Anytime you involve the police with something, you know a lawyer is not far behind. And the experience I had at Delta Collision that I just blogged about was the reason why I got bombarded with mail.

I got into a fender bender on a Sunday and just a couple of days later, I get 5 envelopes from attorneys. Then 4 more the next day and a few more coming in later.

But only one of these lawyers was nice enough to send a business card: Nellie Krivosheyev. But she also sent a whole folder(!) of information… and shockingly, she was not the only one.

The size of the mail ranged from a standard letter to dossier-sized portfolios that made me feel like I was a detective with a case file. My recycling bin was full that day my friends.

This begs the question: do Nellie Krivosheyev and other attorneys actually get business this way? I think of it in the same way as cold calling & emailing, except mailing it to your address makes it “appear” to be more personal and just letting you know they have your information.

I equate it to the many more lawyers who send letters whenever you get a traffic ticket. I just see it as ambulance chasing without them having to get up & drive behind an ambulance.

But of course there’s another perspective, which I try and see. I think about the people who don’t know any lawyers or don’t have the resources to get information. You would figure that this is a godsend for them since it would at least give them a start on where to research info & learn their rights as the victim or the person at fault.

When I was telemarketing with Union Chimney, I learned a very good ratio of cold calling customers. Out of every 100 calls you make, you’ll pique the interest of 10 and maybe get 2-3 sales at most.

The cold mail method done by Nellie Krivosheyev & other attorneys wastes so much paper and I doubt many people are as recycling conscious as I am. So many trees die in vain since they probably get 1 or 2 clients for every 100 envelopes & folders sent out.

Almost all of them send a copy of the accident report, which I had to shred. And had I known that lawyers like Nellie Krivosheyev were going to mail me my accident report, I wouldn’t have had to pay $5 for it.

But alas, at least I got another business card out of the deal.

Business Card Count: 41,717

I explained in a blog post from 2 years and 3,242 business cards ago how much work it took to notarize documents from my mom. It culminated in a month-long victory to get it done.

However, the person at my mother’s PNC Bank quit before pushing things through. So Dana Jones was given the ball to run with and we had to get everything notarized again!

Remembering the tedious process that occurred last time, I mentally prepared for the worst. And life did not disappoint as the first command of the letter was to get it notarized within 10 days.

So I recall getting the documents signed at PNC Bank, so I called up the location where Dana Jones works to speak to her. But she was on vacation(!) and I spoke to someone else there and confirmed I can take the document to any PNC Bank to get it notarized.

So I called my local PNC Bank and they seemed to have no idea how to notarize it, even though it’s their document. And since I’m not a PNC Bank member, I couldn’t get it notarized there even though I did last time!

That’s when I decided to go to Bank of America (where I bank) to do it. I met with Africa Becerra and we discussed the notarization process and of course there was another obstacle.

Africa Becerra refused to notarize the document since there wasn’t a line for her stamp, so I called Dana Jones at PNC Bank and she said it’s normally not a document that requires a notary but has to be since she won’t personally witness me signing it. I was told to go back to Bank of America to have them call her, but they don’t talk to other banks.

Well then! I wound up going to the local UPS Store (the same one mentioned in my previous blog post) and had to pay $5 to get the documents notarized. And I spoke to my mom & the documents were received, so hopefully it won’t be another 2 years of thinking everything is taken care of with it actually not being the case.

Business Card Count: 41,696

For so many years, I was a loyal customer to Verizon. I’ve had my cellphone service with them since 2002 or 2003 when I got my first flip phone to replace my Nextel (remember those?).

I’ve had internet service with them since 2013 or 2014. I also had Verizon Fios cable service with them and a landline purely because of the bundle. But, it’s come time to leave them in the dust. Here are a few reasons why.

1. Horrendous Customer Service

The main reason why I decided to quit Verizon is due to the experiences I’ve had dealing with their customer service team. You never leave an issue with 100% satisfaction with them and I feel it’s because the company is so large that they don’t care if a customer gets lost since they have so many others.

One example is how they caused me to be without Internet for 2 weeks since there were multiple issues with technicians not showing up to fix a problem. I was by the phone all day once and it never rang until Verizon told me the tech tried to reach me to no avail, which is a straight up lie.

Not to be stereotypical, but I hate being outsourced to India and I know I have been multiple times by Verizon, which makes communicating even tougher.

2. Too Expensive

I remember for the longest time that Verizon always provided the best service out of the other phone providers by far. Nowadays, the gap is much lower.

I was paying $120 a month for my smartphone & unlimited plan per month and it was starting to get expensive. I went to Victra, a Verizon Wireless authorized retailer to ask if there was any way to get a cheaper plan and the manager said no pretty nonchalantly and didn’t seem to care.

