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Patti G.

3
Level 3 Contributor
Toronto, Ontario Canada

Contributor Level

Total Points
1,869

About Me

Computer geek, gadget freak, head-fi enthusiast, shopaholic

How I Can Help

15 years of customer tech support experience. Same number of years online shopping for everything, everywhere.

Interests

Pets, gadgets, trivia, politics, green stuff

15 Reviews by Patti

  • Paybright

5/17/22

At first I thought Paybright was a great way to finance a large purchase. But then I ended up having to return the item I purchased, which was worth over $2000.

Their terms of service, my loan agreement and their website all state that if there's a refund, Paybright will refund ALL payments made on the loan in their entirety. I had made two payments totaling almost $300 before the return. When I checked my account to confirm the amount of the two payments I'd be refunded, I found that their refund was over $70 short of the amount of my payments.

I called Paybright right away and got the runaround. The woman who answered claimed she didn't know why they were keeping the extra money, so she kept putting me on hold for half an hour at a time to go and ask her supervisor. Then she came back with lame, invalid excuses like "it's interest". Except their agreements don't allow them to keep a dime if the loan is cancelled with a return. Basically Paybright thinks they have the right to keep a customer's money "just because" without even giving a reason why.

Of course I was not satisfied with this answer and demanded a written, full explanation of my account including a detailed explanation of why they think they're entitled to keep $70 my payment money on a returned item when their own agreements don't give them this right. They promised to send me an email with the information by the end of today. Guess what? No email.

I'm forced to conclude that these are sleazy crooks who steal people's money when they have to give someone a refund, and they hope the customer doesn't notice.

So if you're thinking of financing something with Paybright - be warned, if you return the item they will try to rip you off on the refund, so make sure you check the amount carefully.

  • YouMail

4/5/22

I've been using this service for a couple of years, it has gotten worse and worse over time and I'm finally cancelling it. It used to block the spam and allow the real calls, now it blocks the calls and allows the spam. I'm sick of getting voicemails in Chinese from foreign numbers, along with threatening fraud calls telling me I will be arrested. I'm sick of missing important calls and suffering as a result. I'm sick of being forced to let unfamiliar calls ring through to voicemail because YouMail isn't screening them properly.

I had a surgery I waited years for. A week before the surgery the hospital tried to call me repeatedly because they needed me to go in for pre surgery blood work. YouMail blocked all of the calls and didn't even send me a message about the missed calls. I didn't find out the hospital had been trying to reach me until I showed up at the hospital for the surgery. They turned me away and told me the surgery was cancelled because I didn't have the blood work done. It took 6 months for it to be rescheduled.

Then there was the day that some robocaller went nuts and started calling me from different numbers every half hour for an entire day. It was all Chinese language voicemail messages. YouMail didn't block a single one of those calls.

Today I'm waiting for a grocery delivery. The store has called me in the past and I've answered the number. It's a local number, not toll free. The calls came through every time - except today, when there was an issue with the items I ordered. YouMail blocked the call. The number does not accept calls so I can't call back. Who knows what's going to happen with my order. I often wonder how many important calls YouMail has blocked over the years and what I've lost due to never receiving important calls.

Overall, their app is garbage, overly complex and missing half the options that exist on their website. When they block a legitimate call, on the screen that shows the number there's no way to whitelist it. That can only be done on their website. Tonight blocking the grocery delivery number was the last straw, so I tried to deactivate their service in their app. All that happens is it dials a few codes, I get a message from my provider "deactivation complete" but when I click OK the crapp repeats sending the codes to the provider, over and over.

Another irritating thing about their app is that they constantly send annoying notifications to my phone telling me that they're protecting my phone. It also repeatedly reposts notifications I delete, like "call blocked". I don't need my notifications to be cluttered up with their garbage. I want to be notified of real texts, calls and other messages, not their self promotion messages. I'm paying for their service, I don't need to pay for their ads on my phone.

I'd rather put up with a few spam calls than pay to miss the important ones. Goodbye, YouMail!

Service
Value
Quality
  • Loblaws.ca

12/3/21
• Updated review

UPDATE - Loblaw "customer service" didn't have the decency to respond to my last attempt at communication. However, a couple of days later they deposited just over $90 to my bank to cover the groceries they forced me to buy twice.

I still don't plan to use their service again. They can't be trusted to deliver properly, their customer service is rude and arrogant, and they plunder your bank account with authorization holds on a whim with no explanation.

Service
Value
Loblaw PC Express Delivery - AVOID!
11/27/21
• Previous review

Loblaw company has recently introduced its PC Express grocery delivery service, to add to their curbside pickup service. I've tried the delivery twice so far, with disastrous and costly results. I won't be using it again.

I've used grocery delivery services in the past. Both had high ($20+) delivery fees and they jacked up the price of the groceries by a third. Loblaw's delivery is cheaper where I am in Toronto ($9.95, may vary by location) and they promise that the prices are the same as if you shopped in person. They also promise to give delivery shoppers the same PC Optimum points. I'm disabled and normally I do the painful walk 2 km each way pushing a wagon, to buy my groceries. Afterwards I'm too tired out and sore to do much for the rest of the day. So I was looking forward to skipping this hassle during the winter.

