I have been having issues with Bell over the years with poor to non-existent customer service. I moved my home phone about a year and half ago and have not regretted it at all. I had a contract with Bell Mobility that terminated April 30, 2009. I couldn’t wait to get away from them. On April 1, I moved to another service provider. I needed only to pay my last months/final bill which was on pre-authorized credit card.
Bell Mobilty’s solution was to charge me $100 plus GST and PST for terminating my contract, as for the outstanding service amount I can’t say exactly because their pay ahead system is a bit confusing. I thought that I had paid up to my service date which was around the 22nd of each month and only owed the remaining 8 days.
They proceeded to bill my credit card for the excess amount. As soon as I was notified of the penalty I was on their case and they said it was a mistake. I have been trying since then to get my money back. Their billing system only work once a month. So this month I get a bill that says that I have a credit of $1113 coming and that it’s pre-authorized but nothing happened. I called and they said I should get my credit next month – July/August. This is a reason why I despise this company. They have now promised to send me a cheque in a couple of weeks, we’ll see.
Since I left Bell for my home phone I have received monthly addressed junk mail from Bell trying to entice me back. Annoying and a waste of money for them. When I moved to a new cell provider, I received 3 calls from Bell (I know their number) but no one was there – dead calls. They deserve to fail. They have no idea how to take care of their customers. I could talk about my wasted adventure trying out ISDN from Bell but suffice to say they couldn’t get it to work and didn’t bother telling me while I was waiting for a service response. Losers! Then there was the issue of a wiring problem in the house and they wanted an exorbitant fee to even come and address it – found a cheaper and better solution.
My new service supplier isn’t perfect, there was always going to be service issues but it’s how they handle them and to date they have surpassed Bell by a very wide margin.
Posted by forestdragon on Wednesday, June 24, 2009
It is very discouraging to see the growing levels of intolerance in the world. The latest incident in our country was at the Fete National when people tried to shout down two english acts (presenting bilingual sets) at a concert in Quebec. Several sponsors of the event also withdrew their support when the acts were announced. I sense this is an example of what a separate Quebec would be like, intolerance for anything other than french language. It’s not like these groups were the major component of the entertainment package. Even now, the language police harass businesses about signs that have multiple languages if the french is not bigger by a certain factor. There’s protecting a language and then there’s intolerance towards anyone or anything that isn’t french. If a business chose to have all of it’s signage in chinese, it’s indicating that it is catering to a specific group and not the population as a whole and really what is wrong with that?
In Iran, we have a deadly form of intolerance. I heard that in one situation there were 3 million more votes than there were voters, if this was close to the truth then the results of that election can be questioned. The hard liners are using extreme methods to suppress any opposition because the will not tolerate any change of the status quo. Iran is a country that was the cradle of civilization and should be a major player in the middle east. Unfortunately, they could be a force for good of the world but they seem to be bent on being a force for radical and intolerant views and their actions are destabilizing the area.
Back in Canada, Human Rights commissions were created to protect the rights of the minorities. They have taken that to an extreme and now they are infringing on our basic freedoms such as free speech and ideas. This is political correctness taken to the extreme. It appears that some have found ways of milking this system for profit by filing and wining questionable cases. The actions put a chill on free speech because it ends up costing the speaker a lot of money defending themselves.
In the words of Rodney King, “Can’t we all just get along”.
Gary Bettman, NHL boss, hates Canada. At least you think that it just might be true. The league did little to protect the Winnipeg and Quebec fanchises from moving to the U.S. yet they seem to be fighting every possible move of a bankrupt U.S. team back to Canada. What are we in Canada supposed to make of this?
How is it that New York can have 3 franchises while southern Ontario cannot have more than one. This fascination with U.S. cities that have no history nor experience with Hockey having NHL teams while viable markets in Canada are ignored. The NHL U.S. Strategy hasn’t, doesn’t and will not work. Bowling on TV will outdraw hockey in most US markets. It’s barely a niche sport in the US. Hockey is an important component in many countries in the world besides Canada, for instance Russia and Sweden come to mind.
The league seems to not want to deal with a Canadian who has the money yet it has dealt with a large number of questionable owners in the U.S.
I find it discouraging that the league rolls its eyes if there is a Canadian team in the Stanley Cup playoffs since they can’t sell the TV rights in the States even though there wasn’t any interest in the first place. Heaven forbid that there is a final between 2 Canadian teams, they might have to outlaw that possibility. It’s like we are second class in the leagues eyes.
It might give us a complex or maybe we should learn to love bowling and invest our entertainment dollars in that sport instead of Hockey. The league won’t miss the Canadian fans at all.
