HL

Shopify's technology-grand as the company's claims are-for patrons of retailers using the platorm-can be painful. We've had repeated problems simply checking out. Among other things, it clings to old Credit Card info and addresses. It took almost an hour today to simply buy some bagels. We were billed twice (in diff amounts) for the same thing.

Our experience would even be better if many ingredients were skewed in a healthful direction. The intake of Sugar, Salt, Saturdated Fat-based on current nutritional knowledge-should be limited. Many chefs creating entrees for online purchase seem content using such universally panned ingredients as Palm Oil, long known as bad for multiple reasons.

While the Post has redeeming elements, as others have noted, the Popups are becoming insufferable. At least there's no paywall. Yet. That imposition would drive readers away in droves and leave suffused clickbait hanging.

The masters of Instacart are losing millions. When the weather is especially hostile, we use online delivery. Whole Foods this morning as an example. Instacart continues to keep our account LOCKED. All the while we enjoy a FICO score which hovers around 850. Talk about a company shooting itself in the foot. This one is one of the worst.

Not only is it difficult getting paid or 'free' support, some of its offshore techs-while well-meaning-are slow to respond to live chat and seem unfamiliar with the product and how to fix issues.

While it may have a few strong elements, using the website itself is a challenge. Chat and Tel. 'advocates' are often poorly trained-unable to explain basic billing questions. There can be wild but justifiable swings in the price of some meds but counting on advocates to explain them is a high bar. Centerwell is reflective of the overarching crisis in medicine today. One more thing. Having spent what seemed like an eternity on its Chat Line, we learned obtaining a copy of the thread for our records was impossible.

Not having been back to MK for a good while, we reeled in a few entrees after receiving an email with what seemed like a new, improved entree mix. But the one we tried right out of the box last night was a slog to finish. The ingredient mix is fine but it simply did not pulse the palette. It's not one to pursue anytime soon. All the while, we kept wondering whether a chef had tried it. And, if so, how this one could have been greenlighted for mass distribution.

UPDATE 12/6
Fresh from the Steamed Rice Tofu disappointment (above), with high hopes, we turned to the Vegetable Stew. Once again, there was no there there. Having enjoyed it before, it was somehow different this time. Was it the heavy pepper? Not sure what it was but despite a decent list of good ingredients it was an unmemorable experience. B4 heating, (which was something of chore to begin with) added frozen green beans and falafel pieces-to no avail. Yet another from the Magic Kitchen pantheon not worth pursuing.

One truly interested in wellness would find many of the available entrees nutritionally unacceptable due to high sugar or saturated fat content. It took some doing to order. Considerable cherry picking was required.

Having tried for three weeks to make a purchase but the system won't accept our valid CCs. Tried diff. browsers. No change. No customer service #, terrible administration. Is this vendor real?
Update
We learn it's also an issue with some shipments from China.
In the meantime, we successfully ordered the same items from (another Chinese vendor) and trust all will go seamlessly.

We use a CITI CC as a backup card only for offshore purchases. Compared to our default Discover Card or AMEX, it's a nightmare. We find CITI offshore customer service about the worst we've encountered anywhere in the world. By turns, its attendants are difficult to understand. English is not their first language, they are often churlish and speak as though they are scripted with an overlay of gratuitous politeness. CITI, therefore is one financial services group to avoid however arresting any credit card offers may seem.

We regret to add a negative review. However, we have no choice but to voice our concerns. The company's U.S. payment processing system is terrible. Sadly, a company with such a broad international reach is beset with myriad problems. Its financial services function is woefully wobbly. A useless so-called CHAT LINE consists of auto responses only. Among other practices, callers to Mercedes Financial Services face intolerably long holds. When finally connected, its live personnel are often poorly trained, bordering on flippant. The collections arm repeatedly harasses customers by phone erroneously claiming payments routinely sent by banks have not been received. The products from MBZ are excellent. Too bad MBZ U.S.A. Financial Services is so horrid.

Since some dedicated U.S. Credit Cards are not accepted internationally, we have used CITI offshore. They're always issues with the CITI card. The bank's website is tough to navigate, customer service is in Asia. and its agents are difficult to understand-even its voicemail is wobbly and inefficient. CITICard needs to cleanup its act.

