I haven’t returned to Old Navy to shop since the snail trail pants incident, and I don’t know that I ever will. They did send me $50 in gift cards for my trouble, and I used them at OldNavy.com to buy 2 pairs of jeans, which came sealed in plastic bags. (Sanitized for my protection!) You can bet I inspected the crotch of both pairs of jeans as soon as I opened the package, and I washed them in hot water before they ever made it onto my body.

Live and learn.

I’ve got very lengthy post on my main blog talking about a pair of disgusting Old Navy pants I purchased recently. I hope it will serve as a warning to all of you - wash your “new” clothes before you wear them & inspect clothing carefully in the store! Hopefully my cautionary tale will prevent one of you finding a snail trail, or some other bodily fluid left in your new clothes by another shopper.

For those of you who are looking for the snail trail pants auction - it was yanked by eBay. While Old Navy let me purchase items with dried bodily fluid inside, eBay prohibits me from selling those items.

:::squeal:::

My husband not only got me several shirts from The Limited and Express for Christmas, but he also got me a pair of Editor pants in black. They’re everything a pair of black work pants should be - comfortable, form fitting in all of the right places (but not too tight!) and above all, professional looking without being dowdy or matronly.

When I return to work after vacation, I’m going to be on well dressed woman!

Old Navy has been good to me this week!

Monday night I stopped by the store with my 8 year old son in tow. He had torn up the knees in his last two pairs of school pants, and with the temps dropping into the 30’s this week, he definitely needed long pants. He’s terribly hard to fit, being that he’s tall and skinny (hmm, wonder where he gets that from?) and the pants that are long enough for him are always too big in the waist.

To my surprise, we found that a 7 slim in the Old Navy boys khaki fit him, and even better, they were on sale for $10 each! Better than that, they had three 7 slims left in the color we needed - score!

Last night I went back and found a fleece for my 10 year old daughter. The price tag said $12.50, which is a great price, but it rang up for $7 since they were on sale. Another score!

I also snagged flip flops on their website at a clearance price of $.99 each - perfect for stocking stuffers for all of my kids!

I’m not that tall (5 foot 8 inches) but I do have long legs, and that makes it hard to find pants. Manufacturers and designers tend to think that only people over a size 6 can be tall, and it’s very difficult to find pants in a size 1 or 2 that have a long enough leg for me. I’ve been able to find pants in my size, in a longer length, at Old Navy and Gap, but they usually need to be special ordered. They don’t tend to stay on the racks long.

That’s why I was pleasantly surprised when I tried on a pair of pants at Express, from the Editor line, and they FIT! Not only did they fit perfectly in the waist, hips, and butt without being too loose or too tight, but they were plenty long enough. The regular size 2 has a nice long leg, which is great, since they don’t offer a long length option. I snagged a pair off the clearance rack for $40, which is a steal considering the regular price is closer to $80. Trust me though, these pants are worth it! I get irritated when I try pants on and they fit well in the butt, but leave a big back above my butt…I could fit another person in there! Not so with the Editor pants from Express, and I’m hoping Santa brings me another pair. They’re a classic tailored look with a not too wild flare leg that’s perfect for work.

Thank you Express, for realizing that skinny girls can be long legged!

I’ve done quite a bit of Christmas shopping online this year (thank you, Old Navy!) and packages are arriving on my doorstep daily. That means I’ve got a lot of gift wrapping area of me! One of the things that I miss when I order online is being able to grab gift boxes to put clothing in. Around this time of year, most stores have stacks and stacks of gift boxes available for customers to grab. I snagged a few from Beall’s, and a few more from Kohl’s, completely free of course.

Imagine my shock when I was recently inside Old Navy and they told me they CHARGE for their gift boxes! What? I just spent $100 in the store, and you want me to pay $2.50 for a cardboard box that says Old Navy on it? I’m sure such a box costs all of a few pennies. If Old Navy wants to “regulate” who gets a gift box, by all means - do so! Hand them out to customers who purchase from your store, and don’t let people snag a stack of ten. But don’t charge us for them!

I had a really weird situation occur at the Wal-Greens last week.

