Daily Home Renovation Tips

Several weeks ago I was invited to evaluate the 3V Visa pre-paid voucher which can be used as a pre-paid gift card for on-line purchases where ever Visa is accepted … which would likely include sites selling apparel, etc. from the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

While the detailed account of my experiences are below, you are likely interested simply in my summary evaluation of the 3V Visa pre-paid voucher product.

Here it is.

Thumbs down.

Why?

In summary:

• Three on-line purchases I attempted over a 3 week period with very well known international retailers failed
• Customer support only replied to my situations during the week; there was no evidence of any weekend support
• 3V Visa pre-paid vouchers can only be used (as I am told) for on-line purchases.
• There are fees associated with this product in voucher amounts in excess of $20 ($2.95 for $30, $50 and $100 vouchers; $4.95 for $150, $250 and $500 vouchers). I am told these are ‘comparable to Interact fees for debit purchases or interest fees for traditional credit cards and there is no credit check (true, which can be useful for ome folks); however, the largest Interact fees I personally have received was $1 or $1.50 when I used an Interact outside of my bank’s own Interact system.

Now for the details of my experience.

And yes, while this might discourage other product and service providers from wanting us to evaluate their products in the future because of the bad review I am giving here, as a consumer you need to know about this.

I was invited (along with several others so I was told) to blog or Tweet about my experiences using a $20 3V Visa voucher. They were interested not in what I purchased but in my experience using the voucher.

Well, I don’t have an iPod and I refuse to pay for ring tones for my mobile phone, so $20 is not going to get me too far, especially when most on-line retailers charge shipping costs for low cost on-line purchases.

I have an upcoming project to tile the floor in one of our bathrooms, a DIY home renovation project which will surely see me go to my neighbourhood Home Depot outlet for some supplies.

So, I thought why not purchase a $20 Home Depot gift card with the $20 3V Visa voucher, especially since Home Depot does not charge shipping for these … at least that is what their web site stated.

So, I went on line to Home Depot Canada’s web site and made the purchase. Every thing went fine. I even Tweeted about how simple the experience was. It was a purchase just like using any credit card.

Then about 3 days later I received two automated emails from Home Depot indicating that my purchase of their gift card had been rejected.

Why?

The long and the short of it, as it was explained to me by the 3V Visa representative upon her subsequent research, was that Home Depot actually charges a $1 authorization fee on new credit or pre-paid cards which is reversed by them immediately after the transaction goes through. So, even though I could not find this practice on Home Depot Canada’s web site, it caused the transaction to subsequently fail.

Disappointingly, it should have failed at the time I was on their checkout web page and not indicate that that transaction had been accepted. As well, I should not have received a confirmation email from Home Depot a few seconds after I successful made the purchase using the 3V Visa voucher on their web site saying ‘all good’.

So, lesson to self. Never use the full amount of any prepaid card on Home Depot’s web site (or, for that matter why tempt fate on any other vendor’s web site as I am sure Home Depot is not alone in this practice). Shame on Home Depot for not making this clear.

Was this the fault of the 3V Visa prepaid voucher product? No. Was the customer support I received satisfactory? Yes. Rachel, on behalf of 3V Visa, was able to obtain me the above details on what happened within a few minutes of my email to her. That was great. However, one does have to keep in mind that she was not part of 3V Visa organization itself; rather, Rachel is part of a public relations type of firm. Would I receive the same service if I encountered an issue the next time I tried to use it?

Return tomorrow when I attempt to use this financial product at as Canadian a retailer as there is……twice.

A while back, we wrote about a President’s Choice home coffee maker which failed the grade. Why? Two reasons.

First, and most importantly, when we poured coffee it would overflow the spout on the carafe, especially when we made a full brew.

Second, when we unplugged it, the high pitched beep would bother our dog Sandy’s ears.

Now, does this look like a member of the family (a few days after her recent hair cut) whom one would want to hurt?

 

The response to that article was overwhelming in that it was one of the most commented articles we have written; about a simple home coffee maker no less.

So, today I thought I would write about a replacement coffee maker we recently purchased. This one, an Oster coffee maker (made by Sunbeam, actually) we picked up from our local Costco for all of $38! it was one of those bulk purchases which Costco makes all the time; they had lots of them.

I love it. Much less expensive than the President’s Choice coffee maker, does not spill when we pour coffee and when we unplug it (to conserve electricity of course ;)  ) it does not make a piercing beep to annoy Sandy.

Now, this coffee maker actually has a few more features than our last one. It has a setting which allows you to indicate if you want it to make a stronger batch. This is the setting we prefer. You can see in one of the pictures below the lighted red light indicating the stronger brew.

It can make up to 12 cups of coffee, has a timer, and all the features one would expect from a nice and a very nice home coffee maker.

As you can see in the picture below, while the carafe can hold 12 cups, the water reservoir looks like it can hold much more. This is one complaint I have about this model.

There is a small hole in the back of the unit, just behind the water reservoir. If one is not careful and pours just over 12 cups of water then it will come spilling out the back even though on the water gauge on the right side, as you can see in the picture below of our new coffee maker, it seems like the unit can hold much more water.

 

If you setup the unit with coffee and water first thing in the morning before you are really awake or last thing at night when you are thinking about the bed and not about making coffee), I can see one easily pouring more water in and causing a mess all because it looks like the water reservoir can hold a lot more than 12 cups. Not a biggie, just be careful.

Here is a picture of the area containing the coffee grounds. The arm you see directly above the filter and the coffee grounds swings well out of the way when you are entering the coffee; it is where the water is poured onto the coffee grounds once heated by the unit’s heating element.

How does the coffee taste? Well, for us it tastes as well as our prior appliance; no difference at all. The picture below of our new coffee maker shows the red button indicating a stronger brew for our first batch of coffee.

Lastly, the other feature we do not like is that once the brew is completed, five beeps sound to tell you that the brewing is completed and the coffee is ready. These beeps go un-noticed by Sandy, but are a little annoying. I don’t need to be told when the brew is finished, I can see and hear that no more water is entering the carafe. But, this is minor. I’ll have to go over the instructions which came with the unit to see if there is a way I can turn this off.

So, for $38, this kitchen appliance is a keeper; even at twice the price. Something to consider should you need to buy one for yourself or someone else in the future.