Wendy's Old Fashioned Service on Elgin Street

On Friday for lunch I gathered my coupons and headed over to Wendy's (200 Elgin Street, Ottawa).  I had received some Wendy's coupons in the mail about a week ago and was wishing to use them before they expired on December 16th.

I visited around noon on Friday which I thought was going to be trouble.  When I arrived there my nightmare came true.  The lineup seemed lengthy.  I joined the line to see how this would pan out. 

Surprisingly the lined moved pretty quickly.  All three cash registers were open with friendly staff taking orders.  This was quite unlike some previous McDonald's experiences where there is a decent line, yet cash registers are left unstaffed.  At this Wendy's a manager also was working acting as a runner as well as problem solver if need be.  As well there was another staff member running as well.  So orders were being taken and food was arriving in a timely manner.  Watching this from other side of the counter as a customer was fun to watch the efficiency.

In less than two minutes I got to to front of the line and placed my order. 

The Order: 1 Large Fries, 1 Large Coke and 1 Single Dave's Hot N' Juicy Cheeseburger. (Coupon was for 1 Free Single Cheeseburger with purchase of Medium Sized Drink and 1 Medium Fries). 

In less than two minutes the manager had retrieved my drink and burger.  The employee working the fries brought forth the fries and I was over to the condiment station. 

There is, like at most Wendy's locations, only has one condiment station.  This creates issues when there is a volume of customers moving through as most condiment stations can take two customers at most.  At this location at this time there were three customers there with one of the three not doing much but standing there waiting for his friend to finish up.  A personal pet peeve of mine is people who insist on occupying a spot at the condiment station and not doing anything.  It is similar on the pet peeve scale as the person who stands in line at a fast food place for more than five minutes, gets to the cash and has no idea what he wants to order.  Like really?  Get out of the way!

I eventually got to the condiment station to retrieve the usual necessary ketchup, napkins and straw. I then proceeded to find a spot.  The restaurant seating was busy but I found a spot at the storefront window counter to watch the pedestrians pass by on Elgin Street.

The hamburger was the usual Wendy's burger with the added cheese.  The toppings though seem to have become a little less the way Dave would have wanted.  1 tomato slice slapped on with a poorly sliced rippled piece of iceberg lettuce.  The cheese at least was somewhat melted.  Not the best Wendy's burger but also not the worst fast food burger I've ever had.  Mediocre at best. 

The fries were not skimped on in quantity.  The large fry container was overflowing with Wendy's new sea salt fries.  Taste wise they are what you would expect from Wendy's.  Temperature wise they were room temperature and probably borderline up to Wendy's standards.  

Value wise the meal was decent with the coupon.  For $5.29 including taxes it was excellent value.  The regular #1 combo meal (1 Single Dave's Hot N Juicy Cheeseburger,1 Medium Fries and 1 Medium Fountain Soft Drink) is normally $6.69 before taxes.  The price without the coupon is starting to get a little steep especially considering, like other fast food places, the prices of these combos keeps getting jacked upwards.  But with the burger wars going on customers would expect better burgers with competitive pricing.  Sadly that does not seem to be the case.  All we get is higher pricing with different packaging like the new burger packaging concept at Wendy's. 

The new burger packaging at Wendy's seems to have gone chain wide.  This involves the burger being wrapped in the usual hamburger paper packaging with one end of the burger exposed.  The burger, wrapped in the paper, is then turned sideways and put in a cardboard container that holds it sideways with the open end exposed.  I'm still trying to figure out what the marketing genius who came up with the concept was thinking.  Why not just wrap the burger like Wendy's and McDonald's have been doing for decades, in paper wrapping?  This is because the average burger served at a Wendy's location definately doesn't look like the ones shown in the commercials.  Thus, why on earth would you want to showcase it in this method?  There are too many variables that could go wrong at individual Wendy's locations chainwide to expose the burgers visually.  

Overall,  the burger meal was what I have come to expect at Wendy's now.  Decent mediocre fast food at good prices if a coupon is involved.  Service at this location is pretty quick with the location obviously knowing when the peak customer volume is and staffing it appropriatly with experienced staff and managment on hand.

Get out of the Line!

Recently I visited McDonald's in Aurora for a morning coffee and muffin before starting work.  I walk in on an otherwise relatively quiet Wednesday to the usual one cashier/server working the line.  However, the line fairly lengthy and not really moving. 

The first customer in line is a mother with an 8 year old who is ordering while the mother looked on.    Now eight year olds (and others who are younger) are funny people, you ask them a question and they get thrown for a loop.  They love routine and once focused on something they are good to go.  That was the case of this 8 year old at McDonald's. 

That was until the cashier asked if he would like his Egg McMuffin Sandwich in a combo.   He was stunned, then he couldn't remember the rest of his order and things deteriorated from there.  The rest of the line behind him started to get restless.   Here was a proud 8 year taking his mother out for breakfast for what seemed to be her birthday with his very own money.  A proud day for any kid to say "no Mom, I got this one"  and things were starting to go downhill. 

