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Category Archives: Shopping

Office Supply Overload

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I have now unpacked enough NEW index cards, staples, sticky notes, and paperclips to choke three horses.

You think I’m kidding?

Try 35,000 staples (seven boxes), 1000 index cards (10 packs), 1500 sticky notes (15 pads), and 1600 paperclips (16 boxes). Good lord. This is why I need to be organized—they all came out of the same storage cabinet but obviously different drawers that I didn’t pay attention to.

Oh, there are also three glue sticks and three rolls of invisible tape, but those are minimal quantities I’m not really concerned with.

And I’m not done unpacking.

Egads.

You would never believe me.

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I did something tonight I never thought I’d do in a million years… Yes, shame on me, I bought a Stouffer’s frozen lasagna for dinner. 88| 😀

Why? Well, apparently that’s what happens when a hungry pregnant woman innocently stops for milk on the way home, and wanders past a freezer end case and sees the lasagna on sale. :yes:

I know that Stouffer’s macaroni and cheese is deeeeelicious, so hoped the lasagna would be the same. And you know what? It wasn’t too bad. Of course, it’s nowhere near homemade, but since we are (obviously) moving soon, I am not up to making a batch of spaghetti sauce and there is none in the freezer. And honestly, it was worth the $5.

But the best part of the dinner? Tom had bought some focaccia and made garlic bread out of it…then I went out and snipped some fresh basil, tossed in some fresh tomatoes (from our plants!), then added some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, fresh garlic, and salt and pepper for the BEST bruschetta topping. Mmmmm was that divine. I could have eaten the whole loaf myself (except we only had enough tomatoes for a few pieces).

Field & Stream? Really?

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So I get to work this morning and there’s a copy of Field & Stream—addressed to me at my work address—on my desk.

Yeah, exactly, HUH?

So I call the publisher and they say “Oh, it was ordered by m2mags, Vistaprint, here is their number to call them.”

Again: HUH 😕

So I call the number and it’s completely automated, saying we have not been charged, we received the magazine complimentary from a partner site, yada yada yada.

Okay, cool. But why the hell Field & Stream? What about ordering business cards gets someone on the Field & Stream list?

😯

I couldn’t even cancel over the phone—I have to send an email.

Interesting morning so far…

The research has started.

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I still haven’t had much energy to sit at the computer and think about baby things, let alone be serious about starting any registries…but that said, I did visit Consumer Reports to start checking out cribs and strollers and car seats.

Unfortunately, I get easily overwhelmed, and as I am sure you all know, there is a TON of baby info out there…so I need to get Tom involved because I don’t have the patience for it all—especially not right now.

That said, I did start a registry at Amazon, but it can’t be taken seriously yet, as we are just putting things on there that we are thinking about/considering (so, two strollers, a crib or two, various car seats, etc.)—and of course, Amazon doesn’t have the exact models that CR recommends because the ratings are about a year old (which further exasperates me, LOL).

But I just wanted to let those of you know who have mentioned it…we will have registries…just give us some time. 🙂

Homemade Hooters Wings

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So when we were cleaning out/reorganizing the pantry last weekend, we saw we had three jars of Hooters-branded buffalo wing sauce. We thought “Hey, we should have a wing night over at Roger and Ursulas!” So we called them and made the plans!

Of course, we didn’t have wings in the freezer, so went to buy some at Sam’s Club. They come in bags of like 10# so we figured with the number of people that usually show up at their house “for a little get together,” we’d better get two bags.

Fast forward to today, the day of the wing night, and I decide “You know what? I am going to mix all the sauces together and maybe add some more spice” so I opened the first jar and it was the consistency of, oh, peanut butter. We hadn’t had Hooters sauce in a loooong time, and I couldn’t remember if that was how it was supposed to be, so I tasted it and it tasted off. I thought maybe it just needed to be stirred, and that was when I noticed the “SHAKE WELL” on the side. Hmmm, not a good sign, as peanut butter never shakes well. :-/

So I looked at the expiration date. Wow—it wasn’t just expired, it was hideously expired. Like March 2005 expired. >:XX

I should have known better, because our pantry often contains items of such age (especially after throwing away brown sweetened condensed milk from 2002 last weekend!), but I was kicking myself for not checking any sooner than the afternoon of the dinner! Yep, at this point it was about 12:30 and dinner was at 6:30 and we had no sauce and people were expecting Hooters wings.

So, I immediately googled for a recipe and the ones I found were extremely different. So I headed off to Top Secret Recipes and ended up paying 79¢ for the Hooters Buffalo Chicken Wings recipe.