I recently received a great powerpoint presentation showing how we as Canadians have made the Highway of Heroes an important element in our honouring and paying tribute to our fallen soldiers. The average Canadian was not fully aware of the sacrifices that our military have made until Afghanistan. The governments of the day had no use for a military but time and circumstances proved this neglect to be horribly wrong. I served in the RCHA in the early 70’s and it was a joke, we had a regimental strength of around 176 men when it should have been over 1,100 yet we had the same roles and responsibilities of a full regiment. We were part of the A.C.E. Mobile Force for Norway and also member of the C.A.S.T. Combat Group which was responsible for re-enforcing ACE. In other words, we were supposedly replacing ourselves which would have been a bit difficult since we’d have been dead or wounded to require re-enforcement.
Afghanistan has brought respectability for the Canadian Military and a sense of pride for the people of Canada. It was public pressure that brought about the designation of the stretch of Highway 401 from Trenton to Toronto to be known as the Highway of Heroes. For it is along that path that our fallen are repatriated to Canada and transported to the Ontario Coroner prior to being returning the remains to the families. The people have spoken and speak everytime we lose a combatant. As of today we have lost 116 service personnel both men and women. We honour their ultimate sacrifice and pay tribute to the family members who have lost their loved ones.
Members of Fire Station 44 in Barrhaven salute returning fallen soldier Cpl. Kenneth Chad O'Quinn on the Fallowfield-Strandherd Bridge just outside of Barrhaven, Wednesday, March 25, 2009. Viewer photo submitted by: Kellie Jennifer Adams
Ottawa is home to the National Military Cemetery at Beechwood and many families are choosing to bury their fallen loved ones there. It is a beautiful place for a cemetery. Now the Ottawa Fire Department has chosen to follow the lead of the Highway of Heroes and they provide firefighters and police officers along 12 overpasses of Highway 416 and 417 on the route to Beechwood where the soldier will be interred. District Chief Dave Capstick said firefighters will make the effort to show the respect and solidarity they deserve.
The U.S. has adopted a similar policy to Canada’s on repatriation and finally make it possible to show the flag draped coffins if the families allow it. That gives the ordinary people the opportunity to sit up, take notice and show their apprciation and sorry for the fallen. A recent movie on HBO called “Taking Chance” is based upon A personal narrative by Lieutenant Colonel Michael R. Strobl (you can read his story here).
The Highway of Heroes and the actions encountered by LCol Strobl show that the people understand and want to honour the fallen who have made the ultimate sacrifice.
Canada has just suffered the loss of 4 more soldiers in Afghanistan and they will be repatirated today and travel the Highway of Heros. So we now have to put up with ugly stupid Americans who have demonstrated why they are hated around the world. The Fox program Red Eye chose to mock Canada’s efforts in Afghanistan not even knowing that we have been there from the beginning of this mission. We are one of the few countries that answered the call for combat troops who would engage in combat and these idiot Americans have no understanding of their neighbour to the north. They have no concept of the importance that Canada is to the success and prosperity of America. After 7 years of conflict, most of the equipment is wearing out, um, I seem to remember reading about the US having equipment problems having a large percentage of its equipment worn out sitting awaiting action in Iraq.
See for yourself:
In this video, these people demonstrate how narrow minded and ill-informed they are about anything outside their borders. They represent the last 8 years where America damaged its standing in the world. No longer could America legitimately claim that they believe in freedom, liberty and integrity. They set up the Guantánamo Bay detention where they were sheltered from their own laws and conducted torture and numerous human rights violations. There was no due process – so much for the fair minded America.
The current world financial crisis can be laid at the feet of greedy people who ignored what few rules there were and managed to bring down the worlds economies.
We can hope that theirs is a radical minority viewpoint. If it is mainstream then America will have to continue to bully the worlds countries and use military force to impose its will. We all know this works, just look at Iraq.
Their comments are disgusting and they would call for an invasion should someone else say things like that about America, oh wait they did call for an invasion of Canada and those silly Canadians.
Posted by forestdragon on Thursday, December 11, 2008
I am beginning to think that I am a grumpy old man.There are a number of things that are happening that I don’t fully understand nor support.These aren’t just local but national and international in scope.
We have a great country and have many opportunities that we can go after.The world is in financial meltdown.Credit and jobs are getting harder to find and easier to lose.On the one hand the US has admitted that the financial crunch started there yet they can’t understand why we are annoyed with them.I can’t understand why the world continues to invest in American securities when they are going downhill fast.They are spending all kinds of money, in the $trillions, yet they are talking about tax cuts.How will they pay for all of these bailouts and loans?The greed of the financial marketers to create all of those bad mortgages and loans and resell them over and over creating derivatives and other totally speculative financial instruments where they made obscene profits.Even today after the bailouts these people just don’t get it.They continue their greedy and self serving ways with “taxpayer” money.There is no accountability, no shame.This thing is going to get worse before we start to see a return to financial stability in the world.This pisses me off.
