Category: Retail Experiences

Thanksgiving +4

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Another long weekend for yours truly and I’m totally not complaining! This time I get five days off (and Joe gets four).

Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving at my parents’ house with my brothers. I made the mistake of trying to get in on an online Black Friday deal at Dell.com and was rewarded with absolutely nothing for my effort. I understand the “doorbusters” are going to be limited quantity, but I was on the site 10 minutes ahead of time and clicked “Add to cart” immediately when the deal went live and all I got was error after error even when alternating between two items I would have been happy to snag. After fifteen minutes of this nonsense it all disappeared due to being sold out. I don’t know who actually got the opportunity to buy something because I sure didn’t, and now I am questioning whether I want to do business with Dell in the future. I always buy computers from them but that experience really irked me. It’s just one of the many reasons I don’t do Black Friday, but I thought online I’d be safe from such frustration. Silly me.

On the actual Black Friday we did not venture out of the house, nor did we end up buying anything online other than some coffee for Joe’s parents. I did keep an eye on the deals throughout the day, but nothing really caught my eye. I guess that’s a good thing, though, right?

Saturday Joe ordered himself a copy of Battlefield 4 for the PS3 since Gamestop was selling it only for only $25 which is half the retail price. We also made an early morning trip to Walmart to return a few items and then to Target to grab a few necessities, including bacon. The day before we were watching a bacon-themed food show and I got an idea to make homemade breakfast skillets. So far the only thing I’ve been using my new food processor for is to make homemade hash browns, and the skillet with hash browns, eggs, cheese and bacon came out delicious! It was better than most skillets I’ve had in restaurants, and cheaper too.

This morning we decided to head over to Starbucks to camp out for a bit since they sent a 50% off coupon and we were feeling a bit of cabin fever. We spent about an hour and a half surfing on our iPads while sipping a not-so-great vanilla latte. I even asked them to add another shot of the vanilla syrup since I wasn’t even tasting it but it still sucked. I don’t know what it is about that particular location, but I am never happy with the quality of drinks from there. I just tend to forget because I rarely drink Starbucks, and when I do I usually get it at the one in my local Target. Unfortunately they don’t accept the coupons there. My clothes now smell like burnt coffee too. WTF?

After Starbucks we went to Aldi to pick up a take-and-bake pizza for lunch during the Bears game which I just finished eating. We got the pepperoni which was ok for the price ($5.99). I’ve yet to find a frozen or take-and-bake pizza that really knocks my socks off. The closest I’ve found was DiGiorno’s thin crust four cheese pizza which is pretty food.

I have to admit, all the recent Black Friday (and upcoming) Cyber Monday madness is making me feel like I want to buy stuff. And I know that’s exactly what the retailers want. It takes a lot to break me down, but I’m starting to feel left out for not spending hundreds of dollars during the holidays like so many people. I know it’s not healthy, or financially responsible to do that, and I won’t do it, but I can feel the temptation. I think it’s especially strong this year because while we’ve always been frugal and whatnot, we really cut back on our discretionary spending due to my employment situation. For the most part I am totally fine with that, because I feel like we have so much as it is, but sometimes I miss the days where we could spend freely without too much thought. As it is, we agreed to spend between $50-$100 on one another so we lose nothing out of pocket as Joe’s parents gives us each $100 every year. And truth be told, I’d be hard-pressed to find much to ask Santa for anyway. Maybe some new nail polish and a camera lens, but that’s really it. Sure, there’s a lot of stuff I wouldn’t mind having, but none of it is necessary. I guess I just miss that Christmas thrill from when I was a kid. How does one get that feeling back without it being about spending money on gifts?

Luvvitt

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I love when a company offers stellar customer service, and Luvvitt really does. I was having trouble with the iPad back cover I had purchased earlier this year and decided to contact the manufacturer to see what they might do for me. The resulting exchange happened. Note the timing of the responses. Impressive!

On Apr 25, 2012, at 4:45 PM, I wrote:

In January I purchased your Luvvitt Dolce back cover for my iPad 2 from Amazon.com. I choose the “clear” one and I love the fit and function. The reason I’m writing to you today is because I’ve noticed the cover has started to turn yellow which is strange because I keep my iPad in my nightstand drawer when not in use and don’t take it outside the home except for a handful of times (since I have the Wi-Fi version). It’s really starting to bother me as it makes the iPad look dingy and dirty when it’s not. Could my case be defective? I bought it thanks to all the glowing reviews at Amazon and am happy other than this dis-coloring that has started to occur. I would expect it perhaps after a few years but not only four months into ownership. If you could offer a solution to this I’d be much appreciative.

On Apr 25, 2012, at 6:06 PM, Luvvitt Customer Service wrote:

Hi Nicole,

Thanks for writing to us. Your product is covered under Luvvitt Warranty so we would gladly send you a replacement unit immediately. Please advise your order number so we can process your shipment right away.

It’s a common issue with clear/transparent colored thermoplastic cases to loose it’s color with several months of use. There are several different elements such as smoke (from cigarettes), dirt on surface the case is placed, dirt from hands etc. All cases are the same however, clear ones show it much more than the colored ones. We use a special element in our production to prevent the yellowing however there isn’t always a 100% solution for this as it’s an inherent characteristic of thermoplastic. You are more than welcome to choose any other color if you like for your replacement.

Please let us know.

Best,
Luvvitt

On Apr 25, 2012, at 6:22 PM, I wrote:

I appreciate your quick reply. My order number at Amazon was __________.

I would prefer if you could send me the powder blue back cover so the yellowing, if it occurs again, won’t be as noticeable. I have the blue smart cover and I understand from the Amazon reviews that your back cover is the same shade of blue to match.

What other information do you require from me? I wasn’t sure whether I need to provide my address or if you get that from the order number.

