If you are looking for an online photo processor, do not choose WinkFlash. Their customer service and return policies are horrid. I’m not even going to bother linking to their site, on the chance someone wants to see their site, or even worse, it gets picked up by a search engine. What I want the search engine to index is “WINKFLASH SUCKS”.

I just got off the phone with them, and after a much heated debate where they refused my refund, I told them that I would never use their services again and I would tell others the same thing.

Here’s the problem:

We ordered our Christmas cards from them. We went through the site’s step-by-step wizard and added the text we wanted. When the cards arrived, they didn’t have any text on them.

I wanted a refund, and I wanted to reorder ASAP. I contacted customer service. The first time, I tried getting through for 2 hours with a constant busy signal. When I finally got through, I was on hold for an hour. Each time a rep would pick up, their voices would be muffled and unable to be heard. They would then dump me back into the queue to start waiting again. This happened to me 6 times! I finally hung up and tried the next day.

Again, after 45 minutes of busy signals, I got through. I explained the problem and reordered. We went through the entire process, and I showed the rep where the wizard asks for the text and then you proceed into the cart, but other than the onscreen display, there is no final confirmation of the ‘what will be printed’ image. There should have been a way to click on the item in the cart and display it. There isn’t. Each time you click on the item on the cart, it restarts the wizard as if you want to edit it, and creates a new item. The thumbnail in the cart doesn’t show the final printed image either.

Even after placing the order, you cannot go back into your order history and display the final image.

However, in order to get a refund, I had to send the original cards back to them (and pay for shipping). Their policy is not to refund shipping costs if the order was completed as expected.

I included a letter with the information they requested, as well as an explanation on why I was due the shipping charges ($8). The order was not as I placed it, it was missing the text.

When the refund came through, it did not include the shipping charge refund (either direction). I just spent 30 minutes of busy signals trying to get through to someone. Got through, was on hold for 10 minutes and finally spoke to someone. She said that they would not refund my shipping charges. The order was printed as it was placed and that is their policy. And I quote “If there was a problem with our ordering process, wouldn’t you think we would have heard about it from the thousands of orders we take?”

Obviously there is a problem with your process. Not only that, but there is a problem with the entire UI in which a customer cannot review the product ordered.

Winkflash you suck. I don’t want a credit for the shipping charges, because I’m not going to ever order with you again. Why should I order and then have to pay shipping again? I want my money back. I spent almost in much for shipping it to me and back to you for a refund then I did for the entire order.

Bottom line: Don’t waste your money on them. They may have inexpensive pricing, but it’s because they cut corners on quality, customer service, and technology.

This Entry Has: (6) Comments ~ (0) Trackbacks ~ [Leave a Comment]

Alrighty. Before you  watch the the below video(s), I ask you to skip this entry if you take your Christianity seriously enough that you can’t appreciate a little humor. It’ll probably offend you as much as the previous statement did, so it’s better that you stop reading my entries altogether.. because I appreciate humor.

This is a funny animated video which has the nativity scene being visited by some LARPers. You’ll appreciate it if you are a gamer, or know any, or like to make fun of nerds, or are one, or ever uttered the phrase “We should’ve wandered around outside and leveled up!” etc…

IM IN UR MANGER KILLING UR SAVIOR

After it was posted, there are the typical YouTube Responses. What’s funny is that several of them are email responses the designers received, animated as if they were replying. The replies are just as funny as the video. It makes you wonder if they are true responses, or just made up ones to make it even funnier.

Response #1

Response #2

This Entry Has: (1) Comments ~ (0) Trackbacks ~ [Leave a Comment]

As Jean was thinking about our holidays and Christmas morning, I got to thinking about how I handled the morning.

The twins were up at 7:30am and started the day opening presents VERY SLOWLY! They liked to open one and then play with it, ignoring all the rest.

