Ed K.

Microsoft Store is certainly handy but I've found a lot of their items available elsewhere at lower prices. I use them primarily to download apps, etc.

I've just tried Hotels.com to arrange a stay in Phoenix. They had lots of hotels to evaluate and very good prices. Making the reservation was a snap. I see lots of one-star reviews which I don't share... yet. I will reevaluate following my trip in a few weeks if things don't go well. So far I'm very happy..

I've been buying from Magnolia AV (originally Magnolia HiFi) for over 50 years. Very knowledgeable and trustworthy.

I like the large number of movies available for free viewing on Netflix but I get frustrated from time to time when those titles are taken down. I appreciate being able to download select titles for viewing offline on all of my viewing devices. I'd like to see that capability expanded.

I started visiting eBay when I wanted to replace my rented cable modem. By owning my own I would save $10.00/mo on my cable bill. I was going to buy the Arris gateway but it would have taken 2 years to break even. I noticed the exact cable modem I was renting was available for sale, but with one exception. They were all used. The one exception was a "Lot of 7" modems for around $500.00, so I decided to buy the seven, sell the six I didn't need on eBay and end up with my own for free.
The plan was going so well I decided to buy another lot of seven, and then another. It was easy to get started selling and as the extra modems sold on eBay, I was actually doing quite well financially. However, suddenly the modems I had sold started coming back to me. Evidently the ISP didn't like having their branded devices owned by their customers instead of being rented to them.
In the end I ended up refunding two-thirds of the sold modems, which was made easy with eBay and PayPal, and getting refunded myself for two of the three lots I had purchased, even though the seller was no longer an eBay member. EBay's return policy protected not only my buyers but me as well. Plus, I ended up with the Arris modem I had wanted in the first place from the profits on my non-returned devices. I also learned a lot and really appreciated the policies, assistance and help from eBay.

I received a $10.00 gift card to Walmart for something I bought (not sure what) and, since I never go to Walmart, tried to use it on Walmart.com. After several tries to buy a digital movie download I was informed I couldn't use a "gift to purchase a gift" or whatever. Not sure what that means. At anyrate I ended up using the gift card balance on an actual DVD, using the balance owed after the gift card credit from my personal credit card account. Oh well, I guess I got a DVD for the cost of shipping. Enough of Walmart.com.

I received an email from PayPal alerting me to a $76+ pending charge to my account from a outfit called WISH. I have never even heard of WISH. When I tried calling the WISH number I was told the "person was not taking calls right now" and to call back later. I'm going to wait and see if the charge actually goes through on my account. If it does I'll deal with it then. Thank you PayPal.

The more I use Amazon the more I want to use it. Great customer support, tracking of orders/order management and filtering of products to help make buying decisions. Also, great buys, if not from Amazon directly then from their allied venders. If you decide to join "Prime" you also have access to free music and movies. I can't say enough.

A simple thing like getting a picture of my registered product on "my account" page doesn't seem to be possible. I have only been trying to get this done now for 2 months.

They charged me $12.98 for something I already paid for through Amazon. It was hell to get it off my debit card.