Nicole's Too Cute Tuesday

My friend Nicole blogs daily on her site, Breaking Even, Inc. and every Tuesday she does a different craft project. I'm not sure where she comes up with them but they're usually pretty cool.

This one, however, is one of my favorites. Nicole shows us how to make earrings and magnets out of clear aquarium rocks and fancy paper. It's so easy I can't wait to make some magnets for myself!

Blogs that sock it to 'em

This past weekend my friend Nicole and I went to Best Buy to get her a new power cord for her computer. The cord ended up being over $100 to her dismay but she needed it. Her old one petered out. We pay for it and she plugs it into her computer and it melts into her outlet, rendering her computer useless. She brings it back to Best Buy and is refunded all but $30 for that Nintendo game she also bought.

Huh? She didn't buy a Nintendo game. But they thought she did because it was on her receipt. She was rung up for one without realizing it.

Without getting a refund and so mad she was seeing red, Nicole gathered her stuff and drove the hour back to Bar Harbor. The next day she placed a call to the Bangor Best Buy and the corporate headquarters to no avail. She was told she'd have to drive back to Bangor to talk to someone at that particular store. Not only did they charge her for something she clearly didn't buy, but are inconveniencing her further by making her drive 2 hours to solve a problem she didn't cause.

Furious at the lack of customer service she posted the story on her blog, Breaking Even, Inc., asking people to boycott Best Buy. You can read it here.

Be sure to scroll down and read the comments -- especially the one from Gina, Best Buy's Community Connection Manager. Nicole alerted Best Buy's customer service that she is a Maine Blogger and posted the fiasco on her blog.

After all that it was her blog that got their attention. That's saying something. Best Buy is combing the internet looking for posts that complain about their company. Perhaps if they did a better job with customer service in the first place they wouldn't have to spend time combating unfavorable blogs.