Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with hassle

Ordered X, got Y. Help?

kmennie — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 11:32:03 -0800

Spent $$ on wooden blocks with "beautiful nine-colour palette." Got seven blah colours. novanatural.com's response: "that's what our supplier gave us." Visa: "That's, uh, a bad situation." Now what? A month ago I ordered $50 blocks because they looked so nice, and I was happy to spend $35 on shipping for them. The description has been changed on the site, but as per the catalogue, they were supposed to have a "beautiful" "nine-colour palette."

I got seven colours that don't look like the ones in the catalogue, with twice the amount of an unappealing orange. They were shipped loose in the box, and there was some paint transfer that made it look like a toddler had been at them with a marker. Here's a scan of the catalogue page and the actual blocks.

I immediately sent a polite note, and waited ten days for a response blithering about the "handcrafted nature" of the mistake and about "subtly varied shades of each dye hue being taken up. From our point of view, these nuances only add to the beauty of the blocks." I tried again to explain: you advertised X and sent Y. I also pointed out that the "estimated shipping" was $35, the actual shipping was $25, the credit card damage was $35. I said that receiving the missing colours would still make for an unhappy experience but I'd be satisfied.

No; the crap they sent is the crap they got from their supplier, tough. How about a $10 gift certificate?

I asked them to make arrangements for me to ship the blocks back to them at their expense and for them to refund the $85; that was ten days ago, nothing.

Visa's position is that I can return the blocks at my own expense via registered mail and they'll credit my card the $50 purchase price within 30 days. I would then be out more on shipping than the blocks are worth, of course.

I'm amazed by this; I've never had a problem with ordering from novanatural.com before. I couldn't be more disgusted with them now, though. $85 is a lot of money for ugly blocks, and at the end of the day, it's my daughter who's getting shafted, with the ugly blocks still in the box. I pointed out to Nova the obvious play irritation of the double-the-amount-of-one-colour problem...

Do I have any possible recourse? (FWIW, they are in the States, I'm in Canada.) They are not listed with the BBB, unsurprisingly. Ontario consumer protection what-not doesn't seem to offer anything that applies.

Word for, less hassle to comply despite legal right to refuse?

vanoakenfold — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 19:25:47 -0800

Is there a term for a situation where, despite the fact that it would be within one's legal rights to refuse, simple compliance would save more hassle than arguing the point? I'm currently in an online discussion regarding my outright favor toward people showing their receipt to the receipt-checker at the exit of a retail store. Simple compliance with a hassle-free (if you have equal or greater manual dexterity than say, a manatee) request like this is far beyond any hassle that would occur than if one were to attempt establish the right as true and getting company security involved, etc., considering it is direct refusal to cooperate with a fatuously uncomplicated request (otherwise being a major red flag that you're being dishonest, despite whether you are completely innocent). It's like outrightly refusing to breathe in deeply when a doctor asks you to -- you don't legally have to, but umm.. hello. I digress.

Is there perhaps also a term to therefore describe a person who believes compliance to such an incalculably insignificant hassle is far simpler than to stir up trouble by refusing, demanding to speak to management, etc, despite the perfectly (but lesser known) legal right to refuse?

How about that TSA?

Mutant — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 02:03:54 -0800

So just how bad is the TSA these days? I'm American and I've lived in London for the past eleven years. During that time I've been back to the United States many times, but always Business Class travel solely into New York, Chicago, Washington, and Vegas. I can't recall the last time I've taken an internal flight in the United States.

In April I'm taking the lovely Mrs Mutant back home to The Farm to meet Maw and the rest of the kin. We got married in Vegas last September, and as Maw simply will not travel (a lethargy inducing combination of being widowed, 30 plus cats and dawgs, suspicion about anybody who ain't "from here", fear of "those people" and a healthy dose of "why anyone wanna go there?") this will be the first time she's met her Daughter in Law. Mrs Mutant is Dutch, but has spoken to Maw often on the telephone, who has allowed privately to me that her Daughter in Law "seems all right". High regards indeed.

We're flying into JFK and have to get to Western New York, Lake Ontario area. I'm inclined to take Amtrak (note only the train is so so European, the trip would allow my wife to see the scale of America) even though its roughly eight hours on the Lake Shore Limited, but before I booked wanted to query about recent TSA experiences, particularly traveling between New York and Buffalo.

I've read some of the negative stories about the TSA, realise those folks have a tough job, but still thought it worth asking. There may be differences when traveling into destinations such as Buffalo. Also when I travel my single carry on is a pilots case similar to this one, the largest IATA approved bag. Will I have any problems with this if we take a domestic flight? I routinely take this to Amsterdam, flying on a very small, Fokker 50 and it fits into the overhead just fine.

Typically I've got it packed with two Apple PowerBooks, an external hard drive, power supplies, USB & iPod cables, and a large collection of finance books & research papers.

Bonus points if anyone's got any tips or information on Amtrak, particularly how it compares to European train travel.

Many thanks for your help!

Sources for non-crap maternity clothing for Canucks?

kmennie — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 10:28:57 -0800

I want maternity clothes that are not poor quality, not made from artificial fibres, not ill-fitting, not $250 each, and not "trendy." Sigh.

