Ken S.

I just closed my UPS account. Why? I kept getting billed for shipments from the same shipper in California. I'm in Colorado! Apparently it's quite easy for someone to just put my account number on a shipment, and I get the bill instead of them. This was the 9th and final time.

My order was a very simple one, replacing parts related to a broken clutch rod on a 1974 F100. I was impressed by LMC Truck's comprehensive catalog. The replacement parts fit great, and I'm happy to report that the truck is back on the road. Shipping wasn't super fast, but was acceptable, especially considering that the parts were cheaper than anywhere else. 100% chance I will use LMC Truck again.

OEMRimShop had the exact hard-to-find wheel I needed for a 2021 Jeep Wrangler 4xe. I had tried to buy one from a seller (wheels_america_houston) with a great (over 99%) reputation on eBay, but they sent me the wrong wheel. OEMRimShop came through with the right wheel, and it was about $100 cheaper! Right now I'm really glad I took a chance on this business that doesn't have many reviews yet.

BTW, OEMRimShop and OEMWheelShop are apparently the same business. If you look very closely at the photos on each site, they're selling the same wheels. And the emails I received from OEMRimShop were from OEMWheelShop.com. It's funny because the two sites are different in appearance, and in the price charged for each wheel!

If I'm buying from a website that's new to me, I like to first check it out here. There were no reviews for Campsite Carbon, but they had exactly what my son needed. Nobody else did, so I decided to take a chance. I'm happy to report that it worked out well - the Jeep JL & JT Brushed Center Caps W/ Adapters fit perfectly and look great.

I was involved in an auto accident that was 100% the other guy's fault. But apparently that's not bad enough; now I've got these guys trying to contact me (5 attempts already) out of the blue. My number is on national and state do-not-call lists, but that's insufficient to stop Accident Helpline. The screenshot I'm attaching is from their website and includes phone numbers. The BBB has a listing for these guys and it includes their address.

You can download and use DaVinci Resolve for free. Instead, I purchased a copy for hundreds of dollars. Why? One reason was an expectation of getting support when I need it.

Today I found out that my expectation is not going to be met. Without getting too embroiled in the details, I will say that I wanted to know more - something, anything! - about the encoding option "Constant QP". There's a 4,000+ page reference manual for Resolve, but it says zilch about "Constant QP". "QP" doesn't even turn up in a search of the PDF. So I contacted Blackmagic Support.

The answer I got back defined what the letters stand for - Quantization Parameter - but included no information that would actually help me use it. Instead, I was directed to the Blackmagic Forums, a place where any moron can and does post incorrect information about Blackmagic products. To put it another way, instead of providing the needle I asked for, Support directed me to the haystack.

How I rue the day I chose PrepScholar from the many options available to improve my daughter's somewhat-disappointing SAT score. I ignored little alarm bells. To take one example, their offerings page says "We recommend at least +/-40 hours of study before your test." Plus or minus forty hours? These are the language experts? Second example, my daughter had already scored a 750 on the language part of the SAT. That's in the 99th percentile. But PrepScholar's "SAT Diagnostic Report" showed her language skills somewhere below the 50th percentile. That's a BIG difference, and should have been the end of our involvement. But the idea of a website that finds your academic level and gives you work tuned to your exact needs was very appealing, so we stuck with it.

Well, my daughter did exactly what PrepScholar recommended, exceeding the recommended 40 hours of study. Result? Her language score went DOWN 30 points. Her overall SAT score went up exactly 10 points. Just taking the test again, with no preparation, would almost certainly have shown at least a 10 point improvement.

What about PrepScholar's "160-Point Guarantee"? Read the fine print. Very few folks will meet all those conditions. I asked for my money back anyway, and the answer was, predictably, "no".

Big waste of time, at best. I had to enter a number of specific details, supposedly to get a bunch of offers from their "network". Then I had to call to give them "more information". At the end of it all, they said I had "no offers". FWIW, I have sterling credit.

To the owner of AirWaves Heating & Air Conditioning:

Dear John,

As I wait for you to call me back (41+ hours now) I'll take the opportunity to document a few new discoveries regarding AirWaves's installation of my A/C system. To jog your memory, I will also recount a few issues that came before.

