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.

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 does Amazon not accept PayPal?

By C. Moffat

Amazon is one of the world's largest online marketplaces for ordering pretty much anything you want.

PayPal is basically the world's largest online bank, the preferred way to pay for things online because it is safe, secure and fast. In 2014, PayPal moved $228 billion in 26 currencies across more than 190 nations.

So you would think it would make sense that Amazon would accept payments via PayPal...? Wouldn't you?

It would, except that PayPal used to be owned by eBay - an online rival marketplace, but one that focuses on auctioning off used items to the highest bidder.

Now you would think Amazon, which sells new items, and that eBay, which sells mostly used items, would not be rivals, but for whatever reason they are.

In order to better facilitate eBay's users they started the company PayPal to make it easier for people to pay for things online - and PayPal spread across the internet, becoming one of the best ways to safely and quickly transfer money to pay for things, send money to family/friends, etc.

Below is a Live Chat conversation I had with a "Help Representative" from Amazon. He deliberately avoided the real answer as to WHY Amazon doesn't accept PayPal.

The funny thing is that eBay doesn't even own PayPal any more. They are now separate companies, and have been completely separate since July 18th, 2015.

So admittedly the split was very recent. But still this would be an opportunity for Amazon to finally step up their game by accepting PayPal - and what is more they had roughly a year to prepare for the July 18th split, as eBay announced plans to split PayPal off from the parent company back in 2014.

So will greed finally win out and consumers will finally have another option instead of credit cards (which are notoriously problematic to use online)...?

Only time will tell.

What I will tell you is that I have 6 items in my eBay Shopping Cart waiting to be paid for - and I am not going to bother buying them until eBay gets their act together.

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!

DropBox - File sharing with your friends and your gadgets

DropBox is a handy file sharing service which is available for your PC/Mac, your SmartPhone, your tablet, whatever gadgets you have basically...

It allows you to transfer files between various gadgets easily, and also to share your files with friends quickly and easily.

To sign up for DropBox just click here!

Rogers Internet goes down again and again and again

Rogers internet service has gone down 3 times in the last week.

That is really pathetic.

I am tempted to switch service companies.

Travel Insurance

 I must admit that travel insurance is one of the few types of insurance I agree with.

Health insurance, very good.

Accident / liability / theft insurance for your car, very good.

Life insurance... kind of pointless after you are dead. Really only useful if you have family to worry about and haven't already arranged your funeral.

But travel insurance is basically health insurance for when traveling in other countries. Its also supposed to cover financial default of travel suppliers (eg. if they suddenly declared bankruptcy and no longer honoured prepaid tickets), and other losses incurred while traveling. But most of the "other losses" are pretty vague and not used very often so its really just health insurance for tourists.

Standard travel insurance is supposed to cover:

• Medical emergency (accident or sickness)
• Emergency evacuation (volcano, earthquake, tsunami, hurricane, war-zone, etc)
• Repatriation of remains
• Return of a minor
• Trip cancellation
• Trip interruption
• Accidental death, injury or disablement benefit
• Overseas funeral expenses
• Lost, stolen or damaged baggage, personal effects or travel documents
• Delayed baggage (and emergency replacement of essential items)
• Flight connection was missed due to airline schedule
• Travel delays due to weather

Thanks to the internet (Huzzah!) you can now buy travel insurance online very easily. You can even buy travel insurance on your iPhone in roughly the same time it takes you do download an app.

So lets pretend you go to Mexico... and you get sick from drinking the water... or shot by kidnappers... or robbed by bandits... injured during a hurricane... fall in a sink hole and break your leg... Seriously, every year there is some problem with Canadian tourists stuck in Mexico and there has been some kind of catastrophe, murder, kidnapping or whatever.

I know Mexico is really cheap (and fascinating if you love pyramids like I do), but its really got a bad reputation to stuff happening. Having travel insurance when traveling to Mexico should be pretty much mandatory.

