Monday, July 12, 2004
please don't cry
It's just a list, but it's a post, right? Recently discovered:
* Pink Thread: Well-priced cute things. I'm looking for a checkbook cover to replace the five-year-old one I have that holds too many special dog-chewing memories, and there are some Alice in Wonderland ones here that I like. (I also covet the floral vinyl wrist cuff.)
* Morning Craft: Slightly pricey cute and pretty things, but the prettiness wins out over the priciness (most of the time), and priciness is almost always understandable in handmade things. I actually bought a few things here last week (please don't stone me for shopping and then bitching that I have no money -- I always put aside a little money each week to throw into the wind, or else I'd go mad and put way too many purchases on crappy CapOne credit cards); it was a very automated experience, everything done through PayPal, but my order was shipped out quickly and everything was as advertised, and that's really all I ask for. Plus, prettiness!
* The Amateur Gourmet: Cooking and funniness -- one of my favorite combinations.
* the hungry tiger: Another food blog, one with a very pretty site. I learn new things every time I visit, but there are lots of new things for me because I don't know a lot when it comes to food, so take that with a grain of salt.
* Fans of Reality TV: It's no TWoP, but TWoP doesn't recap "The Joe Schmo Show," so this site gets a few visits from me. Actually, the recaps are pretty lovely and snarky, at least for the shows I've followed.
* Kitchen Sink: I received my first issue of this magazine last week, and I LOVED it. It was excellent. (Okay, it had a few typos, including mixing up "its" and "it's," which always bugs me and yanks me right out of whatever article or book I've been reading, but the mag was good enough overall for me to kind of ignore that.) It's actually joining my new selective subscription list, along with BUST, Bitch, and Venus.
* I found L's diary (haha, like I'm going to post that addy here), which sadly only has two entries, neither of them meaty. Why is it that she's the only person in my offline life who has anything online? Is our circle really that technophobic? Well, Angela's boyfriend has a blog, but I prefer not to look at it too much -- it creeps me out. I don't really want too much insight into his life (and his poetry), thanks.
* Spanx: It's a really cool concept, but I'm not sure the product is worth the ordering process. Let me explain: I tried to place an order, oh, about two months ago, and I STILL haven't received it.
Quickly: I placed the order, entered all my info, and got a wonky "your order wasn't placed" screen. So I tried twice more to place my order, kept getting that error message, and gave up. A few days later, I received an e-mail saying that my order had been placed. I checked the website, and I had an order, but the order number was different from the one on the e-mail. So I figured it was a fluke and waited for my package. Which never arrived. I checked the tracking number they gave me, and it turned out my package was delivered to a porch in a town I don't live in. See, the shipping was done via UPS, but I didn't see anything saying that in the FAQ or when I entered my shipping address, so I used my PO Box. They never sent anything asking for a physical address, and UPS didn't return the package once they found out it was a PO Box; I have no idea where they got the incorrect physical address. Then I received my credit card statement and found out I'd been charged twice. For one order that I hadn't even received. I e-mailed Spanx, faxed them a copy of the credit card statement so they could confirm my story (?), and was told that they would send out another package. (Of course, they now informed me that the color I wanted wasn't available -- the website doesn't say that, though.) TWO WEEKS LATER. I hadn't received a package, so I e-mailed the company again to make sure everything was okay. I waited a week and didn't receive a reply. At the end of the week, I e-mailed them again, and received an e-mail asking what I had ordered. The irritating part of this was that I'd kept the old e-mails in the text of the new e-mail, so it was already spelled out further down in the e-mail. (Sorry for the repeated use of "e-mail" -- I will pay penance for this repetition karmically, I'm sure.) So I explained it AGAIN, and got an e-mail back . . . asking for my last name. It's been a week, so the replacement package should be here soon . . . or should it be? DUM DUM DUUUUM.
Wow, that wasn't so much "quickly," huh?
So the end result is: it's probably just my bad luck, so you should check it out for yourself. Just don't be surprised if something goes awry. The customer service reps are very nice, maybe just too busy. It might also be that the company's experiencing a growth surge that they weren't prepared for, so I'll cut 'em a little slack.
They have pink fishnets, so they can't be all bad, right?
* My last bit of pimping: Fork 'n Spoon Zine Store: A zine distro that's dedicated to cooking zines, mostly vegan or vegetarian. Yum.