But kudos to this kid though, he looked at his mother for a little guidance. She smiled and said a combo was fine.  But then came the next question for this flustered kid...how would you like your coffee?  Stunned silence from the kid.  Mom hung him out to dry on this one.  The line grew restless again about lack of progress.  No help from McDonald's management on this one either, no manager acting Saintish and swooping in to open another till to make things right.  

Eventually the kid clicked in, finished up the coffee order and rhymed his order off. 

Fast forward to lunch a couple of days later.  Two tills open for lunch.  A single lady who probably is old enough to remember when McDonald's opened, is contemplating her chicken sandwich "grilled or crispy".  She spent at least 5 minutes in line staring at the menu wondering what to order.  She then contemplates "crispy or grilled?" and to make matters worse "fries or salad"...hmmm  decisions, decisions....

The other till has three kids and a mother who is trying to select the toys for the happy meal.  The oldest says "I don't care which one I get" from the 10 different choices.   The youngest is furious that the only choice he eyed, McDonald's happens to be out of stock.  What ever happenned to McDonald's only offering one toy per week and changing it up week in and week out?  Too many choices and so much indecision.  Face it, McDonald's customers are not exactly great at choices...combo or no combo?  Crispy or grilled?  Would you like to upgrade your meal for an extra $0.49?  and on and on it goes.

Some days I feel just like John Pinette at McDonald's......

Buy your own Newspaper Dam It!

Newspaper reading is quite an art while riding public transit.  It is important to keep in mind fellow transit riding customers while trying to navigate your way through a braodsheet newspaper.  Tabloid style newspapers like the Toronto Sun and Metro have the advantage as they do not take up as much space or require the acrobatics to turn the pages that a broadsheet, like the Globe & Mail, requires.

Normally I am very cognizant of how full the bus is compared to how much of a sectioned broadsheet paper I have out.  If the bus is really full, I have one section out folded in half laying on my lap with a long story to pass the time.  Other times when the bus is less full I can get away with leaving the sections on top of my bag on my lap while I read one section.  I find this is common courtesy for other riders on the bus

This past week I happened to be reading the Toronto Star on two occasions while enjoying my commute home after a good day at work.  The bus was not that busy so I had my bag on my lap with the newspaper sections I was not reading at the time neatly folded while I browsed a section.  Both times the bus was not that  total stranger sitting next to me leaned over and inquired if they could read a section.

Both times I felt deeply disgusted that someone would have the audacity to inquire about reading a newspaper which you pay for.  It is like asking to borrow your shoe so they could wear it.  You dutifully paid for said shoe, but now someone, who you have never seen before, is asking to borrow it to wear.   It was also not like I had been to the local Metro or 24 Hrs box and pulled out a free copy myself and quite possibly had finished reading it.  No, I had picked up the Toronto Star with a purchase of a coffee from the local McDonald's and picked up the paper.  Sure I received it for free from McDonald's with the coffee purchase, but all these other bus riders should have assumed was I dutifully paid $1 or $2 of my money from the local box or store.  Bottom line, they should have assumed the paper was my property and should have laid off.  

In the end, I felt awkward.  how in prey tell do I respond? Do I flip a section over? Or do I come up with some lame excuse?

 The first time I chose the latter, I said I was getting off the bus in two stops and would be taking the paper with me (i.e. make it seem like they would have zero chance of finishing an article before I left with my newspaper).  But as it turned out I was actually get off the bus in four stops, just enough time for the average person to finish a section.

 The second time I actually had the perfect excuse.  I was asked if they could read the Business section.  I replied it was the next section I was going to read.  I then read every article in that section possible.  The only downfall was it had the Classified section included, which cut down the numbers of pages I could read.  In the end I put the entire newspaper in my bag and looked away awkwardly. 

In future, I will refrain from putting the newspaper sections I'm not rading on my lap.  I will politely leave them in my bag.  As the old saying goes, "out of sight out of mind" will hopefully resolve awkward social situations where some stranger asks you to borrow something. 

I just hope shoe borrowing isn't the next pet peeve of mine.  My size 13s are hard to fit in my bag. 

To those of you looking to read the newspaper....BUY YOUR OWN DAM NEWSPAPER!

Swiss Chalet Not on the Scene Points

This past Thursday I received an e-mail from Swiss Chalet promoting their line of gift cards for the holiday season.  Near the bottom of the e-mail was a promotion for Scene Card holders could obtain 6 points for every dollar spent on gift cards to Swiss Chalet, Harvey's, Milestones, Kelsey's and Montana's.

So looking for a gift for one my friends I thought this would be a great idea.  After hitting our local Zellers on Friday night we cruised over to Swiss Chalet (9350 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill) for some chicken and a gift card.  The wait for dine in was 30 minutes to be seated.  We inquired about the gift card and was told it was at the take out only.  So about face and headed towards the door where the take out was.  We stood in line for about ten minutes to order the chicken. 