Saturday morning, as I was heading out to help my son work on his car, my wife goes "Uh-oh. Our renters have a wet ceiling." (Photo 1). So I headed to the renthouse instead (Photo 2), and heaved myself into the attic (Photo 3). There was mouse $#*! everywhere. Never had that before, in this 2018 home. In the year since the filter was replaced, mice discovered the ladder - I mean A/C lines with convenient easy-climb wrap (Photo 4) - leading to the cavernous (to a mouse) opening into the attic (Photos 5,6). Take a close look at the quality of the clear-caulk "seal" done by your guys - it's good for a laugh!

At first I thought the wet ceiling might be due to the drain pump (Photo 7) not working. Perhaps caused by the bare wires sitting in a pool of water (Photo 8)? Or the sheer volume of mouse $#*! it had ingested? Testing in the kitchen sink showed it to be working, so that wasn't it. Nor was the drain line clogged. (But it wasn't clamped to the pump, so sooner or later it would have leaked.)

I got myself into a position where I could watch underneath the air handler. Is there any greater comfort than laying in mouse $#*! and blown insulation with one's weight supported only by 1.5-inch-wide rafters? As the A/C ran, the drips started slowly, then picked up. They were coming from everywhere except where it's supposed to drain. Did you know that the pan under the air handler has NO evacuation mechanism at all? And that the pan's outlet (Photo 9) has an unsealed PVC fitting secured (loosely) on the backside by an electrical conduit fastener (Photo 10)? LOL! Because of that, the pan starts to overflow onto ceiling drywall at less than a half-inch of standing water. Or maybe I should call it "stew", 'cuz with all the mouse $#*!, it was quite soupy. My wife really enjoyed toweling it up, let me tell ya. Took about 10 soaked towels to do the job. It probably had nothing to do with her trip to the emergency room the next day.

The massive air leakage where the air ducts attach did provide a smidge of relief from the mid-July, mid-afternoon attic heat. I'm not sure which contributed more: the crack where the sheet-metal box joins the Lennox unit (Photo 11), or the gap(s) where each duct joins the box (Photo 12).

I killed power to the unit and opened it up. As I started removing screws, I noticed that your guys misplaced the grommet on one hard line (Photo 13). But that was nothing - inside awaited a lovely mess of mouse $#*! and mouse-shredded-insulation (Photo 14). Look closely. See those wires going through the bottom, through high-vibration sheet metal with no grommet? Two problems in one! It serves as both a mouse entrance AND a future short circuit! Just in case there was any doubt as to the skill of the pseudo-electrician who did the work, check out the stripped, unsecured, shorts-in-waiting just above (Photos 15,16). Inside a wet, bare-metal enclosure.

Why was the air handler all wet inside? At first, I thought it might be because the drain is on the uphill end of the handler (Photo 17). But then I realized that there's a pan underneath the coils (Photo 18) whose job is to catch condensation and channel it to the drain. But instead, water was overflowing from the opposite corner (Photo 19). Why? Well, someone thought it would be a good idea to support the unit underneath the drain pan in an area of just-sheetmetal (Photo 20). With time, weight, and vibration, the metal bent and pushed the pan up exactly where it is supposed to be lowest, causing water to flow to the exact-wrong corner of the pan.

Obviously I had to leave the A/C disabled. My renters have been cool about it so far, but they sleep in the hottest room in the house - the upstairs southwest bedroom. During bidding you and I discussed how it was the hottest, and how I wanted to be sure that it was well-cooled. But it flows less air than any other register. I think the soft-sided duct feeding the register, which has two big, heavy, unsupported ducts on top of it and rafters underneath it (Photo 21), is being choked off.

Speaking of ducts, some seem to be choked off in places by the straps that hold them up. Your guys used my attic as a trash can, so I found a copy of the installation instructions. Where they say "support by minimum 1.5-inch wide straps", I don't think they meant for the straps to be rolled up like a homemade cigarette (Photo 22).

