Hannah G.

We've ordered soapstone sealer from Real Milk Paint for years now. But after this recent transaction we'll never order from them again. We placed an order for literally one item and they couldn't even deliver it competently. Even though the packing slip was correct, they sent us cutting board oil. Hoping that it was a simple mistake that would be easy to rectify, we reached out the same day the order arrived and let them know they sent the wrong item. And then...crickets. Not even the courtesy of a response. So we tried calling. No one answered. A week later we called again and left a voicemail. Seven days after the wrong item arrived, they finally get back to us and despite this clearly being their mistake. I would have thought they would have lead with an apology for the mistake and the inconvenience. But they very rudely didn't offer one. They just seemed mainly interested in how they could inconvenience us further with a special trip to the post office to return the bottle of cutting board oil so that someday we might hope to receive the product we paid for. Customers should not have to work so hard to make a simple purchase. How hard is it to fulfill a ONE ITEM order? Apparently for Real Milk Paint it is not only difficult to fulfill an order, but it is also difficult to respond to their customers in a timely manner and to solve the issue with the least amount of inconvenience to the customer as possible. Disappointing.

Just as we start the new year, we decided it was a good time to replace our pillows. After doing some research online we decided to purchase a couple of pillows from Marlow (which I guess is owned by Brooklinen). We placed an order on the 2nd of January, in no real rush to get them, but with the expectation that the order would arrive in a timely manner. Then on the 6th we get a message saying that their fulfillment center is understaffed due to the holidays and basically that they will get to our order as soon as they can. This was disappointing. While I'm totally in favor of the employees of any company giving their hardworking employees time off to enjoy an extended holiday break, I do think that it you're going to do that you need to manage customer expectations up front. If you're that behind in processing orders that you can't even give a definitive timeline as to when an order will ship, then maybe you ought to consider pausing orders, or at least clearly representing timeframes BEFORE you take a customer's money.

I was uncomfortable with the vague waiting period they offered me and wanted to move forward with a purchase elsewhere. I sent them a message that was unequivocal in my request to cancel the order and issue a refund. Instead of a brief, efficient response, I get a message trying to manage my objections and convince me to change my mind. I immediately responded, no, cancel the order and issue a refund.

At first they acknowledged receipt of that request. But then they followed up saying that, no, their "system" would not allow a refund after the order was replaced. But if I wanted to return the order I could do that. This is when I knew for sure that they were not only deceptive and disorganized but smarmy. They were essentially bullying us to proceed with the order when in truth they had more than enough time to cancel the transaction. Despicable.

The customer service on display at several levels here is really shoddy. We immediately called out credit card issuer for a chargeback on the order. What a hassle. This was our first and last attempt at trying to place an order with Marlow Pillows.

This company began to aggressively send me marketing, despite the fact that I deliberately unchecked the box on their order form to not receive it. And then when I tried to communicate my disappointment with this they blamed me in the rudest way. Clearly they are driven by pure greed and care nothing about the customer experience. After their presumptuous and rude response, I told them, in writing, to cancel the order. And despite the fact that it was only a few hours since I placed the order, do you think they cancelled it? Nope. They went ahead and sent it anyway. If you want your personal information to be treated like a commodity, then by all means these people will be happy to exploit it. I regret doing business with Redcast Heritage store and will never repeat the mistake

Our niece recently saw a pair of colorful plastic earrings she liked in a museum store. We didn't buy them at the time but we thought we'd get them for her later. Rather than go back to the store we looked online, found the website, and placed an order for the cheap earrings. We expected (hoped) it would be a simple transaction: we give the business our money, they send us the product. But that seems to be an impossible proposition with many businesses operating by some kind of "Marketing for Dummies" plan which quickly makes one regret buying from them.

The standard order confirmation was fine. But then we got a welcome message and a coupon code. Our first order hasn't even arrived yet and they're already being presumptuous about the next sale. We unsubscribed from that marketing message. So we were then surprised and disappointed to get yet another unsolicited message saying that we've "earned 280 points." Ugh. Why on earth would any business continue to send e-mails with gimmicks after a customer has already unsubscribed?!

We provided our contact info for the fulfillment of the order. Not so our inbox could be filled with ridiculous schemes. Wanting to simply buy a cheap pair of colorful, plastic earrings should not involve any kind of points programs. It's just inane.