A server took our order, copying it down on the back of receipt in crayon and dissappeared into the kitchen.  Next we arrived at the cash where I ordered the gift card.  The cashier rang up the gift card and nothing else.  My food order did not even get entered and I was forced to reorder.  Not only that this location was out of the special Scene point marked gift cards and I had to settle for a regular one. 

I'm not really sure of two things from this Swiss Chalet experience:

1. Why promote the Bon Apetit gift card with Scene Points benefits when there are not enough cards in stock?

2. What was the purpose in having a server take my order and dissapear into the kitchen with it only for me to have to reorder at the cashier and have the cashier's order take presidence?  After all I did order two quarter chicken dinners one with a multigrain role and one with a white role to our crayoning expert server and received two quarter chicken dinners with white roles when I unpackaged our dinner at home. 

Other than that, the food was the usual Swiss Chalet quality. I just wonder sometimes how chains can promote something when there isn't enough stock and their attention to detail is somewhat lacking.

Sears Sheysters at Promenade

This past weekend Sears Canada advertised 40% off all Women's, Men's and Kids boots before 11 A.M. on Saturday and 30% off after 11 A.M.   Of course there was a caveat that any boots already on sale with the end pricing in "97 cents" were not included in this promotion. My wife and I headed over to Sears at Promenade Mall to check out the deals for a possible new set of boots for my winter travels.

We were sadly disapointed. Even though it was only 8 A.M. on Saturday,  there was only one style of boots available that was not priced at 97 cents and it was the most pathetic Sorel type of boot ever seen.  We nosed around the mens shoe section double checking to make sure we did not miss anything.  The store filled their small Men's shoe section with runners and fancy shoes for the workplace.  Sears finished it with two pairs of boots at regular price that neither interested me or nor did they have my size.

We wandered over to the much larger Women's shoe section where a store employee was assisting another customer with her purchase. We inquired as to if there were any other Men's boots in the back for the sale that had yet to be brought out as we had viewed some styles online that were interested in purchasing.  We were about to get an answer when the customer let out a loud shriek and a centipede emerged from her boot. She grabbed a shoe from nearby and lowered the resident population at Sears by one. 

The employee returned her attention to us and said there was nothing else in stock.  She said to try online as they are different type of store than us. 

I thought to myself, no kidding the online is a different type of store than Promenade Mall Sears.  Promenade Mall Sears has only two styles of boots in stock for a flyer promising across the line savings.  The Sears.ca s website meanwhile does have a variety of boots in decent quantities.  But I was expecting Sears.ca to have a much wider selection than the regular bricks and mortar store due to Sears.ca being in a no name warehouse in who knows where.  But I also expected the Promenade Sears location to have at least 10 styles of boots to choose from rather than the lest than impressive five in which three styles were on sale.  That is after all what the Upper Canada Mall Sears location in Newmarket had two years ago when I last went boot shopping.  Is it too much to ask to have a decent selection of boots for at a duly advertised boot sale?  I think not.

Sears Promenade sure did pull one over on me.  What Sheysters.

Blocking Pedestrian Paths

White Wolseley Canada truck obstructing pedestrian crossing

Recently Anna wrote on her blog, livinginaurora.ca, about drivers failing to stop at stop signs.  She inquired with readers if she should whip out her camera and start photographing the culprits who fail to adhere to the rules of the road by blowing through stop signs. 

One of my pet peeves are drivers who fail to remotely adhere to the stop line at a STOP sign or traffic light.  Just last week I was walking south on the east side of Yonge Street near the entrance to Enzo's No Frills and the South Hill Shopping Centre. Rolling out of the South Hill plaza at the traffic light was a white Wolseley Canada company truck trying to make a right hand turn to head northbound on Yonge Street.  The driver failed to stop in time for the stop line and rolled to a stop across the two painted lines delineating the pedestrian crossing.  I walked around the back of the truck and finished crossing southwards.  However, northbound in the intersection was a lady walking across while pushing a stroller.  She had to carefully manoeuvre her way around the truck while the idiot Wolseley driver nonchalently watched the steady traffic on Yonge Street pass him by.  I was incencensed that yet another driver drifted their way into the pedestrian area and failed to even acknowledge that others were there and the car was in the way. I whipped out my phone and took a photo of the offender.

Richmond Hill and Aurora are seeing significant growth in the past two decades and this growth is expected to continue at least over the next two decades.  The Region of York is encouraging intensification and transit use throughout the area which will only increase pedestrian activity.  The police need to start enforcing the stop lines and obstructing pedestrian crossings.  If the police fail to do this than why should the Region and local municipalities use significant money in painting these lines on a yearly basis?  Perhaps if enforcement were properly undertaken, then the dumb looks of the offending drivers of "what the heck is going on?" as I walk across the street in front of the car might end as these idiot drivers would have been well informed by a nice yellow ticket by authored by York Region's finest.  Pedestrians can only hope, until then, like Anna I will be using my weapon to take photos of idiot drivers blocking the duly painted right away of pedestrians.

