At Bel-Air direct, we know you are going to shop for car insurance, so we make it simple, by providing five quotes from the competition.

Isn't that so nice of them?

I work for an insurance company, but this isn't about competition, it's about marketing to the general public.

You go on their website, they want to 'help' you out by not having you to give information a number of times, so they will give you a quote from their competition.

Each insurance company, in Canada anyway, needs to submit rules for whom they will and will not insure and they may actually even submit the price factor.

So, say I am Bel-Air and can reasonably predict your companies premium and I put it in a chart, from lowest to highest

Company 1 $513.00
Company 2 $535.00
Company 3 $565.00
Company 4 $570.00
Company 5 $592.00
Company 6 $606.00
Company 7 $612.00
Company 8 $615.00
Company 9 $631.00
Company 10 $668.00
Company 11 $702.00

Say Bel-air direct is company #4 and have car insurance for you at $570.00.
Of these 5 competitive quotes they will provide you to give you piece of mind, which one would you give your customer?

Yeah, #s 5, 7, 8, 10, 11.

If you have to pick 5, you are going to want the ones that either have a bad name or are more expensive. Unless they don't want you as a customer anyway, in which case they are going to give you the cheaper ones.

It's not like it's illegal, they are offering you exactly what they are claiming, but boy, are they banking on some lazy customers here.

Customer "So, how much is it to repair my car?"
Mechanic "$1400 buddy"
Customer "ok, I am going to take it to another shop and price comparison"
Mechanic "You don't have to, we already did it for you, Speedy was $1500., Acme was $1650 and National Car gaugers were $1900"
Customer "wow, what a great service, I don't need to shop around then. You are saving me time and money"
Manager and accountant start to giggle in the background

Meanwhile, the car could have cost you $1100 at Firestone in Pickering, ask for Darryl (truly, I have an awesome mechanic, you don't even need to shop around, but if you did, you would still go back there.

Get out of your technological funk and enjoy the outdoors.

In our age of technology, where parents IM their kids to say it's time for supper and mindless electronic entertainment is draining our lives, Canada's Wonderland wants you to spend family time at their park.

Their ad is good and hits home. They want you to enjoy the family aspect.
However, the positive of what they are trying to convey is outweighed from the negative experience I had with Canada's Wonderland and he makes me laugh at the value they 'place' on family.

Last year, my daughter, 10 at the time, and her mother were going to be off for the entire summer, so it made sense that they got a season's pass to Toronto's biggest amusement park.
Early in the calendar year, we had made it contingent on her getting grades that reflected effort. Not necessarily A's, but effort.

Now, for Wonderland, the prices are cheaper before the park opens and goes up in May. My daughter was doing well, so we bought 2 season passes and a parking pass.

Grades show up and arrrrgggg, not very good in a number of subjects. But we have already bought these passes.

Being the good parents we are (we have an EXTREMELY amazing 3 parent system) we can't possibly reward her for this.
So, her mom contacts Wonderland to a 'there's nothing we can do, you bought them'.

I am a bit better at pushing the envelope, trying to show them the pluses to making this situation a win-win, so I call.

Explaining that we don't want a refund, could we get the tickets for next year?? No, you can't was the reply.
With the hundreds of thousands that take in this park, surely $200 is not going to make a dent. "It's policy"

Ok, how bout you let me speak to a supervisor then.
You see, the way I would look at it, is if you do this, you have my money, I am just moving my visits from one year to another. If you say no, and I stick to my guns about my child raising, then you cost me $200 and give me no value. Would that make you want to 'shop' again.

Supervisor says we can sell it if we haven't used it (sell it to whom). To friends or something.
Ok, so, if someone hasn't bought one now, what would compel them to buy one now?

Explained how it could look to customers and she didn't care. You bought it already, we won't notice if you use it or not. And the truth is they won't, they won't even notice if I come back ever again.

So, it goes to waste.
The following year, since I bought on line, I get the email spam for this year's season pass.
So, I replied to the email saying there is no way in hell I will ever go there again if you didn't care about me enough, as a customer, to defer your profit for the sake of child rearing.

