Oh No, please no ... NOvember rants

The BBQ Pit
301

So now I know what happens when I try to open my saved emails when I’m outside the range of my home wireless. Saved emails open OK after whining about “no network connection”, but this particular email with the Amazon return QR code was useless because the QR image itself is not embedded in the email, but is sourced from the internet.

Fortunately, I had saved the image to a file, so that worked fine.

The return via Staples is very convenient but it leaves me uneasy because they don’t issue receipts. They said “the Amazon app doesn’t let us print anything”. I would not return a high-value item this way.

I did get an email from Amazon about an hour later saying that my refund had been processed, but with the notation that they’ll bill it again “if we don’t receive the item”. Since I have no receipt, if for whatever reason they claim they didn’t get the item I have no recourse. Imagine returning a $1000 iPhone this way. I’d say there’s a better than 50% chance it never makes it.

302

In the US Amazon procssses free returns through UPS stores. Bring the item in a sealed shipping bag, they scan the QR code, give you a receipt, and walk back out. Cost $0.00.

Before I’m out of the store Amazon sends a message saying they’ve noted the QR code was used and their agents (the UPS Store) have custody of the goods.

After that it is not my problem.

303

That’s what I would want, and expect. Instead I get an email that notes the order # and refund amount and then states:

Refund will appear on your Visa in 2-4 business days.

*This is an advanced refund. If we don’t receive the item listed above, we may charge your original payment method.

Clearly, Staples transmitted the QR code to them which they implicitly acknowledge, but it’s also clear that “if Staples or anyone else screws up and steals or loses the merchandise, it’s your problem, not ours”. Strange that Amazon is inconsistent this way.

And it’s not as if this is some obscure sideline for Staples. They have a whole dedicated shipping desk dealing with this stuff.

The worst thing is, if this was a high-value item, I’d be left hanging indefinitely not knowing if the return was fully successful, because even receiving the refund is not proof that they acknowledge receipt of the merch!

304

I suspect it’d be my problem if they opened my return package supposedly containing an iPhone and it was actually full of shredded newspaper.

But AIUI, if the package never arrives, that’s on them. Legally I might not be assured of the full refund, but per their rather generous policies I’d sure expect one.


The other common return process here is drop off at Whole Foods, which is now wholly owned by Amazon.

For that, don’t even bother bringing it in a shipping bag. However it was packaged by them before shipping outbound is good enough for return.

They scan my QR code, slap a barcode label on it, scan that, and I walk out. Before I’m back to my car the money has been credited to my CC.

305

Thanks, I appreciate knowing how things work down there in Trump-land! :wink:

Also, in checking my return status (I don’t know why I obsess so much about these little things) my previous comment that …

isn’t really true. The return status current indicates “Refund issued, item in transit”. Presumably it will eventually say “Item received”.

306

Yeah, I would be just as concerned.

I have twice returned an item to Amazon and not received a refund because they said it never arrived. Once was an item I put in a UPS drop box. The second time was when I went to a UPS store because the drop box no longer seemed safe, but just like in your situation they insisted I couldn’t get a receipt and sure enough, Amazon claimed it never arrived.

I now do returns at Kohl’s. They give me a receipt, and I get an acknowledgement from Amazon almost right away that it was sent back and they consider the matter settled.

The difference is that the return place at Kohl’s is an official Amazon return spot with signage and everything. The person at that desk has a direct line to Amazon.

I only do returns there now.

307

Strange, every time I’ve taken an Amazon return to a UPS store they give me a receipt. It doesn’t matter whether I box it up or they do.

308

They have also told me that they are a franchise and not part of the UPS corporation so they also can’t comment on anything UPS does (for shipping and such). It’s a little frustrating taking packages over there for anything honestly.

ETA: This Reddit page matches my experience…

https://www.reddit.com/r/UPS/comments/1c08a1n/ups_claims_a_package_i_dropped_off_was_never/?chainedPosts=t3_13lhqz6

The UPS store scan means nothing. Stores are franchised locations and not owned by UPS. Their scans don’t go into the UPS proper system. All their scanners do is copy the tracking number and print it out.

309

I recently had an interesting problem with an Amazon purchase of two boat cover vents. Our pontoon boat cover, like most, has two vent holes and we needed two covers. I did a search and found a reasonably priced vent cover described as Brandnane Vent Cover 2.

So, I placed the order, expecting to receive two vent covers, but only one was sent. I tried to complain, explaining that only one was shipped. Eventually I was told they’d reship and I could return what I received.

Once more, they only sent one, although I now had two. Curious, I went to the manufacturer’s website and discovered the cover had been improved and was now called Brandname Vent Cover II. For some reason Amazon had changed the II to 2.

Amazon wanted me to return the original one but I eventually got someone to realize their typo was the issue here.

310

I’m signed up for texts for Amazon returns. I get a text receipt about 30 seconds after the return is processed.

I’d tell you how to sign up… if I only knew myself.

311

Hey, here’s a handy hint, leading to a MAJOR rant … do NOT pour pasta sauce down your kitchen sink!

