Yes...I'm complaining because it is wrong. These are the kind of moves which ignite inflation.
In March 2014 Enbridge raised their prices up to 40% while Union Gas increased theirs by 28%... This increase was approved by the Ontario Energy Board - The Ontario Energy Board regulates the province's electricity and natural gas sectors in the public interest.(oxymoron).The decision was made during one of our harshest coldest winters in years.....this is criminal corporate greed because we don't have a choice. I'm not a socialist but here is a case where higher levels of government should intervene and place a cap each year. As a Landlord each year I am allowed a maximum to increase rent. The Ontario Government allows on the average each year for a nominal increase from 1% to 2-3%. 2015 has allowed for a 1.6%. Over the past 7 years, I have not increased the rent for any of my tenants. For a tenant who pays $650 a month this equates to $10.40, which is hardly enough to offset my increased heating cost of an additional $300 for this past October.
How many businesses are able to easily increase their products or services by 28-40%....when was the last time your employer gave you that kind of raise. Point made.The Ontario Energy Board could easily sync with other levels of government in terms of increase such as the Landlord tenant allowable increase.As home owners we will feel the increase in the forthcoming months in our pocket books.
Isn't the public tired of hearing the same old rhetoric; prices are dictated by supply and demand B.S. There is plenty of natural resources to take us into the next millennium and beyond. I can see why living off the grid to so many is so appealing.
http://www.thestar.com/business/2014/03/28/natural_gas_rate_increase_angers_consumers.html
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Monday, September 22, 2014
Philips Sonicare Tooth Brush - Don't Buy It - It expired as soon as its warranty did.
I was leery in the first place knowing that it was a Philips product but I throught I'd give their dental product a try thinking that since it's not a television and there aren't as many moving components that it should be a well built, long lasting product for the premium price.
I received the usual patronizing customer care service with typical verbiage to placate the upset.... "We apologize for your experience", "Thank-you for your feedback", "We appreciate you contacting us"......polite, yet futile comments, it's just bullocks.
Message to big companies....stand behind your overpriced shitty products. Extend your shitty 2 year warranties on the premium products if you stand behind it.
Once again, I could have purchased over 90 premium top of the line tooth brushes for what I invested in the Philips Sonicare Healthy White Toothbrush.
Truly disappointed.
Sunday, September 21, 2014
When Unions Are The Bullies - Teachers Union in Specific - It's Beyond Out of Hand.
I'm sure any teachers reading this who have a an overly high opinion of themselves and their profession's value to society are ready to defend and preserve. Before you get your back up we know there are teachers who teach for altruistic reasons and others for the money.
I totally understand the value and purpose of a union. A union is to help keep the balance of fairness between delivery of product and services and the expectations set out by the employer. Here's the problem. The words "Balance" and "Fairness" by their utmost definition subjectively fluctuate and at times are undefinable in relation to the objective. However, you can define unbalance and unfairness. It's pretty simple actually. It's when the majority of the population sees the disparity of what one party is receiving compared to what the other party is receiving.
Message to the teacher's union: Stop holding our kids hostage and for ransom to placate your avaricious needs. The teacher's union is exemplary at constructing their fiefdom of self preservation full knowingly that working parents are at the mercy of their demands. I've spoken to teacher's with their mouths full of pie and they have admittedly confessed they do it for the money, and NOT to enrich the lives of malleable young minds. Sadly, for the most part a large majority of teachers in our public school system are glorified babysitters. There are the small percentages of teachers who have a passion for what they do and they do it to try and make a difference in a persons life.
Here is where we need change fast.
#1 - Salary freezes. This is so that the average teacher's wages can catch up to the reality of what it should be in relation to the power of inflation. This will also weed out those individuals who want to teach for the money as opposed to wanting to teach for the altruistic intentions of actually educating.
#2 Mandatory annual assessment of each teacher's qualifications via grading and testing the teachers respective to their curriculum. As well a basic psychological assessment to determine their values and approach to situations(similar to what police officers have to experience in their interview process)
This is imperative. Teachers are with our kids throughout the day. They are supposed play a major role in educational and social influence. Shouldn't all parents know that the teachers in the classroom possess a healthy mental disposition of values and approach in terms of communicating and interacting with the most influential demographic of the population?
#3 Teachers Pensions: It's like winning the lottery and it's costing the tax payers millions. Lower the pension amounts to 50% of their salary.
#4 No striking permitted. If someone in the union's opulent self governance cries woe is me, there should be no striking permitted. If anyone strikes....they are immediately replaced permanently by a by an eager, hungry and unemployed graduate of teacher's college who is waiting in queue for the golden opportunity of employment.
