Why people in Rich Neighbourhoods get Free Two Day Shipping from Amazon

By C. Moffat - May 10th.

I live in a wealthy neighbourhood of Toronto...

And I have discovered something fascinating about what happens when I pick the "Free Shipping" option when ordering things on Amazon.ca.

In the description for Free Shipping it says items will be shipped and received within 5 to 8 business days. However when I order things off Amazon, I typically receive them within 2 days.

And please note, I did not click on the "Two Day Shipping" option when buying them. I only clicked the Free Shipping option that is slower and takes 5 to 8 days.

So for example, yesterday, May 9th, I ordered a picnic blanket for my son and a LP record for my mother. I was just notified by email that both items will arrive tomorrow, the 11th.

So within 2 days, the same as you would expect for two day shipping.

So why would me living in wealthy neighbourhood of Toronto effect the shipping times?

Well, many people in my neighbourhood use Amazon Prime and they are not used to waiting for things. When they order something they usually choose either the 1 day shipping or 2 day shipping options. Plus there is quite a lot of people in my neighbourhood who shop in this manner.

This means that in order to save on costs, Amazon will often load up the delivery truck with multiple items for the whole neighbourhood that is governed by our post office and ship them all at once. This saves Amazon a lot of money on delivery costs.

Thus, with the sheer number of wealthy people in my neighbourhood who use 1 day or 2 day shipping, anything I order off Amazon typically shows up in only 2 days.

The exception to this is the Christmas season, which is a bit slower due to the volume of items being shipped, but I still received everything I ordered ahead of time. Way faster than it normally would have been.

Living in a large city like Toronto probably also helps speed delivery.

I am reminded of when I used to live downtown near the Rogers building on Bloor Street. I had Rogers internet at the time and it was the fastest internet connection I had ever had. Being close to the source dramatically reduced download times.

Thus, in my situation, living in a wealthy neighbourhood where people unaccustomed to waiting I get super-fast Amazon deliveries and all I have to do is pick the free shipping option.

That is a nice perk in my opinion.

Downside, the drivers in my neighbourhood are also impatient morons. Rich impatient morons who run over children. It is so bad in the local park they installed a camera that monitors the speed people are going and flashes what speed they are doing. People in the neighbourhood often have signs on their lawns, warning drivers to slow down because of children. If you know of what I speak, you know which neighbourhood I am living in.

So be forewarned if you live in a rich neighbourhood and have small children, keep an eye on them at all times because rich people don't like to slow down when they are driving and are often looking at their phones.

Doing a Facebook Purge, a Review and Commentary

By C. M. - January 15th 2018.

Facebook isn't just any website.

It is the 3rd most popular website in the world after Google and YouTube. (See https://www.alexa.com/topsites for the list of top sites.)

As a social network (the first truly popular social network) it has played an important role in the last decade of helping people to communicate, socialize, organize events and meet new people with similar interests.

But it is also broken.

Don't take my word for it. Mark Zuckerberg (the creator of Facebook) recently said his new goal (resolution?) in 2018 is to fix Facebook. He has realized it is broken and needs to be fixed.

The realization came to Zuckerberg after the revelation that the Russians had manipulated Facebook with fake news reports to influence American voters into voting for Donald Trump. This kind of sophisticated election tampering by the Russians went unnoticed until it was too late.

"I started doing these challenges in 2009," Zuckerberg wrote in the post on his Facebook page earlier this month. "That first year the economy was in a deep recession and Facebook was not yet profitable. We needed to get serious about making sure Facebook had a sustainable business model. It was a serious year, and I wore a tie every day as a reminder."

"Today feels a lot like that first year. The world feels anxious and divided, and Facebook has a lot of work to do -- whether it's protecting our community from abuse and hate, defending against interference by nation states, or making sure that time spent on Facebook is time well spent."

"My personal challenge for 2018 is to focus on fixing these important issues. We won't prevent all mistakes or abuse, but we currently make too many errors enforcing our policies and preventing misuse of our tools. If we're successful this year then we'll end 2018 on a much better trajectory."

 However...

This is not why I am doing a Facebook Purge today.

I am personally doing a Facebook Purge because of the following reasons, in order of significance.

#1. I find myself too often arguing with morons and jerks.

Yesterday I made a comment on a group about how admins have to balance free speech with the desire to moderate and remove hate speech. I said it was a balancing act. Yeah, metaphors. And wouldn't you know it, one moron decides to disagree with me and says it is not a balancing act, you just make rules and then stick to them.

Oh really? What rules? How do you make the decisions of what to allow and what not to allow?

So for example the admin in that particular (male dominated) group was banning racist comments. But sexist comments were probably still okay, as male dominated groups tend to not worry about sexist comments. Thus the admin is still making decisions about what to allow and what not to allow... which makes it a metaphorical balancing act.

And I have to explain this to the moron who just doesn't get it.

So one of the things I will be doing today is purging Facebook groups that I find to be a waste of time. Groups where people just argue most of the time.

For example I am a member (or was a member until today) of the Toronto Vegetarian Association (https://www.facebook.com/torontoveg/).

I joined that group because I like eating more vegetables. I am not a vegetarian or a vegan. I was simply a person who wants to eat healthier and I was hoping people on there would be posting recipes, events for foodies, that sort of thing.

Instead what I routinely see on there is people complaining about the meat industry or the fur industry, arguing about organic food, free range chickens, and a whole host of other topics.

Worse, vegans and vegetarians have a tendency to be jerks. Or sometimes morons. Sometimes both.

And so I am leaving groups like that too, because frankly they are not posting the food recipes I had hoped they would be. I should have just joined a cooking group.

So why am I wasting my valuable time arguing with morons and jerks?

So I will be purging every Facebook group I consider to be a waste of time.

#2. Finding more time for groups I admin.

I am the admin of various groups and part of this Facebook Purge process will be deciding which Facebook groups I want to keep being the admin of, and whether those groups need a set of rules so that people know that I expect a certain level of behaviour.

So for those groups I am keeping, I will be posting a set of rules. Hopefully this will discourage people from being jerks - and thus I won't be bothered as much to decide whether to ban people who are disruptive jerks posting racist/sexist comments.

Although I admit, there is a certain kind of joy that comes from banning a person from a group and sending them a message that tells them why I kicked them out. That part is certainly enjoyable.

#3. Friends and people I barely know who waste my time.

Sometimes you end up being friends with people whom you have not seen in years. They move away, you stop hanging out, but you still talk to them regularly on Facebook.

Some of them I have realized... they're just a waste of time.

Some of them are even argumentative jerks and morons and yet I am still friends with them. Clearly I need to dump them and purge them.

#4. Wasting time when I could be doing something more productive.

Facebook is a huge time waster.

