Melinda L.

I got a free trial to Zoosk about 2 months ago... and I just sort of lurked there until this morning... I woke up early today and decided to pay the $80 for 6 months... and I had at least 50-60 emails to respond to. So i was happily doing that until suddenly I got this message that "WOW! You have been busy! You have reached your limit for today. Please visit us in 24 hours."

Ummmmm... No where when I was signing up did it say that a person has a daily limit on how many messages I could send. I called the company and explained to them that they either needed to lift the restriction for me or refund my money and they opted to refund my money. I think when I spend $80 for 6 months on a buggy dating site, I should be able to spend as much time as I want. It's not like I have hours and hours every day to do this sort of thing... but I woke up early today and decided to try it out.

I don't have any advice on where to go for a good dating service, but when I do, I'll write it up...

OK... I was curious... What can people REALLY find out about someone online? For lots of money, you too can find out.

I was checking out a restaurant and scrolling down, I saw this thing for "Instant Background Checks" called CheckMate.com... Curious as to what it might say about me (not that I have anything to hide) the site didn't even know my name. So anyone relying on it for RECENT info is going to be deceived.

Due to divorce, I changed my name 2.5 years ago. It DID come up with the names of several people related to me, but that was it.

Checkmate had my middle initial wrong and it had my old married name. It did correctly come up with the last 3 cities I have lived in, but then they pour on the sales tactics to get you to pay (of course... you have to wait at least 10 minutes for all of the supposed information to load)... and then when I tried to leave the page, the site made it difficult to do that. And, it offered to give incorrect information about me for just $1 after saying the least expensive "package" was $24.00 (I think).

Either way... I was slightly impressed when it came up with 4 people "possibly" related to me (all of them were), but since it did not have my current name, I wasn't even willing to pay it $1. Plus, it has all of these disclaimers saying that you can't use it to stalk anyone or deny a job to anyone... So unless one is a private detective I don't even think it is worth $1. Also one of the people it said I was possibly related to has been dead for over 3 years.

DUDE! I have known ** since I was 14. He and his partner, ** are the WORST! ** does hair design. Their home is for sale. ** owns SEVA, a furniture store in Seattle that is GROSS (the $#*! just breaks apart) They are planning to move to Palm Springs so that they "can go out for lunch" Well... have fun boyz, cuz you ain't fooling me.

**[personal info redacted by admin]

We hired Critter Control to trap a nest of raccoons behind our property to safeguard our cats. The man who came out, Rob, was SO nice... very personable, very informed and spent a long time with me explaining their procedures, what our duties are and what to do if we catch an animal or if the bait goes missing and the trap didn't catch the animal.

You must sign a 30 day contract with them that is $199 for setting the traps and then it is $59 for them to take away unwanted animals. We did catch a squirrel who ate all the bait, but when they didn't come out to release the poor animal after 24 hours (they stipulate that all unwanted animals or missing bait or a closed trap will be fixed within 24 hours of you calling in before 8:30am each day, including Xmas and other holidays) we released it, even though that is breaking some kind of rule. But if there is a squirrel trapped in the trap then how is the raccoon going to get in?

However, this is not the case with this bunch of crooks. We called them over and over when we noticed that the bait was missing, thereby nullifying the effectiveness of the trap, and it took them 4 (FOUR!) days to come back out and re-bait the traps. The bait was instantly stolen right away and we called them again (today is our 10th day with them) and they still have not come out to re-bait the traps, and WE ARE STILL BEING CHARGED!

I called them a week ago and asked to speak to a manager, and a week went by, no phone call. So I called them today, completely irate with them and fired them. According to the contract Rob, the very nice technician who lied to me and told me that he explained everything in the contract and all I had to do was sign this and initial that and we were good to go. And I believed him... so I signed.

Well, somewhere, hidden amongst all of their legal mumbo-jumbo is a stipulation that the contract cannot be broken (Rob, the very nice technician who so carefully explained everything to me forgot to mention that) but they broke the contract by ignoring our pleas to come out and re-bait the traps. The stupid girl in the office (Brittany~~why are all girls named Brittany so stupid?) promised to have someone who has authority to "make decisions" would call me right back... and I waited a week, and they never called. So I called her after a week and asked her why she never had anyone call me, and she said that they had someone call from the office and talk to my husband. Well, my husband didn't sign the contract, nor did he pay for the service, so why did they call him? I don't know... but he's a soft touch (someone has to be the $#*! in the family or nothing would ever get done, right?) and they soothe-said something to him along the lines that raccoons will smell where the bait USED to be and just walk into the trap without actual bait. If that is true, then why bait the traps at all? And it was made very clear to us that Washington State forbids the handling of wildlife, so we aren't allowed to touch the traps at all. I guess if they read this they will know that we let a squirrel out of the trap... but I'm willing to take that chance.

