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Part of the KBCafe blog network.
Copyright 2005 Randy Charles Morin
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Last week, I went to Casey's Grill Bar on Great Lakes Dr in Brampton. I had been snacking all day, so I decided against ordering a meal. On the other hand, I knew we'd be there awhile, so I got a double order of Casey's Wings. I usually get suicide, but they only have hot. Turns out, their hot wings were the spicyest wings I've ever had. I only had about 12 of (20) them before I forfeited. It's the first time in 10 about years that I couldn't eat something because it was too spicy. I ate the remaining 8 in the last hour. I don't know if they are always that spicy, but I'm prepared to say those were the hotest wings I've ever had.
Yesterday, my wife bought a Pontiac Montana SV6 from Frost for less than $20K (all inclusive). No options. On the lot. Red. She'll pick it up on Monday. Our old Venture mini-van was getting costly.
Of late, Rogers telemarketers have been calling us twice a week to ask if we want their VOIP homephone. And I'm not counting the times someone else in my household answers the phone. This is getting quite annoying. When I tell them I'm not interested, they don't give up. They swear their $30 per month base-price is gonna save me hundreds of dollars. Huh? When I tell them how much my monthly bill is, then they start selling me on another feature. Eventually, I simply hang up on them. Of late, I hang up within 30 seconds.
I currently get digital cable from Rogers and Internet service. I can get these from somebody else (Bell). I want to send Rogers a small email telling them that I might drop their other services if they don't stop this practice. So, I'm gonna forward this blog entry here. But I honestly doubt they'll change.
Today, the Brampton police left me a sticky note regarding Thef of Gas at a local gas station (the one I always buy my gas from). It turns out, the Shell gas station is accusing me of stealing gas. Originally, they told the police I stole the gas around noon January 28th. After I gave an alibi; I gassed up a couple days earlier so it couldn't be me, they changed their story and said I stole the gas that earlier day. After calling the police and telling them I had receipts, the police closed the incident. I returned to the gas station to confront their lies and they actually had the nerve to tell me that I did steal the gas and they intended on pursuing the case with the police. They refused to look at the receipt I was trying to show them. They refused to give me their supervisor's phone number. In the end, the police laughed at them, but now I'm pissed.
Update: I called Shell customer service and the manager of the gas station lied thru his teeth to them to try and save his job. As such, I've informed Shell that I will never buy gas from them again until they prove they fired the manager of this gas station. The cops apoligized several times about the situation. Shell has never apoligized in any manner.
On Friday, a young student was murdered in my neighbourhood. I drove past the scene only moments after it happened. This happened on a very busy intersection. There was few witnesses (ya right). It's very disturbing.
Akila Badhanage, 16, was fatally stabbed on Friday on his way to work
Yet another way the 407etr racket is screwing us. An American reader responds.
I am an American. Canada is a beautiful country and I enjoyed my visit. I drove to Ontario from Florida in July and spent a few days visiting. When I returned home I received a bill in the mail for using the 407 Toll Route. There were no toll booths so I thought this was a hoax. I called the ETR and they said I used their road and must pay the bill. I told her it was excessive and I agreed to pay the toll. The rep said I did not have an account and must pay the video surcharge. I am an American and I know they cannot collect in America. However I will pay the C$54.03 (135km) bill in protest. I have already spent an hour and gained nothing. Canada has crooks just like anywhere else and the government agrees with them. It is a racket.
I tour the U.S. all the time. I use many toll routes and the bill is usually $1-2. This guy was charge $54 on a toll road. Wow! Imagine how this is affecting tourism. It's likely this guy will never return after his experience.
Friday, I met an old high-school friend at Maguire's in Brampton. It was her birthday party. I was quite impressed. The beer on tap was very fresh and crisp.
There's a FaceBookCamp in Toronto next week.
http://www.barcamp.org/FaceBookCampToronto
| Date | August 7th, 2007 |
| Time | 6:30pm–9:30pm |
| Location | MaRS - 101 College Street, Toronto, Ontario |
World-renowned activist and free software developer Dr. Richard Stallman, founder of the free software movement, will speak on “Copyright vs. Community in the Age of Computer Networks” in Matthews Auditorium, Room 137, Kaneff Center, University of Toronto, Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Rd. N., on Thursday, July 5th at 5 pm.
http://davidcrow.ca/article/1592/richard-stallman-at-ut-mississauga-on-july-5
R|mail.Dave Forde has jump started the organization of TTW 08. If you wish to help next year, then show up here in two weeks.
| Date: |
Tuesday, July 10, 2007 |
| Time: |
8:00am - 11:00am |
| Location: |
Metro Hall - Room 304 |
David Crow just invited via Facebook to this cool event. Bjarne is the father of C++. This might be forth the show.
