If you purchase an item and have it gift wrapped by the retailer, the odds are quite good that they’ll remove the price tags and include a special receipt that doesn’t show any prices. From what I understand, this is standard practice for gift-wrapped orders. As a result, you don’t have to wonder whether there […]

Last week, I got a rather peculiar email from a company whose products I use. Based on the text in the “From” field, I could easily see that the message was from the department that handles online account management and bill payment. But the subject line was another story. It said “Your login is changing”, […]

When I was at the dentist the other day, I received an unexpected treat: trial-sized packages of a few dental care products that I use. As pretty much everyone knows, it’s a hassle to cram all your personal care products into a single plastic bag when traveling on a plane. Thus, swapping out a few […]

I’ve been keeping track of the new product announcements from several of the major wireless carriers, in the hopes of identifying a suitable replacement for my current cell phone. As the holiday shopping season approached, I expected all of the carriers to release a flurry of long-rumored handsets. However, Black Friday and Cyber Monday have […]

As more and more people start using e-book readers like the Kindle and Nook, the practice of giving e-books as holiday gifts will probably become quite common. In fact, I purchased my first e-book gifts a few days ago. Overall, the process worked smoothly, though I was left wishing for one thing: the ability to […]

My wife and I changed dentists recently, which meant filling out a pile of “New Patient” forms. As I’ve come to expect, the forms asked for every conceivable piece of information, and some of the questions were repeated two or three times for no apparent reason. All told, it took me a full three hours […]

Recently, I have been faced with the rather frustrating task of terminating the relationship with a vendor that we hired only a few months ago, and locating a new vendor to replace them. Without getting into the details, the first vendor simply lacked the expertise to complete the project they took on. They weren’t familiar […]

The last time I went to the grocery store, I flagged down a manager so that I could convey a rather strange request. You see, during the previous trip, they undercharged me by about $15-20. I didn’t notice the error until after I got home, so I just kept the receipt on hand so I […]

I’ve been using the same brands of paper products (e.g. tissues and paper towels) for years. Actually, I’m so particular about these items that I always make sure to buy the exact product variants that I’ve used before. Thus, it should come as no surprise that I’m quick to notice if the manufacturers have changed […]

Though I haven’t kept an exact count, I believe my local Trader Joe’s has made significant changes to the store layout at least twice this year. Now, I can certainly understand the need to shake things up once in a while, e.g. to accomodate major changes in the product assortment or new information about how […]