Phil N.

We had a bunch of stuff - mostly clothes to donate and contacted Vietnam Vets to arrange a pickup. We set up January 16. On the morning of the 16th, I hauled everything out onto our porch. At around 10 AM I received notice they had canceled the pickup and rescheduled it for February 1! I wasn't going to haul all that stuff back, so I got online and found DonateStuff. They said they could pick it up on the 18th, and they did! The whole process was very easy and they showed up when they said they would. We usually donate a couple of times per year, and I will contact them the next time we donate. I highly recommend their service. Note: I see they do not service all states, so check that before trying to use their service.

We purchased N&D Quinoa for our cat. We received in a normal amount of time, so all is well. But, between the time I ordered the product and we received, we had a vet appointment. At that appointment, the vet changed the cats diet, and switched him to a completely different product.

So now what. We have the 11 lb. bag of cat food - that wasn't cheap, and can't use it. I sent Farmina and email explaining the situation, and asked if we could return the product. I wasn't expecting much…

To my surprise the only question they asked, was whether the product had been opened - which it had not been.

But what they did next, blew me away! They not only approved the return, they covered the cost of shipping, and … AND, they credited my account immediately! Not a week to 10 days after the return had been received and inspected. But immediately - before I even had a chance to get it packed up, let alone dropped off to the shipper!

Farmina Pet Foods, is a company that knows what customer service is, and values their customers!

We have been ordering pet supplies from Chewy for several years now. And to be honest, there have been a few bumps along the road. But they have always resolved any issues with the intent of assuring the customer's concerns are addressed while minimizing any inconvenience to the customer. And when you place an order, they are on it! If you don't get notified that your package is on the way the day you placed the order, you will the next day! Their prices are generally very competitive. They clearly understand a happy customer is a repeat customer!

We needed a head board for a guest bed, but didn't want anything elaborate or expensive. We looked around and found a headboard made by Zinus - manufactured in China. Given the price point and to place of manufacture, our expectations were low. It arrived and had to be assembled. To my pleasant surprise, the pieces were well packaged, as was the hardware. I unpackaged it and put it together in about 10 minutes. Grant it, there's not much to a headboard, but this one had 7 pieces, which made me think it might be kinda flimsy. Not so! The pieces fit together very well, and the design of the connectors was such that the bolts pulled the pieces together tight and in-line. The end result being a very sturdy, attractive headboard.

These are great devices! I have one in each of our vehicles. It is great at helping diagnose a problem and it has saved me several hundred dollars in diagnostic fees alone. I had a sensor go out on our Ford Focus. The dealership would have charged $198 just to diagnose the problem. The OEM part was less than $20 online, and there was a 'How-to' video on YouTube. It took me less than 10 minutes to change out the part.

That's only one incident. Using FI XD, I have successfully diagnosed and made four repairs on 3 different cars. I highly recommend it!

The other thing it does is it gives you a heads-up to what the problem may be. In one instance, the dealership tried to convince me the problem would require over $1,000 in repair costs. Using the information FI XD had provided me, I backed out of that situation, called up a local mechanic, explained the problem and got the repair done for $140 and some change.

Knowledge is power, and this little device helps provide you with more knowledge, so you won't be so easily snowballed!

Finally, my daughter lives several hours away. If she has a problem with her older vehicle, she can use FI XD to get a diagnosis which helps me, help her seek to the best solution.

It's a great investment, that'll pay dividends - you'll get your investment back!

I loved the product - I bought three before they were officially released. You plug them in, sync them with your phone and you're good to go. If there's a problem with your vehicle, you can run a scan and get a good idea of what the problem is. You can then either fix the problem yourself, or go to a mechanic having a pretty good idea what the problem is. However, be aware that you must have a newer smart phone to interact with the device. I have an older iPhone 4S, which is too old. I have had to use my wife's newer Samsung to connect with the devices. I believe iPhone 5 or later, ( iOS 10.3 or higher) and Android smartphones ( 4.1 or higher). Verify that before you buy, other that than, it's a great investment!

Ok, so overall the service is decent. I called in and stated I needed my car towed. They took my information, and got my location.