The first time I tried PC Express, I found their website confusing and grocery items difficult to find. It's not an intuitive website, they default to "pickup" and it took me over an hour to figure out how to switch it to "delivery". I had to spend half an hour memorizing a bunch of rules and technicalities and terms of use before I could even start my order. When I checked out, they screwed me out of my PC points because their site wouldn't accept my PC Money card. I had to go into the PC Optimum site to claim my missing points after I placed my order. Later on I figured out that I had to enter my PC Money card as a PC Mastercard for it to work. This is common with Loblaw owned point of sale systems including the self scan terminals at Shoppers. They push a PC Money account on customers and then their point of sale systems aren't equipped to take the card, sites like Joe Fresh won't take it at all, and their cashiers aren't trained on how to ring it in. They also offered a 10,000 PC points bonus for first time PC Express delivery customers, with a code to enter at checkout. Predictably, the code was refused and I didn't get my bonus points.

When my order was finally delivered - it was left lying on the floor in the hallway outside of my apartment door for hours because the delivery person couldn't be bothered to knock on my door or ring my prominent, lit up video doorbell. He just dumped my perishable and frozen groceries on the floor and took off. Eventually a neighbour saw the pile of groceries lying in the hall and rang my doorbell. By the time I got there, ice cream was melted all over the floor mingled with packages of raw meat, and my frozen items were all defrosted. It took me half an hour to mop up the mess and more than half my groceries ($150) were ruined. All because some third world mong couldn't press a doorbell button. My doorbell cam caught him dumping the order and running without going near the door to ring or knock. When I went to the Loblaw site to find their number and complain, I found out that this jerk was supposed to have called me when he was on his way so I'd know to expect him.

Another issue was that many items in the order were just wrong. Wrong brand, wrong item, wrong flavour. And these weren't substitutions, they were just too careless and illiterate to read my order hard enough. For example I had ordered a couple of cases of flavoured sparkling water in two different flavours. I got two cases of a third flavour I didn't ask for and don't like.

Then I called the Loblaw "customer service" number and found out how useless their customer service is. Third worlders again, barely able to spit out a sentence in English, poor phone connection, clueless and untrained staff. They had no clue what to do when I called them to complain about half my order being ruined. I was given a "case number" and told someone would contact me. It's been two weeks and you can guess the rest. Not a dime in compensation for the groceries they ruined, and I had to go out and buy everything again. A $200 grocery order cost me over $300.

I was going to go out again two weeks later, but the weather was supposed to be unseasonably cold with rain and high winds for several days. So, I took my chances with PC Express again. This time ordering was easier because I had gotten used to their site. I ordered about $250 worth of groceries. I also figured out their non intuitive substitutions system where you can choose which items can be substituted and with what. Hopefully this time I'd avoid getting the wrong items.

This time the delivery person called ahead and rang my doorbell as per their rules. But when he brought the items, there seemed to be too few bags. Once I got everything into my apartment I realized what was wrong. They hadn't delivered ANY of my fresh meats or dairy items. That was $90 worth of groceries which I had paid for and didn't receive.

So I called the useless call centre again. Apologies galore, but no offer to refund my money until I demanded it several times. Finally they offered to refund the delivery fee with a voucher they emailed to me. They also admitted that "someone" on their end didn't hand all of my order over to the delivery person, which is why half of it was missing. As to the value of the non-delivered items, I was told I'd have to wait a few days but it would be deposited back to my bank. In the meantime I was told to re-order the missing items. When I was going through my previous order to see which items were missing, I noticed that they had simply deleted a fresh chicken I'd ordered. No substitution. I wasn't informed that they didn't have it. They just quietly deleted it/greyed it out in my order. (screenshot attached) I received the remaining items the following morning.

But then that day I checked my bank. I found that PC Express had made an extra, fraudulent and unauthorized charge for $93.86, on top of the charges for the first order which they delivered only half of, and the second order I placed to get the items they didn't deliver. I checked their website listing my orders (screenshot attached) and there was NO order associated with this unauthorized third charge. Needless to say I was livid. I called their useless call centre and spent half an hour arguing with a third worlder who kept insisting it was "just an authorization hold for the two orders" - I had to repeat at least 10 times that both of those orders were already received and paid for in full, there was no cause for any further "authorization holds" and they had no right to take this money out of my account. They wouldn't transfer me to a manager and they just kept repeating their nonsense about an authorization hold and claiming that the stolen funds would somehow just magically reappear in my account. I gave up and hung up on them, but I'm searching for a means to escalate this matter at Loblaw head office. It's Saturday so I won't know what will happen with my bank until Monday.

Groceries are expensive enough these days without having to deal with a bunch of incompetents who forget/lose/destroy groceries, steal your money and then argue with you on the phone. Once again a $250 grocery order has now ballooned to over $400 in double charges and Loblaw's unauthorized plundering of my bank account, and I don't know how I'm going to afford groceries for the rest of December because my grocery budget has been blown out of the water. Merry Christmas at the food bank for me. Next time I need grocery delivery I will bite the bullet and pay the higher delivery fee and grocery prices from a competitor, it's still cheaper than PC Express.

