to the current economic crisis?

Just a word of warning to you GSer’s out there. The one and only time I’ve been possibly deceived by an online retailer has been thru these two sister companies. A few years back I discovered HalfPricedMags.com and ordered a subscription at an amazingly low price. (I mean really, really low price!) I did receive the subscription eventually. A year later and then again just recently I placed two more orders, about $26 each for 4 subscriptions per order. Even after not receiving the first one, I shamelessly went ahead and ordered more. Luckily, the second time the order was placed thru Google and I had a decent record of it.

Well, it was one year later (maybe two) and neither subscription had arrived. The company didn’t return emails, their phone number (very difficult to track down) was disconnected and their online search for my order showed up no results (my user name and password and order history had disappeared!). I wrote to the BBB and filed a query thru Google to MFL. I had no record of my first order, but at least I had a record for my second order.

I finally received a written email from a CSR at MagsForLess Support apologizing and stating he had created a query. This was in August 2007. Today I looked at my credit card statement and saw that I had received a refund for both orders. Lucky me. MFL has not contacted me since that one email. But who cares; it’s a happy ending for me. And just a word of warning to you…. I wouldn’t order from those companies. Later web searches resulted in finding many sites that logged hundreds of customer complaints with the same story I had. (not many with happy endings either.)

Interesting note: I suspect they made up for the refund by selling my name/email to some spammers out there. Ever since I wrote them, I’ve had tons of spam arrive in my inbox. Coincidence? Maybe? But I have my suspicions.

My fish, my favorite has gone missing. Mr. Burns holds the 3-eyed fish in the bowl front and center … and the fish w/bowl is missing. Did he roll away, or was he knapped? Keep your 3 eyes out for him.

Hey thought perhaps y’all might like to see what I do in my free time…. Here’s my latest obsession. My husband Matt and I do this as a hobby. (Well, he makes a living off it….but his work alone is not too suped up since a designer is not involved!) We’ve done two projects together so far. Our home and this cottage—both of which we’ve done with a very very small budget in comparison to the pro’s. It’s fun and a real testiment to our marriage!