- Home Depot is a mess. In 2021 I bought a mini-refrigerator. It only worked for one year. In 2022 I bought another one, which wouldn’t fit in my car. They put it in their Will Call department (or something similar) and I returned with the pick-‘em-up truck to retrieve it the next week. They couldn’t find it. I chose another. Did I or didn’t I take it? I sort of remember canceling the entire transaction, and I think a friend got me one from Costco instead, but my memory is a mess. Home Depot sent me a refund check, which I returned to them. Two years later, I got another refund check from Home Depot. This time I decided that if they are dumb enough to keep giving money away, I’ll take it. In early October, I received a third check from Home Depot. After about 7 or 8 phone calls, I found a human who told me that I had purchased 3 refrigerators from Home Depot. Hunh? It took them three years to refund my money?? I cashed the check.
2. I am a mess in my bookkeeping. Why do I not know if I got a refund or not for all those refrigerators? Ugh. I’d rather draw or paint or teach people to draw than fiddle with numbers, paperwork, phone trees, and records.
3. Phone calls are a mess. For many years after Kodak croaked, I used Shutterfly to print my photos and to create photo books. Several months ago the site stopped working. My photos won’t load. I postponed calling them because those kinds of phone calls require much time and patience while listening to menus, terrible hold music, and people with difficult accents reading polite scripts. It took 45 minutes for Shutterfly to determine that the problem is DuckDuckGo. I told them that I will no longer be using Shutterfly because I am unwilling to download another browser.
4. Keeping life simple creates a mess. Well, not exactly a mess, but some sacrifices and some work. Since I insist on keeping life simple by not downloading another browser, I will not be able to print photos or photobooks unless I spend time looking for another company.
5. Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life was a mess. My favorite blog, The Frugal Girl, posted What I’ve Read Lately. One of her books was Prairie Fires: the American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser. That book sparked more discussion than any of the others mentioned. It also led me to Wilder, a podcast by Glynnis MacNicol which completed and corrected (and stole some of the magic from) the Little House books. The impact and influence of those books is worldwide, transcending several generations, and now, sparking controversy. Warning: the final episode on the podcast was full of vitriol and cussing so I didn’t finish listening.
6. Staying current with computers is a mess. While editing a new book, Word lagged. The spinning beachball of doom responded with rotations every time I did anything on the book. I went online to see if there was any help. The main information was that Word needed to be updated. In attempting to update, I learned that my laptop must first be updated. I called Apple and learned that my laptop is maxed out in terms of updates. (They think a 2015 is old?? Listen, punks, I have a NEW car that is a 2004, so what are you talking about??) So, wanna know what I did? (I figured this out all by my lonesome—please be impressed.) I divided the 187 page book into 2 documents, so there! Now I can keep my 2015 going, while all those know-it-all children keep buying new things (probably made by slave labor) and putting their old (probably functional) machines out there into landfills (or their mama’s basements.) But I’m perfectly reasonable and calm about it all.
7. AI is messing things up. But if you want to find things on the internet, information NOT created by Artificial Intelligence, type what you are seeking into the search bar, followed by a space and -ai. That’s a minus sign with the letters “a” and “i”. I haven’t tried it yet but learned about it on a non-AI using blog.
8. AT&T is a mess, and they are messing with me. In 2023, I tried unsuccessfully to get a phone reconnected at the cabin. AT&T had no humans available who could handle landlines in California. They couldn’t understand how to flip a switch to activate the phone, which was already in place from previous years. They insisted that a tech guy needed to drive up the hill to do the job in spite of merely flipping a switch in the past. Alas, the road was unpassable for the AT&T giant truck. So, we decided to do without a phone and have managed without one for three summers now. A few months ago I got a letter from a collection agency that I owe AT&T $666. (evil number!) Au contraire, they provided no service, I had no phone, I never received a bill, I owe nothing. However, this crock of barnyard fertilizer has cost me several hours on the phone with the collection agency, and several dollars in mailing things in a manner that no one will be able to lie about receiving my documentation. They insist that I owe them, and I insist that I do not. I wonder if I can get through to Dave Ramsey so he can tell me how to deal with these stupid hon-yocks.
BONUS—This made me laugh: A dear friend recently said, “You can lead a man to knowledge but you can’t make him think.” Gotta be thankful for dear friends!
Perhaps November will be less of a mess and we can learn some good things together.
