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

[twiggy]

I'm a single mom.  If it needs to get done, I have to do it.  Well, sort of.  Now that the boys are getting older I'm teaching them how to do some things.  My oldest is currently repairing a bathroom sink that got broken with something heavy fell on it. I can't tell you how many times I've complained to management at hardware stores when salespeople have been dismissive of me when I was attempting to purchase tools and other supplies.  It's one of my life's greatest aggravations.

I hate going to BigBoxHomeImprovement store by the house. I'm a 27yo female with 3 little kids along for the ride. I can't tell you how many times I've been helpfully redirected to the gardening/nursery section to look at pretty flowers. Or I've been told that if my husband has any problems with that drill/saw/garbage disposal, he can bring it back and exchange it.

[Iris]

DH and I are currently looking at houses - not buying yet, but getting a feel for the market. I've noticed that the male real estate agents talk to DH and the female ones talk to me.

[Kimblee]

We get these guys:

Warning:  not for the arachnophobic!

http://australianmuseum.net.au/Huntsman-Spiders

Awww!  Who's a cutie!  You are, Spider!  Yes you are!  Yes you are!

Aww!

Are they venemous? Do they like being petted? If the answers are no and yes, (in that order, please) I think I know what my next "purse puppy" is gonna be....

[Reika]

Huntsman spiders aren't that poisonous from what I understand. I had a friend from Australia that said he would sometimes have to take a broom to shoo a particularly large one out of his house before his cats could get it, but they weren't aggressive.

[Kimblee]

I hope all you spider tale tellers are HAPPY that I'm going to have the Devil's own time getting between the sheets tonight.  I'm all tight in the back now and will be FLINGING ALL sheets on the bed open so I can see where I'm getting in....     Completely creeped out, I am!

ETA - because I can't type.

Here... a nice soothing puppy picture

for the record, I kinda messed myself up trying to do this prank... I saw a picture of the one creature I fear most... eek!

[StarFaerie]

Huntsman spiders aren't that poisonous from what I understand. I had a friend from Australia that said he would sometimes have to take a broom to shoo a particularly large one out of his house before his cats could get it, but they weren't aggressive.

Not very venomous but they do have a painful bite and are not particularly amenable to being caught or held. My boyfriend described the bite as one of the more painful things in his life but there were no long term effects. They are awesome because they are spider and cockroach eaters and so are always welcome in my house.

[Zenith]

Huntsman spiders aren't that poisonous from what I understand. I had a friend from Australia that said he would sometimes have to take a broom to shoo a particularly large one out of his house before his cats could get it, but they weren't aggressive.

Yet they can be teased to the point where they will attack you. Quite funny as they rear up on their four back legs, wave their four front legs at you and charge menacingly. My brother deserved that for terrorizing the poor thing. He ran away screaming and after I stopped laughing I caught the (not so little) little guy and put him in the garden.

Mind you, in all my 30+ ears of dealing with huntsmans that has been the only time one has ever acted aggressively. Usually they are a benefit to household bug control but they are the kings of surprise spiders as they are most active at night so midnight toilet use can get a little startling sometimes. They are fine to be left alone to wander but stay away from mamas with babies as they do get very protective of their young.

Sydney funnelwebs on the other hand are kill on sight they are so aggressive and dangerous. Same with redbacks and wolf spiders are 50/50. Mostly wolf spiders will leave you alone but relocate them away from your house and pets ASAP as they do have a nasty streak. Orb weavers are sci fi scary but if out of human or pet range leave them be. Trapdoor spiders are the scariest to me and the fastest things I have ever seen when they hunt.

I'm not too fond of spiders but giant moths scare me more especially after the shirt incident which had about 8 hand sized moths zooming about the house and I completely lost my mind. The dog thought it was the best night ever. I refused to hang laundry outside for a month after that.

[Library Dragon]

I had forgotten about an incident I had decades ago.  There is a company that people often order checks from.  They used to have a very large stationary and greeting card catalog.  One Christmas season they had a catalog with nice gifts.  I ordered and had them sent to family in another state.  I had no credit card and paid for the order in full with a check. 

I received an invoice indicating payment for one of the items and a refund check for all the others.  The next day I received a letter stating the amount owed and I had 30 days to pay.  I sent a check. I had enough sense to know I needed a paper trail.  I had older/wiser folks advising that I just return the check sent to me. 

This repeated itself for each item.  I would receive a refund check then a statement demanding payment. Each subsequent letter became more threatening and adding late fees.  I would send letters with my next check.  I finally had to have the Army JAG office send a letter to cease threatening me.  Fortunatley I had a paper trail showing my good faith attempts to pay. 

In all the years since I refuse to order replacement checks from this company.

Current?  Wow.  I've gotten checks from them for 25+ years, with NEVER any problems.  I've never gotten anything else from them, just the checks.  How in the world did they manage to mess up your order so ridiculously??

It was crazy. I was in my early 20s and trying to establish good credit and Current kept doing this bizarro thing.  I kept trying to pay and they wouldn't let me. 

[Calistoga]

My husband and I collect comic books. The closest shop is about 40 miles away, but a local book store stocks News stand covers. These are usually worth a bit more than the other first prints for the book, so we'll go in there and pick up any that are still in good condition- the book store is rough on their comics, so more often than not, we leave without getting anything.

One day we went in and found a really nice copy of one comic and decided to pick it up. We took it up to the cashier and she rang us up, put the book in the bag, and grabbed our receipt.

She then proceeded to put the receipt on top of the bag to show up the link to a survey at the bottom. It was one of those "rate the service" kind of things...

