So a couple of weeks ago, I wrote this letter to Boots, complaining about their appalling lack of online customer service (it's not as boring as it sounds. I always think if I was a customer services person, I would appreciate humorous letters, as they would be bright spots in an otherwise very drab day filled with other people's ire). I wanted a refund for an order placed in error, and stated in my letter that I did not expect any freebies, but would be delighted to receive them should Boots feel compelled to do so.
This reply came for me the other day in the post:
Dear Lopz
Thank you for contacting us about the difficulties you have experienced with our online ordering facility. I am sorry to hear about this and appreciate you letting me know this.
Blah blah blah.....*the letter bangs on about what exactly happened to me, in case I'd mysteriously forgotten*
I have spoken to our technical team regarding this (their inability to cancel an order placed online), and they have assured me they are looking into introducing this facility in the future, to ensure this does not happen again.
I have also spoken to the manager at our Kingsway store, and he has passed on his sincere apologies for this issue and has advised that if you wish to discuss the further matter with him, he would be pleased for you to do so. *What, over a glass of wine at his local? I thought he was a bit over eager last time I was in there*
Having investigated this further for you, I am happy to inform you that I have been able to issue a refund of £42.92 for your order. *Cause for great celebration, as Kingsway manager had already refunded me in store*
In view of the disappointment that has been caused, I have also enclosed a gift card, which I hope you will accept with my best wishes (Giftcard value £15). I do hope that you are able to purchase a nice gift for yourself on my behalf this Christmas. *Is it my imagination, or is there a hint of sarcasm there?*
Your sincerely
Boots
So, to recap, I received the following products from Boots:
1 x FCUK overnight bag filled with FCUK products
1 x Soap & Glory Travel Toiletries Case filled with S&G minis
1 x Boots No 7 Cosmetics Case filled with No 7 Cosmetics
For a grand total of NOTHING.
Plus a £15 voucher for my troubles.
That's it, I am going to start complaining about every single thing that goes wrong - and sometimes even those that don't. Stale crisps? I want free super-size bags for a month. Cold Starbucks? I want a Starbucks card pre-loaded with £20. Had a bad night's sleep? I want M&S vouchers for upgraded bedding, a new mattress, a year's supply of free heating in my room and a hot water bottle for my feet. Or is that going too far?
I am an ACTIVIST. I have a CAUSE. Me. Check how I roll.
Showing posts with label freebies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label freebies. Show all posts
Friday, 9 January 2009
Tuesday, 4 September 2007
Work Is a Four-Letter Word
I am cruising with these free movies! A while ago I mentioned how I'd found this site where people post links to freebies, and how I was going a bit ape shit on it. Well, it no longer holds quite the same appeal a month on, as for the most part, the freebies you apply for never actually arrive, and what you do get instead is spam. Not just the odd dirty e-mail detailing someone else's sexual deviances, but bucket loads of spam of all kinds; from cheap viagra to free weekends away to my personal favourite - petitions for money from our brothers in deepest darkest Africa - Nigeria being a clear forerunner in begging by e-mail. You had to know it was going to happen sooner or later; our inboxes are the virtual traffic lights of cyberspace, and there's a beggar lurking at each one.
One thing this site is really good for, though, is free movies. Basically, a website called SeeFilmFirst is responsible for handing out hundreds of tickets to film previews, which are then used to gauge audience reaction before the film is officially released to the public. Rather bizarrely, you can choose not to participate in the feedback request, leaving you with 2 free movie tickets and them with....????
Anyway, I am milking them for all its worth, having just got tickets to see a preview of Superbad, the new comedy from the guys who did Knocked Up (which I also got free tickets for, and which is currently my favourite rom / gross-out com ever. See it, you won't be disappointed). We also saw Atonement and the Keri Russell comedy/drama Waitress for the grand old price of nothing. Ok, so perhaps they should be paying people to go watch Waitress, rather than the other way around. It's not that it's a terrible movie, it's just that you have to channel your most girly, old-fashioned and extremely patient self in order to get through it... in other words, girls: proceed with caution and boys: EVADE EVADE EVADE.
Aside from hunting free movie tickets like a lion after a new Impala fawn, I've finally been forced to face up to the decision that I have known was coming for months, and make my final do or die choice. I am talking about, of course, my job becoming permanent. I've been temping here since the end of March, and am now pretty much part of the furniture - a very well liked part, so my team tells me, like a comfy old couch that you are too fond of to throw out. Not that they are in any way indicating that I will be thrown out soon; quite the opposite, in fact. I've been breaking it them gently over a few weeks now that I am looking around for something else, which doesn't involve organising their lives. They in turn have been trying every trick in the book to convince me to stay, and finally I am being offered the chance to make things official. The PA for the other half of my team, L, recently applied for and got an internal promotion, leaving her role wide open. I think with my role as it stands, they're still not sure whether they're going to get a perm PA in, or combine the two halves to work under one PA... it's all up in the air and could go any way at any time. But L's job is open, and they do want a perm candidate in there, and I would be a natural choice given that I've been here and am doing her job anyway, just with 7 different people. I would still have to apply like everybody else, and they'd still get external candidates in for interviews, but basically if I wanted to go for it, I'm 99% sure I would get it.
