Tag: false advertising

The Golden Corral

On By Michel McDonaldIn Food, RestaurantLeave a comment

Darrin has wanted to go to Golden Corral ever since they opened their doors last year, but we just never made it.  We tried to go there a couple of times but their line was so long outside the door that we just said screw that, and then we would go to either a chinese restaurant or Hometown Buffet.

Last night as I was about to prepare dinner, I emailed Darrin asking him what he wanted.  I gave him choices, Beef Ravioli or lasagna.  He emailed me back saying neither, he wanted to go to Golden Corral.  I was a bit irritated because I knew we would be standing in line outside for at least half an hour or longer.  Fortunately there wasn’t a line at all so we only had to wait 10 or 15 minutes to get to the cashier.

We have never been to a Golden Corral so we weren’t sure how things worked.  At Hometown Buffet you pay for your dinners and drinks and then get seated and go get your drink and food.  At Golden Corral you get your drink before you even pay, then they seat you and you don’t even have to get your own drinks, your waitress does that for you.  All you need to worry about is getting your food.

The only thing that irritated me was the cashier.  They have signs posted all over the place that said that it was 2 for $20 Mon-Thurs after 4pm and then under that “the whole restaurant.”  OK when you read that, what goes through your mind?  Food, dessert, drinks etc. right?  WRONG!  They charged us for drinks,  $2 each in fact.  That is a bit misleading and so I mentioned it to Darrin and made him ask the cashier and she started laughing at us.  That put me off because I don’t like being laughed at and that was a legitimate question.  I feel that it’s false advertising because the drinks are in the restaurant, so why wouldn’t that be included in the deal?  She told us “nice try” and we shrugged it off.

The choices of food at Golden Corral were vast.  They had this long salad bar that seemed to go on forever, across from that were the cooked foods where you had to stand in line for your steaks which you have to wait to be cooked.  Their steaks were so frickin’ good too.  I mean, can we talk?  Their steaks were so good that if it were possible to have an orgasm from eating meat, we would have been screaming “OH GOD, OH GOD” at the top of our lungs while pounding on the table with our fists, that’s how good it was.  I didn’t want to stand in a long ass line to get steak, but Darrin gave me some of his.  He on the other hand kept coming back with more steak and I didn’t understand how he was getting them so fast.

My first plate was a salad and oh my goodness, the thousand island dressing was so good.  I have never had thousand island dressing that tasted like that.  I love Bob’s Big Boy thousand island, but golden corrals was even better, and that’s saying something.  Next time I want to try their ranch.

My second plate had fettuccine alfredo.  Again, orgasm.  Their alfredo sauce was so freakin’ amazing.  I also had some bourbon chicken, I don’t know the exact name but oh my goodness, it was so fantastic.  I was in awe of the flavors that were dancing with my taste buds.

I went back for another plate because I am a glutton for punishment and of course I got more bourbon chicken, macaroni and cheese and a slice of pepperoni pizza.  I just had to have all of these flavors in my mouth all at once.  I knew my stomach couldn’t handle all of the food but I was just too curious.  The pizza was better than Pizza Hut and Dominos combined.  I kid you not, it was amazing.

I was already full by the time I finished eating my three plates, but I wanted dessert.  I went to stand in line for the desserts and I noticed a machine that was supposed to squirt batter into grease to make these little mini donuts, and there were these arms that were supposed to flip the donut so it could cook on the other side too.  I didn’t actually see any donuts being made because it didn’t have any batter in it because their donut bowl was already full, but my mind was blown away.

I grabbed a slice of chocolate cake and put 2 marshmallows on a stick and dipped it in some chocolate.  Speaking of which, they didn’t have a chocolate fountain like in the commercials.  I asked the waitress about that and she told me they were missing a part so it wasn’t working.  That was disappointing, but the taste of the chocolate on 2 marshmallows that I put on a stick made up for that disappointment; it was AMAZING!

They have really put Hometown Buffet to shame.  In fact, I have noticed over the last few months when we go there that they are always empty.  I mean not empty empty, but when we go there, we don’t have to wait in a line, we just go to the counter and pay for our meal and we don’t even need to wait to be seated because there is usually plenty of seating, and now I know why.  I guess when Golden Corral opened up, everyone abandoned every other restaurant in town, and with good reason.

