Why I Will Never Do Business With Hewlett Packard *HP*

I want to share something with you all. My brother, Bill bought a color and a black ink cartridge from Walmart and brought them home. The color ink cartridge worked just fine but the black ink cartridge did not work at all because there was no ink in it or the ink was dry. He took it back to Walmart but they said because he had opened the package he would have to call HP.

He did that and the operator would not help him unless he gave the operator remote access to his computer to run a diagnostic on it, as well as the serial number to his printer. Now what they needed a serial number for I have no idea but he did give it to them and they said that his printer wasn't in their computer system so he must not have sent in the warranty card. What that had to do with the faulty ink cartridge, I have no idea.

Thankfully he was smart enough not to give them remote access to his computer. The operator had a distinct accent so Bill asked him where he was located and wouldn't you know the operator was in India. He wasn't even dealing with a US operator. After getting no satisfaction on the phone my brother asked me to write to HP and see if they would send him a coupon for a replacement cartridge or just send him a replacement cartridge. It's really very simple. They sold a faulty ink cartridge and all he was asking for was an ink cartridge that worked. So I sent HP an email and this is the response they sent back to my brother.....

"Hello Bil,

Thank you for contacting HP Total Care.

I greatly appreciate that you have forwarded your concern and have given us a chance to assist you in this matter.

Bil as you have already opened the cartridge thus we would not be able to provide you the refund or replacement for the same. I do apologize for the inconvenience you have faced and I do understand the value of money but as from our end we do have our limitations for the replacement. I hope you do understand our part and accept my sincere apologies for the same.

I understand the inconvenience that you may have faced during this transaction. Had I been in your place, I would most certainly have felt the same.

I would also like to provide you the web link for the compatible ink cartridges with your printer.

I would request you to please order ink from our website to get the genune product for your printer:

www.shopping.hp.com

If you need further assistance, please reply to this message and we will be happy to assist you further.

For information on keeping your HP and Compaq products up and running, please visit our website
at:
http://www.hp.com/go/totalcare

Sincerely,

Arnold
HP Total Care"

Now please read the entire email and first off you will see that not only are they NOT willing to do the right thing and send him a replacement ink cartridge for the faulty one they had on store shelves but they want him to buy a new one right from their website. I have also read this email a few times and the language is just...strange. " I hope you do understand our part and accept my sincere apologies for the same." Who talks like that?

They got my brother's first name wrong, It's Bill not bil. And they spelled genuine "genune". I call foul on this email. Sure looks to me that someone not in the US probably responded to the email and that's why this email looks and sounds strange. Probably the same guy that wanted remote access to my brothers computer. O.o

So as you can see, there's a very good reason for not doing business with HP. If you happen to have a problem with one of their products, even a simple ink cartridge...they WILL NOT help you.

Do Not buy Hewlett Packard *HP*, I know I won't be.

Weekly Rat Facts: Rats Like To Chew

So this is what Lucky's Space pod looked like after he was done chewing on it. This was new about 3 months ago. It's made of hard plastic, so it took him a while to chew in into submission. Every time he laid in it his butt stuck out the bottom but he didn't care. lol 

I bought him a new one and put it in his cage this morning when I cleaned it. He thanked me by chewing on it right away. lol 

Little stinker. 

Rats like to chew. They will chew on anything and everything so if you put them on the floor for free range time you have to make sure they don't get a hold of any wires because they will chew on them. 

Rats chew all the time to wear down their teeth. Since their teeth constantly grow then need to wear them down or else they will grow right down through their jaw. Some rats have misaligned jaws and their teeth don't wear down evenly and in those cases, their humans have to cut their teeth with clippers. A vet will give you the right clippers to get the job done right. To do that you have to wrap the rat up in a small hand towel or cotton blanket like a burrito and train them to let you open their moth and trim their teeth. You can also take them to the vet's office and let them do it. 

I give my boys hard dog biscuits, wooden bird toys and other hard toys for them to chew on to keep their teeth worn down. But Lucky loves to chew on his space pods. I might as well just buy another one right now because I know I'll need another one in about 3 months. lol 

Lucky chews on things more than any other rat I've ever had. He's pulling on my shirt here. Most of my shirts have holes in them because he's fast.