The problem lies in the fact that I don't want it. Why is this a problem? Well, 3 months ago I would have taken it. That was my low point, my desperate pit in which I sat, believing that no-one else will ever want me so what would I have to lose by going perm here? The only difference between that and my current situation is that going perm would give me sick leave, a tad more money and plenty of holidays - all things which elude me as the long-suffering temp. But now, despite the recent rejection a couple of weeks ago from the publishing house for the role I so badly wanted, I feel strangely at peace with the situation, as if it's really not about me or what I want, but rather about what destiny has in store for me, which will be what it will be despite my hang-ups about getting the right job. Maybe I'm deluding myself because this is a way to duck responsibility for my own career happiness, but I really think it wasn't the right thing, and that's why I didn't get it... much as I know taking this job permanently wouldn't be right either. I don't need to apply and be rejected to know that. So here I am, with what is practically a definitive offer on the table, planning how I can get away and make a move that will benefit me in the long run, not just give me security for the near future. And I would really like this Predestined Job to come along quite soon, as I feel I am talking about it ad nauseum and would like to give you, as much as myself, a break from my never-ending quest.
So in summary: I basically have an offer for a job that I don't want, and it's a problem because that just means you are going to have to suffer through more posts about my work situation, and I am going to bore myself to death by writing them. You suffer, I die and someone else gets a secure PA position in a nice company.... how did I work this out again?!?!?!
One thing this site is really good for, though, is free movies. Basically, a website called SeeFilmFirst is responsible for handing out hundreds of tickets to film previews, which are then used to gauge audience reaction before the film is officially released to the public. Rather bizarrely, you can choose not to participate in the feedback request, leaving you with 2 free movie tickets and them with....????
Anyway, I am milking them for all its worth, having just got tickets to see a preview of Superbad, the new comedy from the guys who did Knocked Up (which I also got free tickets for, and which is currently my favourite rom / gross-out com ever. See it, you won't be disappointed). We also saw Atonement and the Keri Russell comedy/drama Waitress for the grand old price of nothing. Ok, so perhaps they should be paying people to go watch Waitress, rather than the other way around. It's not that it's a terrible movie, it's just that you have to channel your most girly, old-fashioned and extremely patient self in order to get through it... in other words, girls: proceed with caution and boys: EVADE EVADE EVADE.
Aside from hunting free movie tickets like a lion after a new Impala fawn, I've finally been forced to face up to the decision that I have known was coming for months, and make my final do or die choice. I am talking about, of course, my job becoming permanent. I've been temping here since the end of March, and am now pretty much part of the furniture - a very well liked part, so my team tells me, like a comfy old couch that you are too fond of to throw out. Not that they are in any way indicating that I will be thrown out soon; quite the opposite, in fact. I've been breaking it them gently over a few weeks now that I am looking around for something else, which doesn't involve organising their lives. They in turn have been trying every trick in the book to convince me to stay, and finally I am being offered the chance to make things official. The PA for the other half of my team, L, recently applied for and got an internal promotion, leaving her role wide open. I think with my role as it stands, they're still not sure whether they're going to get a perm PA in, or combine the two halves to work under one PA... it's all up in the air and could go any way at any time. But L's job is open, and they do want a perm candidate in there, and I would be a natural choice given that I've been here and am doing her job anyway, just with 7 different people. I would still have to apply like everybody else, and they'd still get external candidates in for interviews, but basically if I wanted to go for it, I'm 99% sure I would get it.
The problem lies in the fact that I don't want it. Why is this a problem? Well, 3 months ago I would have taken it. That was my low point, my desperate pit in which I sat, believing that no-one else will ever want me so what would I have to lose by going perm here? The only difference between that and my current situation is that going perm would give me sick leave, a tad more money and plenty of holidays - all things which elude me as the long-suffering temp. But now, despite the recent rejection a couple of weeks ago from the publishing house for the role I so badly wanted, I feel strangely at peace with the situation, as if it's really not about me or what I want, but rather about what destiny has in store for me, which will be what it will be despite my hang-ups about getting the right job. Maybe I'm deluding myself because this is a way to duck responsibility for my own career happiness, but I really think it wasn't the right thing, and that's why I didn't get it... much as I know taking this job permanently wouldn't be right either. I don't need to apply and be rejected to know that. So here I am, with what is practically a definitive offer on the table, planning how I can get away and make a move that will benefit me in the long run, not just give me security for the near future. And I would really like this Predestined Job to come along quite soon, as I feel I am talking about it ad nauseum and would like to give you, as much as myself, a break from my never-ending quest.