The response??? Nothing of course.

This year, we had our company picnic at Canada's wonderland including cheap passes for family.
ahh, no, won't be going.

So, when I hear the commercials valuing 'family time', I just have to laugh. Of course they don't care about the family unit, they care about the turnstiles.

It's a shame really, they had the easy task of creating a positive memorable experience and they did the opposite.

Sure, they may miss out on a couple of hundred dollars, maybe even a thousand over my life time, but money and reputation is no match for consistent, non-veering policy decisions, does it?

After all, if you can't handle all possible situations by a few policies, what kind of parent would you be anyway???

Do you think we will ever get to a point where we hold celebrities responsible for their actions?

It was right after a new (mock) commercial on Lindsay Lohan's new perfume, the unique blend of marijuana and a Gin/Tonic combo, that they announced that the box office receipts for "I know who killed me" were very poor.

Ahh, too bad.
Personally, I wonder how someone who just turned 21 (July 2nd) can already have been in and out of rehab for drugs and alcohol. Legal age for drinking is 21, is it not?

I would not see her movies for a few reasons. The first, I am not a 14 year old teen, the second being is that I don't want to contribute to her pocket so she can get drunk, do drugs and help her be famous by "Lohan, dead at 26"

She's not the first, she won't be the last.
The biggest star on my hit list is Tom Cruise. His religious hysteria is too much for me. His telling everyone what to do, when to do it, is disturbing and hopefully, I am not the only one that won't support it.

The next one is easy, because I hate it anyway and that's RAP and it's artists. It's only a stereotype if it's inflated and it's not stereotyping to suggest that the RAP industry is full of criminals. RAP has more hard/potential criminals than the general public do, it's dangerous.
However, the audience that Rap typically attracts doesn't care because they would also fall into the same category.
Again, I am not suggesting that everyone that likes Rap is a criminal (or potential), however, if you look at the ratio of the fans of Rap and crime to the general public and crime, you will see a greater than normal trend.

If the "Rat Pack" was a group made up of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. etc and the "Brat Pack" that combo of Rob Lowe, Anthony Michael Hall, Molly Ringwald, Ali Sheedy, etc then this combination could be referred to as the "Bitch Pack". Amongst this group would be Nicole Richie, Paris Hilton, Lohan, etc.
People that trade fiancees, steal boyfriends, PDAs and Cellphones, are in the news not for their talents (if any exist), but for the disturbances they cause. I think, just for kicks, I will add a queen mother to this list. Victoria Beckham.

Also, I saw a good portion of "One night in Paris" and she did look like the most boring lay in hollywood. The one thing she is most noted for and she should be embarassed. Not because she had it filmed, not because it was released, but because she is dull.
(Her parents must be proud)

So, I am raising a glass (perhaps a Gin and Tonic, well, perhaps not) that Lindsay Lohan's movie was such a flop so far. Here's to Hollywood that contributes to these mal-adjusted alcoholics and drug users and parents that have left that job of parenting to be an agent.

May you all be forced to watch a 6 hour movie featuring the bitch pack in all their acting glory.
I already have the title "I know what you smoked last night"

They outnumber regular phones now in North America.
Greatest invention or greatest tragedy?

Cell phones, who needs them and who doesn't.
A girl (not a lady, not a teen, a girl) who was in my daughters daycare left the daycare because she was turning 13 and they only go up to 12.
She was really fond of one of the teachers and so, while in school, would text her just to say "Hi" (that'll be ten cents please).

Worse of course is the North American Text Messaging champion, an almost teen who sends 8000 texts a ..... MONTH.

But while I never needed a cell phone when I was a kid (as we had payphones and a dime), the worst possible time to use (or need) a cell phone is.... yeah, in traffic.

The very public issue is, of course, safety. If you are talking (and especially if you are holding the phone), you have to divert concentration away from the vehicles that are heavy enough and go fast enough to kill someone.

