"I'm never shopping THERE again!" Share your story!

[Amara]

I have a new bed that I am sooooooooooo happy with. It was three or four months of intensive research before I settled on the one I bought. The two best sources of information, if you are in the market for a new bed too, were Consumer Reports Online and a blog called Old Bed Guy ( http://www.oldbedguy.com/ ) who was in the industry for sixty years and whose blog offers an incredible wealth of information and history.

Back to the topic at hand now ....

[Luci]

^ She should have just signed it and been done with it. If it bounces, it does. She just wasted an hour of corporate time, as well as yours. Glad you kept fighting.

My insurance pays for the doctor part but not the glasses, so Doc sends all of it in and insurance pays what they should.

When I was going to another provider with several employees, if I saw a certain person was working, I just waited for someone else. They all understood.

the only thing I can think of is that she may have thought signing the form would have negated her insurance reimbusement. Which it didn't. The exam was covered and she had already electronically billed the insurance. I came back with a form strictly for my out of pocket reimbursement which didn't impact her at all and was a seperate benefit under my plan. But I could not get her to understand that and she kept insisting that she filed for all the claim that we could against my insurance. And she was wrong.

That may be the difference. I don't know how out of pocket works, because I haven't had that for 40 years. Since then, I've never paid until after the insurance pays. I don't know what will happen under the new methods. It will be a learning curve! (I'm in the US.)

Still, I don't condemn the place, just the person. Except sadly for Denny's, but that's another post.

[Ms_Cellany]

Granted this is not an again, but based on my friend's recent experience with an online clothing store. 
She started posting on FB this Holy Clothing company's cool clothings.  They are almost more  Renaissance & Gypsy styles. Plus they had a really wide range of sizes up to I think 5X.  Cool stuff (most could be worn to my work) and decently priced.  I was just starting to show DH and see about ordering a couple things. 
Then my friend gets her order and posted what happened next.  She was excited that both the top and the pants fit nicely for her when she first tried them on.  The site and the packing information mentions to machine was in cold water (on delicate) and to air dry before wearing.  So she did went ahead to wash them before wearing them.  Both items shrunk about one full size. 
She emailed to ask about returning them and was told that their policy was not to accept returns that have been worn, tags removed, or washed.  But she agrued that the site and instructions clearly stated to wash them in cold water and hang dry before wearing.  But they couldn't accept them and she must have picked the incorrect size. 
She then got mad.  She wrote a letter with no swears but extreme unhappiness (English majors can be very verbois and get the point across)  to the company's email.  Got back the same response.  So she printed off every email to and from the company and them mailed them and another letter (snail mail) to the owner of the company. 

We await a response. 

Be interesting to see what would happen if she posts that on their Facebook page - or better yet, post it on her own page, tagging it with their name (they could just delete it from their page, but not from hers).

[Arila]

...  All's well that ends well. I went to the other store, told the sales lady that I was back because I liked her better, but I wondered if she could swing the 5% discount and meet the other guys' offer. She did. Now I have the opposite problem - I can't seem to make myself get out of bed, it's so great.

Glad you got both the mattress you love and the great deal, and were able to get it with the nice and deserving sales person who had spent so much time with you.  Sales personality really DOES matter!

Now, we are also in serious need of a new mattress.  I'm not sure of the rules here about this, but would you be allowed to tell us (me  ) which mattress you bought that is so cozy and comfy that you don't want to get out of bed in the morning?

Completely OT, but http://www.themattressunderground.com is great for help shopping for a mattress since it's so individual! They helped me find an excellent price on a 100% latex mattress that I love.

That is also where I did my research, but unfortunately the bed that I ended up selecting (a knock off that was supposed to be good but much cheaper) from there had very mixed Amazon reviews. I was all set to buy it, but then I noticed that all the good reviews had slept on it for months (seems like a good enough length of time!) but the bad reviews were after a year or more, when the mattress basically wore out. We decided to go with the brand name...Dishes, I will PM you, but I don't think you'll be surprised...

[Elfmama]

I went to Sears Optical - liked the frames.  The lenses were off-kilter.  ONE had the focal point in the center, the other had it toward my nose.  The reading focal point...was apparently below the lower frame (found out details later).  I knew  that I got dizzy when trying to walk around and shop in the store that day, asked about it at the optical shop, got told that I just needed to get used to bifocals (had been wearing them for ten years at that point), told to come back later...

I had the same problem with the Sears Optical 2 years ago.  NON-bifocals, (I can't wear them) and the focal point was way too low.  I had to put those sticky pads on the nose pieces to raise them up to the proper height.  I couldn't read with the distance glasses at all, and the reading glasses gave me headaches. And like you, I got told "Well, you just have to get used to these new lenses."    Please-- I've been wearing glasses for 50 years, and it's never taken me more than an hour or so to get used to a changed prescription.