So in summary: I basically have an offer for a job that I don't want, and it's a problem because that just means you are going to have to suffer through more posts about my work situation, and I am going to bore myself to death by writing them. You suffer, I die and someone else gets a secure PA position in a nice company.... how did I work this out again?!?!?!
Tuesday, 24 July 2007
Curtain Call
Apparently Tuesday is the new Monday. I say this because, the week only seems to start on Tuesday. There are of course those who drag their Monday morning blues into the office after a now much-missed weekend, but the majority of people just don't show up on a Monday mornings! I don't know if it's just my organisation, or perhaps something to do with the public sector (less money therefore less motivation?), but my office is decidedly empty on Monday mornings. I can arrive at 9:15am (I start at 9) and still feel like the first person here. By Monday afternoon, there is a definite increase in bodies, and Tuesday morning it's like the whole world got going again after its pit-stop, and, fortified by biltong and Wimpy coffee (if it stopped at the Shell One-Stop anyway), it gets its teeth into the rest of the week.
I have just come back from spending a rather extended lunch break in Covent Garden. It was extended to make time for stops at Starbucks and then Origins after dropping off our papers at the Schengen Office for our Portguese visas. Starbucks, just because I like it, and Origins, because they were handing out free samples!
Now would probably be a good time to tell you about my latest pastime. I have recently discovered a forum which posts links to freebies. The members of the forum, who, bless their souls, obviously have WAY too much time on their cheap-skate hands, spend hours trawling the internet for good deals and then posting them for the rest of us leeches. The freebies range from the fabulous (free movie tickets) to the truly bizarre (free grass samples). I have only been browsing the forum for about a week, but already I have received one sample of Organics Shower Gel in the post and today I followed a hot tip to Origins, an all natural skincare shop, where they were giving away samples of their top 10 products - 5 per person. I now have 5 of the most delightfully tiny tubes of various creams and gels. The attraction to this forum is simple - there is no-one in the world who doesn't like to get things for free. No matter how random - chocolate samples, which consist of literally one block; or useless - curtain samples, say no more - everybody loves a freebie. My personal faves are the beauty products, and not for the reason you think. I am an independent woman - I buy whatever beauty products I want whenever I want them. What I love about the samples is the fact that they are so mini! One of my favourite parts about travelling is that I get to go to Boots or Superdrug and stock up on 6 or 7 mini bottles of shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, face cream and even suntan lotion. Don't even ask why I don't just keep the bottles and re-fill them - the thrill is buying these tiny new products, all fresh and cute and so adorable looking in my toiletry bag. Re-filling just does not have the same effect.
My plan is to collect enough samples of skincare and cosmetic products so that I can just take them along on our trips, thereby not spending "unecessary" money (I think it's necessary but no-one else believes me) on miniatures. So far I have applied for the following samples: Free Lacoste 'Touch of Pink' Sample fragrance for women ; Elizabeth Arden Mediterranean Free Sample ; Free Full Size Rimmel Wear Maxx Nail Polish (worth £4.49) ; Free Nivea Lip Care Sample ; Sally Hansen 5 Minute Manicure Pack ; Free Sample of JoopGo ; Free Vera Wang Princess Fragrance Sample ; free original source shower products; Free sample of Davidoff Cool Water Wave ; Free sample of Marc Jacobs perfume and Free Teddy Bear.
I have also ordered 60 free photo prints from Photobox, scored 50 free Nectar points (a shopper's savings card, similar to Clicks Club card for those of you in SA), sent away for my free personalised luggage tags (your choice of photo included), requested a free 4 pack of Coors beer and registered for free tickets to live audience TV shows, such as X Factor and the Brit Awards (these are wait-listed though, so registering doesn't mean you automatically get tickets).
This means that on any ordinary day, I could just be going about my business as usual and come home to find a surprise package waiting for me. Don't tell me this wouldn't brighten your day!
Of course, as with anything online these days, I have come across some seriously strange people on this forum. One of crazier deals was the free unlimited curtain samples. This is the deal: In order to request a free sample, simply look just below the product in question and locate the Free Sample button, clicking this will add the sample to your cart and allow you to continue shopping/browsing. If you wish to select a few samples across the shop please do so. There is no limit to the number of samples you can request.
I have just come back from spending a rather extended lunch break in Covent Garden. It was extended to make time for stops at Starbucks and then Origins after dropping off our papers at the Schengen Office for our Portguese visas. Starbucks, just because I like it, and Origins, because they were handing out free samples!
