I'm not sure this rates as an actual Sound Off but it was pretty odd. I ordered some Finish Powerball dishwasher detergent packets, supposed to be 76 in the bag. They arrived today and the bag seemed a little light for 76 packets. I counted them and there were only 46. Amazon made it right, gave me a refund and told me to keep the 46. But the bag the packets came in was completely sealed. How could this happen? I assume that filling the bags at the factory is all mechanical? I came up with two ideas: either a mechanical glitch, or maybe Amazon is being supplied with a product from a fraudulent seller that is shorting everyone. It looks like the regular packets, hope it washed dishes properly- it seems like it would be too much trouble to manufacture fake dishwasher powder. Caveat Emptor.
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Responding to email notices you receive.
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In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.
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IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed
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Posted 08/15/2025
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Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.
Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."
Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....
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Addendum: 01/10/2026
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Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....
Amazon purchase
- Thread starter Lucille
- Start date
Socratic Monologue
Well-known member
I think this pretty much points to that the whole world has pretty much gone to crap these days. Or at least as much of the world around me that directly affects my life. And apparently others, like yourself. Of course, maybe it is only little local pockets of crap that I happen to be in the middle of. 
We get home delivery from Publix (Instacart) for most of our groceries lately, and specifically comment in the instructions to PLEASE check the eggs for damage. Connie gets text messages from the person doing the grocery collection and delivery, and repeats the request about checking the eggs. I can't remember the last time we have gotten eggs that didn't have at least 4 of them broken or cracked when they get here. So did those people actually check the eggs like we asked, or did the eggs just get rough housed between the time they were picked and they got to our carport? Lord knows we have picked up our own eggs in the past and never had that sort of a problem.
So I have to file a claim about it. On the neutral side, we wind up getting the remaining good eggs for free, but it is still a bother and aggravation I could do without.
We get home delivery from Publix (Instacart) for most of our groceries lately, and specifically comment in the instructions to PLEASE check the eggs for damage. Connie gets text messages from the person doing the grocery collection and delivery, and repeats the request about checking the eggs. I can't remember the last time we have gotten eggs that didn't have at least 4 of them broken or cracked when they get here. So did those people actually check the eggs like we asked, or did the eggs just get rough housed between the time they were picked and they got to our carport? Lord knows we have picked up our own eggs in the past and never had that sort of a problem.
So I have to file a claim about it. On the neutral side, we wind up getting the remaining good eggs for free, but it is still a bother and aggravation I could do without.
Yes, it has one of those tops you have to tear across before getting to the recloseable part, so it was just as you would see it in the store.
Those are some rough looking shorts, how on earth did they ship out something like that?
I do see hardworking responsible people, but I also see people who don't give a hoot and who do as little as possible. I think that it is sad but true, that some people don't have pride in their work, whatever it might be.
Socratic Monologue
Well-known member
The shorts were pretty neatly folded in the bag; I suspect someone returned them as wrong size or something.
I'm sympathetic to the 'ubiquitous crap' hypothesis, but it may be that our routine interactions with the world are getting more multilayered (usually with added services -- I have to use a computer through my ISP to contact eBay and pay with my CC through PayPal so some arbitrage seller in China can drop ship something from Amazon that gets sent through UPS and then the last leg via USPS) and so there's just more opportunities for crap to find us. So it isn't so much that there is more crap, but that we each have more opportunities for crap to cross our path. Sounds like a George Carlin routine.
I'm sympathetic to the 'ubiquitous crap' hypothesis, but it may be that our routine interactions with the world are getting more multilayered (usually with added services -- I have to use a computer through my ISP to contact eBay and pay with my CC through PayPal so some arbitrage seller in China can drop ship something from Amazon that gets sent through UPS and then the last leg via USPS) and so there's just more opportunities for crap to find us. So it isn't so much that there is more crap, but that we each have more opportunities for crap to cross our path. Sounds like a George Carlin routine.