Do yourself a favour and stay far, far away from Loblaw's dumpster fire of a delivery service.

Tip for consumers:
I suggest you avoid them altogether. However, if you insist on trying them I recommend you familiarize yourself with every aspect of their complex, non intuitive site BEFORE you enter a card number or give them a dime of your money,

  • Canada Post CA

10/7/20
• Updated review

Now that covid has come along, Canada Post is using it as the perfect excuse to ratchet up their laziness and arrogance. So far since March I've had three parcels stolen because they refuse to track parcels, they sit on parcels for weeks like chickens trying to hatch eggs, and then they dump the month old parcel outside my door when I'm not expecting it (no tracking) and refuse to ring my bell or knock to let me know it's there. Another heavy parcel was dumped in the driveway in front of my building (they were too lazy to bring it in, even with a dolly), then stolen. It's so bad that some organized criminals in my building now watch for the CP truck every day and then do the rounds of the hallways snatching the parcels before the tenant has a chance to pick them up. I caught footage of them with my doorbell cam using a stolen grocery cart to steal the parcels. Luckily Amazon is quick to refund stolen parcels, and after the third time it was easy to convince them to NEVER use Canada Post to ship any of my orders again.

Parcels are always at least a week overdue and sometimes a month or more. They are now outsourcing a lot of their parcel delivery in Toronto, and often they will dump a parcel after 9 pm on weekends, great time for it to be stolen. As I mentioned there's never any tracking info and they don't knock or ring. They refuse to help if you phone them asking for a parcel trace, they only help the senders. I currently have a $250 parcel in limbo from a different retailer for two weeks now. It was sent from less than 10 km away! I could have walked to the sender and picked it up myself. The sender is being difficult about a refund and refusing to call Canada Post to track the parcel. They expect me to pay to ship the item back to them before they will issue a refund. I'll be reviewing them here shortly. I was forced to buy the same item again at another retailer who doesn't use Crappy Post. So now I'm out $250 and will probably have to do a chargeback with my credit card company to get my money back for the parcel that Crappy Post's sticky fingered chickens are incubating.

Terrible service and getting worse by the day
8/29/19
• Previous review

I've been battling this dumpster fire of a company for several years including three escalations to their rude, useless "ombudsman". Their regular mail delivery is a joke. I regularly receive mail addressed to other apartments and of course they lose my important letters. Once they even started forwarding all of my mail to the other side of the country without my knowledge, and I only found out when the recipient started sending my opened mail back to me.

I signed up for their "customer choice" program which is supposed to stop them from stuffing my mailbox with junk. They continue to stuff my box with junk mail and then refuse to deliver legitimate mail because my mailbox is full. I've complained several times about this. The flood of junk stops for a few weeks and then starts right back up.

Parcels are even worse. They've stopped tracking parcels no matter how much you pay for shipping. There's no way to tell where a parcel is, much less when you can expect to receive it. They send tracking info to the sender and don't post it on their own website. One of their own carriers told me to ignore what's on their tracking site because it's "nonsense" (his words).

Once a carrier crammed a parcel addressed to another apartment so tightly in my mailbox that I had to cut the box apart to get it out. Very often they don't even try to deliver parcels in the first place, they just slap a ticket on the mailbox. Several times their ticket directed me to pick my parcel up at the wrong postal outlet, which means two trips to different outlets when I'm disabled and don't drive. Speaking of postal outlets, they insist on dumping parcels addressed to tenants in my building at an outlet which is nearly 3 km from our building with no bus service, when there's an outlet 15 mins walk away which we can see out of our windows. Because of this I have to walk for an hour and a half each way on a walker when Canada Post screws up and doesn't deliver my parcel to my home.

Their carriers are abysmally stupid and lazy. I installed a doorbell on my door because these people don't know how to knock loudly enough to be heard through a thick apartment fire door. It's a video doorbell with a motion sensor that lights up the button with bright blue light when someone comes to the door. Other couriers have no trouble using it. Too bad Canada Post's carrier is actually too brain dead to know how to operate a doorbell button. It doesn't help that he only knows exactly three words of English. I finally tried putting up a sign on my door saying "ring, do not knock" - and yesterday my video doorbell caught him knocking on the camera/doorbell assembly and saying "Hello, hello!". Duh...

I'm "expecting" another parcel from Canada Post today. Actually what I really "expect" is to find a ticket stuck on my door or mailbox, and to waste my day tomorrow running another wild goose chase to get my parcel which should have been delivered today, but which Canada Post hasn't scanned since the box was picked up from the sender yesterday. Even if by some miracle it arrives at my building, the brain trust whose job it is to deliver it will be too busy shouting "hello" at my doorbell and knocking on it to actually ring it.