Of course by then I was flustered because our plan was thrown for a loop—now I had to run to town to get ingredients, and now we were going to bread the wings (originally we were only going to use the sauce), and the breaded wings had to be refrigerated for 90 minutes, and the wings were still half frozen, and Tom was napping! 88|

So I woke him up, told him the new plan, ran to town, and when I came back we started breading the wings and making the sauce. Phew! (At this point I was VERY thankful that I had already finished making the double batch of tuna salad!)

Fast forward to the conclusion of this saga…

It was only us four for dinner, so we had entirely too many wings (four trays, or about 140 wings) but we put a serious dent in them because they were absolutely amazing—a grand slam hit—and everyone said they were sooooooooooo much better than real Hooters wings. YAY ME!

The Staples Chair Mat Saga

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Wednesday, May 21—I needed a new chair mat, and had a $25 off $75 coupon, so I picked a decent chair mat (that was on sale), plus two small things to push me over the $75. I ordered before 4pm so I should have had the items the next day.

Thursday, May 22—I got an email saying that “some or all of my items” were being delayed and delivery was rescheduled for 5/23.

Friday, May 23—I received the two small items but not the chair mat (which is what I really wanted). I figured maybe that was still delayed, so wanted to give them until Tuesday to see if it arrived (Monday was a holiday so no shipping).

Tuesday, May 27—No chair mat at work or at home. So I called Staples and explained that I still hadn’t received the mat. They apologized and said they would ship another one and it should be here Thursday or Friday.

Thursday, May 29—Well, something did arrive Thursday—but not the chair mat! I got a duplicate order of the piddly things! I called again, explaining, and they apologized and said “Yep, that was our error, I see the note here. We will send out the chair mat now and you should have it Monday.” And they were also sending someone to pick up the duplicate order. I wondered why it was going to take four days (not including weekends) but at that point, I just wanted my chair mat.

Friday, May 30—I swear they said that person who was picking up the duplicate order would also be delivering my chair mat, but they didn’t. >:XX They said UPS might be delivering it…so UPS came and went and still no chair mat. And no chair mat at home, either (I had changed delivery address, but thought they might have messed that up as well).

Monday, June 2—No chair mat today, and UPS delivered next door (at work) so I was not holding out hope. I figured if it didn’t show up at home, I would call and request a discount or something because this has been ridiculous.

Tuesday, June 3—Staples redeemed themselves somewhat. I still hadn’t received the chair mat, so I called to ask where it was and the rep said hmmm, it looks like you were credited for it on such and such date. Wait. What? Credited? Yes, apparently they didn’t resend it like they said they were going to, but rather just cancelled the order and credited my card. >:XX So after some discussion, the rep agreed to give me the $25 coupon on just the chair mat—so technically I got a percentage off on the few piddly things I had to order to meet the original coupon deal, and am now getting $25 off on the chairmat itself.

Thursday, June 4—It finally came! And OMG, it was in like a 6′ x 1′ box! I had to put my seat down to fit it in the car! And since it sat in my car all day in the hot temps (100+), when I got it home and brought it inside, it pretty much just unrolled and laid flat. YAY! Oh, and the box was overkill—it looks like they had to make the box from other boxes so it was just waaaay too big. Anyway, we will put it under my desk tomorrow! I am sooo excited!

When was your first Amazon purchase?

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This was one of the questions asked today on a board I frequent. I thought it a very interesting slice-of-life question. So I looked it up. And my first purchase was November 25, 1998, for three books (Dirk Pitt Revealed, Airframe, and Contagion). I remember making that purchase, and I think I still have those books.

Then I looked at 1999 purchases, of which there were only five. I picked up the pace considerably in 2000—with three pages of orders—and apparently never looked back! ;D

How hard is it to buy a keychain?

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Apparently, MUCH harder than I originally anticipated.

Ready for a long story? 🙄

I have wanted a new keychain for just about forever now. I am still using a dorky Marine Federal Credit Union lanyard I think I found while working at Staples—which means I’ve had it for about six years.

I was sick and tired of being boring and utilitarian—that just doesn’t scream JEN, right? 😉 So I had taken to looking at keychains whenever we went somewhere, but nothing ever hit the spot. So, I decided to start a thread on my frequented-forums, asking for other people to show me their keychains so I could get some ideas. And one did actually hit the spot—I just thought it was cute and neat—and the owner gave it a glowing recommendation:

Troika Jumper

Hers was blue, but with some research, I found it was available in green! YAY! Of course, I also discovered they had cats and dogs which were totally adorable, but since I couldn’t decide between the cat or the dog, or which color, I went back to the green jumper. And then I thought about it. And thought about it some more. Because $16 + S/H is a lot of money for a silly keychain. But then I decided that I had been using a “freebie” for six years, so I could justify spending the money on a new one that I loved!

Well, the only place the green jumper was available was on the actual Troika website, so I created an account and ordered it. I thought it was a tad strange that the only way to pay was via PayPal (and not straight via credit card), but I have no problems with PayPal, and lots of businesses use PayPal, so it didn’t raise any flags. This was on April 15.