He can chew a hole in my couch cushions in 5 seconds flat. I just sewed another hole up on this couch. looks like I need that needle and thread again. 

How I Get Free Stuff and Make Money Online

*I thought I would share this post again for those of you that didn't see it the last time I posted it and I have added a couple of new links in this post of the other sites I have found that actually pay you or give you points where you can cash them out for gift cards and merchandise. And I've added a couple of sites at the bottom because I wanted to let you know about them.*

I tell my friends and family all the time how I get free things coming to me and some of them have tried it and they don't have the same results that I have. So I am going to tell you the websites that I belong to in order to get free stuff and maybe you'll be able to get free stuff too.

Swagbucks Sign up here and search like you would on Google or yahoo to earn swagbucks periodically. Turn in those swagbucks for Amazon.com gift cards or other merchandise.

Inbox dollars sign up with Inbox Dollars and click on the emails they send you and shop with them for points that you can turn into real money. This one takes more time to do but in the past 2 years I have gotten $120.00 from them.

Vocal Point Sign up with them, comment on the message board and other topics on the site and periodically they will send you free samples and coupons for full size free products as well as coupons that you can share with your friends and family. But you have to comment a few times a week on the boards and topics in order to keep the samples coming, but it is well worth the effort. I get samples and coupons all the time.

Samples FromTarget Target gives out samples periodically. But they go quickly.

My View This is a survey taking website. You sign up, take the surveys they send you and get points for the ones you qualify for. Then turn them into cash or prizes.

My Survey This is another survey website that you take survey to get points which you can turn into prizes and gift cards.

Harris Poll Another survey website to take survey and earn points that can be cashed in for prizes and gift cards.

Zoompanel Another website that has you take surveys and gives you points for them that you can cash in for prizes or gift cards.

American Consumer Opinion Sign up with them and when they send you surveys that you qualify for, you get money that you can cash out after you have accumulated $5.00

Smiley 360 Here's another place you can sign up and earn smiley points and qualify for free products that you test at home. I've tested more than a dozen free products at home so far.

Yahoo Contributor Network One other place that I've talked about a little bit is the Yahoo Contributor Network. This link is to my contributor profile where you can see what articles I've written. Anyone can write for this website, all you have to do is sign up and it's free to do. Then all you do is write articles about the things that interest you. And the best part is...you get paid for writing! Right now I'm making between $4 and $6 per article and getting $2 per 1000 page views on my articles. If you write a lot, you can make a nice amount of money. I write a few articles a month for fun, but you could possibly write many more and make much more than I do.

Hey it's Free This is one of the best place to find free samples online. I used to use a lot of sites but this is one of the best ones I've found for free samples that actually come. And they have a fb page where members post other freebies they've found.

She Speaks- Sign up for an account and sign up for free samples and full size products to test. Sometimes they just send you an email asking you to fill out a form to see if you qualify for the product testing they are doing. I've had good luck with testing products with them.

House Party- Sign up to host a house party and if you get picked they send you all sorts of freebies, coupons, and free products to test and share with your house party guests.

BzzzAgent- Sign up for an account and they will send you emails letting you know which products they want you to product test. I've had a lot of success with this. They have sent several full size products for me to test.

Freebie Shark- This is another really great place to find links to free samples. I use this site a lot for signing up for free samples and they have a fb page where other members can post freebies they find.

Mommy Saves Big- Another great site for finding free samples. This site also has discount codes, mail in rebate forms, free magazine freebies and printable coupons.

My Coke Rewards- A lot of people don't know this but if you drink a lot of coke products including coke, Sprite, Dasani, Powerade Minute Maid, Fanta, Barq's, Fresca and a few others...you can use the codes found in the caps and on the bottles to get free stuff. I save up my Coke and Sprite bottle caps and enter the codes and have gotten several free 20 oz. bottles of coke with them.

Samples From Walmart- Every once in a while Walmart will post samples of things you can sign up for on their page. These samples go fast so I have this page bookmarked and check it every day.