We sent a message to the business, expressing our displeasure at their presumptuous, aggressive marketing, and especially for continuing to send unwanted marketing after a customer has unsubscribed. Did we get a simple message back with an apology, saying a mistake was made or that they would do better? Nope. In response we got a message first telling us that they've never had a complaint of that type before. Which is a passive aggressive way to say that you, the customer, are the problem, which says absolutely everything about how clueless these business owners about serving customers. Of course, surely many of their customers are probably rolling their eyes and hitting the spam filter. But that also begs the question: how many customers need to complain about your lack of respect for privacy and preferences before you recognize it is a problem?

The e-mail response just got more absurd from there, with a long screed about how they are "women owned" and are doing business in a way that is best for their family. Wha? OK. So if I only suspected this rather narcissistic business owner was just inept at customer service, they quickly dialed it up to Olympic level. I guess they feel that their profit is the most important thing and what a customer wants pales in comparison.

After their ludicrous response we demanded a refund. Lesson learned that it was a profound mistake to purchase from Spiffy & Splendid as there was absolutely nothing spiffy or splendid about the experience. But if it is your desire to start earning points for buying cheap, plastic earrings, and you don't dealing with business practices that Harvard Business School could use as a case study in how to immediately annoy new customers and permanently drive away their business, then by all means drop these graceless business owners a ring.

Since 2013 our household has purchased a number of Nitecore flashlights for use in both our house and vehicle. During this time we thought we were paying a premium price for sturdy, well-made products that would last. But after a recent experience with one of their products failing due to poor quality, we've changed our minds about this brand, especially after their disappointing response.

One of the lights we purchased in late 2019 (which was delivered in January of 2020) began failing late last year. It had seen only careful, intermittent use in a kitchen drawer. If the light had had a total runtime of an hour by that point we'd be surprised. And yet the light was suddenly flickering on the highest setting. We did a bit of research online and found some other accounts of this occurring, including YouTube videos about it. It was suggested that these "Made in China" products are perhaps sloppy in the way their internal electronics are manufactured and assembled.

At the beginning of this year, we contacted Nitecore about what could be done about this issue. And we were disappointed that the response was "Sorry, but our warranty is only two years and you're beyond that." The fact that we've patronized the brand for a decade, purchased a slew of their products, and that in our state (Washington) there is an implied warranty of merchantability that suggests that a product should not malfunction within four years of purchase, didn't matter to Nitecore.

Nitecore's solution was to offer us a coupon off the purchase of a new $160 flashlight. Or, we could pay more than a third of the original cost to send the flashlight off to China for 12 weeks to have it repaired. Neither of those options sounded very good to us. How could we now purchase another new product with the new knowledge that it might similarly fail, and that Nitecore would be stand by it?

So our solution will be to sell the (working) Nitecore lights we have on eBay and to permanently depart the brand, never to return. We regret buying from Nitecore in that they do not stand by their products or value their customers. We've also filed complaints with the state's Attorney General and the BBB and will be posting online reviews so that other customers may be warned that while Nitecore sells at a premium price, they do not seem to make premium products that last. Nor will they be that concerned when their products fail after a relatively short time.

We take meticulous care of the things we have. And we're confident that there is nothing we did to this light to cause it to malfunction in this way. And yet Nitecore is not standing by the quality of their product.

Our money didn't break after we gave it to Nitecore. Their products shouldn't break after they give them to us.

We had ordered from FreshPair multiple times in the past as my husband preferred the Munsingwear briefs they sell. They were trouble free transactions for the most part, though like other online vendors they tend to aggressively send e-mail marketing when we had repeatedly asked them not to send it (always frustrating).

In recent years we'd noticed that the Munsingwear briefs had changed in quality. Apparently the company had been acquired or sold and the thickness of the fabric and the dimensions of the materials changed to a cheaper quality. But after several years of not being able to find another brand he preferred, my husband started doing a bit more research. He discovered some reviews that indicated that the Munsingwear briefs sourced from India were more like the old briefs, as opposed to the China-sourced briefs.

However, in going through the reviews, which seemed to go back and forth, it as difficult to determine if this was true. And as underwear cannot be returned once the package is opened, we didn't want to dive in for an order only to be stuck with more of the inferior product.

In going through the reviews we discovered something more disturbing: many, many of the reviews seem to be fake or review shills. Many of them are only a couple of lines, seem to be written in the same voice, and hit marketing points with an unexpected enthusiasm. This is not the way consumers write reviews, even brief ones. This just feels super shady and removes any confidence we may have had in going back to this online vendor.

