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Jon K.

2
Level 2 Contributor
poconos, PA

Contributor Level

Total Points
1,235

10 Reviews by Jon

  • 1040

3/12/24

I tried 1040.com since it was a file-for-free with the irs company. After taking the time to fill out a profile, and enter all the pertinent info for filing 2023 taxes, it said I owed over $600 in taxes. Since I've been filing with hrblock for years prior, I know their system says I owe $0 in taxes. The difference is that I receive "early retirement withdrawal", but I have an exception so I don't pay the 10% penalty using hrblock's system. The IRS lists over 20 Exceptions to avoid the penalty and my situation is one of them. 1040.com asked if I had an exception, I said yes, and selected the specific exception, but they seemed to ignore that and apply the penalty anyway. So I deleted all my information on 1040.com, purchased hrblock software, and filed my taxes, owing $0 and am comforted by their filing guarantee. I assumed the tax law was the tax law, but I guess it depends on what software / company you choose.

  • Hungry Root

2/1/24

I tried hungryroot since a great Merchant Offer appeared as one of my credit card benefits, and saw mostly good reviews. The good for me was delivery arrived on time, healthy food options are abundant, veggies arrive looking fresh, and plenty of veggie options. Also, convenient meal options that don't take long to prepare, and it's fun to try new things.
The cons for me were the veggies don't last long, so we'd have to be consuming them all right away. For example, asparagus was part of a dinner. We made that dinner within a few days of receiving our first delivery, and the asparagus' best by date was still 10 days away, but several stalks already went bad (tips wet and gross) so had to throw some away. Also - the asparagus were extremely thin, which we like when sauted or steamed, but the recipe was to roast them at 450 degrees for 25-30 minutes. They turned to hard sticks.
Another example is we currently have shaved brussels for a southwest meal. Their best by date is 2/4/24, but by 1/31/24 they are starting to turn color and I doubt we'll be able to use them.
Another con was they have an item on my "delivered" list, but it wasn't in the box. That was incredibly easy to fix, go online and select item, choose help, they have an option to add $6 to my wallet. The bad news is that's not a refund, it's a discount off of a future order. And I'm canceling, so losing that $6.
Another con for me was the very first meal they recommended was pasta with vodka sauce. Okay, sounds great. But between ordering and me receiving the delivery 5 days later, I see they have a RECALL on vodka sauce for specific lot numbers! I don't think the one received was part of the recall, but still created some anxiety before even getting any food.
We received grapes, and I thought oh these are nice, let's check out the supplier. The first thing on their website is their LISTERIA recall. Not on grapes, but on other types of fruit. Later I also saw that on hungryroot's website. Hopefully we weren't affected by either recall, but still makes me wary of the suppliers hungryroot chooses.
Another con for me was several items that sounded interesting were out of stock.
I did skip our second delivery to give us time to try all the things from our first delivery, which was easy to do, then just canceled before the second delivery.

I think it's a great concept, but I think I'd use it just as a here-and-there for certain things, but most of those things I can find cheaper and fresher at local stores. But here-and-there doesn't equate to the $65 minimum charge, $70 minimum for free shipping.

I'm sure there's a niche of folks who would really like this service. I'm glad we didn't pay the full $120 price for our one and only delivery.

Service
Value
Shipping
Quality
  • Petco

1/10/24

When I was perusing items to purchase on 1/2/24, the site says Get It By January 5th. When I added the items to my cart the message said Delivered by January 5th. When I purchased my items on 1/2/24 the message said Delivers by January 5th. It stand out, it green font. On 1/3/24 I got an email saying order shipped. Yay! When I hit the tracking link it said Delivered by January 11th?!?.

When I checked things out further, my order was Free, Standard Shipping. I'm used to Chewy's Free Standard Shipping where things I order are 50 miles away and they Fed-Ex it (yes, Chewy's default is Fed-Ex) and I get it the next day. But Petco's default is using UPS SurePost. Per UPS SurePost website, it is used "for your non-urgent, business to consumer needs of low value." I think that sums it up so far. Chewy makes me feel valued, Petco tells me I'll get my items in 2 days til I pay for them then they say "oh, we were just kidding. The fine print says 2 to 7 business days".

Per Petco.com, "We have 9 distribution centers strategically located throughout the United States."