I currently spend at least hour every day talking (sometimes arguing) with people on Facebook, clicking Like and so forth.

A lot of it is things that don't even matter to my day to day life.

What I need to do is prioritize things that are my close friends, the people I actually socialize with, and family.

Everyone else is basically me wasting time on Facebook with cat videos and things that have little or no bearing on my life.

#5. I have a son now.

And I would rather be spending time with my son. I routinely post photos of him on Facebook (to share with his grandparents, other family members and friends who also have kids). But if I cut down on the wasteful Facebook time, that means more time spent with my son (possibly taking more photos of him).



So what about you? Should you do a Facebook Purge too?

Probably a lot of us should purge how much we use Facebook.

Just imagine how much more free time we would have to do something productive instead of all the time we waste on Facebook.

Amazon's Shipping Speed - and why you should not pay extra for it

By C.M.

This year I did most of my Xmas Shopping on Amazon.

And I did not spend a cent on shipping.

Nor am I am member of Amazon Prime. (Nor I am using Amazon Prime free for 1 month on any such promotion.)

Instead I have been clicking on the free shipping option where it is supposedly shipped slower and is supposed to take 5 to 8 days for my packages to arrive.

And instead they have been showing up in 2 to 5 days.

Take for example 3 card games (my parents like card games) I decided to order as bonus gifts just last night on Tuesday.

According to Amazon Tracking they will arrive Thursday night around 8 PM. I will likely delay picking them until Friday though, more convenient for me.

My worry on ordering them on Tuesday night was I was not sure when they would arrive on time to be given as Xmas Gifts... and since they were bonus gifts and I was not too worried about this so based on previous experience I knew that even if I did select 5-8 day shipping that it would arrive earlier than that... so I went for it.

And instead of 5 to 8 days it is arriving in 2.

That is pretty amazing considering that the shipping costs is free.

So what are the 3 card games I ordered?

• Monopoly Deal
• Wizard
• Rook

I have already written about the card game Wizard on a different website called Nerdovore (an eating and nerd culture blog). So no need to write about it again here.

I have never played Monopoly Deal or Rook, but they both looked interesting and had lots of good reviews so I figured they would be fun to try.

Plus my younger sister refuses to play normal Monopoly (she always loses) so maybe she will play this game instead.

An Open Letter to Meetup.com

To Meetup.com!

From C.M.

I already sent this to Meetup via their Help Center, but here we go again:

Hello!

Awhile back Meetup changed how people suggest and organize meetups. The group I am thinking of is https://www.meetup.com/Toronto-Area-Gamers/ and the new system is very restrictive for how to organize an event.

Under the old system anyone in the group could organize an event, which is a necessity since the people running and hosting games have to be the ones posting it, editing any changes, etc.

Under the new system people have to suggest the event, wait for the leadership team of 33 people with busy lives to hopefully respond... and even then there is problems.

The new system is full of problems that many of the people I have spoken to are switching to organizing events via email, Facebook and other means. I personally in the last week organized two different events via Facebook.

So my question is, why are you not trying to fix this problem when clearly you are going to be losing money over the issue in the long run?

Why should we, the customers, continue to pay for a service that has gotten worse, not better?

Why Yelp is a horrible website full of fake reviews

By C.M. - November 22nd 2017.

One of the things I have noticed about the website Yelp is that the reviews posted on there are increasingly fake.

And there are several different categories of fake reviews on Yelp.

#1. Fake reviews written by the owner / manager of the company.

These usually emphasize a particular product or service, and while they sound really good, it is pretty obvious the reviews are there to tempt people reading the review into buying the product or service. It is basically just another form of advertising.

#2. Fake reviews written by the company's employees.

Employees are expected to want their company to do well, so they write a nice review but fail to mention that they also work there.

#3. Fake reviews written by competitors.

To make the competing company look bad, obviously. This doesn't really need much explanation. Depending on how much competition there is in a particular field, this could be pretty cutthroat with far more fake reviews being written by competitors.

eg. Imagine 10 companies that all sell "Super Spicy Edible Widgets". If each company then writes 1 positive review about themselves, but 9 negative reviews about all their competitors you will end up with all 10 companies having 9 horrible reviews and only 1 positive review - excluding anything written by actual customers.

#4. Fake reviews written by the employees of competitors.

Same reason as #3.

#5. Fake reviews written by former employees.

If a former employee is angry at their former employer, one way to further burn bridges is to post a negative Yelp review - possibly targeting a manager or co-worker that they despised in an attempt to get that person fired.

#6. Fake reviews written by "Yelp Privateers and Pirates".

I am coining some terminology here... Yelp Privateers and Pirates are hired thugs who either try to make a particular company look good, or try to make a different company look bad. The border between what makes a Privateer and what makes a Pirate is a bit blurry.

• Privateers are hired to post positive reviews, using multiple Yelp accounts.
• Pirates are hired to post negative reviews about competitors.

Often the two can be the same person, but may be using multiple accounts to avoid suspicion.



Brand Reputation Management


From an advertising perspective, a lot of what goes on above falls into the categories of "Marketing Brand Management" or "Brand Reputation Management", and being executed by amateurs who don't actually work in the advertising/marketing industry.

In which case there are some tricks that companies can do to combat negative fake reviews.

#1. Claim the reviewer is a former employee.

If someone posts a really nasty fake review, a company can claim that the person posting the fake review is actually a former employee. It isn't true, but that doesn't matter. Yelp has rules about former employees posting fake reviews, and this is ultimately a quick and easy way for companies to get rid of negative reviews.

#2. There are a variety of ways to flag negative reviews:

• If the post contains false or out of date information.
• If the post is by someone affiliated with the business (employee, business partner, loan shark, etc).
• If the post is from a competitor.
• If the post contains any kind of threats, lewdness or hate speech.
• If the post isn't even about a personal experience.
• If the post is a violation of Yelp's privacy standards (naming the names of employees, etc).
• If the post contains advertising.
• If the post is for a different business.

 Any one of these reasons could be used as grounds to get rid of a negative post.

#3. Report a specific profile.

If a person has only a few reviews and they are all negative, they are probably a fake profile. In this case the whole profile could be reported and deleted. All of their reviews for your company and potentially others could be deleted, all at once.


Conclusions regarding Yelp

It is very easy for companies to manipulate their reputations on Yelp, and to damage the reputations of competitors. The more reputation savvy a person or company is, the more they can take advantage of Yelp's system.

Which ultimately means the more useless and horrible Yelp is as a company itself, because it has become flooded with fake reviews.

Which is why I am giving Yelp one star out of five. For being utterly useless.

6 Ways to Improve Yelp

#1. Add a GPS requirement to Yelp.

