Melinda L.

I was surfing the net a few weeks ago and found this "miracle face lift cream: called ProLift Serum. They promised that for a small handling fee (it was 4 or 5 dollars) I would get a free jar, and I could cancel my membership anytime.

And... I completely forgot about it until...

Last night my credit card company called saying I had a suspicious looking charge to my account for $89.99 and wanted to know if I had authorized the charge. Since my free trial never came I had, indeed forgotten about it, and when I tried calling the company, their phone is disconnected. But I tried to get the pop up ad to come back up... and I found it, stating the EXACT terms of get a free sample now and cancel anytime w/o having to return the product.

The CC company gave me their phone number and guess what? The phone has been disconnected. How very convenient for them.

So stay away from this offer. The little video is very convincing that this is the new best thing in the war on your face... which will win? The hideous wrinkles of a 52 year old woman or the perfect, flawless face of the 22 year old spokesmodel? Hmmmm.

Don't we in the US spend several hundreds of billions of dollars trying to look young? Well, I know that I personally do not spend billions, but I do try to take care of myself... and the best way to not have wrinkles is to drink lots of water, limit caffeine, avoid the sun and not smoke, so I'm not too worried.

But I do worry about this "company". My card is no longer useful to me, since they told me to destroy it and they are sending me a new one, but it will take 10 business days, yada yada yada. I'm just grateful that the CC companies make it so easy to get rid of fraudulent charges. Still, it is a total hassle since I recently started using that card for my Audible.com account and a couple of other accounts where I do use it to pay my monthly subscription, like NetFlix. So I have to waste my time adding in a new credit card.

Please do not support these criminals.

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...

Yesterday, I opened a new checking account. They gave me every single piece of information I would need in order to get things rolling. I had a coupon, so I used it and they checks were pretty... so I ordered (er, make that TRIED to order them) on the internet last night after they were closed.

The site REFUSED to accept the numbers I was putting in! It was extremely frustrating since every number was accurate and it kept asking me for a number that did not exist.

So this morning, I called them and they were SO exceptionally rude to me, kept interrupting me and the lady's attitude toward me was like I was some scumbag trying to order fraudulent checks. By the way, rude lady... I am a returning customer... but NEVER again. Between the website not working and the extreme rudeness of the representative on the phone... this company sucks and there are plenty of businesses to get other check from.

In exasperation, I called my bank this morning to ask if there was an error in the info they gave me and we went through the entire thing and I ended up getting plainer checks (I only use checks to pay credit card bills) and since my husband is divorcing me, I am going to change my name...(to what, yet I do not know.
Any ideas anyone?) I only needed a few checks (like 100) and even though the ones from the bank will be plain... I think I can live with that. AND! Even with all of the promotional codes from checksinthemail.com, my bank did it over the phone, were way less expensive and super friendly to me and it's one more thing I can cross off my "to do" list.

Now... if I could just find a new, better model of husband my life would be perfection. :)

I have been overwhelmed with the amount of coupons out there to get new business for ailing businesses to get new customers through the door. But I am basically SICK of all of them.

About 2 months ago, I bought a session for a hyperbolic oxygen chamber, and they said they had 2 locations. I called them to make an appointment, and the nearest one to me now (when they were advertising the special, it said they had 2 locations) but I didn't realize that according to LS's buried bylaws, if I didn't specify which salon I was going to, they can only give me "deal bucks" even though I paid with a credit card.

UM, wait up here for just a second! Neither salon offers the oxygen chambers anymore, and I would have to drive a 75 mile round trip to go to the chamber. It's not MY effing fault they decided to change around their structure in the last 2 months since I bought the voucher... and I would imagine that something like a big, pressurized oxygen chamber that a person's whole body goes into would be a big piece of equipment to move around. So I doubt that they even had the chambers in the 2 salons when they put out the coupon announcement.

And now, I am forced to spend $39 on some other junk from LS to satisfy my relationship with LS. I'm just waiting for a big lawsuit to come along... and I hope to be at the top of the list. What a scam and I hate them. I'd rather pay full price for something that I know I already trust and enjoy rather than having all of these new experiences. I'm SO done with Groupon, LS, Tippr, and all of their rip offs. I hate them all and have had problems with them all.

STAY AWAY! RED ALERT! Don't get sucked in by this marvelous offer of free Netflix for 1 year... If you have received an email that looks something like this... DO NOT RESPOND!