To me, the underlining issue is much broader, because it happens more and more in our society (well, North American society anyway) and that's by talking on the phone, diverting your attention, you are SCREAMING out to the other drivers, "you are not as important as I and I shall do as I wish, when I wish, and how I wish"

It's a very common theme these days. I have seen people slip through closing doors simply so they don't have to hold it open for the next person.
Talking on the cell phone while driving means you don't signal lane changes, you don't look where you are turning and you have no vision outside of that special tunnel.

I was cut off the other day on a road leading to a highway. Instead of just going behind me to make the same turn, it was acceleration, tight squeeze between me and the next guy, a sudden stop and then turn, the exact same direction I was going.

No signal, why, can't steer (erratically) and talk at the same time.
They have yet to put anything premium changing (from an insurance perspective) for talking on a cell phone, simply because it's probably too hard to monitor. I don't doubt that we will get to a point where these types of distractions will make invalid the vehicle insurance we carry.

I have a cell phone and I have a hands free unit as well as ear phones and a mic if I really need to talk. Most of the time I will politely say, "I'll call you when I get home" as the lives of the people around me are most important.

Just wish people felt the same way.


This post is dedicated to my new friend Mia as this was her topic.
Someone whom I hope will soon realize that contacting me outside of a poker room won't do her any harm and may do her a world of good.
What do you say Mia???

Lance: Yeah, I cruise in sometimes before a workout, get myself energized

Brittney: He comes in every single morning and orders a Half-Caf Frapachino mixed with a Tazo Tea latte, 7 pumps, no fat, no foam, no sugar, while he looks for a job because his mother wants him out of her basement.

Lance: Sometimes I get a muffin

Brittney: He likes blueberry, it's the only fruit in his diet.

Lance: If I have the time, I will read the paper.

Brittney: He sits in an French Provincial Chair and has the Wall Street Journal on top of his Archie Comic book.

Lance: I am Lance Bergman and my Starbucks is at Yorkville

Brittney: and I am his Barista.


PUKE!!!

First of all, Starbucks, like Krispy Kreme will be out of Canada with the next wave of fads when we realize that it's not trendy to spend $7.00 on a drink and a muffin.

I worked with, what I can only refer to as an wasteful use of oxygen, named Ann.
She loved her Starbucks and I made up a combination that pays homage to her skinny assed "I want to be trendy because it makes me feel like I have friends" drink

Even when we had to go to the US for business, she bought this combination and it was $4.59 US at the time, I have no idea what it is now. I haven't been in a Starbucks (from the Latin meaning you have to be a Star to have the bucks to afford this crap) ever, and they don't put prices on their website (probably because it would require a long integer).

Let's just say that this beverage is about that price and given their expensive price for coffee, I assume their food products are the same, so let's call it $7.00. (Second Cup costs $3.33 for Hot Chocolate too)

Lance goes in everyday to be one of the beautiful people.
By the way, $7x5 = $35 and $35x52 = $1820.00

You see, Lance spends more on Starbucks than I do on Auto Insurance AND property Insurance COMBINED.

And ya know those comfy chairs, well, you are paying for them. You are paying through the nose for all that trendy crap and what does that poor Barrista get, probably minimum wage.
You pay for the paper, you pay for the Tazo, you pay for the use of the term Latte.

What you get though, is just the same in the end, had you gone to Tim Horton's, something that ends up in the septic system.
But, you get to keep most of your money, because a coffee at Timmy's, costs about $1.25

And that probably saves $4.50 a day (at Timmie's) and let's face it, that's $1170 a year. Enough to buy your own arm chair and a subscription to Archie.

Little Chris, saying goodbye to his favourite Custodian almost made me cry.

ALMOST.

Two types of commercials piss me off,
1) political party commercials where one party attacks another. Instead of saying what you are going to do that is good, you want to concentrate on what others don't want to do. Why, because you aren't going to do anything either but that's not a selling feature.

2) commercials paid by unions.

