Does his help? http://www.techlicious.com/blog/ftc-mail-or-telephone-order-merchandise-rule-change/
@lookingforward , thanks for the link. I thought that 30 day rule had been in effect for quite a while. The other surprise is that not only do sellers have 30 days to fill an order, but they then have 7 business days to process a refund if they’ve charged a buyer’s credit card and are unable to ship the item. As interest rates rise, retailers may be more tempted to play the float as they did years ago.
@BunsenBurner , those pending charges are what I usually see, too. That’s why I was annoyed about charges posting when the items weren’t actually sent.
Another retailer, Grandin Road, has passed the buck to its vendor. UPS shows my returned (defective) item was received back at the vendor’s warehouse (as directed by Grandin Road) on Monday morning, yet Grandin Road won’t process the refund since they haven’t heard from their vendor. Not inclined to order from GR again.
Target joined my “naughty list” today, too. Someone decided to substitute two cheaper items (less than half the price of the ordered items) for the two I ordered. More time wasted calling customer service.
Next year I plan to complete all online gift shopping before Dec. 1st and not order anything else until mid-January. Maybe that will cut down on the problems.
How does one confirm delivery of a gift when recipient hasn’t acknowledged it? I ordered a holiday wreath to be delivered to friends in another state. I received an email from the sender (a reputable company–ordered from them on a number of occasions) that the wreath was delivered in early December but I’ve not heard from the recipient. Should I let it go and assume they’ve received it or should I address it with them? I wont be seeing them at all during the holidays. Very awkward!
I’d just drop them an email and inquire whether the wreath was received and in good condition, since vendor is claiming delivery. The awkwardness should be in their side not yours!
“Hey, did you like the wreath I sent you?” via email.
I do that all the time when people are lazy about saying thank you.
The gift card could have been missing. That happened to me once with flowers (left on my doorstep.) Never did learn who brought them.
Last year I sent my nephew an Amazon gift card via the email address I had used in the past and it never got picked up. Checked with his dad and got two additional theoretically active emails. Tried one of them (both sending an email about it, and reissuing the gift card) and nothing. So I’m checking with him about if the third address works before reissuing again. So at least I know why he never thanked us.
Still don’t know why he didn’t thank us for his college graduation gift that I knew he got but that’s a whole nuther question.
i get the gift thing; it’s hard to bring it up. But if you dont really know if they received it, that’s always a place to start! lots of packages missing in our neighborhood it seems. (from nextdoor neighbor app. LOVE it!)
Question: so what abut wearing baseball caps in buildings? is it common now? when to wear & when not? My kid wore one to his sisters middle school band concert. I asked him to take it off and he looked at me like i was crazy. And then i looked around and saw a few others with them on. What’s protocol? i feel so old!
I am with you on the hat thing, @bgbg4us. I guess I’m getting old and cranky but I don’t like hats indoors, a pet peeve of mine. It seems to be getting more common though (especially with men “of a certain age” - hiding balding?). My kids’ private high school did not allow it in buildings. I’ve found it more prevalent to wear hats indoors in the south than in New England.
Please dont stereotype.
New question.
S2 and his GF own a house. Their water is awful – full of minerals.It stains and clogs up all the faucets – kitchen and bathroom sinks, showers. There is cruddy stuff all over the bathtub from the minerals also. It’s awful stuff, and every few months they use some solution to unclog the faucets.
Is there something that can be done to filter out all the yucky minerals before they even get into the house’s water pipes – some filter or something where the water enters the house??
^Yes. It sounds like they need a water softener system. Is it well water I assume? The system is usually installed right where the water comes into the house. They aren’t cheap but ruining the house pipes and fixtures isn’t good either. Sounds like they have a lot of iron and/or manganese.
No, it’s city water. And the house is at least 30 years old. Does that change your recommendation?
That’s surprising for city water. I wonder if its the pipes and not the water. Is this something common with the neighbors as well?
You can have a reverse osmosis system installed, but it’s not whole-house. We used one for our marine fish tank because the water here is so heavily chlorinated.
Also, if you have galvanized pipes, that can be a huge issue.
Is the water a problem just at their house or in the entire neighborhood?
How old is their water heater and does it have a beefed up anode rod?
All good questions. I don’t know but I’ll find out.
ETA: The house was built in 1987, so it’s by no means an old house. I just sent S the question about just his house, or the whole neighborhood having problems.
@veryhappy:
I don’t know where you live, but there are places where the town water is full of minerals, where I live the town water comes from mostly artesian wells that are very, very deep…the water is really good, but it is full of mineral content and is very hard (a water test usually goes on a scale of 1-10, guy testing our water supply said it was a 15).A reverse osmosis system won’t work as far as I know, that can filter out impurities but it won’t filter out the dissolved mineral content in the water, it isn’t set up for that, the pores in the membrane are too big to pull that from what I recall.
The only way to fix it is with a water softener, which uses salt which in solution allows the CL- ions to react with the minerals, which precipitate out, and leaves the water soft. The downside of water softeners is some people object to their being sodium ions in the water which they believe is not healthy, the other thing is like the reverse osmosis systems they have to flush themselves of the byproducts, and that uses a lot of water from what I know. The hard water does wreak havoc on fixtures and such, I generally have to replace my hot water heaters every 7-10 years, and have had more than a few fixtures need replacing, like faucets and kitchen sinks and the like. I live with it, the one plus is the water is really good to drink. You can either buy one outright and have it installed, or you can rent one through firms like Calgon and others. Can be a bit of a pain refilling the salt for them, but it does work.
I had a water softener on a city system (but didn’t like how slippery it felt). I also use RO for drinking water.
New question here. I just found out (literally–15 minutes ago!) that DS is inviting a young professional friend of his to come home with him for Christmas. The young man is from the other coast and doesn’t have the time off to travel home and apparently planned to be alone. He spent Thanksgiving with us a few years ago, so I am fairly well acquainted with him and am delighted that DS thought to invite him. DS and I plan to have Christmas dinner with friends and I’m sure the hostess will understand and welcome our young friend. Our tradition is to attend our church service on Christmas Eve and I will invite him to join us, but not sure if he will-- not sure about his religious background.
My question is about Christmas morning. I’m afraid the opening of presents will be a bit awkward. I should probably get him a present to open that morning–Santa knows all and can deliver a present for him, right?–but I don’t want him to feel uncomfortable. What do you think? Gift or no gift? Suggestions for what that gift should be? Other thoughts?