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

[artk2002]

My personal head-scratcher is that I suddenly started to get Diners Club statements in the mail for a $0.01 credit balance.   That's not the head-scratching part, though.   I got that card when I worked for IBM, but I haven't worked for them for 11 years!

Not to mention the fact that they ditched DC at least 10 years ago!

[Miss Tickle]

Miss Tickle, that is insane. I mean holy flying fresh coprolites.

When I was newly married Sears let DH use my account without permission. I opened a bill where the charges were listed as overdue,

I do not understand. Miss Tickle was married. They should have had the charge on a bill before it went overdue/to collections so it should have been settled before it went overdue between Mr. and Ms. Tickle if it needed to be.

I'm sorry there is so much stress here, but I just don't get the problem. Thank you for explaining this to me - and please be nice to me.

Luci,
I think the upsetting part of it was that the cardholder had not authorized anyone else to use the card. A person should not be able to go into a store and use a card by saying, 'It's my wife's.' 
The store couldn't know for sure that they were married, nor could the store know if they had recently split up. If the only authorized user on the account is the wife, a clerk shouldn't just assume that it would be OK to let a man saying he's her husband, use her card.

I kinda wonder if hubby realized he screwed up and hid the first bill. Maybe intended to pay it himself and then forgot about it.

Well, I know I've been guilty of delaying the opening of bills because I knew there weren't charges on there, even though I know I should be checking just to make sure everything says what it's supposed to say. Maybe that's what happened here; she "knew" there was a zero balance so she set it aside for later, then only found out about DH's charges after the second bill came.

This is what I was thinking.  Macy's kept sending me a $0 balance bill so I stopped opening them.  I also didn't open my phone bill b/c it was on automatic payment.  That one backfired on me though b/c my credit card # changed and I forgot to tell them.  I guess they were sending me notices with the bills but I didn't see them - only noticed when phone service got shut off.  The nice lady waived the reconnect fee once I explained why I hadn't seen the notices.

Yes, sorry, DH had no ill intent, and was both contrite and angry when we discovered what happened. He was super pleased that he didn't need to pay, and thought it was something I'd set up for him. I hadn't purchased anything in months and back then they sent monthly bills regardless of charges. It's been a long time, but either one said Important Notice or something, or I just decided to open a bill, and saw due immediately!! $XXX.XX!! I called them, found out what happened (thought maybe ID theft), paid it immediately and closed the account. I subsequently received a $30.00 late payment fee.  After explaining the situation and citing my perfect payment history (never late before, no interest accrued before, this was a mistake on Sears part, not mine), I asked them to waive the fee. They declined and sent the late fee to collections. I explained the situation to the collections agent and got her to concede this was pretty terrible, and that she understood if this meant I'd never do business with Sears again. That was the last $30.00 I will ever give Sears. Didn't stop them from calling to offer me everything from insurance services to carpet cleaning.  If only we had e-bills and caller ID at the time.

....

Hehe, fresh coprolites.

[rose red]

Years ago I had a new credit card and mailed a payment for the first time.  I mailed a bunch of bills at the same time (plenty of lead time) and they all cleared in a normal time period.  Except the credit card who cashed it the day after the due date .  I didn't notice until the next bill came with a late fee.  I called them and they refused to waive it and the rep was very condescending.  I told them where to stick their scammy ways (eta: pre-ehell days) and to close my card.  Then they had the nerve to keep calling wanting me to open a new credit card because they "missed" me.

[mbbored]

Tips are part of the server's wages and I want her to still get paid.  I feel obligated to tip 10% because servers are paid such low wages.
...

True, but wages (regardless of who's paying them) result from actually working, and this waitress clearly was not doing her job.

But if I have a bad day at work I still get paid the same. My boss might choose to reprimand me or fire me, or if I was hourly, to dock my wages, but that's up to my boss. Personally, I'll go to the manager, fill out a survey and/or choose not to go back, but it feels a little paternalistic to unilaterally decide that this person is not getting paid today. I mentally count tipping as a service charge and the bill is the food charge.

[ica171]

I believe it is a federal labor law that all servers, if part of their wages come from tips, must be paid by the restaurant to make at least minimum hourly wage. So if you leave a server a bad tip that lowers their average below minimum wage, the restaurant has to make that up. Might actually be more incentive to leave a bad tip for bad service; if the restaurant has to pay for that person's mistakes it might get them to actually do something about the poor service.

[MariaE]

Tipping discussions have gotten rather heated in the past, so in order not to risk this thread getting locked, could it please be taken elsewhere?

[laud_shy_girl]

And to help change the topic back to places I will never shop.