  • Save.ca

12/7/18

This business, owned by a conglomerate of fake news newspapers (Metroland), supposedly connects customers to sales, coupons, new businesses offering special deals, and contests. The customer subscribes to them to receive marketing emails and direct mail flyers. But the real purpose of this business is to provide sales leads for businesses of dubious reputation. I've been subscribed to them for over a year but found very few if any deals, and a few contests.

A couple of days ago they sent me a message to enter a "contest" to win $5000 worth of "smart home" (their words) equipment including video door camera. I assumed it would be something like Nest with a door cam, a few indoor surveillance cams and motion sensors hooked up to a self contained alarm panel. I never win these things so I didn't expect to win this time.

Then today I got an email from a company I'd never heard of, stating I won the contest and that I'd need to contact them right away or I'd lose the prize. In fine print at the bottom it stated they'd contact me as well. Immediately I became suspicious. When I looked them up online I found they're a fly by night subcontractor alarm monitoring company with poor customer reviews. The two main complaints from customers were being lied to about the equipment being installed or the service, and being harassed by the company calling them almost daily demanding that they upgrade their service and their equipment. They also change monitoring providers frequently (ADT, Chubb etc.) without telling customers, who get hit with a bill for 60 days' extra service for not giving the provider 60 days notice as per their contract. The sleazy subcontractor refuses to take responsibility when it's their fault. Since they can't maintain a business relationship with their own alarm service provider, this doesn't reflect well on the company's honesty or reputation.

So now I can expect to be harassed with emails and phone calls trying to sign me up for their alarm "service" which I neither need nor wanted in the first place. I strenuously object to being scammed out of my personal information by save.ca to give to sleazy operators, using fake contests. I will be looking into filing a privacy complaint with the Canadian federal government about these shysters. Who knows what other scam artists they've given my personal information to?

Big lesson learned: never enter contests if you're not told which company is giving the prize away, or if you don't know anything about the company. Do research on the company or take a pass on entering.

Gab
  • Gab

9/9/18

I've been on Gab for six months. The free speech idea appealed to me, and Gab could still be a great site if they dealt with the issues I'm about to describe. However, Gab is not a free speech site as they claim, they're just a wild west of abusive trolls, spam and harassers whose mission is to silence those they disagree with. Gab's ownership refuses to deal with these trolls. Last night alone I received over 50 email notifications of pornographic messages from three troll accounts.

Many Gab users express disagreement by spamming their opponents with the sickest and most disgusting porn they can find. Gab users are expected to flag their posts "NSFW" (not safe for work) if they contain pornography. Flagged posts are automatically filtered out, so you don't have to view them unless you turn off the filter. They also have a reporting system that allows users to report unflagged pornographic posts. However, trolls bypass the system by not flagging their posts.

Which brings me to the main reason I suggest you avoid Gab, unless you have a strong stomach and a high tolerance for being bullied and harassed. Gab has community guidelines. Trouble is, when you report posts (they don't let you report users) they completely ignore complaints. Also, you can't block malicious users (we wouldn't want to deprive abusive and sick people of their rights!) Users have to "mute" malicious trolls, which only means you can't see their posts, but they can still see and comment on yours.

On a technical note, the Gab website is poorly coded which means a lot of glitches. They have exactly one person who does all of their technical support and programming, and he only works for them part time. The owner cares about nothing but attracting new users from third world countries, to increase profits. So, he assigns his tech guy to continually make changes to the site such as adding translation features, rather than fix the existing technical issues. The two biggest problems are:
- the page, if not your browser, freezes and hangs when you try to attach a graphic to your posts.
- many of the text entry fields on the site are so slow they are useless. Imagine typing a letter and then having to wait 5 seconds for it to appear on your screen. That's how bad it is. And these issues have been going on, untouched, for months - in fact they are still ongoing.

Finally, their customer service stinks. Even if you buy a paid subscription, once you're signed up you are unworthy of their notice. Complain about a technical issue, report a malicious user, ask a question - all are equally futile because they arrogantly ignore and do not appreciate their customers. Also, the site owner sics his family members on anyone who files a public complaint about the way they're running the site. I've been attacked and bullied twice by his female relatives. All they care about is attracting new users so they can line their pockets.

  • Creditkarma.ca

3/12/18

After seeing the bombardment of commercials on TV, I decided to try Credit Karma as a potential way to keep track of my credit score without paying the outrageous fees charged by credit reporting agencies.

Credit Karma works by tying in with credit reports generated by Trans Union. Trouble is, Trans Union credit reports are notoriously inaccurate because they don't perform due diligence (obligatory under Canadian law) to ensure that their information is complete and up to date. Also, Trans Union uses several different algorithms to generate reports, and Credit Karma is only tied to one of those algorithms - the least accurate one.

As a result, my Credit Karma report was full of inaccuracies. The score was too low. There were a number of closed, 10+ year old credit card and loan accounts that were listed as still open. The one credit card that I use today was listed as delinquent and closed, despite the fact that their own payment history chart showed that I had never missed or been late on a payment. Finally, I took out a consumer proposal 2 years ago, that was listed as a full bankruptcy, which means a huge hit on my credit score. Bankruptcy knocks your rating down to R9 while a consumer proposal only lowers your rating to R7.

