8 posts tagged “bad business”
So annoyed with Google...
I have adsense ads on two sites. I'm removing them from one maybe both.
My main site is my art. Unlike Vox / LJ I'm not political. I'm not talking about politics, news, my life, anything even remotely political at all.
Now in theory AdSense has been good. I've not made a lot of money but I have a few $$ built up in my account. Granted it will take years to get to the $100 for a payout but whatever. The site I am removing them from is the one that gets more hits, and made most of the money that I have sitting in there... But screw them.
One of the sites I have is a coffee blog with my mom. The ads there are Coffee related. Great.
My site? The main page = yeah they show art related ads. Some of the individual pages they show art ads. But when I went to look at my latest post to check formatting etc after posting it -- all anti-Obama ads. WTF? It's a post about Robot art I made. So I start clicking on other individual posts. Art ads. Art ads. Art ads. All good. Maybe something about robots was a keywords on those ads? Wait... NO...
On a post that reads:
"Waking up at 8:30 yesterday meant random digital doodling. I wasn’t sure if I
loved or hated her until Brian said because of the colours I used she looks very
80s so I should add a checkered background. Now I think I like her even if she
wasn’t a serious doodle originally. Now, sleep again. I fell asleep at 10, but
had to wake up for my shot and been up since *yawn*"
Shows this ad:
"Are the Obama's Racist?
They Support Partial Birth Abortion Read Some Facts the Media is Hiding "
How is that related to that page? That was the full text of that post page that the ad appeared on. Checkered background maybe? COLOURS? Whatever, I can't check other posts now, they've been replaced with AdBrite.
5 Ads like that on that post? No. I think I'll boycott them, I'd rather lose the money sitting in my account now than wait to make $100 that way. At least with AdBrite I can approve EVERY ad that will potentially appear on my site. Or maybe just skip ads and move to a Zazzle widget. If that was on these sites I post politics on and if I didn't support Obama I'd not be so pissed but I don't want that shit on my Art Site.
Off to check the coffee blog, if that shit is there too I'm done with Ad Sense for good even if it mean losing a few dollars I made fair and square.
Once again we had to go to the Fry's store out by LAX. Ok, so Fry's stores in general tend to be busy, etc. But this one seriously makes me want to have major panic attacks. I get so claustrophobic there. Fellow customers also apparently stressed by the so very un-customer friendly store, or perhaps just rude begin to ignore other customers like me. They walk in straight lines. If you're in their way they shove you, even if all of the area around you was open to walk around you. It makes me want to go Michael Douglas circa Falling Down on them or alternatively just crawl into a cave and never see another person again as long as I live. At least 4 people shoved me with no reason to. Plenty of room to walk around me, me standing out of the way, not in the center of aisles, etc. I HATE PEOPLE BEING RUDE. I mean if I see you wanting to look at stuff I'm also looking at, I move out of the way. If I see you walking by, I make sure I'm not in your way. If you smack into me say sorry or at least look at me with an oops look on your face. Assholes.
And Fry's. Oh Fry's. Your set up is so unfriendly. If we want something from the shelf, no prob. If we want something that is well controlled like RAM, big mess. Last time Brian got charged for a more expensive MB that he wanted but was given a cheaper and slower one that happened to come in a very similar box etc. Didn't realize til he got it home. By then you were closed and it was a holiday weekend so you wouldn't be open again until he was back at work. Meant he'd have to take time off of work to return it during the week and couldn't as he had no working desktop machine and a freelance project he had to start. So you screwed him and he took it and lost about $20 as that was the difference in what he paid for and got.
This time he said he needed two sticks of this RAM. You said ok. You sent him to the front with paperwork for 1. They can't edit it at the register. Back to the back for edited paperwork. They don't have to EDIT THE PAPERWORK. They just have to ask them to send another stick up front. WTF? And if you buy something like RAM that requires paperwork you can't go buy anything else in the store because once you have a piece of paper thats an order for the check out people to use and they can't add to it, even if it's the stuff from by the register. But if you buy just normal stuff from the shelves that doesn't require that inventory control type of paperwork, no worries you can keep shopping but no one tells you this (we happen to know it from previous experience).