Raccoons are super smart. They don't walk willingly into unbaited traps. Raccoons are WAAAAAY smarter than Brittany. This company should be avoided at all costs. I did use the Seattle (Kent... but no one has ever heard of Kent) WA franchise, so maybe other franchises are run better, but I'm not going to call the Boston franchise and have them service me.

Hire someone else besides this terrible company for your pest problems.

And... just for fun: I saw a quote from Tina Fey a couple of months ago where she said "$#*!es get $#*! done". I am a very nice person... until I am lied to and pushed around. But with a devious company like Critter Control, my inner Tina Fey comes out... and I wave the flag proudly. ~~ML

Every single time I travel with a booking thru Expedia, it has been a bad experience. In fact, it is SO bad that I plan to pay off my balance and cut up my card.

I spent over 2 hours with them on the phone and they would keep dropping the call only to find that when I printed out my travel itenirary THEY HAD BOOKED ME INTO THE WRONG CITY! So, the I have to spend another 2 hours right before I was getting ready to leave the country for almost a month… They kept transferring me to different people, who I had to give THE EXACT INFORMATION about my trip and what was the problem is (why doesn't the first person I speak to start a file so the other agents have the information right in front of them?) and on and on on, ad nauseam. The people they have working there are dumb as rocks.

It was s completely unsatisfactory… and I am even having trouble with them AFTER my trip is over. OMGawd! Never again will I use Expedia for ANYTHING!

Our business hired Jared Mirsky to build a new website for us about 2
Months ago. Even though we found him to be a bad listener and didn't
Want to use any of our ideas, his work was so beautiful and his
Presentation was so slick that we fell for his plan for our new
Website and hired him. Jared promised us SO many things: that we would
Love the site if we would just trust him (we do not…trust him or love
The site), that he had so many satisfied customers and was able to
Show us some recommendations and blah, blah, blah. He just wanted our
Money. During the initial interview I asked him if he had been to our
Existing site to get an overview of what it was that we wanted…and he
Had NOT visited our website…in fact… HE DID NOT EVEN COMPREHEND WHAT
WE DID AS A BUSINESS! I am a founding member and right then and
There, I should have thrown him out. My gut was screaming at me to do
This, but I was outnumbered by my partner and assistant and Jared was
Hired.

Jared's turn around time was shockingly fast. He is not worth the
Money he charges (even though his fees are quite reasonable, but he
Practically had it done overnight~~hence all the mistakes) because he
Cannot communicate at all, he has been over 30 minutes late to
Meetings without calling us or showing any remorse and he talks really
Fast, uses lots of big words and tries to make you feel stupid because
You don't know all of the computer lingo that he knows. He also was
Not honest with us about his ability to work with Apple products since
That is all we have in our office and he really struggled with our
IMacs. That's because he doesn't listen and I know I said that before
But it bears repeating: If I had a business where I built websites for
Businesses I would try my best to LISTEN to them in order to give them
What they want. The other mistake we made was to pay the final payment
Before the site was 100% finished. Again, that's my
Company's fault…but Jared does give an extremely empassioned impressive speech about how
Loyal he will be to your business, that he will always be there for us
And that we can call anytime with questions. The issue is just that he
Is a good liar and makes an excellent presentation. And we fell for it
And now our website is mostly done and we either get to live with it
That way or spend more money on someone reliable, because Jared Mirsky
Is not that person. He also promised to give me $4,000 worth of
Software and a 2 hour lesson on how to use it, but on the day I
Thought we were doing that, he was just coming by to pick up a check. But isn't that illegal to "give" away a copy of such expensive software? I told him I didn't want it, but he insisted... but of corse, he was just lying about that as well.

And, then... the final blow: He has recently redone his site and OUR homepage comes up on his home page along with a couple other ones. We asked him nicely to take our website off of his site and he refuses. We are a respectable business with over 20 years of making goodwill in our community. I have NOTHING against alcohol, male strippers, hot babes in bikinis, lots and lots of pictures of both actual marijuana and 6 other pictures showing his work with Seattle's medical marijuana dispensaries. PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT I HAVE ZERO JUDGEMENTS ABOUT ANY OF THE ABOVE. But what if one of our customers has a "problem" with these things? I do not want my business to be associated with these other businesses. We asked Jared nicely to please remove our copyrighted site from his site and he refused. When we asked him, he called me names like "crazy" and that "Melinda needs to get a grip" and a "crybaby".