To try to sum up: I think the ideal might be a slightly more formal L.L. Bean.

To ramble on: as for the usual suspects: I've found decent stuff at the Gap -- some. Old Navy is a write-off at the moment; it's all slutty pseudo-athletic-wear. (IANA21-yr-old.) There's no Target in Canada. Wal-Mart has garbage. Ditto Thyme Maternity. Motherhood has supplied a few okay things. Second-hand stores have been good, but going to six stores to score one shirt is getting tedious. The Bay, eh. EBay, with its "I'll charge you $15 for shipping, and spend $4 on ditto," isn't worth it for Canadians.

The nicest bit of summer clothing for the eggplant-shaped I have is a linen blazer from Lands' End; irritatingly, they aren't really doing maternity anymore.

Similar previous questions have led me to browse babystyle.com; not bad, but no shipping to Canada. I ordered stuff from Motherwear on 22 March; I have no Motherwear, and nothing good to say about their customer service. Any comments on Special Addition (despite horrid name)?

I want a plain linen suit, I want a linen shift dress, I want a light coat; size 6 (S is often too small, M too big -- WTF is it with the "you're pregnant; it doesn't need to flatter" sizing?), no luck so far. My chest is breaking out periodically, so the popularity of low-cut stuff is another kick in the face.

Hopefully I'm overlooking some little wee boutique on-line stores with non-crap stuff? If it has exactly what I want at a good price and only ships to the US, and is not Motherwear, I'll consider having a friend send it along, but Canadian-friendly places are the ideal.

Mortgage broker or big bank, and does personality count?

kmennie — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 10:57:00 -0800

I'm getting a mortgage; I have been talking to my bank, and two mortgage brokers. They are competing, of course, but I'm not real clear on what's important. Went to a major (Canadian) bank months ago, were approved (for more than we were asking for), without hassle. Nothing changed on this end, but, 24h before the initial closing, the manager -- let's call her Banker Barbara -- decided she wanted a co-signer.

"No," I said. Thank heavens nobody else was interested in the house; extended closing, called a broker...

Within the same 24h, the bank no longer wanted a co-signer. (Huh? I didn't get anything approaching a decent explanation for the temporary screw-over.) 5.10%.

The first broker I went to after the screw-over, "Bob," also offered 5.10%.

Broker "Billy" then entered the picture, at 4.99%.

Banker Barbara: "4.98." I am still irked with Banker Barbara, and I like Broker Billy.

I am less of a fan of Broker Bob, but he's now dangling 4.94 (not guaranteed, but).

Do I let them compete against each other until zero hour? Hang it all and go with Broker Billy? Is there some advantage to having one's mortgage with a big bank? How important is it that I like who I'm dealing with? (If that's important, it looks to be particularly so here. Bob and Barbara irritate; Billy, I like, and he/his assistant are top-notch at quickly giving good answers to questions.) What sort of "what else is involved vis-a-vis your brand of mortgage" questions should I be asking?

Ripped off at the E85 pump

bradn — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 12:02:19 -0800

"My first experience purchasing an alternative fuel (E85)", or "How can I get my $20ish back?" or, "why is this such a pain in the ass?" Brace yourself:

So Saturday I bought a flex fuel vehicle, a 07 Impala. I feel good about running E85, it's cheaper than gas right now, and there are a few stations in the area, it seems like a good idea that i can feel good about.

Today I go to one of the few E85-carrying stations in Milwaukee, near my job, at 425 E Capitol. They have 2 E85 pumps, one is out of order. I quickly find that the credit card reader on the "good" pump is also out of order. No problem, I'll pay inside. I begin pumping. When the gallons meter hits 25, I say to myself, "there's no way this tank is that big". So I stop the pump, and take the nozzle out, at which point the overflowing e85 spills down the side of my car into a puddle on the ground which appeared to be water. Apparently the auto stop on the pump is not working. I go inside to get a towel (because this is the kind of station that never refills towels or window washer), and the clerk asks for me to pay, at which point I do, like a complete moron with my mind more concerned with what the ethanol is doing to my new car's paint. I walk out with the towels and wipe off the car, then look at the owner's manual to see that the tank has a capacity of 17 gallons. I never saw fuel spilling out, but it had to go somewhere. I just paid $56.35 for 25.626 gallons. After arguing with the clerk, who i could barely understand and could barely understand me, showing him the capacity in my owner's manual, calling the citgo distributor as he told me to (who said to call the station owner), I gave up. Back at work I tried Citgo's website (all stations independantly owned and operated) and called the station again, got the name of the owner (Multani Petroleum), called them only to hear that they no longer own that station. I once again gave up.

As I was leaving the station, the clerk put an "out of order" plastic bag over the nozzle, and I assume it will sit there for weeks if not months. The small E85 sign in front sits behind a snow bank, and has no price numbers on it.

It's difficult enough to get regular unleaded in a city full of gas stations that are improperly maintained, dirty, overpriced, and not customer friendly, how is one supposed to take advantage of this new fuel, and aid in helping set up an infrastucture that could help us consume less oil?

Also, any ideas how I can get my money back?