They gave me an ETA of a little over an hour, and arrived within about 15 minutes. The towing service was great. My concern is with Verizon's roadside mobile service's mapping and billing.

I was having it towed to a specific auto service center, which was within the 10 mile free' tow zone. The most direct route, using the highway, was 9.7 miles. She quoted me 12.5 miles, which would incur an additional fee.

Now the additional fee was $10 plus change, which isn't much. But, to get that extra fee, they must have their mapping service set on - "Take the Longest Route"! Instead of going almost directly SW, by getting on the freeway at the closest entrance point, they showed a route taking the driver north, then west, then SE, adding about 3 miles.

Again, the $10 isn't much, but multiply that by their 1000's of customers, and they're doing a great job padding their bottom line, at the consumer's expense. It's that nickel and dime mentality of so many service providers that I find infuriating. The entire premise is, to pad the bill by small enough amounts, that the consumer won't complain.

Real Estate starting doing this back in the mid 90's. If you sold a house, you signed a contract agreeing to pay a percentage of the sales price as commission. Then the gurus started marketing the idea that adding a small office fee, wouldn't even be noticed by the consumer at closing, when they're about to fork over thousands. So, $100 dollar office fees started popping up on closing docs. That worked! Let's try $200. Yeah! How bout $300! That worked so well, that other fees' began to emerge.

That same mentality has percolated throughout the service business industry. Now we, the consumers pay a set fee for service, yet when the service is provided, there often is an additional fee created one way or another.

If you plan to set up and sell merchandize through Etsy's or any other "store" platform, you are at their mercy, and they may or may not explain why they shut your store down. I'm a newbie with Etsy, and had only created a listings. Then with no warning what-so-ever, my account was suspended. When I clicked through to contact customer service, of course speaking with a "person" is not an option. I had to fill out their little form for an inquiry, and was told I'd have to wait up to a week for a response. So, there I sit...

What's scary about this is, what if I had succeeded and was selling regularly through my Etsy store, and boom - the store is gone. Not for minutes or and hour or so, but for days, or even a week?! Can you imagine the damage that would do to your momentum and credibility?!

Etsy did respond today to let me know all was well with my store, but didn't tell me why they shut it down. If I did something wrong I'd like to know, so I don't do it again. The more products I load, the more opportunity there may be for me to violate one of their policies.

Using a platform of this nature is the best and most cost effective means of getting up and running, but that easy comes at price - you're not in control. The folks who are, are too busy building their business to worry about how their actions may affect your piddly little store. If they suspend your account by accident or even legitimately... Whoops, it sucks to be you!

This is more of an FYI, than a true complaint, though I think UPS could do a better job with their Customer Service.

Overall, I like UPS and have had for the most part good experiences with them. But, recently we purchased an item from Amazon which was shipped via UPS. We received notification from UPS that the package was successfully delivered to some place about 30 miles from us. Ok - mistakes happen, so we figured we'd call UPS to get it straightened. Um, no,... not that simple.

We tried multiple times to get through to a person, and each attempt they kept pushing us towards their website and to file a claim. So, after going round and round, I finally gave up and filed a claim.

I was able to up-load pictures of the order, along with the confirmation. About 10 days later we receive a notice from UPS that they had confirmed there was no package delivered to our address during the time the package was confirmed as delivered. And...? Nope, that's it!

Ah geez, no I have to call in again... After about 40 minutes and going round and round I finally got through to a live person. I gave her the pertinent information and she put me on hold while she took a look. She confirmed that an investigation had been instigated - was that you? Yes! "We can not initiate an investigation with packages sent from Amazon - they must request an investigation."

Well then why the hell doesn't your on-line claims form state that up front?!

The take away - if you order something from Amazon and it gets lost, don't waste your time and effort contacting the delivery company.

