Soapbox Archive

Today I went into see a doctor about a possible hypothyroid problem. It went well enough. I needed to have some blood drawn and that’s when the fun began. I put my sheet in the little in tray at the lab and within seconds was called back. The nurse asked that I go down to the end, the third chair and have a seat. I obediently went. I watched her read the sheet thingy, pull four vials out of her collection, take my little name stickers off the sheet thingy and put them on the vials. I asked her, “so which arm do you want to see?” She said it didn’t matter. I pulled up both my sleeves to see which veins were more visible, left of course. I pulled down my right sleeve and handed her my left arm after taking my hair scrunchy off my wrist. She noticed the black rubber bracelet that I’ve been wearing for about a year now and flipped it over and around so that she could see what was engraved on it… “I did not vote 4 Bush”, she read aloud. She looked up at me and asked where I got it. “A friend bought a bunch of them on the internet and he gave it to me.”

“My husband would kill me if I wore one of those.” She said. And I thought about what kind of restrictive relationship she must be in if she isn’t free to express herself. She continued with a smug, “He’s in the military.” I bet she thought she had me, as if I should feel compelled to apologize for my rudeness in practicing my freedom of speech.

“I was in the military and I’m still wearing it.” I told her. She didn’t seem to believe me.

“What branch were you in?” She asked me in the same testing manner that many people take up with me.

“Navy.”

“How long were you in?”

“Three years.”

“Were you stationed here?”

I was sure she meant here as in a few miles South in Everett, so I said, “No I was at Whidbey Island.”

“Are you from here?”

“No, I’m originally from Alaska.”

“Then What are you doing Here!” She demanded. She didn’t yell it, but it certainly wasn’t as cordial as someone asking, “So what brings you to this area?”

I looked at her a little stunned, “My parents moved here when I was a teen, but still consider Alaska my home.” I said. What am I doing here? I’m not allowed to move from Alaska? Clearly she didn’t know that Whidbey Island is just a couple hours drive north, but I’m not in the position to hand her a map. Yes I was in a very docile mood today. It just proves that I’m not myself.

She told that she had moved her children here from Minnesota at a very young age, and they still feel the same.

Finally she’s done with her battery of questions and she tells me that there will be more than the usual poke because of the vein she has to draw from. “There is just no gentle way to do this one because of the position.” She said.

I have had my blood drawn many many many times and buy some very inept military corpsman, but it never hurt like this! – That Cunt!

And by the way – it’s the same damn vein as always! - Not arterial blood.

I was just looking up the history of the ACLU and came across some anti-ACLU sites. It seems that the most popular anti-ACLU, or at least one of the highest ranked by Google when searching “ACLU History” is by Nedd Kareiva. So I did a search on just his name and a lot of sites came up in which many had some blurb about “put the fear of god in them” including Nedd’s stop the ACLU site. Why is it that anytime someone goes against the Christian rules someone else wants to put the “fear of god” in them? I’m just wondering cause…Isn’t “god” supposed to be nice? I heard rumors that the Christian god is a merciful one. Or was that Jesus? Maybe they’re like bad cop/good cop?

I received an email from a friend telling me that a mutual friend of ours was going to be without Internet access in a week. For us this would be like cuting off our air supply…don’t laugh! This is no laughing matter!

This was his email to me:

She got tired of not having comedy central, so she switched to satellite. But now the fucking cable compan won’t sell her internet without cable tv!

And it being Searcy, there’s no other broadband provider…

So, she did find out why there’s no comedy central. It’s hilarious.
Ask her!

So I had to ask and this is what she wrote to me:

In 1997, there was a school-shooting in Jonesboro, Arkansas. It’s a small city in the northeast corner of the state, about 90 miles from Searcy. Around that same time, White County Video (as White County Cable TV was known at the time) was making a bid to include Comedy Central in its lineup, but the good citizens of Searcy heard about this animated series featuring children… maybe you’ve heard of it: it’s called “South Park”… anyway, the good citizens of Searcy somehow knew that in each episode of South Park one of the characters gets killed as a running joke. “Oh my god, you just killed Kenny! You bastard!” (How they knew that, since they don’t watch the show, is beyond me. I’m quite sure Jesus must have spoken to them
directly.) So the good citizens of Searcy decided to stage a letter writing campaign and petition drive to convince the local cable provider that Comedy Central should never be allowed to join the cable package as long as “South Park” stayed on the air. After all, our children might decide to take guns to school and shoot up their classmates after watching it.