Under this new rule, people submitting a Yelp review have to be in the immediate vicinity of the location. This would reduce the number of fake reviews submitted dramatically, and put Yelp Privateers/Pirates out of business.

Or failing that, people who include a GPS component to their Yelp review should have their review "valued more" than reviews that were written a significant distance away or did not list their GPS location at all.

#2. Add a time limit to reviews.

If a review is older than 1 year, it should be deleted. The person who posted the review would need to revisit the location and post a new review.
#3. Algorithms designed to spot fake or suspicious reviews.

It would not be too difficult in my opinion to design a computer program that looks for fake reviews. All they need to be looking for is:

• An imbalance between positive and negative reviews (eg. a person who only posts negative reviews or a person who only posts positive reviews.
• A person who posts a positive review of one company and a negative review of another company should be flagged as suspicious.

#4. Suspicious reviews should be downgraded.

Pushed further down the list of reviews - and their star rating should only count for half or less than half if they are flagged multiple times.

And if they are flagged 3 times or more for being suspicious, they should be removed entirely.

#5. Banning the accounts and personal IP addresses of individuals caught posting fake reviews.

Once they recognize an account that has too much suspicious activity, they need to be deleted, banned and blocked.

Obviously you would not be blocking IPs from public libraries, Starbucks, or internet cafes, but that is where the GPS requirement comes into place... If GPS location is required, then they won't be able to use public IP locations like libraries, Starbucks or internet cafes anyway.

#6. Video reviews should count for double.

If a customer posts a video of them reviewing the company, it should count for more. At least double in my opinion. Same goes with reviewers who take photos. Their reviews should be valued more, like perhaps 150%.

Final Commentary

Honestly, if Yelp doesn't start making changes to improve the quality and honesty of reviews on their website then people should just stop using Yelp. The website has become bogged down with useless fake reviews, and the more people realize that Yelp is useless, the more people should stop using it.

A 2013 Harvard Business School study determined that 16 percent of Yelp reviews are fake. Four years later, we expect the percentage of fake reviews has gotten higher. Anecdotally, we estimate the number of fake reviews on Yelp is now between 20 to 30%.

Yelp isn't the only company which has problems with fake reviews. eg. Amazon also has severe issues with people posting fake reviews. So this is an issue that effects multiple companies and can be expected to get worse before it gets better.

But if there was a GPS requirement and video/photo reviews were valued more, this could change dramatically the quality of the review system Yelp currently has to one that is held to a higher standard.

Canada Archery Online - Company Review

Review by C. M.

So I recently ordered a new bow from a different company that I have never done business with before. The company in question was "Canada Archery Online", which is based in Toronto.

I opted to do business with the company for several reasons.

#1. They sold a particular brand of bow that I was having difficulty finding at other local stores.

They had the riser I was looking for: http://www.canadaarcheryonline.ca/risers/

And the limbs I was looking for: http://www.canadaarcheryonline.ca/limbs/

So I got the products I was looking for and I am happy with the products. That is not what I am reviewing today, but having a good selection of products is certainly a bonus.

Note - When visiting their website make sure you go to canadaarcheryonline.ca instead of .com. The .com doesn't really go anywhere.

#2. They provide hand delivery.

That is right, they deliver. Just like ordering a pizza.

Well, to be more specific they provide delivery to specific locations in Toronto, Brampton, Guelph and Montreal. The locations are:

Peel Archery Club
107 Nuggett Ct,
Brampton, Ontario
L6T 5A9

Battle Sports
26 Ashwarren Rd,
Toronto, Ontario
M3J 1Z5

The Royal Garrison
28 Essex Street
Guelph, ON
N1H 4L7

Seton Park Archery Range (aka, The Toronto Archery Range)
Don Mills Road and Gateway Blvd
Toronto, Ontario

Sports de Combat
5335 Ave Casgrain
Montreal, Quebec

So I ordered 3 sets of limbs, 1 riser, and arranged to have everything picked up at the Toronto Archery Range. That way, if I wanted to, I could just begin shooting right away.

In the far future maybe they could deliver everything via drone? Just like Amazon keeps promising.

But wouldn't that be nice, if you could just have things delivered like you would a pizza?

Take for example Pizza Pizza - a local pizza place that is very popular in Toronto. They have a $3.75 delivery charge.

What if, in the future, Pizza Pizza delivered via drone and the cost of delivery was FREE?

After all, think of all the pizzas a company could delivery using drones - eliminating the need for delivery people - and you only need the people who stick the pizza inside the drone (presumably the same people who hand the pizza to the delivery person) and possibly one person to service the drones regularly.

Many other types of businesses could follow this drone model too, replacing a variety of people:

• Package Couriers - like the DHL guy that showed up earlier today to delivery some archery gloves to me.
• Bicycle Couriers
• Any kind of food delivery service - including "Meals on Wheels".
• Mail carriers from the Post Office.

Right now the company Uber is planning to replace much of the world's taxi industry with flying drones that can deliver people from point A to point B. They already have started with self driving taxis in Pittsburgh, so eventually their goal is to replace the taxi industry entirely with self driving cars and flying drones.

Uber hopes to have their flying drone system known as "Elevate" up and running before 2026.

Uber also recently released self driving trucks, hoping to replace the truck driving industry with computer automation.

Still I must say, back to the company "Canada Archery Online", having the products I ordered delivered by a person who can smile, answer questions, and is wearing a "Canada Archery Online" t-shirt is a bonus. I would still prefer humans doing the deliveries on a regular basis.

Which brings me back to Pizza Pizza's $3.75 delivery charge. That is a pretty reasonable fee. I could see many other industries opting for a similar fee just so you can have a human deliver a product.

Because sometimes drones and robots simply won't be able to do the job.

eg. My apartment buzzer is broken. I had to leave the DHL guy a note saying to call my cellphone number. Which he did. A drone would not know they had to do that, although I suppose they could be programmed to notify me via text message.

Any number of things could potentially come up while doing a job. What if the package arrives, but it is damaged? Will the drone be able to direct me to where to ask for a refund? Maybe not.

Anyway, back on topic...

One of the things about Canada Archery Online is that they don't really have a bricks and mortar store where you can browse. Everything is online and then they just deliver to the locations mentioned above.

Which works for me, especially when I already know the products I want to order and I don't need to see them in person. Someone who doesn't know what they want however... it might be a bit like trying on shoes. That is a good time to be in an actual store where you can learn more about the product before you buy it.

Just wait though... the shoe salesman will be gone. Gone and replaced by a robot like the "Salesbot" Pepper.

Pepper the Salesbot

Bidding on eBay Antiques

By C. M. - August 31st 2017.

For the past three years I have been making a habit of buying antiques off of eBay and I have learned a number of things both about bidding on eBay and about myself.

