Consumer warnings
 

Post your bad consumer experiences here, bitch about rotten customer service, post warnings about bad deals, and so on.

Okay, I'll go first, sure, why not.

If you're a dog owner, stay away from PetSmart grooming salons. I had a terrible experience today. My Golden Retrievers no longer look like Golden Retrievers, they're hair was cut so short. This also poses a health hazard to them, because Goldens are normally protected from the sun by their fur, and their fur acts as a natural insulator to help keep their body heat regulated.

PetSmart did refund my money, and agreed to let the PetSmart vet hospital examine the dogs. Fuck that, I'm going to my own vet and having them send the bill to PetSmart.

i am hesitant to ever use a credit card at a best buy again, let alone even shop for electronics

they ask for your phone number which i find a little weird even if you pay with cash and cause a little stink if you say you don't have too (cause officially they aren't required to make the purchase) but it acts a little too much like consumer research then anything else

and they have an offer for 6 free issues of of a magazine (like rolling stone or EW) but if you use your credit card they will charge you after you get the 6th and i specifically remember telling the cashier that i DIDN"T want a subscription, and after getting issue one of RS in the mail of RS to complain of the situation(courteously) and I still got an issue later and it wasn't until i got extremely harsh in my email (and how bad their magazine was in the first place) that they finally stopped

so two companies in one damn purchase

Bastards!!!

I hate it when stores ask for my zip code or phone number. Why the hell do they need that? Here... just scan my retina so you know who I am whenever I walk through the door.

Here's the weird thing about PetSmart grooming salons, too. They won't let you see your dog until you pay. You go back there, the one-way mirrored partition keeps you from seeing the salon where the dogs are groomed and kept. They give you your tab to take up to the front of the store, and once you've paid the cashier there, then you can walk all the back to the salon again and they bring out your dogs.

That's a sign.

Want more consumer paranoia? When you run a Norton Security scan on your computer and it detects a tracing cookie, take a look at all the sites that are tracing your computer activity and reporting it to a third party. Everyone from your bank to your online clothing stores to the college web site.

New track ain't worth the purchase. Neither are the one or two sentence comments from the celebs.

I understand that you are upset. And understandably so...considering you did not get what you paid for.

So you're absolutely certain that if you go to any PetSmart groomer that they will always cut the hair on a Golden Retriever too short?

In general, it just seems to me that a chain such as PetSmart isn't as likely to do a good job as much as a groomer you are referred to by someone who has used their services satisfactorily. But you probably thought of this going in as a possible concern yourself. But that being stated, I still imagine that somewhere there are competent groomers at certain PetSmart locations. At the very least I suppose you can pat yourself on the back that you were articulate and calm (one guesses) enough to get some recompense.

It sounds like it could be the fault of some careless employee(s). Or perhaps they were just ignorant. Or perhaps they just didn't care. Or perhaps they asked the supervisor how short to cut and they erred in their advice.

As for the secrecy issue, one supposes that they keep this policy to avoid customers coming in and giving the groomers constant directions which could lead to customers changing their minds repeatedly on-the-fly. I agree, however, that they should allow the customer to be present at all times if the customer wishes to be there. If they are offering a grooming service and charging accordingly, it only makes sense. Some may say just do it yourself with clippers, but I can understand why you wanted someone else to do it. Some dogs just are hard-to-handle when clipping and since they really don't like the experience, one might want to go to a professional groomer for that reason. Or for other reasons too.

I'm not trying to be difficult, I'm just...well, you should know by now, sometimes I feel like writing.

Or it could just be that this is South Carolina.

I think that about covers it.

& yes, thanks, I was rather articulate and calm, if I may say so.

I began by explaining to the manager that he should feel fortunate it was I who was complaining and not my wife, who while out of town at present, would be back in town Friday night to completely freak out about how her dogs now look. I told him that he would do well to deal with me, because he did not want to deal with the furious storm that would be my wife.

I blame every bad or wrong thing that happens during my day on this fact.

Ha, ha, oh yeah, you're the one whose parents deposited you in Greenville? It's just for the summer, though, right?

That was a marvelous strategy you employed.

As to your other beef, sometimes I find myself in a woeful headspace where the phrase "bunch of bullshit" becomes a nagging mantra, and that's definitely the case with that issue.

I'm driving out and back to college on Sunday. Starting apartment hunting for next summer on Monday. Shouldn't have to spend more than a week in SC for the rest of my life.

3 possible answers:

answer 1: "i don't have a phone"
clerk: "you don't?"
answer 1 part 2: " yep that's right. i hate phones"

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answer 2: 555-1212

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answer 3: the number of a voice mail service you pay $5 a month for where you can detour every fucking unwanted phone call you never wanted to answer. a most handy tool that lets you look normal in the world while remaining a misanthropist at heart. need i add this is my preferred choice?

Parental Advisory: Explicit Content?!!!!!!! The fuck?!

I work for Costco return area. Enough said.

It's because of the "Sonic Youth makes a best of compilation for Starbucks, capitalism kings" thingy that could hurt children minds :(

I don't know the tracklisting for it or anything, but I highly doubt it has explicit content... SY only has a few explicit songs really.

Also, that album cover is so laughably bad.

Tuff Gnarl is on it. That's the only song on the album with a curse word.

Hah.