Ironically, I have confirmed that Jonesboro’s only cable provider, Cox Communications, does provide Comedy Central. Seems the good citizens of Jonesboro, who personally experienced the school shooting tragedy, are not opposed to a little animated violence.

The General Manager of White County Cable TV told me that story yesterday. So I responded, “And how many thousands of letters will you be needing, then? How many signatures were on the petition?” And he said, “It’s not like that… your one voice is as important to us as any number of signatures on a petition…” If that’s so, why hasn’t my THREE YEARS of requesting Comedy Central brought about any change to their network lineup? Because he’s full of shit.

Blah blah… As Justin told you, I’m losing cable internet on the 23rd. There are no other broadband options in my area (DSL is already at subscriber capacity, so they’re not taking more customers). We might get satellite internet, but it will suck… and it’s expensive. I’m angry.

(This is a continuation of Never Fly Iberia) The next day Kurt and I got up and arrived at the airport one hour earlier. After going through the same line that I should have easily passed the previous day I hugged and said good-bye to Kurt, and went to the what should have been the security area. There were five security people all huddled around a baggage screen machine that wasn’t even turned on. None of them so much as looked at me and I walked around the metal detector frame, which also wasn’t on, and went right past them without incident. I arrived at my gate five minutes after receiving my boarding pass, and I was walking very slowly.

After arriving in Heathrow I meandered to the baggage area and then found my way to the main terminal where I went to the information desk to ask which terminal I would be leaving from and where I could go to get a hotel. In the swelter in dungeon of Heathrow there is an entrance to the tube and some very helpful people that arraigned a hotel room for me and showed me how the tube system works, or rather doesn’t work in their opinion. As some one who comes from an area with a mass transit system that doesn’t go anywhere useful and never gets you there faster than you could driving in second gear I found the tubes to be simply amazing. So I hopped on the tube, after getting directions to my hotel of course. They told me which tube to take and where to transfer then said that the hotel was just across the street.

I got out of the station and saw….no hotel!!!! There was just a park, and it’s the hottest June day London has had in like 5000 years. So I’m carting two bags and a backpack with the word “tourist” written all over me in ink only visible to the whole fucking world. I ask someone to help me with the address and he points in one direction. I go two blocks and ask another person they send me in the opposite direction. I go another two blocks, then I ask someone else they keep me in the same direction but I go just a bit further. I found some other tourists that actually have a map and check with them, but my street wasn’t list on their maps, so I ask another guy and he sends me out a few more blocks. I find a hotel…it’s not the right one, but they give me actual directions and I finally after an hour and a half make it to the hotel, by that time I was so sweaty I could wring my bra out. Sexy huh? So then I took a shower and went down to the lobby to find some touristy stuff to do. I got a ticket for the big red tour bus and took lots of pictures from it. On part of the tour we go by Parliament and there were some protesters so I got off and showed them my “I didn’t vote for Bush” bracelet and chatted with them. I took a bunch of pictures of their posters… “bring our children home”. One poster had a silhouette of a man holding a gas pump nozzle to his head, and there were many Bush posters with dubya sporting a Hitler mustache.

By the way I was writing this in a chat room so I’m just going to insert the chatter where it fits…

Elladan: I loved seeing that debate from Britain, where people actually called Tony Blair a lying asshole.

mercurial: Isn’t that funny? Citizens of other countries protest our president. How often do you see Americans staging a demonstration against Chirac, for example?

ME: mercurial, most Americans STILL don’t know who Chirac is but they know they aren’t FRENCH fries anymore
mercurial: hehehehe
mercurial: It’s funny ’cause it’s true. But it’s also sad ’cause it’s true.

I had fun in London The next day went to catch my plane to San Fran…I got up at five am (couldn’t sleep anymore). I stayed in the room till 6:45 then went down for breakfast. It was a complementary breakfast. For 80 pounds it’s hardly complementary but I let them get away with it anyway. I ate and left quickly to catch my “tube”. I made it back to Heathrow and waited in line forever. I was all checked an hour before my flight, which means my gate number was posted on the screen, so I went to the gate cause I’m not going to tempt myself at an airport store. Gate 56 at terminal 1. Soon after arriving at said gate in said terminal…over the speaker comes this voice…oddly it had a British accent. He said that the plane had mechanical problems and to please go to gate 52 so that we may board a different plane that will be at that gate soon. Twenty minutes later that voice came on again….please go to gate 30. We actually had to go through security AGAIN to get to gate 30. 20 minutes later… could you please LEAVE gate 30 we have vouchers for you at the BA lounge to buy lunch. We had to go through security to LEAVE gate 30, so I get my free food (5 pounds worth), and all of us passengers are all becoming fast friends. One guy starts chatting with me and is incredibly interested in everything I have to say until the word boyfriend came up on my end of the conversation

mercurial: hahaha
mercurial: Of course.
Elladan: lol
Antacid: Erica, that’s why i stopped talking to you too
ME: Antacid, LOL