Hello *******@aol.com,

"We messed up. We owe everyone an explanation.

It is clear from the feedback over the last few months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming, and the price changes."

If you'd like Netflix for free for a year, simply give us your feedback on our short survey.

Thank you and we appreciate our public.

If you would simply rather not hear from us again, we respect that too.

Let us know at Worldwide Commerce Associates, 7251 West Lake Boulevard, Suite 300, Las Vegas, NV *******

OK... It me again. I gave them my business email that I rarely use anymore (it's really just a repository for junque) and once I answered their 4 question survey and gave them my husband's name (that and the email address were the 2 most "personal" questions I answered before I sniffed a scam) since I already have a Netflix account, and I could find nothing in the fine print before answering the 4 questions about that disqualifying me since I am already a NetFlix customer, I decided to test the waters.

I'm glad I didn't go too deep. I came to SiteJabber and put out the question if someone had heard of this and what exactly was SmashBox Productions (that you have to agree to receive their emails) but the SmashBox Productions bot thinks that I forgot to go and get my credit card, and we have been receiving spam from them all day. We have asked to be unsubscribed twice and twice we have been ignored.

If you ADORE getting spam, then I would say go for the free Netflix trial! (have fun!) if you can't afford it and want to have it and don't mind getting all of their offers. I am about 80% happy with NetFlix as an internet company (about 50% on Hulu) but I wonder why they want to be associated with this SmashBox Productions? Aren't they a big company?

Now this makes me want to call NetFlix and see if they know... more later? We'll see.

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

I am both a small business owner AND a regular client of Angie's List since 2006. AL (for brevity's sake) has increased our business by approximately 25-30% with new customers each year. And when we were remodeling our home, it was an INVALUABLE source for finding both good contractors for my own work, but also referring my customers to these people who I had work for me (if I liked them). If I had a problem with a contractor, all I had to do was pick up the phone and AL went to bat for me by either getting the contractor to come out and finish up the 5% of work they needed to finish (ever had that happen to you? It's SO frustrating!) or putting them in the "penalty box" so that other people knew not to hire them. My business is the highest rated business for the services I provide in my geographical location and they treat us well by getting right back to us if we have any sort of issue or if a customer we did gives us a negative report, they call us to ask what went wrong. These reports typically get put on our record anyway, but our rep always makes sure that we know about them, since we have never gotten a report that was "real" that was less than a B average. But if you have a company that has a D rating, you are stuck with that until that company decides to clean up their business practices.

You people who are upset with AL seem not to know very much about it, because otherwise, you would join and be glad of the $48 you spent because if you are planning on doing any sort of major repairs on your home, you can get very reliable reports. Also, I "lent" my AL login info to a friend in Tennessee and when the work she needed done on her place was finished, I never got my own account transferred to TN. I realize that giving my login info to a friend skirts the AL agreement, but since I hadn't used it to find a contractor for over a year, I didn't think it an issue. I'd rather pay $48 a year up front than get duped by a horrible contractor for $4800.

I think they realize that people can have two homes in different parts of the country, and I never had any repercussions from it. They never got confused and sent me stuff for TN. So to those people complaining about that issue, frankly... I don't see it as an issue. And who would you rather believe? 100 AL reviews that says my business is a great business and if you were a customer of theirs, you could get that info in 5 minutes... or spend your afternoon wasting you and your friend's and neighbor's time by asking them "who do you like for gutter cleaning?" They don't know. Angie's List knows.

So, I'm still learning about medical marijuana and I bought an Atoms personal vaporizer. If you happen to get a good cartridge, then you are in fine shape. But because ATMOS will not refill cartridges, and they sell these BEAUTIFUL "refillable" cartridges but I can't find anyone in Seattle to refill them. I called the company and they didn't know anyone in Seattle who is "qualified" to refill cartridges, and they won't refill them, so if I can't find someone to refill them for me, Atoms will be getting back from me a $100 vaporizer and 3 cartridges (one is a non-refillable one that doesn't work, too). At $40 bucks a pop for the non-refillable cartridges and $70 for the refillable ones that can be filled up to five times that I have 2 of and can't find anyone locally to fill them for me, they are completely useless.

Their website is so sexy and beautiful, but it contains exactly ZERO information and their "customer service" sucks. I just got off the phone with them and not only were they completely unhelpful, they were actually kinda surly with me on the phone. Time to find a new personal Vape kit... If anyone knows of a good one, please message me! Thanks!