As I previously mentioned, I received notice that my package was available for pickup, because it couldn't be delivered for some weird reason. So, I rearranged my work schedule so I could get by the USPS to pick up the package. When I approached the counter, I told the attendant that I thought there was a package for me, and gave here the tracking information. She rolled her eyes and said,"I'll go look, but I know it's not here. They do this all the time..." As she walked away. After about a solid 10 minutes or more, she returned to tell me the package was out for delivery. And she basically said, in the future just ignore those messages. The item I was waiting for I needed for work, and had a value of about $200. So, I really didn't want it laying around somewhere. Anyway, that late afternoon the package was delivered to my residence. Why it was flagged as an exception, and stated it was available for pickup remains a mystery...

After having 4 of these cameras in operation for about 10 months, I'm still relatively happy with being able to use them to see what's going on around m home. But, they tend to lose their connection, forcing e to power cycle them. Which makes using them to keep an eye on things when you're away, or recording events impossible. They're inexpensive and super easy to install. But, if they're unreliable all the positives slip away.

We've had this service for years. We enrolled when ID theft became an issue with the growing use of the internet for financial transactions.

Late last year, we got with ID Theft, and in listed their help. The first thing, that was a bit dismaying is, they never "saw" the fraud. Because the fraud occurred through a credit card, they're not set up to "see" those transactions. Instead, they monitor your credit status, so until those fraudulent transactions get posted to your account, they won't "see" them, and won't be able to notify you of the fraudulent activity.

That was our misunderstanding. We were initially disappointed they hadn't notified us of the unusual activities - to the tune of over $80K in new charges from Chicago to Florida!

OK, so there's that. They monitor your "Identify" not credit cards activities.

However, once we were aware of the fraud, they could help us. They advertise they will spend "X" number of hours helping clear up any problems Well, the help we received - which, in fact was helpful, was a list of things we could do to mitigate the problem. Which amounted to contacting the repositories to notify them of the fraud, and to place fraud alerts on the affected accounts.

Fast forward to today, and we received notice of activities. I went on-line to check them out. There they listed they activities and ask, "Do you recognize this?"

They give you two choices, "Yes or No". If you respond yes, then you're done. If you respond no, then you're instructed to call in.

So, I called in I was told they would send me an introductory package - wait, what?

"I've been a member for years, why send me an Introductory package?"

"Because, that will tell you the steps you should take."

"But wait, I just want to notify you these inquiries are fraudulent."

"You'll have to contact Transunion, and let them know about these items, but we can transfer you"

"OK, so what is the service you provide? Are you like an answering service for Transunion? Where I call you, so that you can transfer me to them?"

"Uh, well, we can't speak to them about your account You have to speak to them directly, but I can transfer you."

"OK, this doesn't make sense to me. I'm not sure why we're paying you a monthly fee, to simply act as a answering services?"

"Um, sir, we can transfer you, so you can let them know"

"OK, I can do that myself - thanks."

So, it appears any fraudulent financial activities are covered through Transunion. If your drivers license or something like that occurs, apparently you can enlist their help.

Keep in mind, I believe ID Shield used to contract through Kroll Identify Protection. They severed ties, and it appears took thing in-house, and now rely on Transunion, and other such services for their data, and use a staff who is lightly trained, and gets easily confused if they have to go off script.

Is their service worth the monthly fee - I'll be doing some research, but as of now, I don't think so.

Placed an order for delivery. The order arrived and we enjoyed the ice cream products. But, when cleaning up the paper bowls, I was surprised to discover they had placed a small container of ice cream inside a larger one. We didn't notice it because it was kinda messy, but we rinse everything out really well so the containers can be recycled. It's all good, as the smaller container had enough sugar to put one into shock, but it was just shady. Next time you order Cold Stone, make sure you're getting what you paid for...

After years of being an Amazon Prime member - buying and returning items with no problem, we have noticed a disturbing trend in the last six months. After issuing a credit, they have re-billed the amount credited stating they never received the return. Of course, the burden of proof is on us, and we have had to gather the pertinent information, make a call, and provided proof of our return. Coincidentally, it appears the returns that have been questioned have often been returned to Whole Foods, Kohl's, or the return was shipped to a local warehouse. The point of this post is to be aware! Amazon appears to be losing its focus on customer service.

