Thumbnail of user martis20

Marti S.

3
Level 3 Contributor
Bradenton, FL

Contributor Level

Total Points
2,591

17 Reviews by Marti

  • Butchersblocksarasota

3/22/23
Verified purchase

"Butcher's Block
3242 17th Street, Sarasota FL *******" I MUST tell you about this terrific store! Their meat (beef, pork, chicken, lamb, seafood, and more) and the clever variety of cuts (like tomahawks!) makes shopping FuN! WAIT: There's more! Cheeses, processed meats, olives, and WINES! And there's MORE! They also sell ready-to-eat meals! Grilled Brussels sprouts, pickled eggs, deviled eggs, meat salads (tuna, chicken), Shepherd's pie, Chicken casserole, Meatloaf, Meatballs, Twice-baked potatoes - and DESSERTS (individual Key Lime pies, Molten Lava bundt cakes, cookies)! Many of their foods are prepared on-site. I've not even mentioned their FRESH PRODUCE (peppers, onions, eggs, squash)! And bottled SAUCES, rubs, spices from around the world. While we don't have a "Green Egg" BBQ, they are a distributor of all things "Green:" racks, tools/utensils, as well as the grills themselves. 22 Mar 23

Tip for consumers:
Somewhat limited parking, but we've never had a problem.

Products used:
Meat, prepared foods, desserts

  • Allgranitesarasota

4/18/22

Repeat business is the best business - and we've contracted with All Granite & Marble for 3 jobs now. From a large to a very small project: WONDERFUL service all around! From recommending local granite stores from which to select a large amount of granite for one project, to having on-hand sufficient granite for smaller projects, to helping us decide details like edging & to backsplash or not, to templating (who even knew that was a "thing," let alone how critical it is to successful project completion), to the installation, and even to <sigh> making payments. Class act all around from not just a team of employees - but a *family* of people with a common goal: customer satisfaction!

Service
Value
Quality
  • Fyzical

9/5/21

My husband ran an in-patient rehab hospital, and we were recommended to Fyzical by a local sister hospital here in his company. SO glad to have found Fyzical Lakewood Ranch! After 2 surgeries (spinal fusion in Feb & total hip replacement in Jun), I thank not only my physicians but the Fyzical team for bringing me back to my life. Fyzical Lakewood Ranch is clean and operates like a well-oiled machine. Paul and Stephanie (aka "Cruella!") were absolutely amazing - along with Juanita and the various assistants. Melissa at the front desk kept me straight with scheduling appointments to coordinate with the needs of our primary & secondary insurance companies. The team was respectful of my time - not only maximizing my workout, but beginning & ending on time. I progressed at my own pace (while being gently nudged to do more), at the same time learning how to continue moving forward on my own. Parking is relatively plentiful and easy - there's even a covered drive-thru for those needing to be dropped off or on rainy days. I don't look at my graduation from PT as being done-done, but see it as having reached my current physical goals - and yet I'm empowered to continue. While I'd be glad to never see them again (!) - if I need to return to PT, it will be to the Fyzical team at Lakewood Ranch!

  • Silkgardencreations

6/27/21
Verified purchase

My whole life has been spent killing plants; including when we lived in Hawaii where *everything* grows and flourishes! I've e even been known to kill silk flowers (not my fault: the steam in our kitchen caused them to wilt)! The result is that we have only had "fake plants" in our homes ever since - and found Garden Creations to be a *wonderful* artificial plant store in Sarasota! The artistry of the lady who puts together arrangements absolutely competes with the best displays I've seen in magazines, yet they also carry a really nice assortment of plants/flowers to buy separately. They carry large to small arrangements, do custom designs, make housecalls, and even deliver. It's absolutely worth the trip as it's such a fun store to walk around and get ideas. Not to mention it's owned and run by a local family! (7378 S Tamiami Trail; Sarasota FL *******)

Tip for consumers:
Location is in an older strip mall

Products used:
artificial plants

Service
Value
Quality
  • Hilldrup

3/25/21

Moving is a pain in the A$$ - as someone whose entire life has been spent making both military and civilian moves. My husband and I can honestly say we've never had a better move than our recent move from VA to our FL retirement home. While a relatively small load, we felt the care of not only the "surveyor" (Pete Ball) and most especially of our move coordinator (Maria Pierkarski), but also the packing and trucking team. It took us a while to decide and get to our final move date, but Maria held our hand and communicated all along the way. (While we've never met - I feel she would be a great friend!) United kept us apprised via email of where the truck loaded with our goods was and when we could expect it. All our things arrived in good order and we would HIGHLY RECOMMEND contracting with United VanLines - Hilldrup