• The bidding can sometimes get crazy.
• I really need to avoid anything where the bidding goes crazy, and so I have learned to set a maximum amount I am willing to bid.
• While there is a wide variety of antiques and collectibles to choose from on eBay, I generally prefer to stick to the older items that are in really good condition.
• I have learned that I need to set a limit for how many antiques / $$$ I am willing to spend in a given year. This way I don't end up spending a ridiculous amount on antiques each year.
• I also restrict myself to buying antiques at one time of the year, typically July to September. If I manage to get my purchases done by the end of August, that is a good thing.
• It is wise to restrict yourself and set limits.
• Always check to make sure they actually deliver to Canada. Some Americans refuse to ship to Canada.
• The shipping price might be more if they are shipping from the USA to Canada, so confirm the price.
• When possible, try to bid on products that are already in Canada. Makes the whole shipping thing easier.
• Plus I prefer to spend my dollars on Canadians when possible. Keeps the wealth in Canada.
• Sometimes you can get a sweet deal because nobody else bids on a particular item.
• Check out the option to Buy Now. Sometimes you can get pretty good deals there too.
• If making an offer for a Buy Now item I will sometimes bid $5 or $10 less than they are asking.
• If the seller suddenly ups the price of shipping "for no good reason" and it is suddenly a different price that what the courier quoted, something is fishy and you should cancel your order/payment.
• Watch Lists are handy for tracking the bids of multiple items that are similar so you can see how high the bidding goes and decide if you even want to bid at all.
• Never bid on something you don't actually want. I haven't made this mistake yet thankfully.
• Never bid on something until after you confirmed they do ship to Canada and the cost of shipping to Canada.
• You can always change your mind and refuse to pay. The item will go to the next highest bidder.

One of these days I am going to teach my mother how to sell her old records on eBay - the old records she never listens to that is. Some of them she does actually listen to regularly. At which point I should mention my parents also has numerous other antiques in the barn she could sell too.

If she learned how to do that it would give her a new hobby to do in her old age. ;)

Plus it would help to get rid of "old junk" and clutter that is in the shed, garage, barn, basement, attic and so forth. Some of it she will no doubt keep for sentimental reasons, but others... why not sell it?

And the same goes to you, the readers, do you have old stuff you don't really need you could sell?

I know I have a few things I do not need. Various books, comic books, a stamp collection, a coin collection... I imagine some of them could fetch a pretty penny.

One of these days I should sell such things. Just as soon as I find the time.

The Best Dentist in Toronto - Part Two

Two years we wrote a review for Archer Dental, titled "The Best Dentist in Toronto - Part One".

During that review we stated our intention to try and find other equally good dentists.

Unfortunately thus far we have not managed to find any other dentist to equal it.

Also NOW Magazine's 2016 Reader's Choice Awards has just voted Archer Dental to be the Best Dental Practice in Toronto. So apparently we are not alone in that assessment.

Archer Dental has two locations:

Archer Dental Rosedale

600 Sherbourne Street, Suite 810
Toronto, ON M4X 1W4

416.964.0010
info@archerdental.ca

Archer Dental Runnymede

625 Runnymede Road
Toronto, Ontario M6S 3A3

416.763.2000
 runnymededental@drarcher.ca

Nestle Boycott, holding local supplies hostage

See previous post: Nestle and the Water Wars

This is our 2nd post about boycotting Nestle because of their greedy actions over buying up water supplies for pennies (or fractions of pennies) and selling it back to people with a 500,000% mark up or more.

Eg. Buying 1 litre of water for $0.01 and selling it for $5.00.

Across Canada Nestle is invading small towns and buying up water rights for pennies on the dollar, bribing local politicians under the table, and then destroying the local water economy. The small towns then see higher rates for their consumption of water due to a water shortage, while Nestle continues to pump out millions of litres for fractions of pennies on the dollar.

Eg. 1 miĺlion litres for $5,000 seems like a good deal, until you find out that it is equal to $0.005 per litre. Half a penny per litre.

Meanwhile the shortage of water causes the townsfolk to have their water bills skyrocket because there is no cap on how much water Nestle can take. They can literally take ALL of the water if they wanted to and sell it back to the locals with a 500,000%  to 1,000,000% mark up in price.

One such town in Ontario is the scenic Elora (home to the Elora Gorge). The town of Elora has been in a battle with the Nestle corporation over control of wells. For Elora, the availability of water isn't just an issue of keeping drinking water in the pipes affordable, the town's economy also relies on tourism drawn to the beautiful Elora Gorge. If Nestle pumps so much water out of the local water table that it ruins the economy, and drives up the cost of water bills, they could end up destroying the local economy and holding the townsfolk's water supply hostage.

And that is just the story of one town. There are many towns where Nestle is doing this. Buying up wells, paying tiny fees for removing millions of litres of water, and holding the local water supply hostage. The company is downright villainous.

We saw the image below on Facebook and decided to share it here. Please join us in boycotting all Nestle products.

The Best Dentist in Toronto - Part One

Back in September I decided to go on a quest to find The Best Dentist in Toronto.

Now granted, Toronto has over 1000 dentists according to Yelp (or 800+ dentists according to Google) which means I could go to a new dentist every day for 2 to 3 years and still not try every dentist in Toronto. So trying each and every dentist in Toronto is impractical.

So instead what I have decided to do is to start at the top of the list.

When you Google 'toronto dentist' the first page comes up with a list of map locations of dentists, followed by 4 pages that are directories for dentists. The first dental practice listed is "Archer Dental".

(Plus my friend Robert recommended the place, so that is another reason.)

Archer Dental, according to my research, was listed as the Best Dentist in Toronto by NOW Magazine in 2013, so I think it is a good place to begin my series of dentist reviews. However let me backtrack a bit here and take us back to 2003 so I can review a different dental practice for comparison purposes.

In June 2003 I had was getting read to leave Canada and go overseas to South Korea. Since I didn't know what the dentists would be like in South Korea I opted to have a visit to the dentist before I left and hopefully I could forego visiting any dentists for the year I was in SK.

The dental office I went to was the dental office at York University's York Lanes, now known as York Lanes Dental Office.

I had already been to the York Lanes Dental Office several times before - without incident - but during that final trip I was given a deep cleaning by a new dental hygienist who - as best as I can tell was just fresh out of dental school or was still a student. What followed was the most painful experience of my entire life. It was absolute torture. It went on for what felt like hours.

When the dental hygienist was done I was missing part of my gums. They had literally torn my gums to pieces and one of the pieces was missing, completely cut out.

Thus began a very long period in my life in which I swore I would never go to another dentist again. Ever. Instead I embarked on a daily brushing / mouthwash ritual that sometimes included me taking a toothbrush with me to events so I could immediately brush my teeth after eating.