Chris, saying good bye to his favourite custodian for all the little things he did, getting the balls off the roof, fixing his crutch when he had a broken leg. .
But my mom said you lost your job because some guy named McGuinty kept $375 million from education.

You see, CUPE really cares about the cleanliness of schools, well, except when they are on strike. Then, they want them SO DIRTY that parents become outraged. They will stop vehicles and hold up people from their daily routine to get you on their side.

When I hear of people running strike lines and someone getting hurt, don't get me wrong, it's a tragedy. However, if you aren't working, you should be at home.
But no, you want to protest. I will tell you from my experience if you stop me from doing my daily routine, I will not be on your side. I would be more likely to be one of the ones that sneak in to do your job.

Life outside a union is so much easier. If you don't like your pay and think you deserve more, you have that leverage to find another job that pays you for your perceived skills.

If you get a job that pays more for your set of skills, then you were right. If you don't, then it's double jeopardy. You aren't worth that and you are out of a job.


People, anyone really, like to value the job they do above their salary, it's natural. I know I don't make what I contribute.

Unions are special that way (not in the same way your best friend is special, more in the way that the little boy on the bus with the bike helmet is special)

Both my two best friends work in unions.
One is staffed at a time that there really isn't work to do. So, guess what, sometimes, he can take a nap.
The other is staffed in a company that can't fire people for theft.

Please don't let CUPE fool you into thinking they care about your children any more (or less) than the government does. If they cared about your kids first, they wouldn't prevent the schools from being cleaned for the health of the kiddies.
A CUPE head even had the nerve to say (of the Durham school board) that they don't think the schools can even stay open a week. Last time it was 8 days and it was a mess and a health concern.

My daughter is doing what she can. Bringing back every scrap of garbage home to make the best of a bad situation.

In closing, everyone needs raises, raises that are ABOVE the increase of inflation and the cost of living.

What we don't need is Unions and their leaders making $150,000 a year and pushing you to think you are not replaceable.

Teachers, I luv ya. When you go into teaching for the right reasons, you are the most valuable people in the world and I will agree, give you good money so you aren't forced to leave teaching.
Those that go into teaching so they have 11 weeks off a year. We DON'T need you. Unions won't let us get rid of people like you that go into such a valuable profession for the wrong reasons.

H&R Block, reuniting you with your money.

H&R Block, now well known as being the un-doing of the Jeopardy Champion Ken Jennings, run their annual campaign to get people in. Reuniting you with your money is their concept.

Go in, get your taxes done and walk out with money. That's their version of reuniting you with your money.

The issue is that if H&R Block really wanted to reunite you with your money, they wouldn't allow you to walk out with money.
The quietly spoken and likely small print "fees apply" is the key to their pilfering.

I will confess that I haven't checked this in 2007, but in prior years, the 'fees' were this.
15% of the first $300 and 5% of anything else.

So, only $300, it's $45.
$400, it's $50
$1000, it's $80
$2000, it's $130
$5000, it's $280

It may not seem like a lot, but that's not the point, it's the concept that they want to reunite you with your money. When in fact, they want you to introduce your money to them.

This really caters to the instant gratification movement that is the newest thing tearing our world apart.

When I file my taxes, I get my refund in 4 to 10 days.
If you use the high end of 10 days and calculate the 'interest' you are paying on that cash back, you take the 5.6% (using $280 on $5000) divide by 10 days (per diem) and multiply by 365. You will find out that you are paying the equivilent of 204% interest per annum on you impatience. (If you use the 4 days as a benchmark, you get 511%)

I have an update. If you can't wait 10 days for a tax refund, you have other issues. You shouldn't be visiting H&R block, you need to go to a financial consultant. (I know a good one)

We can't blame H&R Block for doing it this way. I am sure there is some remote risk that allows them to discount your tax refund this way.
If the banks were smart, they would agree to loan you the money based on an H&R Block tax return for less of a take and they still would rake it in.

Or, just take a patience vacation, wait it out and get 100% of it for yourself. Isn't that the smart thing to do?