  • Spectrum

11/5/20

I get it. Prices go up. We should all be aware and take advantage of "specials" and "bundling." But at a certain point it's just.not.worth.it any longer! We're mostly part-timers, so opted for basic TV service, bundled with the fastest wifi/internet service. We pretty much ignore our terrible picture quality, along with never-ending - and more frequent - buffering as our TV tries to attain signal because we don't watch that much TV. Making frequent calls to Spectrum to see what their "discount of the month" might happen to be just wasn't worth it due to long phone wait times and obvious attempts to "up-sell" us on more channels, additional bundled services.

A year ago we were fed up enough that we called to see what could be done, and were told we needed to return our cable box to the company. The CSR said if a cable box isn't used at least once a month that it turns into a "brick" and can't be revived remotely. We stood in line an HOUR to turn in the box at our local storefront in Bradenton - and *that* was pre-COVID! We decided our continued reception deprecation was the price we had to pay - UNTIL WE GOT A ROKU! (But this isn't about Roku - it's *all* about Spectrum!)

Thanks to support from both our son and from advice read both online and from the "Cut the Cord" Nextdoor group, I called today to terminate all TV portions of our Spectrum service. (We've honestly not had problems with the wifi/internet as we're often not here so have not been impacted by outages we've heard about.)

I was on hold for a short 10 minutes to get to the first Spectrum CSR - who sent me along to the CSR who would do the actual termination of my TV services. After 30 minutes, an initially pleasant woman came on the phone - until she understood I wasn't going to be up-sold or scolded into not having called regularly to take advantage of new plans or additional bundling that they would have offered me.

The kicker, though was that if you don't call them just before your monthly billing timeframe ends - they DO NOT PRO-RATE! I am going to have to pay for the ENTIRE billing month before my new rate takes effect, even though we're into the billing period by some 5 days! I said in that case to just keep me on the TV service until the end of the timeframe - NO CAN DO! I'd have to call back and spend ANOTHER HOUR on the phone repeating all I'd just said and done to terminate the TV portion!

(Incidentally - I had just completed a survey from our VA Comcast/Xfinity company - to whom I gave a GLOWING review as
1) they don't raise their prices 3 times in a year - as Spectrum has done;
2) whose reception is stellar, and
3) whose customer service is spot on and who don't try to up-sell me on what they have to offer on the rare occasion I do have to call them for a remote re-set!)

I guess when you're the BEST, you don't need to advertise or be misleading! If not - you make your payroll by fleecing your customers.

  • Olddominion

10/2/20

As the saying goes, "the best laid plans of mice and men…" Please stay with me here - this is maybe one of the longest reviews you'll ever read; my husband says I talk too much - but this story has a happy ending!

In June we saw a patio furniture set we really liked in a generic outdoor furniture store - but being the "frugal" types we are, thought to see if our preferred outdoor furniture store carried the line. They did, but they were a little more costly. When we mentioned we were going to return to the original store, our sales lady mentioned that store had literally *just* gone out of business and closed its doors! Trust, but verify - and she was right - so we returned and placed our order. Not being in any rush, the delivery date of early September was fine with us.

My husband is "that guy," he doesn't let grass grow beneath his feet - so we reserved a truck for the second week in September to pickup and drive our new furniture to our Florida home. Cancelled that truck and made a reservation for the following weekend. Cancelled and made a THIRD reservation as it was now the END of September and seemed crazy that our furniture was still not ready! Mr. "guy" was totally ready to cancel our order, but JACKIE did a YEOMAN'S job "working the deal" with the Tropitone manufacturer to get our furniture delivered. GO FIGURE - COVID was the reason given that the fluffy fill for our cushions was insufficient and all our pieces weren't ready. Turns out the actual Tropitone factory was in the SAME town as our Florida home - and JACKIE was able to get us special permission to pick up whatever furniture/cushions we could get on our end of September trip! YEAH! Well - yeah until we arrived at the Factory and found the furniture had been SHIPPED TO the store in VIRGINIA! Are you kidding?! (And if Mr. "guy" HAD been ready to cancel - you can imagine what he said then)

