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Michael G.

3
Level 3 Contributor
Seattle, WA

Contributor Level

Total Points
1,701

About Me

Business owner, wholesale energy, author (historical fiction)

How I Can Help

Not really, my time is pretty much exhausted by family, friends, and business.

Interests

Salmon fishing, golf, energy markets, writing, and living.

19 Reviews by Michael

  • Eyebuydirect

11/8/23

I gave EyeBuyDirect a shot and spent $450 on RayBan prescription glasses. Excited, I opened the box and tried them on. They appeared fine for longer distance but when I tried to read my laptop everything became distorted. The left side appeared six inches wider than the right. I wrote customer service asking for a refund, instead they had me take pictures of my head. It took about six iterations before they said they had all they needed. Two weeks later the replacement glasses arrived. The image was still distorted. Overall, a very negative experience and will never buy anything from them again.

Tip for consumers:
I'll never again buy glass on the net.

Products used:
Rayban presc glasses

Service
Value
Shipping
Returns
Quality
  • Truth Social

3/23/22

I lasted three days on Truthsocial.com before being perma-banned. It seems if you don't post nonsense right of FOX News you are anti-American and not allowed on Trump's platform. Reminds me of Josef Goebbels and his Nazi psycho-terrorists. Such hypocrisy. TruthSocial's raison d'etre was to combat censorship, created because Trump was banned from social media. Yet they turn around and ban anyone who disagrees with anything the fascist moderators disagree with. Reminds me of the old thedonald. Win site. On there, I was banned over 100 times.

Tip for consumers:
Get a lobotomy, then you'll be warmly welcomed.

  • Fanatics

1/20/22

I purchased $400 of fan gear (Seattle Kraken) for my family (5 items) so we could attend the game all decked out. The order was placed on Dec 6 and the first shirt arrived on Dec 10. Thinking the rest would come shortly (the game was on Dec 18) I waited and waited... and then went to the game shirtless. Of course, I checked the status of the order several times a day and all I could see was that it had been shipped but not delivered. Two weeks later, the status remains the same - shipped, not delivered.

The Fanatics support pages were worthless. Their online chatbot could provide no information. A customer support phone number was non-existent until I found a very cool website - https://fanatics.pissedconsumer.com/ - that had the number. I emailed customer support several times - no reply. I just called using the "pissed consumer" phone number and was told that all the missing items were "out of stock". No email telling me they were out of stock, just a notice that they were "shipped". How do you ship an out-of-stock item?

Long story short, do not buy from Fanatics. They have zero customer support and appear to operate a fraudulent business. Shame on them. Why I didn't use Amazon Prime remains the lingering question.

Tip for consumers:
Amazon Prime

Products used:
Nothing

Service
Value
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Quality
  • USPS

11/6/21

Trump didn't get much right when he was president, except abolishing the USPS, a federal agency that can only get close to balancing its budget by whoring out its drivers to bulk mail spammers. Without those revenues, the ones received from the obnoxious catalogs, flyers, and other crap, the postal service would serve no purpose. I recently weighed a month of mail - 99.23% was junk mail and went straight to the trash. Try unsubscribing to this deluge of crap - impossible. And to think it is our federal government that is shoving this $#*! down our throat. Imagine the harm to our environment, the tons of unread material filling up our landfills all the while the US government wants to arrest climate change. Hey, how about starting by abolishing the USPS. Between UPS, FedEx, and Amazon Prime vans there are ample ways of delivering snail mail, but truth be told, all of those messages could and should be sent electrically - better for the environment.

Tip for consumers:
Check you mail box once a month, bring a garbage bag. Walk to your trash can and sort your mail next to the trash can, do not carry this into the house. When done, you'll have 2-3 bills, the rest will be in the trash can.

Service
Value
Quality
  • Kirkus

8/15/21

Like the other reviews here, my Kirkus experience was a bad one. My novel, Pesti Angeli, is a complicated novel with multiple themes. The reviewer didn't catch a single theme; the only reference to anything in the book was an obscure scene. I suspect all the book got was a quick skim, find a few quotes, then whip out the boilerplate and hit send. About 70% of the review was just repeating the title, my name, and other non-review type quotes.

Do not buy anything from this scam firm.

Tip for consumers:
Just a single tip - avoid Kirkus like the Bubonic Plague

Products used:
Regular Review

Service
Value
Quality
  • Grubhub

4/14/20

I ordered a meal, Grub took my card, charged me in full. An hour later, they call me and say the order was cancelled by the restaurant, but not to worry. Grub Hub would refund my money, 3-4 weeks later. They didn't even bother to ask if I wanted to re-order somewhere else. Do not use this service, they are thieves and liars.

  • Allianz Travel Insurance

4/14/20

I bought a first-class ticket to Denver from Seattle. I decided to pay the $50 for the insurance. The conference was canceled and I filed a claim. Guess what? They laughed and told me, in so many words, to FO!