Right away I got a confirmation of my account creation, as well as the “initial notification” email from Troika, saying I had to finish via PayPal (which I actually already had by that point). Then I got the PayPal confirmation…which was a little strange: The order description was Troika USA and the Invoice ID was troika-usa_xx, but the Business Information contact was Suntime3, LLC. Again, a tad strange, since I thought Troika would have been the contact, but I figured maybe an outside company did the actual order processing…so honestly, nothing to really cause me any real misgivings.

Eight days later on April 24 I emailed Suntime3, LLC (via the email from the PayPal contact confirmation) asking for the status because 1) I hadn’t received any shipment confirmation and 2) I hadn’t received the item. They wrote back that:

That [contact information] should have been changed. The company handling that site now is called Pevazi and you can reach them at…

Nothing about refunding my money (which was obviously paid to them) or “Sorry there has been a mistake”—just simply “Here’s their number.” Now I started to worry. At that same time, I tried to login to my Troika account, and it didn’t recognize me OR my email. Uh oh.

So now it was about April 27, and I contacted Pevazi, and after a quick explanation, the girl took my order info and said she would call me back the next day. Nothing. I called about two days later, it was the same girl and she remembered me, and this time asked for me to email her ALL the information and emails I had received so she could look into it, as my name and/or order number matched NOTHING in their system. I compiled a huge email and sent it off. She replied she would “get to the bottom of this, ASAP” and that it might be the next day.

This morning, May 14, I got an email from her, asking if Suntime3 (the original company that apparently got my payment) had contacted me to resolve the issue. I told her that I hadn’t heard anything from anyone since I received her last email saying she would be working on this. Within 10 minutes, I received this response:

Ok, I don’t know what happened with this. The monies got paid to a different company and that company said they didn’t know anything about it and they would contact you. In the meantime, what product did you order? I am going to send you the product you purchased and will settle the rest with Suntime.

Now THAT is customer service. ❗

So I emailed her what I wanted and they are shipping it out ASAP. And they get to try to figure out how to get their money. So sometime in the near future, I will FINALLY get my keychain!

I certainly hope it’s worth all this trouble. |-|

Car shopping in Raleigh

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Phew, what a day.

Long story short, hubby’s car wasn’t worth NEARLY what we’d hoped it would be, either from Carmax OR Toyota… although we haggled a bit with Toyota to up it $500 to get us closer to our bottom line for a new car.

/House Hunters mode on

So, did they stay under their budget and go for the sight-unseen used 2005 black Prius with tan interior from an Orlando Carmax with 49k miles? Or did they go for the brand spanking new “really red” 2008 Prius with the grey interior that isn’t even on the lot yet that they have to wait two weeks for but is slightly over their budget?

/House Hunters mode off

We should have a new car—with the exact specs we wanted—in about two weeks! 88|

Grape Bon Bon

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Grape Bon Bon

So a friend on a message board was recently talking about a beverage they loved that they couldn’t find locally, and had to order from across the country (or possibly even out of the country)—and of course pay a premium to ship it.

It got me to thinking about a beverage I missed… Back in 2001-2002 when we lived in Stafford, Virginia, there was a little Asian grocery that had the most wonderful green grape beverage that came in 6oz cans (like half a soda can). It wasn’t carbonated, so I would guess it was juice, and it had actual bits of green grapes in it (that part I distinctly remember because they would get stuck in the drink hole).

I couldn’t remember the brand name, the drink name, or anything else—I just remembered that it was green grapes (although I think there was also a strawberry version).

I googled my heart out and the closest I found was something from a Taiwanese blog which was labeled “white grape juice with fruit jelly” which was close, but no cigar.

So I posted to the SOAK (Source Of All Knowledge) on a message board—the SOAK is known to be able to find anything you are ever trying to find. (The SOAK is actually just the collective knowledge and brain power of tens of thousands of members.)

And within 21 minutes, someone had found it!! 88|

GRAPE BON BON BY HAITAI

Of course, it costs more than twice as much as the product itself to ship it (12 cans are $6.99 and it cost $13-something to ship)—but it about equals the price I paid in the store, so it’s all good. I am ordering some post haste!

WOOHOO!

I hate solicitors.

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Not only do I not get paid enough in general, I do not get paid enough to deal with walk-in solicitors. Ugh. 😡

A Quill rep just came in to the office. I said hi, no thanks, we buy exclusively from Staples and McBee.

“Well, we’re the [something] side of Staples. No overhead. Up to 20% less.”

No thank you, we’re happy.

“Oh, so you’re not interested in saving money?”

Nope, buh-bye.

I know he’s doing his job, and I smiled the entire time, but seriously. Go away.