And believe me when I say I was paranoid about my teeth. I would brush too hard, I use mouthwash a lot (I have become a bit of an expert on mouthwashes and really should post a detailed review on them sometime), and I am a big fan of using sugarfree gum when I am outdoors so I clean my teeth using the gum.

It was 11 years and 3 months before I finally went to see another dentist, in September 2014.

When I finally made the decision to visit a dentist it was because I thought I had a chip in my tooth. But what I thought was a chip was actually a build up of 11 years worth of "calculus". It was not the tooth which had chipped, it was the calculus build up which had chipped. (Calculus chipping off is actually a good thing, but to my tongue it felt like a chip in my tooth.)

Despite all of my paranoid brushing time had still built up a layer of calculus on one small section of my teeth I wasn't brushing properly. My bad. Need to brush there more often.

So let us go back to the present.

I arrived at Archer Dental slightly early (about 9:50 or so AM, for a 10 AM appointment) on September 25th. I was given a very comprehensive form to fill out, covering everything from whether I was diabetic to what kind of medications I was on.

Once that was done I sat there and waited, playing with my phone because the choices of reading material available in the waiting room was limited to women's magazines and National Geographic. Oh what I would give for a Lee Valley catalogue for men to read... Seriously, they should add that to the pile of magazines on the shelf. Lee Valley catalogues are free and men LOVE reading anything that has tools or tech items in them. Add a Wired magazine subscription, plus a Lee Valley catalogue subscription and any man visiting their waiting room would be quite happy. I think I will bring along a Lee Valley catalogue during my next visit and surreptitiously leave it behind for other men to read. (I think the reason why it was mostly women's magazines because it is usually mothers who end up taking the kids to the dentist instead of fathers.)

Fortunately I did not have to wait that long. You know how most dentists make you wait FOREVER before you actually get to see them? Well my wait really was not that long. I was early after all, but I do believe my appointment actually started on schedule.

I was introduced to my dental hygienist for the day, Mary, who was extremely polite, considerate and willing to explain everything as we went along. I met Dr Archer later on, who likewise exemplified those values I find to be so important in a dentist. It was Mary however who ended up cleaning and also deep cleaning my teeth - and removing 11 years worth of calculus from my teeth, making me feel like I had a brand new set of teeth. And she did it while being as gentle and as understanding as possible. (That doesn't mean I wasn't in pain during the deep cleaning, that stuff is still painful - but at least she didn't rip my gums to pieces like that dental hygienist at York Dental.)

Afterwards I felt like I had been given a brand new lease on life. Like I was suddenly going to live long and have a fuller life. I was so happy with the results I promised to bring flowers the next time I visit, which will likely include a thank you note too.

When was the last time you went to a dentist and was so happy with the results you wanted to bring them flowers?

I am visiting Archer Dental again in a few weeks for a 2nd deep cleaning. After that I may end up becoming a regular visitor, but I also will be continuing my search for The Best Dentist in Toronto - which means I will need to explore and experiment with other dentists in Toronto and see how they stack up and compare with Archer Dental for their level of quality service.

Subscribe to Product Reviews Canada and read more reviews of dentists in Toronto in the future as I explore other dentists and try to determine which is the best. For now, the best dentist office in Toronto is Archer Dental.

Sometimes the customer is a moron

Ever heard the phrase "The customer is always right."

You know who invented that phrased? Customers that complain a lot and always try to get their way. (And then whine about it when they don't get their way.)

Truth be told, if you've ever worked in the service industry (doesn't matter what sector, any kind of service will do) you eventually meet a customer who starts demanding freebies, exceptions to the rule, and complains very loudly.

We all do it sometimes, especially when the situation warrants it.

But when you are on the receiving end of a customer who is verbally abusive (and I would argue "crazy") and thinks that they are entitled to an exception to your company policy, well then you have one solution.

Tell the customer to leave and take their business elsewhere.

Why? Because sometimes dealing with crazy customers just isn't worth it.

True, bending over backwards for customers makes for great customer service relationships. But sometimes customers are just demanding things that they have no entitlement for.

Take for example a dentist who receives people on an appointment basis. What happens when you don't show up for your appointment?

Well, the dentist charges you a fee because you missed your appointment and didn't show up. (And this fee is not covered by insurance by the way. YOU pay the fee if you miss the appointment.)

So imagine for example if the dentist gets a crazy person who refuses to pay the fee for missing their appointment, what do you think the dentist will do?

Answer - Refuse to serve that person until they agree to pay the fee. Why? Because they have Term of Service agreement wherein if you agree to schedule a cleaning for your teeth, then you are automatically agreeing to a ToS that says you also agree to pay any fees if you miss your appointment.

And such Terms of Service are normal for many industries. Dentists, personal trainers, massage therapists, basically anyone who works on an appointment basis.

On the other hand some businesses are more products based - and products come with warranties.

So for example if you go to an Audiologist in Mississauga and you purchase a Clarity XL-30 Amplified Telephone (a special telephone for people who have hearing difficulties), well then it comes with an one year warranty from the manufacturer.

Which means as long as the warranty is still good, you're fine. The manufacturer covers the cost of replacing or fixing your telephone. Which means the hearing clinic in Mississauga will be fine with providing you with full service to help you to fix or replace your phone. If however your warranty has expired, then they just have to point to the warranty and give you two options:

1. Pay to have it sent to the manufacturer and have it repaired.

2. Buy a new telephone with a new warranty.

Places like the above mentioned audiologist / hearing clinic always have great records for customer service - largely because they have warranties, receipts, records of clients, and they don't work on an appointment basis. If someone is late for showing up to purchase hearing aids or special telephones for the hearing impaired, or if they forget to show up, do you know what happens? The customer shows up later eventually anyway and it changes nothing for the audiologist working there.

But for the poor dentist or anyone working on a strict appointment based schedule, they don't just have appointments - they have a freaking WAITING ROOM with magazines and other things to keep you occupied. So you go there for your appointment, and then you WAIT for the dentist to be ready for you.

And if you don't show up, well then you get charged a fee.

At which point you have to wonder, what percentage of dentist customers complain about the extra fee for missing their cleaning, because the vast majority of people just nod, realize they are in the wrong, and then pay the fee.

It is really just the 1% of customers out there who want to be "squeaky wheels who get the grease" who would refuse to pay the fee.

At which point the dentist - or more precisely, the secretary working for the dentist - points to the Terms of Service agreement in the Fine Print.

At which point only a very small percentage of crazy / cheap people will complain about it. The chances of meeting one of these people is multiplied by the number of cheap people out there, multiplied by the percentage of people who feel they are entitled, and multiplied again by the number of people who like to argue and complain loudly until they are blue in the face.

In other words (since we are dealing with small percentages) the final number is pretty small and very rare.