At this point, SCOTT, the Tropitone Sales Manager, stepped in as well - no doubt thanks to JACKIE contacting him and explaining all that had been going on - and they arranged for our furniture to be return-shipped *back* to Florida. Of *course* it was due to arrive after we left - but we have amazing neighbors who agreed to facilitate and take delivery. I had a call (just as we were boarding the plane) to call back and arrange the actual delivery - but when I called back, NO ANSWER! I tried the 2 numbers I had 6 (SIX) times - and finally a LOVELY lady from SOUTH CAROLINA answered! She relayed that she had *literally* just received an email that the Florida location had lost all power - no phones, no computers! She gave me 2 email addresses, and I sent emails asking them to reach back out to me once they had our delivery scheduled for either of the 2 days our neighbor would be available. Yes, they did! LORI HUFFMAN - of Old Dominion Freight facilitated and the delivery was set for this afternoon! I communicated with our neighbor and all was well ~

True to form - of course that didn't go quite as planned - and the delivery truck driver called that he was 30 minutes away and would be there THIS MORNING (vs this afternoon). Our neighbor was home - and we now have our lovely Tropitone patio furniture set! I'll have to be patient and wait 'til our next visit to try it out - but WHAT A TEAM EFFORT this has been!

Many kudos and thanks to JACKIE (of Offenbachers Home Escapes), SCOTT (of Tropitone), and LORI HUFFMAN of Old Dominion Freight, our neighbor, Kris - and to the delivery truck driver and many others whose names I don't have!

  • Tropitone

10/2/20

As the saying goes, "the best laid plans of mice and men…" Please stay with me here - this is maybe one of the longest reviews you'll ever read; my husband says I talk too much - but this story has a happy ending!

In June we saw a patio furniture set we really liked in a generic outdoor furniture store - but being the "frugal" types we are, thought to see if our preferred outdoor furniture store carried the line. They did, but they were a little more costly. When we mentioned we were going to return to the original store, our sales lady mentioned that store had literally *just* gone out of business and closed its doors! Trust, but verify - and she was right - so we returned and placed our order. Not being in any rush, the delivery date of early September was fine with us.

My husband is "that guy," he doesn't let grass grow beneath his feet - so we reserved a truck for the second week in September to pickup and drive our new furniture to our Florida home. Cancelled that truck and made a reservation for the following weekend. Cancelled and made a THIRD reservation as it was now the END of September and seemed crazy that our furniture was still not ready! Mr. "guy" was totally ready to cancel our order, but JACKIE did a YEOMAN'S job "working the deal" with the Tropitone manufacturer to get our furniture delivered. GO FIGURE - COVID was the reason given that the fluffy fill for our cushions was insufficient and all our pieces weren't ready. Turns out the actual Tropitone factory in Sarasota was in the SAME town as our Florida home - and JACKIE was able to get us special permission to pick up whatever furniture/cushions we could get on our end of September trip! YEAH! Well - yeah until we arrived at the Factory and found the furniture had been SHIPPED TO the store in VIRGINIA! Are you kidding?! (And if Mr. "guy" HAD been ready to cancel - you can imagine what he said then)

At this point, SCOTT CARR, the Tropitone Sales Manager, stepped in as well - no doubt thanks to JACKIE contacting him and explaining all that had been going on - and they arranged for our furniture to be return-shipped *back* to Florida. Of *course* it was due to arrive after we left - but we have amazing neighbors who agreed to facilitate and take delivery. I had a call (just as we were boarding the plane) to call back and arrange the actual delivery - but when I called back, NO ANSWER! I tried the 2 numbers I had 6 (SIX) times - and finally a LOVELY lady from SOUTH CAROLINA answered! She relayed that she had *literally* just received an email that the Florida location had lost all power - no phones, no computers! She gave me 2 email addresses, and I sent emails asking them to reach back out to me once they had our delivery scheduled for either of the 2 days our neighbor would be available. Yes, they did! LORI - of Old Dominion Freight facilitated and the delivery was set for this afternoon! I communicated with our neighbor and all was well ~

True to form - of course that didn't go quite as planned - and the delivery truck driver called that he was 30 minutes away and would be there THIS MORNING (vs this afternoon). Our neighbor was home - and we now have our lovely Tropitone patio furniture set! I'll have to be patient and wait 'til our next visit to try it out - but WHAT A TEAM EFFORT this has been!

Many kudos and thanks to JACKIE (of Offenbachers Home Escapes), SCOTT (of Tropitone), and LORI of Old Dominion Freight, our neighbor, Kris - and to the delivery truck driver and many others whose names I don't have!

  • Offenbachers

10/2/20

As the saying goes, "the best laid plans of mice and men…" Please stay with me here - this is maybe one of the longest reviews you'll ever read; my husband says I talk too much - but this story has a happy ending!