On Apr 25, 2012, at 7:43 PM, Luvvitt Customer Service wrote:

Hi Nicole,

No other info is necessary. We have initiated a shipment order for your Illinois address.

Yes, we have matched the color in an accredited lab but please note that smart cover is a solid color and the back cover is transparent so the color match can be subjective however, we have received several positive feedbacks regarding the color match from our customers so far. If you don’t like the color you can return it for an exchange.

Best,
Luvvitt

The new case came in the mail that weekend, only a few days after the email exchange, and it’s beautiful. It matches the smart cover quite well. I wrote them back to let them know I received the replacement and was very impressed with their customer service and they responded back thanking me for my feedback. It was one of the most pleasant transactions I’ve had with a company and will definitely make me want to do business with them again in the future.

Philips Portable Speaker follow-up

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As a follow-up to this post, I wanted to document that I received the replacement speaker in the mail at the beginning of the week. That evening I switched the batteries from my current unit to the new one and was experiencing the same exact problem. At that point it occurred to me that maybe the batteries were to blame, so I switched them out for new ones and the speaker worked fine, which means the original speaker probably wasn’t broken to begin with (didn’t even think to put new batteries in that one to check). I’m surprised the person at Philips didn’t ask about this. Surely this isn’t the first time they’ve heard of such an issue.

I’m still going to ship back my original unit to them via FedEx (pre-paid postage was included), and despite how very accommodating they’ve been I don’t think I’d buy another portable speaker again due to how quickly it eats through batteries. I barely used my original unit before having issues so it doesn’t seem like a very cost-effective solution particularly because it uses AAA batteries and I only have a charger and rechargeable batteries in AA.

Attacked by inanimate objects and companies

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Yesterday I was attacked by our vacuum cleaner. Joe was vacuuming the stairs and had the cleaner at the top of the stairs. It fell and hit him on the top of the head, so I started up the stairs to go hold it for him. At the time he was telling me he didn’t need my help, it fell again, this time striking me across the forehead and one side of my nose which really hurt. It still hurts today. I’m just waiting to see if a bruise forms so everyone can assume my husband beats me. ;)

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This morning I was looking over our Discover bill since we’ve started cutting back on our restaurant expenses in order to save more money, and I noticed a charge from our paper, the Chicago Tribune, in the amount of $58.50. I was immediately alarmed because we usually pay $19.50 per quarter, and back in November we had been charged $58.50 but determined it was for a longer period of time, so we didn’t dispute it (more on that in a bit).

Joe immediately called the Tribune to inquire about the charge and was told it is now $58.50 quarterly. Yikes! That’s three times what it used to cost, and the only reason we even subscribe is for the Sunday paper. If we purchased the paper individually it would cost us $10 per month ($2.50 weekly) which is why we were ok paying $19.50 every three months (which also includes Wednesday and Friday delivery which we don’t care about). Joe asked them to cancel our subscription and refund us the charge, which after some back and forth trying to keep us, they agreed to do.

After getting off the phone I remarked to Joe that it still didn’t make sense because I know when we were originally charged the $58.50 in November we wouldn’t have just assumed the charge was for a longer time period without something to give us that impression. Sure enough, I was correct. Evernote came to the rescue, and I found this screenshot I took in November when this first came up.

Click the screenshot below to make it bigger. Notice how there’s a column to the far right that says “Paid Thru” and it says August 10, 2012 in the field? That explains why we had assumed the charge was for nine months of service at once. Sure, we weren’t exactly happy that they changed their billing from quarterly to three quarters, but it was no big deal since we pay our credit card in full every month anyway.

After looking at that screenshot Joe called them back and insisted they refund us another $39 since the original charge was misleading and we would have cancelled then if we had known their rates had tripled. At first the guy was implying it was our fault for not logging back into the account and checking on it later since that paid through date was an error. How the heck would we know it was an error, and why would the burden be on us to check the account again when what it said originally made sense to us and indicated we wouldn’t be charged again until August? Joe explained this to the guy and eventually he relented and agreed to reimburse us $39 on top of reversing the most recent charge of $58.50.

Interesting enough, when Joe was finally able to reset his password and log into his Tribune account they no longer had the option to look at past transactions and what the through date would be. How convenient for them. I’m so glad I use Evernote to document this stuff.

These companies are unbelievable! I feel like they intentionally mislead customers in the hope they don’t notice or don’t want to be bothered to dispute the charges. Well they are messing with the wrong couple because we don’t bust our butts working for our paychecks only to waste our money.

Now we’ll have to buy the paper weekly, but in a way it will be more convenient than home delivery because we’ll be able to get it on Saturday and go through the coupons ahead of time. That’s all we get it for anyway.

V05 Hot Oil Shower Works

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I’ve been using this weekly conditioning treatment on my thin dry hair for a long time now (although not once a week, more like once a month) but it’s getting more and more difficult to find at any store, so I turned my attention online. Amazon wants $29 for a pack of 6 treatments (2 oz each) which comes to a little under $5 per treatment, and for the life of me I can’t remember if I paid $5 at the store, or only $4. In any case, I found the same deal at Buy.com through a third party vendor for a total of $11.39 which is super cheap, so I placed an order.

I guess I shouldn’t be too shocked that when the package finally arrived it only contained a single 2 oz box of the product instead of the pack of 6 advertised, right? That price was too good to be true. Luckily the company was extremely responsive when I contacted them. They explained it was a mistake – the price was for only a single box, and they had been pulled the listing from Buy.com (which I verified). They offered to reimburse me the shipping cost, but that was more than the product, so I told them if they’d do it the other way around so my final cost was only $5 then I’d keep the product. They agreed.

Now it’s back to square one trying to find this for as cheap as possible. If only I could remember what I had paid in the store. :p