 I have an EXTREMELY strong prescription in my dominant eye, and no other chain optical place would even touch them.  They all said "We just can't do a lens that strong."  Sears was the only place that would even try.  If they had done a good job, they would have had our business for years.  But nope, never again.

Last year our HMO started doing optical services in-house, and the difference was like night and day.  Focal point at the right place, frames that are big enough to accommodate the damned coke-bottle lenses, all sorts of bells and whistles like anti-glare -- TWO pairs of glasses for the same price that Sears charged me for one pair. 

Lasik -- I've thought about it, but the optometrist says she sees signs that I may be developing cataracts.  So if I wait a couple of years, I can get intra-ocular lenses instead, covered by my HMO rather than paying out-of-pocket as a cosmetic procedure. 

[Ser Lucien Liliane]

That's it. I have no luck with online stores.

I had preordered a collector's edition game off the Square-Enix online store, and tonight, after a lot of thinking, I decided once and for all it wasn't really worth it for what was included and so went to cancel the preorder.

First thing: there is no way to log into your account from the store - you have to go through the main site, log in there, and hope it doesn't log you back out when you reload the store.
Second thing: after finally managing to log in, which took me a good fifteen minutes of constantly trying and retrying and resetting my password three times, my shopping cart was empty.
Third thing: there is no "order history" anywhere on the store. Just the shopping cart. Which stayed stubbornly empty.
Fourth thing: I finally find what appears to be my OWN shopping cart, which is completely different from the one linked to on the store page! Okay, fine, but how did I find it?
Fifth thing: I had to attempt to order something else to even find my shopping cart. I can only thank whatever deity was listening to my inner monologue of curse words at the time that I didn't actually have to PAY for the other thing I clicked "order" on just to see what in the world would happen.

Too bad. They would have gotten nearly $100 from me.

[Mel the Redcap]

That's it. I have no luck with online stores.

I had preordered a collector's edition game off the Square-Enix online store, and tonight, after a lot of thinking, I decided once and for all it wasn't really worth it for what was included and so went to cancel the preorder.

First thing: there is no way to log into your account from the store - you have to go through the main site, log in there, and hope it doesn't log you back out when you reload the store.
Second thing: after finally managing to log in, which took me a good fifteen minutes of constantly trying and retrying and resetting my password three times, my shopping cart was empty.
Third thing: there is no "order history" anywhere on the store. Just the shopping cart. Which stayed stubbornly empty.
Fourth thing: I finally find what appears to be my OWN shopping cart, which is completely different from the one linked to on the store page! Okay, fine, but how did I find it?
Fifth thing: I had to attempt to order something else to even find my shopping cart. I can only thank whatever deity was listening to my inner monologue of curse words at the time that I didn't actually have to PAY for the other thing I clicked "order" on just to see what in the world would happen.

Too bad. They would have gotten nearly $100 from me.

Square Enix has HORRIBLE websites. Incredibly horrible. Ridiculously horrible. Unbelievably horrible. I love their games so much but I cringe whenever I have to do something with them online.

[zyrs]

That's it. I have no luck with online stores.

I had preordered a collector's edition game off the Square-Enix online store, and tonight, after a lot of thinking, I decided once and for all it wasn't really worth it for what was included and so went to cancel the preorder.

First thing: there is no way to log into your account from the store - you have to go through the main site, log in there, and hope it doesn't log you back out when you reload the store.
Second thing: after finally managing to log in, which took me a good fifteen minutes of constantly trying and retrying and resetting my password three times, my shopping cart was empty.
Third thing: there is no "order history" anywhere on the store. Just the shopping cart. Which stayed stubbornly empty.
Fourth thing: I finally find what appears to be my OWN shopping cart, which is completely different from the one linked to on the store page! Okay, fine, but how did I find it?
Fifth thing: I had to attempt to order something else to even find my shopping cart. I can only thank whatever deity was listening to my inner monologue of curse words at the time that I didn't actually have to PAY for the other thing I clicked "order" on just to see what in the world would happen.

Too bad. They would have gotten nearly $100 from me.

Square Enix has HORRIBLE websites. Incredibly horrible. Ridiculously horrible. Unbelievably horrible. I love their games so much but I cringe whenever I have to do something with them online.

Agreed.  I tried to order a jewelry item from them a couple years ago.  After 4 hours I gave up.

[Ser Lucien Liliane]

That's it. I have no luck with online stores.

I had preordered a collector's edition game off the Square-Enix online store, and tonight, after a lot of thinking, I decided once and for all it wasn't really worth it for what was included and so went to cancel the preorder.