We went to the Golden Corral on Ming Avenue here in Bakersfield and our waitress was Denise, and she was the sweetest waitress.  When the manager told us to come back, I replied “Oh we will, you can count on that” and I meant it.

Video Professor Free?

On By Michel McDonaldIn ScamsLeave a comment

I see these commercials all the time for Video Professor where the “chairman” talks about how he gives away his lessons on CD for free.  Well, I hate to disillusion anybody but it ain’t free.

I ordered my “free” lesson and when it finally came in the mail I saw the fine print.  It’s free for a certain amount of time.  After that specific time is up they automatically charge your credit card $70.

I got the Frontpage lessons because I thought I was getting it for free for the cost of shipping.  I saw the warning and immediately called the number and told them I am sending it back the next day as soon as I wake up lol.  There is no way I am rich enough to be able to afford $70 for lessons for a program that I’ve been using since 1997 that I am clearly able to use without any of their lessons.  I just thought that they would be able to tell me something I didn’t know but every lesson in there was something I am aware of lol.

It would be one thing if they charged $20 plus shipping for a lesson, that’s at least reasonable but $70 that’s a bit much.  Is it false advertising that they say it’s free then you find out it’s $70?  I think it is.

Ok I have to admit something.  This happened like 2 years ago lol.  I just saw the commercial and it jogged my memory and so I thought I would blog about it lol.

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser

On By Michel McDonaldIn Products I LikeLeave a comment

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is a product that does exactly what it says it does on the commercials.  Wow, I just never knew that it would work that well.  Darrin doesn’t like buying things that he sees on the commercials because 9 times out of 10 they don’t do what they say they are supposed to do because you can usually buy the generic brand and it does the same exact thing.

Our tenant next door left the house just filthy when he moved out.  It took me 2 hours yesterday to clean out the refrigerator.  The freezer was completely covered in mold because his electricity got shut off.  There was this one spot on the fridge door that was just so beyond gross.  It was a build up of something, I don’t know what.  All I know is that it was so gross and it would not come up.

I gotta go back there today after I eat my lunch and clean the stove top and the oven so I bought some oven cleaner and I bought a package of magic erasers because I know if anything will clean that stove it will be the magic erasers.

I just did a test with 1 of the 2 that were in the package on our stove.  There are these certain spots that I just cannot get clean.  Although, when I try it’s usually with just a wash cloth and soapy water from the dish soap so in all fairness I’m not really trying that hard.  But the magic eraser got it all up real fast and the stove was sparkling clean.  Wow, I just couldn’t believe it.  With very little effort too.  Just amazing.

I’m going to have these on hand from now on because this is an amazing product that does exactly what they say it will do.  In a world of false advertising, it’s nice to see a company who is actually telling you the truth.

$5 Footlong? Really?

On By Michel McDonaldIn Food, ScamsLeave a comment

I’ve loved Subway since the first time I ever went there when I was 18 years old when I moved back in with my parents when they moved to Quartz Hill in the Antelope Valley.  We went there all the time and I remember that I always got the same thing.  The Cold Cut Combo.  To this day that’s the only sandwich I ever get.  Sometimes I’ll be different and get a meatball sub or turkey but it’s usually always the Cold Cut Combo.  It tastes good to me.

Recently in the last few months or so I’ve been seeing the commercials for their $5 footlong.  They are competing with Quizno’s because Quizno’s has a good deal too for $5.  So they are just trying to keep or lure their customers away from the competition.  That’s fine and $5 is a good price for a 12″ sub.

We went to Subway for dinner tonight and they had their sign (or window sticker) that says “Any” which implies what?  All?  That’s what it implies to me.  By saying any that means if I want a footlong meatball sub then it’s $5 right?  Wrong.  The definition of “Any” for Subway means that they have a couple footlong sandwiches for $5.  So isn’t that false advertising?

I’m lucky the Cold Cut Combo just so happened to be $5 for the footlong because that’s what I wanted anyway but it would be nice if they had more of a $5 selection.

I think that if a sign says “Any” then everything should be $5 and not just a select few.  There were maybe 5 items on the menu that were $5 footlong.  That’s not a lot of choice.  When we got to the register to pay for our $5 footlongs they asked if we wanted chips and a drink for $2 more each and we were like screw that.  $1 for a drink and $1 for a little .50 cent bag of chips?  Are you joking?  We could go to the store across the street to buy a bag of Chips and soda which we ended up doing.  We bought 2 large bags of Doritos (buy 1 get 1 free) and 2 bottles of sparkling flavored water for .79 cents per bottle.