Unlike Chewy, where my items start 50 miles away from me, Petco.com shipped my items from 2,800 miles away and used a non-urgent mode of shipping to send them to me. That's my first impression of Petco. There is a distribution center in NJ, I'm in PA, but they ship my items from Tacoma WA.

So I've been taking print screens each day as I track my order as it slowly trudges across the country. It's apparently close to me now, so maybe I will get it on January 11th, as they indicated AFTER I paid for the order. But that's not January 5th that they indicated BEFORE I paid for the order. Now I feel Petco may be misleading and may not value me as a customer. I KNOW Chewy values me as a customer and has been extremely helpful if I have a return, etc. I haven't even gotten my items from Petco yet and we feel like it's a bad experience.

I didn't know they had so many bad reviews here on sitejabber either. Here's one more.

Since I don't have a local Petco I thought I'd try them since I found a coupon through krazycouponlady, which creates brand awareness. I am now aware of the Petco brand and I'm not impressed. Although I haven't yet received my items I have been recommended via email to buy other items, sign up for their affiliates like freeshipping.com, and other ways to purchase more stuff.

Hopefully the items will be as expected if they do arrive tomorrow, 6 days after Petco stated they would be delivered by. Good luck everyone.

Tip for consumers:
I wouldn't recommend trusting the date Petco.com puts after "Delivers by". I'd go with the high end of their 2 to 7 business day shipping policy. They should put a date range, not the best case scenario delivery date especially if they know they're shipping it via UPS SurePost from 2,800 miles away.

Service
Value
Shipping
  • Krazycouponlady

1/10/24

I don't like it when businesses present 1 side to consumers but show a different side to folks giving them money. Krazycouponlady makes it seem like they are scouring everywhere to find the best deals and pass them on to their site visitors. But in the "how we make money" section it mentions many of the brands they showcase are paying krazycouponlady to write about them.

5.5 million unique site visitors is a robust set of data to learn insights about consumer behavior, and a nice pull to have brands pay krazycouponlady to increase their sales.

Krazycouponlady's website says their mission is "to help our readers save the most money possible"
But in a presentation at the CPG industry conference in 2023 (video on youtube) a senior director from krazycouponlady states "they may think they're saving, but their frequency of purchase, they're actually probably ingesting more product" about a segment of krazycouponlady's most engaged visitors. Another quote during that presentation was "They come to us for us to tell them what products should I be looking at and where's the best place for me to go." That seems like a great selling tool for a brand.

I also like consistency and I don't think I see it with krazycouponlady. When describing how they make money to their site visitors, they say they have "over 40 employees". But on their linkedin page, which is more catering to business relationships, they have "a formidable team of nearly 130 individuals." I suppose both statements can be true at the same time, it just seems like a "oh, we're a quaint company looking to help you save money, consumer" and then a "hey brand, if you pay us we'll direct our consumers to your specific product with our formidable team" type of situation.

I tried krazycouponlady once, found a deal with a company (Petco) I hadn't tried before, I am experiencing the offer me an initial deal then pummel me with suggestions to buy more. I'll probably post a review about that experience as well. Krazycouponlady definitely created brand awareness for me with that company, but not in a good way.

In summary, sounds like a great concept - alert consumers of coupons and deals. Those are listed on their linkedin page but to me their emphasis is the other items listed on that page: brand marketing, consumer marketing, content marketing, digital marketing, and shopper marketing.

  • Depositaccounts

6/8/23

Cd rates, fed meeting perspectives, looking at past history to project the future, easy access to savings, IRA, etc. rates is wonderful. Sometimes there are rates on this site that are not included on others, and vice versa.
The comments section I expected to be filled with nuggets of info from consumers but this particular site typically devolves into other topics, like todays was a post ranting about unvaccinated immigrants spreading diseases, then the comments go on from there. Maybe entertaining but certainly not what one would expect from a site devoted to deposit accounts.

  • FirstEnergy

5/2/23

I have Met Ed through First Energy and I report a positive experience. They communicate well, they let me know of available rebates for appliances and that rebate process is easy. My electric used to go out a lot with storms but over the past several years it has stayed on, so I'm happy with the infrastructure. I can predict what my bill is going to be based on tracking the data they provide. My price per kwh is.099 currently in 2023, while in 2021 it was.063... an increase of 57%, but it has been a gradual increase and unfortunately is in line with most groceries we purchase as well, so I don't consider that a red flag. It's spurred me to pay attention to electric-saving measures, so I'm now using less kwh than ever. Overall good experience with Met Ed through First Energy.

