u/Ravenled

My cat has had about 4-5 episodes now over the past 5 years where he's vomiting all day, so I leave him at the emergency hospital for an IV, then comes home, and gets better and we're back to normal.

We have had theories but after extensive blood work, x-rays and ultrasounds, we've never found anything. The prevailing theory is always he's swallowed something, but we never found anything in any of the diagnostics at any of those times.

My new theory is that he sometimes when he eats in the morning after a long night sleeping, he gets vomits bile and then gets himself trapped in a cycle of upsetting his stomach trying to eat then vomit again.

I'm wanting to move insurance provider but I don't know how they'd class this. It's not a "condition" as nothing has been diagnosed, and each time it's just been a random stint on IV out of precaution by me because when he vomits for a few hours, I get too scared and I'm off to the emergency.

I've tried to ask one insurer, but they've been very difficult to deal with and without a clear answer, I don't want to cancel my current insurer.

Does anyone else have similar experiences with their cat and can offer any advice on a cat who has never been diagnosed with anything formal?

I come from an ESL immigrant household and I am finally an adult now. I have recently reviewed my grandmother's finances as I gifted her money for her birthday so she could buy a perfume, and have been shocked to find out that she was paying for some strange funeral/life insurance that is taking out over $250 from her pension every month (and that number is growing). Upon checking deeper, it has been taking this out for over a decade.

This broke my heart because my grandmother, who is ESL (almost NO English), single, 85, has a lot of sickness (cancer twice), doesn't even know how to use a phone is using up her pension to pay for her own funeral insurance? I don't even know how she would have signed up to this, especially over a decade ago.

She seemed clueless as to what it was and just assumed it was part of her Centrelink. I don't need her to have funeral insurance to worry about what happens after she dies, I want her to live a full life now.

Upon further research and investigation, I found out that it was my mother (her daughter) who signed her up and made herself the beneficiary. This aligns with other incidents that have occurred throughout the past several years - such as signing my grandmother up to phone plans so she could sell the phones for money to gamble, and other stuff like take out loans.

I'm currently in dispute with the insurer now after hunting it down (she doesn't know how to make a phone call, let alone have an email address inbox) to get the recordings so we can figure out if my grandmother was involved in the decision-making process.

It does make me wonder though: will we get my mother in trouble? My mother is very troubled, had mental health problems (but in Asian culture, especially back then, mental health wasn't really a thing that is taken seriously), had a gambling addiction and did a lot of awful things to everyone in the family in regards to financial abuse.

I'm at a loss at how to make things right for my grandmother without having to somehow take my birth mother (and her birth daughter) to court when my grandmother is so old. It's too late in life to be having major blow ups and battles over money, and I don't want my grandmother to go through that stress. My grandmother will always obviously love her daughter and we understand my mother was dealt so bad hands that she never knew how to find help or support for.

Previous post: https://old.reddit.com/r/AustralianMakeup/comments/1uf2075/sephora_just_accidentally_admitted_in_writing/

Update:

Hi everyone! I wanted to give you all an update on the saga with Sephora Australia regarding their recent "Extra 10% off Sale" app promotion and the shocking customer service experience that followed. First of all, thank you to everyone who commented on my initial post and validated that what Sephora was doing was not okay!

The TL;DR of the madness: I bought the Beautyblender Bounce Haus Essentials Set on sale ($70 down to $49, which is 30% off). The app explicitly advertised the "Extra 10% off Sale" promo banner directly under this item on the product page. When it didn’t apply at checkout, I emailed support thinking it was a simple glitch. Instead of fixing it, I was put through an absolute gauntlet:

• Rep #1: Claimed my item wasn't on their "hidden backend URL clearance list," so the promo didn't apply (despite the banner literally sitting on the product page).
• Rep #2: Claimed the item was actually part of a separate "50% off" promo that doesn't stack. They literally went into the app mid-dispute and retroactively added a red "50% off Selected Items" tag to the live product page! Too bad for them, my original screenshot proved it was only 30% off when I bought it, and their own math didn't even make sense.
• Rep #3: Accidentally confessed in writing that the Sephora app dynamically displays discount banners on items that aren't eligible simply because the promo hasn't been redeemed on your account yet. A literal dark pattern!