So after a bit…a long bit…we’re directed back to gate 30…and we wait…and wait

mercurial: So back through security to get there?
ME: nope not this time…
ME: this time they ask if we’re the San Fran group
ME: by now they kinda know us
ME: hehehe
Elladan: hah
mercurial: Lovely.
ME: after about three and a half hours of delay they announce that we may begin boarding and the whole crowd cheers and claps (I’m not kidding)
ME: people that were not on our flight were looking at us all weird
ME: and the security people were just laughing at us or for us

So then I was seated next to the biggest lush EVER. The lush on my flight had two bottles of wine and at least three double shots in a ten hour span plus using his 5 pounds at the bar. He was a nice guy but I was getting tired of having to get up to let him go pee all the time

mercurial: Erica, Maybe you should’ve traded seats with him.
ME: I was the middle seat
ME: then he would have slept leaning on me or the other guy
mercurial: Ugh. Middle seat.
ME: yeah it sucks

I landed in San Fran… I was supposed to have had a five hour layover

mercurial: But…?
ME: but my flight from London was uumm delayed
mercurial: Right.
mercurial: We heard. *smile*
ME: hehehe
ME: I filled out my how much money do you have card to get into the states and walked to the baggage thing so that I could join in the customs crap
ME: my bag being one of the last ones to show up on the belt
ME: I grab it and wander in the general direction of connecting flights
ME: I had to actually get my ticket from
ME: Alaska Air and have them recheck my bag…again
ME: and then go through security AGAIN
ME: this time…I was one of the lucky chosen ones
ME: and I got the special search
Elladan: oh great
mercurial: hahaha Oh, that’s horrible!
mercurial: I’ve never had to have the special search… not even when I left the secure area to meet my parents in baggage claim in Memphis and finding out upon re-entry that it was 100% special search for a heightened security drill.
ME: btw all of my dirty clothes are in my carry on
mercurial: hehehe
mercurial: Lovely.
* wasme: looks up … ’special search’?
ME: where they take the wand over you and dig through all your bags
ME: you have to take your shoes off and stand with arms out and palms up
Elladan: Erica, So, did you make your plane?
ME: yeah that one was a little late too

Saturday morning I got up at 7am to shower and get ready for my 9:55 flight to London. At 8am Kurt and I are in the car driving to the airport which is about 45 minutes away. We reach the airport just before nine and get in line to check in for my flight. I reach the front of the line at about a quarter after nine and the lady asks where I’m flying to. “London” I tell her. “Go to counter 18″ She says. I was confused as to why I couldn’t be helped at her line, but I went without question. I go to counter 18 and see that it was for late check in.

After 15 minutes I get to the front of that line which only consisted of three people including myself. My flight had just begun boarding, but I wasn’t worried because there weren’t many people there and there are only 12 gates in the whole airport. The lady at this counter asked where I was going and I told her, “London”. She gave a frown and directed me back to the line I came from. I told her that I had just come from there and she said, “Oh?” She looked at my info again and then said, “oh yeah, you’re late! I can’t help you. You need to be check in 45 minutes before departure for an international flight.”

I was directed to a third line to be issued another ticket. I reached the front of my third line 15 minutes before the departure of my flight, and this lady also tried to direct me back to the late check-in line. When I told her that I had just come from there she also did a second check and then said, “oh yes, you’re late!” I was again lectured about the need to be checked in 45 minutes before departure for an international flight, even though the night before Kurt had told me he had gone through after arriving at the airport 30 minutes before the departure of the exact same flight. The lady at the counter made three attempts to find a fight on another day, Sunday…booked, Monday…booked, Tuesday…booked. “I can’t help you. You’ll have to call British Airways.” She gave us the Spanish number for BA. Kurt called it on his cell phone from the airport…they’re closed on the weekend.

Kurt went up the counter for another number for BA and the lady was shocked to learn that they were closed on the weekends and didn’t have any other alternative. “I can’t help you” Was all she said. When we left the airport my flight was not only still there but was on last call…the doors weren’t even closed yet!

