the shipping for free). When adding in the additional product discounts and cash coupons that Temu gives to customers, the average loss per order jumps to $30. .
3. The FTC has proposed new rules in the US called “click to cancel” that will impact e-commerce subscriptions — but in a good way for consumers! The rules would require any business selling subscriptions to add a simple cancel mechanism on the same website as the initial transaction, and include the same number of steps. In other words, a “one click subscription” would require a “one click cancelation.” This “click to cancel” rule is part of the FTC's proposed changes to its 1973 Negative Option Rule, which establishes how subscription sellers must communicate offers, ensure consent, manage billing, and simplify cancellation. .
4. BigCommerce announced new leadership including the appointment of Daniel Lentz as the company's CFO, Chuck Cassidy as its General Counsel, and Hubert Ban as its Chief Accounting Officer. .
5. Google is launching Product Studio, a new tool that allows Shopping merchants to quickly edit and customize their product images for free using generative AI. According to Google's data, product listings with more than one image typically see a 76% increase in impressions and a 32% increase in clicks compared to listings with a single image. With the new generative AI tool, text prompts can be used within Product Studio to quickly make visual adjustments to product images, such as generating new backgrounds for seasonal campaigns. The tool also allows sellers to instantly remove the existing background of an image if they need a blank backdrop, and increase the quality of small or low resolution images. .
6. Morning Consult published their annual report of Most Trusted Brands for 2023. The survey ranks roughly 1,500 brands in the US, most of which were dominated by big, well-established names including: #1 Band-Aid, #2 UPS, #3 Amazon, #4 Lysol, #5 Kleenex, #6 Cheerios, #7 Visa, #8 Dove, #9 The Weather Channel, and #10 FedEx .
7. Axios, in collaboration with market research firm Harris Poll, also ran a recent survey to determine the Most Reputable Brands in the US. The results were very different from Morning Consult's most trusted brands. Only one company overlapped in the top ten which included: #1 Patagonia, #2 Costco, #3 John Deere, #4 Trader Joe's, #5 Chick-fil-A, #6 Toyota, #7 Samsung, #8 Amazon, #9 USAA, and #10 Apple . Bottom of the list included: #90 Family Dollar, #91 Balenciaga, #92 BP, #93 Bitcoin, #94 TikTok, #95 Spirit Airlines, #96 Meta, #97 Twitter, #98 Fox, #99 FTX, and #100 The Trump Organization .
8. The latest data from PYMNTS shows that high earners are feeling the pinch of credit card debt and that their wages aren't keeping up with inflation. This is resulting in higher-end retailers who depend on wealthier households feeling the pinch as well. The data shows a number of correlations including that for bouseholds earning more than $100k annually, 42% were living paycheck-to-paycheck in April 2022. That number has crept up to over 49% this past year. .
9. Netflix must have forgotten what love is since 2017 when it made its famous tweet that “Love is sharing a password.” The company has finally launched its ill-awaited crackdown on password sharing in the US and the UK. The new rules state that subscribers are permitted to share their account with members of their own household, which Netflix defines as “you and the people you live with.” Netflix will begin using a variety of tools, such as IP checking, to spot when people are using another household’s account and prevent them from doing so, or give them the option of adding a household for $7.99/month. The company expects cancellations, but optimistically (or idiotically) predicts that those same people will come back again, which will overall lead to more people paying for subscriptions. .
10. Laws are changing in Australia to treat BNPL as a credit product. Finally! When was it NOT a form of credit? BNPL should have been recognized as a credit product the day the first BNPL company put up a coming soon landing page. Australia’s Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones said that a litany of issues reported to the Australia Securities and Investments Commission have added up to “unacceptable levels of unaffordable lending occurring, largely concentrated amongst low-income borrowers.” He added that “BNPL looks like credit, it acts like credit, it carries the risks of credit.” Jones promised draft legislation in the coming months and the introduction of a final bill to the Australian Parliament by the end of the year, which will include the need for BNPL firms to hold Australian Credit Licenses and comply with Resonspible Lending Obligations. .
11. Bill Gates said that AI could kill Google Search and Amazon as we know them, and that the technology could radically alter user behaviors, resulting in people never needing to visit a search website again or use certain productivity or shopping tools. Gates remarked that the first company to develop it will have a leg up on competitors. .
12. A recent study conducted by Lloyds Banking Group revealed that a UK consumer falls victim to a purchasing scam that originates on Facebook or Instagram every seven minutes, resulting in a cost of over £500k per week. (That man is Michael Scott.) The banking group is now urging Meta and other tech giants to take responsibility and contribute to refunding innocent victims of scams. .