#5 The creation of more than one teacher's union. Let's face it competition increases value and performance. Our country needs to operate the teacher's system like a business. It's about accountability, value and performance. In our current educational systems climate there is not much of this.
With the ability to create multiple public sector unions of the same category, this will open the door to a more competitive environment of outside institutions vying to achieve contract with the government and more importantly super serving the tax payer.
The true spirit of the meaning of "Public Service" has lost its way and has been taken over by truculence, deviance, greed and unaccountability.
The unfortunate difference with business and government bodies is that one performs based on profit , accountability and performance the other performs based on self preservation and policies. If our country can run it's sectors more like a business, allowing for more competition of our tax dollars and eliminating the nonsense of the education systems machination process then we will truly see change for the better.
The irony is that the education system is making sure our kids lives are purely habitable, so that they are completely unprepared for real life. As parents when we constructively criticize our kids they don't get it because so far everyone's loved everything that they've done, the teachers are going through the motions of standard curriculum. We are lacking real life classes such as ethics and how to treat others in school, in the school ground, during play, interaction with siblings, parents, teachers etc....Teaching the universal appreciation for respect and understanding is missing from our school system...this is a foundation for a better prepared and balanced future when they become adults.
Another class should be on Religion. Not just one religion, but many religions. If we can enlighten theses young minds with the common denominator of religions then they will come to understand the differences and similarities without prejudice and with respect of values..
Health, hygiene and coping strategies. This class would cover the fundamentals of diet, personal hygiene and etiquette, and how to manage stress...perhaps tying in meditation, yoga etc.
Value and Accountability Class. Children need a class about value and accountability. This class would involve teaching children about the value and importance of buying products, services and the accountability of delivering the products and services. This principle can be applied to every person whether they choose to be a trades person, scientist, artist, business person or athlete.
I totally understand the value and purpose of a union. A union is to help keep the balance of fairness between delivery of product and services and the expectations set out by the employer. Here's the problem. The words "Balance" and "Fairness" by their utmost definition subjectively fluctuate and at times are undefinable in relation to the objective. However, you can define unbalance and unfairness. It's pretty simple actually. It's when the majority of the population sees the disparity of what one party is receiving compared to what the other party is receiving.
Message to the teacher's union: Stop holding our kids hostage and for ransom to placate your avaricious needs. The teacher's union is exemplary at constructing their fiefdom of self preservation full knowingly that working parents are at the mercy of their demands. I've spoken to teacher's with their mouths full of pie and they have admittedly confessed they do it for the money, and NOT to enrich the lives of malleable young minds. Sadly, for the most part a large majority of teachers in our public school system are glorified babysitters. There are the small percentages of teachers who have a passion for what they do and they do it to try and make a difference in a persons life.
Here is where we need change fast.
#1 - Salary freezes. This is so that the average teacher's wages can catch up to the reality of what it should be in relation to the power of inflation. This will also weed out those individuals who want to teach for the money as opposed to wanting to teach for the altruistic intentions of actually educating.
#2 Mandatory annual assessment of each teacher's qualifications via grading and testing the teachers respective to their curriculum. As well a basic psychological assessment to determine their values and approach to situations(similar to what police officers have to experience in their interview process)
This is imperative. Teachers are with our kids throughout the day. They are supposed play a major role in educational and social influence. Shouldn't all parents know that the teachers in the classroom possess a healthy mental disposition of values and approach in terms of communicating and interacting with the most influential demographic of the population?
#3 Teachers Pensions: It's like winning the lottery and it's costing the tax payers millions. Lower the pension amounts to 50% of their salary.
#4 No striking permitted. If someone in the union's opulent self governance cries woe is me, there should be no striking permitted. If anyone strikes....they are immediately replaced permanently by a by an eager, hungry and unemployed graduate of teacher's college who is waiting in queue for the golden opportunity of employment.
#5 The creation of more than one teacher's union. Let's face it competition increases value and performance. Our country needs to operate the teacher's system like a business. It's about accountability, value and performance. In our current educational systems climate there is not much of this.
With the ability to create multiple public sector unions of the same category, this will open the door to a more competitive environment of outside institutions vying to achieve contract with the government and more importantly super serving the tax payer.
The true spirit of the meaning of "Public Service" has lost its way and has been taken over by truculence, deviance, greed and unaccountability.
The unfortunate difference with business and government bodies is that one performs based on profit , accountability and performance the other performs based on self preservation and policies. If our country can run it's sectors more like a business, allowing for more competition of our tax dollars and eliminating the nonsense of the education systems machination process then we will truly see change for the better.