Characters at the Library

The past couple of weeks I've spent ample amount of time at the Richmond Hill Public Library system for a variety of things.   While at the libraries I've noticed some interesting characters who just don't understand what the library is used for because they have no idea the rules and expectations of the library environment.

The first is no food in the library except at the coffee shop.  This means you shouldn't bring your Swiss Chalet take out and hang out in the magazine area.  It also doesn't matter if you are homeless looking and have a McDonald's bag to go with your finished chicken bones, No food means NO FOOD!

In the quiet study area of the library where there are tables for people to work on their laptops, read quietly, and complete homework.  There are explicit signs on the tables of the expectations which included no talking and no cell phone use.  Yet we have people yapping away on their cell phones and attempting great feats of oratory that would make Winston Churchill seem like a whiny five year old.  There are places for talking, try outside on Yonge Street on a soap box!  The library is for quiet reading and writing, a place to contemplate life to oneself and not with anyone else!  It is also not a place for necking either.  If you need to do this with what I presume to be your significant other than you perhaps you should book a room at the Summit Motel, I hear their rates are real cheap!  Oh, and necking in the stacks isn't an option either, cross that off the list.  But koodos to you guys for even finding where the library is.

People who just don't understand the concept of equal space for everyone.  While sitting at the quiet study area take a gander at the entire area.  See what the space is like and where people are sitting. You know, get the lay of the land.  That will prevent you from sitting down right next to me even though there are another ten more chairs available for your sitting pleasure that are all the same as the one right next to me.

What has ever happened to library etiquette?  It is really simple really, libraries are quiet places for reading, taking notes and writing.  Some libraries, like the Aurora Public Library, have rooms available for group work, this is where small group discussion can take place. Otherwise please keep your mouth shut or whisper only if you absolutely need to but this shouldn't be longer than "honey, I'll be over there in fiction section."  That's all people, there is no more to a library, no eating, drinking or having debates worthy of the House of Commons.  It's simple really, reading, writing and arithmatic,  that's all a library is used for nothing else.

Retail Incompentence Astounds me

Yesterday Yvonne and myself headed to Downtown Toronto for a little lunch with my sister, a tour of Yorkville (Yvonne had never been) and to purchase a new winter jacket at Mountain Equipment Co-Op (MEC).

Lunch was decent at Made in China on Yonge Street just south of Gerrard. We did a quick walking tour of Yorkville and visited Indigo so my sister could purchase a book. Following this we headed to Valu mart where my sister did a little grocery shopping. So far so good.

Yvonne and I headed down to King Street to MEC to investigate men's winter jackets for me. We looked through the two or three racks of jackets until I settled on the "Frostbreaker Parka". I wanted one in black and sorted through the rack twice by myself and at least once by Yvonne. This was to no avail. I tried on a brown one in my size and it fit perfectly. However, the brown I wasn't keen on.

So we tried asking one of the associates. The female associate was talking to another one right near the rack I was so I enquired about the size I wanted. She quickley went over and looked it up on the computer and we saw there was seven in stock. She dissapeared to the backroom for three minutes and returned empty handed saying they didn't have any.

I dejectly thanked her for her time and effort and slowly walked away with Yvonne. Yvonne wouldn't have any of it. She said we should ask someone else. Yvonne wouldn't take no for an answer from me and we wandered around the top of the store once more. Eventually I gave into her persistance and we approached a male associate at the back of the store. We told him what we wanted and again looked it up and saw seven were in stock. He dissappeared into the back again for three minutes and came back out WITH A JACKET!

I tried on the jacket and it fit perfectly. We walked downstairs and browsed the bag section for Yvonne before heading the cash.

One of my all time pet peeves in the retail environment is the poor back room organization and stocking practices. Working in the retail sector I know back rooms can be messy with a lot of stock coming in at one time. However, during down times the stock room should be organized to so that stock can be quickly found and moved onto the floor when required.

In my case MEC failed to have an organized backroom as the first associate couldn't find the jacket I was looking for even though there were seven of them. The other theory is the first retail associate I ran into simply "didn't care".

I prefer the original idea that their backroom is not organized. When I saw the male associate enter the backroom they had clothing up hanging from on high on racks and below also on racks. I presume these racks ensure the clothing is hung and is ready for the sales floor. However, I'm not quite sure in the brief glimpse how one tells what type of clothing is on the top rack or how it is retrieved from the top rack at all. So this may been a problem for the female associate who failed to find my jacket as she was looking on the racks and not for the boxes.

However, the male associate brought one out in a plastic bag with the jacket folded in it. This would suggest that the jacket came from a box of these and hadn't been hung up on the racks in the back ready to be moved to the sales floor. But then again, the fact the store didn't have any of my size on the floor in that colour and the next size down shows the store hasn't stocked the racks on the sales floor for quite some time. Perhaps if the staff on the sales floor weren't talking to one another and instead took greater interest in stocking the racks this problem wouldn't occur and more sales would be made.