The Resolution: Once I had them in writing admitting that their app is designed to mislead shoppers, I stopped being nice. I formally demanded an escalation to management, cited Section 18 and Section 29 of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) regarding misleading price representations, and stated I was preparing a report for Consumer Affairs Victoria and the ACCC.

Suddenly, my ticket was moved to a "Senior Resolutions Team" for a week-long investigation.

Today, I finally received confirmation: they have approved my refund back to Apple Pay.

And how much was this grand refund that Sephora fought me tooth and nail over, lied to me about, and retroactively altered web pages to defend? ...$4.99.

Five dollars! They burned through multiple customer service reps and a week of investigations over a five-dollar discrepancy that their own buggy app caused. In their final email, they completely glossed over the lies and the fake tags, simply saying they "recorded my feedback regarding the differing information provided."

The Moral of the Story: I am a little petty, but this was never about the $5... it was about the principle! If I didn't have time-stamped screenshots of my cart and the product page at the exact moment of purchase, I would have been gaslit out of my money. Hundreds of other shoppers probably were during this sale!

Always take screenshots of promo banners and prices on the Sephora app before you check out. Know your rights under Australian Consumer Law, stand your ground, and hold these mega-retailers to account!

I just had to share this absolutely wild customer service ride I’ve been on with Sephora Australia this week because I am genuinely in shock.
During the recent Beauty Pass App Exclusive sale, Sephora had a promo for an "Extra 10% off Sale items" in-app.

I was looking at the Beautyblender Set. It was clearly marked on sale (discounted from $70 to $49, which is 30% off). Right underneath the product, prominently in the "Offers For You" section, the app displayed the "Extra 10% off Sale" banner. Naturally, I assumed it applied!

I checked out, and the extra 10% didn't apply. No big deal, I thought it was just a standard glitch, so I emailed customer service with screenshots showing the promo banner literally sitting directly on the item's page.

What followed were three completely different, contradictory excuses from three different reps:

• Rep 1: Told me that even though the banner was on the product page, the item wasn't on their "hidden backend URL clearance list," so it didn't count.
• Rep 2: Tried to tell me the item was actually part of a "50% off" promo (which doesn't stack), and they literally went and updated the app after my email to add a 50% off tag to it! Unfortunately for them, I had my original screenshots showing the 30% off markdown and absolutely zero mention of a 50% off promo at the time I bought it.
• Rep 3 : I politely pointed out the timeline discrepancy to Rep 2. The ticket got passed to a third rep who replied with this absolute gem:

"Please note that at the time you were browsing, the promotion appeared across multiple items because it had not yet been redeemed on your account. This is why you were able to see it displayed, even though it does not apply to all products."

The TL;DR / Conclusion:
Sephora customer service officially put in writing that their app is deliberately programmed to display a specific financial discount directly on the product pages of items that are not eligible for it, just to bait you until you use the coupon.

Under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), businesses can't just slap a promo banner on a product, take your money, and then say "oh our app just does that to everyone until they buy something." You are entitled to the overall impression they present to you at the point of sale!

I’ve escalated it to management and cited the ACL, but I just wanted to warn everyone here. Take screenshots of your carts and product pages when shopping on the Sephora app! Has anyone else had to fight them on this kind of targeted app glitch before?

I used to take Vyvanse 20mg/30mg but started to try Ritalin IR (15mg) to see if it gives me more control over the stimulants and to avoid insomnia. However, I've tried it twice now and I've noticed that I am very stimulated, good mood (almost euphoric but not a large degree) and social and feel good overall.

But then 60 - 80 mins in, I have a full on crash. Still stimulated but anxious, uncomfortable feeling, almost sad/not emotional but like there's no euphoria or good feelings left. And it impacts my ability to focus because I feel so on edge.

It's happened twice now. I had a Costco hot dog before I took the Ritalin too so it's not the protein issue.

Anyone else experience anything like this? It's such a quick, uncomfortable descent to an emotional and mental crash I feel. the first time was literally 20-30 mins and then crash.