Gee, that kind of matches reason #1, so it’s perhaps a cultural thing.

3. Poor Quality/Unavailability of Service

The last reason I’ll mention is how limited the service is in certain areas. For example, I was able to get Verizon Fios TV service in the house I bought and the subsequent apartment I got, but was unable to keep it when moving to a town 15 minutes down the road.

The same goes for their high-speed Internet. I guess it’s the political relationship they have with the town, but I had to get Dish (which drops channels & brings them back often, but that’s another story) and turtle-speed DSL. I tolerated the Internet for a while, but switched to Xfinity for a much faster connection.

Incidentally, I downgraded my Dish service to a welcome package that includes the network TV stations and a few select cable channels. I don’t miss not having a whole bunch of channels I never used.

Verizon, I bid you farewell and say hello to saving like a hundred bucks a month between TV and phone.

Business Card Count: 40,448

My significant other and I enjoy dancing. And she also told me about the fun times shes’s had at BBW parties in the past.

She loves the atmosphere that the people bring to them. And when an email from Goddesses BBW Parties came into my inbox for an event St Patrick’s Day weekend in North New Jersey, I decided to jump on it and make it a date.

From what I was told by my significant other, it was going to be a prom-like setting with lots of dancing and perhaps some promiscuous behavior. The experience I got was much different, akin to a middle school dance. It was a large ballroom with many tables, but probably about 20 people there in total.

I felt so awkward at first since it was practically an empty room with nobody dancing, but we heard some music we liked and cut a rug. And of course, we waited until someone else got on the dance floor. The dance floor comprised of an older couple, a younger lady getting her groove on and a guy in a sweater vest who moved as little as he could while dancing.

Oh and there was also someone selling assorted adult products: Kelly McMahon from Pure Romance. I’m sure she was disappointed by the lack of people at this event, especially since she had a whole table dedicated to her inventory.

Not for nothing, but me and my significant other got to enjoy each other’s company and laugh at how lame the party turned out to be. It was located in Hasbrouck Heights NJ this time, but is normally in Manhattan so a lot of people probably didn’t want to travel outside of the city.

Lesson: next BBW party we attend will be in NYC.

Business Card Count: 39,850

One of the biggest pains in life is getting a flat tire. I recently got one in the most pathetic way possible: by hitting a curb too hard when trying to pull into a parking space. Of course, I called AAA to help me install my doughnut tire since it was pouring outside… plus, I’ll admit that I’m not very good at changing tires.

AAA sent out Rob’s Towing Service of Colonia NJ to get the doughnut installed and the truck they sent was a huge tow truck that was far too enormous for a mere flat tire. I took it to a Goodyear tire store and it couldn’t be repaired, so it had to be replaced.

But that’s not the first flat tire I’ve ever had.

Trying to Impress a Girl Goes Flat

The first time I got a flat tire was actually when I was 17 or 18 and I was driving this girl I wanted to date from her father’s house in west-Nassau County to her grandmother’s in mid-Suffolk County, which is like over an hour drive each way.

She was very ungrateful that my tire got flat and was angry with me the whole rest of the way home while she flirted with the police officer who helped me with the tire change. I wound up talking to her a little bit more and then distancing myself from her since she turned me down. It’s alright though… I found out a few years later that she wound up with (or even at the time I knew her had) an incurable STD, so I dodged a bullet.

Getting (My Tire) Shredded in College

The next flat tire I received was when I was in college upstate. I had just made a left turn heading to the supermarket to get my groceries when all of a sudden, the whole tire just shredded. I have no clue what I ran over, but I knew I couldn’t drive the car.

Luckily, my brother was just a phone call away and he helped me out. It was scary since I was driving pretty quickly down Route 9 and my car actually jerked to one side.

Oh, and this photo is reference to one of my favorite card games Milles Bornes where one of the “road hazards” of the game is a flat tire. One of my friends always makes a deflating noise whenever he plays this card on somebody.

Other Flat Tire Memories

When I totaled my last car (which I blogged about here),I was told by the police to drive my car off the bridge and it was safe to drive home… it was not and my tire went flying as I rode on my wheel. The car was shaking as I drove and I was staying tough as I chugged onto Staten Island and had to pull off of the bridge since AAA couldn’t tow me from there.

Not a real flat tire on this one, but I remember a wrestling storyline as a kid where Johnny B. Badd didn’t get to a WCW Saturday Night event on time and missed out on a big match because of a flat tire. His rival Diamond Dallas Page’s bodyguard Maxx Muscle told him it was too bad about the 4 flat tires, but Badd exclaimed that he only said a flat tire NOT 4 FLAT TIRES… and got into a scuffle with Muscle.