Customers aren't stupid. That online sites like this would allow this thing on their site (either not policing it or actively promoting it) seems fraudulent. This more than anything will prevent our household from ordering from FreshPair ever again.

I placed one small order with this Portland-based company last year. And made it clear from the start that I did not want to receive marketing. Got a confirmation from their customer service that they received my request, that my privacy was "super important" to them and that I would not get marketing. Well it only took them five days to break that promise as I got an unsolicited marketing message. Maybe super important to me means something different than what it means to them. After that message I communicated my disgust that they would deliberately ignore my preferences and that as such I would not be placing any future orders.

I had hope I had heard of the last of them. But then a year later, I went to my mailbox and there is a marketing postcard from Bridge & Burn. Ugh. It just feels so violating. Why is it not possible to just buy something without having your private, personal information treated like a commodity that a company feels it has license to exploit until the end of time? I hate it. And after a lifetime of it I am done with these companies that steamroll over privacy and customer preferences.

If you want to be treated like a commodity, as opposed to a customer, then I guess Bridge and Burn is for you. Burt I regret ever giving these guys my info. Continuing to market to me after multiple requests not to, and holding on to my info and sending marketing a year later is creepy, presumptuous and rude.

After seeing videos on social media of these little flying drones – with LED lights – I've been trying to find some of these little flying orbs as gifts for my goddaughters. But in reality, what I'm finding is that all of the companies that offer them are get-rich-quick schemes that charge $15 to $30 for what is probably less than $2 worth of cheap Chinese electronics. The products from this company are no exception.

They use weasel language of "up to" 20 minutes of flight time. In reality, these things barely fly for five minutes. They're not as smooth and balanced as what you see on the internet, meaning they careen all over the place and you spend most of your time chasing after them.

The Original Fly Orb delivered a product that did not match what was advertised. And despite multiple messages to their so-called customer service over the past couple of weeks, I haven't had the courtesy of a reply. I think that's despicable. This seems to be yet another fly by night company that is very happy to take your money but doesn't care in the least when the cheap junk they send you doesn't work as advertised. Oh, and take note of their 30% restocking fee for returns, buried in the fine print. Probably best to avoid this company altogether. Unless you want to deal with the hassle of a credit card chargeback and writing a complaint letter to your local attorney general or consumer affairs office.

When I was shopping for a refrigerator, to replace the loud, clunky BOSCH unit installed my my builder, some of the features of the LG refrigerators looked good to me. I had also had pretty good luck with LG laundry machine and LG OLED televisions. So I decided to purchase an LG fridge. The model I selected had a door-within-a-door and a small window, where you could store drinks and commonly accessed things without opening the entire refrigerator door. But the key feature that intrigued me, as a regular bourbon drinker, was a "craft ice" maker inside the freezer. In addition to the ice dispenser on the door, the craft ice maker was advertised as creating large, perfect spheres of ice that would melt more slowly in your cocktail. I was sold.

After install, I was fairly happy with the LG refrigerator, at least initially. It was much quieter than my old BOSCH, which was much appreciated in an open floor plan. However, the problems began with LG customer service right from the start. The manual and paperwork were missing basic information about how to connect the LG refrigerator to the LG app (thorough which I could download firmware updates and monitor the appliance's performance). I found the LG customer service representatives to be, on the whole, under-trained, disempowered, incompetent and disinterested in helping. During one call the rep told me she couldn't even find the model number of my refrigerator on her system. And then I expressed surprise and frustration about this, she just hung up on me. Which exposed me to another facet of the s-called LG customer service experience: complete and utter lack of any kind of ownership or accountability for anything. There is no system to hold customer service reps responsible for their behavior or lack of follow through. And they seem to know this and exploit it. It would take me hours of time and many calls to learn that all I needed as a simple four digit code to activate the app. LG could have made this information easy to find had they simply taken the time to think through the customer experience by anticipating what customers would need to get this appliance set up.

