Lynn

Stopped at Trader Joe's to pick up a few things right before Easter and noticed that there was a mini-mob of people there buying flowers-- something that I'd not noticed before at a TJ's. That crowd got my attention; taking a closer look at the bouquets I noticed they had roses for only about ten bucks a dozen, so I decided to purchase some. I was pleasantly amazed to find that the roses held up exceptionally well for several days, even without using the provided preservative! I also overheard staff letting customers know that they would be putting more fresh flowers out soon the same day. TJ's is not the first place I would have thought about for purchasing Easter flowers, but from my own experience with the bouquet I bought, they were selling some of the freshest flowers in town!
The only reason I haven't given them a 5-star rating is because availability for many of the items they sell can be 'hit and miss.' Granted, some items are expected to be seasonal and to sell out quickly, yet there are year-round type items that sometimes seem to be suddenly discontinued. There are other items that should be probably be discounted to move the stock, but yet they are still on the shelf, like the Christmastime Winter Wassail juice! Sometimes the quality of some of their own name brand products can be hit or miss, too. For example, the "Reduced Guilt Spinach & Kale Greek Yogurt Dip" is occasionally less flavorful and sometimes has a more bitter or 'off' flavor. (Could that be from an imbalance in the ratio of kale to spinach?) Although the selection of groceries has been disappointing now and then over the years, this most recent purchase of flowers has exceeded expectations!

Whole Foods has been running TV ads touting lower costs through the store, urging customers to look for 'yellow' sales signs. So, on a recent visit to WF, I paid closer attention to the prices of items and I didn't see where there were very many items that could be considered steeply discounted. Some flavored sparkling water (in cans) was on sale, but other grocers carry the same product and often at a comparable 'sale' price. The prices of 365 brand items like tortilla chips and vitamin or electrolyte infused hydration drinks are comparable to prices at other grocers, yet prices for their special organic 'pressed' juices are significantly HIGHER ( over 6 to almost 7 dollars each) than at other stores. Their selection of some items was skimpy. They reformulated the recipe for 365 Woven Wheat crackers a while back, adding seed oil in with the wheat and salt! Are they still committed to healthy foods or just profits? There is also confusing signage in the store when it comes to 'regular sale' prices that are to be extended to any customer vs. the additional discount for Prime members. Mobile phones are now required to get the Prime discounts. To make matters worse, some of the staff didn't seem to understand that there are other sales in the store that don't require Prime and that might not be keyed into the register as a 'yellow' price -- such as the 'in-store special' on two specific plate meals from the deli that were an additional percentage off -- but a lower percentage than with Prime. I needed to be pretty assertive to get the cashier to understand that there were two levels of sales in the store--not just Prime! She called a manager who got surly and in a rude huff said, "Give 'em the two dollars! We've got to keep the line moving!" So much for 'customer service with a smile' and for having a strong incentive to keep shopping there.

Satisfaction with Meijer varies. Many times we find good bargains and quality items, but every now and again we experience an issue. This time it had to do with their 'Buy Two, Get One Free' promotions in store. The Reddi-Wip brand metal canisters of chilled whipped cream cost $3.29 each for all flavors and were advertised as "Buy Two, Get One Free" on a small placard in front of the product in the refrigerated dairy case. So, I chose two of the Sugar Free variety and one sugared 'extra creamy' can. When I checked the receipt, I noticed that the two cans of the Sugar Free variety were coded as "Reddi-Wip" on the receipt, but the other flavor was coded generically as "whipped topping." That is probably why the register system didn't recognize that three Reddi-Wip products were being purchased. I called customer service at the local number and it sounds like I reached someone in corporate customer service instead. She was very polite and seemed eager to be helpful and said that we can bring the receipt in for an adjustment. I pray that trying to receive a price adjustment goes better than it has at times in the past. We've had a few less-than-pleasant customer service experiences where staff were a bit uncooperative and tried make excuses when trying to get the proper price adjustments. My recommendation to other Meijer shoppers is to watch the register closely while your order is being rung up, so that if correction is needed that it can happen at the register and before leaving the store.

