word!

i writeth, you readeth

Interest is the sincerest form of respect

Beloved Ertl now sucks!

4. November 2010 | Category Interests, Rant

Recently, I had obtained a Model Kit made by Ertl for a John Deere JD 8020. It was a kit and took some time to assemble, so when near the end, I found that it was missing parts and that removing cellophane from around the tractor’s cab removed large amounts of paint with it, I was a little unnerved.

I sent the now parent company of Ertl, RC2 an email inquiring about possible replacement by the company.

This is the response I got from ‘Karen’ in Customer Service:

Thank you for your inquiry regarding model kit parts.

The Company announced on 1/11/2007 that it will discontinue its Racing Champions, Joyride, Ertl, and AMT die-cast and model kit automotive collectible product lines. The Company plans to continue with its strategy to reposition its Johnny Lightning Brand. Production for 2007 will remain as planned at this time.

We are sorry to hear of your problem with our product. We focus on producing quality toys and collectibles, however on a rare occasion quality issues can arise.

With the wide range of products and items we market, it is impossible for RC2 Brands to keep replacement parts or stock on hand. The Company has established return policies with the retailers who purchase our products directly. Please return the product along with your receipt to the place of purchase for an exchange or refund. The return is subject to the discretion and return policies of the retailer.

You can also try contacting one of the following retailers: Gold Coast Hobby 516-759-4094 or Model King 732-240-3987 for purchase of replacement parts.

Thanks for your support of Learning Curve Brand products.

Consumer Services

to which I responded

Your response somehow didn’t surprise me.

Given that I too work in Quality Control, it’s extremely difficult to imagine that our respective companies would put out a product that is less then perfect in the eye of the customer. But it does happen from time to time, as we both can attest to. The big difference is that for my job, I have to claim responsibility for the quality of my company’s product and do what I can to make it right in the eyes of the end user/customer.

Evidently, your company does not believe in quality or customer service, based on my exchange with you. Furthermore, the fact that your product is made in China and your customer service information is not existent in any tangible way via your company’s website should have been huge red flags to me.

I am disappointed as a customer, as for a good, joyful part of my childhood growing up on a family farm in the rural Midwest was spent carpet-farming with what was viewed as the best in farm toys ~ Ertl. I attended numerous toy shows and purchased numerous toy farm machinery for my carpet-farm. All these products were made with the Ertl logo.

While it’s easy to see why you’re company continues to use the Ertl brand, I am extremely disappointed in the product you currently put out and lack of response to quality concerns. (By the way your email response in corporate speak is so vague it actually means little. Numerous mention of the year 2007 are made, but what that has to do with present day issues are not addressed. I suggest you fire your copy writer)

While we live in the age of the Internet and Social Media, I will take it upon myself to spread the experience I’ve had with your company. It should be a hoot to hear my relatives that currently own Ertl toys and their response to this saga.

Enjoy making your cheap Chinese shit, I wish your company nothing but the worst.

So, there you have it, a part of my childhood has been sold out and now peddles cheap crap under the priceless memories of a once quality brand!

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Associated Consultants Inc is a deceitful fraud!

7. March 2009 | Category Rant

Update **August 31, 2009** These morons are at the Minnesota State Fair. Scamming more Minnesotans out of their hard earned money. Should have went up and blasted the slick salesman for all he was worth. Despicable pond scum!

I don’t think I’m very proud of this, but given the hoax I was pulled into in the sake of a deal being too good to be true, I must out a horrible company and it’s crooked, deceitful, and down right pathetic attempts to literally steal your ‘wedding money’.

The bozos are Associated Consultants Inc, supposedly out of Minneapolis, Mn. What they do is try and bilk young engaged couples into a crooked ponzi scheme idea that by spending $2400 on there average cookware. They use all the tricks in the book to con you into thinking you must buy there product then and there, no questions asked.

Associated Consultants Inc supposedly sponsored a bridal fair in St Cloud, from there they steal your information and while probably selling it off to marketing firms all while letting you know if you visit with them for 2 hours (not the 3.5 it turned into) that you could win all these fabulous prizes and get a chance to purchase a one of a kind product.

