He found a good (not great, but definitely the cheapest based on phone calls and internet searches) deal on tires at TireMonkey. Once installation was factored in, it would be the least expensive way to get a decent set of new tires. He placed the order for the tires yesterday and left the house to go to work. (Praise God for paying work!!!) Not long after, the home phone rang. It was someone from TireMonkey, telling me that his order had been cancelled because there was a pricing mistake on the website. The price should have been about double (!!!thatsabigmistake!!!) what was shown. OK. Mistakes happen, I get that. And they’re under no obligation to honor the price. I get that, too. But having worked manymanymany years in sales, customer service, and marketing, I know to ask what the options are. Something can always be done, right?

Wrong. They didn’t offer me a different tire. No discount on the ones we wanted. No free shipping. No deal. Nothing. Their solution was to just refund our money. Unfortunately, we used our debit card and it may take days before we have access to that money again. Now we can’t get the tires until that money lands back in our account. Based on past experiences, it may be a week or more.

I called my husband immediately, gave him the news and the phone number off their website. He was hoping to talk to someone and work something else out. Another tire at the very least so that we could get them put on ASAP and hopefully not be waiting for that money to land back in our account with nothing to show for it. He called, was treated rudely when the person he wanted to speak to wasn’t available and left his contact info so they could get in touch when they had time to call him. There was no return call yesterday, this morning, this afternoon…he finally got tired of waiting and called again. Once again, he reached someone with zero people skills who’d apparently been taught the fine art of customer service by a person with the IQ and personality of a fence post.

He had a solution for the situation, even though they didn’t seem inclined to save the sale. There was a comparable set of tires that had been listed at $10/tire higher than the ones we originally picked. He wanted to order those. Could we do that? Sadly, no. The price on those was incorrect as well and again, there was no interest in working something out. No offers of a comparable tire in a similar price range, no discount, nada. At this point I really can’t believe they’re this inept. It blows my mind that they wouldn’t do anything at all.

I don’t like giving bad reviews of businesses. I would much rather talk about how awesome something is. But this experience was so appallingly awful that I had to share it. I’ve posted to them on Twitter and posted on their Facebook page but have gotten no response from anyone there. I was hoping someone would see it and get in touch, but they either don’t have an employee monitoring their social network sites or they just don’t care. Either way, the ball’s in their court. I hope they’ll make contact and make it right but I’m not hopeful.

EDIT TO ADD: I feel like I should explain further what I would have expected from them, based on my experience in customer service. I don’t think they should honor the online price if they’ll lose money on the deal…that would be appreciated, but it’s not expected. At the very least, an offer of comparable (in price or in quality) options would have been appreciated before cancelling the order. That way, our money would not have been left in limbo. Even better, a discount of some sort…a percentage off, free shipping, or some other concession that would make it worth our while to buy tires there and, more importantly to a business owner, save the sale and foster goodwill with the customer. But I guess they either don’t care or the owner simply has no idea what’s going on. Either way, I am less than impressed.

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Oh yes, I was drawn in by your fancy packaging, the “Easy to OPEN/POUR/CLOSE/STORE” spout.  It looked a lot better than the boxes I’d bought with my other children that inevitably spilled mess everywhere.  I was a little concerned that the packaging for all of your “single grain” cereals was pretty much identical, but figured I was a smart girl and could remember to double check the place where the type of cereal was written in small letters.  Unfortunately I’m not the only person in this house who prepares meals and feeds the baby, because my husband nearly fed her the oatmeal again after we discovered the allergy.  Luckily I have a very good friend who also has a baby and she was happy to take it off my hands so we wouldn’t make that mistake.

I ended up calling Gerber, trying to find out if their “single-grain” cereals truly were a single grain.  The good news?  YES!  I was able to buy infant oatmeal without any wheat in it.  I’ve now fed it to my baby several times with no bad reactions, no terrifying cases of hives all over my baby’s head, neck, and chest, and no digestive difficulties.  Imagine that!  Additionally, all of their cereal boxes are color coded and the name of the cereal is written in large letters across the front so it would be hard to mix them up in case one of them was unsafe for her.

Let’s just say I’ve learned a lot from this experience and for that I am grateful.  I just wish it hadn’t come at the expense of my 6 month old daughter.  For that reason, you will never receive another penny from me.  I’m sticking to Gerber from now on.

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As a family, we’re always looking for fun (inexpensive!) stuff to do near Sanford.  Fun Stuff Fridays will be sharing the things we’ve found that we enjoyed.  If you have additional suggestions, please let me know!  I’ll review each one we’re able to try out and let you know how we liked it.  First up: The North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro!

The zoo is about an hour away from Sanford.  To get there, we drive up Hwy 42 (aka Wicker St or Carbonton Rd) and follow the signs.  This is the quickest route I’ve found.  It takes a bit longer if you take Hwy 421 to Hwy 64 like they recommend on their website, so if you’re comfortable with old 2 lane highways you can save some time.

We’ve purchased a family membership.  It’s a great deal and we save money if we make just 2 zoo visits during the year.  We love going, so it’s not hard to make that trip 3-4 times a year or more.  The savings really add up!  And the zoo is great…they have all kinds of animals.  Elephants, giraffes, lions, chimpanzees, seals/sea lions, polar bears, and much, much more.  It’s over 5 miles of trails and nice and hilly so you get a good workout in.  (Especially if you challenge your children to race you to the top of every hill like I did last time we were there!)  It’s been the first zoo that each of my children has been to, so it holds a special place in my heart for that reason.  I have a picture of my oldest son on his 1st birthday with an elephant statue, and now we take a picture of all 3 kids with that same statue every time we go.

Take the drive and check it out.  It’s worth the time and money!

