Is Your Dentist Trustworthy?
MSN has an article that states what I have believed for years. They say that dentists may be taking advantage of their patients for a variety of reasons. Click here to read the article.
Sadly, I have seen it firsthand and witnessed it myself, repeatedly. The amount of honest dentists I have encountered in the past ten years are far and few between. I have experienced dentists telling me that I need fillings when another dentist showed me the spot that I was told needed a filling actually was a tooth defect, and I had the same hole/defect in another tooth parallel in my mouth. It wasn’t a cavity and it was obvious to anyone when looked at.
My mom was told she needed a root canal because she had an abscess when none existed and she needed teeth extracted when it wasn’t so. And my husband was told that all of his filling needed to be replaced–exactly as the article said. All of which were flat out lies!
I suggest reading this article to get more insight into the field of dentistry. If you want to avoid being scammed, asked your dentist to show you why you need the work so you can understand what they think. If I am told I have a cavity, I ask them to show me the tooth so I can see, and tell me why. Then go home read about it and get a second opinion before you do anything. That’s what I do and I haven’t regretted it once.
Warning: Do you think your grill brush is safe?
Many people are grilling this summer and have no idea that when they clean their grill, they are putting their health on the line. Yes, its true, but most people don’t know it.
Those little wire brushes we all use, well, when a wire breaks loose and embeds into your food, you can very easily swallow it and not know it until hours later when you get intense pain! It seems to be happening more frequently than most of us realize. Search around on the web and see for yourself.
And I don’t think you have to have an “old” wire brush for a wire to break free, do you?
How comes this product has been removed from shelves?
Thanks, MA, for sharing this story with me.
Own Lumber Liquidators Laminate Flooring?
If you own Lumber Liquidator’s laminate flooring, you might want to listen to the report by CBS’s 60 Minutes (above). Anderson Cooper tells consumers that the flooring they bought at Lumber liquidations, according to their tests across the country, are made with formaldehyde and are exceeding indoor air pollution levels designated by the EPA. Some samples 20 times higher than what is considered safe and acceptable.
I find this story so interesting because in the last month, I was in the market for a new wood floor, and I went to Lumber Liquidators to look at their products, and my experience at their store really raised my eyebrows. I ended up not buying their product because I simply didn’t trust them. While I wasn’t looking at laminate flooring, I was looking at hardwood floor. And several of the products I was interested in (red oak) were not available. I waited three weeks and checked again, and still no stock. That was a bad sign considering the store was totally empty on my visit. I was the only customer.
I even called the retailer a couple of times to find out when they’d get more product in, and they told me they didn’t know. You don’t make money without a a product on the shelves to sell. And it certainly wasn’t flying off the shelves with no one in the store.
Of course they said they were happy to order me what I needed, but I saw a huge downfall in that offer. If I had a bad batch, I was going to stuck in a loop waiting for more orders, and what if the orders didn’t match, or had quality issues. I saw my project turning into many months of hassles without much effort. I saw a lose/lose scenario before I even started.
When I asked the store clerk if I could return boards that were defective, he told me no. They would only switch entire boxed bundles. Without inventory, it was a deal breaker. I also found that they had bad reviews online in the middle of doing my homework. Upon finding out, I called the store and identified that I saw that they had bad reviews. I asked them how they would stand by their product if different quality issues arose and they said that no one had returned a box of the product I wanted in over two years.
I didn’t buy it for one minute after reading dozens and dozens of bad reviews, and seeing a video of YouTube of the exact problems encountered.
Naturally, I decided to go elsewhere. They had a handful of red flags that told me not to buy their product before I saw the 60 Minutes report.
Now seeing Lumber Liquidators in the news and watching the owner talk, I am confident I made the right decision not to trust Lumber Liquidators. Seeing the the owner talk to Cooper, I do not trust him.
Roofing Quote: Can you spot what’s off?
Our roof is approaching 20 years in age, and doesn’t look like it is going to make it much longer. We started calling contractors, my husband and I, about eight weeks ago. It turns out this seasons roofers are hard to come by. You see in Chicagoland it rained all of June, and all the workers are behind with more work than have time to do before the freeze sets in. Most roofers that we called didn’t even call us back. But a few smart ones came out and said they could take the work next spring.
The first quote was abysmally high. I tossed it immediately. The second and only other quote that came in, well, it too was high too. I am convinced work is so abundant that they are quoting people high numbers now because, well, if it comes it, its a boon for them! I don’t think they care if they don’t get more contracts right now. Not lucky for me. That’s for sure!
Anyway, the second contractor sent out a nice looking young guy to quote us. He’s actually the owner I found out.
We had a nice conversation, but unfortunately when he came to do the quote, it was pouring rain. We ran from overhang to overhang and around the house, and he politely asked if he could come back another time. I was happy to oblige because I didn’t want him crawling on a steep wet roof, and he wasn’t any more anxious to take undue risks himself.
He came out again late last week to finally climb on the roof. He was friendly as always, grabbed his ladder and went to work. He measured, inspected, and measured some more. He spent about 15 minutes in total checking measurements. Then he kindly swept off some leaves from the an area that commonly collects them on the roof. Certainly a nice gesture.
When he climbed down the ladder, he said he needed about 15 more minutes to go do the calculations for the quote. He said he would quickly do them in his truck and bring them to me. I offered to meet him at his truck in 15 minutes. When we met, he pulled out his quote and we talked about it. He told me if I wanted different shingles, there would be an up charge and he priced the garage out separately for me as asked.
He then handed me the quote in a nice yellow folder with a sticker on top identifying his company. He was very professional, very approachable and likeable. We shook hands and he left.
I am putting a link to a quote here from another roofing company. This is not the company who quoted me, but so you can see a quote. My quote for all important purposes looked identical to this.
Something felt off though, after he left, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
About an hour later, it hit me like a brick.
Can you tell what it is?