The lure was a free camera (film, not digital mind you) and a trip to Carribean destination. Plus throw in a meal (just happen to run this fraud from 5 pm on).

Slick sales guy goes into his mode describing his companies shit and then comparing in every way possible to the competitors all while relentlessly accentuating the positives on his comany’s crap and making the competitors look negatively bad in every possible light, both from the way it’s sold, the way it’s made, what county it may be made in and on and on till you are bludgeoned with negativity about everything but…. the shit they are trying to sell you.

Does some fancy tricks like standing on china cup and throwing plate on floor (reinforced props, no doubt). Cutting away pots and pans to show best of everything in Associated Consultants shit, and worst in all others.

Oh and no water used in cooking system, but when we are cooked up our ‘meal’, which consisted of a few pieces each of chicken, and under cooked carrots/broccoli; water is generously ‘sprinkled’ on everything? Odd system. Indeed.

Sorry suckers that stayed at the end got the opportunity to waste their money on this overpriced crap. Out of the 7 couples attending, only 2 left immediately (we took ‘crystal’ glasses instead of trip to crime ridden Carribean…. er Mexico) What a sham, and the dufus/ his company easily got $10,000 that night from the suckers that stayed and bought outrageously priced crapware.

I could go on and on about how shitty this deal was/ wasn’t and how it was a 3.5 hour waste of time. But I don’t want to waste more of my time on such a piece of shit company ~ Associated Consultants Inc.

While Associated Consultants Inc tried to play to every letter of the law, it’s despicable that a company would scam people in such a way to make a buck. As one of my co-workers said after I told her and she had been to something similar, why can’t these people get a real job for a living, instead of suckering fools out of cash?

Obviously there’s enough fools to milk.

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IRS and WellsFargo

5. February 2009 | Category Money, Rant

Seems as though I have finally found a reason to side with the IRS and be disappointed with WellsFargo. Seems that Wells Fargo has taken it upon themselves to feel special and mail out my 1099s whenever it suits them.

By all indications, Federal law states that tax documents should be mailed out by January 31 for previous year (bumped to February 2 due to 31st falling on a Saturday). Well giving WF the benefit of doubt, I should have had my documents as of this post.

I called WF last night and they stated that 1099s would not be mailed out until the end of February. So I decided to call the IRS to get their take on this discovery. Seems that IRS is already swamped, as it took them a full 15 minutes to get a person on the phone to talk about this. Not real stellar, but I have heard that’s what the government does ~ make you wait. They say I have to wait until the 15th before ‘worrying’ about it. We’ll see.

Personally, I would like to stick it to WF. I had liked them for a while, but they are starting to wear on me. Their policies are wishy-washy and every person you talk to, gives you a different answer.

The bozos are rescinding their executive retreats as tax-payers don’t appreciate giving the poor bastards gobs of bail-out money and all the while the big-shots enjoy the good life.

Good grief.

The biggest reason I am miffed, is that due to the home buyer credit, I am entitled to a fairly hefty refund, which would come in nice for home improvements and/or a upcoming wedding.

Plus the whole fact that we live in a digital world where computers do the banking work for them, it’s stupid that they would get any kind of reprieve.

Plus, they’re screwing with the feds, so you know they are so toast. Probably has something to do with the bailout $$. It makes everything slow to a government like snail’s pace.

Screw you Wells Fargo!

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Indecisiveness 2008 Edition

6. November 2008 | Category Interests, Observations, Rant

Yuck. Every election cycle gets worse it seems. I was so fed up with every media type outlet in the last month/year, I actually stopped using a few of them. So we have a new President. I can actually say we had a decent choice this cycle for candidates, I didn’t feel like I was choosing between two douche bags the puppet masters danced out for us, like has been done for the last 8 years. A person could feel good about either candidate.

None the less, McCain didn’t win. I think he was screwed over since his initial presidential run in 2000 when his campaign stalled as a frat-boy from Texas noodled his way into the White House. McCain never really recovered from that. His form in the campaign was off, and the administration sure didn’t do him a single favor for torpedoing his run in 2000. Ah, time for a change.