R|mail.Albert Lai, my x-boss, is on the cover of Canadian Business, talking about the business and website I helped him start called BubbleShare. He also mentions Rmail. I haven't seen a copy yet. Congrats Albert!
Today, the 407 ETR has agreed once again to void my outstanding balances on my RV accounts. This would be about the 10th time they've agreed to do this and every other time, they failed to carry through. This time, it was the Ombudsman of the 407, Denise Peltier. Mind you, she told me the same thing last month about one account and the balance decreased from $41 to $0.17, but not zero. We'll see if they actually keep their promises this time, but I've heard them lie so many times, that I don't believe them for a second.
On a second account, Denise insisted just last month that I stilled owed $80.What changed her mind? Yesterday, I told the Ministry of Transportation that I'm going to sue Denise, the 407 and the Ministry. I guess lawsuit threats work, even against the 407. If you have any problem with them, then use my experience and threaten to sue.
Just to finish off the story, about a month ago I contacted Gary Jameson at the Ministry of Transportation. He said I contacted the right person, but asked how I got his phone number. I told him a trail of a hundred calls finally led me to him. He said he wanted to contact the misleads to give them the proper phone number. I asked, if I should give his phone number to others in my situation and he said NO. Huh? Gary said he'd contact Denise about my case and call me back. Three weeks went by and I didn't hear back from Gary or the 407. I called him again and at first, he claimed not to even know who I was. Eventually, he said he left Denise a message and didn't bother following up. It was obvious that this was another dead-end, so I asked him for his bosses phone number.
His boss is Lisa Vescio. She said she'd pursue the matter with the 407 and call me back the next day. She didn't call the next day, but did eventually call me. She told me Denise said that it was my fault because I moved and didn't provide them with a change of address, that it was my fault because I was using multiple vehicles on one transponder and on and on. Well, either Denise lied to Lisa or Lisa was lying to me. I suspect the former. I told Lisa that Denise was lying, but Lisa wouldn't believe me. She insisted that my story was implausible. I asked Lisa for her bosses phone number, called him and he took the same attitude.
Later the same day, Denise called me and suggested that Lisa was misinformed and that she'd call me back today to resolve the issue. I called Lisa and her boss because I now wanted a statement from them that Denise told Lisa these lies because I was suing them and wanted proof of their lies. Lisa refused to provide such a statement. Previously, Lisa had indicated that they were fighting with the 407, now we had a clear cut case of them lying to the Ministry to cover up their racketeering and Lisa was now refusing to help. And now, Denise denies ever telling these lies. What a soap opera!
I guess Lisa or her boss told Denise about my pending lawsuit, because today the 407etr have agreed to drop the outstanding amounts owing. Denise also insisted that the 407 have been sending me regular invoices for all my account to the same address. When I told her that I have never received invoices on two of the accounts, she told me that I should check with Canada Posts and they are likely the problem. I couldn't believe she said that. I get one of three account invoices every month (without exception). I don't get the other two account invoices (without exception). They are all sent to the same address. She insists that it must be a problem with Canada Posts and that it couldn't be that the 407 is at fault. In the end, Denise agreed that my account was mismanaged, but she put any actual blame on the 407.
I suspect that the total amount of reversals in the last three years is somewhere between $500 and $1000. To get these reversals I had to escalate the issue to the police, the Ministry of Transportation, the Premier and more. Most people simply pay the amounts to avoid the hassle. Monetarily, that would've been a good choice and my wife wanted me to do that on several occasions. But I DON'T GIVE MONEY TO CROOKS. If the Ministry had any balls, they would investigate and I bet they would find hundreds, maybe thousands of cases like mine. Ever since I blogged this, I've received dozens of emails from people in a similar situation as myself. And the Ministry simply allows these guys to extort this money from people.