In Canada, we are being pressured to rescue the big 3 Auto Makers.This is a real challenge because we need the jobs but the companies haven’t corrected the problems that got them their in the first place and they don’t seem to want to address this issue.They went for short term profits and built gas guzzlers and not fuel efficient vehicles using new technologies.There was little or no long term thinking nor trying to address the “green” market.Toyota and Honda both had hybrids that perform well and sell well.GM killed their electric car.The Canadian autoworkers say it was the financial crisis that is causing the problems today yet these same worker wanted GM to keep a truck plant open that couldn’t sell its products.The company screws up and the workers pay.This pisses me off.
We are in NAFTA yet the Americans don’t play by the rules and they almost destroyed our forest industry because we didn’t use the same model that they use.The US Congress is likely to become very protectionist and hurt Canadian jobs as a result.My thinking is that we should turn off the tap for Canadian oil and sell it elsewhere in the world where is would buy the appropriate respect.This pisses me off.
Canadian politicians at the municipal, provincial and federal levels are jerks.Our city politicians can’t decide what the city should be funding and what it should not fund therefore our property taxes are out of control.The Ontario Government has failed miserably except when it comes to teachers.Now a teacher with the appropriate time in can make over $90,000 a year for less than 10 months work.Their argument that they work very hard during those months doesn’t cut it, when I was in the Army we were expected to be available 24/7 no matter what for so-so pay.The provincial liberals just got blasted by their auditor general who says they suck.The federal politicians don’t really care about us; they only want their perks and powers.This latest coalition crap is symptomatic of the problem.Jack Layton says that this is the way that proportional representation would work yet he rejects things before he hears them and he is overly partisan about anything that he does provide assistance – if he touches – Jack and the NDP did it.A pox on all their houses.This pisses me off.
There are a number of strikes currently under way and I for the life of me cannot understand what is going through their heads.I’ve been on strike and it is so stupid and non-productive, you never get it back.The bus drives say they want respect, the postal techies say they want respect yet they show none to their customers, the people who make their jobs possible.What about the hundreds of thousands who have lost or could lose their jobs because of all of the above?We all have to sacrifice in this time of crisis but it seems to be me first.This pisses me off.
Something is wrong with society when greed is rewarded and running a company into the ground gets you a government bailout and people show no respect for their fellow human beings.We are doomed.Our future is dark.No wonder I am a turning into a grumpy old fart.
Posted by forestdragon on Friday, December 5, 2008
The Governor-General prorogued Parliament giving the Politicians a chance to take a breath and reflect on their actions. Everyone of the elected Members of Parliament need to shake their heads and realize that they should be ashamed of their behaviour. No one is exempt from this shameful demonstration of power politics. Canadians in general are not amused and are disgusted by their actions. A pox on all their houses.
The Prime Minister initiated the troubles with his ill thought out plan to kick the opposition when they were down. His misjudgement has probably damaged his reputation forever. He has done enough damage to the Conservative cause that they will never achieve a majority government under his leadership. It’s time to groom the replacements.
The Leaders of the three opposition parties needs to have a reality check. Yes, if you add up all their votes and all their members they outnumber the Conservatives but there is no consistency in their party policies that would justify saying that they represent a majority view. They are 3 distinct views that are barely similar and often opposed to each other. So saying that they represent a majority of Canadians is invalid. The Liberals under Stephane Dion are desperate for power since they lost it, but they lost it for a reason and they haven’t corrected that reason. They haven’t cleaned up their act like the Conservative had to when they were down to 3 seats. There is little contrition for the bad faith they showed Canadians under the various scandals and little cleanup. Stephane Dion is desperate to change his legacy of being one of the few Liberal leaders that weren’t Prime Minister and I think that is what drove him to work out this coalition. He probably saw it as a golden opportunity to improve his historical record. Even now the second place runner in the leadership contest, Bob Rae, is trying to use the coalition for his own political gains. This could precipitate a complete collapse of the Liberal party should they piss off the Canadian people which is their current direction.
The leader of the Bloc sees this as an opportunity to have a veto on any and all actions in parliament. The other members of the coalition try to pretend that they haven’t given the Bloc the equivalent of Sovereignty Association. The terminology in the agreement was between Canada and Quebec. The Bloc had nothing to lose everything to gain no matter what happens. Canada is the one who loses by this political pandering to Sovereignists.
Finally, we have Jack and the NDP. He knows that this is the closest he will have come to being in power. Canada is not a socialist country and wouldn’t support their policies in government. They provide a counterbalance to other policies but they aren’t mainstream. When Jack has participated in anything in a cooperative way you get told by him that he did it. He takes credit for everything that comes close to him. He needs constant reinforcement that he is a good boy. Jack loves the camera and just can’t resist puffing himself up.
The politicians have damaged their standing in society – they have shown themselves to be more interested in power than getting the job done. Originally the opposition didn’t want to cooperate with the Conservatives lest they be successful in handling this crisis. Canadian have engaged themselves in this situation and hopefully they will hold the politicians to account for doing what we citizens want them to do.
