And a Happy Kijiji New Year

It's been a while.  My Christmas break was busy and I just didn't feel like spending time on the computer most days.  One thing I don't think I've mentioned on here yet is that Brahm and I finally bought a house.  We actually bought it a few months ago, and move in in a couple weeks.  Overall, buying a house and house hunting was a far more emotional experience than I'd originally anticipated and I decided to stop blogging about it.

But anyway, we have now begun the process of purging things we don't want to take with us - this mostly includes a few pieces of ugly, cheap student furniture, the biggest of which was an older blue couch.

You know all about my bad Kijiji experience with the monitors so I was not looking forward to trying to sell a couch on Kijiji.  Plus, looking at Kijiji Saskatoon brought up tons of couches that people were giving away for free - how could I compete?  I asked as many people I could think of if they wanted or knew anyone wanting a free couch, to no avail. 

So finally, I decided to put the couch on Kijiji just to see what happened.  I took a co-worker's advice about not putting it on for free, because free generally means "garbage".  I took a few respectable pictures with my DSLR camera and posted an ad, asking $50.

(Dude - this is the power of a DSLR.  It looks super bright in our apartment, right?  It was totally a cloudy, dreary day but I still managed to take these without a flash.)

I also put some rules in my ad, to the effect of "I hate being jerked around by buyers, so here are the rules you need to follow if you want this couch."

And wouldn't you know, I had an interested buyer in about 30 seconds.  She used real sentences (not "can u take pic thx"), told me what her name was, and showed up well on time.  I also had two more interested people lined up if the first buyer didn't work out.

The girl who picked up the couch told me that I was the only seller on Kijiji who even responded to her.  It drives me nuts when people don't remove their ads after their item has sold and just ignore emails that come in about it - come on people, that is bad Kijiji etiquette!

The moral of the story is, I think I have learned my lesson about Kijiji buyers.  My rules are going in all future ads.  I am sure I'll get burned by some more idiot buyers in the future but this experience has restored my faith that good Kijiji buyers do exist, especially if you lay down the ground rules from the start.

I vow to not flush the toilet when you're in the shower

The thing that seems to be all the rage these days at weddings is writing your own vows.  Which is very cool if that's what you're into, and it's nice that it's something that's allowed these days too, because if you feel that the traditional vows aren't really what you want to say then you can say something that means more to you.

But the thing I think people need to remember too is that original vows are awesome but they are not necessarily MORE awesome than traditional vows.  Just because you're not writing your own vows does NOT mean you love each other less than the couples who write their own vows.  Taking time to write "extra meaningful" vows doesn't equal more love.  (Side note, sometimes people write "funny" vows which to me is kind of awkward, like shouldn't vows be serious promises, not a comedy routine?  Save the comedy for the toasts!  I always cringe a bit when people on wedding blogs write "and my husband had all the guests rolling in the aisles with his hilarious vows about putting the toilet seat down" but I guess I'm trying to tell you all not to judge traditional vows so maybe I shouldn't judge comedy vows, if that's your thing.)

I am ever grateful to A Practical Wedding, which I've blogged about before, for explaining this to me.  A Practical Wedding is so wise.  When Brahm and I first got engaged we talked about writing our own vows and we thought it would be cool and more meaningful than traditional vows, but then I realized that as an introvert, writing and saying my own vows in public was probably not going to happen.  Expressing myself that raw-ly in front of so many people terrified me.  (Strangely for an introvert, I do not have a fear of public speaking in general though.)  And I kind of felt bad about it, and Brahm really wanted to write our own vows, so it stressed me out a bit until A Practical Wedding set me straight.

What A Practical Wedding says about traditional vows is that they are awesome, because they are tried-and-true words that have been used for generations and started off millions of happy marriages.  It is TOTALLY meaningful to say these words that have been said so many times before you, words that so succinctly describe exactly what you should be promising when you marry someone.