And she took her pen...

And said "make sure you give me a 10!"

And drew the number 10 and circled it on top of the comic book.

Which effectively left a giant 10 indent on the front of the book.

Comic book grading is incredibly strict...and her drawing on the book had severely reduced the value of the book because it had put a dent/crease in the cover

We still go in there, but if we see her working, we walk right back out.

[jedikaiti]

My husband and I collect comic books. The closest shop is about 40 miles away, but a local book store stocks News stand covers. These are usually worth a bit more than the other first prints for the book, so we'll go in there and pick up any that are still in good condition- the book store is rough on their comics, so more often than not, we leave without getting anything.

One day we went in and found a really nice copy of one comic and decided to pick it up. We took it up to the cashier and she rang us up, put the book in the bag, and grabbed our receipt.

She then proceeded to put the receipt on top of the bag to show up the link to a survey at the bottom. It was one of those "rate the service" kind of things...

And she took her pen...

And said "make sure you give me a 10!"

And drew the number 10 and circled it on top of the comic book.

Which effectively left a giant 10 indent on the front of the book.

Comic book grading is incredibly strict...and her drawing on the book had severely reduced the value of the book because it had put a dent/crease in the cover

We still go in there, but if we see her working, we walk right back out.

I'd have returned it on the spot.

[Julian]

We get these guys:

Warning:  not for the arachnophobic!

http://australianmuseum.net.au/Huntsman-Spiders

Awww!  Who's a cutie!  You are, Spider!  Yes you are!  Yes you are!

Aww!

Are they venemous? Do they like being petted? If the answers are no and yes, (in that order, please) I think I know what my next "purse puppy" is gonna be....

Not deadly-venemous, but they apparently do sting a bit.  I'm not sure on the petting though!  They're certainly hairy enough.  I had a visitor who decided to liberate Horace, a huntsman that had lived on my loungeroom ceiling for months.  Horace objected to being picked up and moved, so he nipped the visitor a couple of times while he was being evicted.  The visitor lived, and I suspect Horace moved back in a few days later.

The females with eggs can get aggressive, but they're mostly a live-and-let-live sort of spider.  They're great at hiding in small spaces - they can flatten themselves down very flat indeed, so they can happily hide under picture frames, bath mats, etc.  They tend to come out at night for a stroll across the ceiling (following light for bugs to eat).

Google the south-east Asian versions, they're stunning!

[dawnfire]

Huntsman spiders aren't that poisonous from what I understand. I had a friend from Australia that said he would sometimes have to take a broom to shoo a particularly large one out of his house before his cats could get it, but they weren't aggressive.

Not very venomous but they do have a painful bite and are not particularly amenable to being caught or held. My boyfriend described the bite as one of the more painful things in his life but there were no long term effects. They are awesome because they are spider and cockroach eaters and so are always welcome in my house.

They are sort of welcome in my house as long as they stay in the top half of the wall.

[Piratelvr1121]

DH and I are currently looking at houses - not buying yet, but getting a feel for the market. I've noticed that the male real estate agents talk to DH and the female ones talk to me.

We got lucky in that we had a male agent but he talked to both of us and listened to what we both wanted, though fortunately we both wanted the same thing.  The only spot we differed in was number of bathrooms.  He wanted two full, didn't want to settle for 1.5.  I fell in love with this house, and it only had 1.5 baths.  Dh liked it too, but the 1.5 baths made him hem and haw quite a bit.  In the end we bought it, partly because the realtor pointed out that the downstairs bathroom was big enough that it could be made into a full bath. 


Only thing that puzzled me was that he'd show us houses he didn't think we'd want. 

[Calistoga]

My husband and I collect comic books. The closest shop is about 40 miles away, but a local book store stocks News stand covers. These are usually worth a bit more than the other first prints for the book, so we'll go in there and pick up any that are still in good condition- the book store is rough on their comics, so more often than not, we leave without getting anything.

One day we went in and found a really nice copy of one comic and decided to pick it up. We took it up to the cashier and she rang us up, put the book in the bag, and grabbed our receipt.

She then proceeded to put the receipt on top of the bag to show up the link to a survey at the bottom. It was one of those "rate the service" kind of things...

And she took her pen...

And said "make sure you give me a 10!"

And drew the number 10 and circled it on top of the comic book.

Which effectively left a giant 10 indent on the front of the book.

Comic book grading is incredibly strict...and her drawing on the book had severely reduced the value of the book because it had put a dent/crease in the cover

We still go in there, but if we see her working, we walk right back out.

I'd have returned it on the spot.

We tried, but even with the 10 on the cover it was still the best book they had left. I hate buying comics from book stores because they really don't seem to understand that comic books are something that people collect and agonize over.

[Twik]

DH and I are currently looking at houses - not buying yet, but getting a feel for the market. I've noticed that the male real estate agents talk to DH and the female ones talk to me.

We got lucky in that we had a male agent but he talked to both of us and listened to what we both wanted, though fortunately we both wanted the same thing.  The only spot we differed in was number of bathrooms.  He wanted two full, didn't want to settle for 1.5.  I fell in love with this house, and it only had 1.5 baths.  Dh liked it too, but the 1.5 baths made him hem and haw quite a bit.  In the end we bought it, partly because the realtor pointed out that the downstairs bathroom was big enough that it could be made into a full bath. 


Only thing that puzzled me was that he'd show us houses he didn't think we'd want.

I suppose, in his experience, every now and then a customer goes "Well, that's not what I was lo ... WAIT! That's FABULOUS!"