The 'rodeo' with Walgreens has become ridiculous! After putting up with an insufficient supply of emergency vacation fill medication from the Walgreens location we visited while out of town, we ran into difficulty getting the full prescription filled at our local Walgreens. They claimed to have tried contacting the physician's office "3 times"and that according to their policy if they cannot reach a physician after 3 times, it becomes the patient's responsibility. Well, we had been leaving messages at the doctor's office, too. Fortunately, we reached someone at the doctor's office this afternoon and learned where the problem with getting the script filled originated... with Walgreens! Well, we can also blame the beast of the electronic medical record system, too. Apparently, somehow by having an emergency paltry three-pill emergency vacation fill at another location, Walgreens TRANSFERRED THE ENTIRE PRESCRIPTION TO THAT LOCATION! With that maneuver, something changed in the system so that the information going to the doctor was also 'updated,' so that the doctor's office kept faxxing and phoning the location out of state! So, as it stands now, the out-of-town pharmacy has to be contacted directly to transfer the prescription BACK to the local store! How ridiculous! And just how many days had to transpire without having the full prescription filled? Too many. And of course, it's not like a patient can get a fill EARLY when they know they are going to be out of town. The miscreant PBMs who are in collusion with the insurance companies don't want patients stockpiling meds so they have patients almost waiting to the last minute to fill scripts? So what is a patient to do when they will be out of town before it is the 'approved time' to fill the drug? Trying to get a 'vacation fill' feels like an exercise in both futility and stupidity.

Service at Kroger Stores can be hit or miss in our area and product availability can sometimes be 'iffy.' Today I called their product support line to inquire about the availability of a specific product and the gentleman I spoke with was friendly, courteous and seemed eager to serve. While I had him on the line, I asked about the store's coupon policy, because I encountered something a bit odd on my most recent shopping trip. Private Selection Buns were on sale for $2.99 (down from $3.49). I had looked forward to using the cents-off 'Rewards' coupon on the item. However, when I got to the self-service register and scanned the coupon, the system did not recognize the coupon and gave an 'item not found' error. When I received assistance from the staff monitoring the self-check lanes I was informed that Kroger now will no longer accept a coupon on a 'sale' item! That seemed a bit strange, given that using the cents-off coupon would NOT result in getting a 'free' item, nor was the item already on a deeply reduced clearance price. NO, it was just the regular weekly ad's sale price. The lane monitoring lady was very kind and did an over-ride to accept the coupon. Still, hearing about that policy seemed odd, so I decided to ask about it when talking with the product specialist. He transferred the call to someone with the loyalty program. That agent had some significant difficulty (problems with ESL) with understanding my questions about their coupon policy. After rephrasing and asking in different ways, it sounds like Kroger doesn't really have a 'set in stone' coupon policy regarding routine sale items, so that when a problem arises, the customer can request help from the cashier or service desk, who can call them at the loyalty rewards center to try to resolve the situation. She did confirm that, of course, a customer cannot use more than one coupon on a single item. It also sounds like having identical coupons good on a category of product (e.g. canned vegetables) that it could be a 'gray area' whether more than one coupon can be used. For example, if it's coupons on canned veggies, you can use more than one coupon if redeeming on different types (e.g. one on corn with one on carrots). She also reaffirmed that if there's any question on using coupons, the company will try to make it right. She even offered to apply the value of the coupon to my rewards account, but I declined given that I had the check-lane monitor to do the over-ride for me.
Although I felt a bit inconvenienced by having the checklane system reject the coupon, I learned a few things about how Kroger's policy is supposed to work. It's good to know that a customer can ask someone to contact the loyalty center.

We received a phone call from Duke to let us know that they would be discontinuing the program that allows individuals to read their own meters and that customers have just 2 options: pay a monthly fee (> $17) to have a meter reader come out or to have a smart meter installed. It feels like coercion to get customers to accept the smart meter. It would be helpful to be able to 'crunch the numbers' to see whether it is worth it to pay to have someone come to read the meter. From reports I've heard and read, it sounds like having the smart meter increases the monthly bill and in some cases that might just be over $17 a month. And, on top of that, our local regulatory commission has also approved for Duke to raise the basic rates, too.

