AM G.

Great plants, expert packing. And fast delivery. I have been happy with Fast Growing Trees.

We used HomeAdvisor.com once, to find a company to refinish our oak floors, as well as the railings, balusters and newel posts of an oak stairway, and an oak knee-wall cap, plus replace two bull-noses, and some other damaged wood. The owner of the company came out to bid on the job, and gave assurances that their crews used specific tools and methods that would do an excellent, dust-free job. His bid was about $3,000, which was similar to the bid from another firm. We hired his firm because of his quality assurances. Without telling us, he sub-contracted the job to a group of men, who spoke little English, and showed up with no idea what they were there to do. They worked hard, but did not have the right tools and training. They used saw blades (the replacement blades that would normally be attached to a handle and used for sawing) to remove the old finish on the stairway railings, the knee-wall cap, and in tight spots where the sanding machine would not fit. When we questioned this method, they said, "We sand later." After the stain went down, we could see that the wood where the saw blades had been used looked like it had been mauled by tigers, there were huge swirl marks from rotary sanders, and they had used defective wood to replace the bull-nose pieces and other wood. There was dust everywhere. Luckily, we had hung plastic barriers, and covered furniture and curtains nearby, just in case. But dust was in the air, in the HVAC filters, etc. Everything about the work was a disaster. We called the firm, and they sent out a supervisor for the first time. He placed 29 pieces of blue tape in the major problem areas. He said that he could not call the owner to come over, because the owner was probably at the gym. A few minutes after the supervisor left, the owner called and said that the supervisor had told him that there were a couple of problem areas, but we were trying to micromanage the work, and he was pulling the crew off the job. They were doing such horrible work, we were happy to see them go. He had not asked for any money up front, and he did not bill us. So at least we did not have to try to get our money back. But we felt bad about the fact that the crew appeared to have worked for days for no pay. The firm sent us an email claiming that their work had been done correctly. But we have the photos, and one of the saw blades that they had dropped accidentally into an inaccessible location. Since the firm seemed to be positioning itself to refute any bad reviews that we might post (they respond with similar claims to the bad reviews posted by others on HomeAdvisor.com), and possibly to sue us, sucking up even more of our time, we did not review them anywhere. It took weeks to figure out what to do, and find competent firms to deal with the problems that had been created by the firm we found on HomeAdvisor.com. We had to hire a second firm that we found on AngieList.com, which does not subcontract their work, to start over from the beginning re-sanding everything, replacing all of the wood that had been replaced, and they were unable to salvage the stairway and the knee-wall cap. Their work cost $3,000. We had to stay in a hotel while they worked on our floors, which cost $1,000. We had to hire a third firm to fully replace the stairway railings, balusters, and newel posts, plus the knee-wall cap, for $4,000. Dealing with the damage was like a nightmare. We will never use HomeAdvisor.com again.

Be very careful, because eBay sometimes deletes negative Feedback for sellers, and you may not see valid negative feedback posted by buyers who were burned by a seller. Some sellers use eBay to sell ruined products that nobody would ever buy in person. Sellers also use a "No Returns" policy to maximize their ability to unload ruined items, and since eBay's "guarantee" is specifically limited, buyers may get stuck with unusable items.

On several occasions I have purchased pieces of Waterford and Wedgwood, a cashmere scarf, Cutco and other kitchen items, etc., listed as new, perfect, and in excellent condition, only to receive items that had subtle but very significant problems. They were ruined, due to being scorched, marked, dirty, bent, scratched, shattered internally, had finish issues, or were deemed second quality by their manufacturers for various reasons. EBay listings state that eBay guarantees items when a seller does not offer returns, but a buyer may not prevail in a claim when something is abnormal, as eBay may deem it to be a "color" issue, and they call that buyer's remorse. When a buyer offers to pay the shipping costs both ways, and the seller refuses to agree to that and refund just the purchase price, you know it's a scam. That is a seller who is very happy to have unloaded some ruined junk.

If you do not prevail in a claim, do not file an appeal online, call eBay to file the appeal. If you file it online, it will be handled by the same type of front-line employee who denied your claim in the first place. Once an appeal is denied, then even if eBay leadership later says that the case should have been decided in your favor, the case cannot be reopened. EBay leadership will tell you to contact PayPal. Plus, if you do not prevail against such a seller, any negative feedback that you post will be deleted by eBay. In fact, if you even mention the word refund in your negative feedback against a seller who has a "No Refunds" policy, eBay will delete it. Some sellers are pretty good at using eBay's rules to burn buyers, one after another, while maintaining an undeservedly good feedback score.

Sellers who list items with quality issues sometimes use fuzzy photos to disguise the issues, while those same sellers use clear, enlargeable photos for their items that have no issues. Yet these differences in listing methods, which facilitate a seller's scams, do not raise red flags with eBay when there is a claim against such a seller. In addition, even if eBay refunds you for a problem item, the seller may try to draw you into an invalid claim against the US Postal Service, claiming that the abnormality was caused by something that happened in transit.

If you can find the same item on Replacements Ltd., or Amazon, or another site with stronger guarantees, or in person, where you can see what you are buying, you may save yourself a headache by avoiding eBay, because some eBay sellers use the site to scam buyers.

Our insurance plan changed from Walgreens to CVS Caremark as of 1/1/2014 for prescriptions (Rx) received by mail. An Rx that had been ongoing at Walgreens was deemed ineligible for refill by CVS Caremark without a Request for Preauthorization, to be submitted by the doctor who prescribed the medication, followed by a brand new Rx.