Yesterday was recycling day and I thought it was about time I threw out the expired jars of pasta sauce I had been hoardinrg. I thought about just throwing them in the garbage, but being a good pup (specifically, a Very Good Boy™ ) I thought I should empty the contents into the sink and recycle the jars. Big mistake.

Big, BIG mistake!

It resulted in the worst plumbing disaster I’ve ever experienced. First, the sink got completely stopped up with whatever crap was in the sauce (ground mushrooms and sausage, which I would have expected to just go down the drain). Then, my attempts to unstop the sink with drain cleaner somehow caused the joints in the drainpipes to start leaking.

Someone in some earlier thread said that his dad was a plumber and advised against the use of such stuff. I guess he was right. It’s always worked for me and quickly removed any blockage but this time it didn’t work. I guess this time there was too much blockage, and the problem was that it just sat there too long eating away at the pipe joints.

The whole thing was, in short, an unmitigated disaster. A sink that was stopped up but managed to releaase just enough water to flood the cupboard underneath and drip along the pipes into the basement. I not only couldn’t run the dishwasher, I couldn’t wash anything in the sink, either. My entire kitchen was out of service.

I called the Ukrainian handyman brothers who earlier had put up my fallen eavestrough and who each drive a much nicer car than mine. Their work was not cheap but the quality was excellent!

I couldn’t bear to watch them work on my plumbing and went upstairs to the sound of a great deal of thumping and the whirring of power tools. Eventually I couldn’t resist coming down to the basement where they were working away, and one of them showed me a picture on his phone of how far down the pipes were clogged.

In the end, the entire plumbing system from the sink to the outside had to be rebuilt.

I just paid their bill through Interac. Let’s just say that my Very Good Boy™ bit of do-gooding cost me nearly a thousand dollars. I actually expected it to be more. The Ukrainian brothers undoubtedly deserved it – they were here nattering in Ukrainian for nearly two hours and eventually fixed up this abominable mess and even cleaned everything up.

Lesson learned! And I now have a reliable all-purpose handyman that I can, and will, call on in the future!

The only problem I have with them is that both brothers sport thick black beards, and I cannot tell them apart. :grin:

312

I’ve thrown away sauces many times and I just throw out the whole thing in the trash.

I’ve never felt guilty about it, but thanks to your post I feel extra confident that it’s the wise decision.

313

I’ve flushed leftover soups and sauces before. Bigger pipe, and (in our house at least) much closer to the septic.

314

Does your sink have a garbage disposal?

315

Buy them a Christmas present of uniform shirts with their names embroidered over the pocket.

And in future if you need to discard ancient pasta sauce, try diluting it with water in a pitcher* first and keep the garbage disposal** running throughout the process. You DO have a garbage disposal, do you not?

*Since you’re in Canada, perhaps you call it a ewer (I learned that word from doing crossword puzzles).

**which you may or may not know as a rubbish grinder.

316

I thought they were called garburators? Here in BC, we have to put sauces in the green bin. (And here in the Dr.Drake household, tomato sauces are smooth, as the gods intended.)

317

I’ve always either poured sauce directly into the garbage or flushed down the toilet. Never the sink drain.

318

Yeah: If you’re going to put chunky stuff down the drain (which generally is a bad idea anyhow), send it down the pipes designed with chunky stuff in mind.

319

No, and for some reason they seem to be rare in this part of the country. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a house that had one, even those with super fancy kitchens.

Anyway the problem would likely not have occurred if the strainer/plug thingie had been in the sink but I usually keep them out. This particular sauce apparently had exactly the worst composition for creating a blockage – bits of mushroom and sausage fine enough to get carried deep into the pipes, but big enough to get stuck in many different places. What a mess! From now on the only thing that will be allowed to go down the sink is water!

The thought had crossed my mind but tomato-based sauces have a tendency to stain the toilet bowl.

320

As I have explained a few times, I have odd cursor problems when typing on this laptop. I believe it is due to the touchpad and its buttons wearing out. While I type, the cursor often jumps somewhere else-the text field is no longer selected and none of what I just typed made it on to the screen, the cursor jumps to some earlier place in the text and everything I just typed is inserted into an earlier sentence, or worst of all the text I have typed gets highlighted and if I don’t notice and type another character it all gets deleted. If I still don’t see it, or if I have been typing too fast and type another character I cannot use the undo function to undelete the text. That is not my rant.

A friend on Facebook posted “Klaatu Verada Nikto”. Other people commented with weird nerdy nonsense phrases.I commented with “Eep opp ork ah ah” from the Jetsons. An hour later, I got a notification that somebody had replied to a comment I had made to a post in one of the FB Yiddish groups I belong to. Somehow, my comment had ended up on a post somebody made about the death of their mother. I poted a reply to their comment explaining the error and offering my profound apologies.

I bought a cheap, chorded mouse for this laptop a few weeks ago. Cursor jumping has been greatly reduced. This weekend I will look into disabling the touchpad altogether.