Next

Many moons ago when I was 18 I was on Songs of Praise (a UK tv program with choirs singing)
At the time I was. not. fat. a UK 16 at most (so a US 14ish) In fact I had quite a nice figure even if I do say so my self 

The show was sponsored by Next and they suppled the clothing for the performance.
They gave the soprano group (my group) a Burgundy top each. Not really my thing but there uk 14 fit perfectly, looked nice on and I was happy with it. Except that they decided it was too small (it really really wasn't) and the next size up (and the last size they offered in that top) was also to "small" but rather than find something different for me in a different style or let me find my own top, they made me wear a mens shirt. 

I wasn't the only one the women supplying costumes upset. At least three girls (all of us under 21) where told they had to wear tops 2 sizes bigger than they had asked for. Even though the tops looked nice and were in no way inappropriate for a church setting.

These girls were slim and the larger tops looked very smock like on them in the larger size. I was the only one made to wear a mens dress shirt though. If they had even tried to find me something in a womens top I wouldn't have minded. To add insult to injury, the shirt itself was over 3 sizes bigger than I really needed.

One girl was a lot fluffier than us and she was told she should wear something of her own. I swore I would never spend money in next again.

I honestly think they were tying to hide any suggestion of chest. At least two girls had to pin the tops to a vest so they didn't slide off their shoulders they were so much bigger than they needed.

Talk about advocating positive teen body image.

[BabyMama]

Olive Garden. Sigh.

On Friday, I got off work at 11. I had to be somewhere at 12:10, and am a slow eater, but was very hungry. Olive Garden was right next to where I needed to be, so I figured I could grab their soup, salad, and breadsticks and be on my way.

Get there at 11:15. There's a party of four that comes in after me. We're both placed in the back room area; they're about three tables away. Right after, 3 people in a party of 8 come in and are sat in our same area. Both tables have a different server, and 3 different hostesses have been back in that area. There were several waitstaff hanging around the hostess' stand and in the waiter's area. My car had been the third in the lot, so it wasn't busy at all.

The party of 4 gets water and they peruse the menu. The 3 people decide to wait until the rest of their party arrives. The party of 4 orders. The other party trickles in, and are brought beverages as they ask for them. The party of 4 gets their salad. I can see both waiters standing in the waiter's area, chit chatting to each other. We're both directly in our lines of sight. I look around, fold my menu, make it clear that I'm ready to order. I don't know if they're ignoring me or what, but IMO it would be pretty hard not to notice that I'm there. Nobody gets close enough to flag down though.

25 minutes pass; the party of 4 is on their second bowl of salad. I get up and leave, and stop by the hostess' station to let them know why. The hostess is appalled. The manager gave me a gift card and offered to bring me some food (at this point I only had about 20 minutes left and didn't really want to be there anyway.)

I suppose I'll go back sometime to redeem the gift card, but it won't be any time soon. I have never had good luck there--I expect because I'm frequently a single diner. I probably should have spoken up/flagged someone down, but it kind of got to the point where I wondered how long they would make me wait. 

Debating whether to go back today to use my gift card. I'm off all week so don't have to be anywhere in a hurry  and am also on a budget, so a free pasta lunch would be nice. Unfortunately this is the only OG location for about 90 miles so I'd have to go back to this one.

[AuntieA]

Home Outfitters. Really, I get that since Zellers died/disappeared/moved into another space-time continuum there aren`t any bargains to be had at H.O. anymore. But is it too much to ask that items be priced?? I was there today, looking for a shaped foam pillow to try to correct the neck vertebrae issues I have which render my hands numb, but the only ones they had weren`t priced!!!! I did ask the sales clerks in the vicinity, but was told that they didn`t work in that department!

Walked out and went to HomeSense, where I got an ObusForme extra-firm pillow (for side-lying sleepers) for $9.99.

[kckgirl]

Debating whether to go back today to use my gift card. I'm off all week so don't have to be anywhere in a hurry  and am also on a budget, so a free pasta lunch would be nice. Unfortunately this is the only OG location for about 90 miles so I'd have to go back to this one.

You can also use Olive Garden gift cards at Red Lobster, LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52 and Bahama Breeze. Check the back of the card.

I don't like our local Olive Garden, and when I got a gift card one Christmas, I found out I could use it elsewhere. That was good news for me.

[Thipu1]

There was a place in the neighborhood that I used to use all the time.  They carried reasonable clothes at very low prices and the stuff lasted.  When I bought my first pair of capri pants there for 7USD, Mr.Thipu sniffed and said they'd last a washing or two.  I'm now into my fourth summer for the things. It was also the only place I could find affordable flannel nightgowns.   