I paid Trans Union for an online credit report to compare with Credit Karma. They used a different algorithm and came up with a higher score, but some of the inaccuracies remained, indicating they're Trans Union's fault. I then paid for a credit report using Equifax, it was more accurate and it again confirmed the errors were Trans Union's fault.

Finally there is the issue of annoying spam emails. Every day now I get an annoying nagging email from Credit Karma demanding (not asking) that I "verify my report! 11!" when there's nothing new to "verify". I checked my account preferences to see if these irritants could be stopped, but then I got a nag screen whining that if I stopped these messages I wouldn't receive updates to my credit score. If I start getting more spam from "partners" etc then I will delete my account with them.

Verdict: Credit Karma is a useful way to get A ROUGH IDEA of your credit score. To get a real credit history you need reports from BOTH of the major reporting agencies. Credit Karma offers tools you can use to see what your credit report means and to track your credit score while you're trying to rebuild your credit (as I am). However, if you need your credit information to be accurate and reliable, the only way to achieve this is to go directly to the two credit reporting agencies. Also, if you need to correct inaccuracies in your credit history, the only ways to do this are a) to approach the creditor and get them to revise their report to the agencies; b) to fill out dispute forms with the major reporting agencies. Credit Karma won't, and can't, correct credit reporting errors. Instead, they provide links to do this with Equifax and Trans Union.

  • PetSmart (canada)

3/6/18

Any in-person shopper at Petsmart Canada already knows that their shelves are usually empty outside of the dog section. I seldom shop there anymore for that reason, unless they're the only retailer who carries an item that I need. The same applies to their "pay and pick up". The main problem is that the stock listed as "available" on their website is usually "UNavailable". Their website is apparently not connected to the store inventory systems, so there's no relation between what's "in stock" on the website vs. what's available in the stores.

I did retail point of sale support for a living for 5 years and I know that there's no excuse for this disconnect. Point of sale systems track stock as it's rung in, and the inventory data is uploaded to the retailer's website - at least for professional retailers.

To add to the fun, Petsmart's "pay and pick up" system is ridiculous. They lure customers in with discounts. When you order, they tell you that you won't be charged for any item you order that's not in stock. Trouble is, that's a lie. And good luck getting a refund.

One of my fish tank hoods was broken by my cat and I needed a new one right away. This was a Saturday. Petsmart was the only retailer I could find who had the size of hood and LED light that I needed in stock (apparently) so I placed a pay and pick up order for both items using Visa Debit at my nearest store. A couple of hours later I received an email stating that the $120 LED light was unavailable and that I wouldn't be charged for it. Since I needed a light, I checked another local Petsmart store and the item was listed "in stock" - so I ordered it.

Once again I got an email stating that my order was cancelled because the light was out of stock at the second store. Again, the message told me I wouldn't be charged for the light.

Since I still had the pending order for the hood, I went down to the Petsmart store to pick it up. I've picked up paid orders there before. Every time including this one, I've ended up standing around for 10-15 minutes waiting while staff rummaged through various desks, closed cash registers, etc. to find my item. He nearly gave me an expensive fish tank belonging to another customer. I noticed they just leave customers' paid items lying in random locations. Anyone walking by could just help themselves and walk away with someone else's merchandise. Not once have I ever been asked for any ID or an order number to verify my identity before I was given my order. I could easily lie and claim a more expensive item was mine.

When I got home I checked my bank balance online and saw that it was over $250 short. I saw that Petsmart had charged me for the LED light, twice. Needless to say, I was upset as I was told I would not be charged. I went on Petsmart's website to check their "fine print" and found that because I had used Visa Debit instead of a credit card, my bank was charged for both transactions. The fine print stated that I may have to wait several business days to receive my refunds.

Later that day I checked my bank account and found that the second order I placed had been refunded, but there was no refund for the first order. I decided to wait until Monday, as surely I'd receive my refund then.

Monday 10 am and no refund. I called Petsmart customer service. They flatly refused to do anything, couldn't confirm if the refund request was even sent, and repeatedly blamed my bank and told me to call them. I asked why I was refunded on one transaction but not the other, and asked them to explain how this could be my bank's fault. No answer.

I called the bank and predictably they passed the buck back to Petsmart. Once again I asked why one transaction could be refunded and not the other when they were placed in exactly the same way with the same retailer. The only response I got was that they refused to escalate the matter because it "could" take "up to" 6 business days, over a week. So I'm out of pocket for $120 - money which I was misled to believe wouldn't be charged in the first place.

I strongly suggest you think twice before ordering from this retailer. They can't even keep track of their own stock, much less your money. They leave your order lying out where anyone could steal it, and they don't verify the identity of anyone picking up an order. If you insist on buying anything from them, just go to the store in person where you'll see for yourself what they have in stock (nothing) and you won't be charged for nonexistent items and have to fight like a tiger to get your own money back.

