My husband is TOO passive in my opinion. I knew he was timid and non-confrontational before I married him but this has gotten ridiculous!

He allows people to tell him one thing, or make him believe something should be a certain way, when he clearly knows it should be otherwise. This has happened so many times.

He was off work today and took my son to his doctor appointment. They prescribe him some more Zantac for reflux. He talks it to the Wal-Mart that I always go to as they already have his information in the system. When I took his very first prescription there they could not verify prescription coverage on my son’s medical card. I knew we had it and didn’t want to pay full price so the pharmacy employee called the insurance company. She was able to get the prescription coverage number and gave it to me for future reference (if I wanted to go to another pharmacy). I have filled two other prescriptions at that location since then without any problems. Each prescription cost .

So, my husband drops off the prescription and goes to pick it up a few minutes ago. He called and said, “Hey, I got that prescription but it cost . I almost went through the roof. I said, “27???” He said, “Yeah, they said something about him not having prescription coverage but I know that’s a lie because I know we all have it.” I pause for a minute and say, “Okay, did you tell them that?” He said, “Yeah, but they told me they couldn’t pull it up.” I immediately get off the phone and call the pharmacy myself. I speak to an employee. She pulls it up and asks me to verify the baby’s date of birth. I verify it and she says the system says it’s a bad birth date. I tell her it’s correct. She puts me on hold and comes back and says, “Okay, I got it to go through. I had to fix something.” Then she said they gave us a two month supply of medication and the insurance only pays for one month. So we paid the difference in that amount (what they would pay vs. what they wouldn’t). I asked if we had to get a two months supply at once and she said we didn’t. She said I could bring it back and get the one month supply then come back when I run out next month.

I call my husband back to relay this information and he’s like, “Okay, because I knew we had prescription coverage.” Well if you knew that why didn’t you dispute their claim that we didn’t? He does this type of thing ALL THE TIME. Either that, or he won’t get a full understanding of what someone tells him. For example, he’ll say something like, “They need to draw his blood and run tests.” I’ll say, “For what? What are they looking for?” He’ll say, “I don’t know!” Well, damn, shouldn’t you ask? Sometimes I feel so bad for feeling the way I do because he is a good father and won’t flinch when it comes to taking him to appointments or whatever else is necessary, but something has got to give here.

I really have tried to step back so he can play a more active role in our business affairs, but this is why I am so reluctant to. Do you think I have a right to get angry or am I just an anal b****?
He will be 32 this year and I will be 33. Age shouldn’t matter but I would be more compassionate about this type of behavior if he were 18 or 19. I guess the fact that he is an only child and his mother always handled ALL their household affairs could have something to do with it. But I am not used to this (even after almost six years of marriage I can’t understand). I am used to taking care of business.

I am doing a research and I need some places that implemented an e-business strategy and took off with it. I can think of many stores (as in ebay and amazon) but I need one that started off as a regular store. Not Wal-mart or Target.

Do Wal-Mart’s business practices raise or lower our standard-of-living? Quality of Life?

Is Wal-Mart’s business strategy fair?
I think of Wal-Mart the same way I think of Microsoft…I call it Monopoly,

1–Their business strategies unfair, however I do not disagree with their practices, but I do disagree the way the government handle both companies.

2–"The Standard of living refers to the quality and quantity of goods and services available to people" (Not to be confused with Quality of Life)

3– Wal-Mart offers convenience, a variety of selection, low prices for the people and bankruptcy for small, independent Small businesses who can’t compete with Wal-Mart’s Prices.
Keep in Mind that by Wal-mart Forcing Manufactures to sell them at lower price to provide customers with a lower price, Manufactures are now taking the Jobs Overseas, Living thousands of unemployed North Americans.