One of these times, I am going to ask one of these lovely solicitors just what NO SOLICITING means to them, as that’s the sign we have outside out door. 😈

Temps are being taken.

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So I am on my third thermometer (second basal thermometer). I just couldn’t stand waiting THREE minutes for the temp to register, so had to find a new one.

(On a side note, I am completely surprised at how cheap digital thermometers are. At Walmart, there were some basic ones for like $2.98!)

So this morning was the fourth day I’ve taken my temp, and I have to say this is not a fun thing.

Why?

Well, you’re supposed to do it as soon as you wake up, before you move, before you get out of bed, before you pee, before everything. They tell you you should still be half awake when you take it.

And therein lies the problem.

When I’m still half awake, it’s dark. And I can’t see: I don’t have my contacts in—or my glasses on. And I usually have to pee. Badly. There is really no time to fumble for the light, then the thermometer, then my glasses (so I can read the results). I could skip the writing-it-down part, since the thermometer remembers the last result and I could write it down later, but it’s easier to just write it down then.

So what has actually happened?

I usually get up at about 5:30 or 6 to pee, then go back to bed, then take my temp when I actually am ready to get up—usually around 6:45 or 7.

So I’m technically doing it wrong, but I think I’m still close enough that it shouldn’t be a problem.

So we’ll see.

Next month? The Clear Blue Easy Ovulation Monitor. :>>

Wowee, a pulled calf muscle…

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So over the past few days, I’ve noticed that my left calf muscle feels sore, almost as if I pulled the muscle. I have not done anything to it to warrant it feeling pulled—the most I’ve done, aside from my day-to-day normal activities like walking up and down the stairs, walking to the mailbox, and playing fetch with Maggie, is to take Maggie for a walk. There has been no strenuous exercising, no unsual movements, no sleeping on it weird, and no taking a tumble down the stairs or tripping over my own feet.

So today, I was at work and was back in the kitchen when I heard my phone ring and I knew it was hubby. I kicked off my heels and made a dash towards the front desk and got about five steps before I came to an immediate limping halt! I want to say I felt it pop, but I think I’m just imagining that. But I do know that at that moment, every step was painful, and I couldn’t stand the pain to even try and stretch the muscle out. I could barely walk on it and I was limping like crazy.

So what happened? What did I do? I have no idea.

My online friends (who I turn to for things such as this) suggested I get a calf brace to help the muscle relax, so I called Dick’s and they had them, so off I went (my boss also told me to go, because she was hurting just watching me hobble around). At this point, I put my shoes back on (very low heels, about 1″), and it actually felt better and I was able to walk without as much pain (because the muscle didn’t need to stretch as far). Long story short, Dick’s DIDN’T have them, and I was ticked off—so apparently when I called to ask if they carried them, they just told me yes without actually CHECKING THE SHELVES. 😡

On the way back, I called Rob, our neighbor who is a doctor, and asked him what I should do. He said ice for 48 hours, 800mg of Ibuprofen every four hours, then heat and Iboprofen after 48 hours. So I stopped at Walgreens and picked up an ice pack wrap thing, some packs of Icy Hot pads, and some Ibuprofen. When I got back to the office, my boss had gone to the chiropractor (down at the end of our building) and picked up some Bio-Freeze for me! (Awwwwwwww, see—she can be awesome!)

The ice pack does help a bit, and I’m sure the Ibuprofen doesn’t hurt…but the worst part is trying to walk after sitting for a bit. Oh, the pain.

So, what really sucks is that I had really just started to get into a groove with my walking/exercise schedule: come home, let Maggie out, go for a walk. There’s no way I could walk a mile in this condition. 🙁

Digital Photo Frames

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So my big surprise for all the parents this year was a digital (LCD) photo frame—and as I predicted, they all LOVED them! And I was THRILLED to have found such a perfect gift.

Well, you should have seen my sad little face when I got home…because I didn’t get myself a frame. I had seriously thought about it, but then thought naaaah, I don’t really need one. But then I played with the other ones (getting them loaded with pictures) and missed having it on my desk at work (I had had to test it out, make sure it worked easily)…so I’ve been looking for one, watching the sales, deciding if I really wanted one or not. And yes, yes I did.

Having seen how two different models worked, I knew what I wanted in mine—and I found a decent one at Amazon, although it was a little more than I wanted to spend. But, I rationalized, it’s still a good price—just a hair more than I paid for the Christmas gift frames, with the addition of it being a larger screen! So I bought it. And thank goodness I did when I did, because three days later, the price on Amazon jumped over $50!! 88|

So now I have my own digital photo frame for my desk at work—currently loaded with 1544 pictures, with room for as many more! I highly recommend these as gifts for anyone, and—as evidenced by my experience—a nice gift for yourself!

Stymied at every turn!