  • Cravetv.ca

11/11/17

I've been signed up with CraveTV for about a year now, since Netflix began blocking access to most of its catalogue for Canadians. Crave's selection of movies and shows is rather spotty. I stay signed up with them mainly because they carry all of the Star Trek shows (even the animated one) and Discovery. But, no Star Trek movies, and their entire movie collection leaves a LOT to be desired. Overall, their library is pretty puny especially when it comes to movies. They carry NO horror content at all.

Where CraveTV totally falls flat on its face is in the apps they provide so that viewers like me who don't have a cable subscription can still watch. The first problem is that they're only compatible with two types of device: Samsung SmartTV (but only 2013-15 versions) and Android/AppleTV apps. The Android only works with Chromecast.

Problem Number Two is - the apps SUCK. On my SmartTV, I can't pause or fast forward shows, which is a huge problem if a) I need to go to the bathroom or leave the room; b) the program freezes or the internet connection lags, both of which happen numerous times while watching one (1) hour of programming. The fact that I can't even pause playback, much less fast forward, rewind or stop is simple bush-league programming, obviously by chimps being paid in bananas.

The picture is terrible for the first 10 minutes of watching every program. It's like watching from the bottom of a swimming pool. Sound is even more of an embarrassment, and this goes on for the whole time I watch. I have to crank the volume up full blast to hear dialogue because the sound is like having my ears stuffed with mud, and then when music or sound effects occur, my speakers are blasted out. I miss a lot of important dialogue and even have to watch a show more than once to pick up what they're saying. I have a 5.1 surround system, and never have sound issues with any other input - just Crave. Another problem is that the app disables the Samsung sound settings while I'm connected to Crave, so I can't even try to make adjustments to improve the sound.

Connectivity is another horror show with CraveTV. As I mentioned before, the connection drops continually whether I use Wi-Fi to the TV or an Ethernet cable (I'm using the cable right now). The app locks up so badly that I have to unplug the TV from the wall and plug it back in to reboot the TV so I can restart the app. I've tried restarting the TV, restarting the modem, nothing stops the connection drops. The wi-fi to my laptop is on the whole time CraveTV is throwing its dropped connection tantrums. There is nothing wrong with my Rogers cable internet connection. There is nothing wrong with the internet connection to my TV, I've tested it infinite times. I went through all of this with a CraveTV rep, he knew less about troubleshooting than I did, and kept insisting the problem was either my equipment or my fault.

At first I thought all these problems were due to my TV Smart Hub software. After spending 2 hours last night trying to watch one entire episode of Star Trek, this morning I started looking into getting a Chromecast to see if it would help. Thank goodness I went in to Google Play first, to check the reviews of the CraveTV app used with Chromecast. 90% 1 star reviews, with all the same glitches and problems as I've been having with my Crave app for Samsung Smart TV! A lot of customers got so fed up they cancelled their subscriptions, only to come back a year or two later because they wanted to watch "Crave only" content like ST Discovery - and find that NOTHING has changed!

Clearly Crave's many problems are due to the fact that they chose to pay chimps in bananas to write their apps, instead of springing on human programmers. And based on the hundreds of angry bad reviews and complaints from customers, they know about these problems and have been refusing to do anything besides collecting people's money anyway and ignoring these issues. Oh, and blaming the customers and their devices for the lousy service instead of admitting it's a problem on their end. Much as I'd love to say "avoid these losers like the plague", they know that they have their audience by the short and curlies since Netflix went downhill, so they have no reason to show any loyalty or respect to their customers much less FIX THE PROBLEMS!

  • LightInTheBox

9/27/17
• Updated review

Final update: I was contacted by another "supervisor" who claimed that they had made changes to their website to allow North American customers to be warned in advance (before paying) that there'd be customs fees, and that they could be refunded those fees if they purchased customs fee insurance. He sent me a screenshot - from their European website! The North American site remains unchanged. I advised him that my head doesn't button up the back and that clearly they have no intention to stop ripping off their North American customers. So, I'm downgrading their rating to one star, permanently this time, and they can cram their refund where the sun don't shine. NEVER make the mistake of doing business with these underhanded shysters, unless you enjoy being ripped off and having important buying information withheld deliberately.

I heard from a supervisor and they promised to make an exception and refund the entire $30 customs fee I was charged. However, they would only issue the refund IF I delete my review here! I gave them an extra star for offering to make the exception, however their site has not been changed to fix the dishonesty about the insurance and customs fees. I won't remove this review until this matter is settled to my satisfaction.

I told them that this negative review will stand "as is" until they change their website to notify customers that they may be charged an extra customs fee BEFORE they complete an order, and to notify customers that their "shipping insurance" covers any customs fees charged - not just breakage.

Thumbnail of user minii
Mini I. – LightInTheBox Rep

After review your case, I had conducted ticket ID=16331636# in our ticket center and provide a solution for your case. Please log in your light in the box account--go " personal center"--"my ticket" to check our reply. Please keep in touch with us by replying the ticket as all the information will be recorded in system. Thank you for your cooperation.