I'd have many more opportunities to mine the depths of the unprofessional and incompetent LG customer dis-service department. As about three months after purchase, the craft ice maker stopped working. It stopped dispensing ice balls, started making loud knocking sounds and then died. I scheduled a technician to come out and do a repair. He installed a new ice maker, and in the process broke one of the shelves (somehow) inside my refrigerator. He told me before he left that he would order the part and would have it shipped directly to me. You will not be surprised to know that just that simple matter alone was not resolved as easily as promised. It took no fewer than 8 calls to LG and the better part of a year to get that part. Each call would eat up 45 minutes to an hour and was full of empty apologies and lack of action. After each call nothing happened for weeks. And when I called back I was always starting from scratch. Only to rinse and repeat. I learned from experience that LG customer service is barely functioning, does not in any way serve customers and is a complete exercise in futility. I expect that the only things LG's customer service department is doing successfully is serving LG corporate in saving money as it demonstrates their lack of investment in any kind of actual quality or service. Them not having to provide any customer service is probably saving them a fortune. But I expect this will ultimately come back to hurt them as they are permanently driving away from their band otherwise satisfied customers. I'd have a hard time ever buying another LG product. And whereas I was previously willing to recommend LG to friends and family, now I'm actively warning people away.

About six months after the replacement ice maker was installed it broke again in the same way. Over time the ice balls stop dropping out, freeze in place, and then dispense more water on top of them until the unit freezes and breaks. Despite finding widespread accounts across the internet of others in this predicament, LG seems to offer no solution to this issue, has made no improvement or correction to the part, and seems willing to just repair this part in appliances under warranty and then expect customers to pay $200 (plus labor) every six months after that point. As my fridge is no longer under warranty, I've managed to figure out how to source this replacement part myself and to make my own repair. But without fail, every new craft ice maker continues to fail every 3-6 months.

And the cherry on top of this horrid experience is that I made the significant mistake of registering my product at purchase, and providing my personal information to LG. That means that I have continued to receive unwanted marketing relentlessly (telling me to buy LG filters) despite what must be at least 10 calls and e-mail to ask them to stop. But they never do. Even a letter to the office of the CEO of LG North America was not able to stop the relentless marketing as LG considers my personal information a commodity that they are going to exploit until the end of time. And I doubt that even my death will stop the onward march of LG marketing mailings.

I hope that my by writing this that someone else can avoid the frustration and trouble of having to deal with this infernal company. Unless you have a desire to experience a company that cares absolutely nothing about your satisfaction I would strongly advise you avoid LG at all costs.

I recently went to the Party City website to order some items for some children's birthday gift bags I'm putting together. I think I had maybe visited a Party City bricks and mortar store once in the past. But this was my first online order. I placed my order and it arrived fairly quickly. No problems there. But where the issues usually arise for me is that once I have the order I consider the transaction completed. But because this is the good 'ol USA, to businesses it means they now have my personal information and will exploit it by hammering me with unwanted marketing until the end of days.

I woke up to a Party City advertising e-mail (they always think they are so clever doing their e-mail push at 4am so their marketing message is the very first thing you'll see when you check your messages in the morning. Ugh. As soon as I got to a computer I went to their site to see about getting off the "BUY MORE CHEAP CHINESE JUNK" train.

Their website listed a number I could use to text them my request. So I tried that but the message would not send. It just would not work. OK. So I also saw some text that indicated they had Live Chat. But there was no button or any other way to initiate the chat, even though I was doing this within the window of business hours they listed. Well, OK. I guess I'll call the 800 number.

So I called the number and got the standard robotic menu. Except it wasn't accepting the number prompt I was inputting, and began repeating the menu options again. After multiple pushes I finally got it to accept the prompt. Only to get a message about their "exciting news" (yeah, I'm not kidding) about how you can now text customer service. So I bypassed that, and then heard a tone as if I was connecting to customer service. Except no one was there. The line was dead. Silence. So I had to repeat the entire process. Grr. Nice phone system guys.

Finally got through to a human. But of course that human was in a far off call center, with an accent as thick as concrete. And while I'm sure his English is better than my Tagalog, I once again am left to wonder what the point is of having customer service when it is extremely difficult to communicate with them. What's worse in this case is that the guy was unable to handle a simple request to remove my personal information from their marketing list. For that I'd have to call corporate directly. He gave me a number. I hung up and dialed it. And I got the voicemail for some woman at some billing department (not even certain it was Party City).

OK. So then it was out to the Internet to find a working telephone number. Found a couple but they were disconnected. Then I was back to the website to hunt through a bunch of fine print to locate an e-mail address to make a privacy request. Sigh. And I don't even want to think about how much time I wasted to simply have my personal, private information treated with care, as opposed to being wildly exploited as a commodity.

Something has to change in America! This experience is all too common and reflects much more greed than actual customer service. I regret purchasing anything from Party City and won't be repeating the mistake.