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So I had THE BEST idea for Christmas gifts for the parents this year…

EXCEPT I didn’t make my mind up until too late that I was going to get it for everyone, so I only had one.

And of course, I wanted the same exact thing…

EXCEPT I couldn’t find it anywhere locally for the same price [I got for the first one] so looked at other similar things (to make life easier)…

EXCEPT the things just weren’t what I wanted so they got returned.

So then I decided to just order what I wanted online…

EXCEPT I found that three stores had it and had to make a decision: Do I shop at the store where I get the absolute cheapest price (but comes with a mail-in rebate)? Or do I shop at the store with a bit higher price, but where I earn almost enough points for a $25 gift certificate? Or do I shop at the store with a middle-of-the-road price that makes for easy returns (just in case)?

So I decided to go with the $25 gift certificate offer…

EXCEPT shipping was 5-10 business days at that store…which, if it happens to be more than 10 days…we’re screwed (since we’ll be on our way to Michigan) and then no one gets presents.

EXCEPT I decided to have it shipped to my office, on the off chance it doesn’t make it in time, they can reship it to me.

I never thought buying two additional presents would be so hard! :>>

So, how was YOUR Black Friday?

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Everything I wanted was available online, so I set the alarm for 5:55am and was at the computer by 6am placing orders! It sucked to get up this early—especially when Tom initially said he’d go to town to pick up anything I wanted…then renegged when I said we could do the shopping online (stinker!).

The only minor snafu is that I decided to add another DVD to one order at the last minute and assumed that since I chose “pick up” for the first DVD, it would automatically select “pick up” for the second DVD—which it didn’t, so I had to pay an extra $1.79 for delivery. 🙁 That’s what I get for trying to shop when I’m barely awake! (It’s still a decent deal, but I should have had both shipped or both picked up, just for ease.) I just kick myself for not paying attention!

So, how was YOUR Black Friday?

Halloween Costumes and Online Coupons

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So we decided to order new Halloween costumes for this year, as we’ve been “doctors” the past three years…and well, okay, so maybe our party hosts have said flat out that we CANNOT show up in the same scrubs again!!

So, I found the perfect costume at the place I wanted (with a 40% off coupon no less!) back in August, but they didn’t have it in my size. Of course, it wasn’t back in stock by the time the coupon expired, so I started looking elsewhere…and today I finally got my butt in gear (since the party is EARLY this year) and ordered our new costumes.

And you know what the best part was? I searched for a coupon code and found one for 10%…but when I entered it, it gave me 30% off!! WOOHOO! BONUS!

First Actual Baby Purchases

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We bought our first baby items today. A girlfriend told me that when she found out she was pregnant, she bought a package of diapers every payday. You don’t really notice the money gone so much, and it’s nice to have a closet full when the time comes. So…we bought our first package of diapers.

I know there’s some debate about which kind to buy (Pampers vs. Huggies vs. store brand) because not all diapers work the same on every baby, so I bought the ones she recommended. It has since been suggested that maybe the better thing to do would be to buy a gift certificate each week so that there is no expenditure when the time actually comes. However, that doesn’t give me a closetful of diapers within easy reach when the time comes and I’m on my own for shopping! 😉

We also had two coupons for $11 off formula, so we bought two cans. Of course, I was clueless about all the types (soy vs. with iron vs. easy-to-digest :)) ) so we just got two different types.

For those of you wondering why we’re buying formula so early…well…

  1. The coupons expired in November so it was use them or lose them. (I signed up a loooong time ago for a baby magazine, and they started sending coupons and samples as if I was pregnant—hence me getting formula coupons that expire so soon).
  2. We checked the expiration and it was 2009, so we’re good on that. (I know we’ll get samples, so I figure we’ll hopefully be able to try those first and then return the full size ones if necessity dictates it.)
  3. After the coupon, we only paid like 50¢ and $1.00 for the different varieties of forumula, as we had to get the small cans. So, even if we can’t return it, I could donate it and I’m only out $1.50.

Of course, I sorta think I’m tempting fate by buying things this early, but worst case scenario, everything can be returned OR donated.

It’s just bizarre. We’re buying baby stuff. 88|

Dell can kiss my ass!

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We have a $50 Dell Gift Card that came with a previous purchase. It doesn’t expire for another eight months and is branded by AmEx. I tried to use it online last week to purchase an APC surge protector, but there was no place to enter a gift card—only coupons. I tried entering it as a coupon, but it said it was invalid.

So I tried the website listed on the card and the site isn’t there.

So I call the 800 “call to order” number and… the rep can’t use the card, either (he only has a coupon entry spot and he also gets the invalid error). He has NO idea what to do and suggests I call the other 800 # on the card.