Dishonest hucksters
9/25/17
• Previous review

This is one of those "Chinese masquerading as North American" retailers.As a result they like to play fast and loose with facts and not warn customers of their shoddy service. First of all they lie about availability of stock. They tell you something's in stock (which means "ready to ship") and then when you place your order you find out it will take them 2 weeks just to ship your order. During the checkout process they offer "shipping insurance". When you mouse over this offer, you're told it covers shipping damage and you'll get a full refund if your item is damaged in shipment. Speaking of shipping, next during the checkout is finding out you're going to be charged a hefty shipping fee. For a small item weighing less than a pound I was charged over $20 for "express" shipping - from China of course, though they let you believe it's coming from somewhere in North America.

When your item finally arrives nearly a month later, next comes the sticker shock when you're hit with a massive customs fee plus taxes that equals at least half of the value of your shipment. If you don't pay, you don't get your item AND no refund from Lightinthebox. On their site when you go into your Orders screen you will see a button for "customs and tax problems" (or something like that) which leads you to believe that they'll refund any customs fees. WRONG! You have to buy their "shipping insurance" to get a refund, which of course they don't tell you in their mouse over explanation during checkout. I threatened to sue them in small claims court, and they reluctantly agreed to issue a refund, but ONLY in their store credits. So I have to give them more of my money, wait more weeks to receive whatever I order AND pay for their insurance or customs fees to get my refund? Puh-leeze.

The best part was getting bombarded with two and three emails a day starting with the day the item arrived, demanding that I review the item and the service I got. Needless to say, my review was not positive. That's when their final huckster trick comes into play - they refuse to allow you to submit a negative review! I tried and tried to submit my 2 star review, and kept getting a "server busy" message. More like "too few star, we no post!"

Tip for consumers:
Be prepared for high shipping and customs fees. Buy their "shipping insurance" so you can at least be refunded if you're charged customs fees. Ignore their onsite reviews because they weed out negative reviews and won't publish them.

Service
Value
Shipping
Thumbnail of user lightintheboxf
LightInTheBox F. – LightInTheBox Rep

This is Customer Service Supervisor from Lightinthebox. I am glad to help. Please be aware, we will refund customer the full amount of import tax if tax insurance was paid when checking out.

After review your case, I had conducted ticket ID=16331636# in our ticket center and provide a solution for your case. Please log in your light in the box account--go " personal center"--"my ticket" to check our reply. Please keep in touch with us by replying the ticket as all the information will be recorded in system. Thank you for your cooperation.

  • Amazon CA

6/7/17
Verified purchase

Amazon has passed its "Prime" and customers are the losers. Now they are losing and delaying shipments, lying to and stonewalling customers, making it impossible to return goods, and violating their own terms, guarantees and policies.

They tell Prime members that they get "guaranteed" ship dates and faster shipping. This has been quietly discontinued because they can't find enough slave labour to man their warehouses. So instead of telling them customers that there will be shipping delays, they continue the charade of advertising products with "same day" or "next day" shipping. Now the only "guarantee" is that the customer gets screwed over.

When you order an item advertised as "next day shipping" they simply don't ship it, then they don't notify the customer that it's not being shipped, much less provide an updated arrival estimate. Their Orders page continues to claim that your order will arrive by 10 pm for every day that it remains un-shipped and late. They expect you to just sit back and wait days or weeks until they get around to shipping it. I had one "next day" order from August that was never shipped, it's now October. Not telling customers when parcels will arrive and expecting them to just sit around for days or weeks waiting is simply NOT good enough.

Despite the fact that their site is emblazoned with "we won't charge you for the item until it's shipped", they now take the funds out of your account the moment you place the order. This means that when they evaporate your order they have your money and the goods you paid for, and then you have to fight with them to get a refund. I'm currently out by $120 for two orders that they evaporated.

Another side effect is that once they have your money, they fight tooth and nail to stop you from cancelling the order to get a refund. They claim that it's too late to cancel the order because "they're preparing it" which is a flat out lie. When you contact their "customer service", the drones squirm and lie like cornered snakes to avoid cancelling your order and having to refund your money. Last night I was chatting with one of them (ALWAYS use chat so you have something in writing for the next lying drone) and they lied to me again and again.

First they tried to claim that they didn't take my money, so I sent them a screenshot of the withdrawal from my bank website. Then they tried to get rid of me by claiming they were transferring me to a made-up "concern department" which would call me back. I refused to give my number, so the next lie was "Hey look! I see on my screen that your item was just shipped!" which was hilarious since it was 11 pm, and this morning it still shows the same "Arriving by 10pm" status (in black font which means it hasn't been shipped). Not only do they lie, they think their customers are as dumb as stumps. As I'm writing this I got an email from them (screenshot below) finally admitting to the delay and providing an arrival date four days from now. IT'S STILL NOT SHIPPED. This was supposed to be a "next day" shipment.

Amazon's ruse is to stonewall the customer for as long as they can until the order actually arrives weeks or months later, and then they expect the customer to return the shipment to get a refund. This is because they've deliberately changed their return procedure to make it as difficult and inconvenient as possible for customers to return items, especially if they don't have a car. I have unwanted items sitting here because I had no way to get to Amazon's remote dropoff locations or I didn't have half a day or more to spend getting there and back on the bus.

