The other day, I picked up a box of Kellogg’s Cinnabon Bars. I know they aren’t good for me but they looked interesting so I thought I’d give them a try.

When I opened the box, I noticed that the bars seemed to be really small compared to the size of the box that housed them. Then, I was even more surprised to find just how small the bar actually was. I took a picture so you can see for yourself:

Okay, I’m sure it’s expensive to make different size boxes for different products but I have to say that this just seems deceptive to me. I mean, why use such a big box and wrapper for such a small product?

These product downsizings are starting to get ridiculous and sneaky. Needless to say, I won’t be buying this product again (it didn’t even taste that good).

My other two laptops I cannot say the same for. They have both turned out to be pieces of crap!

Here’s what happened.

The second laptop—a Pavilion dv2415nr—was purchased in July, 2007. We owned it about a year or so when one day, we went to turn it on and the screen would not light up. The computer acted like it was booting up but the screen would do nothing. The indicator lights came on and everything.

I took into Best Buy and the tech told me that I needed a new motherboard and that the repair would cost $400! I paid $800 for the computer! I told him no and brought it home and put in the closet.

Then, like an idiot, I went and bought ANOTHER HP. This time I purchased a Pavilion dv4 model. I don’t know the exact date of the purchase, but I would say it was around a year ago. Anyway, it ran fine until last week, we went to turn it on and it did the exact same thing the other Pavilion did!

Well, that made me curious so I did a search on HP computer issues and found this website, which detailed the issues I was having. I found out that the dv2000 was listed but the newer computer was not. So I called HP’s customer service number (1-866-671-7362) and spoke with a service rep.

She told me that there were issues with the dv2000/dv6000/dv9000 and Compaq Presario V3000/V6000 series notebook PCs. The issue had something to do with the AMD processor and the video card. I’m not exactly sure. But, the bottom line was that my computer was out of warranty&151;even with the additional warranty that was extended to these particular laptops.

I was not happy.

I told the lady that I wasn’t aware that there was a mass issue with these computers until the SECOND computer had the same issue. Only then did I do research to find out that I wasn’t the only one having problems. I also told her that I had been a loyal HP customer and that I had a 3.5-year old computer that I paid $1,200 for, a $500 Officejet, and now $1,600 worth of USELESS PIECES OF CRAP.

She said, “Unfortunately, I don’t have the means to change your purchase date.”

I hung up. I’m so frustrated.

I can promise you this: unless this issue gets resolved, I will NEVER buy another HP product again. NEVER! I will also not let this rest.

If you have had this issue, PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT.

UPDATE: Looks like there’s a class action lawsuit about this issue:

So, what does Mr. Thain do after he becomes CEO? He decides to spend $1.2 million renovating his office (emphasis mine):

Mr. Thain said he plans to reimburse Merrill for the $1.2 million spent to renovate his office, saying those expenses were “incurred in a very different environment.” Mr. Thain renovated his office when he first arrived at Merrill in late 2007. Among the items purchased for the office were an area rug for $87,784, Roman shades for $7,315 and four pairs of curtains for $87,784.

Ummm…no they weren’t! True, we didn’t know how bad things were going to get, but we knew things were bad.

My question is: how bad could his office have possibly been in that would require a $1.2 million renovation?

Oh, and don’t even get me started on bonuses:

According to a person familiar with the situation, the merger agreement specified that Merrill pay regular bonuses. Since the company was going to cease to exist at the end of 2008, that meant, by definition, that the bonuses had to be paid before the end of the year.

Why would Bank of America agree to this in the first place? These companies are losing money left and right and they have the audacity to even think about paying out bonuses. COME ON!

Source: Thain Fires Back at Bank of America, Wall Street Journal Tuesday, January 27, 2009

“Hello. This is Rachel from cardholder services. There are no problems currently with your credit card account but it’s important that you act fast in order to reduce your interest rates.”

And then she goes on to say, “Please consider this your final notice. Press 1 to talk to a representative about lowering your interest rates or press 2 to receive no further calls.”

I would LOVE for it to be my final notice but it never is!

I have pressed 2 like 50 million times and I KEEP GETTING THE FREAKIN’ CALLS! I have also pressed one and gotten a rep on the phone and as soon as I mention I want to be taken off their list the woman abruptly hangs up on me!!!!! Talk about frustrating!

I have no credit card debt so they’re wasting their time with me. I’m not a potential customer. It would be to their benefit to take me off their stinkin’ list.

Does anyone know the company behind these calls? What they are doing is illegal but I can’t figure out a way to get to them. I don’t have caller ID and I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t do any good because I’m sure they hide the number.

Do you guys (and gals) get these calls? Surely I’m not the only one!

I think from now on I’m going to press 1 to get to an operator and act all excited about their program and just TOTALLY WASTE THEIR TIME! You know, drag it on for several minutes. The problem with this strategy is that while I’m wasting their time, I’m also wasting mine…

Remember me complaining about our Price Pfister kitchen faucet not even two months ago? To refresh your memory, our faucet had a problem with the diverter. The diverter is a little piece of plastic that diverts the water from the faucet to the hose or vice versa.