So I call the ‘other’ American Express 800 Customer service number, explain what happened, and the rep says something to the effect of “you need to talk to Dell regarding this card, here is the sales number.” She doesn’t care I was just talking to them and they sent me to her.

So I call the Dell 800 # she gave me and am routed to sales, where I get another Dell rep that has no clue. She suggests I call back again to hopefully get a rep who will know how to deal with it! Of course, each call requires me to go through the phone number/name/address confirmation.

So I call again and…you guessed it, another Dell rep that has no clue about the gift card (“Are you sure it’s not a coupon?”). This rep suggests I need to talk to Dell’s customer service and NOT sales. She forwards me.

So now I’m waiting to talk to customer service and I’m very irritated at this point. And guess what? The customer service person says I need to talk to Sales. NOOOOOO! I told her “I’ve been with sales (home and business) multiple times and they are clueless and gave me to you!” Okay, she says, let me put you on hold and I will get a new number for you to call. Fine, whatever. Minutes later, she calls and gives me the number… to the AmEx customer service line that I called in the beginning!

How can NO ONE at Dell or American Express have any idea how to redeem a gift card?

On Monday, I decided to try my luck ordering online again. Imagine my surprise when there was now a spot to enter a gift card! Interestingly, there was apparently $100 credit on my “$50” gift card (my purchase was approximately $90, giving me a $10 remaining balance). Because this paid for the entire order, I did not have to enter a credit card.

When my boss received the confirmation email, it showed we had ordered THREE Back-UPS units for a total of $290 (although the gift card was still listed as the only payment). Of course, this was one of the only times I hadn’t printed out the final order confirmation screen… so I had to call Dell and they say “Why yes you ordered three” and I say “I did not” and I was told that since they hadn’t been invoiced yet (or wherever we actually are in the ordering/billing/shipping process), it was possible to alter the order. By the end of the call, the rep said it was too late to alter the order so we would be receiving three items and we should send back two. She gave me a case number and said she would call to check up on the items’ arrival and return.

I then learned that someone from Dell called my boss last night to say the shipping address didn’t match the billing address… Interesting, since we didn’t technically have/use/need a billing address due to the gift card. But even so, we’ve ordered from Dell multiple times with the same shipping/billing information, so why the problem now? Anyway, the rep said something to the effect of “You have ordered three items for a total of $290” and my boss said “No, we didn’t, plus we used a gift card.” He said “Do you want to use your preferred account for this?” No, we wanted to use the gift card. So he was clueless and was supposed to call back, which he never did.

Then we get an email saying that “While processing your order, we were unable to obtain credit card authorization from your bank or credit card company for this purchase.” Well, it wasn’t a credit card transaction, but I called the CC processing center to try and fix it. Of course, since it wasn’t a CC transaction, she transfers me to the gift card section. Of course, the gift card rep can’t help me (since I apparently have to redo the order, only ordering ONE unit), so she transfers me to sales—except somehow I can’t get sales or get put on hold and I hear this (after 10 minutes):

We’re sorry, we cannot continue to process your call. Goodbye.

Of course, each transfer requires me to go through the name/address/billing information. And when I called the regular 800 number back to get sales, I had to go through everything again. I told the rep I wanted to change the order to one unit. Fine. I want to use the gift card. Fine. Except that—are you ready?—he can’t get the gift card to work. He tells me he can place the order, but I will have to call the gift card people to get it working/figured out, and then I will have to call him back. And he tried to give me a case number.

At that point, I lost it. I told him to cancel the entire order and I would not be ordering.

Is it too much to ask that Dell teach their customer service reps how to use gift cards? Or to ask that reps could handle all issues, instead of being transferred eight times—and still not getting a resolution? What is the point of handing out Dell Valued Customer gift cards if it’s impossible to use them online and no one knows how to use them?

My boss (whom I was trying to order from) loves Dell, but after this experience, we will no longer be ordering from Dell. We certainly don’t feel like a valued customer after this experience.

Harris Teeter rocked our world!!

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We live in a fairly small town. Yes, there’s a major military installation here, but still, it’s a small town—as evidenced by the fact that we have CRAP for grocery stores around here. We’d kill for a Meijers—or hell, even a Krogers. Here, we have Food Lion, Piggly Wiggly, and the commissary.

Um, blech.

Today, we went to Wilmington (big city an hour south) and decided to stop by Harris Teeter to grab some sushi. And oh…my…goodness. We fell in love with everything—there was so much selection of everything…an entire organic section, about 5 varieties each of nectarines and apples, two types of asparagus (they have white asparagus?), a whole section (!) of fresh mushrooms (not that I want any of them, but just the fact that they have a whole secion!), fresh herbs, homemade breads, an enormous deli, fancy schmancy bakery items, pre-made ice cream cakes, and fresh meat and seafood to die for…

We felt like we were hicks from the country ‘oohing’ and ‘ahhing’ over everything, like we’d never been to the big city before!