I am an older person who didn't grow up in stoner culture and has recently turned to MMJ as a way to help alleviate some symptoms I'm dealing with. Leafly had a GREAT idea! They devised a system that allows you to track your own experiences with treating yourself (since in Washington State, we are pretty much on our own and typically talking to a stoner turned dispensary owner).

Leafly has that exact same concept behind it: Track what you are smoking, rate each sensation it alleviated or produced in 3 different types of reactions and then lets you rank each reaction on a scale of negative 10 to positive 10. You can share your results with the other people in leafly's community or just track them on your own.

Still sounds great, right? Well, it's so impossibly frustrating to use and my attempts to get some technical help so I can contribute my thoughts to this MMJ community and learn from others have gone unheeded. The graphics are beautiful and it looks easy to use... but it is SO user-unfriendly that I'm just DONE! If someone builds a site like leafly but it actually works? Please let me know! I'm still looking.

Sounds great, right? But it doesn't work!

As a new MMJ patient with TONS of information everywhere, why isn't there an easy way to find the strain of medicinal marijuana and the effect (both negative and positive) it might have on your body? Leaffly.com is impossible to use and when I asked the webmaster for some help, I got one quick email that didn't address my problem and when I wrote him back he never replied.

OK... So I am not reviewing Leafly (right now) but I am pissed that there aren't more cohesive sites on the net than these stupid ones that are run by stoners and not true professionals. And StrainBrain is one of the most useless sites on planet earth or any other galaxy.

If someone finds a good one, please let me know. There is a need for straight forward talk about MMJ and I'm just not into the stoner approach. Some of us are sick and would prefer NOT to smoke weed, dude. I'm one of them. But it does help some of my symptoms.

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.

OMG! My current favorite site! Get this:

I have become slightly addicted to using web coupons. If you go to the "Restautants.com" link you can pick out certificates for about 210 restaurants (I limited my search to within 15 miles of my house... so if you live in Manhattan... well... I can hardly imagine the possibilities!) So for a $25 coupon it costs $10 and for a $50 coupon it costs $20…etc, etc. I bought 2 coupons: one for $50 to one of my favorite restaurants: Mona's. And a $25 certificate to a pub that looked good on both City~Search and Yelp. It's super easy to cross reference. So I was totally prepared to spend $30 for $75 worth of food. Most coupons have some type of restrictions like "we will add 18% gratuity to your bill before the coupon is factored in" or "can't be used for Happy Hour" or "only one coupon per table" or "dine in only" or "must be used within one year"… totally reasonable things like that.

So as I was checking out I saw a little box that said "do you have a promo code?". So I googled the words "restaurant.com promotions" and found a code (the word MOM) and put it into the little box. I ENDED UP PAYING $9 FOR $75 WORTH OF FOOD!

I am SO blown away! So I am sending this out so that you, too can have this amazing experience. David and I have stopped eating out quite a bit because it's so expensive. But now we get to go to 2 great restaurants! YAY! Date night! This particular code ends tomorrow, but they had tons of different codes… so even if that one expires, you will still be able to find more. It looks like they have them in all major cities.

News like this is just too good to keep to one's self. So I am sharing it all with you!

Bon Appitit! (in Julia Child's voice, please!) And Bon everything else :)

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 found the site very hard to navigate at first... my biggest complaint is that it thinks I am in California when I am in Washington... and I feel like I have to fight with it to accept where I live, even though it asks for my zip code (and why isn't that saved under my profile?) every single time right at the start. Plus, it wants you to log in. Also... since it is such a hard site to navigate, this is best done unmedicated. Luckily, I live in a sate (WA) where Medical Marijuana is available. That being said... WeedMaps really likes to show me dispensaries that are in California which is a very stoner thing to do. I would really only give the site 2 stars... but there isn't anywhere else, at this moment to get this information, so that bumped my review up to a 3... just because nothing else like it exists. I mean... it may be obvious why it's hard and non-intuitive to work: the site could have built by people who might possibly have been medicated. That is actually my biggest complaint I have about the site: We aren't looking for a party (at least I am not) so if they lost the "party vibe" they have going and made it more professional and more geared toward Medical Marijuana that would go a LONG way to making the whole site feel better. Actually... now that I have written this out... I'm bumping my rating down to a 2. WeedMaps: You can do better. At least they have some informative links.

