I love Sparkpeople.com. I can't not love it. Although I know people can find it overwhelming and confusing when first joining it. The site is absolutely amazing. Giving you resources and support on your health journey. It's not like any other free wight loss website out there. I know, I've joined dozens of them. But sparkpeople isn't just about weight loss. It's about getting healthy. They have a lot of resources from support groups to an online health coach. They even have stuff about getting financially healthy as well. This site is great for everyone. Lose weight, gain bulk, tone up, healthier eating, vegan diets, all sorts of stuff. The first year I got on them I didn't really use it because of a lot of reasons. Partly I couldn't figure out how to use it and partly because my life went to hell in a hand basket 2 months later. But I'm not really here to talk so much about sparkpeople as something else.
Sparkpeople has this great person on their staff who goes by "Coach Nicole" shes inspirational and amazing. She talks about finding your healthy weight and not trying to force yourself down to unhealthy images we see on tv and in magazines. This summer she got the opportunity to work with SELF magazine. It was great. She wrote about the experience and the cloths and the people she worked with. But as she was talking about it, there was things posted on sparkpeople about how she was going to be in the September Issue. It was July and she was so excited and positive about things and I was in such need for some extra boosts of positivity and health that I decided to sign up for the Magazine. It was like $12 for a year! So in July I signed up for it. And Paid for a full year subscription by internet. Of course they always say expect 6-8 weeks for the first edition to reach you. In August I decided to subscribe to Yoga Journal and Vegetarian Times. All in my pursuit for a happier, healthier, better future.
The first week in September I got both Yoga Journal and Vegetarian Times in the mail. I decided to paitently wait for my SELF magazine while I poored through those other two and started incorporating things into my life. By the end of the first week in October I still hadn't recieved an issue of SELF. I had even ran around town looking for a September issue in September because I didn't want to miss out on the one with Coach Nicole in it. I couldn't find a single place that had any copies. That was in September. I figured that when I finally got my copy in the mail I could give the extra copy away to someone else who might be interested.
Stores are supposed to switch over to the next issues of magazines the last week of the month before. So October issues went out between the 20th and 25th of September. Not that I could find any of those ones in town. The whole point of signing up was to get September's issue with Coach Nicole. By the end of the first week in October I had yet to recieve a single issue of SELF magazine. I got online and checked my account. They weren't going to send me a September issue. They were starting my subscription in October. Even though I had signed up and paid in July. Ok whatever, I figured I would see what they were like anyways. But I had already begun to recieve weekly requests to renew my subscription in my email and my mailbox. I hadn't even gotten and SINGLE issue yet and they were bugging me to renew already! I sent an email to their customer service explaining that I had yet to recieve a single issue and the first week of October was almost over. I of course got the email saying they recieved my email and a customer service person would be contacting me shortly. A WEEK later they emailed me and all the person said was that at the time of my email the magazine wasn't considered late yet. That was it. How lame is that?
So I waited and by the last week of October I had STILL not received October's issue. I sent another email explaining that. All I got in responce was the automated email saying someone would be in touch with me shortly. It's December 19th. No one EVER got in touch with me. No email, no phone call. I finally recieved my October issue on the last saturday of the month. Over a week since the stores would have pulled the October issue off the shelves. November...same thing happened. got my November issue the last weekend of the month. Ever other magazine subcription I've gotten in my life have all come within the flast week of the month prior or the first few days of that month. I have had a LOT of magazine subscriptions over the years. Until recently I regularly subscribed to a large number of horse magazines. I used to subscribe to a number of fitness and health magazines as well. I have never had such poor service.
I will not be renewing my subscription to them. Their service sucks and their magazine is over 75% advertisements. Whats really sad is that this put a damper on my enthusiasm about sparkpeople and coach nicole. But it wasn't only a small damper. No one is perfect. And for every person that complains theres like 10 people who love it. But I wont have anything to do with them ever again. It was only a $12 mistake, but it's still a total bummer.
I continue to receive weekly emails and letters urging me to renew and sign up a friend. I don't think there is anyone I dislike enough to sign them up free or for a small price.
Showing posts with label SELF magazine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SELF magazine. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Salvation Army vs. Saint Vincent De Pauls
When I was growing up we used to shop at Salvation Army all the time. Occasionally we used to stop by the Saint Vincent De Pauls. These are both local thrift stores. Salvation Army had a large store full of stuff. Usually things that fell out of fasion years ago but when you don't have much money you get what you can, where you can. It was always dusty and dirty and kind of moldy smelling but the people at the front counter were always friendly if seemingly rather tired and always busy. The place was always stuffed to the walls and people always told me it was a good idea to shop there because the proceeds go to help those less fortunate. We always donated our little worn clothing that no longer fit to them.