I blame Orbitz as much Allianz, I am sure they get 50% of the premium as a kickback. As such, I will never use any of those services - Expedia, Orbitz, or any others that associate with Allianz. Complete scam!

  • Norwegian Cruise Line

3/28/20

I did the 16-day through the Canal, leaving from Miami and landing in LA. I had my own cabin and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Bought the premium drink package for $450 and my bar bill was $3500 at checkout, and I didn't even visit the whiskey bar where they had $400 shots of scotch. The service was exceptional, the employees were all hard-working and pleasant, I didn't run across a single rude person.

The main cafeteria food was generally awful and not very healthy. The salad bar had like six items -- HUH? The specialty restaurants were generally quite good and so was the 24-hour free restaurant. Didn't make it to a single show, mainly gambled (blackjack) each night. Table rules are tight, they should loosen those up and make the games more fun. Most of the time, the casinos were empty because they set such greedy odds on every game.

The best part of cruising for me is being underway, especially leaving port. I didn't get off the boat on half the stops and the ones I did I mostly regretted the decision. It was like walking into a swarm of flies, the peddlers, vendors, and other pests aggressively accost you the second you get away from the ship.

Will I cruise again? I'm not so sure, not after watching these Covid-ridden ships banned from ports. In fact, our ship had a virus outbreak and that was in November and they locked down the ship for the last three days. It was like a precursor to the Corona pandemic. No, doubt I ever get on one of those again, but glad I did the Panama trip.

  • MSNBC

2/14/19

OK.

Rachel is a lesbian left-leaning journalist. If you can get past those three filters, you'll probably like her. I do.

The next guy, an old white guy, is also quite good. He's Rather-like, not rather like, but Rather-like; as in Dan. A really interesting man who also is left of socialism, but, if you can get past labels, you'll like him.

My favorite...

Is Brian Wilson, the disgraced former NCB lead newscaster. He was my favorite back when he lied about getting shot at over Iraq. Sounded cool, I still think he probably was and probably killed Saddam, too. But that's me.

I wish they'd move Brian up and push Rachel back, to like the 8:00 pm pt slot. I don't mind Rachel, I can see why a lot of women would want to "lay" with her, put me in with them, but she's to stoccato for my ears, but love her message. Still, I want Brian back on Prime Time. I might even switch from Chris Cuomo - no I won't, but I'd tape Brian and watch him at 7.

  • Facebook

12/2/18

Joining and using Facebook is like perpetually flashing any digital character that stumbles upon your page. For some extremely odd reason, people post their most private thoughts on the most public platform that ever existed. It is like going to your confessional, but instead of just your gay priest listening while he masturbates, you are confessing to the entire world.

Get a clue, people. Why would you share all of this information with people you don't even know? On top of that, the Facebook management is morally bankrupt and exists solely to squeeze another dollar out of an asset that isn't even theirs. In a word, its one of the greatest swindles perpetrated on the unwitting public, perhaps ever.

I quit about six months ago and the only thing I miss about FraudBook is playing Words With Friends, but even WWF blew up when they started selling cheats.

  • LinkedIn

11/19/18

LinkedIn was fabulous... before Microsoft ruined it by dropping features and endlessly promoting their paid services. At one time, you could see who looked at your profile, who read your commentary, but not any longer. Now, you get a teaser and instructions to whip out the credit card. I guess when you $25B for something worth $5B you get desperate. Wonder when they write off this investment?

  • Evony

11/19/18

Many reviewers whine about the bots and alts dramarama, but all of that makes it a fun game. As for needing to spend $$$, not true. Because of the glitches, you can create an unbreakable account for free in just a few weeks. What other game allows that? Of course, that means cheating night and day, but hey, isn't that how our President became President?

The bot allows you to play as little or as much as you like. The most important ten minutes of the game is around midnight when the servers reset. That is when you glitch and double (or 10X) your troops. Really fun, IMO, but you have to love cheating to enjoy the game.

  • Upwork

11/19/18

I found my web dev on Upwork and now he works full-time for me. That's the good news, it took about five tries to find him and one was a pure scammer. It's a caveat emptor world and if you're naive you'll most likely get burned. That said, there is some strong talent on the platform. Key to getting full value is to move your provider to a private platform and avoid the fees.

I used Elance for about 8 years before Upworks bought them out. Platform seems about the same. For the record, I've had my most luck with Eastern European coders and have had no luck with Indians and Pakis. The Russians can be hit and miss, I sense the stench of scam when I work with most of them.

  • eBay

11/19/18

There are some items on Ebay that have better prices or selections than Amazon. One example, I recently purchased new Taylor Made irons on Ebay and saved about $100. I've never had a bad transaction on the platform, but don't do that many deals there. Compared to Amazon, it's about 100:1 in favor of Amazon.

One complaint, the interface between buyer and seller is clunky and takes too long to get an answer; plus you have to go through several questions within their interface before they'll let you send an email. Perhaps its greatest utility is to value used stuff.

Overall, I recommend EBAY for select items.