By the time they went down for their nap at 1:30p, only half of the gifts were opened. It was driving me nuts. I just wanted to tear them all open myself and say “See? Isn’t this a wonderful gift? Aren’t you glad you opened this one too!”

When they woke up, and after dinner they opened 2 more! That’s it! I want to tear my hair out… We’re going to be opening gifts all week.

I love their innocence and happiness. They didn’t need 4711 gifts. They aren’t consumed with the need to have more or the commercialism of the holidays. I’ve been too far corrupted for there to be any help for me, but maybe my kids will do better.

Their joy with opening a gift and just wanting to play with it above everything else is refreshing. I’m enjoying it (even if I’ve led you to believe otherwise).

This Entry Has: (0) Comments ~ (0) Trackbacks ~ [Leave a Comment]

We’re smack dab in the middle of the ‘holidays’. Next week we’ll be looking at the beginning of 2008.

I don’t normally get a chance to read blogs or post when I’m home from work, as I’ve got everything setup here. Needless to say, I’m a little behind in my browsing – and more important my commentary. So I’ve got several items queued up for our enjoyment.

First off, sometimes you read two non-related items and make them related.

This first item goes out to you, Wil, and your awesome ascii horns. I laughed as I imagined you sitting there head banging and ignoring your cat.

So, when I came across the site The Jingler, a website which takes a song and adds bells to it for holiday cheer, my first thought was “How would Wil rock to that?”

So, I give you “Hallowed Be Thy Name” — jingled….

If the embedded link doesn’t work, here it is directly.

http://thejingler.com/jingle/541c4e0dc14be2048cb1682cfaef548c

For those of you who aren’t Iron Maiden inclined, maybe you’d prefer the Muppets?

Manamana — Jingled

This Entry Has: (0) Comments ~ (0) Trackbacks ~ [Leave a Comment]

This Entry Has: (0) Comments ~ (0) Trackbacks ~ [Leave a Comment]

I sent this to our private Tadcaster mailing list earlier in the week, but apparently some people didn’t get it… so let’s do this the easy way and make it available for everyone to laugh at.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Festivus, Happy Yule, Happy
Solstice, etc, from the Tadcaster Militia.
Happy (Racially Diverse) Tadcaster Elves
There’s always one Scrooge

Edit: You know, it would have been alot funnier if the scrooge link actually went to the right location. People said last night, we didn’t recognize the person.. you know WHY??? It’s my uncle, which none of you know.. so I went and linked to the wrong scrooge file… {insert 1 Bobo Point}. As of 11:19am I just updated the link to the proper one, so if you viewed it before, it actually makes sense now.

This Entry Has: (2) Comments ~ (0) Trackbacks ~ [Leave a Comment]

Merry Christmas, from Chiron Beta Prime

{ video = You Tube – Chiron Beta Prime }

Been singing it to myself for the last two weeks. Tried earworming Ian at practice Wednesday, but didn’t have any luck.. figured I’d try it here instead.

Info Links:

Jonathan Coulton on Wikipedia

Spiffworld (Very funny WoW machinima videos)

This Entry Has: (0) Comments ~ (0) Trackbacks ~ [Leave a Comment]

Time to start cleaning out my news bin of stuff that interests me and I want to blog about later.

First off, one of the newer ones. I’ve only had this since the end of November. I first read about it over at Lifehacker, and it’s a Visual Dictionary.

The site is sort of like a reverse 20 questions (because you don’t know the answer), starting at one of 15 visual themes and narrowing down your search image by image to find the name of exactly what you’re looking for.

That’s exactly the problem with a standard dictionary. It’s great if you know the word you are looking for, but when you get that “You know, that thing on the end of the bar that looks like a frog” kinda questions, trying to find it in a regular dictionary is a quest of futility.

I know Steve will like this, just for the fact of learning the names of whatsits that he can wiggle into conversations…

This Entry Has: (0) Comments ~ (0) Trackbacks ~ [Leave a Comment]