But when you meet one of those crazy customers you understand and realize the same thing:

Those people are freaking lunatics.

Ikea employee insults breastfeeding mother

Here is what happened.

Brea Rehder says she was at the Ottawa Ikea store on Monday and asked about the price of an item she was purchasing.

The cashier went to get another employee who could help. That employee, she said, finished a long conversation with a colleague before making her way to where Rehder, her two children and a friend were waiting.

By then her nine-month-old daughter had begun to fuss, so she started to breast feed her in the store. (Ikea officially has a breastfeeding friendly store policy.)

Then the manager came over. "She came over to me and I asked her my question and immediately she said, 'When you’re done being disgusting, we can discuss this. But in the meantime, take it to the bathroom because you’re holding up the line,'" Rehder quoted the manager as saying.

"But the only reason I was holding up the line was because I was waiting for her."

After she paid for her items and left, Rehder went to the company’s Facebook page to complain about the incident.

"I have never been more insulted in my life," Rehder wrote on Facebook, adding that not only will she reconsider shopping at Ikea in the future, and that says she is also mulling a harassment suit.

Ikea has since apologized to Rehder and says the company is attempting to track down the manager who was involved in the incident.

To do what? Admonish them over an incident that has triggered a store boycott from every woman who has ever breastfed a child in public (and any people who are sympathetic to their cause, myself included).

I should hope this manager gets fired on the spot and I hereby encouraging everyone who reads this to boycott Ikea until they fire the manager for overstepping their bounds and ignoring Ikea's company policy.

Large corporations have company policies for a reason. It is to prevent boycotts, lawsuits and other problems that could hurt the company financially. When an incident like this happens the appropriate thing to do is to ask the employee to resign. If they refuse, more drastic action may be needed such as a demotion or outright firing them.

In this case I am in support of outright firing the manager. Kick them to the curb for ignoring the company policy and drawing a possible lawsuit.

Until Ikea fires the manager in question I am going to leave this post up unchanged and if I ever mention Ikea in future blog posts I will also mention the boycott. If they do fire the employee I will add an "Update" section with the date showing that they have fired the manager, and Ikea can sit safely that our boycott has ended.

Lumber Yard in Ajax

I was browsing a lumber yard company's website recently when I came across the following joke posted on their website:

One morning I was at the lumber yard counter when a young guy came in and asked for a 4x2. 'You mean a 2x4?' asked the guy working behind the counter.

'Let me see,' the young carpenter said.

He dashed out the door. A moment later, he entered to tell the lumberman, 'Yeah. It's a 2x4.'

'How long do you want it?' asked the somewhat frustrated gentleman at the counter.

Off the kid went again. When he returned his answer was, 'A long time. We're nailing it to the deck.' 

 Now I admit it isn't hysterical funny, but I thought it was amusing that the lumber yard company had liked it so much that they posted it on their website.

The company in question is Mar-Lyn Lumber in Ajax, which sells a variety of wood products including...

• Plywoods
• Lauans
• Pines and Spruce
• Mouldings
• Laminates
• Engineered Wood Products
• Natural Tentest

Now I ended up not buying anything from them - and I will point out that their website is really poorly designed and looks like it was last updated in 1996. But I think that is probably par for the course when it comes to lumber yard websites.

I also think that their company slogan is a bit funny and odd too.

They do apparently pride themselves on being able to find any kind of material - new or used - to fit a client's needs.

I did contact their email asking about a particular product and they were very helpful however, so I must say their customer service is top notch.

Cancelling Rogers Internet

Two days ago I cancelled my Rogers internet.

Had it for 7.75 years. Would have been 8 years in February.

Made the change because I was moving into a new apartment and frankly, Rogers wasn't giving the best quality service.

See all previous complaints about Rogers internet crashing, going down, etc.

Don't get me wrong, most of the time Rogers worked perfectly. And it was fast. I give Rogers internet 5 stars for the speed I was getting with respect to downloads and so forth.

But "most of the time" doesn't cut it when I need my internet to be working constantly for work reasons.

And then there was the customer service... which was a combination of computer system and whatever poor saps work in the customer service department. I feel sorry for them, I really do. That is a horrible job.

Big corporation customer service is often less than stellar. I give Rogers customer service 2.5 stars out of 5.

There are other factors too that I didn't like.

Hidden fees on my bills that come out later.

The email spam / snail mail they send customers.

Their insistence on trying to get everyone to sign a contract for a year or more for service.

Overall I give Rogers 3 stars out of 5. Fast, but not reliable and very annoying.

So who am I replacing Rogers with?

Bell.

Which I have tried before and it was "okay". 3.5 stars out of 5 if I recollect correctly. Marginally better than Rogers.

It does make me wish there was more internet companies wooing Canadians than just Rogers and Bell. Or rather, more internet companies with lots of speed and GOOD or decent prices.

For example TekSavvy is a newer company that sells internet connections via dialup, cable, and DSL.

They advertise their prices as being competitive. And it sounds good on paper, but the prices in the commercials and advertising is for their BASIC rate.

Meaning if you want more speed, more bandwidth, etc... well then you need to pay extra. They also charge you extra for the cable activation fee if you don't purchase a modem from them. (And if you don't like their service, they don't take back the modem and refund the difference.)

Cost of the modem? Between $99 and $120, depending on the type you purchase. If you don't buy the modem then they rent it to you. So you end up paying for it either way.

If you go over on bandwidth they charge 50 cents for every GB over.

So TekSavvy is just as much a money grubber as Rogers and Bell.

One of these days a new company is going to come along, offer internet service for a fair price - set a really high limit on the bandwidth, and have 100% uptime. At which point nobody will complain about the customer service because they won't need any customer service. It will just WORK the way it is meant to.

And then maybe Rogers and Bell will start taking the quality of their service seriously.

UPDATE!

Rogers is overcharging me on my final bill. No surprise there. Booooo Rogers! Boo!

Free Hearing Tests in the GTA

I recently had a free hearing test in Vaughan.

Why? It is a long story involving trespassing, someone shooting at me, and hearing damage. I shall spare you all the details, but suffice to say it happened when I was 12 years old and I am now 34.

I knew I had hearing damage because my hearing in my left ear has been "not so great" ever since that incident. My problem is that I don't know how bad the hearing damage is - and whether it is likely to get worse in the future.

Now because I like being frugal finding a place that offers free hearing tests in Toronto is pretty tricky. I ended up going all the way to an hearing clinic in Vaughan to have the hearing test done. I might have been able to find another place in Toronto that offers free hearing tests, but when I spoke to the people at Omni Hearing on the phone they were extremely helpful and willing to help me - even though they knew I was unlikely to purchase an hearing aid.