This leads us back to stocking the racks in the first place (the first issue of my visit for my jacket). The backroom in theory should be where the items are brought into the store off the trucks and prepared (e.g. hung, price tagged, etc.) for the sales floor. Once this is complete the coats and other items should be brought out and put on display. If there is not enough room on the salesfloor, the existing stock on the salesfloor should be checked for sizes so that all sizes are on the sales floor and others held on the racks in the backroom waiting to go out as stocks were depleted. Obviously in my case my new jacked skipped the backroom prepping (first mistake) and never made it to the salesfloor when my size no longer had any there (second mistake). Follow this up with the female sales associate who couldn't find any despite there supposedly being seven in the store's inventory (third mistake).

What does all this amount too? A possible lost sale of over $100 for Mountain Equipment Co-op if not for the persistance of a wife of mine.

Retail Frustration at it's best

On Saturday Yvonne and I headed to Real Canadian Superstore in East Gwillimbury. I needed to pick up a few things and she wanted to check out the Joe Fresh department. Another bonus was I had a coupon for 5,000 free PC Points if we spent over $50. This coupon would assist in putting my PC Point balance over the coveted 20,000 points which means $20 in free groceries. CHACHING!

But sadly it wasn't to be. The Superstore visit turned out to be the first stop in retail hell. I went into the Superstore to look for two products:

1. Scrubbing Bubbles refill container for the Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower cleaner.


2. Replacement brush heads for my Philips Sonicare Toothbrush.



The Real Canadian Superstore was sold out of the Scrubbing Bubbles Shower refill containers. However, they had lots of starter kits. In fact they had so many starter kits, there were cases of them on top of the shelving units ready to be pulled down in order to stock the shelves at least 2 times over. But the main question is, wouldn't you need to refill these shower kits eventually?

As for the Philips Sonicare brush heads? Nope...Real Canadian Superstore doesn't even carry the toothbrush.

Yvonne didn't find anything at Joe Fresh she liked. So we left the store.

We walked south on Yonge Street to Wal-Mart. They were also out of Scrubbing Bubbles and out of my replacement toothbrush heads. The store, of course being a Saturday, was crawling with idiots who were love to wedge themselves into an aisle with their little Wal-Mart shopping carts and excommunicating themselves to their own little world of shopping. This just gets me aggravated as to how people have become so unpolite towards other shoppers who are just trying to get in, grab a few things and get out. So getting out of Wal-Mart with idiots blocking the aisles slowed us down a bit.

We continued our trek south, skipping Canadian Tire, and headed to Zellers without much hope of finding what we had set out for. The Zellers store at Upper Canada Mall. Over the past year this store had been under extensive renovations in order to expand the store and modernize the look. The store's improvements have paid off! I quickly found the toothbrush heads and, skipping over a couple of aisles, I had two choices of scents to choose from in the automatic shower cleaner refills.

To say the least I was really dissapointed with the Real Canadian Superstore and Wal-Mart stock people. They can't seem to keep proper amounts of product on the shelves. This is an absolute Pet Peeve of mine. Companies that sell products that require refills, like the automatic shower cleaner, and then fail to work with the retailers to ensure enough product is on the shelves for their customers. The automatic shower cleaner refill bottles I couldn't find at the Aurora No Frills, East Gwillumbury Real Canadian Superstore and the Newmarket Wal-Mart. If your going to market the product as refillable or have replacement parts, then sell the refills or parts! Otherwise sell the product as "DISPOSABLE!" because if you can't refill it/replace the part what good is it?

Where do they find drivers like this?

This morning I was headed for work doing my usual routine of switching VIVA buses at Richmond Hill Centre Terminal.

The VIVA Blue Southbound and VIVA Purple Westbound buses both arrive at same time (6:53 A.M. ). I'm the third person out of the middle doors on the sixty foot articulated VIVA Blue bus destined for Finch Station.

The VIVA Purple, at the next bus bay ahead of the bus I'm disembarking from, opens its doors, allows one person to board and then abruptly closes its doors and pulls away. The VIVA Purple driver, the brilliant driver he is, misses the two people railing on the just closed back doors even before the buses moves. To make matters worse HE LEFT EARLY! Normally on your average ride into work making this connection with at least ten others, there is a three minute wait at Richmond Hill Centre between buses arriving and leaving.

Not Today! The driver of bus # 5135 decided it was more important to make record time in finishing his route to York University rather than provide decent customer service by waiting a minute. However, I had other ideas. I ran accross the platform to the opposite side. The bus had to drive all the way around the end of the terminal. I stood out in the middle of the bus way and guided him into the local bus bay. This was the only way to make this connection! Five other people saw what happenned and boarded the bus with me.