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!

My husband is always searching for different ways for me to spend my time. Tonight, he saw a TV commercial for a site called BigSpot.com where you get paid to do surveys... but when I created an account, I was sent to a page with THOUSANDS of some of these "surveys" I was supposed to go through and sign up for the ones that looked interesting to me.

ARE THE CREATORS OF THIS SYSTEM ON CRACK?

They seriously wanted me to sign up with my personal info like home address, phone numbers, email address, etc... just so they could market their junk to me. The first one I saw was for Omaha Steaks. Everyone knows that their beef is so proudly raised on Iowa corn.

If a cow ever encountered an ear of corn in the wild, it would not recognize it as food. Cows are FORCED to eat corn because on a feed lot, that's all that's offered (and probably a lot of antibiotics, too). When people were in concentration camps they ate soup made from 50 gallons of water and one turnip. When a mammal is starving, they will eat anything.

OK: I'm off my tangent. But the next company I saw was another company who wanted all my personal info to take paid surveys. I'm thinking that they probably pay $2 for a survey that takes around 30 minutes to fill out. AND SOMEHOW, THIS COMPANY HAS FUNDS TO HAVE TV COMMERCIALS?

Do not sign up for this company. It's not worth it (unless you enjoy making $4 an hour, but then god only knows how many companies will buy your info and solicit you and drive you and your inbox crazy). If we all ignore them, they will be forced out of business...

One thing I will say is this: they have a fantastic support system. There is a dietician online who you can submit questions to and many chat rooms moderated by real people who claim they have lost weight.

Unfortunately, for me, I have a quite delicate stomach and after 3 bites of my food I was so full I felt like I had just eaten 3 Thanksgiving dinners. And I HATE that super full feeling. I never eat to that point. So I am returning mine. Plus, the food sat in my stomach like I had eaten a bowl full of cement.

The lady I spoke with on the phone was kinda snippy with me when I told her how it affected me. She said that is supposed to be how it works. But I felt SICK and UNCOMFORTABLE... that's different than just feeling full. And I was slightly afraid of it, so I used a VERY small amount of the product.

I'm thinking too good to be true. *sigh* time to start exercising again. ;)

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 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 have been scanning the web for lash and brow stimulators ever since RenewLash was taken off the market and replaced by LiLash (which I am not fond of... all my beautiful growth... gone! People used to stop me on the street to ask where I got such real-looking false eyelashes) and I came across a site that reviewed lash and brow stimulators and one I had never heard of that got the best reviews is called IdolLash, so I decided to order some.

First of all, it would not allow me to change my shipping option, so I wound up paying nearly $17 for "rush" delivery. No matter how many times I changed it to "regular delivery" it kept bumping me up to the $17 option. That is super expensive for such a tiny product that come in a tube the size and shape of a mascara tube!

Then I saw this little, tiny "help" link that said 24/7 help available. But not only did they not give an email address, their operators are NOT standing by and I can contact them by regular US mail (I guess that's the 24/7 bit) or I can call during regular west coast business hours... Um... That doesn't even begin to satisfy the MINIMUM requirements for what I would call 24/7 help. Of course I will call them Monday and try to sort it out, but Mondays are busy and they don't even have an 800 number! So, yeah, I have a big hate-on for that.

Plus, I got this email congratulating me into their monthly program where they will just keep and use my credit card information to send me out a new tube (whether I want one or not) every month. When I was placing my order, it said NOTHING about that! So now I have 3 gigantic complaints about this company... They forced me to pay $17 for something that should cost no more than $4 to ship and I am now enrolled in their monthly shipping program AND they are NOT available 24/7 to help me.

Three strikes... you are out. Now I don't even want the stuff (because if the company is going to be that shady about their "monthly program" and not let me choose my own shipping method AND advertise 24/7 customer support) how can I be sure that the product I have never heard of suddenly has all these 5-star reviews. I am very suspicious that all of their "feedback" was planted by the company.

Right now it is Saturday evening. So I have to wait one and a half days to address this situation. They are shady, unethical and liars. Don't order from them until I come back and say something like "OMG! This stuff works so great that everyone should try it." And that could happen, I just don't believe that it will. I just hate companies that are not upfront with all of their policies, but this one actually LIES about it! So, until further notice, stay away from them. But you never know... I could come back and say... wow... this is the best stuff I have been able to find with over a year of searching.