We filled our cart with stuff like alaskan salmon, smelt (!), jalapeno monterey jack hamburgers, crabmeat, and fresh shrimp (stuff no one in Jacksonville even carries), as well as two of the varieties of nectarines. 🙂

If you can believe it, we are actually discussing the possibility of driving the two-hour round trip to shop at this store for our groceries… as it is MILES (okay, more like LIGHT YEARS) ahead of what we have available to us locally. (Oh, and gas is cheaper there, as well!) We probably won’t end up doing it, but we will surely make it a point to go at least once a month.

Wherever we move next better have a KILLER grocery store. KILLER.

Wow! Someone bought a photo of mine!

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http://www.fotolia.com/id/816376/partner/94600

So for those of you who have visited Hudson Ink lately, you can see that I’m redesigning the site—and I have a new “eye” logo. Well, the site I purchased the photo from is Fotolia…and I also uploaded two of my own photos, just for the heck of it basically. I never expected anything to come of it…but I just got an email that someone purchased my photo! And it wasn’t even my favorite one! 😉

lilypad with floating candles

I hate buying airline tickets!

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So Tom and I just tried to buy plane tickets to a friend’s wedding in Louisville for next month. (We had thought about driving, but it would have been like 11 hours one way and we just didn’t feel like attempting 22 hours in a short weekend.)

So we go to trusty old Orbitz and there are two flights (out of Raleigh) for $160 each (the only two cheap flights). We attempt to purchase the best one (time-wise) and… “Sorry, there is a problem with one of the flights you selected.” So meanwhile, Tom is on his computer at Travelocity and he sees more flights so we try one of those and…after filling in all the information…nope, sorry, that flight isn’t available!! So back to my computer and Orbitz, where I am finally able to get a flight. It’s not the times we wanted, but at least it was still the cheapest flight. (Just an FYI, to leave from Jacksonville, tickets were about $500 each.)

So it took us over an hour to book two stupid flights. And it should have taken five minutes.

GRRRRR.

So guess where we have a layover? Detroit. DETROIT! To fly 700 as-the-crow-flies-West miles, we have to fly about 700 crow miles to Detroit and then another 700 crow miles to Louisville. It’s such a pain living in a city with no real airport.

The Price is Right

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So, every time Tom and I go to Sam’s Club, one (or sometimes) both of us tries to guess what the total is going to be. Of course, we always go with plans to get “just a few things” (last night was eggs, milk, and cheese) and end up with a full cart. Usually, Tom is closer at guessing the total than I am (I think the last time he was $2 off while I was $25 off). Last night, however, I did a quick scan of all the items, adding up general amounts in my head while heading to the register. And I guessed $100. Tom didn’t even guess (he must not have been in a game mood).

Are you ready?

It was $100.35!

Stupid Cashier Story

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So we went to Petsmart. We had a coupon for

ONE FREE BAG

(emphasis not added to enhance the stupidity of what happened, but to show how big the words actually were on the coupon—so, yeah, I guess to also enhance the stupidity of the clerk) of Brand X cat food. As I’m sure you’ve seen on these types of coupons, there was an empty box for the actual product value to be hand-written in. There was no limit on the value, but we were limited to a 4# bag.

So we get to the cashier and she rings up our first item then rings up the cat food. I hand her the coupon and she looks at it and scans it. I can see her register screen and it is asking her to enter the amount of the coupon. And she’s looking at it. And looking at it. I’m wondering what the problem is. It appears she is confused—but maybe, I think, she is looking for a max value in the small print so, fine. So what does she do? Cancel the coupon and scan the coupon again. Funny, the same thing pops up again—enter amount. She cancels it again and scans it again. Lather, rinse, repeat x 4. By this point, I am ready to explain what needs to happen, but on the flip side, I want to see just how long it takes her to actually figure it out (there was no one behind us).

So she finally does it one last time and quickly enters .01 (I kid you not), slides the coupon in the drawer, and gives me my total. I say “That coupon was for a free bag of food.” She says “Oh, was it?” OH WAS IT? Well, now she has to call the manager over to open her drawer to get the coupon out to verify, which means he has to cancel the entire transaction (good thing we only had two items). The manager leaves. So she rings us up again and she gets the coupon and scans it and…looks just as confused as the last time. I let her go through the scan and cancel routine three more times before I say “It’s just asking you to enter the cost of the bag of food—$7.99 [which can be clearly seen on the register].” Oh, she says, and punches in $7.99 and completes the transaction.

What the hell? I tried to think of any reason she could be so stupid…first day, young kid, etc. but if it was any of those, you’d think she would at least have said as much to explain the problem. But aside from that, how hard is it to read a screen and follow the directions? And if she was having an issue, why not call someone over? Especially after she screwed it up the first time?!