I chewed out the driver for YRT/VIVA having the audacity for raising fares a quarter per ride every year for the last two years and then provide such terrible customer service in cases like this. I also got a good look at his GPS unit which indicated he was FOUR MINUTES AHEAD OF SCHEDULE! The driver responded that "he only drives the bus". Talk about being out of the loop on what his job is. A public transit driver should also be aware of the pedestrians/customers around his bus which obviously was not the case considering he never checked his right hand mirror or noticed the two passengers ranging on his back passenger doors wishing to board the bus BEFORE he pulled out of his spot earlier than scheduled. Also, like his other fellow drivers, he should also be watching for the connecting VIVA Blue bus headed southbound to unload its passengers for possible connections.

Our bus, after leaving Richmond Hill Centre left at least another ten people standing on the platform. How do I know? A text message came in to the cell phone of one of the other passengers on the bus from a friend who was on the VIVA Purple bus that arrived 10 minutes later to Richmond Hill Centre, and it received the leftover passengers from the missed connection and other the regular passengers from the next two VIVA Blue Southbound buses. So it was standing room only on that particular bus.

Meanwhile on our bus, we never picked up anymore passengers at Promenade Terminal, Dufferin Street, or Keele Street stops which is abnormal. Perhaps this is because our bus arrived at York University, the final stop, five minutes after the one ahead of it arrived. Normally there is a ten minutes between buses arriving.

Did I call in and complain about the poor customer service? No because when you call YRT Customer Service you get the run around with "all times are approximate" and "connections cannot be guarenteed". What a load of hughey! How about dropping the script and providing proper customer service by listening to what is going on the phone.

On the plus side, the bearded and balding Russian accented driver of bus # 5135 driver is abnormal for VIVA drivers at this particular station when making this connection. Most drivers, like the balding bearded driver of the VIVA Purple bus operating 15 minutes behind bus # 5135, who operate do a check to see if the passengers disembarking from the bus directly behind them have made the transfer and nobody else is coming. Most drivers also are aware of other arriving buses to the terminal and go out of there way to hold for the connection whenever possible. This should be the policy to provide proper customer service instead of forcing us to stand out in the cold at one of the most poorly designed transit terminals in terms of protecting one from the weather (e.g. wind, snow, etc.), even in the "sheltered"area of the terminal.

So in order to raise the calibre of the VIVA service, the driver of bus 5135 needs to be pulled off the road for a while. He is notorious for not providing possible connections, looks dumbfounded when asked simple questions or pointed out the connections between buses at a major terminal like Richmond Hill Centre and often arrives way ahead of schedule at his end stop. Come on Veolia (the private contractor who provides the drivers and maintenance for VIVA) and YRT, get this guy off the road! One last worry, if this driver cannot see a 60 foot blue articulated VAN HOOL bus behind him in the mirror, what is the driver of VIVA Bus # 5135 doing on the road?

I cannot wait to see what happens next Wednesday at Richmond Hill Centre for this same connection. Perhaps an improvement will be made and this driver will realize his mistake. Naww.... I really don't have high hopes on this one, I better be dressed warmly as I think I may have to wait over ten minutes in order to climb aboard the overcrowded VIVA Purple bus that arrives after this idiot driver.

FYI to YRT/VIVA: This is one of my biggest pet peeves of riding the VIVA system...idiot drivers who don't wait a minute to make connections forcing passengers to wait ten to fifteen minutes for the next bus. No wonder "the car" is king of the road in York Region.

How to have fun with a Telemarketer

Telemarketers are annoying as hell!

They call during dinner time, they call too early in the morning for hungover university students, whats next? Calls at two in morning?

I have writen on this issue before on this blog before about the fun and games others have had.

But, from time to time, I come across ideas that are fun to try out on your next victim (read: telemarketer).

This fun includes this link where the guy who answers the phone ends up having the telemarketer totally freaked out by the end of the call.

Perhaps, if more people had fun with telemarketers, they might stop calling at inopportune times.

We can only hope.

In the meantime, HAVE FUN!

Tipping at Restaurants & Clubs

I was out with a friend last night at The Laugh Resort comedy club in downtown Toronto. The comedy was good and the price of admission for two hours of stand up comedy entertainment of $15.00 was excellent.

However, I was disturbed when I received the bill for one pint of Rickard's Red beer which came to $6.66. No, I wasn't disturbed by the "666" price, although that is weird too. But the fact that there was a 15% charge on there for "service." Why this charge? I can only think of two reasons:

1. The Laugh Resort was charging me for having to hire a waitress to take orders and bring drinks to the table instead of me getting up and going to the bar myself. But then again, wouldn't I be tipping the waitress for this service instead of being forced to pay this service charge?

2. Forced tipping. This gets to me every time. The fifteen percent charged goes to the waitress as a guaranteed tip for serving me. But why should a waitress, or waiter for that matter, receive a tip if they provided bad to mediocre service? This concept offends me every time and I avoid places as much as possible that have a guaranteed tip or a "gratuity" automatically added on to the bill either at a flat rate or as a percentage. Sometimes this gratuity is added on to parties of six people and over.