Kurt and I went back to his apartment and looked online for BA’s number. Gave them a call and after much waiting on hold, getting manager’s approval, and paying $165 in ticket change fees I got another flight. When relaying my new schedule, Catherine, the extremely helpful customer service person with BA began with…ok this isn’t pretty but it’s the best I can do…I had the same 9:55am flight from Bilbao Spain to London with a 24 hour layover in London…10:50am the next day a 10 hour flight to San Francisco with a five hour layover and then back to Seattle. That’s not how my flights actually played out but that was the schedule…

Why don’t you and Margret get married? What is it with you Americans and marriage? You seem to have some kind of confusion that makes a ritual inseparable from the thing it announces. I’m sorry to be the one to break this to you, but if you don’t have a funeral, you’re still dead, OK? No, we’re never going to get married. And we’ve spent the money it would have cost us on a loft conversion.

This is an email that I wrote to Mil Millington of the catchy website TMGAIHAA (Things my girlfriend and I have argued about)…

I love your site. It’s absolutely hilarious! But for me it wasn’t so much the arguments that you wrote about as it was the FAQs for Americans. I about died laughing at your answer to the marriage bit, comparing it to not having a funeral for the dead.

Unfortunately I’m an American and my boyfriend of six years and I get the marriage crap constantly. My whole family (including members I recently met for the first time) insist that I should never say never as if there is some really compelling reason to gather my whole family into one room and spend $10,000+ on a party for which I only get a piece of paper and some crappy dishes in return. Maybe if I thought my family would actually buy the things I would put on a wedding registry I might consider it.

A couple years ago my father asked me when Kurt and I would get married I said that we weren’t planning on it and he said, “But I’d like to have grandchildren someday.” I looked him and asked, “Since when is a piece of paper required in order to become pregnant? Do I have to explain the birds and bees to you?” I told him I plan on having children, they’ll be little bastards, but they’ll still be his grandchildren.

A simple no just didn’t cut it…a couple weeks ago I was back home in Alaska to attend a funeral. I got to see my dad in a suit for the first time in many many years, and it wasn’t the ‘70s pea-green one either. He was actually stunning like a picture I saw of him in his 20s dressed in his military uniform. I made the mistake of pointing out that it had been years since I had seen him dressed like that and how nice he looked. He told me that he had bought the suit for my wedding. REALLY! And when am I getting married? This is news to me!

Well I hope you found this at least mildly amusing, but yes I do intend to keep my day job.

Erica

*** Update April 22, 2005 ***

I got a reply from Mil

>I love your site. It’s absolutely hilarious!

Thank you. It’s very kind of you to say so.

> But for me it wasn’t so
>much the arguments that you wrote about as it was the FAQs for
>Americas.

Well, a bow to you for reading the FAQs at all. It shows great mettle.

>I’m unfortunately an American and my boyfriend of six years and I get
>the marriage crap constantly.

You could always move to England. Everything else is rubbish here, but no one would dream of suggesting that you ought to get married any more than they’d tell you that you ought to learn to ride a unicycle.

>A couple years ago my father asked me when Kurt and I would get
>married I said that we weren’t planning on it and he said, “But I’d
>like to have grandchildren someday.”

Nyuk. Aye, people do have some very odd mindsets. In the UK, 40% of children are born to unmarried parents, though, so it’s not really something that’s noticed. *Single* parents, yes; *unmarried* parents, no.

Your servant,

Mil.

Canada Opts Out of U.S. Defense Shield

TORONTO (AP) - Prime Minister Paul Martin said Thursday that Canada would opt out of the contentious U.S. missile defense program, a move that will further strain brittle relations between the neighbors but please Canadians who fear it could lead to an international arms race.

Martin, ending nearly two years of debate over whether Canada should participate in the development or operation of the multibillion-dollar program, said Ottawa would remain a close ally of Washington in the fight against global terrorism and continental security.

He said he intended to talk to President Bush later Thursday and that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had been informed of the decision earlier this week.

A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States had been informed beforehand of the decision, adding that Washington expects that cooperation with Canada will continue on a wide variety of issues.

Talking to reporters several minutes after his foreign minister first announced the move in the House of Commons, Martin said Canada would instead focus on strengthening its own military and defense in proposals laid out Wednesday in the federal budget.

“Canada recognizes the enormous burden that the United States shoulders, when it comes to international peace and security,” Martin said. “The substantial increases made yesterday to our defense budget are a tangible indication that Canada intends to carry its full share of that responsibility.”