So yeah, if you are traveling to a dangerous part of the world like Mexico is, you really should get travel insurance. Mexico is like a jaguar... beautiful, but dangerous.

I remember when I was in South Korea (a country that is still technically at war with North Korea... and the North has nuclear missiles) I got travel insurance. Mostly to cover my health costs in case I ever needed a hospital.

One time I got sick and did need to see a doctor and get antibiotics.

Another time I was mountain climbing (freehand) and nearly fell. Thankfully I did not fall. But if I had fallen I would have either been:

1. Dead, in which case who really cares if I have travel insurance.

2. Very injured, in which case that insurance probably would have been used quite a bit.

That is really the point of travel insurance I guess. When traveling you are more likely to be doing new things - including mountain climbing, horseback riding, deep sea diving, swimming with sharks, dolphins, jellyfish, piranhas, and eating new foods that you could be allergic to. Or drinking water that might not be safe.

Thus travel insurance, even if not traveling to a dangerous part of the world, is still a wise precaution.

Rogers Internet Outage

On January 9th 2013 Rogers Internet went down all across Ontario for over 5 hours.

No warning. No explanation why it happened after the fact. No refunds either to compensate people who lost productivity for their work or leisure.

The fact that Rogers Internet doesn't have any backup systems in place suggests to me that they're really running a shoestring budget operation - and overcharging customers for shoddy service.

There are OTHER companies available. Including faster companies. If you know of any in Ontario please leave a comment below about which internet providers you think are more worthy.

Kindle Book Review: Anonymous Sex

Okay so I was browsing Amazon Kindle and I came across this book: "How to Find Anonymous Sex Partners on the Internet"






And I thought, hey, $2.99, cheaper than a cup of coffee. True you do have to own a Kindle first, but that is easily done. If you are big on reading then going digital is easier than you think. You can even have it delivered. (Note: I checked the prices in stores and its actually cheaper to order a Kindle online.)




Basically its a guide to meeting people on the internet (and more specifically, having anonymous sex with people you met on the internet).

And its advice is very easily broken down into a long detailed list of tips. What to do, what not to do, safety advice, where to go, what to post, how to be funny and witty, etc.
Some of the advice was common sense, but a lot of it was things you wouldn't normally think of but was ultimately quite logical.

Furthermore it didn't just apply to finding sex partners (although that is certainly the angle the anonymous writer went for). A lot of the advice pertained to online dating in general and could be used when making a Plenty of Fish account, posting personals on Craigslist and so forth.

So happy reading and doing-the-nasty or whatever it is you are looking for.

Yellow Pages: Completely overrated!

Lets say you're running a business... you want to balance costs with your ROI (return on investment)... why then would you list your company in the Yellow Pages?

True, there was a time when listing your company in the Yellow Pages was all it took to ensure your company had an inflow of customers. Especially if you were a pizza company, a plumber, Toronto accountants or something like that.

But in 2011 the Yellow Pages has become an antiquated piece of garbage. People throw them away when they get them in the mail. They're basically giant pieces of junk mail.

And there is a reason for that...

#1. Only companies who are either stupid or have tonnes of money advertise in the Yellow Pages. Simply because the ROI is so low. Chances are likely you won't get your money back from your investment at all.

#2. These days its all about websites and local SEO. The Yellow Pages is obsolete in comparison.

#3. Price: It costs $$$ to list in the Yellow Pages and they basically try to sell you as much as they can. They're sales staff and I wouldn't be surprised if they're paid on commission.

#4. There are many other services to find a phone number these days... ie. Google Maps, online business listings, apps on your smart phone.

If you go to YellowPages.ca they now offer free listings (because they've realized the hard way that people no longer want to pay to list businesses) and are trying to hit you up to hire them for advertising.

So here's what you do... take the free listing. Skip the other nonsense. Totally not worth your $$$. Yellow Pages is so completely overrated its barely worth your time making the free listing. (Note: You will need a HST # to sign up for a free listing.)