A couple weekends ago we sat down to talk about wedding stuff and the subject of vows came up.  "Honestly - I can't write my own vows, and the traditional vows are what I want to say," I said.  He agreed that maybe we should just go the traditional route because writing vows that sum up what you want to say is HARD.  So, RELIEF.

So anyway, if you come to our wedding and you hear us use the traditional vows, know that we put a lot of thought into deciding to use them, and that people do have reasons for using or not using original vows that have nothing to do with how much they love each other or how seriously they take the ceremony.  I will sure mean every word I say of those traditional vows because in my opinion they can't be topped, and they are EXACTLY what I want to say.


In other wedding news, The Berry Barn's website got squatted, my dress came in (but it's too big so it has to get altered), and we ordered our favours from an awesome Etsy shop which further contributes to my intense love of Etsy and its sellers.  OH and also I went for my trial hair appointment where I had booked a stylist that a friend recommended and they were like "oh she got booked for your wedding day so we put you with someone else" and I was like "YEAH she was booked, I thought that's what I did when I called 3 months ago???  You jerks" and they were like "Yeah but she's really hard to get into" and I was like "So that means it's okay to cancel my appointment with her?" but I am pretty sure it's impossible to actually book in 6 people for wedding hair 2.5 months ahead of time for an August wedding so I had no choice but to stick with this jerk salon.  Luckily the new girl they gave me did a great job.

An open letter to Kijiji sellers

Dear Kijiji sellers,

I would like to know what you are actually selling.  For example, provide some information on what you are selling such as the brand and model of your item.  That is not too much to ask.  I'd also like to know how long you had it, what condition it's in, where you bought it (and for how much), and why you are selling it.

However, I understand maybe you just want to keep your ad short and simple, and interested parties could find that information out by contacting you.

BUT if you are not going to provide a telephone number, thus requiring only email communications, please actually answer the questions the potential buyer asks.

For example, if I say "what was the purchase price?" don't say "I bought it in the US."  That does not mean the same thing.  Also, if I say "could I come by on Friday sometime to purchase this item?" don't ignore that question.

And most importantly, when I ask a question to verify that the item is in fact the exact item I'm looking for, don't be like "actually I have a small correction.  It is a different item."  THAT IS NOT A SMALL CORRECTION, KIJIJI SELLER.  I am not going to give you 400 bucks for something that isn't what you say it is!

Finally, follow some Kijiji etiquette and remove your ad if you've sold the item, don't just ignore all the emails people send you.  That's annoying.

It's not that difficult, Kijiji sellers.  Try a little harder please.

Sincerely,

Robyn

TOGA! TOGA! TOGA!

I decided on a wedding dress!  If you are a boy and want to stop reading because I just said that, that's not really what this post is about though so don't tune out just yet.

The thing I want to talk about, which is the thing that helped me to decide on a dress the most, is taking pictures in bridal shops.

If you have ever watched Say Yes to the Dress, and you probably have even if you are a manly man, you might have noticed that in that store they don't allow you to take pictures.  I guess I can understand their reasoning, because they actually do carry a lot of exclusive, custom dresses that you can't find anywhere else, and they also have a lot of extremely rich (or more likely, in debt) clients who may very well take a picture of one of those custom $30k dresses and then have someone copy it for $2k or something.  So I guess I understand.

But what I DON'T understand is when a hick-town, stuck-in-the-80's Saskatoon bridal shop (cough Debra Dee cough) does not allow pictures.  No offense Debra Dee, but you do not have any exclusive, custom designs in your store.  Further, we are living in the age of the interwebs, so when you write down the style of the dress that someone likes and give it to them on your business card, GUESS WHAT NEWSFLASH they can look up the exact dress on the internet and have someone copy it for cheaper anyway.  So you are not keeping any business by not allowing pictures, in fact you are doing the opposite.