I have a major problem this the e-mail that I sent to BBB :

"I have a HP laptop Pavilion dv7 that I purchased from Wal-Mart brand new in 2008. A couple months after the manufactures warranty expired I accidentally dropped my laptop at school but it did not break anything but the faceplate over the charger port; however, the laptop was still use able but it did not charge. I took my laptop to my local computer store in Roxboro,NC. They informed me that we did not work with the power port and that I would have to go to different company that does good work with charger ports. Due to my schedule I just went to the closets computer shops on the list, so with that I went to Danville,VA to ‘Computer Clinics’ located on 932 Arnett Boulevard Danville, VA 24540-2233 (P-(434) 791-2111). Once I got there I told the receptionist what happened and I was told that I would receive a phone call once the technician looks at my laptop. A couple of days went by and I received a phone call while at work from Computer Clinics stating that I would be charged 0.00 fee + .00 for parts. So I agreed to it and I was told that I would receive a phone call once my laptop was ready for pick-up only to my disbelief I get a call saying that my motherboard was broken and that there was no charge for the services, it would be fairly expensive to repair the motherboard in which it would be cheaper to purchase another laptop. So I wanted to check my laptop out myself but my schedule didn’t work around the business hours of Computer Clinics so I asked a friend to pick it up for me. When he got to Computer Clinics a technician told him that my password that I gave them did NOT work. So once I had my laptop in my possession I noticed that the charger port was now fixed but the laptop itself would not power on. So the following Saturday I return with several witness before I contact the BBB with a case and have a little talk with the technicians. They could not find the written ticket that was written up but found some information on their computer systems, I talked with the technician named John who told me that he would look at my laptop the following Monday morning. Before closing time on Monday I called back to Computer Clinics to see what was resolved and I was told by another technician that my laptop motherboard was broken where the charger port was at and it could not be turned on. And quoted me a price of a new motherboard for my laptop.

I’m highly upset with this company and the only thing I want done is my laptop fixed. Before I brought my laptop to Computer Clinics I used my laptop at school charging my battery with my sister’s computer since we have the same computer just different styling. I have all my voice mails from the computer clinics receptionist and my call logs from my cell phone and my slip from Computer Solutions in Roxboro, NC referring to different computer businesses that could fix the charger port since most companies would not touch a charger port."

I know I’m not a computer tech but I know there story doesn’t add up and that laptop was the top of the line HP Laptop at the time and I had no intentions of getting a new one or having it in use. I would like to know some information about how to get my laptop fixed by the company that royally screwed me over – pardon my language and it basically trying to weasel their way out of not fixing it- unless I pay. Please I need someone(s) help to what my next step I should take. Also note that this takes place within two different states: NC, VA.

1) Head set with attached mic (probably bought from Wal-Mart)

2) Bluetooth adapter and getting a bluetooth headset

3) Getting a desk mic and using my computer speakers

Being unemployed for 2 1/2 months after working 11 years as a hotel manager and now searching for work has left me emotionally drained and riddled with self doubt. At first I had a hard time believing that virtually EVERYONE needs you to pee in a cup – I don’t really care, it’s their dime. After receiving a few job offers that weren’t worth the time , I decided to go register at a temp service after seeing an ad in the paper for a well paying factory job. Took the online test – passed – shceduled the interview. Went to the "interview" and sat there with about 8 other people to take timed tests which entailed putting dots in triangles and check marks in boxes, which concluded with "if you qualified, we’ll be in touch in 2-3 weeks – if you need work before then, call one of our offices". I’m sure we all had the same look on our faces judging by the look on the instructor’s face. So I call these offices and got "sorry, we don’t have anything right now". I can’t seem to get an office job, even though I have 11 years in management because I’m not proficient in Microsoft Office (we didn’t use that software in the hotel industry) and I can’t even get a response from places like Wal-Mart (my 18 yr.old son got hired) or Lowes (2 clerks who worked for me at the hotel did) . WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?? Should I dummy-down my resume for retail jobs? I am 38 yrs.old and have a solid work history and great references. I was saving temp agencies for a last resort and have now hit a dead end with them too. I live in a mid-size town and am about 30 miles from any big city – I’m willing to work for entry level pay but who can afford to drive that far for minimum wage (.85/hr in Ohio) I can’t believe that alot of these places make you fill out stupid questionaires and take "quizzes" instead of conducting a real interview. Have I become that out of touch in 11 years? What should I do? I’ll be OK for another month or two, but I’m getting concerned about losing my entire savings and maybe ultimately my house. Sorry, I know this is more of a rant than a question, but I’m really needing some advice, suggestions, or a fresh perspective to keep myself from totally falling apart here.

