Retail Experiences – Page 4 – Not Content to Crawl

The Most Relaxing Scent

Posted onJanuary 23, 2021

Several years ago when I was getting beauty boxes like Ipsy and Birchbox, I once got a hand lotion sample that smelled so wonderful I would constantly smell my hands after applying it. I wanted it to never run out, and contemplated buying a full size until I read reviews saying it didn’t smell like the sample. I eventually forgot about the scent, until yesterday.

For a little background, last month I bought some wallflowers from Bath & Body Works, including two in the vanilla bean noel scent. Unfortunately you can barely smell it once plugged in, so I decided to exchange the second one for another marshmallow fireside instead. Except our closest store didn’t MF, so I decided to check a different location near my ear specialist after my appointment this past Monday. They also didn’t have MF, so I browsed the other wallflowers looking for something I might like and came across one I never heard of before called white tea and sage. It seemed appealing from what I could tell in store, so I decided to give it a shot.

I ended up plugging it in yesterday and it reminds me exactly of that long forgotten hand lotion that I was obsessed with. Now I want a candle and soap and everything possible in this scent! It’s just so soothing to me. Almost like a fresh garden except not floral at all. Something you’d encounter at a spa probably.

B&BW owes me a gift card so maybe I will be getting more of this scent soon, assuming it doesn’t sell out before then. Apparently it isn’t easy to come by from what I’ve read.

Oh, and why do they owe me, you ask? Well, they never sent me a birthday reward so I contacted them and they sent me a $10 gift card instead. I used most of that card on Monday, but there was a $2.23 balance left. The cashier asked whether I’d like that in cash and I told her to leave it on the card. She agreed, and then when I checked the balance the other day it said zero! I checked my receipt and it indicated I took the balance in cash which I absolutely did not. I contacted B&BW and they are sending me a $5 gift card to make up for it. What the heck is going on with that company?!? Maybe I should stop giving them my business, but I love their soaps and wallflowers so much!

I’m all stocked up on hand soaps, in fact – 17 bottles – because the fall/winter scents were 75% off. I picked up a few at our local store and 8 more at the other one since they had an even better selection, including my favorite scent from last fall: marshmallow latte. I won’t need any holiday soaps for at least a few years now. I grabbed two summery scents to try as well since they too were only $1.88 each.

Here’s my two hauls from this month:

That candle holder was another reason I checked another store. I had a reward that was due to expire next month and my local store didn’t have any decent candle holders.

Don’t Shop At WishDOTcom

Posted onNovember 19, 2020

Just don’t. Unless you like being robbed. They are shady!

I heard rumors about them before so when I placed my order it was for very low value items: two decorative pillow cases. The first arrived no problems. Actually looked like the photo even. The second one, however, just sat in limbo. I placed the order in late August and it estimated the item arriving in late September. That date came and went with no update to the tracking info. It kept saying “arriving September 23” even well past that date. I figured it was delayed due to COVID and coming from China.

Finally around Halloween I decided to pursue it further, only to find out that their “return” policy includes items not even sent, and you have to request a refund within 30 days of the estimated arrival or basically they will (attempt to) keep your money. WTF?!? I called them, but it’s an automated recording saying they offer no phone support, and it refers you back to their website. Everything on there is automated too, and when it tried to offer me store credit instead of a refund (because they charge you immediately instead of when your items ship), and I refused, the system told me to have a nice day (basically F off) and stopped the “conversation”.

I found an email address so started dealing with them, but they only gave me the run-around, asking me to “open a support ticket” via their website, which I attempted to do several times to no avail. I even sent them screenshots showing this. I told them the other day if they didn’t open the ticket for me and/or issue a refund I would be reporting them to the Better Business Bureau and disputing the charge with my credit card company.

They had the audacity to respond again telling me to open a ticket, and I told them no, I already explained everything to them and since they weren’t willing to help I would be doing as I said I would, and then I opened the dispute with Discover and included all the emails and screenshots as my backup.

This past Saturday I got the notice from Discover of my credit, as well as ANOTHER email from Wish telling me I was opening the ticket on the wrong item, which is FALSE. I don’t know if their customer support is really that inept, or it’s just a tactic to stop people from getting their money back, but I ignored it.

I’m sure I spent more of my time than is worth $4.52 but it’s the principal of the thing. You don’t get to take people’s money and then not send them the product and create a ridiculous policy that doesn’t allow them to request their money back. That’s called stealing!
Long story long, don’t do business with wishDOTcom.

Red Robin Shenanigans

Posted onSeptember 1, 2020October 1, 2020

Saturday (8/29) we went to Red Robin for lunch. We had to drive out to the one in Warrenville since the one by us in the mall is temporarily closed. The food was actually pretty good, albeit not fun to eat in the car (still not comfortable eating inside restaurants), but it would have been very cold if we took it home to eat. The way we were charged is suspect, though. I submitted feedback through their site, posing as Joe, since this all occurred on his account:

My wife and I ordered curbside recently so I could redeem my free birthday burger. I ordered the mushroom swiss and she got the banzai. We also ordered the chocolate fruffles.

The initial total over the phone sounded accurate ($20+), but at the car they told us it was only $12.63 which seemed odd. After we paid we looked at the receipt and we noticed my burger was free (as expected), and hers was a discounted price ($4.52). We didn’t understand why, but thought maybe there was some special going on. I logged into my Red Royalty account later that day to see the restaurant not only redeemed my birthday burger but my free 10th item. Except it wasn’t free! We were charged for it, just not regular price.

