Week 1 My Life Limiting Social Media

I'm sitting once again in my favorite locale, the coffee shop, sipping on the "new" Fall flavors. Not a Pumpkin Spice Latte, in my case an Iced Toasted Vanilla Brown Sugar Latte, I added some cinnamon too, yum yum. Anyway, I digress. Last week I decided to limit my social media usage. I have completely "gone off" Facebook, very rarely Tweet, Snap once in a while and barely go on Instagram. I've decided that I feel fine being "antisocial". Here's why.....

1. I've gotten further in the book I was reading, Voyager, by Diana Gabaldon. The new season of Outlander starts tomorrow and I haven't finished the third book. I started reading it in July. Then I got sick and stopped reading completely. 

2. I spend more time talking to my hubby and playing with my puppies.

3. I do more things around the house.

4. I stay latter at work, to finish my grading, so that I don't have to take things home over the weekend. This may not really be the result of staying off social media. This year I've decided to stay at work until 5, every night, so I can spend that time grading on weekdays. I'd rather reserve my weekends to doing the things I love, like sitting in a coffee shop, sipping my favorite fall drink. It's peaceful in my classroom, I'm not tempted to pickup my phone and see what everyone is doing.

5. I've been going to be earlier. I get up every morning at 5. By not spending time on social media, I get a much better night's rest.

So far, I'm really liking the "antisocial" thing. I completely understand the irony of blogging about how antisocial I'm being.  Anyway, see you next week! 

I'm a Social Media Zombie, so I'm Momentarily Saying "Goodbye"

Since watching Ingrid Goes West, I've decided to take a minute and get off of social media platforms. I was talking to my mom last night and told her that it's easier for me to text someone, than have to talk to them on the phone. I'd rather just read their text, and respond quickly, rather than having to speak to them. Having to talk to someone takes so much more time and is so much more work. That's why I like being on social media. 

I'm not leaving all social media platforms, I'm still going to text. I have some makeup coming next week, so I'm going to post pictures of it on my Instagram page. I'm going to watch the videos I usually watch on YouTube and Snap Chat, but for this experiment, my time on those platforms will be very limited and I'm not posting on Facebook. I've already logged out of my accounts on both my phone and tablet.  I'm not going to log out of my account on my laptop. I don't spend as much time on my laptop, as I do my tablet and phone. I will still check out Yelp and post to Twitter, so I won't be completely silent or cut off. 

I'm going to journal my experience daily, post the journal midway through, on my blog Facebook page, and then post again at the end of the "experiment",  hoping I make it an entire month. I will be accessing my email. There is something that I applied for as a brand ambassador, if I get approved I will log back into Facebook before the end of the month. I'm excited to test this out and be SOCIAL AGAIN, be PRESENT AGAIN and I want to see how long I can actually last. Ten years ago, I didn't have Facebook, Yelp, Twitter, Instagram, Snap Chat, Goodreads, and YouTube. What did I do with my time then? I wasn't on MySpace like the rest of the people my age. I was so anti-MySpace, I thought it silly, but here I am now, a "Social Media Zombie". 

With that, I wish everyone a great month, may the force be with all of you (and with me).  I wonder how much the world will change in a month??

Just a side note, I'm not against social media. It's a great way to keep up with the family and friends I don't see on a regular basis, because of distance or complex schedules. 

Marinello School of What?

It's 1:00 a.m., I'm still up, watching reruns of Beverly Hills, 90210.  I really shouldn't have had that second Starbucks Venti Cap.  

All of this information is irrelevant for my post.  Companies have been challenging the validity of the website Yelp, a site I've used a lot and have written about before.  I love the site, as a matter of fact, I'm trying to become an elite member.  

I recently wrote a negative review about Marinello School of Beauty in Anaheim, and one of the bigwigs contacted me regarding my negative review.  For the record, I went there to get my nails done ONLY!  

Tim getting a facial at "Jonelle's School of Beauty"

If a journalist gives a negative review about a company, movie, book or restaurant, do the companies respond to the journalist?  Are their reviews more important than mine?  In this day & age, I don't think so. 

Back in the day

I'm going to copy and paste my original Yelp review and responses from the school director.

HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE DO NOT EVER COME HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVER

This can't even get a star.  Worst place ever.  I was even told by the student who did my work.  

Let's begin:

My cousin and I walked by.  A Marinello girl was outside on her phone while I mentioned, "We should go get a manicure."  My cousin agreed.  I asked the girl outside if they do gel nails.  I had already painted my nails at home and they looked pretty good but I like the gel nails and for only $14, why not?

For me, they called about 3 girls to ask if they can do gel before someone said they could.  I've had gel nails done before, and I've NEVER seen them do it this way before.  I don't know how long I sat under the light and the gel NEVER set.  Let's just say, by the time I left, my nails were already peeling.

Now my cousin's experience.  She wanted gel nails too.  The girl had no experience with gel AT ALL.  After 2 applications, the gel wouldn't set.  My cousin wanted to leave.  They spent at least the good part of 45 minutes trying to remove the gel they tried to apply. My cousin didn't want to pay for a "non service".  They still wanted to charge her.  Her nails were NEVER finished and they were bare.  There was absolutely NO supervision by a teacher.  The girl even told my cousin she had never done a gel set.  My husband and cousin's kids were waiting outside for us.  After 4 hours, my cousin called the police, who came and said she didn't have to pay for a service that was not done correctly.  

The staff was extremely unprofessional, trying to charge for a service they were unable to provide.  I've never been so disgusted by a place in all my life.

STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS!!  You get what you pay for.  The customer service was so beyond poor.  There has to be a number to call to recommend shutting down this school.Tabatha Coffey, please take over!!

