Hokay So

Here's the blog......oooooh, that is a sweeeeeet blog! Hennyway (anyway).

Oh let's see...what's new. I went to see Dan, Donna, and Tyler last weekend. Cedar Rapids had some really bad flooding. I pulled into town around 10pm and my exit off of I-380 was right into downtown Cedar Rapids, where teh flooding had hit the worst. The residential area around that was like a war zone or something. Just the smell and how it looked was mind boggling. Pictures can't really do it justice. I have a few that I'll include at the bottom of this post. Hennyway, it was fun seeing Dan and Donna again and watching them with Tyler. That kid is super awesome. 3 years old and I guess a week ago from Sunday, he decided he didn't want his training wheels on his bike, so Dan took em off and Tyler took off! lol! So I had fun riding Dan's bike around w/ my nephew.
Sunday morning meeting was awesome. Everybody's thoughts seemed to be along the same lines. Faith, Love, and Jesus. The last hymn we sang was 400, When Jesus Comes....."Oh, can we say we are truly ready"....I've been thinking that quite, especially last night after meeting when Ryan Barry mentioned one of his close friends was killed in a car accident. Sigh. Life is so fragile, yet it's so easy to think we're indestructible. Sneefle Tear.

On a better note....I'm getting Lasik Surgery done on July 18th! I'm sooo excited. I've always enjoyed physical activities such as basketball, racquetball, wrestling w/ my bros, and the like...but I always feel like I have to hold back because I have to play w/ my glasses and I'm paranoid they're going to get knocked off and busted, then I can't see. X_x The surgery is coming at the right time too. Just before my Canada trip! :-D WHEEE!! In fact I just counted out $1,000 cash that I will have to take to the bank and get it converted into Canadian $'s. Sad thing is...now that the $1 has lost so much value, Canadian exchange is pretty much 1:1 and gas is even more up there in Canada. Siiiiigh. All worth it though, I need a vacation.

Ok, well....here's a few pics. I was bored so I lined out my $20 so I could see what $1,000 looked like. LOL. Yaaa...vain, I know....but funnay.


















Hokay....here's pics of Cedar Rapids.

Ready for the weekend

Ugh...what a week. The good news is I finally received an answer from a Paypal representative who know what end was up! He pointed me in the right direction and told me how to redeem my $100 voucher. I just needed to go directly to Paypal, go to the send money section, choose who the money was going too, and select my voucher. I called my bro up (Jim) and was like heeey buddy, let's try something. I typed in his paypal account email address and sent an amount of $100 and he was able to pull it into his account and after the Paypal fees it was $97. I'm seeing my bro on the 4th of July, so he'll write me a check then (hopefully). The $97 number is rather interesting too. About 5-6 years ago I purchased a set of Klipsch ProMedia 4.1 Computer speakers and 1 month after the 4 year warranty expired, the amp blew and white noise was coming from the front left speaker. I was rather disappointed and didn't know where to go to get them repaired and even though I knew which resistor was blown, I didn't want to mess with it, so I settled for a lesser set of Logitech speakers. Recently I started doing some more research for Klipsch ProMedia speaker repair and found a guy on eBay to do the repairs. The cost is $60 + shipping, which totals to $97....the total of my Paypal voucher. WOOT!

Anyways... this weekends going to be a breath of fresh air! Going to take a little road trip over to Cedar Rapids, IA and see my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew...Dan, Donna, and Tyler Weeda. I'm interested to see the flood damage that's plagued Cedar Rapids for the past couple of weeks. Thankfully my brother and his family were not affected. My brother has had a very busy time too....helping out the city in trying to save the last water well, out of four, and also getting into the hospital. For about 3-4 days they were unable to take showers, flush the toilet, and drink tap water. Then it was every other day for showers until they had the other wells up in the city. Now that the water has gone down some, they were able to get into downtown and I guess it's quite a mess. It always amazes me to see the power of mother nature and no matter how far man has advanced with technology, that he has little to no power against God and mother nature. Which makes me even more thankful that I can put my trust in God and not man.

