The Cons of ProFlowers.com!

Shopping on a website should be easy, otherwise we would just shop the old fashioned way by walking into a store. 


After receiving an email reminder from Proflowers.com about an upcoming birthday, I thought I might actually send some flowers.  I went ahead and started the order process.


Once I made my flower selection I continued onto another screen, where there was an option for a "morning delivery" for $14.99 or "standard" delivery, for which there wasn't any price posted.


By the time I got to the page to enter my credit card information, I still had not seen the cost for shipping.


So I called.  At this point it all went downhill.  The representative told me that I wouldn't see the price until after the credit card info was entered and I hit the "continue" tab.  My question to her was, "Why can't you tell me what the cost will be?"  I already assumed that standard delivery had to be less than the "morning delivery" cost.  Her response was that there were too many factors involved for her to give me a cost without her having to use a calculator.


How did I deal with that response?  I told her that I shop online all the time, and I have never shopped where the shipping cost was not disclosed, whether in a drop down menu, or a link at the top or side of the page, etc. 


I feel that if a company is not upfront about their shipping costs, I don't need to do business with them.  She then got all bent out of shape and told me that she had shopped on www.amazon.com and didn't know what the shipping cost would be until she put in her credit card information.  I said that I never have encountered that on www.amazon.com and always get free shipping by spending $25.00.  And even if you are spending less than $25,  the shipping costs are found by opening a link under the heading "Product Details" after scrolling down the page.  I told her she should learn to be a better shopper.


Again she asked if I wanted to place an order.  Again I said that I needed to know the shipping cost before I gave her my credit card.  At this juncture, I sensed a really bad attitude.  When she asked again about placing an order, I asked for a supervisor.


It took her about 2 minutes of typing before asking for my name, phone number and email address and said that it would be 24-48 hours before anyone calls me.  Needless to say, it will be too late by then to send flowers to arrive on time.


I decide to go back online and pretend to place an order.  After giving credit card info, the next page asked to confirm the order.  Here's the best part:  I kept looking for the pricing and shipping costs and finally found it on a side bar in very light typeface making me believe that it was something they don't really want you to dwell on.  On top of this, they added another fee for handling and then tax. 


Buying flowers should make you feel good.  This made me feel just plain lousy.


P.S.  I did get a voicemail the next day from a supervisor who said that shipping rates vary depending on time of day, product, where it is being shipped.  I already knew that time of day was more money since that did show up on the order form, but there still should be an easier way to determine what you are spending to ship a product.  In fact, I looked at www.1800flowers.com and under Frequently Asked Questions they have a chart showing all the shipping charges.  

I Am Morning Woman, Hear Me Roar!

I found a great new breakfast biscuit called Belvita.


This biscuit gives you energy all morning long.


Try it and ROAR!

Damn Those Ice Dams!

Water finds the easiest path of resistance which is why many of us have had water in our homes after the ice formed on our roofs. The Ice Dam is to blame.

Once an Ice Dam is formed you will have a problem.  What is an Ice Dam anyway?  An Ice Dam is a ridge of ice that forms at the edge of a roof and prevents melting snow (water) from draining off the roof.  The water that backs up behind the dam can leak into a home and cause damage to walls, ceilings, insulation and other areas. All this is either because of heavy freezing rain or moderate or heavy snow conditions with an air temperature significantly below freezing.

In some cases, the cause is the attic below the roof, which needs to be cold.  When heat from the house escapes to the attic, the warmer air is now under the roof and will add to the problem, since the ice will start to melt in the exact place you don't want it to be melting.

The first thing that you need to do is remove snow from the roof.  A "roof rake" can be used to remove snow but you need to be careful not to damage the roofing material.  If you can't get all the snow off, at least move it away from where the shingles meet the walls of the house and far enough down the roof so you clear areas where there is a wall under the roof line. The goal is to have as little ice and snow on the roof to minimize the amount of water entering the house if an Ice Dam does form.

Try filling pantyhose with Potassium Chloride Pellets, which are gentle enough to not ruin wood shingles but slow acting as far as melting the snow. (There are many other products available, but make sure you are not using anything which will ruin your roofing material.)  If you were to just throw the pellets onto the roof, they could roll off and not do much good.  The pantyhose is placed on the areas where you need the pellets to stay put.  I found a "snow sock," which looks pretty good and is pictured above, especially if you don't happen to have pantyhose. You could also use something as simple as just a sock.

In the end, when we know that weather conditions make it next to impossible to avoid the formation of an Ice Dam, the least we can do is to try to mitigate the damage.

Where to buy:  www.amazon.com

Hyatt's Customer Service Steps Up When Their Hotels Fall Short

Have you ever been stuck in a hotel's elevator?  This just happened to my friend at a Hyatt Hotel. The doors opened and he was staring at a concrete wall.  Fortunately he stayed calm and pushed the lobby button a few times. Eventually the door closed and the elevator started moving.


When he reached the lobby, he related his experience to the representative at the front desk.  You wouldn't believe the response!  She said, "Oh, that has been happening lately."


Can you imagine a hotel with an elevator they knew was not working properly and letting guests still use it?  What about the response of the person at the front desk?  Must be something in the drinking water.