As for the US Senate race in Mn, it was ridiculous. Why didn’t the two main idiots just say they were gonna bash the other in so many ways that it would look more like a sissy fight than a run for elected office. These two took pride,it looked like, in hating the other guy and finding new ‘campaign’ ways to do so. Yuck.

Al Franken got what he deserved. After losing outstate Mn in the primaries to his DFL competitor, he was blase enough to admit that his real opponent was Norm Coleman the whole time. I sure that statement and attitude were enough to convince some couple hundred voters to switch to GOP or even Independence Party, which fared better than may have been expected. It is of note that the Independence Party did play a spoiler of sorts in this election as well. Just goes to show that 3rd party politics may liven up the electoral scene.

As for the citizens of Minnesota, the majority of them took it upon themselves to raise their taxes via a sales tax increase. They bit this propaganda hook, line, and sinker (or art piece, I forget). Little did anyone mention that the arts and parks would greatly benefit from a good chunk of this amendments ‘great outdoors’ improvement plea. Little did the state government have to worry about, because with it’s passage, they passed the buck (no pun intended) and get to bask in squandering my generations taxes on whatever they have to money to.

Where did all that ‘state lottery’ money go we Minnesotans were promised a decade or so ago? All I have heard was embezzlement charges against the big shots running that gig. Yuck.

These taxes tend to stay on the books too. Mankato for one, is a city around the area that has had implemented an extra sales tax to pay for a ‘regional’ project in the Civic Center, but now after the initial taxing period has expired, they conveniently found numerous other ‘priorities’ that needed funding. Yuck.

Almost can’t wait for another even numbered year. Yuck.

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Country living ….. part d’oh!

29. July 2008 | Category Observations, Rant

Browse back a few posts and you’ll see a breath-taking image of our fine township roads this spring. It’s taken the last few months to get over that seemingly endless ‘rut’ of a spring.

But wait, there’s more to this saga.

Seeing as leaving a frost-heaved road to it’s own devices is not sound township governing policy, the local intelligencia has come up with a few marvelous solutions.

Alfsborg Township to the immediate west of us has tried a few different tacts. First wise idea was to put rather large (think knuckle sized) rocks down, to ‘fill in’ the frost heaves and then put new gravel over that. While this has seemed to work, it scares the hell out of you when you’re driving and it sounds as though one of those rocks is coming up through the floorboards at you after you kick up one of these rocks. A tad disheartening. Not sure what to make out of it if one of those rocks were to fly/hit anything with so much as a pulse.

Alfsborg has also been ripping up the middle of some real troublesome spots that were pretty much pure dirt/mud and replacing that with pure gravel. Interesting take, haven’t had a problem with these yet, although a good dousing of rain could hamper things (maybe not this year though).

But the blockbuster, cake winner, hands down idiot award goes to the local township buffoons in good ol’ Sibley Township. Seems that in a effort not to be outdone by the upstarts to the west, Sibley Township came up with it’s own harebrained scheme to rid the township of previously mentioned frost-heaved roads. It started out peculiarly one morning with a fellow, presumed to be in the employ of the township, seen discing up the roadside slope of 481st Avenue. While this seemed like a ill advised attempt to dissuade neighbors from haying their ditch easements, it got wilder. A two mile stretch of this roadway was eventually worked up and left fallow.

In discussions with local governing officials, it seems the plan was to work up the ditches unto the road because they contained so much gravel and redo the road from these slopes.

WHAT THE HELL?

How the hell is putting black dirt on a gravel based, gravel covered road supposed to help? This is the rationale though, because someone somewhere heard that this may have happened somewhere else and worked? Whatever.

So today, these bozos went through with their little plan to screwup the road even worse. As I was coming home my normal route, I notice a completely black dirt covered road with two graders grading gravel on top of this. This effectively shut down this road, with no warning or heads up from the township other than to relay their plan when asked about it.

But they didn’t do all of the road, no. They still have roughly 1.5 mile stretch to go, once again on the main route I take to almost everything in Gaylord on a daily basis. I cannot imagine how this fiasco will end up. No doubt it will rain and create a soup hole the likes no one alive could imagine a township government would pay for. I can only imagine they hoarded all this money away from the last few comparatively mild to blow on the craziest frost-heave suppression scheme ever proffered.

Good riddance!

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