It has been a while since the installation, so I'd like to help you remember this one. This one was supposed to take 3-4 days; it took a month. This is the one where your guy stepped through the ceiling drywall; to your credit, you paid for the repair. This was the job where registers were placed visibly crooked to adjacent walls. This was the job where the air handler wasn't secured, so it vibrated off its pad and onto a nearby ceiling light, forcing it down through the ceiling. Remember how it took two visits from your guys to secure the unit? Remember how you paid to fix the destroyed light and surrounding drywall? Trick question - you didn't offer, and I didn't make an issue of it. This is the job where the A/C quit in less than a year, and it turned out to be poorly-secured wiring inside the outdoor unit. I could go on. There are pictures of everything, if it would help.

In all seriousness - you are not a bad guy; I think you will fix what you can. Please prioritize me, and please don't send Fig, who doesn't give a $#*!. He's responsible, directly or as supervisor, for every issue. Please send a guy who is competent and gives a $#*!. Maybe that narrows it down to you.

Ken Sellers

I order from Eckler's, (a. K. a. Rick's Camaros and others), pretty often. Why? Price - they're often the cheapest source for the part(s) I need. And that's great and that's a reason to buy from them.

But, they must have super crappy computers and/or IT staff. It's the slowest website I know of. Their website lists items that they no longer carry, and it will let you order them. Searches for items I know they have often turn up empty. When you do order, they'll send you an email that supposedly has tracking info for your order, and instead it takes you to their home page and your order isn't even listed. On multiple occasions they have randomly sent me an invoice for something I ordered, paid for, and received long ago. This is by no means a complete list of issues!

The ARH-VPR2 Radio Replacement / Amp Retention Kit For 1996-02 Dodge Viper was of the worst imaginable quality. The circular DIN connector had two pins connections reversed internally. The line-out audio signals' ground wires were mostly cut off, leaving only a few strands making contact. But those few strands were making intermittent contact with the DIN connector's circular metal shield, causing a noise problem that it took me days to figure out. And even the rectangular connector was horrible; it had a pin inserted at the wrong position which they didn't bother to extract. The low quality kit turned what should have been an easy and fun stereo installation into a 4-day nightmare.

I am the holder of a Mopar Vehicle Protection Lifetime Maximum Care warranty that covers a 2012 Dodge Durango. This factory warranty went into effect 3/22/2012. I paid a lot of money for it.

On February 27, I brought the Durango to Fort Collins (Colorado) Dodge with the engine making a strange sound. Diagnosis showed it was caused by a failing lifter. The proper repair is to replace the camshaft and all lifters. These are explicitly covered; in the policy, "Cylinder Block and all Internal Parts" applies.

The engine is not worn out and does not need to be replaced. It does not consume any more oil than it did when brand new. I am a "car guy" and have always been meticulous about maintenance, using only the best motor oil (Mobil 1 Synthetic).

It took more than a month (!) to get a response from Mopar Vehicle Protection. On March 28th, I was informed that the warranty was being "bought out" for the present value of the Durango - according to them, $8000. It would be worth more if Fort Collins Dodge had replaced my damaged center console as they had offered to do, and I had authorized, during a past service visit. Their failure to replace it then is negatively affecting the Durango's value now. It is otherwise in excellent condition.

I got a quote for replacing the camshaft and lifters from Fort Collins Dodge: $6400. That's a high price; entire rebuilt engines - "long blocks" - with a 5 year, unlimited mileage warranty, cost $3999 from Fraser Engines. Yet even without disputing the low estimate of my Durango's value or the high estimate to repair it, Mopar Vehicle Protection is obligated to cover the repair.

You see, Mopar Vehicle Protection is trying to use this clause to get out of the contract: "The maximum benefit amount... will be THE TOTAL COST OF THE REPAIRS PER VISIT... OR THE CASH VALUE OF THE VEHICLE, WHICHEVER IS LESS". The problem for them is, the total cost of the repairs doesn't exceed the value of the vehicle, even using their numbers.

I buy all my tires here, so I am VERY familiar with Discount Tire. Their after-the-sale services like rebalancing, rotation, and flat fixing are all free. Even including about $25 per tire of made-up fees, they compete very well on price against anyone.

However, they're very annoying about trying to upsell you things you don't need. I always skip the optional extended warranty; the one time I needed it (and had paid for it) my 16K-mile tires were "too worn out" to replace (according to the Longmont Colorado Discount Tire store).