I have found yet another loan scam out there in this world from a company called Richfield Lending Group that states they are from Carolina. These individuals assume people are foolish enough to send advance funds to a blind individual in Canada and then they will get a "personal loan" from them. For example, if they "approve you" for ,000, then they ask you to send impound and escrow fees of around ,700 to them for the "first seven months of the loan". When the monies are sent to them through "money gram" from a wal mart, or others, to a place in canada, they will then within one business day, turn around with funds. This is like a Nigerian Loan Scam, they do not exist, they take your money, change their phone numbers, use nextel or sprint for their cell phones, use answering systems to make it seem they are local and try to share personal information with you…all the while trying to scam you out of money for loans that neither exist, nor will ever exist. Has anyone else been taken out there by these so called people? Please let me know, as the Police and FBI, from South Carolina are in need as much information as they can get for their files to try to stop these individuals from fleecing people in a horrific economy. Thanks.

I knew better, and I still walked right into it.
It all started with Best Buy.

(I hear your gasp of horror already. I know, I know: How many sob stories have begun with that phrase? Some day children will try to scare each other with stories set in large consumer electronic chain stores. "’The call is coming from INSIDE THE COMP USA!’")

According to the August 15, 1999 Sunday paper, they had computer memory on sale, cheap cheap cheap. Their price was low to begin with, and the mail-in rebate made it a great deal. I’d been meaning to add more memory to my computer for a while, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Granted, I had to go by Best Buy on a Sunday. See, our local Best Buy is in a shopping center along with a Wal-Mart, a Barnes & Noble, and any other number of shrines to consumerism. This wouldn’t be so bad if the shopping center in question weren’t in its own cul-de-sac, with only one road feeding it from the main highway nearby. Getting into the shopping center isn’t hard. It’s getting out that will try your patience, especially on a weekend.

But for those memory prices, I’d gladly brave the horrors of traffic and the throngs of people whose job, near as I can tell, is to wander around Best Buy staring slack-jawed at the miracles of modern electronics and in general getting in people’s way.

I made it to the Best Buy just fine. I made my way through the crowd of people milling about the store, finally arriving at the computer department.

No one was at the desk. The memory was kept in locked glass cabinets; without an employee, there was no way to get the memory.

There was one person in front of me at the counter. I waited for about ten minutes, watching other people wander around the computer department and listening to one of the sales staff explain the wonders of Compaq laptops to a customer. Finally, I asked the guy in front of me how long he’d been waiting for help. "Oh, about forty minutes," he told me.

"Hold my spot," I told him, then went in search of help. Both of the employees I could see were busy with customers. I decided to bother the guy hawking Compaqs. "Say, we’ve been waiting a while," I said, pointing to the man at the counter who by this point was slumped against it as if all the life was being drained from his body. "Can you get someone to help us?"

"Oh, you need Frank. He’s got the key."

"Where’s Frank?"

"I dunno. He went on break a little while ago. He should be back soon."

"Soon" in this case meant "fifteen minutes." I spent the time chatting with the guy in front of me in line. "I never come here if I can help it," he said. "But their prices on some stuff are so good, I end up breaking my vow never to come here again."

Frank eventually showed up. "We’re both after some of that 64Mb of memory that’s on sale," my new-found friend told Frank.

Frank glanced towards the cabinet. "Oh, we’ve sold out of that."