I honestly cannot remember the last time I saw someone SO unprofessional. And, even though he is based out of Seattle, he can build a site for anywhere in the world... so don't get lured in by his beautiful site.

NOT PROFESSIONAL. DO NOT WORK WITH JARED MIRSKY.

I have been a member of Audible.com for about a year now. I enjoy occasionally listening to a book rather than reading it and it has helped me make it through some extremely LONG books like The Count of Monte Cristo, Tom Jones: The Story of a Foundling, Roots and several others that are more than 1,000 pages in length. Also, I feel that for some of the "classics" it is a bit more fun to be read to rather than slog through dry sentences and have to look up words that aren't commonly used anymore (although I still did that, but I didn't have to put down the book and haul out the dictionary right at that moment in order for it to make sense).

Audio books are super expensive and I don't really think you can effectively share them unless you are willing to part with your iPod or computer... os I don't like not being able to just give away a book when I am done reading it. One thing that is cool is that I can delete them off my hard drive (for space saving reasons) but if I ever want to download it again for any reason, I own the download and I can download it for free. I have done that once.

Here are my small complaints about the company: I like to review my books both as keepsakes for me and I just enjoy giving my opinion. I like doing it on Audible (it is owned by Amazon) because people can vote if your review was "helpful" but not start an argument with you or call you names if they happen to disagree with you. I do not like that when you listen to a sample, if the book has a forward, you will get to listen to that rather than part of the first chapter, and that has mislead me more than once. But to be fair to the company, when I have complained about this and felt mislead, I was cheerfully given my credit back (you keep a valid credit card with them and they charge you every month... and there is a deep discount for the first 3 months if you have never been a member before)... so that's cool and I have purchased a few novels at deep discounts when they are having a sale.

But the part that irks me the most is when I have put a good deal of thought and care into a review, and unless you are the very first person to review the novel, your review gets buried on page 4 or 10 because it doesn't have any "helpful" votes yet.

What?

How are you able to garner helpful votes or not if no one is ever given a chance to see your review? I have complained to them about this before... why cannot they just be in chronological order? Or, why not set it up so that you have a choice of seeing the reviews with the most "helpful" votes or see them chronologically? I would think their website is sophisticated enough to do that, wouldn't you?

I wrote a very thoughtful review of Roots that is buried on like the 10th page of the reviews... so no one has seen it. It takes time and effort to write reviews and I think I deserve a chance to be read. Am I supposed to ask my friends who have Audible to vote helpful for me so that my review will be on the front couple of pages? Because, I don't think most people go beyond the first couple of pages, do you? I know I typically do not.

Anyway, that is my 2 cents about how I feel about Audible. I was bummed to find out that they were owned by Amazon, but not surprised.And, I have learned that now, if I am undecided about a book and it has lots of reviews, I really need to spend time reading the reviews. If you are an Audible member, I would suggest the same thing for you, because lately I have been swayed into buying books that I normally would not buy due to the placement of all the most helpful (meaning "good") reviews are all stacked at the top.

Thanks for reading! ~ML

I'm sure I am not the first person the review SiteJabber.com... but I do think it is one of the most useful sites on the Internet. I like the thing they say about helping to build a "transparent" internet. So... if you are reading this, you probably agree with me. It's easy to navigate (that counts BIG in my book) and I have a great pace to go when I want to say something negative or positive about the internet and it's billions of sites.

So, I say... keep up the great work guys! And thank you for creating this space for those of us who need a place that's easy to find and use for how we feel about sites.

I actually never placed the order. When I was putting things in my shopping cart, I was under the impression that I was going to get 15% off my entire order because I had filled out a survey. But, the 15% was only if I was going to buy the same product that I bought before (which I would not as I was dissatisfied with the product).

When I found that out (I had called them because I though their site was malfunctioning by not accepting my 15% off code) I minimized my shopping cart and sort of forgot about it. A few hours later, my computer had a pop up that said I needed to update some software, so I did so and that required me to restart my computer. I never actually finalized my order and was on the fence about it because I wasn't getting the 15% off. I was going to look around to see if I could find the things I needed for a better price.