OMNI HEARING CLINIC
9699 Jane St. Unit 19
Vaughan ON L6A 0A4
905-605-4593

I have been living the last 22 years without an hearing aid and I am not about to buy one now when my hearing doesn't seem to have gotten any worse. Buying hearing aids to me is more for people who are significantly older than myself. True, I have hearing damage, but its not so severe that I can't do without.

Truth be told I have rather afraid of going to an audiologist / hearing centre because I was worried about what they might say about my hearing damage. Instead I was relieved to learn that my hearing damage wasn't as severe as I thought it might be - and while the damage was done a long time, the audiologist said it appears to have repaired some of the damage over time. There is still permanent damage, but there was likely temporary damage at the time of the incident which faded with time.

The weird thing is that he also tested my right ear - which turns out to have BETTER than normal hearing. He speculated that my right ear ended up compensating for the left ear for a period of time and has since become my "dominant ear".

So yeah, very happy with the results.

I also browsed, for fun more than anything, Omni Hearing's prices of hearing aids. I don't know if their prices are higher or lower than normal places, but their services, honesty and eagerness to help me was impeccable.

So yeah if you live in Vaughan, Thornhill or Woodbridge and are looking to buy an hearing aid or get an hearing test, I absolute the the clinic at Omni Hearing in Vaughan. I'd even recommend people from other regions of the GTA make the trip there for any kind of ear exam / hearing evaluation, etc. So if you have hearing loss problems, totally the place to go.

You can even take your hearing test online. Its less detailed, but still quick and easy to do.

Omni Hearing also sells and offers the following services:

Hearing Aid Batteries;
Hearing Aid Repair;
Hearing Aid Cleaning;
Hearing / Listening Devices;
Amplified Telephones;
Musicians Earplugs;
Custom Hearing Protection...

Basically anything you can think of hearing wise then Omni Hearing can help you.

Is that a ringing endorsement or what???

A Trip to the Post Office

Yesterday I got a note from the post office in my mailbox informing me that a package had arrived.

I had no idea what was in the package - as I had neither ordered anything recently and was not expecting any products being sent for me to review. (If you want a product reviewed, contact me and I shall give you my mailing address.)

On Tuesday I received a free wedding dress from simplybridal.com, which will be used for my sister's upcoming wedding in 2014, so I wasn't expecting anything else to show up in the near future.

When I went to the female clerk in the post office I also spied a series of Zodiac based stamps for sale. The Sagittarius stamps especially caught my attention (because I like archery).

So on a whim I purchased some stamps. I can use them for snail mailing relatives.

The clerk came back with my package, which turned out to be a package of underwear and socks from "MeUndies"... I had previously reviewed MeUndies on the Fashion Salon website.

The package included a letter which said:

"Hi Charles!

Here are some samples from the brand new men's and women's product line we've put together at MeUndies. It includes some awesome patterned socks, newly designed and super comfy Lenzing Modal undies, and some of the best fitting basic tees around.

We would love to get your feedback!

Best,
Greg Fass
Head of Marketing"

Now when I received the package I was really only expecting a rather delayed package of women's underwear which was supposed to be sent back in Mid September 2012 - and is now 6 months late being delivered. I had already reviewed the men's underwear for the Fashion Salon website, but I was going to give the ladies underwear to a female friend so she could review it also. Except it never arrived.

And now, 6 months later, a package does arrive... and it does contain...

4 samples of women's underwear
1 pair of red socks with black dots
1 pair of boxer briefs with a water tower pattern on it
1 white shirt, size medium
1 black shirt, size large

Which is all really wonderful - and they do look really comfortable. But I am left wondering... what happened to the women's underwear for my friend which was supposed to be delivered 6 months ago???

And then I look at the package... USPS (United States Postal Service) and then Canada Post.

If the package from 6 months ago was sent... did it get lost in the mail? Or was it never sent?

Luckily, Greg Fass included his email in the letter so I will be emailing him soon in an effort to discover if the older package was ever sent.

Maybe they simply ran out of "Briefs, Medium, White"...? Which I doubted until I checked their website (which has been updated recently) and it no longer lists white briefs as something they sell, so maybe they really did run out of them...

FedEx (which delivered the wedding dress on Tuesday) never had any problems with that showing up. But things do sometimes get lost in the mail...

eg. When I was 18 I ordered a package of music CDs from Columbia House... and then they never arrived. So I had to ask them to resend them.

And it really isn't so much that things get "lost" in the mail. Nobody "loses" a package of things like that. Its simply that sometimes postal workers realize what is in a package and just steal it for themselves.

Which is why I NEVER send large important packages via regular post. I always pay extra for courier because the rate at which packages are not delivered is significantly lowered. That doesn't mean FedEx, UPS, etc doesn't steal stuff too... it simple means they don't do it as often because they know the packages are being tracked electronically.

Which begs the question, since the postal service is evolving anyway due to the internet / email / text messaging / etc... maybe its time they also evolve to add electronic tracking to all their parcels too? Just slap a barcode sticker (stamp???) on each package, scan it, and then track the package from being sent to the place it is delivered.

Yes, over time that means that prices will go up - but the prices at the post office are going up anyway!

Those Sagittarius stamps I purchased? $7.12 for the package of 10. $0.712 each.

If I wanted to send a small package by courier I might be spending $10 to $20 on it, depending on the weight. If I try to send the same package using nothing but stamps... It might take all 10 stamps to do it... and it might get lost in the mail. So it is worth spending a little extra so you can track its progress and make sure it doesn't get lost. Especially if its something valuable.

Thus stamps are really only good for sending small items - letters to relatives, friends, etc.

Twitter: Not as good as you think it is.

When it comes to promoting your website and your company's business there are a number of websites out there that are considered to be good investments in terms of advertising and promoting your company.

Twitter is one of those companies.

And it isn't as good as you think it might be. I shall explain why.

#1. According to Alexa.com (a website which tracks the popularity of other websites) Twitter is only used by approx. 8.5% of internet users. In other words it is really only used by the tech-savvy people who like tweeting to each other. The other 91.5% of the internet population apparently has no interest in Twitter.

What this tells you is that Twitter has reached its limit in terms of "market share" and would really only be good if you are trying to advertise directly to people who are tech-savvy.

Lets take for example the following company Twitter page for US Money Reserve, a company which encourages people to invest in gold and silver as the global economy grows and shrinks periodically. Whenever the economy turns sour the prices of gold and silver soar.

Now think of the type of people who would invest in gold or silver. Hmm. Business people. People with lots of money. Often well educated. Probably own stocks and a 401 K account. Chances are more likely that they're tech-savvy, own a BlackBerry or smart phone, and possibly on Twitter.

Thus a company wishing to sell gold and silver to investors would be wise to marketing via Twitter.