In June we saw a patio furniture set we really liked in a generic outdoor furniture store - but being the "frugal" types we are, thought to see if our preferred outdoor furniture store carried the line. They did, but they were a little more costly. When we mentioned we were going to return to the original store, our sales lady mentioned that store had literally *just* gone out of business and closed its doors! Trust, but verify - and she was right - so we returned and placed our order. Not being in any rush, the delivery date of early September was fine with us.

My husband is "that guy," he doesn't let grass grow beneath his feet - so we reserved a truck for the second week in September to pickup and drive our new furniture to our Florida home. Cancelled that truck and made a reservation for the following weekend. Cancelled and made a THIRD reservation as it was now the END of September and seemed crazy that our furniture was still not ready! Mr. "guy" was totally ready to cancel our order, but JACKIE did a YEOMAN'S job "working the deal" with the Tropitone manufacturer to get our furniture delivered. GO FIGURE - COVID was the reason given that the fluffy fill for our cushions was insufficient and all our pieces weren't ready. Turns out the actual Tropitone factory was in the SAME town as our Florida home - and JACKIE was able to get us special permission to pick up whatever furniture/cushions we could get on our end of September trip! YEAH! Well - yeah until we arrived at the Factory and found the furniture had been SHIPPED TO the store in VIRGINIA! Are you kidding?! (And if Mr. "guy" HAD been ready to cancel - you can imagine what he said then)

At this point, SCOTT, the Tropitone Sales Manager, stepped in as well - no doubt thanks to JACKIE contacting him and explaining all that had been going on - and they arranged for our furniture to be return-shipped *back* to Florida. Of *course* it was due to arrive after we left - but we have amazing neighbors who agreed to facilitate and take delivery. I had a call (just as we were boarding the plane) to call back and arrange the actual delivery - but when I called back, NO ANSWER! I tried the 2 numbers I had 6 (SIX) times - and finally a LOVELY lady from SOUTH CAROLINA answered! She relayed that she had *literally* just received an email that the Florida location had lost all power - no phones, no computers! She gave me 2 email addresses, and I sent emails asking them to reach back out to me once they had our delivery scheduled for either of the 2 days our neighbor would be available. Yes, they did! LORI - of Old Dominion Freight facilitated and the delivery was set for this afternoon! I communicated with our neighbor and all was well ~

True to form - of course that didn't go quite as planned - and the delivery truck driver called that he was 30 minutes away and would be there THIS MORNING (vs this afternoon). Our neighbor was home - and we now have our lovely Tropitone patio furniture set! I'll have to be patient and wait 'til our next visit to try it out - but WHAT A TEAM EFFORT this has been!

Many kudos and thanks to JACKIE (of Offenbachers Home Escapes), SCOTT (of Tropitone), and LORI of Old Dominion Freight, our neighbor, Kris - and to the delivery truck driver and many others whose names I don't have!

  • Uxari

2/19/20

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to change a first impression?

Let me tell you (OK, I won't) about how *much* I disliked my initial experience with Vitex and our new smart home - all because of one of our first salesmen.

That said, ROBERT (as well as some other techs over the past year or so) significantly changed that first impression. Robert was the first tech, however, to go WELL ABOVE AND BEYOND when he added power and a lanai camera for us last week, as well as updated our ACE Module. Robert knew just when to ask another tech (Tim) for assistance (when crawling around in our rafters) rather than leaving us in the lurch. Robert was friendly yet efficient. No wasted words, but willing to listen and he was responsive. Robert even remedied the train wreck inside our hub cabinet using only zip ties!

One of the most important things to me is getting solid response and help when I need it - and having a feeling our home security needs have been met. Every time I've called Uxari I've had great customer service on the phone. Uxari's service after the sale has been great, and I feel confident my home is secure. I've almost forgotten old what's his name...

  • Lands' End

12/31/19

"Not only did the jeans I purchased not fit (the "rise" was too short), but when I realized it would cost me almost 25% of the purchase price to return a pair of jeans I had purchased from Lands' End, I thought I'd find a storefront and return them there instead. To my dismay, there isn't a Lands' End near our northern Virginia home! Online I found two locations near where we would be spending the holidays - and again - image my dismay when I got there to find BOTH the Sarasota and Tampa locations are "permanently closed!"

ASK me if I'll EVER buy from Lands' End again!

HAH!"