Because GUESS WHAT NEWSFLASH - I found a dress I really liked in Debra Dee and they would not let me take a picture of it.  Um, also, it was a BRIDESMAID DRESS that cost less than $250, so seriously - what am I going to do with the picture, pay someone $400 to make the same dress???  So I walked across the street to The Dress (which does not play midi files of Canon in D on their website, extra bonus), found the exact same dress, took a picture of it, took a picture of a bunch of other dresses I liked, looked at all of those pictures for a couple months, showed the pictures to my friends and asked their opinions, and decided I wanted to buy that dress.  From The Dress, not Debra Dee, for the straight-up reason that THEY LET ME TAKE PICTURES.

Debra Dee - if you'd let me take pictures in your store, it's honestly very possible that I might have chosen one of the dresses I tried on and forked over the $250 to you.  However, because all I had from you was the memory of those dresses, and I had a bunch of pictures from The Dress, it was a lot easier to look through those and start picturing myself wearing one of them on my wedding day.  And Debra Dee, if you had a clue at all, you would realize that that's probably the most effective way to sell a wedding dress in this day and age.  There are 4 bridal stores in Saskatoon, and many women also make trips out to Edmonton or further to go dress shopping - hardly anyone makes a split-second decision and if some stores let you take pictures and others don't, it's the pictures that are going to help you remember the dress that you liked, and ultimately the pictures that are going to make the sale.

This picture reinforced that I did not want to buy this particular dress, because it was not flattering in the stomachular area and also looks like a toga.

Pumpkin Carving and Google+

My entry in the pumpkin carving contest at work this week (recall that I literally live at work half the time so no, I don't work at a place that let us carve pumpkins on the company's dime).

ACU-PUMPKIN

Get it?  Because it has pins in it like acupuncture.

Also I just signed up for Google+ and I only added 3 friends so far and it was like "Are you sure you don't want to add more friends?  You are going to be lonely."  Shut up Google+, I'm already regretting getting you.  Although also I don't think it was suggesting accurate friends either because it suggested MY DAD who barely knows how to email let alone would ever use social media soooo I don't think Google+ knows what it's talking about anyway.

COMING SOON

An edge-of-your-seat story about my continued hatred of Cineplex.

How Many Big Box Stores Does it Take to Sell Me a Working Laptop?

So luckily my parents don't really know how to use the internet well enough to ever stumble across my blog so I feel like this is a safe enough place to talk about something related to their Christmas present.  My sisters and I are planning to get them a laptop to replace their 10-year-old barely-working OTV-built CRT-monitored dinosaur that they are scared to turn on because they're worried it is going to get a virus or crash or break the internet.

What I'm looking for is a 15.6" laptop under $400 with decent enough specs that it will stay relatively fast for several years.  And something that works, preferably.

Unfortunately, obtaining this laptop is easier said than done.  Upon doing a bit of research into laptop prices for what I want comparing local big-box chains vs. ordering online (Dell, Lenovo), the local places seemed to offer the best prices so I decided to go against my principles and buy a computer from Best Buy or Future Shop.

What principles?  Back in the good old days of 2005 I had an excellent experience with Future Shop's impeccable customer service.  There was a printer I wanted that was on sale, it was -40 outside, I drove a 1991 Chevy Sprint, and it was the last day of the sale and the printer was not available in store (according to the website) so I wanted to call and find out if I could get a rain check on the printer instead of risking my life to drive down to the store.  If I remember correctly I had to phone them about 20 times (no exag) before a 15 year old from customer service answered the phone 15 minutes before the store closed and told me I couldn't get a rain check over the phone, I had to come into the store within the next 15 minutes.  In the end I found out the printer was available at Staples for a price match and ditched my Future Shop rain check because I hate Future Shop.  I vowed never to go back.

I have since bought a few things from FS but nothing big and I hate myself every time I do.