The first I had ever heard of Getaroom was a $916.50 fraudulent charge that popped up last night on my Apple Card. I tried to call the company today to see if they could give me a bit more information about this charge, specifically if the criminal who stole mat credit card information used my name and contact info to me the reservation. However, Getaroom seems decidedly uninterested in providing any kind of customer service. The first call, their robo answering system abruptly hung up on me. When I called back I was transferred to their so-called customer service which was just an endless hold (with repetitive music) that I gave up on after 25 minutes.

So I went to Sitejabber to see if this company had a rating. And wow, they seem to have MANY positive ratings. But looking through all of those five-star reviews, from reviewers who curiously only have one review to their name, and all in a voice that is unsurprisingly similar, it is pretty clear what's going on. And not content to write shrill reviews, they're also answering them and thanking the shrill reviewers.

Really disappointing that Sitejabber allows businesses like this to game their system with impunity. Consumers are smarter than these shady businesses think we are. Personally I would NEVER give Getaroom any of my business. They might add "The travel aggregator preferred by credit card frauds" to their taglines.

I instantly regretted ordering from Vitacost. I purchased a couple of items on their website, based on representations that inventory was in stock and what the estimated shipping times would be. But then, only after the order was placed, they notify you that supply chain disruptions mean the order will be delayed. Not disclosing this up front is shady. So then I go to their so-called customer service and select the "Instant Chat" option. I start a chat and sit there after many minutes tick away while no attendant picks up the chat. OK. So I go to their website's e-mail form and fill that out (wasting more time). Oh and what a surprise, when I hit send I get red text saying they are "having problems" and to try again later. Right. So I call customer service and what is the wait time? 26 minutes.

If honest, accurate representations of in-stock inventory and ACTUAL customer service are a prerequisite for you, then don't walk but RUN from Vitacost. I instantly regret trying to purchase anything from them.

Update: I requested a call back from their customer service department. They called back and I asked to cancel the order. (This is within 30 minutes of placing it). They said they would have to put me on hold to speak to a supervisor. Five minutes on hold, the call drops and no one calls back. So I repeat the process, leave my name and number again and they call back. Again, I ask to cancel the order and again they put me on hold. This time they come back and say the order is already processed and they cannot issue a refund. This is all within an hour of ordering. So I hung up with them, will be refusing the shipment and have asked my credit card issuer to begin a dispute as soon as the transaction clears. HORRIBLE experience.

These merchants are not honest. Companies like this should not be in business.

UPDATE: The horror of my experience with Vitacost continues more that a YEAR after I made the mistake of placing an order with them. Despite making it very clear, in writing, than I did not want to receive marketing from Vitacost, I started getting the first marketing mailings about five months after my first (and last) order. So I immediately called and demanded that they remove me from their system and stop sending marketing. That request was acknowledged and I was assured it was taken care of. But then three months later there was more marketing from Vitacost in my mailbox. Once again I contact their customer service and got the old babe in the woods routine about how they don't know how that happened, that they would escalate it, and they assured me I would be removed and not contacted again. So then why I was not surprised when today, in January of 2023, I got yet another marketing mailing, as if the previous three requests have never been made?!

Now I'll be filing complaints with the FTC and my state's Attorney General. Companies like Vitacoast, that steamroll over privacy, need to be stopped.

DO NOT give Vitacost your money or your information unless you want to become a commodity to be marketed to for the rest of your life.

Once again I find that online commerce of any kind is impossible without companies making me into a permanent commodity to market to for the rest of my life despite REPEATED assurances that they respect customer privacy. I placed an order with this company last April and at the time of the order I immediately sent a message to their customer service expressing that my privacy was important to me and that I did not want to receive marketing of any kind. But of course, before the first order even arrived I was getting e-mails to BUY MORE STUFF. So I had to contact them again to ask them to stop sending marketing and to completely me from their system. And they left me with the impression that my information was deleted from their system. But then today FOUR MONTHS LATER I open my mailbox to find a Todd Snyder catalog in my mailbox. I find this really violating and incredibly creepy and it really seems well overdue that government must do something it seems most US companies have no respect for customer preferences or privacy and market to people whether they are receptive to it or not. Any chance Todd Snyder had for repeat business went right out the window because of their clumsy, aggressive marketing. Despicable.

When I bought a new house in 2015 I decided to get cellular shades from Blinds.com for the whole house. I had installed Blinds.com (top down bottom up) light filtering shades at my previous house and had a good experience with them. However, I was surprised and disappointed that – just a few years after installing at the new house – the blinds began to disintegrate.

