Sharper Image ruined my Christmas

My wife, Lauren and I never buy each other Christmas presents. We have been together 10 years now and pretty much have the things we want. Anyway, I had been paying special attention to detail this year because I felt the time was right for a Christmas surprise! I thought of a very thoughtful gift. I went online and found the right one at The Sharper Image. Of course The Sharper Image is a pathetic company that doesn’t have a very good e-commerece website so I thought it would be best to buy from them through amazon.com. Things went very smooth as they always do from amazon.com. I sent the package to my work since my wife is still working from home after the birth of my pride and joy Mirabelle.

A week later when I came home from work my wife exclaimed, “I know what you bought me for Christmas”. I was like, what are you talking about… She went on to show me a letter we got from The Sharper Image. The lame bastards sent a letter to my house just to say that I shipped the package to a different address. Now I have been buying items online since 98 and I have never had a letter like this sent to my house.

So I wrapped her present and put it under the tree and she opened it on Christmas day. She of course liked the present but it was much much larger IRL and from the pictures online. She wanted a smaller one. I proceeded to read the return policy and call a local store. I certainly didn’t want to bother with returning it via the mail. That would have taken 6 to 8 weeks and the hassle and worry, who needs that! Luckily the local store said they would be able to refund my credit card.

We trecked all the way into San Francisco to one of The Sharper Images. When we got to the counter, luckily we had the assistant manager, he was very friendly and I explained the story. Of course when I went to give him the receipt, or what was the receipt things got complicated. The receipt that they sent me was nothing more than a packing list with an order number and item number on it. Anyway he went into his pathetic little DOS type interface computer and came back to me and basically called me a bold faced liar. He said I paid for this with a gift certificate and could only get store credit. I explained to him again how I purchased the item. He went back to his pathetic little DOS type interface computer and came back and said, wait, I see you paid for it with a voucher through Sky Mall. I actually laughed at this and told him I didn’t. I paid for it with my AMEX. Long story short, they were unable to give me a refund.

Later I called The Sharper Images corporate office and complained. The customer service woman was extremely nice and after she talked with a couple people she basically said that there policy with amzon.com was weird and there was nothing that she could do.

Bottom line, The Sharper Image ruined my Christmas surprise for my wife and I certainly wont do business with them again and I warn anyone else of the same!

Little Bunny Foo Foo

So I came home from work a few weeks ago and walked in on my wife singing Little Bunny Foo Foo, to Bells. I was immediately enthralled. First off, my wife is very cute and I just assumed she came up with this amazing rhyme on her own, she does things like that! Turns out she didn’t and this rhyme has been around for decades if not centuries. I felt robbed of my childhood at that very moment. How could I not have known about Little Bunny Foo Foo! What else did I miss out on. Turns out there is a lot. These are just the ones my wife knew that I didn’t. They are excellent!

1. Little Bunny Foo Foo
2. Head Should Knees and Toe
3. Tony Chestnut

The Santa Racket

It started out so simple, my wife, Lauren Do and I wanted to take our baby girl to see Santa. While she is only nine months, we wanted to get her used to asking Santa for a special toy for Christmas. We also wanted a few pictures for her baby book and to feed her blog! As it turns out you can’t see Santa without paying! To make matters worse, most places, even if you pay, you can not take your own pictures.

When did the Santa Racket begin? The whole thing just makes me so angry. I remember a time when Santa would show up at a Mall and the children could all go sit on his lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. Now, it will cost you at least $14.

It’s a crying shame

It’s a Shame

This morning during my morning exercise routine I witnessed a middle aged lady picking my neighbors lovely sun flowers.  I immediately ran after her and told her that I saw her take the sun flower and to give it back to me.  She of course denied it but I exclaimed, “I saw you”.  She reluctantly handed it over.  Then I noticed the callo-lilly’s she had also picked.  While I did not witness her take these, I did point them out.  I told her that next time I see her stealing flowers I’ll call the cops on her.  I then said, have you no shame?

It is a shame that we don’t live in a shame based society!  How can people think it is okay to steal other peoples property!  I find it simply outrageous.