Under the Lean Cuisine label, Nestle puts out a Chicken Broccoli Marinara entree which has a glowing graphic on the package. It begins there and ends there. Any hint of flavor is missing. The chicken cubes are tasteles. The white pasta tubes are boring-and eaten in quantity unhealthful. The broccoli is decent. Healthy Cuisine, apart from 5 grams fiber barely deserves the name. And informed reviews across the net agree.

For the unenlightened among us, Whole Foods, the brand, is all over the lot when it comes to nutrition. It's the kind of place an alert health conscious consumer to pay attention. Just today, we went son the wild side and bought a Vegan Blueberry Muffin. One tiny, too sweet muffin contains a whopping 350 mg sugar. The American Heart Assoc. says Adults should aim to consume no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day, which is about one teaspoon of salt. For optimal health, especially for those with high blood pressure, a limit of 1,500 milligrams is recommended.

For decades, discerning men depended on the Clinique Face Bronzer. But Clinique suddenly discontinued the product. Today, the bronzer (with few surviving in the world) is almost as pricey as GOLD. Ebay has a few tubes on its site for bid or sale @ $455.00 U.S.

Every once in a while, we take a peek at Knorr's soups and meal ideas to see if the company has learned a thing about good nutrition. Sadly, all these many years later, the brand is stuck in the nutritional mud. Here's an ingredients' list for its proud Sopa Mexicana Chicken with Rice:
ENRICHED PARBOILED LONG GRAIN RICE [RICE, NIACIN, FERROUS SULFATE (IRON), THIAMINE MONONITRATE (VITAMIN B1), FOLIC ACID], CORN STARCH, SALT, CARROTS, CHICKEN FAT, MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE, COOKED CHICKEN MEAT, SUGAR, CHICKEN POWDER, SPINACH, YEAST EXTRACT, ONION POWDER, NATURAL FLAVOR, DISODIUM GUANYLATE, DISODIUM INOSINATE, CHICKEN BROTH, SILICON DIOXIDE, TURMERIC (FOR COLOR), SPICES, WHEY, CARAMEL COLOR, SKIM MILK POWDER, CITRIC ACID, ANNATTO EXTRACT (FOR COLOR).INGREDIENTS: ENRICHED PARBOILED LONG GRAIN RICE [RICE, NIACIN, FERROUS SULFATE (IRON), THIAMINE MONONITRATE (VITAMIN B1), FOLIC ACID], CORN STARCH, SALT, CARROTS, CHICKEN FAT, MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE, COOKED CHICKEN MEAT, SUGAR, CHICKEN POWDER, SPINACH, YEAST EXTRACT, ONION POWDER, NATURAL FLAVOR, DISODIUM GUANYLATE, DISODIUM INOSINATE, CHICKEN BROTH, SILICON DIOXIDE, TURMERIC (FOR COLOR), SPICES, WHEY, CARAMEL COLOR, SKIM MILK POWDER, CITRIC ACID, ANNATTO EXTRACT (FOR COLOR).

Trying to buy a Pie without a pile of sugar or bad oils is daunting. Etsy is an interesting site. We did a deep dive in search of an apple pie that might pass the nutrition test. There were glimmers of hope. A nutrition label should be a must for Etsy sellers of baked goods. Those doing the right thing would be rewarded--at least by people who care about what they consume.

While it has many strong points, WF has some overarching weaknesses-especially when one takes the time to review nutrition labels-especially in the WF Bakery dept. The amount of sugar (While we appreciate America's sweet tooth, there's simply too much of it in too many treats.) It's quite possible to make things e.g. pies without piles of sugar. Whole grains, it would seem would be a requisite for a company known as Whole Foods.

It's about as difficult to use Target's online service as meandering through a minefield.The system seems to default to pickup. Our default however is DELIVERY. . It took about 15 min to place what should have been a simple delivery order. Come to think of it, all such services are a pain to use-even for the computer literate. In most cases, until online grocery service is streamlined, Brick and Mortar remains the best way to grocery.

Vitacost urgently needs to streamline both its customer service and chat lines. Neither is effective with long waits and no service. While its prices are generally attractive, customers with such a negative service experience will gladly pay more elsewhere for service. Vitacost's telephone greeting (while interminably waiting for live help) is woefully repetitious and amateurish. We recall our last Vitacost telephone experience was with an offshore call center and no picnic with a language challenged attendant.