Slowly, room by room, the seams in the cellular shades began to come apart. None of these blinds were handled roughly. In fact, some of the blinds were in rooms in which the blinds were always closed and were thus never adjusted. I also live in Seattle, so it's not like the sun has been beating down on these blinds all the time. It just seems that the adhesive used to manufacture them just breaks down after a few years.

This all began to happen at a time when there was no more hope of warranty. But as I was unable to find anyone else online who was describing the same experience, I decided to call Blinds.com to ask if this was something they considered normal. After listening to me describe my experience, the rep said that since I had ordered "economy" blinds I should expect that they only have a lifespan of a couple of years. She told me they often recommend them for rental properties for that reason. Um, what? I had ordered the same "economy blinds" at the previous house (just a mile down the road from the new one) and they never fell apart in the 9 years I owned the house. Nowhere on their website had I seen any warning or declaration that the custom cellular blinds I was spending many thousands of dollars to purchase for my house were temporary.

I'm disappointed that Blinds.com thinks it is a good value for their customers to sell a product that will have to be replaced in a few years simply because it is cheaply and poorly made. I would not have purchased this product had I known that I would be doubling the expense of covering my windows, expending more time, AND contributing a heap more material to the local landfill. No doubt this works well for Blinds.com's profit model. (As does removing customer options for text or e-mail support, I might mention, meaning everyone gets to enjoy the benefits of high call volume).

I was a Blinds.com customer for 15 years. I installed their products in two 2,000 square foot houses. And I even recommended them to friends. But now that I know that they knowingly offer inferior products designed to create more waste (as opposed to making products that last) they have permanently lost my business and that of my referred friends. I don't know how that business model pencils.

Bottom line: If you're OK with replacing your cellular shades more often than you replace lightbulbs, doubling your expenditure on window coverings, then by all means Blinds.com will be more than happy to offer you an "economy" option. If you are looking for a quality product, then look elsewhere. Blinds.com was not the company I thought it was. I regret giving them my business and will not be repeating that mistake.

All I want is my order. I give you some money, you send some products, and that is the end of the transaction. Then why do so many American companies think that as soon as you have a customer's contact information you should immediately deluge them with marketing?

My first order hasn't even arrived yet and you're already sending e-mails to my personal address encouraging me to BUY MORE STUFF!

This is obnoxious. Especially in that I'm always careful to uncheck any boxes for marketing. And then I send a separate message to their customer service saying PLEASE DO NOT SEND ME MARKETING. And they acknowledge that message. But then, without fail, they send you marketing anyway.

So this order will be immediately returned and they've permanently lost my business. Because they can't keep it in their pants and want to treat people like commodities instead of human beings (and customers). Retail is changing. Rapidly. So I can't understand why companies like STAG Provisions are still doing business like it's the 1980's and demonstrating no respect for customer preferences. People are exhausted of being endlessly marketed to. Customers should not have to work so hard to not be battered with unwanted marketing.

Earlier this year I read about Jot, a company that makes a liquid coffee concentrate, and I decided to order a bottle of their product to try it out. I live in Seattle and coffee is obviously very important to my culture as well as my household. So I'm always up to try something new in that realm.

Jot has a slick, modern site like pretty much every new wannabe-disruptive startup, replete with their deeply thought philosophy that was engineered to justify why – despite coffee already being everywhere – they had figured out a way to do instant coffee with new technology that would present a better product with less waste.

The ordering process was easy. The product shipped fast and everything was fine. In the end, their products was just OK. Not revolutionary for me. A nice balanced cup (if you're into light, caramel roasts) and a solid alternative to spray dried instant coffee like Starbucks Via. (Just ignore the fact that the latter doesn't come in a liquid form that needs to be kept in the fridge after opening).

The reason for this two star review isn't about the company, their website or the product. It is about this company's lack of respect for my privacy and their sending multiple unsolicited marketing messages over the course of a year despite repeated requests for them not to market to me and repeated interactions with this company's otherwise responsive customer service that they were sorry for the oversight and would correct it.

The bottom line is as much as this company represents itself as a fresh, modern startup, they suffer from a very old disease with US companies when it comes to online commerce. When you give them your personal information to fulfill an order, they will keep it for the remainder of your time on this earth and will pretty much completely ignore your requests to be treated like a person instead of a commodity.

After placing my first order with Jot I immediately sent a separate, preemptive message to their customer service asking them not to market to me. This was acknowledged with a promise that my privacy was "very important" to them. That was April. By August, I guess my privacy was no longer very important as they sent me another unsolicited message hawking their products. Again, I contacted their customer service department. They apologies, indicated it was some kind of mistake or glitch and said it was now corrected. And while it always sounds sincere, it never is as pretty much every company employs this exact same tactic.

