Window Shopper

Welcome back!

Today is the best day to think about this. If you have not finished (or started) your shopping, you might want to consider going to places with wholesale prices. Now I realize that there are some areas that have lots of stores like that. Others have few and far between. Of course, you can always look online too. The main thing is to find what you are looking for at the cheapest price available. I do realize that there are people out there that do not have to consider this but we do. And most of us took a pretty good hit during the Wall Street down slide. The companies that went under or are being bailed out didn’t help either.

So, we have had to learn to change the way we buy items and products. One of the major ways to do that is to find all the discounted and wholesale items that you can find. If there are several in the same place, wonderful. All this helps.

Please do not forget the cautions though. Baby products are still coming from China. I received a sample product today that has China stamped on it. Also please be very aware of gift cards. Companies that are headed out of business might still sell it to you even though you may not be able to get the value from it should they go out before it’s used. In the same way, make absolutely sure that the gift card does not have a fee or penalty for not using it within a certain number of days after purchase. It is amazing the number of gift cards that have such limitations. As I understand it, even the big, international companies sometimes have this if allowed in that particular state.

Even with all the problems these days, please enjoy your Christmas shopping!

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It depends on the person. Period. Some people who work on the help desks are trying very hard to help you. Others are simply drawing a paycheck and could care less that you have a problem. The companies that hire these people should certainly screen them better, for one thing, and should monitor their progress for another. If they do not show that they have a clue, remove them. The frustration that comes with dealing with those people is huge. You know, I have read tons of those supposedly funny (some are hilarious) conversations from the point of view of a help desk person. Frankly, I would like to know where these people are when I need assistance. They seem to have a brain cell connected to at least one more. I am the customer and my conversations sound more like those but in the reverse.

Recently, I had some problems in my Paypal account because there were two unauthorized payments sent out for magazines we no longer take. The company that took the money is not familiar to me except for what I read about them. In fact, the company in question is a ripoff outfit. They take money from your account making it appear to be legitimate for magazines. If you do not catch it, they win and get your money too. They took nearly $50 from my account. OUCH! So, we called Paypal to see what could be done. The guy on the phone was great. He took care of the removing the transactions. My money was returned to me within a few days. Very nice. In addition, he advised that I cancel the current Paypal card and have them send me a new one. I agreed since it seemed like a really good idea to stop those folks from doing it again. He said that the card should be sent to me quickly. End of conversation. Very satisfying.

A few days later, I did receive the money back into my account. I have patiently waited on the Paypal card to be sent to me since I needed it for some last minute shopping for Christmas. Oh who am I kidding. I am DOING my Christmas shopping and definitely need my card since there are a couple of places, that’s all I can use. One of the most prominent will not ship anything without it.

After seeing the mail today and the card is still not here, I started getting a bit desperate. As anyone knows who buys at this time of year, it is sort of a crap shoot whether you actually get the items or not by Christmas so the earlier the shipping the better. But I still don’t have my card. So, once again, I called Paypal. Those extremely competent people at the help desk must have all been out to lunch. I talked with a young lady who was pretty hard to understand with a very thick accent. Without trying to offend anyone, I would really like to talk with someone who has English as their first language when dealing with such problems. There are too many misunderstandings this way.

She was very helpful as far as she could go. She had no idea about the Paypal card and when it was sent. That sounded somewhat ominous to me. She put me on hold for over 10 minutes. No clue what was going on. When she returned, she told me that the card had been mailed out YESTERDAY!!! Now I had assurances from the other guy that it would be sent out much sooner. And then when I told this to the young lady, she said something that only hit me later. But it was so stupid that I cannot even fathom why she would say it. Perhaps you can catch this?

She said “Ms L., the card was sent out yesterday. If you look on the back, it states that it would be sent out within 4-6 weeks.” Anyone catch that?

And now that I have had time to think about it, I wish I could be back on the phone to talk to her again. However, I will suffice it to say that THIS experience is more in line with what my usual help desk experiences are like. I know you will get the problem here. So I will just say that I hope your shopping is going better than mine.

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Now there’s a title for you. I was thinking of the title Last Time I Saw Paris, the country not the woman. In August, I was so disgusted because I went into the hospital and could not really manage my droopy hair. It just went wild, stunk, was way too long for me, in short it was nasty. And I vowed then that I was going to get it cut before something else happens. After that, the first chance I got to go out, off came the hair. It’s incredibly short now and I love it. Why? Because I am sitting here with a leg problem again and I have SHORT HAIR!!! Not hard to take care of at all. HA!

While we were at the salon that day, a few very different people came in to get hair cuts and styles. One that struck me as strange was this one lady who got her hair coiled up in little ringlets. You know all those guys with comb overs? Very obvious try at faking out people as if you could not tel it was a comb over? Well, this lady and several others I have seen since have what I would call coilovers, there is nothing else I could call it. Little ringlets all over the head and then scraped over on one side. Very strange, very strange indeed. One would think that there are foreigners among us. And that, folks, was the last time I saw my hair.

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Despite my wonderful charm and influence, I found myself inside an ER again. And while I may be getting up in years to some, I am still a vital person. Unfortunately, I fell on my leg a week ago Saturday. It developed some SERIOUS pain and swelling. By Tuesday, I could hardly walk. Decision time. My experiences with hospitals in general and the ones around here have been like night and day, the ones here being the night side. This particular ER is new to me since we avoid places that used to be bandaid stations in the expectation that they still might be that. It was where the ambulance dropped me off.

The doc there was pretty good, seemed like a nice guy, seemed to have a clue what’s up. After the check in, I was treated to a few xrays to see if I had a broken leg. Nope. Then they wanted blood. Now I have to admit that my veins are a nightmare to some people. They roll, collapse and every other thing possible. It makes blood draws such a nice thing to go through. They tell me that this girl that looks like she belongs in high school applying acne care products instead of trying to start an IV in me is something of an expert at this. Wrong. She blew it. Someone finally started one in my left hand which, by the way, hurts a lot. Usually they don’t once they are in. So what I have is one on one side putting in an IV and the other side is someone taking blood. Nice.

They give me an IV of antibiotics because the doc says I have cellulitis which is an infection of the skin and muscle tissues. Then they give me a pain killer. Not bad. I was sort of out of it for a while. The doc finally comes in and lets me know he can’t justify me staying in the hospital even overnight. The agony of this infection is awesome. At home, I can hardly walk to the bathroom and back, at no time without help. And they want me to go home. The bed they put me in cannot go down enough for me to put my foot on the ground. When they get me up to shoo me away, I have to step down over a FOOT to the floor. The incompetence screams at me.

Eventually, we went to get the prescriptions at the local pharmacy to the hospital. We lived about 30-35 miles away and would not get home in time to get them filled there. While the doc wrote out a prescription we could not get, my husband was inside getting someone to call the doc back. Took 45 minutes. I was sitting in the car in shorts, tshirt and shoes. It was 40 degrees. Nice. Now I have a nurse coming out a couple times a week.

I cannot tell you how much I am beginning to hate living where I do. The reality is that I used to like it here when there were no medical issues. But now……….Just a small clue. Even if you do not have medical issues, check out what is around you. Make sure when the time comes, you have adequate and hopefully more than adequate medical care.

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