Our diverter went out, which caused extremely low water flow. To make matters worse, the faucet was only about 10 months old! I called Price Pfister’s customer service department (FYI – Price Pfister is owned by Black and Decker) and they were more than happy to send me out a new diverter for “free.” The only thing is, I had to pay $8 for them to ship it to me! I balked at the idea but gave in and said, “Fine. Send me the parts.”

Well, the parts came and I fixed the faucet. Everything was fine and dandy up until about 3 days ago when I noticed that the water flow is steadily decreasing again! It’s starting to act the same way it acted two months ago. Two months! I thought I’d get to use it at least 10 months like I did with the other one. I guess not.

I’m telling you…this product is a piece of crap! Companies really don’t care about their customers. If they did, they wouldn’t make such crap. Never again will I buy a Price Pfister product. Never!

They raise prices on a whim, why can’t they lower them the same way? I know the answer, I’m just ranting.

Okay, I’m done ranting for now.

I feel like an idiot.

My wife and I have been buying Tyson’s “100% All-Natural” Chicken products because the package stated that the chicken was raised without antibiotics. Well, according this article in the Wall Street Journal, Tyson can no longer use that labeling on their products because they do contain an antibiotic:

In September, Tyson was notified by the agency that it had made a mistake in awarding the label because Tyson was using ionophores, an antibiotic widely used in the industry but considered less harmful by some because, generally, it is administered to animals and not humans.

In other words, Tyson has been lying to consumers! I love this load of BS from Tyson’s senior vp of consumer products explaining why they are changing their packaging:

Dave Hogberg, senior vice president of consumer products for Tyson, said, “We still support the idea of marketing chicken raised without antibiotics, because we know it’s what most consumers want. However, in order to preserve the integrity of our label and our reputation as a premier company in the food industry, we believe there needs to be more specific labeling and advertising protocols developed.”

I love the way they make it look like they are taking the high road on this one.

This is just one more example of why I’m so skeptical of everything.

Wow! That’s two rants in one day!

What?

On top of that, they mysteriously added $1 to my order for no apparant reason (unless altering the Supreme pizza costs more).

So, my order was about $2 more than usual, which represents a nearly 10% price increase. It seems like EVERYTHING is costing more these days. Sure, $2.00 doesn’t sound like a lot but when you consider that nearly everything is going up in price, it represents a significant price increase.

Oh, and while we’re talking about Pizza Hut, those Tuscani Pastas they have been advertising on TV are nothing like they make them out to be! There’s no way that the people in the TV commercial could be fooled into thinking they were eating anything fancier than fast food. My family wasn’t impressed.

“something given voluntarily or beyond obligation usually for some service”

The other night my daughter had her first dance recital (my daughter calls it a “dance cital”). After the recital my wife and I took her family to Olive Garden to celebrate the evening. It was after 9:00 pm by the time we arrived at the restaurant so our wait was minimal. After we were seated the restaurant started clearing out, which meant that our server had fewer tables to serve. I’m sure with the closing time approaching, our server did have other things to do besides serve our table.

Although her service wasn’t “bad” it wasn’t “good” either. It was sort of in the middle. What bugged me was when the check came and I noticed that the tip had been automatically added to the check because we were a party of more than eight people. It wouldn’t have bothered me so much if it had been the standard 15% tip. Instead it was 18% and then there was a line for an additional tip.

When did the standard tip percentage increase from 15% to 18%?

Now before you start thinking that I’m a mean guy, let me be clear that I am a fair tipper. I don’t undertip and when the service warrants it, I leave a nice tip. But, in accordance with the definition of gratuity, the tip should be VOLUNTARY! I did notice at the bottom of the check, there was a note that stated that an 18% voluntary gratuity would be added to parties of 8 or more. When they automatically add it in, it doesn’t feel voluntary. It puts me in the position of looking like a mean ol’ customer if I don’t think the service warranted an 18% tip. If 15% is the bottom line, then why not make that the voluntary gratuity?

I understand that restaurants started adding in tips because of cheap customers. But, how is waiting tables in a restaurant any different than spending several hours or days working on a presentation in order to make a sale and still losing out on the business? Should the company that refused to do business with you be required to compensate you for the time involved in putting your presentation together?

I have never been a server in a restaurant so this post was written solely from the customer’s point of view. I’m sure current or former servers will have a different point of view from mine. That’s okay. I will say that as far as I’m concerned, the automatic tip will almost ALWAYS be less than I would have given on my own.

On Sunday I visited my local Sears to buy a garden hose. As we were walking into the store I noticed trash everywhere. It looked like we were shopping in a slum. It was horrible. Then, as I walked into the store, there were FOUR employees just standing around doing nothing! Why the heck couldn’t one of them pull his head out of his *** and go pick up some trash?

That’s one my biggest pet peeves in the retail business: people standing around doing nothing. There’s almost ALWAYS something to do (go take a look at the restroom!).

Anyway, sorry to rant. Blame it on BankerGirl!