  • The Daily Beast

11/19/18

The Daily Beast has some of the best-written feature articles on the net, bar none. That's the good news, the rest of the news is the Beast's web interface is the worst on the net, bar none. I've been reading the beast daily for perhaps a year and there hasn't been a single session where the site hasn't bombed. Mostly, the problem started when they started trying to sell subscriptions to the "Beast Inside".

They need to fire their entire web-dev group, drop the begging for dollars, and they'll get five stars from me. It's funny, even though the site's coding is garbage, the articles are often so fascinating I'll log it several times just to read the fascinating news.

  • Sitejabber

11/18/18

How cool is it to review your review site. I like the site but doesn't have enough users. My other complaint is the "Review" object; whenever I type in here my cursor jumps all over. Not sure why, but I have to type a review in another ap and paste into Sitejabber.

Aside from that whine, I like that I can review everything here. Sometimes you run across something so awful, or so good, but have no way of leaving feedback. SiteJabber solves the problem.

UPDATE - 2 Weeks Later - The staff at SiteJabber reached out to me to learn more about "that whine." In fact, they did more than just fake-commensurate with me, their IT department downloaded Grammerly, witnessed the same bizarre cursor behavior, and fixed it! That, my friends, is what class and quality companies do. For not other reason, I'll keep posting here because SiteJabber is Right F'ing On!

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Jackie V. – Sitejabber Rep

Hi Michael, thank you for sharing your experience with the community. We’re glad we helped you out! If you have any further questions, feel free to contact us. :)

  • Fiverr

11/18/18

My mailbox leaked so I put strip of duct tape over the top creating a lip that would allow the water to drip away from the ajar door. My postman saw the tape and in his infinite wisdom decided I had taped my mailbox shut as a way to avoid getting mail. I didn't notice for a week, A few days later I had a cryptic note from the mailman that said "refusal to accept mail is a denial to receive mail". Scratching my head, I had no clue what that meant.

I don't check my mail daily as it is all garbage, maybe 0.5% is something I need to address, the rest literally garbage as that is where it goes - the trash can. When I finally did, there was nothing in there which is when it dawned on me what the clownman meant in his note. I called the USPS and explained the situation and the mail resumed, but not the missing mail. I was told to go to the "Annex" and collect my mail, which I did but they said it was to be delivered to me that day. That day, it wasn't delivered.

I hate Trump but his idea of shutting down the USPS is one of the few I agreed with. Outsource the service to Fedex or UPS, these people are incompetent and overpaid.

A

Tip for consumers:
Send emails.

Service
Value
Shipping
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Quality
  • FoxNews

11/17/18

A info-tainment channel that panders to the neo-right using memes and other shock-journal techniques to keep their low-IQ audience enraged. Someone once asked me how America could have so many ignorant people and how they could be such fools to tune into Fox News.

That made me think. The answer, I believe, is that Fox News is selling an opiate to idiots. These low-income, low-energy, and uneducated masses hate their lives and hate even more those that appear happier than themselves. Fox News knows that and feeds their hate.

Feed them by creating fake conspiracies that explain why their audience is so miserable, why they are such failures, all of which feeds their egos making them feel like it's "not my fault." Fox News stokes those feelings of transference and its viewers end a session feeling better because they hate ever more. And most importantly, they know their misery isn't their fault, it's all those bugaboos, jigaboos, demaboos, lesbians, gays, and anyone darker than Ingrid Bergman.

  • TeamViewer

11/17/18

I used the free version of TV for at least and a year and was enthralled with how easy it was to use across my various PCs and remote servers. Enthralled, until in a fit of insanity I purchased the $1k license. Thinking the free was so good, the purchased version must be even better. Boy was I wrong. There were so many login requirements and half the time I couldn't get anything to work. Finally, I gave up and wrote off my $1k. Never pay for TV, if they start to ban you just delete the software.

Michael Has Earned 29 Votes

Michael G.'s review of FoxNews earned a Very Helpful vote

Michael G.'s review of Facebook earned a Very Helpful vote

Michael G.'s review of TeamViewer earned 2 Very Helpful votes

Michael G.'s review of MSNBC earned 2 Very Helpful votes

Michael G.'s review of Upwork earned a Fraud Buster vote

Michael G.'s review of The Daily Beast earned a Funny vote

Michael G.'s review of Upwork earned 2 Very Helpful votes

Michael G.'s review of Allianz Travel Insurance earned a Very Helpful vote

Michael G.'s review of LinkedIn earned 4 Very Helpful votes

Michael G.'s review of Fiverr earned a Very Helpful vote

Michael G.'s review of Evony earned 4 Very Helpful votes

Michael G.'s review of Norwegian Cruise Line earned a Very Helpful vote

Michael G.'s review of Kirkus earned 0 Very Helpful votes

Michael G.'s review of The Daily Beast earned 4 Very Helpful votes

Michael G.'s review of Truth Social earned 4 Very Helpful votes

Michael Has Received 1 Thank You

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Emanuel S. thanked you for your review of FoxNews

“Well said.”

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