The irony is that the education system is making sure our kids lives are purely habitable, so that they are completely unprepared for real life. As parents when we constructively criticize our kids they don't get it because so far everyone's loved everything that they've done, the teachers are going through the motions of standard curriculum. We are lacking real life classes such as ethics and how to treat others in school, in the school ground, during play, interaction with siblings, parents, teachers etc....Teaching the universal appreciation for respect and understanding is missing from our school system...this is a foundation for a better prepared and balanced future when they become adults.
Another class should be on Religion. Not just one religion, but many religions. If we can enlighten theses young minds with the common denominator of religions then they will come to understand the differences and similarities without prejudice and with respect of values..
Health, hygiene and coping strategies. This class would cover the fundamentals of diet, personal hygiene and etiquette, and how to manage stress...perhaps tying in meditation, yoga etc.
Value and Accountability Class. Children need a class about value and accountability. This class would involve teaching children about the value and importance of buying products, services and the accountability of delivering the products and services. This principle can be applied to every person whether they choose to be a trades person, scientist, artist, business person or athlete.
Monday, August 18, 2014
Hewlett-Packard Customer Service India - Please repeat your problem at least 3 times
I love my HP Envy Windows 8 Note Book. As a matter of fact I love it so much I purchased 2 within a year;one for my office and one for the living room.
I had an issue with my touch screen...a flashing light would periodically appear in the top right corner and control my cursor....to that end, I called customer service after 5 calls and 4hrs it finally got fixed.
Their customer service department is in India. Do I have to explain much more? Every time I called I was told a supervisor would get back to me and they will escalate the situation....BTW they love using that term...."We will escalate the situation". Finally someone does get back and you have to explain the whole problem over at least 3 times to the same person because they want to be sure they understand what a white pulsating flashing light is. After you explain it the 3rd time they put you on hold as if they are referring to a translator to explain to them what you have said.
7 months later the hinge connecting the laptop screen to the keyboard was loose so I called and explained. Apparently the customer service person did not know what a hinge was. "One moment please Mr. Rob" 4 minutes elapse....."Can you tell me where you are experiencing this issue"....for the 3rd time I explained, "The hinge on the left hand side is loose. I can hear it crack when I close the lap top." They also seem to use Mr. as my salutation prior to my first name. He confirmed that he understood and said that they would send me a return packing box within a few days.....following the call I received an email with my incorrect home address. I recall him asking me to confirm my home address at least 3 times....so how he screwed that up is a head scratcher.
These customer service tech agents at HP lack the confidence in communication and fear making a mistake to the point of being over careful and in the process overlooking some of the basics....hence making mistakes is the norm.
I love the people of India and I know my experience does not reflect or represent all call centres in India but rather a good majority. If it means HP must make a profit, I would rather pay more for my computer so they could afford an English speaking call centre. Yes, the English speaking person may not care as much but it will save us alot of time and frustration.
I had an issue with my touch screen...a flashing light would periodically appear in the top right corner and control my cursor....to that end, I called customer service after 5 calls and 4hrs it finally got fixed.
Their customer service department is in India. Do I have to explain much more? Every time I called I was told a supervisor would get back to me and they will escalate the situation....BTW they love using that term...."We will escalate the situation". Finally someone does get back and you have to explain the whole problem over at least 3 times to the same person because they want to be sure they understand what a white pulsating flashing light is. After you explain it the 3rd time they put you on hold as if they are referring to a translator to explain to them what you have said.
7 months later the hinge connecting the laptop screen to the keyboard was loose so I called and explained. Apparently the customer service person did not know what a hinge was. "One moment please Mr. Rob" 4 minutes elapse....."Can you tell me where you are experiencing this issue"....for the 3rd time I explained, "The hinge on the left hand side is loose. I can hear it crack when I close the lap top." They also seem to use Mr. as my salutation prior to my first name. He confirmed that he understood and said that they would send me a return packing box within a few days.....following the call I received an email with my incorrect home address. I recall him asking me to confirm my home address at least 3 times....so how he screwed that up is a head scratcher.
These customer service tech agents at HP lack the confidence in communication and fear making a mistake to the point of being over careful and in the process overlooking some of the basics....hence making mistakes is the norm.
I love the people of India and I know my experience does not reflect or represent all call centres in India but rather a good majority. If it means HP must make a profit, I would rather pay more for my computer so they could afford an English speaking call centre. Yes, the English speaking person may not care as much but it will save us alot of time and frustration.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Finger Lickers, Buffets
Message to all finger lickers. I have a tough time when I'm at a social gathering and I see someone lick their fingers after having chicken or peanut butter or whatever food which innately urges the individual to lick their fingers. Once they complete the licking, they continue to pick up other utensils and touch the lids of jars, shake hands, leaving behind the remnants of their saliva.