But someone who is marketing a small niche business, like 'Gary's Civil War Antiques Emporium', probably won't do so well on Twitter because it isn't the type of website that caters to American Civil War buffs. That doesn't mean that such a company can't try to promote their business via Twitter, I am just saying it is significantly less likely that Twitter will give them any edge advertising wise.

What does well on Twitter is celebrities like:
twitter.com/ParisHilton

Or renowned writers like:
twitter.com/MargaretAtwood

Or politicians like:
twitter.com/BarackObama

Or brand name companies like:
twitter.com/Microsoft

The point I am trying to make here is that for people or companies who are already famous or brand names, Twitter is added bonus. But it won't make your company famous on its own.

US Money Reserve Inc's twitter page does have lots of useful tips on it and news about the gold and silver exchange, prices, market valuations / predictions, etc... but by itself the company isn't going to see a huge benefit from its Twitter page. It will help it a little because its marketing towards the more tech-savvy people who are more likely to invest in gold or silver, but you first have to get people on to their website and/or Twitter page and that is the really difficult prospect which comes down to traditional marketing techniques and online marketing like Search Engine Optimization.

Twitter pundits like to claim that Twitter can help a website go viral. However the type of topics that do go viral are often not business related. They're always something funny and interesting, and therefore worth sharing on Facebook, Tweeting about, etc... But the problem is that most people on Twitter don't retweet things and even those that do retweet a particular topic aren't going to retweet something that is obviously an advertisement for a business.

"Oh but doesn't Twitter boost Search Engine Optimization"?

Actually no, it doesn't. Two reasons: Twitter links always have "rel=nofollow" in the link coding which means search bots don't follow them and it gives no benefit SEO wise. The 2nd reason is because most links are shortened using Bitly, which means the search engine doesn't even see any useful keywords because it is ultimately just a code like "http://bit.ly/QFytRk". So Twitter does zilch in terms of boosting SEO.

The only benefit of Twitter is to give a company or person the appearance of being tech savvy. Which ultimately can be an utter failure if the person isn't tech-savvy at all and just doesn't care.

Take for example twitter.com/sirseanconnery which shows what happens when an aging actor tries to use Twitter and gets bored with it quickly.

My review of Twitter?

0.5 of a Star out of Five. It doesn't even a full star because as a tool it is shamefully outmatched by Facebook which is a more effective social media tool and currently has a reach of 46% of global internet users and a growing base of active users. Twitter is a complete waste of time compared to the juggernaut that is Facebook.

Ambrosia Holistic Health Centre

The Ambrosia Holistic Health Centre is in the heart of Montreal and before you get caught up with all their harmony and serenity consider this...

When you first enter their website everything is in French.

Oh sure its in Canada, a bilingual country, and its in Montreal the most bilingual country in the world, but their Montreal massage / massage Montréal website is only in French.

Its only after a while of searching around do you notice a tiny link in the upper right that says English.

Its good that they have it there, but its very difficult to notice.

Beyond that Ambrosia offers everything you can expect from a health and beauty spa: massage therapy services, expensive skin care products, Feng Shui decor, osteopathy, yoga, meditation, life coaching, saunas, aroma therapy, kinesitherapy, body wraps, exfoliation, nutritional advice and stress management coaching.

But like all such health spas don't expect any of this to be cheap. Its $40 to get a facial, $125 for a Siamese Herbal Massage and $255 for the "Complete Royal Treatment" (a process which takes 3.5 hours to complete). And this is just a few of their services.

Having belonged to a gym and a yoga studio in the past I've become aware that such places charge an arm and a leg for any special services. A personal trainer at one such gym is $90 per hour.

So maybe I am just cheap. Maybe I think its overpriced to pay someone $90 / hour for exercise advice (I can get free exercise advice from YouTube or many other websites).

But you can't get a massage from the internet... or a sauna (unless you buy one for yourself). You could give yourself a facial if you know how, but I guess it all comes back to that idea of luxury.

Luxury.

Its the reason we go out to restaurants and pay other people to make food for us and serve it to us. A health spa is all about paying other people to perform a service you are too lazy to do yourself and to enjoy the luxury of it, assuming you can afford their ridiculously high prices.

Garbage and Junk Removal in Edmonton

Do you know what I really love?

Websites that give you a discount just for mentioning their website or where you saw their ad.

ie. Lets say you are Googling the terms Garbage Collection Edmonton or Junk Removal Edmonton and find the website vanishsiteremoval.ca. They offer free estimates and a $15 discount when mentioning their website.

True, they're not the only website that does this, but its a very good practice. The business learns more about which of their advertising methods is working and you save some cash.

More examples:

designSEO.ca offers a variety of discounts via Facebook if you mention how you find their website. (Mention this blog post and you can get 10% off website design work before December 31st 2012.)

hometex.ca offers a a 5% discount coupon off ALL purchases in exchange for you linking to their website. (No link here, since I am not buying anything from them.)

evenbetterhealth.com readers get a discount of $500.00 off the regular retail price of any Thermal Life® sauna from High Tech Health.

Another thing I like is when websites have VIDEOS. vanishsiteremoval.ca's video below is also a good example of this in action.



Promotional videos for websites don't have to be complicated. Some times making a simple video is just as good because it concisely gets the job done. No extra fuss hiring actors or wasting people's time with a phony script. You get the point across, explain your service, how to contact you and you're done.

So for a service like garbage removal its really a no brainer. Its not like the service requires a huge amount of skill or trained expertise. Any idiot with a truck can remove garbage. The bigger issue is how cheaply it can be done and what happens to the garbage after its removed (recycling, land fill, incinerator, etc), and does the garbage contain any bio-hazards/chemicals that will have to be dealt with properly (this latter part may require some expertise).

Another thing I like is when companies / websites make a genuine effort to make a nice looking logo. Shows a degree of professionalism some websites / companies lack. If the logo looks spiffy I find I trust the company more even if I've never dealt with them.

Its a bit like buying a car. Would you rather buy a GMC (with its classic GMC logo) or a car made overseas with a badge that looks poorly made? The answer is obvious. Everyone buys the more professional product or service if they can afford to do so.

The one thing I don't like is Vanish's contact page at http://vanishsiteremoval.ca/contact-us/. Why? Because they use a form mailer and don't even give the option to email them directly.

What if I wanted their email address to write down and use later? What if their form mail script is broken (this happens sometimes with websites and your carefully written letter goes into oblivion)?

Is it too much to ask that a website have a proper contact email you can send to directly without using idiotic form mail? (Makes me want to whack their website designer over the head.)

I also despise websites which use WordPress. Yuck. Badly done.

But I guess that is what you get sometimes when people spend all their money on a good logo and leave a few peanuts left over for website design. vanishsiteremoval.ca probably offers a good quality service, but they should fire their website designer.