Wow, that's 40 minutes I'll not get back! Their website sucks - it really does. We set up an account for our elderly parents and purchased 4 weeks as gifts. But to set up an account for another, you have to first purchase the gift and then apply the gift to set up the account. We had to call to sort that out. We had to go in, and delete the account we set up, then purchase a gift certificate and then set up a new account using the gift code. Makes sense - right...? That was a good hour to get that figured out. But then we went to their website and purchased 3 more gifts certificates, and were issued 3 gift codes. Easy enough... After the first week was delivered, and all went well, I logged in to in-put the additional 3 gift codes. I clicked on "Gifts" along the top, which opened a window that offered two choices - "Give Freshly" or "Redeem Gift". I clicked on "Redeem Gift" and completed the fields. After each submission, I received the message that the Gift Certificate had been applied. Life is good! Not so fast... A few days later when the new order was confirmed, they billed the credit card on file. Ah, geez... Another phone call. After verifiying the name on the account, the zip code, the address, the emails associated with the Gift Certificates, the names of the recipients, etc, etc we are able to ask why the gift certificates were not used. What Gift certificates? Crap! So, we had to go through the entire scenario, only to learn their website sucks, and using the "Redeem Gift" button is an exercise in futility. In summary, we did get our money refunded to our credit card - though it'll take a week to ten days, which is a whole other issue! (Why can they take your money in a split second, but it takes themn a week to ten days to refund your maoney?!) And they are applying the Gift Certs - though we have to come back and apply the 3rd cert after the second one has been applied because their system sucks. But it took 40 minutes of our time and energy to correct the error - again, because their site sucks. And to be honest, our elderly folks don't care for the meals, so we're going to cancel the account once the Gift Certs are used up. Their customer service appears to be locaced in the Philipines, and they are very polite. But they have their script that they diligently adhere to. To their credit, they did solve our problems. Freshly, really should take a look at their website and improve the functionality - which sucks!

We recently booked an inter-island cruise through Norwegian Cruise lines.

First, I should point out, this cruise was just my second cruise and I haven't cruised since COVID-19 struck. So I don't have a good basis for determining whether or not Norwegian is the only cruise line having issues.

My first cruise was very well organized, while this cruise on Norwegian seemed to be somewhat haphazard. The cafeteria food was not good. Some of the "restaurant" food was very good, but the wait time for seating and the service was super slow. Waiting to be seated was as long as 1 ½ hours. Once seated it usually took close to 3 hours to finish dinner.

In one instance, the salmon entree was described as white fish… When I asked if that was a type-o the waiter had no clue, but asked me what color salmon was. It did end up being salmon, and quite good.

Another thing we found unusual, was their tendency to close all eateries. We would go ashore for an excursion booked through Norwegian, and return to learn the cafeteria was closed from 4:00 to 5:30. Most cruises keep a pizza place ad burger place open at all times. There was one small cafeteria that we were told stayed open, but we never confirmed that. And it was so small, if a ¼ of the folks went there after an excursion, they would have been swamped.

We had the drink package but found getting a drink at most bars difficult. If you were lucky enough to place an order, you could wait another 10-15 minutes to receive the drink, which was usually quite weak. After waiting a good 15 minutes at one bar, I order a vodka-tonic. After another 10 minutes, I was handed the drink. I think they used regular water to make the drink. It was nasty. I returned the drink to the bar and told them to toss it. Usually, I wouldn't have done that, but after several days of receiving poor bar service, and weak drinks I was done.

The next day, we sat down at another bar. After 20 minutes, the bartender looked up and said he'd be right with us. Then we watched him leave to take his lunch break.

Most cruises assign a room steward to your room who generally identifies themselves and makes themselves available to help. Not Norwegian. We had no clue who our porter was - it saved us a tip, as we weren't going to tip a ghost.

The night before debarkation, we inquired whether or not the elevators would be operating. We were assured they would be, and we were free to carry our own luggage if we chose to. Which we did, rather than set our luggage out the night before. What they didn't tell us, is several passageways would be blocked. So, to get to the debarking level we had to take an elevator down below the debarking level, then switch elevators to go back up. This clearly caught many by surprise, as many passengers had to do the same thing as we were.