Anyway back to the laptop saga.  On Sunday I went into Best Buy because I hate FS (even though they're the same company?), picked out a $400 Acer, the sales associate went to check if it was in stock and then proceeded to physically search all of the laptop storage cabinets for about 10 minutes (no exag) before finally saying "Yeah.... we don't have it in stock.  Sorry.  You can buy it online if you want."  WHAT?  Are you telling me your Geek Squad-written software that tells you what you have in stock was WRONG, or did someone hide all the laptops?  Either way, great sales skills.  He didn't even TRY to sell me a nearly identical Compaq model, just please go away I don't like people ahhhhhhh why does everyone ask me questions at my job selling computersssss

The next morning I checked out the FS website at about 8:45 and noticed there was a sale on the above mentioned Compaq for $300!!! until 9 AM.  I did some quick Googling to make sure it was the same model and that the reviews seemed solid and started going through the process.  I started typing in all of my info around 8:58 and was still entering info (there were about 5 steps to complete the ordering process) slightly after 9 but the price had not changed from $300 so I figured I was still going to get the sale price.  I submitted my order at 9:05 and as soon as I clicked that button, the price that was charged to my credit card changed to $350.  WTF Future Shop, thanks for tricking me.  I called customer service who said it was because the website takes a few minutes to update their prices when the sale ends so that's why it was still saying I was going to get the cheaper price.  SERIOUSLY I was 5 minutes over.  You can't just give me the sale price?  I was looking for my credit card which is why I was late.

Anyway long story short I decided that despite this stupidity, $350 was still the cheapest price I was going to get so went to the store to pick it up.  Brought it home, turned it on, and the display was bright red and super pixely.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME Future Shop.  After all that.

So I went back to FS for the second time that day, stood in line for customer service for 10 minutes, then found out I should be standing in the computer service line.  The tech guy had a look and was like "oh yeah this is broken" so I exchanged for a new one, had a feeling that maybe I should try it out in the store to make sure it also wasn't broken, shrugged it off, took it home, turned it on, red screen, back to Future Shop.

AGAIN.

"I'm really sorry... this isn't a good impression of our store..."  YA THINK??  I did a straight-up return and vowed never to shop at Future Shop again.  This time I will try to hold myself to that.

Zen

I'm not really that into Starbucks but there are a few locations pretty close to where I live, so it's a place I'll sometimes go to to socialize.  This week I somehow happened to be in the same Starbucks two days in a row - I won't say which one but I will say that my friend's Master's supervisor has "blacklisted" this location as one of the "bad" Starbucks in the city.

I've been to this particular location many times and have never really had trouble with the service - Starbucks coffee just has too much caffeine and makes me super wired and buzzed AND it's ridic expensive so I usually just get tea, and usually green tea.  Sometimes iced.

On my first Starbucks excursion this week, it was a pretty warm day outside so I ordered (STRAIGHT off the menu) a "tall shaken green iced tea."  The woman taking my order looked extremely confused and said "So you just want a green tea?" and I was like "yes, a green tea, but iced" and she looked at me like she didn't understand so I said "It's on the menu" and she said "So just a GREEN TEA - not with lemonade?"  NOOO did I say I wanted lemonade in it?  Those are two different drinks.  I'm not trying to be a big complainy pants but I don't understand why there was so much confusion related to me ordering something verbatim off the menu.

The next day I went back and ordered my usual hot drink, a green tea.  The woman said "China Green Tips or Zen?" which was news to me, I guess Starbucks now has two varieties of green tea?  I asked what the difference was and she very irritatedly explained both in one breath.  All I really heard was the tail end, which was "lemongrass and spearmint" so I said "I'll have that one" thinking that she had only explained one, and she was like "which one?  Zen or China?"  I was getting really confused at this point so I replied "The last one you said" and apparently she had forgotten which order she had said the TWO teas in, so she was getting mad at me again and the woman who was going to actually make the tea had to step in and calm her down (SHE had fully understood what I meant by "the last one").