While I had hoped that would be the last time that I heard from Jot, why should I be surprised to wake up this morning (late October now) to find yet another unwanted marketing message in my inbox. Sigh.

I'm going to keep beating the drum on this until companies get their head out of their behinds on this. Here is the compact: You have a product. I give you my money and you deliver the product. Our business is done. Simple. I'm not providing my information so I can become a commodity for your company to exploit until I'm in the grave (or even after). It's one thing if people want marketing or don't care. But for those of us who do, it just disgusts me that a company would be so driven by greed that they would ignore the stated preferences of a customer.

I didn't love Jot's product but after trying it I might have been inclined to buy it again. I even actually did order another bottle for a friend. But Jot – though their marketing practices – has converted me into a "maybe repeat" customer to someone who will avoid them like the plague. Whatever marketing experts convinced these companies that badgering people with marketing is a best practice for success should consider the irony of what they're doing.

I recently ordered one small item from this company (a tin of saddle soap) after finding them through a Google Search. I never heard of them before. Because my privacy is very important to me, and as I do with all orders I place, I did not opt into marketing and immediately sent their customer service a separate direct message asking them to respect my privacy and to not send me marketing.

To me the compact is simple. You have a product I want. I give you my money. You send me the product and the transaction is complete.

But unfortunately, that is not at all how it works for most American businesses in the Internet age. You are viewed not as a customer but as a commodity. Your personal, private information is not just a means for getting an order out to you but as an asset that they will keep forever and use in a range of ways beyond the purchase. These ways have more to do with benefitting the company as opposed to the customer.

Even before my order arrived I was already being sent marketing e-mails, motivating me to BUY MORE STUFF. Though I hadn't subscribed to marketing and in fact had asked them not to market to me, I had to unsubscribe. My message to their customer service, repeating my request for privacy, went unanswered.

Marketing continued so I had to relegate them to the SPAM folder. Then to top it off, weeks later I got yet another kind of ridiculous message from Tractor Supply Co. Now they were saying that there was another customer of theirs who had a question about the product I bought and could I answer it. Gee, yeah. I have scads of time to provide free customer service to Tractor Supply's other customers, so they can enhance their business. I mean, this is just ridiculous and insulting. It's one thing if customers want to spontaneously post a review. But to be solicitous about it – especially after MULTIPLE requests that they respect privacy and not abuse access – speaks volumes about how little they think of me as a customer.

If you're a person that simply doesn't care about privacy, that loves to be treated like a commodity instead of a customer, that doesn't mind being bombarded with commercial messages from dawn to dusk, then by all means Tractor Supply Co. Is for you! But in my opinion we all deserve better.

The 1980's are over. Retail is changing. Consumers have more choice than they ever have, not to mention the ability to purchase products 24/7/365 online. So why companies like this still do business in these clumsy and antiquated ways is beyond me. They need to stop listening to ridiculous marketing consultants and start opening their ears to their customers. If they could they might win years of loyalty.

If their marketing goal was to annoy and drive away the future business of an otherwise satisfied customer then they are absolutely succeeding. I will not be making the mistake of purchasing anything else from Tractor Supply Co. Ever again.

I have no idea how Carbon2Cobalt procured my personal, private information. But year after year they continue to send me unwanted catalogs despite MULTIPLE requests that they stop. I am on all of the direct mail do-not-mail lists. And I'm very careful to opt out of marketing with every company I do business with online. And yet for Carbon2Cobalt, has ignored every request as I am not a person to them but a commodity for them to continue to peddle their unwanted, prosaic merchandise. I have absolutely no interest in Carbon2Cobalt. There is absolutely no business I wish to transact with them. But we live in a country where there is no respect for privacy because greed is so strong and companies seem to have more rights than citizens. With retail already circling the drain before the Covid-19 pandemic even began, I can only hope that companies like Carbon2Cobalt soon will disappear. It's really the only option I have to stop their insipid catalogs from filling my mailbox.

Note: Looking through the reviews for this company I'm not surprised to see that a lot of their customers have had very poor experiences shipping at Carbon2Colbalt. More troubling are the sheer number of five star reviews with raves that are written by Sitejabber users to no other reviews. It is pretty clear what's going on here.