Lunch break is about over and I have quite a bit to get done before 1645 gets here. ^_^

Paypal Voucher

Well.....this blog's going to be a little odd, mainly because I'm a little odd. My 1st post isn't going to be anything about my personal feelings, but more about this company you've probably heard of. Paypal! I have a PayPal Plus credit card and for every $1.00 I spend, I get 1 point. $9500 = a $100 PayPal voucher, redeemable at any online store that uses Paypal to accept payments. I do a lot of business transactions off my PayPal Plus card, so $9500 really isn't a lot .... pretty easy $100 for me. Free money right? I have yet to believe that, because I can't redeem my voucher. :(

My 1st attempt was on June 12th....found a nice set of computer speakers, went to check out w/ Paypal and I had no way to enter my Paypal voucher.....and it seems any email reply I get is a canned reply telling me how to redeem my points and use the voucher. In fact I received another email this morning, telling me the same thing. LOL....so here's my reply to Paypal.

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That's awesome.....I've had this canned response about 4 times now. I am glad to say that I pretty much have this process memorized.

Let's try again! :D

I have redeemed my points....I have my voucher code! I've had it since June 12th! Write this down, type it out, print it, hang it on the wall! I don't care...just remember that I have my voucher, but I can't use it.

Let's try scenario #1 - I browse to www.newegg.com and locate an item I'd like to purchase. I've been looking for a new set of speakers, some Logitech Z-2300 THX Certified speakers and guess what?!?! They only cost $90.99 w/ free shipping. Pretty sweet deal, especially since I have a $100 voucher from Paypal. I can barely contain my excitement as I click the Add to Cart button and log in w/ my Newegg account. I double and triple check this screen to see if I have an area to enter my Paypal voucher code, nope....nothing. I then select, pay with Paypal and log in with my Paypal account. I check the options on this screen and once again, I have nowhere to enter my voucher codes. I continue to the Newegg confirmation page and all I have is the Submit order button. So I cancel my purchase and email Paypal...this was on the 12th. Paypal's kind enough to email me back, telling me this "You can use a coupon on any eBay item that accepts PayPal and that meets the coupon's requirements." Then of course the infamous instructions on How To use your Voucher points!! Yaaay!

This leads to scenario #2 - Going to www.ebay.com ....
I find the same set of speakers from an eBay vendor (buy.com) and I go ahead choose to buy a set of speakers. Only this time I'm committing to buy the speakers. Once I click the "commit to buy" ... I'm locked into the sale. I go through the checkout process and choose to pay w/ Paypal and I'm greeted w/ the same Paypal screen that I was on Newegg. Guess what?!?! No area to enter my voucher code. Now I'm getting a little disappointed because I was hoping to have my speakers purchased and on the way. Things are looking a little bleak, but I'm not losing hope yet...Paypal's always pulled through for me. Well...for the most part. ;)

I decide to give Paypal a call and discuss this problem with them. The phone support was great, I got the answers I was looking for and after the gentlemen reviewed my problem and looked at my account to see the purchase from buy.com, he told me he would talk to somebody about getting that credit back to my card and that would be equivalent to using the voucher. He said that somebody would email me w/ in 24 hours with the status of this. I did receive an email and it was w/ in 24 hours....and low and behold, it was those saaaaaaaaaaaaaaame flipping instructions on how to redeem my points and use the voucher!! LOL! Talk about FUNNAY!

So I'm thinking to myself....I spend $9,500 on my Paypal card to get my awesome $100 voucher, only to chase my tail for 7 days (June 12th to Jun 19th) and still have nothing. I hate to think how much time I've wasted trying to get my $100.....but I'm not going to sweat it. I'm just asking for somebody over there to please look at why I can't get my $100....instead of just telling me how to redeem my points and use the voucher. BECAUSE I CAN'T USE THE VOUCHER! :(

Thanks a bunch,
Mark Weeda
weedatech@gmail.com