Here's a fun test to do... compare doing Google searchers for things like sunrooms in your local area... then try finding a company which makes sunrooms in the Yellow Pages. Chances are likely you won't find one in the Yellow Pages.

Try the same thing for other stuff like Ottawa windows or IT staffing Toronto... Google will bring in the results, especially if you want to search locally using Google Maps.

But the Yellow Pages? Pfff! Complete waste of time and effort, for bother the person looking and the person wanting to be found.

designSEO: Everything you need!

TECHNOLOGY - Lets say you live in Toronto... and you're starting your own business. Or maybe you already have a business.

And poof, you suddenly realize you need a website for your business (or that your current website sucks).

So you go online looking for a website designer, preferably one who knows how to make a website popular, because after all what is the point of having a website if nobody goes to it?

At which point you learn about something called "Search Engine Optimization" and you start doing Google searches for "Toronto SEO" because you need someone local you can meet in person, shake their hand and know you're not getting ripped off by some guy living who-knows-where in the world who treats you like a number and not a person.

Navigating the maze of websites on the topic (even locally) is a daunting task. Some of the websites are charging outrageous rates. Some of them when you call them refuse to even meet you in person.

That is when you ask around amongst friends / colleagues to see if they know anyone good... and maybe you come up with nothing.

Well here is my recommendation: designSEO.ca is the place to go...

It doesn't matter if you're Googling "Toronto website designer" or are just looking for "free SEO advice", then they're the place to go.

designSEO follows the philosophy that website design and SEO goes hand in hand, that the two are inseparable (to the point that designSEO uses a ying yang symbol for their logo) and must co-exist for a website to work properly and be popular.

And on the plus side, designSEO's rates are reasonable and competitive, they prefer to meet clients in person, they offer personal on-call service, and they can match your needs to your budget.

And best of all, you're a name and not a number.

PlentyofFish.com: Five Stars!

LOVE & SEX - Looking for love in all the wrong places?

Well maybe you haven't tried PlentyofFish.com. As online personals go (and I've tried quite a few over the years) Plenty of Fish has become "Numero Uno" in my book.

#1. For starters Plenty of Fish is free! Completely free! Its advertising supported and the brain child of a Canadian entrepreneur who realized that people needed a free personals website which offered advertising instead of outrageous monthly payments.

#2. When they say "plenty" its meant literally. Plenty of Fish is a global website with over 5 million unique visitors per month, and over 11 million registered users (that suggests 6 million people either found love or stopped looking).

#3. It is the #1 dating website in Canada, #1 in the UK and #2 in the USA.

And frankly why would anyone pay for a service which is inferior on another website when you get better quality service on "POF" for free?

And when I say quality, I really do mean it. I've tried out dozens of dating websites and the only one which comes close to the level of quality is okCupid.com (which is also free).

When using POF or okCupid I find its useful to treat it the same way you might use a Facebook profile, with the difference being that you are there to meet people.

Reputation.com Busted! Its totally bogus man!

TECHNOLOGY - You may have noticed ads online for reputation.com, a website which claims to be able to assess whether a person has a good reputation or not.

I tried searching for my own name and came up with low/mediocre results. Apparently my reputation is perfectly safe.

However to test out whether the website's function actually worked I tried testing the names of known villains... lets see my results:

Adolf Hitler (WWII Dictator)
Possible Negative Content: Average
People with Name: 2
Search Activity: 450,000

Paul Bernardo (Notorious Sex Criminal/Murderer)
Possible Negative Content: Low
People with Name: 91
Search Activity: 9,900

For fun I even tried names of other things...

Jack the Ripper (famed serial killer who was never caught)
Possible Negative Content: Average
People with Name: 0
Search Activity: 135,000

So yeah... if the worst reputations in history only come with "average" then reputation.com's schtick is totally busted. I'd argue such a website is a complete waste of time.

If someone really wanted to learn more about their reputation, just use Google News. If your name isn't in the news then its not worth worrying about.