But it doesn't end there. The filter basket for the coffee maker in the room was missing, so he had to order up room service. The least they could do is make sure the coffee makers have all of their parts and are functional.  This is a Hyatt!


The next night, this same friend stayed in another Hyatt Hotel. The toilet flusher in the room would not work.  Being a handy person and pressed for time, he fixed it and let the front desk know it wasn't working properly.  And what was their response?  "Thank you for telling us," was all they said.  


Perhaps the individual incidents may not seem like a big deal, but the fact that they all occurred at two different Hyatt Hotels within a 24 hour time frame is what peaked my interest.


I volunteered to call Hyatt's customer service.  The good news is the representative was extremely responsive.  


She understood completely that my friend was more confounded by the response of the representatives at the front desk than by what had actually happened.


She apologized and said that the hotels would be notified, put additional reward points into his account and gave me her contact information for the next time he will be staying at a Hyatt.


This was an easy call. The representative didn't have to be prodded into understanding the point of the call and didn't have to be asked for something to make up for what had happened.


There are things that happen at each and every hotel.  We can deal with them if we feel the issues get resolved properly and that the inconveniences we experience are appreciated by the staff.   


Of course he will stay at these hotels again.  He just may ask if the elevator is working before entering.

From Scam to Scram! Credit Card Follow-Up.

When I finished my last posting about the credit card scammers, I said that I would be calling  to speak with supervisor.  Here is what happened:


I called and was connected to a supervisor after the representative on the phone apologized to me for what had happened.


After explaining the situation to the supervisor, she asked me what I wanted her to do about it.  Could she at least have come up with a solution on her own?


"I want my money put back into my checking account and I will pay you in January, when that amount was due, that is what I want!"


She agreed but never apologized for what had happened.  


I also inquired as to why, when they call, do they not state who they are and only ask if "so and so" is home?


At first she said she didn't know why the collection dept. did that, but stated that it is the policy.  I suggested that possibly, if they said who was calling, the person called may hang up.  "Yes, that could be the reason," the supervisor responded.


If only she had shown as much concern about what was done as did the first representative I spoke with, I would be inclined to continue using the card.  But instead, she chose to act as if the matter was just another annoyance to her.


Goodbye credit card. 

Sometimes Credit Card Companies Are Better Scammers Than The Scammers.

My morning starts off with a call from one of my credit card companies.  They don't state right away who they are, they just ask for my husband. I ask them who is calling, they tell me and then they ask if I am "Shelley," since my name is also on the account.


I ask them why they are calling.  Apparently my payment is 5 days late. What payment?  I have no statement.  The representative tells me that some customers have said that they hadn't received their statements, possibly with all the Christmas mail, maybe things just got lost.  This is interesting.


I am then told that she will waive the late charges if I pay right now.  Since I am not at my computer, I can't see the statement, the late charges or anything else to know what I will be paying for.


I am given a total amount due and told this is what I have to pay in order to get the late charge removed.  I take her word for it and give her my checking account number etc., so she can show that I made a payment in good faith.


When I was able to get to the computer, I checked and realized that I did not actually owe the amount this representative told me I owed. What I really owed were the charges from  last month's statement only - the one I never received.  The representative also had me pay for the current month's charges which were not due until 1/21/11. She just lumped the totals together.  Now I am angry. She also did not reveal to me an interest payment for the money owed, charged to my account, which she obviously did not remove.


I quickly called the credit card company and got a very nice representative. She said that I have an excellent payment record and removes the "interest" charge. She also lets me know that on the next month's statement, I will again see interest charges for the days the payment was overdue.  I am to call when I get this statement and this will be removed.


So here is the scam:  I don't have my statement.  I am given an amount to pay.  I pay it.  I find that I have overpaid.  Now they have more of my money than they should have.  And I have to wait for my account to get credited for the late fee and the interest.  They now owe me money.  I will be calling to speak with a supervisor after the holiday. I will ask them to reimburse me the interest I am charging them for having more of my money than they actually were entitled to at this date.


All this because I never received a statement. And now I have the burden of having to call them to get the other fees reversed.


This is the first time I have ever experienced this situation.  I am telling you about it so it doesn't happen to you. 


I will not be using this credit card again.  My business will be better served elsewhere.

Opening A Bottle of Wine The Easy Way

I need to update a previous posting about an electric wine bottle opener.  While I enjoyed using it, I was getting tired of having to recharge it.

When I opened my "wine accessories drawer," I found an old Screwpull by Le Creuset, wine bottle opener.

It is called a "Pocket Corkscrew," and you can't ask for an easier way to open a bottle of wine, no recharging necessary!  It has a small knife on the side to cut the foil so no need for an additional foil cutter, which is also available on many sites, including www.amazon.com.

The one I found in the drawer was all taped up since it was old, but it worked perfectly.  I went out and purchased a new one for $14.99.  These are not hard to find, but I purchased mine at www.amazon.com.

There is another version of this one called "The Table Model," and it functions the same way.  It is just a matter of your handle type preference. This one does not have a small knife  so you will need a foil cutter or your own knife. There is a Table Model which comes with  a foil cutter but this unit costs more.

Enjoy drinking your wine and make opening the bottle enjoyable!

Where to buy:  www.amazon.com.