Mindfield Online Internet Panels- This is another survey site that I wanted to let you know is genuine. You sign up and they send you surveys that you complete if you qualify for and you earn money that you can cash out once you have reached the $5 mark.

e-Rewards Opinion Panel- Now the reason I am adding this site is because I wanted you to know that if you ever get an invitation from this site that they are indeed legitimate. They are a by invitation only site but once you get in..you can make enough reward points to get really good rewards like Starbucks gift cards and other things like subscriptions to magazines. Most people don't know about this site because you have to wait for them to invite you and they find you when you become a member of one of their affiliate sites but they don't tell you which ones. lol But if you ever get an invitation...accept it.

Bing Rewards- Bing rewards you with points as you use their search engine. Points that you can turn in for things like Swagbucks, gift cards to Starbucks, Applebee's, Amazon and more.

Influenster- A site where you sign up for an account, fill out some surveys and do small tasks to improve your score. Then they send you free products to try out at home. I have only been a member of this site for a couple of weeks and have filled out a few of the surveys and done a few tasks and was just approved for my first Voxbox (home testing product). If you want to get free products at home to test, this is a good site to sign up for.

Pampers Rewards- If you have a baby and use Pampers products there are codes on the inside of the packages that you can add up to get free kids toys and products. Even if you don't have a child, you can find the free codes on the freebie sites I've listed here like Hey It's Free, and add your points up to get things for yourself like giftcards, post cards from Shutterfly and free samples. The rewards change all the time and I've gotten free samples, disposable razors and gift cards.

Kelloggs Rewards- Did you know that on the inside of all Kelloggs cereal boxes there's a code that you can enter at this site and accumulate points for things like books, coupons, housewares, kitchenware, electronics, toys and gift cards? So if you eat a lot of cold cereal this is a great site for you.

Chat About- I just found this site where if you like to chat and voice your opinions on various subjects and gets points for doing it, this is the site for you. For every comment, question, article and review you make...you get points. Points that you can then exchange for things like Amazon gift cards, Paypal cash and various gifts they have available to purchase.

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a 'Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things. So I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to samples like these at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

This week  received: 

3 coupons for a FREE snickers bar from their fb promotion. 

2 samples of Pantene shampoo and conditioner. 

I also received this book from Shelley Munro and she has a great blog, Adventure Into Romance with Shelley Munro. Thank you Shelley. :)

Review: Prego Bacon and Provolone Pasta Sauce

As you can see from the thumbs down sign my hubby, Ken is giving this jar of pasta sauce, we didn't like it. 

Let me give you a mental image of what this tasted like...

Imagine if you will the foul, acidic taste of vomit mixed with a bit of vinegar and tomato. Now blend that with a little imitation bacon flavor, some meat-like granules and the scent of dirty socks and you might understand what this pasta sauce is like. 

The people who made this must be non meat eaters or they would have understood that this tastes NOTHING like bacon. As soon as you pop the lid off of this jar, your senses are assaulted with the acrid aroma of dirty feet and liquid smoke. 

Never in my life have I tasted something so putrid that I wanted to spit the first mouthful back in the bowl. 

If you see this product on shelves, turn around and run away. Don't just walk, run!

Twitter Wednesday!

Welcome to another Twitter Wednesday, where I pull some of the funniest tweets from my Twitter feed and post them here for you to read. As always I have left off the names and @'s so no one gets mad. :)

I am too hungry to concentrate on anything, but dinner isn't ready for another hour. Boo, hiss.

Someone sent me a pic of cake, I want to lick my computer screen now. 

Life is like a dick, sometimes it becomes hard for no reason.

Fried chicken how I miss you.

I LOL'd so hard I think I busted a rib. o.O

I need a nap. But it's too late for a nap. Drank coffee and that did nothing for me.

I have 3 brothers I excel at ignoring things

who disposes of those fluorescent bulbs the way they say too? not me.

Psychopaths forgive other psychopaths, and blame their victims!