I took another look at the cabinet. There were packages of memory in the slot labelled "64Mb memory". "What’s that?" I asked, pointing.

Frank took a closer look at the cabinet. "That’s just some 32Mb memory. We ran out of room for it in its usual spot."

Oh, lovely. "When do you expect to get some more memory in?"

"Trucks come on Tuesday morning. Check back with us then."

I made my way back out of the store, pushing my way past an insanely long line at the customer service desk. I’d have to wait, or try some of the other Best Buy stores in the region.

On Monday, I asked Misty to stop by the Best Buy in Raleigh on her way home from work. At the time she worked on the far side of Raleigh, so could swing by on her way back from work and pick some up.

They didn’t have any, she was told, but should be restocked "on Tuesday morning." We decided to call before bothering with another trip to either store.

Misty and I spent the next few days trying to get a call through to the Best Buy in either Raleigh or Durham. The procedure went something like this:

Dial the number for the computer department.
Listen to it ring for a while.
Eventually hang up. Try the number for the customer service department instead.
Listen to the phone ring.
If you’re lucky, someone finally answers. Tell the person, "I’m trying to find out if you have any of the 64Mb of memory that was advertised in your Sunday circular."
The person who answered the phone will say something like, "Mrbl fll mmtm." Do not be alarmed; this is normal.
Wait on hold while Mumble Man goes to get an employee from the computer department on the phone, or to check the stock himself.
After a while, either the phone will spontaneously hang up on you, or another Mumble Man will pick up the phone. If the latter occurs, go back three steps.
Misty eventually short-circuited this process by asking for a customer service manager. The manager was able to tell her that, yes, they had some of the memory. After work she stopped by to buy two packages of memory.

It took her over an hour to get someone to wait on her and get her the memory.

But never mind that, I had my memory! I popped the memory in the computer, filled out my rebate forms, and sent them in the mail to PNY Technologies, Inc. When I first went to Best Buy on Sunday I had grabbed a number of the necessary rebate forms, and I decided to keep one of the extras, since it had contact information in the unlikely case that my rebates didn’t arrive.

September passed, then October. The form had said to wait eight weeks from the closing date of the offer, September 4th, before bugging them about the rebate. By November 10th, I had tired of waiting. I called the 1-888 number listed on the card.

It was busy.

Okay, no problem, I thought. I’ll just send e-mail to the address on the card.

The e-mail I sent came back. No such account at Prodigy.

I kept trying to call that 1-888 number. I called early in the day. I called late in the afternoon. I would walk past the phone in my office, then spring towards it and punch in the number quickly, in the hopes of surprising PNY. The line was always busy.

After a week of this, I did a little research and got the number for PNY corporate headquarters. (It’s 973-515-9700, should this ever happen to you.) Before calling that number, I decided to try the 1-888 number once again.

Lo and behold, it rang. To my amazement, someone picked up the phone. To my further amazement, she was helpful. I explained that I hadn’t received my rebate for the two packages of memory I’d bought. She tapped away on her computer for a few minutes, then told me that PNY had sent the checks, but that the post office had returned them. She asked me for my address. I gave it to her.

"Huh," she said. "That’s the same address as we have in our computers. Well, don’t worry. We’ll get your rebate to you. It’ll take about four weeks."

It didn’t even take that long. On Monday, December 6th, the check arrived. I tore it open.

The check was for . It only covered half of the rebate I was due.

Again I tried calling the 1-888 number. Again it was busy. This time I decided not to fool around. I called corporate headquarters and asked to speak to someone about my rebate.

They sent me to extension 2002, where I spoke to a man named Gerald. He took my information and promised to pass it on to "the person who takes care of this." He also assured me that, since it was so close to Christmas, the rebate center was swamped, and that my second check was probably delayed. "Give it another few weeks," he asked.

