I am so sick of idiots who have a sense of entitlement.

You have probably heard the story about Eleni Prontzos, the 17 year old who was caught for shoplifting at a Price Smart Foods  recently. She had stolen about $20 worth of makeup.

Rather than press charges, Overwaitea Food Group, owners of Price Smart Foods, demanded $300 in fines for the theft.

Prontzos and her parents are refusing to pay the bill! HELLO, you could have been been prosecuted and have a criminal record,  instead they are fining you? Suck it up and pay the fine. YOU STOLE FROM THEM. You broke the law, pay the fine and be grateful they didn’t call the cops on you!

The media is having a field day, blaming the big box stores for fines that can reach as much as $700. This is generous people!! A criminal record would cost you WAY more in the end!

Peter Prontzos, Elani’s father said that this is just a “money making operation”. Is he serious? These stores lose MILLIONS a year to shoplifters, they are entitled to try and get a SMALL percentage of that back.. What a joke shoplifter dad.

I think that they should revoke the fine, and instead throw the book at this little thief, and give her the maximum penalty permitted by law. Maybe then they will look back and say, maybe we should have paid the fine. Make an example out of her for what can really happen to shoplifters.

There is more on this story over at CBC.ca

Of all the kids in the hall skits, for some reason I always remembered this one.

Had never seen these before, hilarious!

I never really watched Kids in the Hall back in the day, but they really did come up with some funny stuff

A Toronto woman is suing Rogers for $600,000 after a cell phone bill allegedly destroyed her marriage and her life.

You are probably wondering, how on earth can a cell phone bill ruin a marriage? Well its simple. She cheated on her husband. He saw the bill with the strange calls and put the pieces together, and then left her.

How is this Rogers fault? Hmm… It isn’t!. Is it? I don’t think so…

If you don’t want your husband to find out you are cheating on him, then don’t cheat on him. I am sure this will go out as one of the stupidest lawsuits of all time, and if by some rare chance she wins (which she won’t) Then it won’t matter anyways because its a sure fire sign that the world is about to come to an end!

Here is the original article from the Globe and Mail.

Well, after some complaining and an email targeted at a high-level exec, we have made some headway on our issue with Bell Canada.

Here is the summary of our initial issue:

• When we first phoned, the rep promised us a $10 / month credit for 12 months, in ADDITION to the $200 PVR Programming credit
• We got the $200 credit, but they refused to give us the $10 credit, essentially saying that the don’t offer such a thing.

What it sounds like happened is that the rep did not know the services very well, and mistook the $10 PVR rental credit, to think it applies to all new sign-ups regardless of if the PVR is purchased or rented. That is how their current promo works apparently, however, as a customer calling to ask what they could offer is to determine if we should switch, one has to assume the rep knows what he/she is talking about.

In the end, the rep made an offer, we accepted it, and Bell declined part of the offer. Even if the rep made a mistake, it should still be honored.

Well, all of this made us angry, after all $120 in credits over 12 months is a decent chunk of change. While reading a forum thread where people were complaining about Bell I stumbled on a post that had the emails of some high-level execs, so I thought, if customer service won’t help me, maybe these guys will.

I fired off an email with my situation, and left it at that, never expecting to hear from anyone about the topic again, however, later that day, I got an email response from the assistant to the exec requesting my account number.

Today that assistant called me and we spoke. They are investigating and will be looking up that initial phone call. He said that if they can find the original call that promisses the discount, then they will honor it. That’s fantastic news. He promised to call me back next Friday either way with the outcome.

Now, IF they are able to dig up that original call, I know for a fact they will hear the offer, and should give us the credit. If this happens, it will restore much of my trust in this company, but not all of it – after all, this issue should never have been an issue in the first place!

My bit of pessimism tells me though that this assistant could do nothing and then simply call me back noting that the call could not be found, and decline the offer again. I would hope they are honest enough to look into it, but time will tell. I’ll post an update when a final decision is made.

Interesting Note: The manpower they are using to investigate this is costing them more than the $120 in credits – it would have saved them money to just give us the credit in the first place – oh well.

Bell Canada, Oh why did we switch to you? You tempted us with $200 off in credit if we bought a PVR. We got this credit. You tempted us with better programming options than your competitor. We got that programming. You tempted us with $10 off per month on programming for the first year. We got…wait? No we didn’t get this….

We called you to find out about switching from Shaw Direct, and what you could offer us. You told us, on more than one occasion about the $10/month programming credit. That helped cinch the deal, we signed up with you, we canceled our 5 year relationship with Shaw Direct – then you decided to breach this contract by reneging on part of the deal you offered to us to get us to switch!

We called numerous times to complain, and finally the best you could offer was a $20 credit, not the originally contracted and promised $10/month for 12 months. – yet we are still bound to your two year contract!?! We took the $20 you offered, cause lets face it, $20 is still $20.

We are in a touch situation here. In most cases this $100 deficit in your contracted promise would result in us canceling service with you and switching back to Shaw Direct. But you have us over a barrel

While we are extremely UNHAPPY with you, and will NOT recommend ANYONE to ever use Bell Satellite services we will stay with you. Here is why.