Hey Starbucks, sorry that I don't come in EVERY DAY and know that you suddenly now have two varieties of green tea that aren't explained anywhere on your menu.  Your menu says that "green, black, or herbal" are the varieties of tea and I have never had a choice of two different green teas before, sorry that I am making your cashiers' jobs SO HARD by asking for information on your products.  Next time I can go somewhere else so I don't stress them out so much.  That's one of the reasons I am not really that into Starbucks - the cashiers (baristas sorry) always seem to be hit and miss with actually being willing to explain what things mean if you don't know EXACTLY what you want (and obviously sometimes still get annoyed even if you order straight off the menu).

I have to say though that the Zen green tea is AWESOME.  Too bad I have to get it at Starbucks.

ALSO, in unrelated news:  today I was on the university campus and for the past few years, during the first few days of classes SaskTel has always had a free mini-donut stand.  I saw it today and was so pumped to go get some free mini donuts when I discovered that this year they are FOUR DOLLARS a bag!  What a rip.  I'm not paying four dollars to clog my arteries.  So much inflation jeepers.

Scene Update

So, the outcome of the Cineplex Scene fiasco is pretty boring.  I got an email on June 30 from a woman in Guest Services telling me that the points had been added to my account, and the trail of messages in the email showed that the investigation request was sent from Scene Help (help@scene.ca) to Guest Services (Guestservices@cineplex.com) on June 22.

I still can't believe it took 8 full days to "complete the investigation" but at least I'm getting some compensation for the personal info exchange.  And in the future if these issues arise it's probably best to directly contact Guest Services, an email address that doesn't seem to be publicly available, rather than jump through Scene Help's hoops first.

Cineplex, why are you the worst, also please learn about comma splices

Cineplex and more specifically your consumer statistics points program, you are the dumbest.

I won't elaborate too much on unrelated incidents, such as Saskatoon's Cineplex Galaxy theatre's obvious conspiracy with the Impark lot across the street to give people tickets during movies when they have clearly paid and then make them spend 3 hours on the phone to get out of the ticket and then blame the wrongfully ticketed person for causing a hassle, or selling tickets to a broken version of Avatar that pauses in intense moments and then blames the customers for going to the show when they should have known it was broken (there was CLEARLY a 4-paragraph essay in 10-point font posted on the door of the cinema, obvi people are going to stop and peruse that instead of finding a seat at a sold out show).  OR the fact that "cheap" Tuesday is now regular price Tuesday with a "free" popcorn and drink - D00DZ do you know how long and slow the food lines are at Galaxy?  Of course you do which is why you realize that most people are just going to see the long lines and not get popcorn and a drink so you can just pocket the extra money that you don't have to spend on giving everyone a free popcorn.

But anyway those are things that happened to my friends and not me.  My complaint is pretty minor but still ridiculous enough to write about.  It's not so much what happened as how it's being dealt with in 2010.

It all started last week when I decided to buy advance tickets online for Toy Story 3, assuming it would be sold out for weeks.  (Surprisingly the non-3D Saturday matinee had about 30 people attending - it was such a good movie where were all the fans????)  I'd only bought tickets online one time previously and was annoyed because to get my Scene points (100 points per movie, 1000 points gets you a free movie) I apparently had to create an account on the site and then go into my account settings to enter my Scene number, but when I created an account there was nowhere to put in the number, THANKS WEBSITE YOU WERE REALLY EASY TO NAVIGATE.  So this time I was hoping they'd have fixed that problem.

Sure enough, this time I was prompted to enter my Scene number without even having to create an account - DUH this is how it should have been done in the first place, Cineplex software writers.  And also something cool, you could put in up to two more Scene numbers if you were buying tickets for other people (i.e. if you're getting two tickets, both people could get points which you can't do if you buy tickets at the theatre).  Finally, Cineplex had created an easy-to-use, efficient online ticket-buying system.