Dear phone book company, why U no call me 1st before delivery? Your latest publication in my driveway went straight to the landfill

I wonder if any of my friends had a crush on me but then got to know me and were like “haha no, dodged a bullet there.”

i wonder if teachers play the “who’s a virgin” game in their heads in class

I HATE WHEN PEOPLE POUR KETCHUP ALL OVER THE FRENCH FRIES INSTEAD OF A DESIGNATED CORNER & OFFER ME SOME LIKE NO FUCK U & UR TAINTED FRIES

Why do people not take showers? why?

Do you ever bring your dog up to a mirror and say, that is you. lol Yeah, me either. 

Each of my three cats staring at each other in one room like an OK corral standoff. Much swearing and death stares going on.

Dear stomach, you're bored, not hungry. So shut up.

Every time a bird poops on my car... I eat a plate of scrambled eggs on my patio just to show them what I'm capable of

according to maxipad commercials, all women are full of windshield washer fluid

Why can't women park cars? Because for generations, men have been telling them that 3 inches is actually six.

is sorry we fought. I hate it when you're wrong.

just painted a blue square in my yard to trick people viewing Google Earth into thinking I have a swimming pool!

Scary Dolls

My daughter brought me a couple of String Dolls because I like this sort of thing and I thought they were pretty cool. Have you seen them? Here's one of the String Dolls she gave me, it's Pumpkin Head. My daughter said she can get them for as little as .50 in the candy machines inside the grocery stores. They are great for keychains. 

And here's a little green string doll my daughter gave to me. It really reminds me of some kind of voodoo doll. But cute..o.O

String Dolls- What Are They?

Now how about Living Dead Dolls? I bought this one for my daughter when she turned 16. She loved it even though it freaked out my mom. lol Have you ever seen these? I think the dolls that are really popular right now are Monster High Dolls. 

Living Dead Dolls 

Happy Raturday!

Welcome to a new weekly blog post I'm calling, Raturday! I've seen Caturday and while that's really cute, I think the rats needs some photo time so everyone can see how cute these little animals are. I've gotten permission from Rat Logic's fb page to share their pictures on my blog. So get ready to smile because these are cute. 

Does Your Child Have A Favorite Stuffed Animal?

Because Easter is coming up next month and a lot of kids will be getting stuffed animals, I thought this would be an appropriate time for this blog post. When my daughter was little, she had an obsession passion for all thing ducks. When she was just a couple of year old she was given her first stuffed duck and she carried it around for a couple of years. It started getting really dirty and even though I washed it and sewed it back together I don't even remember how many times, she loved it. But once it was no longer going to stand up to another round in the washing machine and it started smelling like something that just came out of the garbage dump, we knew we were going to have to do something. 

So we made it a game. The new duck game. We bought her a new duck at easter and told her that the old duck had to go in a box that we would put in the closet. And believe it or not, she went for that. I guess she liked the idea of a new duck surprise. It got to be the 'thing' we did every year at Easter. We would go looking for just the right duck to replace the old one with and we put the old one in the dirty duck box. When my daughter turned 21, I gave her that box of dirty ducks and she thought it was the coolest thing. 

You could always tell which one was her favorite because it was the dirtiest one. lol That little one in the right front corner was her favorite that year. This was her duck collection. Like I said, she loved her ducks. 

She even got me in on her duck shenanigans. 

Everyone knew to give her some sort of duck for easter so she had a lot of them. She even got a duck umbrella one year. It was so cute. 

She thought it was hilarious to pile them on me and takes pictures. 

Romi, our first rat even got to play with the ducks. 

Di you have a special stuffed animal, does your child?

Weekly Rat Facts: Magazines

*Lucky's Birthday, he's 1 year old*

I don't have a subscription to any magazines because they don't usually have articles in them that I can 1.) relate too or 2.) find interesting. That is until recently. Just last month I signed up for a monthly subscription to It's A Rats World Magazine. 

Did you know that if you take cute pictures like the one above, you might be able to have it published in a magazine about rats? One such magazine is It's A Rats World and not only can you subscribe to the monthly  magazine and get loads of cute rat pictures but they accept pictures and stories for their magazine too. 

They also have a fb page.