10 Comments
So much to talk about here! I don’t remember if I read Prairie Fires, but I listened to Wilder and liked it well enough. I mean, yes, people back in the day had rough lives and said and did some things that they shouldn’t have. It’s called life. It’s always worth talking about the context, but just sayin’ we should have more concern about how people act now. I know that Rose Wilder Lane and I would not have been BFF’s but I still love her writing.
Ugh to any interaction that results in having to call customer service. That was a big dissatisfaction with my now-former job. There were a few work situations where I let things go to collections because the collectors would return my calls and then I had someone to give the documentation to that the charge was wrong. Telecommunications companies were/are the worst.
Here’s to less-mess-November!
Birchie!!! Welcome! I’m trying to read Prairie Fires right now but keep wanting to escape into fluffier stuff. Thank you for your good wishes for a messless November.
Jana, I’m feeling very much the same as you are about technology, finances, and Little House on the Prairie. Isn’t it funny how old, crumbling paint can look so good in a photo? Your photos are beautiful, and I especially love the red leaves. So gorgeous!
Aw shucks, Michelle, thank you! Just thank you. 😎 !!
3. I tried instagram twice, couldn’t figure out why I needed IG when basically it was a combination of Facebook and X, both of which I already have. Tryin’ to be Lean & Mean when it comes to social media.
7. Grok is X’s version of AI. It’s an option if you sign in to X. Otherwise, it’s a stand-alone site that you don’t need an account to access. You may either download the mobile app, or access it here: https://grok.com. Keep in mind, “AI” is the general name for all the AI programs like ChatGBT, Pilot, Grok, Google Gemini, etc.
8. Is there an AT&T office you march into with your stack of receipts and paperwork?
Lean and Mean. Same here. No apps. No social media outside of blogs where I am connecting with real people, some of whom have become customers, some of whom are becoming friends.
Thank you for the #7 explanation!
AT&T sold my “debt” to a collection agency and now has no stake in the matter. I left a phone message and sent an email to Dave Ramsey, because I need help. How do I get a collection agency to stop bothering me for a debt I do not owe and never did??
1. You actually reached a real human at Big Box customer service? Who spoke English? You hit the jackpot!
2. I have been using Quicken Classic (the no frills, basic version) for 3 separate accounts and found it to be quite useful.
3. I used Shutterfly for years, then you had to buy something every year, then they canceled photo storage completely. I have no way of showing off my photos except on Facebook and an occasional blogpost. I wish there were a free, basic, online photo gallery but I haven’t found it yet.
6. I have my mother’s old Macbook Pro from the late 1990s that works perfectly but cannot be updated. It’s sitting on a shelf waiting to be scrapped.
7. I have found Grok to be accurate, unbiased, apolitical in responses. I don’t mind asking him (it?) to quote copyright law, or what year the Hoover Dam was built. But I do have all AI options turned off that I can find.
8. Good luck with Big Phone. Maybe eventually they’ll give up? Keep a paper trail! And feel free to come down and use ours, any time between May and October!
Bonus: BOO!
Sharon, 1. It took many many calls, much pushing of buttons, and much waiting to reach a human. It wasn’t a jackpot—I EARNED it!
2. Prolly could have dug in boxes to find my old paper records but was too irritated by how much time I’d already wasted and didn’t care enough to waste more time on it.
3. Maybe Instagram for you?
6. Ouch. You’d think these kids wouldn’t keep causing us to put things in landfills; aren’t they the ones who cry “global warming will kill us”? Wait —do landfills cause global warming? Now they are telling us to not put green waste into the landfills because they cause greenhouse gases. Excuse me? Isn’t composting good? Sigh.
7. “Grok”? How does one find that? The most current Mike Rowe podcast is an interview with Gavin DeBecker. He explains how to keep asking questions of AI (using RFK’s assassination as an example) to get to the truth, because AI first gives the most popular answer. After asking more questions, the truth comes forth.
8. Ugh. I’m currently fed up and stuck. It takes much internal fortitude to decide to give up yet another 1-1/2 hour to phone these idiots. Gotta figure out how to end this barnyard fertilizer WITHOUT writing a check for something I DO NOT OWE!
I too followed Laura Ingalls Wilder down to the very end. Such a sad story. Rose Wilder even published and I went to the library but they were rug hooking books so I guess that was the true end for me. This was over 30 years ago and still bothers me but it can’t take away the joy I and my children had reading them. Life is a mess!!
Kathy, “rug hooking books”? What does this mean?
I’m with you about no one taking away the joy of the Little House books.