Whenever I need one hour photo processing, I typically upload my pictures to Wal-Mart. Even though I hate the store, I don’t have any problems with the photo center. However, it was down, so I was forced to use another store, and picked Wal-Greens. I uploaded a few pictures and paid online, and when I got to the store, selected a few other things to buy.

The cashier scanned my photos and they should have rang up at no charge, but they didn’t. I had to explain to her that I paid online, and she called the manager….long story short, he argued with me about how the whole order / pay online thing works and it was obvious he didn’t have a clue. Another customer in line even told him he was wrong!

After going through that for about 10 minutes, he finally decided to ring the item up for $0 and let me pay for the rest of the things I selected. The cashier rang them up, and before I knew it, a receipt was spitting out - without me paying! How did my other items get paid for? Turns out the system had charged them to the card I provided ONLINE, for the photo purchases.

WHAT?

Again, the manager argued with me about that being the correct process…but come ON! If I authorize my card online for $2.35 worth of photos, I shouldn’t be able to add another $20 to that in the store without sliding the card, right?

I ended up calling the 800 # for Wal-Greens, where it was confirmed that what happened was not right. The customer service agent I dealt with said that the system is designed so that I could order photos online, pay for them, and then call a friend anywhere, even across the country, and she could pick them up. That friend should NOT be able to add her purchases onto the tab, which is eactly what happened to me.

My concerns were forwarded to the store manager, and she sent me a coupon for free photo processing. I’ll use it, but I’m never paying online with Wal-Greens again!

Hmm. Perhaps I raved too soon about Nine and Company? Things aren’t looking good for the order I placed last Wednesday. On Friday I received an email letting me know the shirt I purchased was on backorder, and that they’d be reaching out to their retail stores in an attempt to locate the size and color I selected. If they can’t find it, my order will be canceled. In all my years of online shopping, I’ve never had that happen! I’m disappointed, and I’m waiting to see if they can locate the shirt. If not, it will no doubt keep me from attempting to shop online with Nine and Company again.

We had to go to Wal-Mart today. I hate that store! My husband needed new tires for his car though, and they were the cheapest in town, and the only place that could do the job tonight. After waiting way too long in line, we finally dropped off his vehicle at 5pm, and it was only after we got back on the road that it occurred to us to find out what time we should come back to pick the car up. It was then that they said, oh, we close at 7pm! They’d have the vehicle done, but it sure would have been nice to know that going into the deal. We had to race through dinner to get back there in time, but Jim is now the proud owner of 4 new, shiny, lots of tread left on ‘em tires.

Despite bitching earlier this week about JCPenney, we did end up there tonight. They were having a big buy 1, get one for $1 sale on kid’s clothing, so the boy ended up with new jeans, and my oldest got new jeans and new shirts. I got a few new shirts, too! Long sleeved, of course, so that I’ll have something to wear on our vacation in a few months.

When we went to checkout, the cashier scanned a $20 off coupon, so we saved even more cash. I wish I had more time to shop, but the kids were hungry and antsy…

I hate Wal-Mart and their own hour photo.

I logged into their site today so I could upload a few pictures for a school project my son is doing. It was only AFTER I uploaded the pictures, edited the pictures, cropped the pictures, and added the pictures to my cart that I was told one hour is down…

And apparently it’s down at every store in my county? WTH? No, I don’t want to wait until next Tuesday to get my pictures. Can’t you let people know one hour isn’t working in advance? I switched to Wal-Greens and went through the same process, and have already received an email that my pictures are ready.

Take THAT, Wal-Mart.

I got coupons in the mail for JCPenney today. (Why is it that I always want to spell it “JCPenny”?) They’re having another gonzo clearance sale, and I’ve got coupons to save up to 70%. If we had a store in our town, I’d consider going there this Sunday to check out the deals. We have a store under construction, but it won’t be open for months. The closest JCPenny is a good 30 minutes away, and I’m just not that hot for their deals.

I also get irritated by their clearance sales, specifically the sales in the juniors department. The racks are always so jammed with clothes that it’s hard to find anything, and they cram extra racks onto the sales floor so that you can’t even move around.