Their response:

Marinello of Anaheim provides services to the public and all services are rendered by students and supervised by licensed Cosmetologists. Students are supervised throughout their time on campus and all services are crosschecked by the instructor prior to guest checkout. Guest are charged based on services received, nothing more. Our team does the best we can to provide the good customer service to each guest. We have many loyal and returning guest who are happy with the services provided. - Priscilla Villatoro, Anaheim School Director

My response:

Thank you for your comment, but I will have you know, that not once during our services did an instructor come to speak with us and nothing was crosschecked, as no one once spoke with me.  There was absolutely no supervision. Your customer service was nonexistent and the lady at the front didn't even know the company policy.  When your students are even complaining about your school, there is a serious issue.  I've worked in both education and public relations and I'm sure you know that the best PR is through word of mouth. Enjoy the customers that you do retain, as this was my very first and last visit. One last thing, when 6 out of 7 reviews are a 1 star, you many need to re-evaluate something within your company.

Their response: 

I appreciate your concern; however the six poor reviews do not equate to the thousands of satisfied clients which do not post to Yelp and many students, which we helped start new careers.

My response:  

Again, thank you so much for your response.  Instead of trying to justify your bad quality of service, why don't you just accept the faults and fix them.  It seems as though one of the reviewers is a former student and the students who I spoke to, said that had they known what they were getting into, they would have decided to find another beauty school.   My lord, acknowledge the issue, accept the criticism, fix it and move on.


For some reason when I copy and paste, the background comes out white.  

Marinello School of Beauty gets 0 out of 5 Gerber Daisies  

I have no quote for today.  It's 1:25 a.m. and I'm now tired.

Chicken and Waffles Anyone?

Sad because he couldn't get his chicken and waffles

I typically don't post my reviews about restaurants up on my blog, but this one I have to.  Just this past Sunday, the hubbers and I decided to try a new joint, Mrs. Bea's Chicken and Waffles in La Habra, California---not Louisiana.  After reading some of the reviews on Yelp, I was concerned. I love southern comfort food so we decided to give the place the benefit of the doubt.  Here's what happened;

We walked in and were greeted and seated right away.

We ordered right away, this is where the tides started to turn.  First I think it's ridiculous to not include any sides with the meal.  Every side you're charged for and they up sell you, even if you've already ordered a side.  We ended up with 2.  Not good. 

Next we sat and waited and waited and waited and waited some more until we asked for our check to leave.  We kept getting excuses.  The food is made to order (yeah so is In and Out, it doesn't take over an hour). Fine, but you can't tell me that my chicken takes longer to cook than the 4 other parties that came in after me and got their chicken before me.  I'm a little confused??  Why did my chicken take so much longer to cook?

We brought it to the staffs attention and were just given the runaround/excuses.  No apology. 

My husband told the server that I'm a Yelper.  She asked me to not mention the long wait for our food.  How can I not?  I'm giving an honest OPINION about MY time here.   I'm also a blogger and a Facebooker and I tweet. Word of mouth on social media is pretty important. 

Our server asked us to please recommend this place to all our friends and family.  I simply can't.  With no clear reason and no apology I can't subject my family and friends to the same service we received. I've never fried chicken, but does it take over a hour?  We got there at 12:21, we asked for our check to leave without our meal at 1:30 and the food finally arrived at 1:45.  Is this right?  

Here are the positives:  the chicken was good.

I copied this review straight from my Yelp account sorry for the white.

I'm being generous here, but I give Mrs. Bea's Chicken and Waffles 2 Gerber Daises out of 5.  

Tonight I don't have a quote.  Sorry!  Happy eating! 

Just Recently on Yelp

Just recently I went to see a movie and then got a message.  No, this post is not about either one of those things, it's about what happened after.  I decided to post a Yelp review about the place I received my massage, again not the purpose of my blog.  I started looking at other message locations and their customer reviews.  One place in particular caught my attention.

The message place, located in Seal Beach, which I won't mention by name, received a fairly negative review by a customer. I am a patron of this day spa. The owner took to Yelp to respond, even throwing out the words libel, slander and defamation.  It seemed as though she attacked the writer of the review because of her not so positive experience and comments.

The original review, I felt did none of these things. The reviewer loved the massage but didn't like the masseur. My opinion/personal experience of this spa didn't change because of this review, my opinion changed because of the response written by the owner.

Companies have the right to respond to criticism, Yelp is an open forum.  I would think, however, the company would want to rectify the situation.  This review was one person's OPINION based on their own experience and was in no way libelous or defamatory. This isn't the first time I've come across something like this.  There's a country western dance saloon located in Anaheim and whenever someone criticizes said saloon, the owner takes to yelp and aggressively responds to the customers' negative criticisms.  

So I pose some questions, as consumers, do we have the right to publicly complain about poor services or bad products on sites like Yelp? How responsible should companies be for their employees actions and how should owners respond to the negative comments?  How much does a consumer's review really impact a good or service? 

I use Yelp all the time.  I use it to research restaurants, day spas and nail salons. Consumers have the right to know when a particular company's product or services are bad.  I love sites like Yelp.  A few weeks ago I spent a few hours researching reviews of dog groomers.  I wanted to make sure I was taking my Mia to a place I felt comfortable with.  Before I purchase a Groupon to someplace new, I research consumer reviews on Yelp.  

By the way, the customer's review of this day spa didn't affect my feelings about it.  I went for the first time on my birthday, had a lovely experience and now I have a gift certificate for a 90 minute massage, which I will be using soon.

Gotta love the freedom of speech.

To quote George Washington, our first US President, If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.  

Speak up folks!!