The federal budget presented to the House of Commons calls for $10.5 billion in the next five years to increase the country’s beleaguered armed forces - including an additional 5,000 soldiers and 3,000 reservists - the largest commitment to defense in two decades. It also called for another $807,950 to improve Canada’s anti-terrorism efforts and security along the unarmed, 4,000-mile border with the United States.

When Bush visited Canada in December, he surprised Ottawa by making several unsolicited pitches for support of the defense shield, which is in the midst of testing interceptors capable of destroying incoming missiles targeted at North America.

I wouldn’t expect anything less…that’s just like the typical born-again. They come knock on the door in the middle of the day while you’re busy loudly fornicating in an “immoral” position that requires you to stand on a bible so you’re partner doesn’t have to keep his knees bent, and they have the nerve to try and sell you their religion, which by the way prohibits what you were just having so much fun doing. But that’s really neither here nor there…on with the news…

Martin, who leads a tenuous minority government, has said Ottawa would not support what he called the “weaponization of space.” Though he initially supported joining the program when he was a candidate for the Liberal leadership, Martin has retreated, since polls indicate that a majority of Canadians oppose it. Many believe that the umbrella, when fully implemented, could lead to an international arms race.

You know, we should nuke Canada just because they have a leader that follows what the majority of the people wish. I bet that bastard would even listen to his advisers if even if they said something he didn’t really want to hear, and they could still keep their position! Blow ‘em all up! That’s too much freedom! People should be free, but only free of their pesky arms and legs…not actually free to voice opinions and such!

The Bush administration has tried to make a public show of understanding that Martin heads up a minority government that could fall over such a contentious debate.

But U.S. Ambassador Paul Cellucci told reporters Wednesday that he was perplexed over Canada’s apparent decision to allow Washington to make the decision if a missile was headed toward its territory.

Did I miss something? Where in this article does it say that Canada is going to allow the US to decide what happens over Canada’s air space?

“Why would you want to give up sovereignty?” he said. “We don’t get it. We think Canada would want to be in the room deciding what to do about an incoming missile that might be heading toward Canada.”

Give up sovereignty? What? Just because Canada doesn’t want to stock pile bombs they don’t need. I mean how many countries do you hear clamoring to bomb the fuck out of Canada? Canada isn’t the war mongering, self-righteous, democracy proselytizing, liberators of dark-skinned people’s arms and legs. Of course we should all strike down Canada cause death can be liberating too.

Seriously though I love how this Ambassador, Paul Cellucci, pretends to care about the potential miss-guided missile headed toward Canada when the real concern on his mind is the missile flying over Canada headed toward the US that he’d rather have blown up before it crosses the imaginary line. Canada isn’t playing by the US rule book so I guess it’s the ambassador’s job to make it sound like they’re stupid and don’t care about their safety. I say the low profile approach seems to be working for Canada and it’s a lot cheaper than playing world police.

Today I checked the mail. That’s a great beginning isn’t it? Really catches the attention! There was nothing in the mailbox but the weekly envelop packed with coupons from the local small businesses. I leafed through it out of boredom and found an ad for child insurance. This ad was from Gerber’s “Grow-Up Plan”. Without reading it I thought first…The only reason I can think of for insuring your child is if they’re the bread-winner of the family like a child star or something. Why else would you insure a child? Are you’re planning on killing them? I suppose that would be another good reason…I wonder, is that how child protective services finds abused kids?…Do they set up phony insurance ads and trap potential parental child killing?

I think everyone should be able to choose when they die using a method that is the least painful including people that aren’t physically able to do it themselves. I really don’t see a big difference between being allowed to forgo certain treatments that would extend your life and allowing a doctor to deliver a lethal dose.

But for those that support this why refer to it as dieing with dignity? What wrong with calling it assisted suicide? That’s what it is! If people could really die with dignity then I’m all for it, but really how much dignity can there be when no matter what you’re going to crap your pants?

So I’m looking to get a new laptop. I researched on all the new stuff that’s out there…made my lists, and checked them twice. I finally decided that I wanted a Toshiba Satellite A75 S229. It had an ok review on cnet and over 80% of the users seemed to like it, so I went to see what stores sell it. I choose the cheapest place with at least four stars…it was called PlasmaKings.com.

I ordered online on the 27th of December in the evening. The next day I received an email saying that I had to call to confirm. The company is on the East coast and is only open while I’m at work. I called from work and wasn’t completely alert while doing it, though I did catch that the price wasn’t quite right. I confirmed and then after checking their online “order status” I called back to inform them I didn’t order two computers. After arguing with me about weather or not I actually ordered two online they finally said they would change it, but I had to call three times and email twice before I finally got to that point.