13. Analysts at Bernstein project that Reliance Industries is poised to outpace Amazon and Flipkart in the race for India's $150M e-commerce market, citing the conglomerate's robust retail network, mobile network, and home field advantage as its biggest assets. Reliance already operates the country's largest retail chain with over 18k stores and is leveraging its presence to form partnerships with Meta, Shein, and other companies as a strategic advantage against its competitors. .
14. Shopify is introducing its POS hardware to the Canadian market. Its mobile selling device, the POS Go, which is built to run Shopify’s POS software, was first rolled out to retailers in the US in 2022. .
15. Meta announced that ads in Instagram search results will now be available through the Instagram Marketing API, allowing third-party social-management platforms to offer a new Instagram ad-placement type in their apps. Meta began testing the placement in March and are now opening it up to all brands. .
16. Shein is exploring plans to build a factory in Mexico as one of its manufacturing hubs outside China, which could shorten shipping time and cut distribution costs for customers in Latin America and USA. Earlier this month I reported that Shein is creating a hub in Brazil. .
17. Amazon opened the first phase of its Metropolitan Park on Monday, its long-awaited second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia that can hold up to 8k employees. However not all Amazon employees are excited about the new office location (or any office location). At least 1,000 office workers are planning a walkout this Wednesday to take a stand against the company's return-to-office mandate. .
18. The Vietnamese government is putting pressure on TikTok to police its content and remove videos that fall short of the state’s standards, or risk a ban. Eight government departments are targeting toxic content deemed “to pose a threat to the country’s youth, culture and tradition” — including videos that simply criticize college degrees. .
19. eBay unveiled generative AI on its mobile app to help sellers list new items for sale, however the company forgot to inform sellers and didn't label the icon. When clicked, the icon replaced sellers' entire product descriptions with AI generated text, with no way to recover the original description. .
20. Boozt AB, a Sweden-based online fashion retailer, blocked 42,000 customers for returning too many items, calling their actions too costly for the company and the environment. The company said that these particular customers represented less than 2% of their 3M customers, but around 25% of the total return volume. .
21. Twitter withdrew from an agreement with the EU to cut down misinformation on its social network, which the company joined alongside other tech companies in 2018. Thierry Breton, the EU internal market commissioner, noted that fighting disinformation will be a legal obligation from August 25th, due to the EU's Digital Services Act, so the agreement would become irrelevant. .
22. Jeff Bezos is ripped now! The Amazon founder started working with personal trainer, Wes Okerson, who's also trained Tom Cruise and Gerard Butler, and now he's gotten super buff. This is about the least e-commerce specific news you'll ever see me share in this newsletter, but the Jeff Bezos before / after photo is kind of wild! .
23. Amazon will close its official Amazon app store in China on July 17, which launched in 2011 as an alternative to the Google Play Store. Amazon noted that its marketplaces and AWS services will remain operational in China. However while it may be leaving China, the Amazon App Store will soon be bringing more Android apps to the Windows ecosystem. The expanded partnership will allow Windows users to access a wider range of Android apps seamlessly. .
24. Google updated the badges some merchants display for their product listings in Google Search to say “Top Quality Store” instead of the original “Trusted Store” badge. Google said this is just a name and title change and won't have any impact on search rank or performance. .
25. Auctane, an e-commerce shipping specialist that operates brands such as Metapack, ShipStation, Packlink, ShipEngine, Stamps.com, and others, appointed Albert Ko as its new CEO, who previously served as CEO of EWS, which is best known for the Zelle payments network. Current CEO Nathan Jones will join the company's Board of Directors. .
26. eCampus.com, a website that sells textbooks and course materials, announced that it would keep offering textbook rentals, even though its retail partner Amazon was exiting the business. The company had been powering the program behind the scenes for Amazon since 2012, and plans to keep it going through its own website. .
27. Walmart is partnering with Pawp, a veterinary telehealth provider, to offer Walmart+ subscribers free access to virtual veterinarians for a year, starting this week. Currently Pawp charges $99 for an annual membership. .
28. Alibaba Group said that it aims to hire 15,000 people this year, dismissing rumors circulating that the company planned to cut 20% of its staff. They also mentioned that more than 3,000 of those hires would be newly-graduated students. .
29. Plus 7 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest including a $12M Series A round by Laced to grow its resale marketplace for authenticated sneakers.

I hope you find this news recap helpful. See you next week!
-PAUL

Hi ShopifyeCommerce - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Each week I post a summary recap of this week's top stories, which I cover in depth in the newsletter. .

1. STAT OF THE WEEK: 70% of e-commerce shoppers experienced shipping delays without any reason provided by the business for the delay. Faced with that experience, 90% of respondents said they are less likely to buy from a brand again after a poor online shopping experience, while 29% say they are increasingly willing to share a negative review online. – According to Koerber .