The buffet lickers. Think for a moment when you are at that wonderfully premium all you can eat smorgasbord. I've seen it so many times. The buffet finger lickers. They get a little smidgen of mash potatoes on their greasy thumbs..yum yum.. then like a flash of light, their thumb sucking on, as they approach and grab the next food ladle which happens to be your next sampler. . I avoid buffets for this very reason. Let's all follow the golden rule if eating at a buffet: NEVER EAT WITH YOUR FINGERS. I've just saved you from catching one less virus or bug.
These are the same people who cross contaminate the food from one container/jar to the next by licking the same spoon or knife. This creates a beautiful breeding ground for bacteria. If you know someone who is a knife or fingerlingus offender, please do humanity justice and make them aware of their good ole finger lickin indecent behaviour and the harm it may cause.
Rob Balla
The buffet lickers. Think for a moment when you are at that wonderfully premium all you can eat smorgasbord. I've seen it so many times. The buffet finger lickers. They get a little smidgen of mash potatoes on their greasy thumbs..yum yum.. then like a flash of light, their thumb sucking on, as they approach and grab the next food ladle which happens to be your next sampler. . I avoid buffets for this very reason. Let's all follow the golden rule if eating at a buffet: NEVER EAT WITH YOUR FINGERS. I've just saved you from catching one less virus or bug.
These are the same people who cross contaminate the food from one container/jar to the next by licking the same spoon or knife. This creates a beautiful breeding ground for bacteria. If you know someone who is a knife or fingerlingus offender, please do humanity justice and make them aware of their good ole finger lickin indecent behaviour and the harm it may cause.
Rob Balla
Scooby Dud Live- Anticipation to Quick Disappointment
I
purchased tickets for my son and I at least 60 days prior to the
show....we purchased the VIP package, which included the meet and greet.
There was no indication on the ticket as to the VIP Meet and Greet
time. Nor was the meet and greet VIP info located on the venues website, or the Scooby Doo
Live website. When we arrived for the show we were
told the vip meet and greet was over.....They said I should have rec'd an email...and that it may have ended up in my junk folder. We rec'd no email...
We
were in the 3rd row, centre. This mattered non as the production of the show was amateurish at best.
Sound quality poor. Costumes ok. Audience participation - non
existent.
You and your kids may be disappointed.
My
advice don't even waste your money on the cheap seats and especially
the VIP package.. This was an overpriced show, selling itself on the
name alone. Rent a Scooby Doo Movie instead.
Favourite moment: Leaving
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Stub Hub - TicketMaster's Legal Scalping Division
I worked in the entertainment business (radio) for more than 18 years. I've rec'd my share of complimentary awesome seats to amazing events over the years. I'm grateful for the position I was in to award me with such pleasantries. As I am no longer in the industry, I am a typical pedestrian effected like everyone else, paying the premium for concerts and shows I desire to view.
There has been ongoing mergers in the entertainment sales industry, it's hard to keep tabs on who own what...
Here's the scoop: Live Nation - the concert promoter and Ticketmaster are now one, under Live Nation Entertainment. Ticketmaster and Ebay owns Stub Hub. Stub Hub has stakes in AEG Entertainment Venues.
Have you noticed when you decide to purchase tickets on the same day when they become available, most of the great seats are sold out. The prime tickets are allotted to their company stub hub where they are sold at a scalpers premium. To give you the impression of fairness there are mediocre and plenty of nose bleed seats available to purchase.
To that end when it comes to purchasing tickets to your artist or theatrical event of choice, there are no victims only volunteers. It's supply not just supply and demand, it's about these companies creating a systems for sense of high demand and little supply. Brilliant for them!
There has been ongoing mergers in the entertainment sales industry, it's hard to keep tabs on who own what...
Here's the scoop: Live Nation - the concert promoter and Ticketmaster are now one, under Live Nation Entertainment. Ticketmaster and Ebay owns Stub Hub. Stub Hub has stakes in AEG Entertainment Venues.
Have you noticed when you decide to purchase tickets on the same day when they become available, most of the great seats are sold out. The prime tickets are allotted to their company stub hub where they are sold at a scalpers premium. To give you the impression of fairness there are mediocre and plenty of nose bleed seats available to purchase.
To that end when it comes to purchasing tickets to your artist or theatrical event of choice, there are no victims only volunteers. It's supply not just supply and demand, it's about these companies creating a systems for sense of high demand and little supply. Brilliant for them!
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