Don't buy JCPenney Portraits groupon

So you decided to take a family picture. You don't really care much about quality and have seen a lot of groupon deals. So you search groupon and there is one deal which looks good. 3 digital images for $29.

So you call, make the appointment, get the family ready. Get to the studio, take pictures, several different poses, kids separately, mom with kids, dad with kids. Everything is going really great, kids are cooperating, pictures look really nice and it is really hard to pick 3 images out of 6-7 nice ones.  Of course sales person is really helpful it she says that there is $80 package which includes all the images you like. It is a little bit too much, not what you wanted to spend, not edited much, just cropped,  but the images are unexpectedly nice. So you say, ok, the other package it is. So the sales person sends you the link, you'll have the pictures in 3-4 hours. Owesome.

Now it is time to pay. The sales person says: $80+ tax. You say, but what about that groupon. Oh, the sales person says, this is $80 on top of groupon. Oh, no, you say, this comes to $110 and I am not ready to spend this on 8 nice but unedited images, I want the original deal. Oh, the sales person says, there is nothing I can do, the link is in your email, it is not reversible, you have to pay.

The images are really nice, you spent a lot of time getting ready, kids cooperated, this is your first photoshoot in a studio, when is it going to happen again. You want the freaking three images for $30. But the sales person states that there is nothing she can do... Helpfully, she gives you the phone number of customer service... Suddenly, you feel like you've been had in the worst possible way. And you know that this is not the sales person fault, she's probably been trained very well with this routine and with exactly what to say.
You still try.. But link can be disabled you say, you can send another link.

There is nothing I can do the sales person says... And you are pissed off, very much, mostly, for the weakness to agreeing to a different package. But also for the being lied to, because, as an IT person you know, that it is very easy technically to disable the link. And if the system does not allow it, it is on purpose.

You call customer service, there is unusual volume of calls, the recording says. You wonder, how many pissed off customers are calling to complain and when there is no unusual volume.  Finally, you get to talk to customer representative, he can't find your name in the system, puts you on hold and then you get disconnected.

You call again, wait again, talk to another representative, oh, she says, we don't have you in the system yet, it is to soon. Meanwhile, you are getting email, that images are ready for download. But you are not in the system. Interesting. You feel like an idiot and swear not to go there ever again.

But it is not groupon's fault, a reader could say. You might agree. You go to their website and see, that there is 87% customer approval rate. You want to leave your feedback. You want to leave an advice to ask if groupon is included in the quoted price. But you CAN NOT.  At least, there is no easy way to do it, and you look for the way to do it for several minutes.

So do yourself a favor, if you decide to go to JCPenney portraits don't bother with groupon. It is not worth it.

Curious George Live Review

Last Saturday I took my son to see Curious George Live in Izod Center. My son likes Curious George Books and we watched a couple of shows on TV.

Everything went smooth, the show started on time and overall looked like a well-oiled machine. I liked the way George and The Man with the Yellow hat were presented. I can't talk about other characters because I did not know them from the books but I was told they are well known from TV show.

Izod Center is a large venue and we sat far from the stage. So this may be the reason that I was not impressed by the show. Either the sound engineer was very good or the show was lip-synced. The show description said that it is appropriate for 2 year old kids but although my 3 year old son sat through most of the performance I think most of the stuff went over his head. I guess you have to ask yourself if your kid will understand the concept of international meatball competition. I am not a child development specialist but what struck me is that at times it was difficult to tell characters apart visually, except for The Man with the Yellow Hat and Curious George. At times characters were wearing costumes in the same color scheme (everybody white or everybody yellow). I am not sure it helped kids to understand what is going on.

In conclusion, it probably makes sense to go to the show if your kid watches the TV show and knows the characters of Chef Pisghetti and Professor Wiseman or is old enough to keep track of story line which includes international meatball competition, depressed chef and competition with fast food restaurant.