2. If some of Temu's deals appear too good to be true — it's because they are! An analysis of the company's supply chain costs by WIRED shows that Temu is losing an average of $30 per order as it throws money at trying to break into the American market. Most of Temu's subsidies are in the form of free international shipping, with even a small package costing the company around $14 to ship to the US (although it offers the shipping for free). When adding in the additional product discounts and cash coupons that Temu gives to customers, the average loss per order jumps to $30. .
3. The FTC has proposed new rules in the US called “click to cancel” that will impact e-commerce subscriptions — but in a good way for consumers! The rules would require any business selling subscriptions to add a simple cancel mechanism on the same website as the initial transaction, and include the same number of steps. In other words, a “one click subscription” would require a “one click cancelation.” This “click to cancel” rule is part of the FTC's proposed changes to its 1973 Negative Option Rule, which establishes how subscription sellers must communicate offers, ensure consent, manage billing, and simplify cancellation. .
4. BigCommerce announced new leadership including the appointment of Daniel Lentz as the company's CFO, Chuck Cassidy as its General Counsel, and Hubert Ban as its Chief Accounting Officer. .
5. Google is launching Product Studio, a new tool that allows Shopping merchants to quickly edit and customize their product images for free using generative AI. According to Google's data, product listings with more than one image typically see a 76% increase in impressions and a 32% increase in clicks compared to listings with a single image. With the new generative AI tool, text prompts can be used within Product Studio to quickly make visual adjustments to product images, such as generating new backgrounds for seasonal campaigns. The tool also allows sellers to instantly remove the existing background of an image if they need a blank backdrop, and increase the quality of small or low resolution images. .
6. Morning Consult published their annual report of Most Trusted Brands for 2023. The survey ranks roughly 1,500 brands in the US, most of which were dominated by big, well-established names including: #1 Band-Aid, #2 UPS, #3 Amazon, #4 Lysol, #5 Kleenex, #6 Cheerios, #7 Visa, #8 Dove, #9 The Weather Channel, and #10 FedEx .
7. Axios, in collaboration with market research firm Harris Poll, also ran a recent survey to determine the Most Reputable Brands in the US. The results were very different from Morning Consult's most trusted brands. Only one company overlapped in the top ten which included: #1 Patagonia, #2 Costco, #3 John Deere, #4 Trader Joe's, #5 Chick-fil-A, #6 Toyota, #7 Samsung, #8 Amazon, #9 USAA, and #10 Apple . Bottom of the list included: #90 Family Dollar, #91 Balenciaga, #92 BP, #93 Bitcoin, #94 TikTok, #95 Spirit Airlines, #96 Meta, #97 Twitter, #98 Fox, #99 FTX, and #100 The Trump Organization .
8. The latest data from PYMNTS shows that high earners are feeling the pinch of credit card debt and that their wages aren't keeping up with inflation. This is resulting in higher-end retailers who depend on wealthier households feeling the pinch as well. The data shows a number of correlations including that for bouseholds earning more than $100k annually, 42% were living paycheck-to-paycheck in April 2022. That number has crept up to over 49% this past year. .
9. Netflix must have forgotten what love is since 2017 when it made its famous tweet that “Love is sharing a password.” The company has finally launched its ill-awaited crackdown on password sharing in the US and the UK. The new rules state that subscribers are permitted to share their account with members of their own household, which Netflix defines as “you and the people you live with.” Netflix will begin using a variety of tools, such as IP checking, to spot when people are using another household’s account and prevent them from doing so, or give them the option of adding a household for $7.99/month. The company expects cancellations, but optimistically (or idiotically) predicts that those same people will come back again, which will overall lead to more people paying for subscriptions. .
10. Laws are changing in Australia to treat BNPL as a credit product. Finally! When was it NOT a form of credit? BNPL should have been recognized as a credit product the day the first BNPL company put up a coming soon landing page. Australia’s Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones said that a litany of issues reported to the Australia Securities and Investments Commission have added up to “unacceptable levels of unaffordable lending occurring, largely concentrated amongst low-income borrowers.” He added that “BNPL looks like credit, it acts like credit, it carries the risks of credit.” Jones promised draft legislation in the coming months and the introduction of a final bill to the Australian Parliament by the end of the year, which will include the need for BNPL firms to hold Australian Credit Licenses and comply with Resonspible Lending Obligations. .
11. Bill Gates said that AI could kill Google Search and Amazon as we know them, and that the technology could radically alter user behaviors, resulting in people never needing to visit a search website again or use certain productivity or shopping tools. Gates remarked that the first company to develop it will have a leg up on competitors. .
12. A recent study conducted by Lloyds Banking Group revealed that a UK consumer falls victim to a purchasing scam that originates on Facebook or Instagram every seven minutes, resulting in a cost of over £500k per week. (That man is Michael Scott.) The banking group is now urging Meta and other tech giants to take responsibility and contribute to refunding innocent victims of scams. .