I had to venture into Wal-Mart tonight for a few gifts - we needed to get something for my daughter’s 10th birthday, and her siblings wanted to buy gifts for her as well, plus I needed a get well gift for someone else.

I hate Wal-Mart. Our local store recently completed some sort of renovation. What they renovated, I’m not sure, since everything looks the same, it’s just in different locations. I wanted around for a good 15 minutes looking for the office supplies that used to be in the front of the store before asking someone. Turns out office supplies are now in the back corner, where auto parts used to be, wedged between toys and crafts. Surprisingly, I was able to find a checkstand without a line, and I was out quickly. That NEVER happens.

I skipped going to the outlet mall in Orlando on Sunday. It was too hot to walk around outside at an outdoor mall. I stopped at Kohl’s on my way home instead, hoping to find some shorts for my oldest that would be acceptable for school. Kohl’s had 2 styles to choose from, the first being a super short cotton athletic short that is NOT acceptable for school, and the other being a cute plaid dressy short. Perfect length, cute style - but they only had it in two sizes, neither of which fit my 11 year old.

I did end up finding her sneakers (L.A. Gear - I didn’t know they made those anymore!), 2 pairs of capri pants, new shoes for me, plus a new shirt for me, so it wasn’t a complete waist, but I’m getting irritated at not finding shorts long enough for school anywhere.

JCPenney is taunting me!

We get flyers in the mail and the newspaper each week advertising great deals and clearance sales, but the nearest store to my house is 2 counties away. We’re supposed to get our very own JCPenney by the end of the year, and I can’t wait. Jim buys all of his dress shirts and ties and work pants there, and I can always find good deals on stuff for the kids to wear there too. It’ll be a nice alternative to the 2 small pseudo department stores we currently have.

We’re off to Disney this weekend, and I’m hoping we’ll have time on Sunday to hit the Prime Outlets off I-4 in Lake Buena Vista. I had good luck at the Gap outlet there the last time we visited, so I guess I’m looking to get lucky again. And now that I’ve discovered Ann Taylor, I’m wondering if there’s an Ann Taylor or Ann Taylor Loft outlet in the strip of stores. And our must hit store for the whole family is the Skechers outlet. Perfect timing, since my oldest is in need of new sneakers!

It’s official. Shop.nhl.com is on my shit list! I never heard back from them, and that was after sending email through their “contact us” form on the website twice. It really irks me when companies, especially big companies, don’t respond to customer complaints. The shirt I bought has half a logo left on it now, so it’s ruined. I guess I can keep it for painting or yard work? Lord knows it’s not decent enough to wear to the WalMart!

How long is too long to wait for a response to a complaint?

I’m not the most patient person in the world, but am I being unreasonable by expecting a response of some sort (even an auto responder!) when you submit a complaint about a company via their corporate website?

I had a horrible experience at Panera Bread on Tuesday, and submitted a complaint using their online form that evening. And yes, I was surprised when I didn’t hear back from someone, anyone, even a corporate lackey within 24 hours. If I don’t hear back in a week, then they get a letter. The experience we had was bad enough, and if they ignore it…

well, Panera might have to go on my naughty list then.

I realize that there’s a trend amongst retailers to start selling things for the next season as early as possible, but it’s a bit unsettling to walk through Target and see back to school items already out. The children’s departments are full of uniforms, and the patio sets have been cleared out to make way for displays of lunchboxes and Trapper Keepers. I’m planning on buying the kids only what they need to go back to school next month, because I know it’s only a matter of time before those uniforms go on clearance! In fact, a few weeks after school started last year that I snagged white polo shirts for my son for less than a buck each. At that price, I didn’t care if they came home dirty!

I went to the mall on Sunday to return a few things (which is another blog post!) and found a HUGE clearance at JC Penney’s. And I mean BIG. Tons of racks of items for less than $10. I found a pair of denim shorts for $9.97, and got myself a few new shirts for $6 each. Most of the racks were 60% off, but there were also racks of items for 75% off - including clothing for $1.97! The clearance was spread out across the store, so I plan on going back with Catherine to do a little early back to school shopping for her. (The other kids wear uniforms to school.)