I’m sure there are others and will be others, but these were the most unforgettable.

Business Card Count: 38,591

It seems like there are certain business locations that are cursed to not have businesses that last long. I spoke about one at length called G Grab and Go by restaurateur Mike Isabella that went out of business in mere months along with a Corner Bakery Cafe.

But today, I’m going to speak on the Ivy Stone Diner & Lounge that was in Iselin NJ from late 2015 to early 2018. The building itself is unique in that it’s a large space with a fun glass entrance that has a chandelier. But that’s because it used to be a Chinese restaurant called King Chef.

I really don’t remember that being the name, but I could be wrong. But inevitably, Ivy Stone closed its doors. I say that because I went there around the time it first opened and ordered to go with myself and 2 other guys. At least one of our orders was wrong, so the guy gave us a 30% coupon on the back of a business card of the restaurant.

I never really wanted to use it for whatever reason. I guess that’s part of why it went out of business. I can also tell by the business card that Ivy Stone Diner & Lounge had too much going on: a full bar, a party room and a DJ in addition to a regular restaurant. Reviewers I saw online also agreed and included a seafood buffet, karaoke & dancing as activities at the location. It sounds like it was trying to cater to everyone, but did not succeed.

One reviewer said there may have been a change in management, which could factor into the restaurant’s closing. Here are a few reviews I found online for the Ivy Stone that stood out (though there were several positive reviews as well about the food and the atmosphere):

We went there for seafood and drinks. I must say the seafood was not the best, not good, which was a major disappointment. Had the snow crab and crab cakes. I know fresh and these were not fresh to my taste. As for the drinks not worth the money. It may have been an off night for them but, we won’t be coming back for dinner.

Not bad but not great at all. I had been here a few times previously for breakfast and lunch over the last 2 years. To our surprise, they no longer serve breakfast, at all. At least that’s what our greeter/ seater/ server told us (my wife, 2 children and I). Food wasn’t bad, just not that good either.

Myself and my friends came here for dinner on sat a party of 4 the place was completely empty. It took atleast 20 mins for our drinks to come and 1 of them had to get sent back. Ontop of that the server gave us no silverware to eat with until I went up and asked for it. Overall terrible dinning experience. If the place was crowded or busy I would be a little understanding but there was only 2 other parties in the entire restaurant and we received such poor service. Probably won’t be returning to dine here again. Not even deserving of the 1 star.

Business Card Count: 38,313

I’ve never been to a luxury car dealership, but I bought myself an Infiniti. It was a very used Infiniti (15 years old, 100K+ miles) and the check engine light came on.

I was told by Big C Motors that a new left tire was needed and the front brakes & alternator had been replaced. But that engine light came on and it meant something was going on under the hood, so I called the closest Infiniti dealership to me: Ray Catena Infiniti in Edison NJ.

When I initially called to make the appointment, the customer service person told me to check the fuel cap since the light could come on if it’s not on tight enough or flush enough. I rolled my eyes since I feel like that’s something that should be resolved, but then again I’m dealing with a 2003 model.

I tried the fuel cap, but alas it was not to be. I made the service appointment, but they didn’t have any openings for a week! I thought “this must be a good sign, Ray Catena is so good that they’re all booked up.” But I was wrong.

Take the Very Little Good with the Bad

When I first arrived, I was met by a service person who took my car and info. She then referred me to my service consultant Stephen Sprayberry, who won an Infiniti Award of Excellence since a customer wrote a letter to Infiniti about him. I thought that was a good sign also, but it was not meant to be.

And I can’t say I entirely blame Stephen for that. In total, I waited there for almost 30 minutes before my car was fully checked in. I don’t know if he was with another customer, but his desk was empty when I walked by it. At the very least, the waiting area was clean and was chock full of goodies like yogurt, bagels and probably the best crumb cake I’ve ever tasted.

But the taste in my mouth after the experience I had at Ray Catena Infiniti made me feel horrible. Upon leaving the Edison NJ dealership, I got a call back from them assessing the work that needed to be done. Sprayberry told me that the car needed over $7,000 worth of work and that my car belonged in a junkyard. This me feel bad and self conscious about even buying the car based on that information.

Granted, Stephen told me getting off-brand parts would reduce the cost, but still the list of repairs he told me that were required was massive:

• #5 cylinder coil replacement along with associated parts
• Rear brake calipers, rotors & pads
• Controller arm
• Steering panel leak
• Rusty lower oil pan & radiator support
• Horn is inoperable

I found out that a lot of these repairs were not urgent, which is something the dishonest people at Ray Catena Infiniti of Edison neglected to tell me. I felt they just tried to make mountains out of mole hills to just get my money, which is very insulting especially given how self conscious I was made to feel for even buying my car. I’d never recommend anyone to this dealership at the very least (possibly even the entire auto group) based on this experience

Oh and I also honked the horn & it worked, so BEEP you Ray Catena.