Based on some initial positive online reviews, I ordered a kit from this company last year to send in some negatives for scanning. I pre-paid ($300+) for the service. But weeks after they told me they would be sending out their mail-in kit I never received anything. When I contacted them they had no explanation, and no tracking. They said (vaguely) that it must have been lost in the mail. This certainly did not inspire my confidence in sending them my original negatives. So I decided to cancel the order and seek scanning elsewhere.

I contacted them in writing multiple times to tell them I wanted to cancel the order and to issue a credit. There was nothing equivocal about my requests. But all I got was an endless loop of them asking me why and then trying to manage my objections. When I lost patience with dealing with so-called customer service reps who were ignoring my requests, and seemed more akin to smarmy used car salesmen, I decided it would be a better use of my time to contact American Express for a charge back as Scan Cafe seemed disinterested in returning my money for the service they completely failed to deliver. So after several weeks, American Express issued the credit and I thought I would be able to move on.

Well wasn't I surprised then – at year end when I was going over my charge transactions for my taxes – to see that, months after the charge back, Scan Cafe took it upon themselves to charge my credit card again without my authorization. Not only is a mystery to me why any company would think they were entitled to take money when no service was delivered, but this act was borderline criminal.

Because of the delay in discovering the unauthorized charge (on a heavily used card with a lot of other charges) It took me almost a YEAR to resolve this. I insisted that American Express re-open the investigation into this inappropriate charge and yet Scan Cafe falsely representing to Amex that I had received their service. So the Amex said their hands were tied as: Scan Cafe is our customer too."

Scan Cafe was saying something quite different to me directly. That they had already issued a refund for my original charge. In fact, it was Amex that issued the refund (chargeback). But Scan Cafe had actually made that additional charge, the first when I initially ordered the service and another after the chargeback. So I eventually had to submit to Scan Cafe my entire Amex credit card detail to show them the clear evidence and math before they eventually (after MANY e-mails) agreed to issue a credit.

In a lifetime of online commerce this was a nightmare of a time and energy suck and hands down one of the worst consumer experiences I have ever had. In even decided to close my Amex Platinum card over this experience as the credit card company handled the matter exceedingly poorly. Hopefully I can save someone else a similar hassle by posting this.

Update: On top of all of the above, wouldn't you know that Scan Cafe retained my personal information and spontaneously started sending me unsolicited marketing e-mails YEARS after the horrible experience of not delivering any service, refusing a refund and then charging my credit card again without authorization. Wow. Just wow. Unprofessional, creepy, incompetent. Scan Cafe will make you run out of adjectives for how galactically horrid they are.

Update2: Take note of the RAVE reviews being posted here for Scan Cafe. They are vague and unspecific and are by posters who have no other reviews. They so clearly seem like shill reviews and it is disheartening that Scan Cafe isn't better at removing them. In my experience, the management of Scan Cafe is not only comfortable taking my money for a service they did not provide, and charging my credit car without authorization, but it apparently they are not above posting shill reviews as opposed to actually correcting the REAL problems they are having with their business. Scan Cafe is a shade fest.

I recently found Wildwext.com via Google Shopping and made a purchase of a couple of US Mint silver Walking Liberty dollars. My goddaughter is just starting to lose her baby teeth and I thought the silver dollars might make fun tooth fairy rewards. I'll have to admit that I was a bit suspicious as the price of the coins was below what the U.S. Mint and just about every other online seller was offering them for (though I thought it could be a loss leader or something). Wildwext was also offering free shipping so it seemed too good to be true and it was. I could also find very little online about the reputation of this company. But I went ahead and placed an order for two coins. The charge went through but I didn't receive any e-mail confirmation or any other kind of backup with the details of my order. That was September 9th and after several weeks I decided I wasn't willing to wait anymore so I reached out to their customer service. Unsurprisingly, I never received the courtesy of a reply. So then it was on to American Express which very efficiently processed a dispute for me and issued a chargeback and a refund. Lesson learned. Oh but then today, more than eight weeks later, a tiny, enigmatic package arrived in my mailbox from China. Inside it were the two coins. Why silver coins from the U.S. Mint would be arriving on a slow boat from China was my first question. But then looking at the coins, and comparing them with legit coins from my collection, I could see that they were clever counterfeits. A magnet test verified this. Silver coins should not stick to a magnet. The coins will be forwarded to the local field office of the U.S. Secret Service. So in any case, let this be a warning to anyone considering a purchase from Wildwext. They are not reputable merchant and very possibly are connected to other criminal ventures.