* Pink Thread: Well-priced cute things. I'm looking for a checkbook cover to replace the five-year-old one I have that holds too many special dog-chewing memories, and there are some Alice in Wonderland ones here that I like. (I also covet the floral vinyl wrist cuff.)
* Morning Craft: Slightly pricey cute and pretty things, but the prettiness wins out over the priciness (most of the time), and priciness is almost always understandable in handmade things. I actually bought a few things here last week (please don't stone me for shopping and then bitching that I have no money -- I always put aside a little money each week to throw into the wind, or else I'd go mad and put way too many purchases on crappy CapOne credit cards); it was a very automated experience, everything done through PayPal, but my order was shipped out quickly and everything was as advertised, and that's really all I ask for. Plus, prettiness!
* The Amateur Gourmet: Cooking and funniness -- one of my favorite combinations.
* the hungry tiger: Another food blog, one with a very pretty site. I learn new things every time I visit, but there are lots of new things for me because I don't know a lot when it comes to food, so take that with a grain of salt.
* Fans of Reality TV: It's no TWoP, but TWoP doesn't recap "The Joe Schmo Show," so this site gets a few visits from me. Actually, the recaps are pretty lovely and snarky, at least for the shows I've followed.
* Kitchen Sink: I received my first issue of this magazine last week, and I LOVED it. It was excellent. (Okay, it had a few typos, including mixing up "its" and "it's," which always bugs me and yanks me right out of whatever article or book I've been reading, but the mag was good enough overall for me to kind of ignore that.) It's actually joining my new selective subscription list, along with BUST, Bitch, and Venus.
* I found L's diary (haha, like I'm going to post that addy here), which sadly only has two entries, neither of them meaty. Why is it that she's the only person in my offline life who has anything online? Is our circle really that technophobic? Well, Angela's boyfriend has a blog, but I prefer not to look at it too much -- it creeps me out. I don't really want too much insight into his life (and his poetry), thanks.
* Spanx: It's a really cool concept, but I'm not sure the product is worth the ordering process. Let me explain: I tried to place an order, oh, about two months ago, and I STILL haven't received it.
Quickly: I placed the order, entered all my info, and got a wonky "your order wasn't placed" screen. So I tried twice more to place my order, kept getting that error message, and gave up. A few days later, I received an e-mail saying that my order had been placed. I checked the website, and I had an order, but the order number was different from the one on the e-mail. So I figured it was a fluke and waited for my package. Which never arrived. I checked the tracking number they gave me, and it turned out my package was delivered to a porch in a town I don't live in. See, the shipping was done via UPS, but I didn't see anything saying that in the FAQ or when I entered my shipping address, so I used my PO Box. They never sent anything asking for a physical address, and UPS didn't return the package once they found out it was a PO Box; I have no idea where they got the incorrect physical address. Then I received my credit card statement and found out I'd been charged twice. For one order that I hadn't even received. I e-mailed Spanx, faxed them a copy of the credit card statement so they could confirm my story (?), and was told that they would send out another package. (Of course, they now informed me that the color I wanted wasn't available -- the website doesn't say that, though.) TWO WEEKS LATER. I hadn't received a package, so I e-mailed the company again to make sure everything was okay. I waited a week and didn't receive a reply. At the end of the week, I e-mailed them again, and received an e-mail asking what I had ordered. The irritating part of this was that I'd kept the old e-mails in the text of the new e-mail, so it was already spelled out further down in the e-mail. (Sorry for the repeated use of "e-mail" -- I will pay penance for this repetition karmically, I'm sure.) So I explained it AGAIN, and got an e-mail back . . . asking for my last name. It's been a week, so the replacement package should be here soon . . . or should it be? DUM DUM DUUUUM.
Wow, that wasn't so much "quickly," huh?
So the end result is: it's probably just my bad luck, so you should check it out for yourself. Just don't be surprised if something goes awry. The customer service reps are very nice, maybe just too busy. It might also be that the company's experiencing a growth surge that they weren't prepared for, so I'll cut 'em a little slack.
They have pink fishnets, so they can't be all bad, right?
* My last bit of pimping: Fork 'n Spoon Zine Store: A zine distro that's dedicated to cooking zines, mostly vegan or vegetarian. Yum.