Now would probably be a good time to tell you about my latest pastime. I have recently discovered a forum which posts links to freebies. The members of the forum, who, bless their souls, obviously have WAY too much time on their cheap-skate hands, spend hours trawling the internet for good deals and then posting them for the rest of us leeches. The freebies range from the fabulous (free movie tickets) to the truly bizarre (free grass samples). I have only been browsing the forum for about a week, but already I have received one sample of Organics Shower Gel in the post and today I followed a hot tip to Origins, an all natural skincare shop, where they were giving away samples of their top 10 products - 5 per person. I now have 5 of the most delightfully tiny tubes of various creams and gels. The attraction to this forum is simple - there is no-one in the world who doesn't like to get things for free. No matter how random - chocolate samples, which consist of literally one block; or useless - curtain samples, say no more - everybody loves a freebie. My personal faves are the beauty products, and not for the reason you think. I am an independent woman - I buy whatever beauty products I want whenever I want them. What I love about the samples is the fact that they are so mini! One of my favourite parts about travelling is that I get to go to Boots or Superdrug and stock up on 6 or 7 mini bottles of shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, face cream and even suntan lotion. Don't even ask why I don't just keep the bottles and re-fill them - the thrill is buying these tiny new products, all fresh and cute and so adorable looking in my toiletry bag. Re-filling just does not have the same effect.
My plan is to collect enough samples of skincare and cosmetic products so that I can just take them along on our trips, thereby not spending "unecessary" money (I think it's necessary but no-one else believes me) on miniatures. So far I have applied for the following samples: Free Lacoste 'Touch of Pink' Sample fragrance for women ; Elizabeth Arden Mediterranean Free Sample ; Free Full Size Rimmel Wear Maxx Nail Polish (worth £4.49) ; Free Nivea Lip Care Sample ; Sally Hansen 5 Minute Manicure Pack ; Free Sample of JoopGo ; Free Vera Wang Princess Fragrance Sample ; free original source shower products; Free sample of Davidoff Cool Water Wave ; Free sample of Marc Jacobs perfume and Free Teddy Bear.
I have also ordered 60 free photo prints from Photobox, scored 50 free Nectar points (a shopper's savings card, similar to Clicks Club card for those of you in SA), sent away for my free personalised luggage tags (your choice of photo included), requested a free 4 pack of Coors beer and registered for free tickets to live audience TV shows, such as X Factor and the Brit Awards (these are wait-listed though, so registering doesn't mean you automatically get tickets).
This means that on any ordinary day, I could just be going about my business as usual and come home to find a surprise package waiting for me. Don't tell me this wouldn't brighten your day!
Of course, as with anything online these days, I have come across some seriously strange people on this forum. One of crazier deals was the free unlimited curtain samples. This is the deal: In order to request a free sample, simply look just below the product in question and locate the Free Sample button, clicking this will add the sample to your cart and allow you to continue shopping/browsing. If you wish to select a few samples across the shop please do so. There is no limit to the number of samples you can request.
The following is a genuine conversation in response to the post - you can look it up on the forum link:
little jaffa: Stunned and amazed, i ordered 42 samples yesterday and they arrived today, quite small about 8cmx17cm but great for my uses. (erm, and those would be?)
zerbirus: yeah, mine came today, all 12 very quick delivery too, going to order some more now ah there we go, 45 more (what for???)
zerbirus: Do 50 orders of the same material and you might be able to sew them all together and make a curtain (because that makes so much more sense than just buying a curtain)
littlejaffa: noo!! think patchwork cushions/quilts/beadspreads....much nicer hmmm i might even get a g-string out one of the bigger bits (I rest my case)
Amanda1959: New girl here, hello everyone. I ordered some samples (45). The company rang me to make sure i wanted them all, as it seemed a lot to ask for, they thought that they may have a problem with their web site. (are you surprised????)
Iom-RF: Welcome to the forum Amanda. Did the company say they were still going to send them out?
Amanda1959: Oh yes they are still going to send them. Told them that i could not make my mind up which ones i like best, hence me asking for 45 samples..................they must think i live in some 10 bedroomed mansion...................... (or they think you're just a cheap-skate bitch with a curtain fetish)
zerbirus: My 45 came today, no phone calls because I gave a fake phone number (note the pro here people)
anastasia: Thanks for posting this. I'v just ordered sample of all of their materials (128!) I hope they send them. I need some new curtains, and haven't a clue as to what sort of thing I like, so the samples will be very useful. And when I've finished with them I'll be able to use them to make some hammocks for my ratties. (your what???)
smokedog: I hope people ordering these sample have a reason. Hate to think people are ordering loads just for fun. As they are only quite a small company trying to make a living. (finally, someone with some sense)
Iom-RF: Yeah, But in fairness the company should restrict the samples to say 10 per person etc. If they can't afford to send out 40+ samples, they shouldn't. (........)
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