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I’m going to start out by saying that I loved my Smartipants!  There was absolutely nothing to worry about because they totally lived up to my expectations.  Can’t recommend them enough, really.  If you’re looking for an easy cloth diaper, it doesn’t get better than this.

Now, to go through the top 3 features that I really liked…

• First, they are easy, easy, easy to care for.  One thing I despise about my other pocket diapers is pulling the insert out to put it in the pail.  Gross, especially if there’s a poop.  Just last week somebody in my house (probably me!) forgot to take out an insert before washing.  It got clean enough, but didn’t dry in the time the other diapers dried.  Not a huge deal, but certainly a pain in the rear I’d rather not deal with.  With Smartipants, you don’t have to do this.  You put them in the pail in one piece and the insert comes out in the wash!  I was skeptical, but it really did work.  They call it the Smart Sleeve and it’s awesome.
• Second, they have snaps.  I am not a huge fan of hook and loop closures.  Every diaper I’ve ever had with H&L closures ends up getting yucky and looking worn after only a few washes.  It frustrates me that no matter how careful I am to use the washing tabs something always gets hung up in the washing process.  This leads to diapers looking more worn out than they should!  Smartipants have snaps to prevent this, and plenty of snap settings to make it a truly one size fits all diaper.  My skinny kids could have worn these from birth!  The other OSFA diapers I’ve tried didn’t fit until they were about 10 pounds, which can mean a long wait for them to actually fit.  This isn’t a problem with Smartipants.
• Third, the price can’t be beat.  right now they are selling a pack of 3 (including 3 inserts) for only $36.95.  This is a really good deal for an easy diaper that can be used from birth to potty training.  If you are a mom who intends to cloth diaper or just want to get a feel for it, the price is a good way to explore the option without making a huge commitment.  And then when you’re sure, it’s a great price to pick up additional diapers when you can.  As for myself, I admit I’m saving up my pennies to order a couple of packs of these.  I’m still building up my diaper stash and had intended to buy another brand but will stick with these now!

As for the additional information you might want to know about a cloth diaper, I’ll try to do a quick rundown!  The construction was good and I was impressed with the sewing.  No loose strings or weak seams.  This can sometimes be an issue with even the pricier diapers and I was glad to see that wasn’t the case here.  The absorbency with one insert was excellent and perfectly adequate for my heavy wetter.  The single diapers come with 2 inserts (or additional inserts are sold separately) but I felt that 1 was plenty for us.  If you use them overnight you may want to try 2, but I’m not sure it would be necessary even then.  I didn’t find that they were any more bulky than our other OSFA insert diapers, though of course they’re a bit more bulky under clothes than a disposable.  I certainly don’t think you could find anything that fits slimmer than this in cloth.  They also have some very pretty colors.  I especially want a purple one for my little Violet!  I would like to see more colors (especially brights!) as they become more popular because I find that to be one of the most fun things about cloth.

Overall, I could not be more impressed.  I still love my other diapers, but Smartipants get a solid 10 from me!  Thanks to Smartipants for the free diaper and a great cloth diapering product!

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So we stopped by a Sprint store yesterday while we were in Apex.  I asked them about a battery and they told me it would be about $50 and they’d have to order it.  My other options were a battery or cell phone accessory store.  Needless to say, paying $50 for a battery when I could spend $50 and get a new phone wasn’t appealing.  And of course the problem is that $50 right now is a huge amount of money to spend!  I took a look at the phones I could get for free but wasn’t impressed.  I really wanted a full keyboard because I’m starting to use text messaging a lot more and I hate texting on a numbers only keypad.

So I declined and figured I’d work my tail off next month so I could have an extra $50 for a new phone.  Then we went to the Cary mall (Why does the Cary mall suck so bad?  You’d think they’d have one of the nicer malls in the Triangle area, but it really is one of the worst!) and I walked past a cell phone accessory store.  I went in to ask the price of a battery and they told me it was $30.  Better, but still not great when I compare what I can get in a new phone.  So I passed again.

We walked by the Best Buy Mobile store and I stopped in to see what they were offering.  A free Rumor (or maybe a rant?) but I wasn’t crazy about it.  I really wanted an LG Lotus or a Samsung Instinct.  Since the Instinct required an upgrade to our plan, so I was leaning towards the Lotus.  But they were both still out of my price range…so I decided to think about the Rumor and just see if maybe I couldn’t find a better deal.

And then we came to Radio Shack.  I left my husband outside with the little kids (1 of whom was screaming because he’d been strapped into the stroller for running off 1 too many times.) and stepped inside with Jackson.  I found out that they had pink refurbished Instincts for free, but since that required a major upgrade to our phone plan I couldn’t justify it.  So I was ready to leave when the salesman asked if he could help…and I told him about my Razr issues and asked how much a battery would be.  It was too expensive, but he said he could check and see if they could give me a discount on anything else.  I told him I really wanted a purple Lotus and he looked at a list and said they could let me have it for FREE.  WOOHOO!!!  They had to get it from another store, but I had it in my hands within an hour.  All it’s going to cost is an $18 activation charge on our next bill, which is a lot less than what a new battery would have cost me.  I guess this is my Mother’s Day gift!  My husband got off cheap this year, but I figured I wouldn’t get anything since things are so tight anyway.

So far I like it a lot.  Texting is so easy with the keyboard, the pictures are great, the screen is nice and big and it’s very easy to use.  Not to mention it is cute as can be!  I love the purple and the flowers and the square design.  I’ve been getting it all set up with ringtones and stuff today (I found a ton of promo codes for free ones) and learning how to work it.  So far it’s great…but now I’m wishing I had a data package so I could really take advantage of all the features!

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