My first email, sent 29 December 2004:

I called to confirm Order 178462 then checked the order online because the price sounded wrong. There are two Toshiba Satellite A75-S229 listed. I only want one. Please change from two to one.

Their response:

call 1800 374 2324

My second email sent on the same day:

I called to confirm Order 178462 then checked the order online because the price sounded wrong. There are two Toshiba Satellite A75-S229 listed. I only want one. Please change from two to one.

I have already called 1-800-374-2324 and was told it would be taken care of, but I was never asked for the order number and the order still shows two laptops.

Their response:

call 1800 374 2324

I waited until the 13th of January to call again and find out if my order had been shipped, since it hadn’t changed on the site at all, and find out why there were still two computers listed on my order. The customer service lady told me that my computerS would be shipped the next day. ComputerSSS? I only ordered ONE. And the arguing begins again. Then she says, “oh did they tell you that you’ve been upgraded to the A75 S2292?” What?? No! I knew nothing about the S2292 and though I was leery, she did say upgrade. She said it would be shipped later that day. After I hung up I looked up the S2292…What the lady on the phone had failed to mention to me was that this “upgrade” had a smaller hard drive than the one I ordered, and not only did cost more than the S229 but I was going to be charged the higher price too! Upgrade my fucking ass!! These minor details must have just slipped her mind. I tried to call back, but I was at work and by the time I was able to they the customer service department had closed. I tried calling the next day even though there was a tracking number on the order status, but on Fridays they close even earlier…the bastards!

So on the 14th of January I sent this email to the three email address of theirs that I know, Plasmakings@aol.com, sales@PlasmaKings.com, and orders@plasmakings.com:

Apparently you can’t read. In my previous email I said that I had called that number!
It doesn’t matter now that issue is done and was fixed.

The new issue is that my order has been shipped and it’s the wrong computer! I ordered a Toshiba A75 S229 and you are shipping an A75 S2292. That is not what I ordered. The computer I ordered has an 80 gig hard drive and would have cost me $1239 at the time I ordered, which by the way was over two weeks ago. The computer that is being shipped only has a 60 gig hard drive and I’m being charged $1394. In case you also have difficulty with math that’s $155 more for a computer with 20 gig less!

I tried to call (1 800 374 2324) today to cancel my order in hopes that the package hadn’t actually left your warehouse since the tracking number (***********) hadn’t been activated yet, and found out I was too late…I didn’t realize you close at 3pm on Fridays.

So now that it’s shipped how do I return it? I want to cancel my order. I’m sick of your incompetence!!! I will be refusing any charges to my credit card, and I’m taking my business elsewhere!

Erica

This time that witty bunch sent three replies, all of which said:

CALL 1800 374 2324

So I did!

First they tried to tell me, “but the computer we’re sending is better?” But it’s not the one I ordered and you’re charging me more money without my approval!

Then, “Well of course it cost more it’s a better computer!” The inbred piece of shit doesn’t seem to get it. I DIDN’T FUCKING ORDER THAT ONE! If I had wanted the “better” more expensive one I would have put that one in the shopping cart. Fucking genius!

So then the phone changes hands and someone else tries to tell me that I called and confirmed that order. I wasn’t convinced. His Jedi mind trick don’t work on me, so I told him that I was taking the charge off my card, and hung up. End of fucking story…Now pass this on and let’s drive them outa business, or at least spam the hell out of all their email addresses… sales@PriceMad.com is another one. I found PriceMad.com on cnet also and it’s funny their order status page looks very similar, and guess what? When I put in my phone and order number…out came my order info.

I’ve posted an edited version of this at:
http://www.epinions.com, and http://www.resellerratings.com

I also wrote a review of them for cnet, but not being satisfied with that I then went to the PlasmaKings.com “store profile” on cnet.com, scrolled all the way down the page to where it says, “If you have any further questions or concerns regarding this merchant, please Contact Shopper Support.” There I re-told my story, including the part about one store posing as two. Oh and of course I have had the charges taken off my credit card.

So if you enjoy this kind of service feel free to shop at PlasmaKings.com AKA PC Video Mall, AKA PC Video Online, AKA PriceMad.com. Because really other than that little bit of confusion the transaction went rather smoothly. I don’t have a laptop because I refused the shipment when it came to the door, but I still have my money and all is well.