I worked on this for hours, speaking to one person after another at CVS Caremark, each of whom provided different, conflicting information about what was required to get a longstanding RX going again, then getting the doctor's office to submit a Request for Preauthorization, then confirming that it had been sent. By the time I called CVS Caremark to check on the status of the Request for Preauthorization, as they had instructed (and I had heard nothing from them), I had very little confidence that things would be going well. Sure enough, the rep that I spoke to advised that the medication did not require any Preauthorization (at this point I was not surprised to receive yet another conflicting statement from CVS Caremark), AND no Request for Preauthorization was on file for the insured (even though the doctor's office had specifically confirmed that it had been submitted a least two weeks prior to that date). That was the last straw.

WE GAVE UP ON USING CVS CAREMARK. We apologized to the doctor's office for wasting so much of their staff's time dealing with CVS Caremark, ultimately having no success, and we had the doctor's office send the Rx to our grocery store's pharmacy. I even called CVS Caremark back to have them note the file that if they ever locate the Request for Preauthorization that the doctor submitted, they are to do nothing with it. We do not want to spend any more time dealing with CVS Caremark.

Rx by mail is supposed to save time and money. Ultimately, we ended up filling the Rx paying cash, were deprived of the use of our Rx benefit while attempting to work with CVS Caremark, and wasted hours in the process. It doesn't get much worse than that.

I am a comparative shopper and I often check several sites simultaneously for the best deal before purchasing online. Overstock wins so often on price for the exact items I want that I joined their affinity program to get their rewards.

I find that their search function and item descriptions work better than some of their primary competitors. Overstock seems to the fact that it is important to have precisely consistent item descriptions, so that users can search successfully.

In the event that something isn't as wonderful as what it was supposed to be (it is so hard to know when buying online), customer service makes it right. You may have to voice your displeasure in order to get them to make it work out okay for you; but in my experience they will make it right.

I called to cancel an order once, when I had forgotten to link from an email so that a % discount coupon would apply, and the customer service rep offered to go into the order and apply the coupon. That's perfect customer service in my book.

Some parsons chairs that I ordered arrived with upholstery that was so papery and flimsy that it would not have lasted a year. I felt that they should cover the shipping back, as I was only returning them due to the unexpectedly low quality of the fabric. After some discussion of the problem, the rep saw it my way and Overstock covered the return shipping.

A Fossil watch that I bought WITH the Jewelry Protection option, lost its second hand within the first three weeks, and needed a quick repair to put it back in place. The first rep that I spoke to in the Jewelry Protection area said that it was still within the time period that required me to go through the manufacturer to get it fixed. I spoke to her supervisor and quoted from the jewelry protection information where it said they would cover it immediately starting at the time of purchase. He agreed with me, and said that they would take care of getting it replaced or repaired. The watch was no longer available, so they couldn't replace it and had to repair it. They supplied a shipping label, repaired the watch, and shipped it back. It has worked perfectly ever since.

I bought a rug, which was drop-shipped from the manufacturer, and it arrived with some glue spots on the front from the manufacturing plant in China. I called Overstock; they provided the return shipping label, and they had a second rug shipped out to me immediately, before I shipped the first one back. The second one is perfect. When they received the first one, they communicated very well via email, advising that they had received the first one back and had already shipped the second one.

Between their people and their systems, I give Overstock a full five stars.

Wow! Great selection, low, low prices, and always free shipping. They keep you up to date via email on the status of your order. Items arrive packed well and shipping is fast, although some items make be backordered. Even then, it may be worth the wait for their low prices.

Walmart.com is a good place to buy something that may have issues and you may want to make an in-store return. Many companies have such poor quality control coming out of China that you have to buy three of something in order to have a good chance of getting one that is actually first quality. So you order three and return the ones that should never have made it through quality control at your local Walmart.

Good site with fast shipping. You can save quite a bit of money using their coupons and periodic rebates. The site has a few issues. Sometimes you have to pay really close attention to an item's fine print in order to click or checkmark a tiny box in order to get a discount for buying more than one of something. When you review your order before placing it, make sure all of your coupon codes, rebates, and special offers were applied. If they weren't, you can call customer service and they can fix it with you on the line. I shop at Drugstore.com comparing it side-by-side with CVS.com, and place orders with both for the items that they won by beating their competition.

If you really want to blow up hundreds of dollars, I suggest you take your favorite person to the most expensive restaurant in your area, have a very nice dinner and an amazing bottle of wine. The bill will be high, and you will have nothing tangible, but you will have a great experience. If you buy Beezid bids, you will spend hours and hours and hours, just to have a shot at buying something that probably isn't exactly what you would have purchased in a store or site, and after you factor in the cost of the bids, it will be no bargain.

Worst case scenario, you will waste hundreds of dollars and hours of your time, and have little or nothing to show for it. Best case scenario, you will waste hours of your time, and buy something that you would not have bought otherwise at a total price that you don't like, and once you factor in the value of your time you will feel like a complete sucker.

After you "win" they may call you and tell you that they didn't have that item available, and suggest that you could receive a different item. Everything ships directly from stores such as Staples, so you can compare what you paid in bids plus purchase price to the store's price. Once you do that you will feel like an idiot.

Some say that there is shill bidding involved. I don't know if that is true or not. But I can confirm that the number of bids and hours spent by bidders with names like "YourGunnaLose" (no typo here) and "Terminator" make it look like they have unlimited time for clicking "Bid" and maybe they got their bids for free. There are few products worth having, and since certain bids that you receive "for free" (which bring down your average price per bid) expire quickly, you need to use those bids. So you try and try, and in the end you regret wasting your time and money.