I went to my bank for the second time in a week today. Again no line up. Weird. Twice in one week I'm either first in line for a teller or a wicket is open and they are waiting for me.

Banks are going to lose their reputation as large uncaring, unfriendly institutions if they keep this up.

Okay .. so the bank machine decided not to recognize my pin.. and then when i got that reset I found they forgot to hook up my checking account to the bank card. So there is no worry they are efficient and provide top notch service.. its just they are friendly and have less line ups.

Opened a large bag of shredded cheddar from a small local dairy/cheese place. Was going to sprinkle some on my chilli until I tasted it and found it tasted more like a cross between feta and blue cheese than cheddar.

Needless to say I had the chili without any cheese...

Found the number of the company and called them. I think its a relatively small family business. They called me back and I finally got them today.

I'll get a refund most likely but they are going to send a sales rep to pick up the product as they want to find out what happened to it.

Oh fun -- told them to drop by one morning next week. Time to remove the trapeze from over the coffee table (kidding) - seriously my living and kitchen need a slight sprucing up before anyone visits... Guess what I am doing this weekend...

Nesbitt, a stock brokerage has been sending me a statement each month for the last 2 years saying I have nothing in my account. These folks are mental morons I think.

This month I finally wrote to them and asked them to close my account. Okay so I wrote it on the statement and said "please close" and signed and dated it

I hope they do. But I'm not holding my breath after all their systems don't question the point of keeping an account open with $0 in it.

No one courts you more than a phone company that you have left.

I've gotten cards, notes, calls and now emails begging me to return to Ma Bell.

Of course when I asked them why they didn't treat me this well when I was with them they really didn't say anything but indicted that things now I'm gone are "different". Now they'll do backflips to get me back.

You know what. Had you treated me better as a customer I might have stayed.

Misplaced my visa while on holidays. I have no idea if it is lost or stolen but I think more likely lost - no charges other than mine have been made on it.

Rather than stress (and I have been) I had them cancel it. They are sending me a courier that I should get tomorrow with a new card.

Until then I'm fine as I have a debit card (not hooked up with visa or mastercard here in canada) and cash.

Friends just had their cards compremised - three cards all in their possession still with $18,000 in charges racked up (car, car parts (guess the theif bought a lemon), and flowers in London England. The one place they'd used all three cards was an internet server company. The card companies made it "all better" very quickly and were very interested in that connection....

Misplaced my visa while on holidays. I have no idea if it is lost or stolen but I think more likely lost - no charges other than mine have been made on it.

Rather than stress (and I have been) I had them cancel it. They are sending me a courier that I should get tomorrow with a new card.

Until then I'm fine as I have a debit card (not hooked up with visa or mastercard here in canada) and cash.

Friends just had their cards compremised - three cards all in their possession still with $18,000 in charges racked up (car, car parts (guess the theif bought a lemon), and flowers in London England. The one place they'd used all three cards was an internet server company. The card companies made it "all better" very quickly and were very interested in that connection....

Damn Primus who i have my interent with now. I have had great service so i'm moving my home phone to them. To promptly get my dsl cut off while they make the transfer

"sorry lady it takes a week"

&Y#$# @#$#

Yeah right...

Its gonna be a long week

The sales guy assured me they'd be no issues and my service would not be down. The tech and customer support jail that does not allow you out of it to real people assure me I should have been told this and it is 100% necessary and unavoidable.

I so feel like a loved and cherished customer

I did some things today that have been on my to do list for a long time

* Changed my home phone provider to the same provider as my internet - this should save me some $$

* got the password for my email from my internet provider so i can change my mail set up

* Got new bank card so i can use interac (debit) and not be refused cause the card won't work cause its too old (humiliation is a great motivator)

* ordered cheques from the bank (I have two left)

It feels good to have these taken care of!

I bought a very expensive pair of Merrill Sandals about a month ago. I love them. They have all the support of very good runners and look a bit dressier (they are still pretty casual but can be worn with capris or a skirt if I'm going for a casual relaxed look.

I have been wearing and wearing them and noticed that where my foot sits is getting dirty and feeling a bit ucky. So, I emailed the company and asked how to clean them. Their answer:

"On a regular basis, brush away surface dirt with a soft brush. After extended, rugged use, wash with mild soap and warm water. Be sure to rinse all the soap off as it is hydrophilic. Let it dry."

The brushing doesn't do much but washing them with soap and water cleaned them up and they feel like new. So easy but I hadn't thought of it.

I'm calling the supermarket with the crappy meat an am on hold hearing about how important my call is to them.

You not only have crappy meat but right now you aren't making me feel very loved at all.

2 thumbs down for Superstore (ontario)

(Got them on the phone. They are going to look into it. Nice of them. Not like I'll trust their meat anymore though)

For resetting passwords to banking sites automated phone systems rock, cause there is no admitting to people that you are an idiot with the inability to type and recall a 6-10 digit password.

Got in there. Paid off my visa from last month before Luigi and Guido showed up at the door or on the phone demanding knees or immediate payment.

Need to call Visa thursday to make sure the payment went through as I'm paying for next years subscription to dinner theatre for a friend and I that night before the opening of The Full Monte

Wrote to pinesol today to tell them I can't use their product anymore. And I can't. the product which I had used for years gives me a major migraine when I use it now.

I'll be interested to see if they have any suggestions. This time I made sure to take a copy of what I wrote.

I'm not doing this to try to get free stuff or even coupons. I'm trying to understand more about the products I use, give feedback and see if the companies really do walk the customer service walk or if the stop at the talk..

I week or so I wrote to Unilever about one of their products. I summarized my note here

Got an answer about the vitamins. Glad I didn't throw them out thinking they expired in 05. Got an email from NOW (the makers of them) and they confirmed that the expiry date is 2010. They got back to me in about 24 hours - great customer service on their part!

A nice surprise and saved me some money as I didn't have to replace them.

Now I just have to start remembering to take them. Honestly, I'm better at buying them than actually remembering to take them.

One of the things I did this weekend was clean out medicines. After I tossed a couple of items that had been expired way longer than is likely good to take them I found some vitamins (Magnesium and Calcium) that have an expiry of 05/10.

I'm not sure if they expired in 05 or will expire in 2010, so I've written to ask. I really wish that until 2013 companies would use 4 digits for the year on expiry dates.

I bought some All laundry detergent a few weeks ago. Ultra concentrated and does a pretty good job on clothes. I like the small bottle because I use a laundromat and appreciate not having to lug a big bottle with me. I had some feedback to give the company about the product that was mostly positive. However I found the marking for the right amount of detergent very hard to see and wanted to comment on that and how much I liked the small bottle and how little of it you needed to wash clothes.

Looked on the bottle. All is a Unilever product. So went to the Unilever site. All is not listed there on the contact us or in the list of brands.

Went to the All site. The "contact us" page is under construction.

It took a bit of looking but I finally found a contact form that would work.

Unilever is a multi-billion dollar company and they have unfinished websites? They don't list all their brands on their contact us page? It really boggles my mind.