I like Subway but I don’t agree with this false advertisement.  I think it’s crappy because they lure you with the promise of a $5 footlong then you are stuck paying $7.59 for the sandwich you intended on buying.

Update: We were shopping today for new work clothes for Darrin and we had to go to Walgreens to pick up some things and decided that we would go to Subway for lunch.  I was bitching about their false advertising and so Darrin purposely ordered something that was not $5, Roast Beef.  It says on the menu that it’s like $6.79 or something like that and he asked is that $5 footlong? And the lady said yes.  We got to the register and the total for both sandwiches was $10.

So Subway, I apologize that I made such a quick judgement.  But in my defense if any footlong is $5 you should change all the prices on your menu board to show that any footlong is $5.  Because I would see the prices and immediately not order something because it doesn’t say $5.

KFC Dollar Menu

On By Michel McDonaldIn FoodLeave a comment

Talk about your false advertising.  I’ve been seeing these commercials on TV for the KFC dollar menu where these 2 guys are in the car and the driver is all “you have a dollar menu?” then he looks back to the people in their cars behind them yelling “They have a dollar menu” while the passenger is laughing.

Then there is the commercial with the “spy” asking if they have the secret recipe and asking how much and the guy inside says a dollar.

They show all these things as being a dollar.  Well, we were at the KFC today and their dollar menu had the following products.  KFC Snackers in many different flavors, original, crispy, honey BBQ and one other which I can’t remember.  Then they had 2 biscuits for $1 and 2 pies for $1 and 3 cookies for $1.  That’s it.

They had several other items for $1.49 and $2.49 but that’s hardly a dollar.  Why are things that are a buck and a half or two bucks and a half on the one buck menu?  That’s false advertising.

And speaking of false advertising.  We bought 4 KFC snackers, 2 original for Darrin and 2 crispy for me.  They were so tiny and we couldn’t tell which were original and which were crispy.  But they were so small, I said to Darrin we would’ve been better off going to McDonald’s getting the Chicken sandwiches from their dollar menu because they were twice as big as the KFC snackers.

My opinion, go to McDonald’s, you get more bang for your buck buck buck.  Pun intended.

KFC Weekend Special

On By Michel McDonaldIn FoodLeave a comment

Starting today until Tuesday Feb 17th, KFC has a weekend special for President’s day.  Although their weekend special seems to be about 6 days.  Anyway, the commercial says that you get a whole chicken which is 8 pieces, mashed potato’s and gravy, cole slaw and 4 biscuits all for $12.95.

Well, it’s kinda false advertising.  A whole chicken would consist of 2 breasts, 2 thighs, 2 legs (drumsticks) and 2 wings.  We went there today and the pieces were 4 thighs and 4 legs.  Not exactly a whole chicken.

Personally it doesn’t matter to me.  2 pieces of chicken, mashed potato’s and gravy, cole slaw and a biscuit is enough for 1 meal.  Darrin bought an extra order of Macaroni and cheese, the family size and I added 4 apple turnovers (2 for him and 2 for me).

We don’t normally go there because they are a bit expensive compared to Albertson’s chicken dinner which is like 8 pieces of chicken and 1lb of salad (cole slaw, potato salad or macaroni salad) and a package of 4 Hawaiian rolls for like $5.  I do prefer KFC over grocery store chicken but I just can’t afford it.

It was good though mmmm mmmm so good.

Rhapsody Music Service

On By Michel McDonaldIn MusicLeave a comment

I’m hoping that someone will see this and respond to me.  I would like to know something about Rhapsody from Real.com that they aren’t telling me.  When you pay the $14.95 per month do you have to pay to download mp3’s?  I see that they charge .99 cents per song or $8.99 for the album.  When you pay their monthly fee do you still have to pay that or is it half or free?  The reason I’m asking is because it says in the description under the $14.99 plan “buy albums”.  It doesn’t say buy full price, half price or get for free.  The commercials say that you get all the music you want for the price of 1 cd per month.  So if that is true then the albums should be free.  Or is that false advertising.

Before I spend a dime I’d like to know.  If it costs $15 a month plus I have to pay .99 cents a song I think I’m entitled to know this before I give them my credit card information because I can just use iTunes and buy the full album without paying a monthly fee.  If someone can please respond to this I’d appreciate it.  Thanks.