We didn't do to much shopping at Saint Vincents. Their store was smaller and occasionally you would find a good deal but mostly it wasn't that great. I don't remember donating to them.
About 10 years ago I did some volunteer work and it has changed the choices I make. I spent a couple days at the Salvation Army. It was boring and eye opening. They had stuff in back stock waiting to go out on the floor, not much of it. But they were getting trash bags full of new and nice clothing every day. What did they have me do with it? Throw it in the big dumpster. Not even look at it, just throw it away. I was told "we have enough stuff right now so just throw away whatever we get in" That's what I did for a couple days. Just throw away item after item of usable clothing, shoes, bedding, everything. I was mortified. I was also bored because unless someone was dropping something off, that just got thrown away, I had nothing to do. They didn't give me anything to do but sit in the back room and occasionally throw things away.
After a few days of that I went to help out at Saint Vincent De Pauls. What a difference. Did you know that lost and found from the airport that never gets picked up, gets dropped off there? So do a number of other local organizations. Drop off stuff there I mean. Yet there store is not very big. So what happens to all that stuff? The nice lady showing me around showed me this room. It was filled with boxes. Floor to ceiling, wall to wall. Each box was neatly packed and labeled. Then a couple times a year a container from one of the shipping places stops by and fills it up. They ship it off to rural villages, 3rd world countries and people in need around the globe. The only things thrown away were unsalvagable things. Things with huge rips and stains.
I ended up volunteering there for a while past the hours I needed. They were always busy and always in need of help sorting, cleaning and boxing things. I don't know how other places run their businesses. But last night I was reading an article in SELF magazine that talked about different cancer charities and research institutes and where the money actually goes. It's always good to know what happens to the stuff and/or money that you donate. Do your research before donating. It doesn't help your cause if you're donating to a place that uses the money for personal gains like salaries and bonuses.
Its like how I found out that the local PetCo solicits monetary donations for our local shelter The Gastineau Humane Society. Yet less then 15% of what they collect actually goes to the shelter. Yet our local shelter which depends on donations in order to provide things like food and medical needs for the homeless animals of Juneau shows an 50-80% drop in donations since PetCo opened. But thats a topic for a different blog.
We didn't do to much shopping at Saint Vincents. Their store was smaller and occasionally you would find a good deal but mostly it wasn't that great. I don't remember donating to them.
About 10 years ago I did some volunteer work and it has changed the choices I make. I spent a couple days at the Salvation Army. It was boring and eye opening. They had stuff in back stock waiting to go out on the floor, not much of it. But they were getting trash bags full of new and nice clothing every day. What did they have me do with it? Throw it in the big dumpster. Not even look at it, just throw it away. I was told "we have enough stuff right now so just throw away whatever we get in" That's what I did for a couple days. Just throw away item after item of usable clothing, shoes, bedding, everything. I was mortified. I was also bored because unless someone was dropping something off, that just got thrown away, I had nothing to do. They didn't give me anything to do but sit in the back room and occasionally throw things away.
After a few days of that I went to help out at Saint Vincent De Pauls. What a difference. Did you know that lost and found from the airport that never gets picked up, gets dropped off there? So do a number of other local organizations. Drop off stuff there I mean. Yet there store is not very big. So what happens to all that stuff? The nice lady showing me around showed me this room. It was filled with boxes. Floor to ceiling, wall to wall. Each box was neatly packed and labeled. Then a couple times a year a container from one of the shipping places stops by and fills it up. They ship it off to rural villages, 3rd world countries and people in need around the globe. The only things thrown away were unsalvagable things. Things with huge rips and stains.
I ended up volunteering there for a while past the hours I needed. They were always busy and always in need of help sorting, cleaning and boxing things. I don't know how other places run their businesses. But last night I was reading an article in SELF magazine that talked about different cancer charities and research institutes and where the money actually goes. It's always good to know what happens to the stuff and/or money that you donate. Do your research before donating. It doesn't help your cause if you're donating to a place that uses the money for personal gains like salaries and bonuses.
Its like how I found out that the local PetCo solicits monetary donations for our local shelter The Gastineau Humane Society. Yet less then 15% of what they collect actually goes to the shelter. Yet our local shelter which depends on donations in order to provide things like food and medical needs for the homeless animals of Juneau shows an 50-80% drop in donations since PetCo opened. But thats a topic for a different blog.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)