There's also AFRMA *American Fancy Rat and Mouse Association*. When you sign up for a membership you also get their magazine style newsletter called Rat and Mouse Tales. 

You can also find Critter magazine that features different animals, including rats. And you can sign up for their free newsletter. 

So are these magazines something you would ever think about getting?

Where You Can Find My Articles

It's been a while since I posted a link to my Freelance Writing profile page and since I have about a dozen new followers I thought now would be a good time. For my new followers that may not know, I'm a freelance writer who mostly writes about small animal care but I have written about other subjects as well. Just click the link and scroll down through the different articles. 

My Articles

Freebie Friday: How To Get Free Author Swag

*click on pictures to enlarge*

Today I wanted to tell you about a site that you probably don't know about but should, Author Island. You can get a big box of author swag for the price of shipping, *inside the US $12.35 or if using Paypal $13.35* but she also sends to outside the US all you have to do is email her and she'll tell you how much the shipping fee would be, other than that everything is FREE! That's right, all you pay is the shipping charge and I had so much stuff inside my box that I had to use my couch and coffee table to spread it all out so you could see it. 

In my box was, 6 books, 2 tote bags, 3 sampler CD's, 40 refrigerator magnets, a butt load of bookmarks, cover flats, candy, pens, key chains, nail files, a ruler, a stuffed dragon, rubber duckie, post cards, magnetic buttons and notepads. 

There was so much stuff that Ken helped me spread it all out on the couch and coffee table so I could take a picture of it. 

And all you have to do in order to get this is pay $12.35 shipping *or $13.35 if using Paypal*

Some of the cover flats and book marks are autographed and one of my books was autographed by the author. The tan book bag was also autographed by Cheryl Dragon. 

So if you've been wondering how to get more author swag, here's your chance to load up on the stuff, plus get some great extras. Just visit Author Island and check out how to get a box of goodies for yourself. 

Review: The Fire King by Marjorie M. Liu

Long ago, shape-shifters reigned as gods.But even gods have laws that they break at their own peril . . .

Each member of Dirk & Steele has a unique ability. Soria's is the gift of communication—which is why she's been chosen to learn the language of a tormented warrior resurrected after thousands of years of icy sleep.

He is Karr, and once he was a king. Strong as a lion,quick and deadly as a serpent, he saw everything he loved consumed in flames. Death was to be his salvation,but thousands of years later he has been awakened against this will. Now a breathtaking human moves him in ways he neither understands nor desires. But Soria can see beyond his rage . . . and only she can speak the words that will cool the destructive fury in his soul.

Words of love. 

My Review:

Soria has been held up in her home since losing her arm a year ago. Not wanting to work, be around the people she used to work with but instead keeping to herself. That is until she is brought in on a new assignment to try and speak to a very old shape shifter because she has a special skill of being able to speak any language when she is in the same room with the person speaking the language. 

Karr is a 3000 year old shifter, a chimera. Most thought he was dead until he was found and brought to the facility where Soria meets him for the first time. He's not sure whether to trust her because she can speak his language or not but he's more than a little mad that he's been imprisoned.

I expected more from this story right from the beginning. I read the first chapter hoping that things would pick up, but sadly they didn't. This book left me wanting more. More storyline, more plot, more insight into the characters, more sex, more cohesiveness...just more. 

I found myself having a hard time even finishing this book but I did and while it did pick up just a little at the end, it wasn't enough to save this book. I could not connect with the two main characters at all, character development could have been improved. They were not memorable in any way. They were not exciting even during the small sex scenes. This is labeled a romance but there was very little romance and even less sex in this book. The sex scenes were stale and unexciting, not what I would hope for in a romance book at all. 

Plus it wasn't at all believable and there were plot holes a plenty. Soria only has one arm but she doesn't asked for help getting dressed, putting her hair in braids or anything else. Karr has been asleep/dead for 3000 years but he barely blinks at how much has changed. I found that to be utterly ridiculous. 

All in all this was a very disappointing read and had I not read other books by this author knowing that she has written better books, I would not be reading another from her. 

I give this book 2 out of 5 stars.