Recently they've started to branch out. It was bad enough when they started pushing wiper blades. On my last visit, after finding out that I had already had new tires and wiper blades, the clearly-disappointed sales guy tried to sell me new lug nuts. I would encourage anyone to STRONGLY push back against wiper blades, lug nuts, extra tire warranties, or whatever other extra-money-making scheme they have thought up lately. This is the kind of "bright idea" that bean-counters come up with. It's hard to measure the cost of making customers mad, but it's real. Something the bean-counters never include in their calculations.

...until I had an experience with an actual scam website - MBenzGram.com. Trustpilot picked up on them posting a bunch of fake reviews, where they have a 2.2 star average and a warning label. On SiteJabber, the scam website has 4.35 stars and tons and tons of fake reviews that there seems to be no way to report or have taken down. Now I realize that TrustPilot is better.

I never heard of Bread Financial until getting a "you're in default on a loan" letter from them in the mail. A thief used my name and good credit to take out a loan and buy over $1000 in equipment from Nikon.

I get that lenders walk a fine line between making their applications too onerous and making it too easy to open a fraudulent account. However, you would think they could have (1) mailed me something when the account was opened, (2) verified that the phone number used matched a known number in my credit report, (3) verified that the email address used matched a known email for me. Or (4), "other" verification. Any one of these things would have been an improvement.

I'm still cleaning up the mess made when a criminal stole my identity and Bread allowed it to happen with their toothless identity verification. So it's safe to say I'm not a Bread fan.

I used a home equity loan to buy an adjacent vacant lot. Just to set the scene, I have >800 credit and never even missed a payment on a credit card. The first two people I dealt with (Bryant and Stephanie) were nice, professional, and competent. Then my loan went to an underwriter, and the experience was so poor that it left a really bad overall impression of Wyndham. The underwriter obsessed over tiny accounts (CDs) that had nothing to do with my ability to repay the loan. She kept asking for documents that I had already provided. At one point I literally told my loan originator that she must have it in for me, though I had no idea what I had done to deserve it.

This site is for real and legit. After seeing a steering wheel I liked on a Mustang retail site, I started trying to find out who made it. Flashpower did. I ordered a *******-A00 steering wheel directly from the Flashpower site. Shipping was free. When it arrived a short time later, I was delighted with the quality of the wheel.

I took off 1 star because the website has a bug where instead of being able to see and track my order, it kept taking me to a page where I was supposed to enter credit card information. And it happened no matter which browser I used. They need to fix that bug, obviously.

Overall, in spite of warnings put on Flashpower emails by Gmail, ordering from Flashpower turned out to be a great experience.

...until I had an experience with an actual scam website - MBenzGram.com. Trustpilot picked up on them posting a bunch of fake reviews, where they have a 2.2 star average and a warning label. On SiteJabber, the scam website has 4.35 stars and tons and tons of fake reviews that there seems to be no way to report or have taken down. Now I realize that TrustPilot is better.

ORIGINAL REVIEW: FNBA offers very competitive rates on CDs. Cool! Great! BUT, what I didn't know was that they're making it up - unsurprisingly - with super-high fees elsewhere. In my case, the shock happened when I needed to terminate a CD early; the penalty was 540 days worth of interest, and if the account hasn't been open 540 days, it's taken from the original deposit. FYI most CDs charge a 6-month interest penalty for early withdrawal.

UPDATE: Everything I said previously is true, but I have since had a lot of interaction with FNBA, and it revealed a level of customer service that my own primary bank (Ally) simply does not have. I appreciate it and am upgrading my rating accordingly.

When you log in, you're greeted by a page where they've prepopulated your credit card info, and where the "buy" button is visible, but the "not right now" button is off the screen. And they've set it up to where it looks like just another button to click through to get in. See the attached screenshot and you'll see what I mean. This is not how above-board businesses operate.

Their phone system is set up to cause you to have to go through prompt after prompt to get to speak with a person. Before you do, the system may hang up on you. For one event, I had to call Experian 6 times before I got everything worked out. Unlike Equifax and TransUnion, you cannot dispute anything online; a phone call is the only way. Conveniently for them but not for you, the call center is only staffed on non-holiday weekdays during normal business hours.