It's encouraging to see all the positive reviews about Dealdash, but there are some things about the site that don't add up. For example, there is bidding going on for a single $25 Walmart gift card and bids are still in the under 25-cent range. Sounds attractive, right? But what doesn't add up is that Dealdash has its 'buy it now' feature and that single $25 gift card is advertised for $55! Who in their right mind would pay 'double-plus' for a gift card? So, is it some glitch (best case scenario) or deliberate falsehood? If $55 is the purchase price for TWO $25 gift cards, that would make more sense -- $50 cash value with a small processing fee. But as it is listed now it doesn't make sense and that's enough of an 'error' to give any prospective bidder to question their tactics.

Barclays seems to be coercing customers to do more online banking. To make matters worse, they have some of the most deficient customer service agents whose English skills are about the worst.

Over the years we've had both great and abysmal service from Amazon. But, when they do things right, it is worthwhile to mention because so very often it is the abysmal experiences that are reported on.
Lately there has been good service -- including promised on time deliveries! -- with purchases of such items as jewelry making components, books, DVDs and even Easter basket filler items. It's probably difficult to keep a behemoth as huge as Amazon running without some hiccoughs along the way. At least here's a shout out for things working AS THEY SHOULD BE ALL THE TIME happening lately.

Over the years we had been pretty satisfied as Walgreens customers. Pharmacy staff at our local store were generally cheerful and very very helpful. But more recently we've experienced problems with retail pharmacy service, not the least of which is that one of our maintenance medications is often delayed or out-of-stock on a very regular basis. One of the pharmacy staff explained to us that there is a bottleneck of sorts caused by some kind of drop-shipping from a quasi-regional Walgreens distribution hub to local stores.
Well, as if putting up with drug shortages and delays is not annoying enough, now Walgreens is creating difficulty for customers regarding 'emergency' or 'vacation fill' requests. When we realized that we were out of town with not enough medication to last the week, we stopped by Walgreens to get that emergency vacation fill. Aaah... but when we got to the hotel, we found that only 3 tablets -- not a week's worth-- of the maintenence med was dispensed! We didn't want to take precious time from our vacay to go back to Walgreens again and beg for three more days worth and then again for a single day's worth. So, once we got back home, I called Walgreens to find out what their current policy is regarding vacation fills (If memory serves correctly, it used to be one week). After talking on the phone with a rep at their main customer service number who said they couldn't discuss pharmacy matters and didn't seem to have good enough command of English to understand that I was asking about a corporate policy and NOT about personal medications, I tried online chat. The chat agent tried their best to be very helpful, but said that there really isn't a specific policy on emergency fills and that it varies from location to location! So I asked who do I take the concern to... the location tha dispensed only 3 pills or somewhere else? The chat agent had no idea!
So what has happened to Walgreens? I really don't know, but it is NOT the company I had put confidence in so very many years ago.

Wellcare call center staff seem ill-equipped to help in many if not most circumstances. Got the major run-around in requesting a 'formulary exception.' No response, so contacted them a week later for follow-up. First agent didn't understand what I was asking and wanted me to explain the entire situation again. I asked for a supervisor, who then offered to start the ball rolling again to request the exception and claimed that there wasn't any record of the prior call! When I pressed in on that lapse, I got a lame apology then the blame was put on the physician's office for not completing the process. For what it's worth, it felt like I had been deliberately deceived by call center staff. So then I asked if she could give me a list of drugs in the category that ARE covered, so I could discuss it with my MD ( I don't like playing prescription lotto when I go to pick up my medicines at the drug store!). She said there is no such list! Another lie? Surely they have an established formulary list SOMEWHERE... BUT THE AGENTS DON'T HAVE ACCESS TO IT? Lame, really lame! And then she mentioned one of my maintenence meds--prescribed by a different MD-- and wanted to discuss it. I explained that I was not calling about any of the drugs that I am currently on, but want to know what drugs ARE covered by the plan. Then she said they "are not medical personnel" like that is supposed to be a facile excuse for such idiocy. So why aren't they medical personnel? Can't the folks at Wellcare hire people who speak English FLUENTLY and who have at least a modicum of health care knowledge?

Over the years it has been pretty much 'hit or miss' regarding what reviews will be posted and which ones won't. Overall, however, it seems that reviews that carry 1-star ratings may be less likely to appear and lately it appears that they may be doing something strange with existing accounts, wanting folks with established accounts to sign in by Google or Facebook. I didn't do that and then the button for 'submit' on the review page was 'grayed out' and didn't permit submitting the review. Something weird is going on there.