Until, of course, I entered my Scene number and the name on my card and was told that the number and name didn't match.  Ummmmm guys I am clearly looking right at my card and entering exactly what it says, your computer system is WRONG.  I quadruple checked and re-entered, but still got a message that the name and number were wrong, so I just skipped that part, forfeited the Scene points, and bought the tickets.

I know, 100 Scene points is not a big deal.  But Cineplex is super sketchy with keeping tabs on its customers, Scene card or not - basically if you pay with a credit card or debit card, your name and number is in their system with every movie you've purchased on that card.  A friend of mine was getting a refund on her debit card for a movie that she decided not to go to because the theatre was too full and when they swiped the card to put the money back on, the cashier informed her that the last movie she'd bought with that card (not counting that day) was Maid of Honor.  So ANYWAY I figure if they are keeping tabs on me, I better be getting something out of it, and that something better be a free movie for every $110 dollars I spend at their theatre.

We're getting to the really stupid point, I promise.  I sent an email to Scene customer service with a screenshot of the name and number I'd been entering into the website and the information about what show I'd bought tickets for (how many tickets, the theatre, the movie, the time),explained the problem, and asked them to double check their records as to what my Scene number was and please credit me the points I was owed.  I also included the confirmation number in the email AND SUBJECT LINE.

I received this email back a couple days later from a polite Cineplex robot:

Good day, 
 
Thank you for your  email. We need you to provide us with some more
information in order for us to look into the possibility of crediting
your account with the points.  Please provide us with as much of the
following as possible 
 
Date:   
Showtime: 
Theatre Name and Location:   
Movie:   
How many adult tickets purchased and child tickets purchased:   
 
For online purchases
Order Number:   
Booking number:   
 
For verification
Your address: 
Your postal code:   
 
Once we receive this info we'll be able to have the transaction reviewed
on your behalf. Should you have any further questions or concerns please
feel free to ask, otherwise you can always visit our website, listed
below, which has a complete listing of frequently asked questions that
may help with your inquiry.


Regards, 

SCENE Customer Service

Oh MAN you guys I already TOLD you ALL of that information, other than my address and postal code.  BTW what do you need my address and postal code for?  Obviously so they can collect the location statistics without having to give me Scene points, but I perhaps stupidly complied with the request - hey, if they are going to give me my points, they've already got that info anyway so it's worth a shot.

I got another email back a couple days later:

Hello,

Thanks for your inquiry, we have initiated an investigation on your
behalf to Cineplex to have this issue resolved for you, we would ask
that you allow us 4-7 business days to complete this investigation.
Once this investigation is complete you will be contacted via the email
address in your account and advised you of the resolution. 

Regards,
 
SCENE Customer Service

WHAT??????  FOUR TO SEVEN BUSINESS DAYS??????  Are you KIDDING me.  (Also, do you guys know what comma splices are, I don't think you do.)  You have all of that information, you have the booking numbers of the transaction, you have all the info you need to look at my account and see that no points were awarded for this transaction, HOW do you possibly need 4 to 7 business days to "investigate" what happened?  In the time it took you to send and read the emails you should have been able to enter just ONE of the pieces of info I provided you with into your database and bring up all of the transaction info.  Shouldn't you have?  Like seriously, when someone makes an online purchase does it just print out a piece of paper on your end that gets thrown onto a stack of other confirmations and deletes itself from your system so you have to hand-sift through the pile to find the info on my transaction?  Of course not because you are far too concerned with my purchase statistics.  If your high school cashier can instantly bring up someone's list of purchases at the theatre, why does it take people with access to ALL pertinent information 4 to 7 days to look into the situation?  Are you forming a task force for this investigation?  Do you need to go out and buy detective hats and magnifying glasses and fingerprint kits before you can get started?  I don't understand.

So anyway that's why I think Cineplex and Scene are the worst.  I'll be in Ottawa next week so I may not be able to instantly update my millions of readers with the dramatic finale, but a follow-up blog post will be in order when I return.  Until then, pay cash at the box office.  Or stop supporting this horrible corporation altogether.