Business Card Count: 37,769

Usually, I tell a story to go along with a business card I collect. This blog post is going to be different since I’m going to go on a bit of a rant this time. And it’s on something I’ve been finding ever since I started collecting: magnets in the shape of business cards.

I get the appeal of them, as they have all of your brand’s information on it and people can just stick it on the refrigerator instead of it possibly getting lost as just a card. Hell, they’re good for attaching other things to the fridge, possibly business cards.

I’ve grown to be disappointed every time I get them since it’s always a tease of a potential card to add to my collection. I always wind up chucking them in the garbage since I don’t hold that big of a grudge of it, but I decided that I had to hold on to this one to write about my experience with Jersey Appliance.

I recently blogged about PC Richard & Son and spoke briefly about the dissatisfaction I had with the first 3rd-party service provider who looked at my dishwasher and it was Jersey Appliance. It made me more frustrated than getting a business card magnet. That’s because the technician took way too long to let PC Richard know that my dishwasher couldn’t be fixed and didn’t inform them of that fact.

It makes me wonder how many of these small 3rd-party businesses perform so poorly that it gives the bigger companies they support a bad name. It could also be possible that PC Richard was BSing me, but why wouldn’t they have done that when I got a second opinion that came in much sooner? I see a lot of 1-star reviews for Jersey Appliance on Google & Yelp, so I’m not alone.

Apparently, appliance manufacturer LG also uses this company… so I suspect that they don’t charge much to LG or PC Richard to get referrals. And multiple people complained about an $80 service charge that was separate from everything else, so I assume that’s why they get their money back. Dare I say, they’d probably be out of business if they weren’t being used by these larger companies.

And that rant sums up pretty well how I feel about business card magnets. I’m just glad Jersey Appliance’s service to me was like their magnet… free of charge.

Business Card Count: 37,275

Since the beginning of 2018, our dishwasher has been on the fritz. Well, not so much on the fritz as the door stopped closing & the dishwasher wound up breaking entirely.

So I called PC Richard & Son, where the appliance was originally bought, to see about the warranty and getting a repair. Turns out, it was still under warranty so they arranged a service appointment for me with Jersey Appliance, a third-party company they hired apparently to diagnose the repair.

That appointment took a couple of weeks to get done. The guy took a look at the dishwasher and said it was not repairable. That was shocking news to me, but he told me that he would send his report to PC Richard & Son to help get me a new dishwasher.

However, I waited for a week and PC Richard said Jersey Appliance didn’t submit a report. Another week went by and was told that Jersey Appliance reported that the dishwasher was fine in spite of the technician saying it wasn’t repairable. Frustrated, I demanded a second opinion and PC Richard obliged by sending out another technician from another third-party company.

Take Two

This other third party came out maybe a few days later and gave me the same diagnosis for the dishwasher. I called PC Richard & Son up a few days after that and here’s where the fun service began. They told me that the dishwasher was officially deemed not repairable, so they offered me either the full cost of the dishwasher previously purchased or $25 towards the repair of the dishwasher.

Yes, the one that was deemed not repairable… so why I would want $25 towards trying to fix it, I have no idea. It must be in the script. But I wanted more because I was without a dishwasher for about 2 months at this point, with the fault being on PC Richard & Son. After speaking to a customer service rep, Diamond the supervisor and someone from corporate, I was able to get Diamond to agree to the full cost of the washing machine plus a $100 gift card towards the purchase.

To the Store

I went to the PC Richard & Son location in West Carteret NJ to get a dishwasher in accordance to the plan and was told by Diamond to call before 7:00 to help me get the gift card I needed along with the dishwasher money. On the day I spoke to her, I called up before 7:00 and she had just left the office. Went to call the next day since PC Richard still didn’t have record of Diamond’s words and she conveniently just left again.

I called super early on Wednesday this time and didn’t reach her. I tried again every 2 hours until I was fed up and asked for someone above Diamond. I spoke to that gentleman briefly and let him know of my experience including Diamond being not around. I asked him flat out what he could do to keep me as a customer and I got everything I wanted.

I bought the dishwasher at the West Carteret location and the manager walked me through the process of getting me a deal including not paying a dime for the installation, which went smoothly. In total, I paid only $30 for a dishwasher plus the install.

What have I learned from this experience? Always go above someone’s head to get the answer you desire.

Business Card Count: 37,260