Clearance center, my ass!

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So we were out gallivanting and decided to look at some headboards—mostly for ideas (since headboards are outrageously expensive) but also just in case we saw anything in a decent price range. All furniture places have clearance sections/rooms/areas so we always go there—you never know what you will find. So we went to a new furnture store we’d never been to, looked around, and got REALLY excited because there was a gorgeous headboard set that we loved—but of course it had no price on it. So we had to actually hunt down an employee (exasperating, since at our usual furniture store, there’s always someone within sight that offers help or you can go to for help). We told him we were interested in a piece in the clearance room but it wasn’t priced—and guess what he told us? “Oh, it might be a new piece. That’s where we unload freight.” I looked at him like he had three heads: “So you’re telling me you unpack ALL your NEW items in a room specifically marked CLEARANCE? That’s not very customer-friendly.” He said they didn’t have anywhere else to do it. Of course, the headboard we had noticed was indeed a new piece. We asked him to point out what items were indeed clearance, and there were about four couches in the 14×60 room. Clearance room, my ass. We will never step foot in that store again.

Staples: A Visit

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I had to go to Staples today to mail a package and drop off something for a friend. I always like going, because I really miss my friends that still work there and I enjoy talking with them for the few minutes that I’m there. But I am SO glad I no longer work there.

Here’s what happened: I was in front of the ship center counter, which is NOT a register and is AT LEAST 10 feet away from a register (which you can tell is a register because there is a light on that says “check out lane” or something equally as obvious and there are bags and the debit machine on the counter). So a guy walks up, throws his labels on the counter (in front of me, no less), and pulls out his wallet—obviously wanting to check out. I sighed and politely said “Sir, this isn’t a checkout. The register is down there—” and pointed to where the light was on. He says snottily “But everyone is down here.”

INSTANTLY, all my retail issues with stupid customers came RAGING back and I think I actually felt my blood pressure rising. Savannah, who was shipping my package and KNOWS how irritated I get with stupid customers, shared a knowing look with me. I had to refrain from snapping “So, just because everyone is down here, you think that means you can check out here? Can’t you read the sign?” But I took a breath and said “But this isn’t a checkout. The register is there. It’s a common mistake.” So he walks over to the register and then snots “But there’s no one here!”

Well, asshat, if you opened your eyes, you would see that there are two people in the copy center. One girl is helping ME and the manager is helping another customer. Did you ever hear of waiting your turn? But, you know, if you REALLY open your eyes, you will see a fully-staffed register a few lanes down. Oh how I wish I could say those things…which, I technically could now that I no longer work there, but still.

So the manager, having heard our exchange, looked at the customer and said “Sir, I will be with you in a minute—when I’m done with this customer.” I told Savannah that even though I’d been gone six months, all it took was one idiot customer in my presence to make me nuts. I pray that I will never have to go back to retail…

Noisy New Shoes

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So I bought a pair of sandals recently and I’m wearing them today for the first time. And they make noise! Annoyingly so! With every step, I get an AUDIBLE *poof* of air…what’s up with that? Of course, I didn’t hear the noise when I was walking around the store before buying them… It’s almost embarassing. I hope it goes away with some wear, otherwise these won’t be work shoes any more!

New dresser & armoire!

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I’m so excited! We’re getting a new dresser and armoire! Of course, the stuff I like runs about $5,000 total (damn Martha Stewart prices), so Tom found some other plans we both like and he’s going to build them with my dad when they come down at the end of the month! I can’t wait! Of course, this means we now have a Lowe’s bill again (we JUST finished paying off the last one this month!). But, we love Lowe’s since we always use their 12-months free financing!

Fun Friday Night

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It started in the afternoon, with a team shopping trip to “the staplers” as we like to call it! I was extremely excited, because our list included a new laser printer and new scanner for me (upgrading from an inkjet all-in-one)!! Of course, I also enjoyed talking with all my buds there—I really miss them! Then, since we had all driven there separately (long story), Sue decided to call it a day and thought we should all head for Chili’s! So, we did! A few margaritas later, I actually had to leave for dinner with friends—my usual sushi buddies wanted to do something different, so they had picked Mexican. As luck would have it, it was at a restaurant right down the street! So I left one gathering to join another! In Jacksonville’s version of It’s A Small World, my friends brought one of their friends—actually, a classmate from a college class—and turns out, she knew Sue, my boss! She was the daughter of one of Sue’s old co-workers! We had a good time, then I headed back over to Chili’s where the gang was still hanging out having fun! We had a few more drinks and whatnot, and I’m just now getting home at 10pm! I made some comment along the way of “I won’t be able to do this as much when my husband comes home because I’ll want to go home to be with him…” and Sue said “No! He can just come join us!” Cool! I love my new boss!