Oh, and the entertainment… That was painful. They had a singer who had an OK voice, but she was not an entertainer. She basically stood there and sang. The advertising said she would cover Celine Deon, as well as others. But, she didn't sing a Celine song. She covered a song that Celine sang in her Vegas show. So, she covered, a cover…?! The comedian wasn't funny, at all. Her timing was off, her storytelling was iffy and there really weren't any punch lines. We figured we'd give her the benefit of the doubt, as she was offering a raunchy comedy show, as well. So, we figured maybe she was used to that and had tried to tone down her first show. Eh, the raunchy show sucked too.

I was traveling with several people who have substantial cruise experience with other cruise lines and they were all complaining about how poorly organized Norwegian was. My wife and a couple of others on this trip will be taking another cruise in March, so we'll see if the staffing issues may be the underlying cause. Though we did hear several of the crew complain about how poorly Norwegian treats their crew. And we did run into several crew members with 30 days or less experience on a cruise.

My only recommendation is, for Norwegian to have their management staff take cruises on other cruise lines to learn how to organize a cruise. By the way, this was not an inexpensive cruise. Though Norwegian was definitely cutting corners. Again, the food, drinks, accommodations, staffing, and entertainment were all underwhelming!

I finally did get my printer to work, so all was good! For a couple of days. I woke Sunday and my WiFi was gone. After some checking, I verified the internet service was fine, but my WiFi was completely gone. I had to start from scratch and reinstall the Orbing. I discovered that the Orbi will only recognize the default WiFi that comes with the device. I had to add my network as a guest network, instead of the primary network. Which is irritating, because I assume that many purchaser of this product received the same Network Name, and password - but for now I'm just happy to have WiFi back. I had to install my WiFi printer using their default info, too. This experience has made me realize why I ought to continue to hard wire my primary devices. WiFi is too unpredictable.

Before you upgrade your Mac's operating system to Catalina, make sure you have all your music backed-up somewhere other than on your Mac. I know, that's typical protocol. But, they maintain that Catalina's switch from iTunes to Apple Music will preserve all your music, whether purchased through Apple or not. My iTunes Library was stripped of anything that had not been purchased through the Apple store. Fortunately, I have my music backed-up in several locations. But, had I not, I would have lost a considerable investment. Oh, and all my Playlists were obliterated, which really pisses me off. Again, I have them backed-up, but the amount of time, energy and effort to transport them back in, is irritating.

When you join as a base member for $39, you gain access to a lot of good information about the Cannabis Industry. But, to put that knowledge to work for you, you'll have to join other "clubs," where they unveil the secret sauce - so to speak. Many of their reports will tell you about a new company and explain what a great investment it is, and then tell you, to learn how to invest, join our exclusive membership for only $1,500 (or whatever), for the opportunity to snag a windfall practically overnight. It's really just one upsell, after another. There is some good information, but to make it actionable, it's gonna cost you. So, the $39 bucks is an entry fee, used to determine whether you're willing to pay to play.

The only different, at the time, was that it offered wifi capability, to view the temperature of your home, and adjust settings remotely. Which in theory sounds good, but in practice I never used. Initially, it also provided access to their website, to show usage etc. Which again, was kinda cool. But, I pretty much used it as a thermostat, so when I did decide to begin using the wifi capabilities, I was surprised to learn they had 'updated' the service, so my phone was no longer capable with their app. But, in truth, I'm not one to get the latest and greatest, so my phone was older - iPhone 5s. Ok, so I have to upgrade my phone to use the app, that they sold me on. Errr... Well, I wasn't going to do that. But, then circumstances changed, I got a new phone and decided to begin using their app, once again. Oh, but now I learn, they've made it a paid service. Again, just $1 per month or $10 per year. But I paid a premium for this damned thermostat, and now they feel the need to nickel and dime me?! Nope - not doing it. It's smarmy. All these guys attend the same seminars, where they learn "subscriptions are golden"! Nobody feels that buck or two slipping away every month, and when they implement an increase, you're so busy you don't remember the email they sent you. Before you know it you're paying $5 per month, and you never use those silly features. But the neighborhood hacker, and access it!