  • LexisNexis

5/1/23

I had a couple banks ask me a specific question to verify my identity. When I asked a bank why they would ask such a question, they said they get their questions from lexisnexis, so I'm writing this review about lexisnexis. The question, to verify MY identity was: What city does (the name of my mom) live in? And it listed several cities and none of the above for the choices. The issue I have with the question is that my mom died 2 years earlier. So, do I choose the city that she lived in when she was ALIVE 2 years ago? Or do I choose "None of the Above" since mom is deceased... hmmm. I went with None of the Above and I got flagged, account on hold, etc. I would prefer questions that actually deal with MY identity verification, and how about we leave my deceased mother out of the mix of questions as part of your Risk Solutions? Just a suggestion. Or maybe update your records every once it a while, so you don't ask questions that will irk a customer regarding lexisnexis as well as any organizations, for example banks, who may be using your "trick questions." Mom died in 2019, I got that question in 2021 as well as 2022. Neato.

  • GEICO

4/30/23

I had geico for 2 years which was fine, then early 2023 the premiums for both my car and home were going to go up 60%. I called to see why since there weren't any incidences or claims, was it the age of home and car, the age of me, something I'm not aware of? They said it was too many claims in my state were filed so they had to increase rates. So I called a local insurance agent, and easily got better coverage for LESS than I was paying to begin with with geico. I could see maybe a 10-15% increase for inflation or whatever reason but 60% increase out of nowhere lost this customer. Geico was very prompt in issuing my refund though so that was nice.

  • Caring.com

4/19/23

I wondered if others shared my experience and sure enough here on sitejabber there are many folks who tried to leave a review with legitimate concerns on caring.com and were denied. I was hoping an honest review may let folks know what's going on with the residence, and also spur some action by the residence (since mom kept falling and falling and the residence wasn't communicating with me regarding a plan). I think caring.com is missing an opportunity to help hold some residences accountable - we as the public are just trying to IMPROVE the quality of service here for our loved ones. I tried getting that accomplished with the residence several times before going to caring.com to leave a review.

One of the frustrating points is that I look at other reviews for that residence on caring.com and other places and they are in CLEAR violation of guidelines because they are left by EMPLOYEES of the residence! And yet our honest fact based reviews are denied. It's a shame that caring.com seems to be empowering bad behavior by certain residences and then silence individuals who would like the truth to be shown.

I wanted to trust caring.com, but as many other folks here mention, their actions make it difficult to do so.

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Denise G. – Caring.com Rep

Jon, We take allegations of fake reviews or employee-posted reviews very seriously. Please contact reviews@caring.com ASAP so that we may investigate the page(s) on our website where you think there are reviews published by senior living employees. We will immediately audit every review on those pages (including re-evaluating the reviewer identity and content source data we have for those reviews), and remove any that violate our guidelines (which prohibit senior living community employees from publishing reviews on Caring.com). We can also assist you with publishing a negative, factually accurate review within guidelines. We seek to publish as many valid reviews as possible —regardless of rating. We currently have tens of thousands of negative consumer published publicly in our directory, and do not decline reviews simply because they’re negative. We hope to hear directly from you. Thank you!

  • Dreamstime

12/3/20

I signed up for Dreamstime free trial October 2020, 15 images, loved it. I went into the $20 for another 15 images October 2020, great. That subscription renewed November 2020, $25 for another 15 images. So I've paid $45 for 45 images. I had downloaded 35 images at that point, 10 images remaining. Then I download an audio track for $17. But they charge my account $17 then 2 days later $17 AGAIN. So I write customer service about that AUDIO double-charge. They remove the excess $17 but then for some unknown reason they STOP my image subscription and I LOSE my remaining 10 images I had to download! So I paid $45 for 35 images. Too much hassle, I don't trust this company now. Too bad, I enjoyed it for a couple months. I'll go elsewhere.

Jon Has Earned 5 Votes

Jon K.'s review of Caring.com earned 3 Very Helpful votes

Jon K.'s review of GEICO earned a Very Helpful vote

Jon K.'s review of 1040.com earned a Very Helpful vote

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