I've ranted about this before. Just argh. Why must you be so convenient in SOME ways and yet such a pathetic panic inducing store in others?
Art:
In the WTF department:
The following ad appears in a magazine for people with MS. Now personally I find it a very cruel ad to place in a magazine for people with brain issues. I had to read the thing 3 friggin times, then asked Brian to read it to see if it was just me. Now... I'm positive it's either a joke or written by someone on drugs because I dunno if I was going to write an ad offering my services to people with disabilities I might leave contact info in the ad AND not end it mid-sentence.
I didn't appreciate the new sign next to the door, which I only happened to notice because of the angle I entered the store at, announcing that by entering the store I give you the right to use my image, video of me, recording of my voice, in any Best Buy advertisements without further consent being needed. I honestly don't think you recorded me while I was there, but the fact that you have that near the front door at all makes me want to order all of my DVDs, etc online from Amazon. I guess it is slightly better than the usual sign that is there announcing you're being investigated for charging customers prices higher than advertised (which you do to us during 95% of our visits but never did when I lived in any city other than LA). Brian was actually threatening to drop his pants to be sure you wouldn't record us, good job!
Love,
Me
It may be the holiday season, but I can still rant...
I've been complaining for what 7 years now about the medical / insurance system in our country.
I know, any and every system is broken.. blah blah blah. No matter what we do it will suck.
But this is freaking beyond sickening.
Girl dies hours after being approved for transplant. If the stupid insurance company didn't make a dying girl's family go through hell and deny everything, maybe she could have had a chance? Maybe not? But they'll never know now. It shouldn't take a friggin protest involving a community of people to get a teenage girl treatment that could save her life approved. Merry Friggin Christmas to the A'holes who denied her. You saved your company some money and maybe killed or didn't kill a kid, but now you'll never know if she could have lived so in my book you're guilty as hell of something.
Doctors can be ev0l. Trust me, I of all people know this. They shove tubes and cameras down your throat, they stick you in an MRI, they cut you open, and some get egos so big they get their mind set on something and assume they're right without really checking out alternatives. But I've never seen a doctor who would do something like try to get a transplant on a 17 year old unless it was necessary. And some pencil pushing insurance company idiot waiting until she's basically dead to say ohh we were wrong she does need it should be a crime.
Brian is very easygoing. He's hard to piss off. In the year we've had Sprint they've now pushed him so far that he's considering paying a $400 fee to break the contract and probably about $1,000 to set up with another company... At a time when he's just spent I think $1,000 or so on charity, is about to pick up my couple of hundred $$'s worth of meds, and will have two weeks off without pay for the holidays.
Sprint is not winning at the moment. Though $400 cancellation fee on top of the other expenses may prove to be too much, Brian really has had enough of their crap. In fact he's writing them a letter so long he doesn't think their online form can handle it and will post it online and link them to it instead. Yes, that many complaints.
When it starts with you being charged for the set up TWICE and a year later you've not had it fixed, it's bad. And hey, it's not Sprint's problem. Err.. what? That's right when you call, they tell you too bad. They told Brian go to the local store and deal with it there. He did. One year later guess what? Still not fixed. He has proof he's been charged twice, they didn't care.
His letter includes a line about the silver lining being the problems he's had have been spread out to about 1 per month. Yeah, that bad.
But hey if you like bills being mailed to you AFTER they're due, great company.
I suspect there's only one of two possibilities:
1. They tell him too bad, deal with our bad (possibly illegal as they charged us TWICE and also for services we never signed up for) billing practices or pay the $400 fee
2. They won't want to deal with him anymore / fear complaints about things like double billing that a year later isn't fixed and let him go with no fees or a lower fee for his troubles.