  • Schwan's

10/3/19

I am so very disillusioned with the Schwan's Home Service in northern Virginia. Actually - with the entire Schwan's experience. Having to place an order minimally 10 days prior to delivery means I have to know just what I need to buy well before I need it. That said, their products are not "all that" to entice me to pay their premium prices for items I can easily purchase at our local grocery store as soon as I know I need them. Then there's the delivery. I admit I don't order often - but EVERY time I've placed an order with a delivery date and time window - the delivery has not been made during either that window, and once didn't even hit the day. I've asked for a call prior to delivery - no call. Shall we talk about their Rewards system? Well - IF you don't use accumulated awards (which amounts to pennies on a purchase) within a limited time - the rewards disappear. Schwan's can't even manage to e-track/maintain those! I am done-done with Schwan's.

  • Mariposa Nursery

7/15/19

Wow! Clean, organized by color & size, space between pots & plants. Every soil and additive, gravel, mulch imaginable. The most unique yard art (dinosaurs, dragons, lizards), as well as those more typical. Gadgets I've not seen elsewhere (the Upsy-Daisy is genius, along with various plant stands) - but note their unique inventory comes with a price across all their products. While located a tad out of the way, Mariposa Nursery is certainly worth the trip!

  • Virginia Tire & Auto

7/5/19

As always, having our car(s) serviced at Virginia Tire & Auto-One Loudoun is painless (well, except sometimes for the paying part!) - clean, smells good, comfortable (wifi, coffee, soda, water) and I can easily entertain myself either by grabbing a bite or with the nearby shopping. I love being able to schedule my service, and the timeframe I'm given is spot on - no wasted time.

  • Pier1

6/23/19

Customer service at the Leesburg site was woefully lacking.

We were told for "security purposes" we could not place our order over the phone, and also that we had to come in to the store to place the order for it to be shipped (at no cost to us) to our Florida home. Since when can one not place an order over the phone? I was able to order the lamp on-line, received the 25% discount currently being offered, and also got free shipping as the total purchase price was over $49.

We would not have bought this lamp if we had not been able to order it online.

To quote Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, "Big mistake! Big! HUGE!" There are plenty of other Pier 1 stores in our area; the Leesburg location just lost my business forever.

  • DC Design Tours

6/22/19

DC Design's CAROLINE told us amazing tidbits about DC and its history on this hot June tour! She kept us going - stopping in the shade wherever possible and going off script to address with candor our many questions that weren't part of the actual tour. The Presidential Neighborhood tour was a splendid overview of the downtown area - and is a terrific lead in to taking additional tours for more detailed information. Info disseminated in DC Design Tours goes above and beyond the typical patois from other companies (not that other tours aren't also good). Previously took a different tour offered by DC Design Tours with SAM who was equally wonderful. I highly recommend DC Design Tours as being informative and fast-paced, full of all sorts of interesting information!

Service
Value
Quality
  • Oak Furnitureland

6/21/19

From finding our console tables during a random web search to their delivery, OakFurnitureLand was a class act - absolutely the way internet sales should work! The website was clean, clear, and easy to navigate. We had questions - and we were able to call and speak with a knowledgeable human! Our tables were shipped when we were told they would be, and at each step we were apprised of their location and updated on when to expect delivery. The tables arrived in tip-top condition and were delivered by 2 well-spoken deliverymen after they called and told us they were on their way. When I mentioned to the delivery men that they worked for a class company - both OakFurnitureLand and Ryder Last Mile trucking, they acknowledged they made many deliveries on behalf of OakFurnitureLand - seems many other purchasers agree with us on the quality of furniture.

Marti Has Earned 31 Votes

Marti S.'s review of Mariposa Nursery earned a Very Helpful vote

Marti S.'s review of Schwan's earned a Very Helpful vote

Marti S.'s review of Oak Furnitureland earned a Very Helpful vote

Marti S.'s review of DC Design Tours earned 2 Very Helpful votes

Marti S.'s review of uxari.com earned a Very Helpful vote

Marti S.'s review of Virginia Tire & Auto earned 3 Very Helpful votes

Marti S.'s review of Pier1 earned 10 Very Helpful votes

Marti S.'s review of Lands' End earned 12 Very Helpful votes

Marti hasn’t received any thanks yous.

Marti doesn’t have any fans yet.

Marti isn’t following anybody yet.

Empty.

Similar Reviewers on Sitejabber

Thumbnail of user melissam1394
1/30/22

I have been going to Pyzical for various injuries and post surgery therapy for years. I had used...

Thumbnail of user bexym
bexy m. reviewed Spectrum
3/7/24

A month or so ago I started received daily (at least) adverts in the mail to switch to Spectrum...