I never received an email from Dermstore saying that they processed my order. A few days later, the order just CAME on it's own and on the same day, later, I got a tracking number from Dermstore saying my order had been processed and was ready to ship and they gave me a shipping number, BUT THE PRODUCT WAS ALREADY HERE!

They charged my credit card and even though it is products that I would use, I do not think I will order from them again because they will just send you anything they want to without you getting a chance to confirm with them.

I got 25 free downloads from Ticketmaster when I printed out my ticket using TicketFast from emusic.com. But it MUST be one of the buggiest sites I have ever tried to use. They keep stopping you offering you more and better "deals" (which I did take one) and it still would not allow me to download the music that they convinced me to PAY for! With the EASE of iTunes, why would you ever go anywhere else?

Oh yeah... the lure of "free" music. But when it wastes all my evening trying to work the bugs out, then it isn't really free, now is it?

TicketMaster, the mega monopoly who controls that concerts you wish to see has gone too far. They have started they own "resale" site called TicketsNow.com. Here is what I am hating about this. A concert that I wanted to see went on sale 2 weeks ago. At 9:59 on the dot (tickets went on sale at 10) I was both on the TicketMaster.com site AND had a ticket seller from TM on the phone. The instant 10 o'clock came we started searching for tickets and they had absolutely nothing acceptable. I'm not saying I need to be in the front row or anything, but something in the first 25 rows would have been acceptable. After getting no where both online and on the phone with TicketMaster I went directly to TicketsNow.com at 10:05. And guess what!?! On THAT site they had plenty of fantastic seats for anywhere from $400-$1,000 per seat (not including a 15% service charge).

What feels especially fishy to me is that how in the hell did other TicketMaster "clients" buy all these great seats and then list them for multiple times the face value of the ticket in less than 5 minutes? My guess? TicketMaster is withholding the best seats for their own secondary market and charging ridiculous sums of money for people who just want to see a good concert.

I would LOVE to be part of a class action lawsuit against TicketMaster and their sister company TicketsNow... because I nearly always have to buy tickets on the secondary market because it is nearly impossible to get tickets the regular way for the face value of the tickets. I did a little searching and there is a growing movement to break up the monopoly... but TM is a HUGE worldwide company that probably employs hundreds of lawyers. So someone like me who enjoys going to concerts either gets to sit in the nosebleed sections or pay (what sometimes for me is an entire weeks pay) on the secondary market to sit in the first few rows. TicketsNow.com should be STOPPED! And I do think what they are doing is illegal.

Vermont Country Store... two words: Original Ovaltine... YUM! And healthy!

I have been ordering from them since before the internet was available, so that's pretty cool. They do have things that rotate, but I truly love ordering from them... good bargains on impossible-to-find items from Ole fashioned ribbon candy to footwear. And if there is anything from your childhood that you remember and can't find it now? I bet you would have a good chance of finding it there.

Add me to the list of people who got ripped off from this "company". Why oh why do not I came to Site jabber FIRST before buying?

Add me to the chorus of complainers about this retailer. Ugh!

This site has a LOT of cool stuff... but they are often out of sizes. I have put requests in for things when they come back into stock, but so far that has never happened. The few items I have purchased there were quite nice, even if the shipping is a bit steep. I recommend this site to woman who are plus size but don't want to wear potato sacks. Also, I have noticed that if you give an item a negative review, they do not publish it... so everything is skewed to their benefit, so I think it is good to be aware of this.

Never in my life have I been treated so badly by a company that I have paid $9 to on a monthly basis for 2 years to insure the belongings in my storage unit.

I have a legitimate claim against their company as some belongings were stolen out of my unit. At first, (after a one-hour hold time) they did sound good and even treated me with respect. I was aghast at the fact that ANT claim of theft is only good for $2,000 worth of coverage. Luckily, I am also covered by my renter's insurance for up to $40K (which make a LOT more sense as they are less expensive and actually treat me with respect whenever I need to talk to them)

The ROBERTA happened to me. She announced that she was the claims adjuster on my case and before I even got out a "hello, thanks for taking my call" she announced in the smarmiest tone ever that my belongings wouldn't be covered and my claim was denied, because my stuff just "mysteriously disappeared".

Isn't that what happens in a robbery? You don't really know what is gone and what isn't until you go through everything. And it did not just "mysteriously disappear"... I have a police case number. The police (and I) both know who stole it. We know the date of loss and all of the circumstances surrounding it.

CONSUMER WARNING! Insure your storage (or anything else Bader might happen to insure) and hire ANYONE else! These people are frauds and I can't complain loudly enough to get their or anyone else's attention.