I believe, in the case of The Laugh Resort, that the "service charge" is probably option #2. However, it did say on the bottom of my bill that "tips were not included." If tips are not included then what is the charge for then? I assume it can't be option #1 above as there was no notification (i.e. sign or verbal indication) that I could find anywhere in the club.

So on the basis of it being a "forced tip" then I'm going to assume the fact, in case of The Laugh Resort waitress, she made exactly twenty-six cents. Also, obviously the waitress either doesn't want any more of my money or the club is shafting their waitress/waiter staff in tips. Shafting? Sure, I was willing to leave the comedy club waitress a two dollar tip after I left. Why two dollars? The beer came at a reasonable time and, when serving other tables around me, she made sure she didn't block the view of my or other tables of the main stage. But I guess she doesn't need any of my money if there was a 15% charge on the bill.

Forced gratuities or tipping makes me sick. Wait staff should be tipped based on the service level they provide. If the food is slow or cold, if a waiter is grumpy, etc. then the tip should reflect that. Sure if the food is cold or slow it might be the kitchen and some would argue that perhaps it is not the fault of the wait staff. But I argue that if the establishment doesn't provide a decent kitchen, then the wait staff should indicate this to the owner of the business through either complaint or resignation. Also, some restaurants and clubs share the tips that the wait staff collect with the kitchen staff as well. So everyone should loose money in terms of poor service. A restaurant or club is a team employment environment. To be successful each person must work as a team to make sure the customer is satisfied. Failing "the team" idea means a customer is less likely to return and provide even more business and possible tips for the staff. So there should be incentive for the team to work together to ensure customers are happy. Thus, tipping should not be "forced" because if "the team" provides great service, the customers will overwhelming ensure "the team" knows their appreciation through the tips left behind.

Gratuities and tips automatically added to the bill only give me one impression: The owners of the establishment do not believe their employees will give satisfactory to excellent service to their patrons. This is because if the owners did, obviously there would not be a need to force customers to tip or provide a gratuity for possibly bad service. With this in mind, why would anyone want to work at a place where the owners of the business do not believe in the staff? That is what I left The Laugh Resort last night thinking.

Footnote: The Laugh Resort closed by at least October 2008.

Torontoist: An Open Letter to Toronto's Drivers

Torontoist: An Open Letter to Toronto's Drivers

An interesting posting (click above) that reflects my feelings on car drivers.

Will someone come up with a funky graphic to link to this for one of those blog campaigns? Is there a blog campaign against bad drivers? If not, why not, there is ones for Liberals, Conservatives, bloggers that hate either of the two preceding political parties, cyclists, little old ladies crossing streets, etc....

Stupid ignorant people

One of the things I hate most is stupid ignorant people.

I've complained before about the people who, when making a right hand turn on a red light pull out into the pedestrian crossing. Then these insightful people figure if I only look to my left to see if there is any oncoming traffic, I don't have to worry about anything. WRONG! How about pedestrians who might want to cross while they have the funky walking man from the other direction? Nope, the pedestiran is out of luck. The driver figures if I don't look at the pedestrian, then I the driver of the right turning car (which is looking at a red light) has the right of way. NEWSFLASH! Drivers in this situation are supposed to check both ways for oncoming pedestrians before making the right hand turn. As well, they do paint pedestrian crossing lines on the pavement for a reason. Can't see these lines? Maybe you shouldn't be driving!

Yesterday while I was on the bus heading home from work, these three teenage girls get on. These three girls sit down together and proceed to talk. Everything seemed to be fine until one of the girls' cell phone rings. Of course she answers. Next she starts yelling, not talking, on the phone with some guy. The girls were seated almost at the back of 40 foot bus. Yet, I swear everyone, including the driver at the front, could eavesdrop on the conversation.

I was getting a little irritated. But being the kind guy that I was, didn't say anything. Eventually the girl lost the connection with the person she who had called. She then proceeded to call him back and argue with the guy about who hung up on who. That was it, I turned around and gave her the death look.

Anyone of my students from last year will know the death look. It melts teenagers and children right away. The girl's eyes locked with mine and she started to slouch in her seat while still on the phone. To say the least the decibal level of her voice came way down.

Later when I exited the bus, I was asked by one of my fellow passengers what I did? I said nothing really except look at her.

"That was it?" The fellow passenger inquired.

"Yup." I replied, "That was it."

Tired....

I am tired of many things....

1. People not getting the idea of a websites guestbook. My personal website's guestbook is for friends, family, website visitors to comment on my website and anything pertinent there of. Sure post your website link, but make sure it is not a commercial site. Is this that hard?

2. SPAM. My blog, website address book, e-mail and many other places on the web have seen SPAM go up. Do you think I am really interested in purchasing porn via my guestbook "Jessica"? NO! In case you haven't noticed my website containes many things that parents with young children may wish to look at. So why would any of these people want to purchase porn or products associated with porn from you? Also, if I delete your add three times why do you keep posting the same thing, but with a different e-mail address, in my website's guestbook? I just don't get people.