13. Analysts at Bernstein project that Reliance Industries is poised to outpace Amazon and Flipkart in the race for India's $150M e-commerce market, citing the conglomerate's robust retail network, mobile network, and home field advantage as its biggest assets. Reliance already operates the country's largest retail chain with over 18k stores and is leveraging its presence to form partnerships with Meta, Shein, and other companies as a strategic advantage against its competitors. .
14. Shopify is introducing its POS hardware to the Canadian market. Its mobile selling device, the POS Go, which is built to run Shopify’s POS software, was first rolled out to retailers in the US in 2022. .
15. Meta announced that ads in Instagram search results will now be available through the Instagram Marketing API, allowing third-party social-management platforms to offer a new Instagram ad-placement type in their apps. Meta began testing the placement in March and are now opening it up to all brands. .
16. Shein is exploring plans to build a factory in Mexico as one of its manufacturing hubs outside China, which could shorten shipping time and cut distribution costs for customers in Latin America and USA. Earlier this month I reported that Shein is creating a hub in Brazil. .
17. Amazon opened the first phase of its Metropolitan Park on Monday, its long-awaited second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia that can hold up to 8k employees. However not all Amazon employees are excited about the new office location (or any office location). At least 1,000 office workers are planning a walkout this Wednesday to take a stand against the company's return-to-office mandate. .
18. The Vietnamese government is putting pressure on TikTok to police its content and remove videos that fall short of the state’s standards, or risk a ban. Eight government departments are targeting toxic content deemed “to pose a threat to the country’s youth, culture and tradition” — including videos that simply criticize college degrees. .
19. eBay unveiled generative AI on its mobile app to help sellers list new items for sale, however the company forgot to inform sellers and didn't label the icon. When clicked, the icon replaced sellers' entire product descriptions with AI generated text, with no way to recover the original description. .
20. Boozt AB, a Sweden-based online fashion retailer, blocked 42,000 customers for returning too many items, calling their actions too costly for the company and the environment. The company said that these particular customers represented less than 2% of their 3M customers, but around 25% of the total return volume. .
21. Twitter withdrew from an agreement with the EU to cut down misinformation on its social network, which the company joined alongside other tech companies in 2018. Thierry Breton, the EU internal market commissioner, noted that fighting disinformation will be a legal obligation from August 25th, due to the EU's Digital Services Act, so the agreement would become irrelevant. .
22. Jeff Bezos is ripped now! The Amazon founder started working with personal trainer, Wes Okerson, who's also trained Tom Cruise and Gerard Butler, and now he's gotten super buff. This is about the least e-commerce specific news you'll ever see me share in this newsletter, but the Jeff Bezos before / after photo is kind of wild! .
23. Amazon will close its official Amazon app store in China on July 17, which launched in 2011 as an alternative to the Google Play Store. Amazon noted that its marketplaces and AWS services will remain operational in China. However while it may be leaving China, the Amazon App Store will soon be bringing more Android apps to the Windows ecosystem. The expanded partnership will allow Windows users to access a wider range of Android apps seamlessly. .
24. Google updated the badges some merchants display for their product listings in Google Search to say “Top Quality Store” instead of the original “Trusted Store” badge. Google said this is just a name and title change and won't have any impact on search rank or performance. .
25. Auctane, an e-commerce shipping specialist that operates brands such as Metapack, ShipStation, Packlink, ShipEngine, Stamps.com, and others, appointed Albert Ko as its new CEO, who previously served as CEO of EWS, which is best known for the Zelle payments network. Current CEO Nathan Jones will join the company's Board of Directors. .
26. eCampus.com, a website that sells textbooks and course materials, announced that it would keep offering textbook rentals, even though its retail partner Amazon was exiting the business. The company had been powering the program behind the scenes for Amazon since 2012, and plans to keep it going through its own website. .
27. Walmart is partnering with Pawp, a veterinary telehealth provider, to offer Walmart+ subscribers free access to virtual veterinarians for a year, starting this week. Currently Pawp charges $99 for an annual membership. .
28. Alibaba Group said that it aims to hire 15,000 people this year, dismissing rumors circulating that the company planned to cut 20% of its staff. They also mentioned that more than 3,000 of those hires would be newly-graduated students. .
29. Plus 7 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest including a $12M Series A round by Laced to grow its resale marketplace for authenticated sneakers.

For more details on each story, see the full edition: https://www.shopifreaks.com/how-much-money-does-temu-lose-per-orde
What else is new in e-commerce? Share stories of interesting in the comments below (including in your own business) or on shopifreaks.
See you next week.
-PAUL