Note also that I sent my story to all the major newspapers and none of them pursued the story. This is major case of fraud in our community and the newspaper are too chicken to report it. LONG LIVE THE POWER OF BLOGS.
Read my past post on the 407 ETR racketeering.
724 Solutions is finally going to close the doors of the Toronto office on June 30th. For those that don't know, 724 Solutions was the greatest IPO success story in Canadian history. They went to a valuation of $10B in 2 months back in early 2000. I was one of the first employees of the company and one of the biggest contributors to their success. They named me a key employee of the company. 724 is a prime example of success leading to the failure of a company.
For the longest time, I've been buying my groceries at Loblaws' No Frills near the corner of Hwy 410 and Queen. I did so, because No Frills had everybody beat on their everyday prices and also have my favorite near-beer. But then, they opened the Super Walmart at Airport and Queen. They don't have my beer, but they have No Frills killed on price. And I'm not the only person who knows. The Walmart's grocery section was packed yesterday. Mind you, it didn't look like No Frills is hurting either.
After giving me horrifying customer service, writing fake comments in my blog, threatening me if I didn't remove my blog post detailing their horrible customer service, offering a bribe to get the post removed, agreeing to apologize, denying they agreed to apologize, me threatening to report them to Ford, failing to pay my invoice in-time, Dixie Ford has finally sent me their apology letter. I'm still waiting for the $150 they owe me.
I've been struggling with my Motorola Q. I tried to bring it in for service at the Bell World where I bought it (Trinity Commons), but the clerk insisted he couldn't help me, even though I bought the 3 yr extended warranty and we were still only in the first 6 months. I even tried to get my car adapter changed, because it didn't work in 2 of my 3 cars. The clerk simply insisted that it should work and refused to help me.
Today, I tried another Bell World (Bramalea City Centre). The clerk was a bit more helpful, but he insisted that I had to rent a loaner phone ($25+$100 deposit), which didn't have email or data. When I agreed to pay the $25, just to end the headache, he told me the loaner cupboard was locked and that the manager wasn't schedule to return until Friday. At this point, I started getting a little irritated. It seems that Bell World always has an excuse why they can't help you. They really need to work on their customer service.
I was about to leave, when a second clerk said that I could simply call this phone number (1-877-DATA-123) and they would send me a new phone. WTF? Where did this come from? I've talked to about 6 clerks in the last month about getting my phone fixed and this is the first time I hear this. I've argued with them at length and stormed out of their store in disgust. All along. All I had to do. Was call this F'in number?
I called the number and this overly polite clerk fixes me up with a new phone which will arrive in the next week. I asked the clerk why so many clerks didn't tell me this in the first place. He insisted this was policy and that the clerks should be well aware of the policy. Bell World Sucks! Bell is now in my good books.
BTW, I resorted to checking out Rogers, at one point. All three times I went to a Rogers store, there was a deep lineup for service that didn't move in the 5-10 minutes I browsed the store. I figure I would've had to wait 30 minutes, just to talk to someone. I gave up each time. I simply don't understand why everybody insist on providing bad customer service.
I've been so disappointed with my Bell Mobility service that I was considering converting to Telus or Rogers. It looks like Rogers wins as Telus proven they don't want to be corporate citizens. If you work there, then forward this to the idiot behind this stupid. You lost another potential customer and I will spread the word of your evilness to all my friends.
Telus blocked their users from viewing websites run by their union and sent takedown notices to YouTube for videos created by their union.
Sean Wise wants help promoting his new book; Wise Words. This is a great opportunity to help promote a local Torontonian blogger.
Today, I had lunch with a couple friends at Bombay Bhel in Brampton (map). The service was amazing, even though the waitress did spill my beer on me. The food (Chicken Vindaloo) was even better. Unlike many Indian restaurants in Brampton, the food is served a la carte, not buffet. My friends shared a Butter Chicken and recommended another great Indian restaurant in Toronto called The Indian Kitchen (map).
Two weeks ago, I agreed to remove the word Sucks from the title of a critical blog post about Dixie Ford`s customer service in return for an apology letter in PDF form from Dixie Ford for the pathetic service they provided me. I removed the word Sucks immediately. Now Dixie Ford is denying that they agreed to send me the PDF. Wow! How pathetic. I`m gonna send a complaint to Ford.