First thing: there is no way to log into your account from the store - you have to go through the main site, log in there, and hope it doesn't log you back out when you reload the store.
Second thing: after finally managing to log in, which took me a good fifteen minutes of constantly trying and retrying and resetting my password three times, my shopping cart was empty.
Third thing: there is no "order history" anywhere on the store. Just the shopping cart. Which stayed stubbornly empty.
Fourth thing: I finally find what appears to be my OWN shopping cart, which is completely different from the one linked to on the store page! Okay, fine, but how did I find it?
Fifth thing: I had to attempt to order something else to even find my shopping cart. I can only thank whatever deity was listening to my inner monologue of curse words at the time that I didn't actually have to PAY for the other thing I clicked "order" on just to see what in the world would happen.

Too bad. They would have gotten nearly $100 from me.

Square Enix has HORRIBLE websites. Incredibly horrible. Ridiculously horrible. Unbelievably horrible. I love their games so much but I cringe whenever I have to do something with them online.

Agreed.  I tried to order a jewelry item from them a couple years ago.  After 4 hours I gave up.

I had been warned that it wasn't exactly simple to order from them, but no one told me about any problems like this. Next time someone warns me about a store, I'll take "they're kind of not user friendly" as "DON'T ORDER FROM THEM" I think...

[MamaMootz]

I thought of a bunch while I was reading this thread, so I'll post another one today: Dyson. Never, ever again will I purchase a Dyson product.

In 2008, I was really excited to buy my first Dyson when my old vacuum stopped working. I thought it was going to be compact and easier to use (no bags) and it would really have great suction.

Yeah, not so much. The machine had terrible suction, was made entirely of plastic, and in my first week of using it with no abuse whatsoever, two items snapped clean off - one was the plastic tab that held the vacuum cord on the unit, and the other one was a front corner piece. We had an artificial Christmas tree at the time, and I spent 10 minutes trying to get the stupid thing to vacumm up the artificial pine needles it dropped.

I called Dyson support to try and get the snapped off plastic things fixed on it - the support people were downright hostile. They told me that if I wanted to get it fixed, I needed to drive 100 miles round trip to drop it off at an "authorized Dyson repair center". I told them I was not driving 100 miles and I hadn't even owned the thing a week. They refused to allow me to mail it in for repair, and argued with me about the distance from where I lived to the Dyson service center location. Told me if I didn't want to drive the distance, then I was stuck with a vacuum with snapped off plastic parts. When told about the lack of suction, told me I was "using it wrong" - how does one use a vacuum WRONG? 

Awful, cheaply made, EXPENSIVE, bad product with TERRIBLE customer service and reps who just didn't care. I'm going back to the arms of Panasonic (my old vacumm from them lasted me over 12 years - and actually sucked up Chrstimas tree needles on the first try). My husband still has the old Panasonic in the garage and uses it for cleaning the cars (still works with the hose attachments - it's the floor cleaning roller that crapped out on me to begin with).

[alkira6]

If it's only been a week take it back to the place where you bought it from.  From what I've heard Dysons used to be wonderful and then over the past 5 years or so have fallen into the trap of trading in on their established reputation rather than continuing to produce a quality product.  I know 2 people with dysons that are over 10 years old that are wonderful.

[cattlekid]

Count my mom in on another person who is totally anti-Dyson.  She bought one a couple of years ago and can't say enough bad things about it.  The only thing going for it is that it's lighter in weight than her ancient Kirby vacuum that they bought 35-ish years ago when I was a toddler.  Mom can't schelp that thing up and down between three levels of the house any more. 

[StuffedGrapeLeaves]

The entries about Sears Optical reminded me about Lens Crafters.  I only get a certain allowance for contacts from my insurance, and the rest I have to pay out of pocket.  I did my research and found that Lens Crafters had the best price, so I went in to order them.  They told me that they need to verify my insurance and will call me back in a couple of days.  I said OK, and gave them the information.  I gave them a week and haven't heard from them, so I called them back.  They said they haven't had the time to check on the insurance.  I asked them when they will be doing it, and they said they will do so within the next day or so.  Again another week went by, and nothing.  I called them again, and they still haven't done it.  So I canceled my order and went somewhere else where I was able to get my contacts within 24 hours, even though it was more expensive.

I probably should not have given them even two weeks, but I got busy and forgot that I haven't heard from them.  Thankfully I still had some left in my old supply. 

[MamaMootz]

If it's only been a week take it back to the place where you bought it from.  From what I've heard Dysons used to be wonderful and then over the past 5 years or so have fallen into the trap of trading in on their established reputation rather than continuing to produce a quality product.  I know 2 people with dysons that are over 10 years old that are wonderful.

This was back in 2008 - the Lowe's I bought it from would not accept the return with the broken parts.

[jedikaiti]

Glad to know about the Dysons - my hubby has been wanting one for some time now, but since they're expensive and I had heard they weren't *THAT* good, we haven't gotten one.