After a while, Mr. Thipu changed his mind and found it useful for polo shirts, lightweight jeans and underwear. 

However, the last few times I went in, the place had gotten horrible.  Everything is garish, sequined, really cheap-looking and, at times, outright skanky.  Think of yoga pants with 'Tackle Me' written across the seat.

It's a shame because the place was an excellent resource.  We'll still go there from time to time because they carry Pear's soap and that's not always easy to find but the store has lost a lot of our clothing business.       

[heartmug]

Debating whether to go back today to use my gift card. I'm off all week so don't have to be anywhere in a hurry  and am also on a budget, so a free pasta lunch would be nice. Unfortunately this is the only OG location for about 90 miles so I'd have to go back to this one.

You can also use Olive Garden gift cards at Red Lobster, LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52 and Bahama Breeze. Check the back of the card.

I don't like our local Olive Garden, and when I got a gift card one Christmas, I found out I could use it elsewhere. That was good news for me.

That is good to know!  I don't care for OG but I really like LongHorn Steakhouse.  Thanks.

[Library Dragon]

FedEx strikes again. 

BG: I and a library clerk were recently in Chicago for the American Library Association. This great clerk received the paralibrarian of the year award from Library Journal and Demco (watch, there's probably a banner ad for them now  ). They had a poster of the journal cover with her photo and big check on foam board.  Looks great, she of course wants to take it home.  They way about 4 pounds together. /BG

We go to FedEx to try and send them home.  The staff tells us it will be $112 to ship. What?!  The special art box is only $14 why so much?  It's the cost of the box and guaranteed same day delivery.  Oh, we don't need same day delivery.  The standard 2 days ground will be fine.  Sorry, we don't have a choice. We have to take same day delivery.  Again. What?!

We go around a couple of times and are adamantly told that it can only be shipped same day.  We left with the poster and faux check. 

Yes, we were the crazy people on the plane yesterday with BIG pictures. 

[siamesecat2965]

FedEx strikes again. 

BG: I and a library clerk were recently in Chicago for the American Library Association. This great clerk received the paralibrarian of the year award from Library Journal and Demco (watch, there's probably a banner ad for them now  ). They had a poster of the journal cover with her photo and big check on foam board.  Looks great, she of course wants to take it home.  They way about 4 pounds together. /BG

We go to FedEx to try and send them home.  The staff tells us it will be $112 to ship. What?!  The special art box is only $14 why so much?  It's the cost of the box and guaranteed same day delivery.  Oh, we don't need same day delivery.  The standard 2 days ground will be fine.  Sorry, we don't have a choice. We have to take same day delivery.  Again. What?!

We go around a couple of times and are adamantly told that it can only be shipped same day.  We left with the poster and faux check. 

Yes, we were the crazy people on the plane yesterday with BIG pictures.

Methinks someone doesn't know how to do their job. as far as I know, fed ex can ship several ways overnight plus two day, and longer. 

[Diane AKA Traska]

There is a local "scratch and dent" appliance store that I will NEVER darken the doorstep of again.

On Friday afternoon, our AC went kaput.  We didn't have the money to just buy a brand new one, so I checked Craigslist.  They had the AC I was looking at on the site of a big box hardware chain, but for $100 cheaper.  The only issue is that while new, it had no packaging (I assumed floor models, but I am assuming nothing after this...)  The price seemed great to us, so we went yesterday and got it.  It looked just like the one I saw on the website for the chain store (I do at least that much research, I am not a passenger on Turnip Truck Mass Transit, thank you).  He turned it on, verified that it worked, we signed the receipt to that effect, he told us there were no returns (who would expect that there would be at a scratch-n-dent?) and we brought it home.

Now, it works.  That is so not the problem.  I did notice it didn't cool the room as well as the previous one before it died, so I thought "what if it just looks superficially like the model I wanted?"  So I went looking for the model information label.  NOTHING.  Not on the side, the top, the bottom, inside the filter door, nothing.  I was not deterred.  I measured the chassis, went to the manufacturer website, and looked up specifications.  It turns out they have two air conditioners with the exact same chassis, with one being xBTU less powerful than the one we were looking at.  After careful examination of the images on the site, I realized that the less powerful one was lacking a feature (with a corresponding light on the front panel) that the one we wanted has.

And of course, the one we bought has no such feature.  So we paid x$ for an AC worth <x$.  There's no way we'd get an exchange for the unit we asked and paid for, because A), like I said, it's an as-is type place, and B) there's no proof... the way these are made, we could easily have wanted an upgrade to the better model, then brought in the lesser model and asked for our money back!

Either he knew (in which case he cheated us) or he didn't (in which case his goods are inferior), but either way I am never shopping there again.