This is very confusing and I would appreciate someone explaining what happened and why we weren’t given the option to save the free item for later if we werenâ€™t going to be given the burger for free. No one told us it was being redeemed and we’d still have to pay a reduced price for the burger.

P.S. We were also disappointed that the chocolate fruffles came with sliced strawberries floating in water instead of the berry ketchup we’ve come to love. Strawberries floating in a liquid isn’t even a suitable replacement and is not berry sauce (as described on your website).

I also attached a screenshot of the redemption info. I would have included the receipt too if you could attach more than one thing.

Red Robin replied asking for a copy of the receipt so we emailed them a picture. They then apologized and stated (what we already knew) that only one reward could be redeemed at a time and what happened was a mistake. They didn’t address the comments about the chocolate truffles at all. Oh well, I guess they don’t care. They applied a $15 reward to Joe’s account that is good until November 1st. Our local restaurant is still shut down, but maybe if we’re in the area we can grab an appetizer or dessert so we can use it up and then be done with them. Honestly, I prefer Culver’s burgers now anyway. And they’re cheaper!

Praying Mantis Rescue

Posted onAugust 28, 2020August 30, 2020

We rescued a large praying mantis from certain death this morning. He was trapped under the plastic Home Depot has on their outside grills. I spotted him while walking past. Joe pulled up the plastic and got him to crawl on his hand. He wasn’t there long enough for me to get a photo before he flew away into a nearby tree. I’ve never seen one fly before so that was cool.

Interestingly enough, we didn’t end up finding what we came to the store for; I guess the universe just needed us there to help the trapped mantis.

Just Say No (To Starbucks)

Posted onAugust 21, 2020

Yesterday I was browsing deal sites and saw Starbucks was having a BOGO deal from 2-7 pm if you ordered via the app. Now, you have to know something – we rarely go to Starbucks these days. And by rarely, I mean the last time we went was in January to get my free birthday drink which I let Joe have because I was too sick to give a crap. I’ve spent more time in the local Starbucks’ parking lot meeting up with buyers from Offer Up over the past two years than actually buying any drinks.

But seeing that deal made me think it would be a nice treat, which was cemented by the fact that they now have a peach green tea lemonade. Chick-fil-a got rid of their delicious peach lemonade so I’ve been trying to get my hands on a good peach drink ever since (side note: Lipton peach iced tea drink mix is great. I call it tea kool-aid). Joe wanted to try their Chai Creme Frappuccino, so we decided to place an order.

I was perplexed why our local store wasn’t listed in the app, so I had to pick one a little further away. The app claimed our drinks would take 15-18 minutes to prepare and that it would take 13 minutes to get there, so I placed the order as we pulled out of the driveway. Mistake #1.

We arrived at Starbucks to see a huge line in the drive-thru, so we decided I would run in to get our drinks, but there were a bunch of people in line inside too, and we had brought Wookie, so we opted to get in the drive-thru line so we could be together (and also because I didn’t feel comfortable standing in line for god knows how long). Mistake #2.

We watched as people pulled into the parking lot and left five minutes later with their drinks while we slowly made it to the window 45 minutes after we got in line. My drink was watered down (although not too bad since I had requested light ice) and Joe’s was melted/liquid which we didn’t notice until pulling away.

I ran inside with his drink to ask if they could re-make it since it had clearly been sitting out for awhile and they said yes but it would be a long wait because there were other people ahead of me. Say what? I dunno, I think I should have gotten priority, but I wasn’t about to cause a scene – everyone was stressed out enough. I asked them to explain to me how mobile ordering works so I don’t get an old drink again and according to the barista they usually wait until you get to the order board to start your drink but when it’s busy they just crank out the drinks. That seems like a recipe for shitty drinks and angry customers to me, but what do I know?

I didn’t want to wait any longer (our little adventure took over an hour as it was), which I explained to the barista, so she gave me a gift card for $4. Not quite enough to cover Joe’s drink, but good enough. We took it home and stuck it in the freezer and it eventually firmed up enough to enjoy a little. Also, Wookie got a puppuccino which was nice.

When I placed the order, Joe was concerned our drinks would end up sitting out, but I really believed Starbucks would have a way to prevent that. Silly me. Lesson learned! I also found out that our local Starbucks, which is on a extremely busy major road, closes at 3 pm even though all the other stores in the area don’t close until 8 pm or later. WTF?

As for the drinks – the frapp was pretty good, but chai flavored drinks taste like Christmas to me, so it seemed out of place for this time of year. My drink was ok, even though I could taste more of the mint green tea than any peach or lemonade.

To add insult to injury, even though I only drank half of my venti around 4:30 pm last night, I could not sleep for the life of me. I didn’t fall asleep until after 2 am and only after taking a Midnite, which I haven’t had to do in four months. Then today I got bad stomach issues, if you get my drift, probably from trying Joe’s milk-laden drink. Ugh! I curse thee, Starbucks!

Overall, I don’t think Starbucks is worth the price, and definitely isn’t worth the hassle when they’re having what they call Happy Hour (or the baristas on the Starbucks subreddit refer to as Horror Hour). I have about $20 left in my account that we’ll spend on snacks and the occasional vanilla latte for Joe until we run out of funds. Then it’s hasta la vista, baby.

I much prefer Dunkin Donuts anyway.