3. I receive probably over 35 spam messages a week in my hotmail account. I now only use this e-mail address for website sign ups requiring an e-mail address. Why? Because I found using this e-mail address at websites meant I was inundated with spam. How? The websites I signed up for ended up selling my e-mail address to a third party or I missed a small check mark signing me up for some useless commercial newsletter. So in this account I mostly just delete the items in the junk mail folder.

4. Idiots VIVA drivers. I transfer twice between three VIVA routes on my commute. I have to run in some cases because VIVA drivers don't have the courtesy to look to see if someone wants to get on their VIVA bus from another bus. Perhaps the worst location for transferring is at York University between Orange and Purple routes. Despite an Orange bus pulling into the stop, the VIVA Purple bus pulled out nearly leaving me behind. HELLO! If you want to encourage people to ride the bus system, perhaps making convenient transfers might be a good start!

Mental Notes

Sometimes I make mental notes of things I want to learn and never repeat in the future. Sometimes it comes from mistakes by myself, sometimes it is based on mistakes done by others. Here is what I learned today (all mistakes by others):

1. Muddy shoes should never be put up on bus seats. The VIVA Purple route usually has buses with quite a few seats that seem to be muddy. Usually these mud patches ont he seats are caused by unmannerly York University students commuting too or from school. Twice this past week I have had to give up a section of my newspaper too someone wishing to sit down but couldn't because there was mud on the seat. Being the gentlemen that I am, I don't mind much giving up the local grocery store advertisement for this purpose. But come on people, these seats are for sitting your tuchus on, not your dirty boots!

2. The two white lines at the intersection might be there for something. You think? Drivers are forever parking over the clearly marked areas where pedestrians walk while the driver waits for the red light to change to green or try and make a right hand turn. Numerous pedestrians are have been hit because of stupidity of drivers. I have complained about this before (somewhere or sometime), but it never seems to end. I guess drivers are too busy with their cell phones, car radios, screaming kids, trying to make that right turn, etc. to pay attention to the rules of the road. If you can't handle this simple rule of the road (i.e. yielding to pedestrians at intersections) than I have one easy rule for you: A YRT or VIVA bus pass only costs $120.00 a month! But while riding see mental note number one above.

Word Verification

Due to the high number of spam comments on this blog, I have turned on the word verification form. I have also advised Google and Blogger of the spam comments and the attached blogs. Google/Blogger has been sweeping the blogs for spam like this and have been quite successful in doing so.

Please feel free to comment, but please refrain from advertising stuff that doesn't have anything to do with the topic you are commenting on. Thanks!

Playing Games With Telemarketers

Playing Games With Telemarketers

I came accross this interesting transcript of a person's responses to telemarketers. I thought this posting was hillarious because of the way Jack has turned the whole conversation into Jack providing the information and the telemarketer answering the questions.

It always seems it is easiest to fluster a telemarketer by asking simple down to earth questions.

For example from the transcript:

Telemarketer: Ok. The reason I am calling is because Citibank would like to give you money to use on your home.

Jack: What is the interest rate?

Telemarketer: The what?

Jack: The interest rate?

Telemarketer: Umm, umm, umm

Jack: Skip ahead in your script and I am sure that you can find the numbers. Let’s talk turkey.

Telemarketer: I am confused.

Simple questions that interupt the flow of the telemarketer's script cause chaos on the other end of the phone it seems. The telemarketer is thrown off the rhythem they have developed from mindlessly reading the script in front of them over and over again. That is exactly chat Jack did above.

Another fun thing to do is simply ask them harder questions that the telemarketer will have to search information for. This is best done with a cordless phone since you will want to be doing something else (like drying the dishes) while you wait for the telemarketer. Here is an example of the above that my father actually did (this call originally took 30 minutes from pick-up to hang up, it has been condensed from what I can remember):

Telemarketer: Our company would like to provide you with all your family's groceries delivered right to your door.

Dad: that is nice, however, I do have some questions about your food.

Telemarketer: All the produce is organically grown and the livestock is humanly killed.

Dad: Where do you get your meat from?

Telemarketer: I need to look this up and I will be back in a minute or two. (Telemarketer spends 3-5 minutes looking up information)

(Telemarketer names slaughterhouse)

Dad: You just named the biggest slaugherhouse in Alberta!

Telemarketer: Nah, they take great care of their animals.

Dad: Your telling an Agriculture Canada inspector this?

Click!

I love when my Dad picks up the phone and a telemarketer is on the other end. My Dad usually has:

- these guys going around in circles in their script until the telemarketer gets so frustrated they hang up on my Dad.

- my Dad asks thousands of questions that the telemarketers can't answer

-a combination of the above.

Usually I am in the same room trying to keep my laughing down to as I roll on the floor in hillarity.

So the next time you pick-up the phone, try and have some fun