It's sick making. Especially Roberta. What a b*tch.

Well... it's free, so I had to try it.

I answered a LOT of their silly questions and they have this rating system that says either "The Two of Us" or "Y'all Got Issues" depending upon how each person answered each question.

Some of them are truly bizarre: "In a certain light, would a nuclear war be interesting?" That, for me is a NO! And some completely inane: "Peanut Butter: Creamy or Crunch" Like, honestly? That matters? And I prefer almond butter, anyway.

I have met a couple of men who seemed truly sincere, and then *poof* they lose interest. I guess that can happen either way, but I answer every single correspondence even if they live 3,000 miles away (it says right on my profile that I won't date anyone who lives further away than 25 miles away from me).

I will also say that the site is just insanely buggy and very hard to use sometimes, but it's free, so how can you complain?

I called them about the most expensive tickets for Tori Amos on December 14 on September 15 and their policy is that if a broker says "orchestra row A-P" they cannot give you ANY other information.

Why would a company who put me on hold for 20 minutes waste my time and THEN be SNARKY when I told them at there is a BIG difference between row A (front row) and row P, which would be unacceptable to me. The lady actually got ANGRY with me.

Do not call this foolish website that, truly, has no right to exist. And when is the behemoth monopoly called TicketMaster going to be disbanded? When people buy up all the good seats that are $75 marked on the ticket and then try to bilk you out of how ever much they think they can get away with, well, those people are evil. Concert tickets should be sold to fans... not money making machines who do not care about Tori Amos (or, insert your favorite musical artist here) and probably don't even know who that band/singer/person is.

The worst experience with a ticket reseller I have ever had... plus, if I would have gambled with my seat, I would have had the privilege of paying a 15% finder's fee AND $11.99 for expedited shipping, even though the show is 3 months away.

Soulless Bureaucrats.

Here is what I HATE about Gevalia... Their coffee sucks and for those of you who enjoy their under roasted, completely stale beans... well, then you just like bad coffee. But my current rant about the company is that I got an unsolicited email from them recently and I sent them back (on their link) a message to unsubscribe... and suddenly I have an account with them! And I can't cancel! I'm not currently getting any beans from them (I am thankful for small miracles) but I am not only getting spammed by them, I am getting spammed by EVERYTHING that KRAFT foods, inc owns. Yeah... sorry to burst your bubble those of you thinking you are getting the best coffee in the world: they are owned by Kraft Foods, inc., makers of Cheeze Whiz. Just... please re-think your subscription to GEVALIA and buy your coffee in small batches at your local organic store that sells shade-grown/fair-trade/not-killing-songbirds coffee. GEVALIA is the coffee equivalent to Tar Sand Mining. We can do better, people!

OK... Listen up people!

Raise your hands if you like wine...

Lower your hands if you like dogs (so you can pet your puppy now!)...

Raise you hands if you like art...

Here is a chance to vote for a new wine label and also look at some amazing art!

I know the artist who did #46... and if you feel moved to vote for her because you are following me, then please do... But there are also other beautiful dog-oriented/wine-oriented art to feast your eyes upon. Voting for this round closes on May 27... so hurry! And pass it along! What a cool site... and how wonderful that they are giving an unknown artist the opportunity to create a wine label.

Such a fun site to look through! YAY!

Now this is a fantastic site. Thoughtful people frequent this site and you can align yourself easily with people who have similar taste in books as you do. It's the best site I know of to get honest feedback about books that you might be interested in reading. And they don't have that awful competitive aura around them like Amazon does. Amazon will do a face off with "the most helpful" review for a positive review of a book VS "the most helpful" review for a negative review. Except they never highlight an actual completely negative review... cuz they want you to buy the book... so they highlight a 3 star review.

GoodReads is just inhabited by better reviewers than Amazon because they aren't selling anything. However... they do give you a button to press if you read a review that you just cannot wait to order it... but they give you options of who currently has the book, which is particularly helpful if yu want to compare prices right then and there.

I would also say that GoodReads has the highest ratio of published authors making insightful comments about books than anywhere else I have been. No pretenders there. It's easy to make friends and then follow their likes and dislikes. Plus there is an option to copare books side by side which you have read with anyone on the site... and that is one of the features I like best.

All art is subjective... and what is a book if not a form of art. GoodReads is the best site for me for making informed decisions about what I want to read next.

So little time, so many great books! GoodReads makes it easier.