First let me note that we don’t care about the contract. If we wanted to cancel we are not worried about those contract cancellation fees simply because you breached the contract first. Its that simple. It will not go to court or anything like that, but if it did, you are clearly in the wrong. You breach first, you lose. (I may be wrong here, but because we are not canceling, this us a mute point anyways)

The reason we will stay with you is because the loss of the $100 in promised credit is exceeded by the cost to switch providers. If we were to switch back to Shaw Direct, we need to buy a new PVR. Even after credits etc, the cost of a new PVR would ultimately far exceed that $100, so financially it actually makes sense to stay with you, even though we hate you. Your programming / channel line up is great, we are happy with that. It’s just your policies in handling customer disputes that we are, well quite frankly, pissed at.

You say you record all calls – why you refused to listen to the original call from when we signed up is beyond me. It really makes me wonder how many other people have been promised an offer, signed up, then had that offer reduced with no recourse. Not a good way to run a business…. Or is it? You are probably making Billions off it.

Not too long ago the provincial Government announce the launch of the HST (Harmonized sales tax) which is to be put into place later this year. This tax came as a surprise to most, and for the vast majority, most people are seriously ticked off about it.

The new HST will also show all restaurant bills jump up from the previous 5% tax up to 12% tax. That’s an additional 7% on all food purchased in restaurants.

People are fed up.

A petition has been started at www.NoMealTax.ca . I urge you to visit the site, and if you agree, sign the petition. As of the writing of this article 164,315 people have signed the petition so far.

There are a lot of funny emails that circulate, and they often find their way back time and time again.

Today I received one such email from my friend, I’ll call him … Bill, cause thats his name. This email is about questions people have asked about Canada and were originally posted on some official international tourism website,  (according to the email). Supposedly the questions are real, but the answers were intended to be a joke. I am not sure how true any of this is, but regardless, the Q and A below is still an entertaining read.

Q: I have never seen it warm on Canadian TV, so how do the plants grow? ( England )
A. We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around and watch them die.

Q: Will I be able to see Polar Bears in the street? ( USA )
A: Depends on how much you’ve been drinking.

Q: I want to walk from Vancouver to Toronto – can I follow the Railroad tracks? ( Sweden )
A: Sure, it’s only Four thousand miles, take lots of water.

Q: Is it safe to run around in the bushes in Canada ? ( Sweden )
A: So it’s true what they say about Swedes.

Q: Are there any ATM’s (cash machines) in Canada ? Can you send me a list of them in Toronto , Vancouver , Edmonton and Halifax ? ( England )
A: No, but you’d better bring a few extra furs for trading purposes.

Q: Can you give me some information about hippo racing in Canada ? ( USA )
A: A-fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of Europe Ca-na-da is that big country to your North….oh forget it. Sure, the hippo racing is every Tuesday night in Calgary Come naked.

Q: Which direction is North in Canada ? ( USA )
A: Face south and then turn 180 degrees Contact us when you get here and we’ll send the rest of the directions.

Q: Can I bring cutlery into Canada ? ( England )
A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do.

Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys’ Choir schedule? ( USA )
A: Aus-t ri-a is that quaint little country bordering Ger-man-y, which is…oh forget it. Sure, the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in Vancouver and in Calgary , straight after the hippo races. Come naked.

Q: Do you have perfume in Canada ? ( Germany )
A: No, WE don’t stink.

Q: I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Where can I sell it in Canada ? ( USA )
A: Anywhere significant numbers of Americans gather.

Q: Can you tell me the regions in British Columbia where the female population is smaller than the male population? ( Italy )
A: Yes, gay nightclubs.

Q: Do you celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada ? ( USA )
A: Only at Thanksgiving.

Q: Are there supermarkets in Toronto and is milk available all year round? ( Germany )
A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of Vegan hunter/gathers. Milk is illegal.

Q: I have a question about a famous animal in Canada , but I forget its name. It’s a kind of big horse with horns. ( USA )
A: It’s called a Moose. They are tall and very violent, eating the brains of anyone walking close to them. You can scare them off by spraying yourself with human urine before you go out walking.

Q: Will I be able to speak English most places I go? ( USA )
A: Yes, but you will have to learn it first.

Years ago, sometime around 1999 or there abouts, I was driving in my kick-ass 1979 Datsun 280zx. (I loved that car). I was with my buddy Jason and we were driving down the Dyke road (connecting Courtenay with Comox). We were listening to the following, and I had to pull over – I was laughing so hard I was crying and couldn’t see. Good times.

This is probably the best version of the “12 days” that has ever existed in the history of the world.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

It seems odd to me. The Canadian government spends countless funds on so called “free” health care. The truth is, no, it is not free. Cheap yes, but free – no. I pay $108 a month for my wife, daughter and I, in MSP (Medical Service Plan) premiums. This is mandatory. In exchange I can walk into any hospital in Canada and be treated without having to ever EVER pull out my credit card.

I admit, that $108/month is a good deal when it all boils down to it.. I am not trying to knock the system, but it certainly is not free.

But I think that that MSP premiums could be eliminated if the medical system could cut costs. Probably the biggest way to cut costs would be to reduce the number of patients. You can reduce the number of patients by having a healthier society. If you want a healthier society, why not offer tax breaks for things that can improve overall health: recreational programs, gym memberships, etc, and tax the crap out of things that are bad for you; Candy, fast food, alcohol, smokes (I know booze and cig’s are taxed like crazy as it is, but tax them more, and make it harder and harder to smoke – I hate that stuff soooo much)

If the government allowed you to write off anything that would improve your health, the money they lose in taxes would be far outweighed by the money they save in health care costs.