If you're going to do business with Amazon, do yourself a favour and stick to "marketplace" non-Amazon sellers, even if you have to wait longer to get the item. Amazon is a cesspit now. You're better off dealing with their flaky Chinese sellers because Amazon is 10 times worse. They treat their workers like slaves and their customers like dung. You now only have a 50/50 (or less) chance of getting your order on time, if you get it at all. Then you have to waste hours arguing with them to get a refund. I predict that within the next few years there will be class action lawsuits by customers and workers fed up with their complete lack of business ethics.

Tip for consumers:
Don't use this site if you can avoid it. They are liars and criminals who treat customers like something stuck to the bottom of their shoe. They treat customers like imbiciles and lie to tell the customer what they wish to hear. If you do use it, use the chat feature to complain so you will have a transcript of what is said. If you must use Amazon only order from marketplace sellers so you have a chance of receiving your order at the promised time.

Products used:
Amazon Prime membership - faster shipping (claimed but not honoured)

  • Purolator

11/15/16

Purolator is a pathetic little Canadian courier company. If you want your package to be lost, stolen and delayed, they are the courier of choice. Remember Jim Carrey's portrayal in Ace Ventura? He must have learned his schtick from these incompetents.

I have had four time-sensitive packages in a row delayed or lost by this company. They are very creative in their excuse making. The first time I was told my package was delayed by a storm. Trouble was, it was summer in Canada and there were no storms anywhere in the country. Next time, I was told the delay was due to "mechanical problems on their plane". Do they really only own one plane with no mechanics, or do they use flying Pterodactyls à la Flintstones?

This morning, they couldn't be bothered to deliver my perishable prescription medication, so instead of looking up my name on the buzzer panel in my building, they just refused to deliver and left. I called and gave them the buzzer code and was promised they'd deliver it again today. Hours later the tracking info showed that they still didn't have the buzzer code so I called again and was told "we couldn't send the message to the driver". Really? You don't have radios in your trucks, or cell phones?

Do not do business with this company or any company that uses them as a courier. You will regret it - believe me.

  • Photobucket

11/9/16

I've been using Photobucket since 2004. Over the years they've stuffed more and more ads into their site, while offering nothing new to their customers. They are so bogged down with ads now that the site is utterly useless. I subscribed a year ago to get rid of the ads. They took their payment less than a week ago for this month, then I get an email from Paypal (not Photobucket) telling me that Photobucket cancelled my account. So they took my money and then cancelled my account without having the decency to even tell me! I tried to open their site and got a sleazy full page ad that I couldn't get rid of, even after I closed and opened their page several times and tried it with three different browsers. I emailed their support asking why I was cancelled, they didn't bother to reply. Now I've lost access to over 10 years worth of my own photos and videos.

Tip for consumers:
Just don't.

Service
Value
Quality
  • Kijiji

9/9/16

Kijii provides a means for illegal, unethical animal vendors to rip off the public and abuse pets. Puppy and kitten mills, dog fighters looking for bait dogs, fake "rescues" looking for free pets to feed to reptiles, irresponsible breeders selling pets too young to be taken from their mothers, fraud artists selling non-existent animals - all of them profit from ads carried by Kijiji. Without Kijiji's assistance none of these criminals would be in business. They have "pet policies" which they claim are intended to weed out animal abusers and fraud artists, however, when an ad that violates their policies is flagged, they refuse to take down the ad or take any action against the seller. Clearly these "policies" are nothing but window dressing to protect them from criminal liability, despite their own criminal behaviour. Contacting their customer service to complain is a waste of time. All you get is a patronizing form letter telling you how to file a complaint.

Tip for consumers:
Don't buy or sell animals on Kijiji, you are just helping them and their criminal sellers to profit from the misery of abused animals!

  • TigerDirect CA

1/12/15

Horrible vendor, avoid at all costs. Stock availability info on their site is a lie. The item I ordered was advertised "in stock, ships within 24 hours". A week later, not even shipped and TigerDirect has no idea when it will ship or even where it's shipping from. That's because TigerDirect is just a front for some "mysterious" company in China and there's little communication between the two. Where I live, eco-fees are charged at point of sale. TigerDirect claims they won't bill your card until your order ships. They billed my card an eco fee of $5 plus taxes, immediately (illegal, like charging sales tax before an item is delivered). They also overcharged me by $4.25 and refused to refund the difference, so I filed a complaint with the Ontario government. I asked TigerDirect to cancel the order and give me a refund. Took 2 calls, first call they flatly refused to cancel. Second call they said it would take 3 days to cancel (?). My refund will also take 3 days before they submit it to MasterCard. I have filed a formal complaint with the Ontario Ministry of Consumer Services. I strongly suggest other disgruntled customers in Ontario do the same. Also, if TigerDirect won't issue a refund to your card it's time to initiate a chargeback - you get your money back faster, TigerDirect will be hit with fat fees, and the banks frown on retailers who get lots of chargebacks.

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