I gave it another few weeks, by which time it was Christmas, and then New Year’s. The check hadn’t arrived by the 6th, and the whole world hadn’t descended into chaos because of the Y2K bug, so it was time to call PNY Technologies, Inc. again.

The 1-888 number was (surprise!) busy. I called corporate H.Q. and spoke to Gerald again. "You’re the third person who’s called about this this week." Somehow, I wasn’t surprised. "Give it one more week."

I gave it two, then called back on January 19th. This time I reached an answering machine. I left a message and my number, as if I thought that they might actually call me back.

Rather than wait for them to call me, I tried again on the 20th. I got the machine again, so I left another, less civil message.

I decided to try again on the 21st. Hey, if nothing else I could start coming up with creative messages to leave on the machine. I was surprised when I got a live person on the phone, a man named Victor. I told him my story, including the part about the missing e-mail address, the busy 1-888 number, and Gerald’s "help." He gave me a toll-free number to call in case I ever had to call back, and said, "Give me about five minutes to look up your account. I’ll call you back."

That was at 3:25. At 3:32 he was back on the phone. "I couldn’t find your account. Did you personally buy the memory, or did someone else?" I told him that Misty had bought the memory. He said, "Let me check again. I’ll get right back to you."

Amazingly enough, he was true to his word. He was back on the phone at 3:39. "One check was sent out previously, and I’ve authorized you for the second one. It should arrive in three weeks."

I was skeptical, but Victor turned out to be correct. On the 8th of February, 2000, my second check arrived. It came in one of those perforated tear-open paper envelopes, and on the inside was a special message to me from PNY Technologies, Inc. and the TCA Rebate Center:

STOP!
Don’t Cash this Check
(Trade it in for a Greater Value)
SPECIAL OFFER
Send your rebate check back to us (to the address on the check), and we will send you The Millennium PassTM, a Y2K solution to keep your computer running properly after January 1, 2000 (A .99 value!)

When the new year arrives, many computers (even newer ones) will not be able to recognize the difference between dates in the years 1900 and 2000. This problem could cause your computer to behave erratically and even lose data!

The Millennium PassTM installs in minutes in your computer, and will fix the Y2K bug instantly.
Unlike software solutions, it will not disappear if you re-load system software, and is not subject to virus attacks. It also uses less system resources, since it is an 8-bit add-on card (hardware), and unlike software, it does not use memory or disk space to operate. It becomes a permanent part of your computer, taking over the date/time function of your system.

To get the Millennium PassTM (a .99 value), simply return this check (send the entire page-do not endorse check).
We will ship your Y2K Protection right back to you.

I decided not to take them up on this generous offer.

——————————————————————————–

Lately when I go to Wal-Mart (especially), or fast food places all I get is rude associates! What happened to the smiling faces and "hi how are you today" and "have a nice day" All they do is tell me my total–No eye contact, no nothing! I worked in retail for 5yrs and friendly customer service was a must. No matter what was going on in my personal life–I didn’t take it out on customers. I know how holidays are and all so I don’t see why management lets them get away with it or why they hire these people int the first place! My question: Am I the only one annoyed by this?

I had a desk given to me, but I noticed the drawer was hard to pull out and push in. The previous owners were opening it up instead of pulling it out, so they damaged the track that the drawers slides on to open and close.

It is really bad, so we took out the drawer to look at it and the track/railing (what ever it is called) it all bent up from when it was being opened it was being jerked up and out instead of just pulling it out.

Well, all I need is to buy a new track – I took off the old one and it is very simple to do. But, I can’t find a place in that sells these things.

We went to office depot, home depot (they sell them, but a larger size for making kitchen cabinets and such), wal-mart, and a small hardware store. No one sells this part. I can’t even find them on the internet. But, I know they sell them. The top drawer in this desk has a different kind – they obviously replaced that one.

I have to image people who build desks or refurbish them, buy these parts from somewhere. It is silly to buy a whole new desk over a small part like this that is easily fixable.

Thanks