Did I mention, even though they charged him TWICE for our set up within like 2 weeks of setting up they sent us an overdue notice saying we owed $2? I had sprint years ago. They weren't this crappy then. But holy. When Brian is writing rants that made me look not so wordy, it's bad. So why today? He's tired of it being such a hassle to pay his bill. He tried paying online, automated phone, with a person, finally it went through with the second person, said he had some complaints... He'll have to call back. He doesn't have time for this every time he needs to pay a bill, has an issue, etc.
I dislike Circuit City. Always have. Their selection, service, and prices tend to suck. But Brian didn't get to BB in time for the cheap GPS, had his heart set on a GPS for himself for Christmas, etc. There is a SMALL chance we'll move to the Bay Area next year and if not, even if we stay here, when this movie is up whether he stays where he is or has to look for work elsewhere depends on... well many things I can't get into. And if he has to look at other movie companies he'll need to venture into part of LA he doesn't know as well, so he wants a GPS and Christmas sales = time to buy such an item, especially while he has some extra money.
Sooo... Circuit City had a $900 one he was interested in for under $300. Everywhere else had it for about $400. Amazon had it for about $300. But Circuit City has on their page, in store pick up, ready in 24 minutes or you get a $24 gift card, etc. He purchases it, selects in store pick up, and about an hour later calls the #. It tells him it's ready to be picked up in store. We drive across town at 5:30 am. Spend 20 minutes or so finding parking. Wait in line. Sorry, no pick ups today. WHAT? The phone line said... Yeah too bad, no pick ups today. They finally tell Brian if he comes back after 2 they should have it ready then and would give him the gift card even though the fine print says not valid today. So, they did make it right. BUT... HOLY...
Corporate screwed the stores. The manager seemed under the impression they would NOT be sent online orders today, yet everyone in line around us was facing similar situations. The online system told them items are ready, they were charged. Get to the store and item is not in stock, or not ready, etc. And now you need to have your credit card refunded as we may never get it back in stock. And the online fine print was so fine, no one noticed it. But even if anyone did, their own system told us all our items were in stock and ready to pick up and had already been charged to us. The manager who helped us was cool. But what a complete waste of our time, their employees time, etc. ugh. Needless to say I didn't sleep until about 8 am and woke up at 4. But we did get a $27.something gift card (their system doesn't default them to $24 and the manager didn't feel like editing it) and Brian has his GPS. I will be avoiding Circuit City though. Long live Best Buy and Amazon. Yet Brian has a Circuit City gift card to use... argh.
I've worked in retail, including closing shift on Christmas Eve, and never saw such a mess, ever.
Time Warner = WORST cable company ever:
Time Warner is pissing me off beyond belief. It's the biggest joke of a cable company I've ever seen. I won't bore you with the details but if I had internet and tv that worked for ONE day in a row... yes I said ONE DAY, I'd have a flipping heart attack. We're pretty sure our equipment isn't an issue, though we do want to replace our DVR as it never records anything it is set to. So, anyway I looked up Time Warner reviews for LA. 1 star, says it all. This is sooo far beyond any bad business story I've every personally experienced. It's not even funny anymore. And.. no other cable company here. Plus, being in our apartment and not knowing of Brian's job future after this movie = stuff like satellite or anything with a contract are not workable, we've semi looked into it. grrrr. I demand a second cable company in Los Angeles, yesterday.
Brian's dad:
Brian's dad is coming to visit, approximately a week from Sunday... Anyone know how long the hole from a spinal tap takes to heal? I ask because we're talking about going to Universal Studios, Queen Mary, and Venice Beach while he is here. That's already pushing my body a lot. I've heard mixed things about any needle in the spine thing. Seems like you can be ok within hour and some still experience problems weeks or months later... I'm more wondering what the norm for healing is? I tend to heal slow with my broken immune system. I'm thinking this is going to be bad timing, but fun still.
♥ Ik hou van jullie allemaal ♥
