Why Am I Paying Handling Fees When Nothing’s Being Handled?

The charges are correct. The airline now charges for emotional baggage as well.

Unknown

Once upon a time, in the olden days, when we purchased tickets to the theatre, we called the theatre, made the purchase over the phone and gave the reservationist our credit card number. Those tickets then had to be printed and mailed. They were actually handled and there were fees involved, which of course were passed along to the consumer.

Now we live in a culture of self-serve. We buy the tickets online with no live intervention. The tickets are emailed to us. We can either print out our tickets or just bring them up on our phones at the theatre for scanning. Then why are we still paying the same handling charge as we used to when tickets were handled?

I recently bought tickets for a play at Stratford. Each ticket included a $2 facility improvement charge and a $4.75 handling charge. This boggles my mind! I’ve never heard of a facility improvement charge and I’d like any normal human being to justify a $4.75 handling charge when I’m the only one doing the handling. In essence they’ve charged me $4.75 for sending me an email. Isn’t that a nice way to gouge the public?

I love Stratford and I understand that they’re a not-for-profit organization, but I hate getting screwed by anyone. Raise the ticket prices if you have to by $4.75 but don’t charge me a handling fee of $4.75 for self-service. It’s the same sort of BS as the banks charging you to use an ATM to access your own money.

We’ve created a self-serve society and I have no objection to that. What I do object to is being charged for service that isn’t being performed.

Shoutout to ATM fees for making me buy my own money.

Unknown

Make someone smile today.

Geri

Why Do You Have to Pay to Use Your Own Parking Pad in Toronto?

The way humans hunt for parking and the way animals hunt for food are not as different as you might think. 
Tom Vanderbilt

Parking spaces are worth more than gold in Toronto and parking pads are now an endangered species. The city apparently doesn’t want to allow any new parking pads; I couldn’t even begin to understand their logic… Torontonians who have no parking have to shell out approximately $200/year for a parking permit. This allows them to park on their street, near their homes (hopefully). If the parking permit allotment for their street is already at capacity they will get a permit for parking on a nearby street, and still pay the same amount of money (even though they’re being inconvenienced).

The biggest money grab of all is the coveted parking pad. Homeowners pay upwards of $20,000 to build a parking pad. A friend of mine has one such parking pad. It’s quite large and can accommodate two cars quite comfortably. For this pleasure she has to pay the city of Toronto $400 annually. Yes, she has to pay the city of Toronto for the use of her own parking pad that is on her property and was privately paid for with no contribution or subsidy from the city. She recently was paid a visit by a city employee who inspects parking pads (and is probably being incredibly overpaid for this idiotic job that requires no skill). He informed her that she was not permitted to park more than one car on HER PARKING PAD. In fact he was coming back to inspect and if there were two cars parked, he was going to have one towed away.

This is draconian! A homeowner builds a parking pad on their own property (with proper permissions and permits) at their own considerable expense  and then effectively has to lease it annually from the city of Toronto who arbitrarily has the unmitigated gall to tell them how they can or cannot use it! This boggles the mind. Unfortunately, you really can’t fight city hall and when it comes to parking, we’re all being royally screwed!

He parks in the far corner of the lot, explaining that it is more logical to do this and then walk for fifteen seconds than it is to spend fifteen minutes looking for a closer space. 
Neal Stephenson

Make someone smile today.

Geri

Credit Card Annual Fees Are a Rip-off!

Stores are never nice to people. They're nice to credit cards.

J.F. Lawton

I recently made a rare, in-person visit to my financial institution and they were promoting some new credit cards. There was a big sign saying that if you signed up today, they would wave the annual fee for one year. Quite frankly, the whole concept of an annual fee offends me; it’s just another way to rip off consumers.

Credit card companies are already gouging you. They’ve made an art of collecting fees:

Merchant fees: When merchants accept a payment via credit card they have to pay a percentage of the transaction amount as a fee to the credit card company.

Consumer fees: Annual fees for the pleasure of using your credit card, outrageous interest fees for not paying your balance in full every month, cash advance fees, balance transfer fees…

Sale of customer data: Yes, some credit card actually companies sell their customers’ data to other businesses. This data is a goldmine of consumer spending habits.

Why on earth would I pay an annual fee to use a credit card? The credit card companies should pay me to use their cards. I have a MasterCard and a Visa with no annual fees that suit me just fine. Waving an annual fee for one year so that you can rip me off annually after that, is not in my future. How many credit cards are you paying an annual fee for? And why exactly are you doing that?

Life was a lot simpler when what we honored was father and mother rather than all major credit cards.

Robert Orben

Make someone smile today.

Geri

My New Favourite Beauty Product

If you think there’s no such thing as a magic wand, you’ve clearly never used mascara.

Payal Puri

In the last several years, I’ve become a minimalist where makeup is concerned – mascara, blush and lipstick. Readers of my blog already know that I’m devoted to Stila liquid blush (I’ve recently changed colour from Rosewater to Shimmering Lotus) and MAC Russian Red Lipstick (I won’t even take out the trash without my Russian Red). I’ve also been happily using Chanel mascara (seriously overpriced, but great!) for several years now.

I recently dropped into the MAC counter at the Bay on Queen to recycle my old makeup containers and get a free lipstick – yes, Russian Red! Allie served me and she had the most amazing eyelashes. Of course I wanted to know how she did it. Her trick is a MAC product called False Lashes Maximizer. You apply it like mascara. It’s white and coats your lashes. Then you apply your mascara and voila! It really makes your lashes look fuller and longer and stops your mascara from running so I can now wear mascara on my lower lashes. I also tried MAC’s Extra Dimension Black Mascara and was super impressed; I love the very narrow wand. I wanted to see how it performed next to my Chanel mascara so at home I did the mascara test. First I used the False Lashes Maximizer. Then on my right eye I applied two coats of the Chanel Volume Black Mascara and on my left eye I applied two coats of the MAC Extra Dimension Black Mascara. I was very surprised that the MAC mascara won the contest (not by much).

False Lashes Maximizer is my new favourite beauty product and I will stay with the MAC Extra Dimension Black Mascara which out-performed Chanel and is significantly cheaper. What are your favourite beauty products?

I won’t cry for you. My mascara is too expensive.

Unknown

Make someone smile today.

Geri

Micromanagers – The Scourge of Corporate Life

If I was meant to be controlled, I would have come with a remote.

Genereux Philip

I know that all of you working in the corporate world have had at least one (or more) experience with a micromanager – and it’s never positive. At best, the micromanager lightens up a bit over time and the situation becomes tolerable (if they’re paying you enough money). At worst, you keep a letter of resignation in your word document file and every morning you come in, you correct the dates because you never know which day will be the one where you say ENOUGH! and send off the letter to the appropriate parties. Once you have the letter of resignation poised at the ready, it doesn’t matter how much they’re paying you (I can tell you from first hand experience).

The problem is that corporations breed this style of leadership. As you work your way up the corporate ladder you’ll eventually be promoted into a position with direct reports whether or not you have the people skills to be managing living, breathing people whose lives you’re capable of ruining. With no training (or little training after the fact), these new people managers are let loose on the unsuspecting population, wreaking havoc. They have no clue how to manage so instead, they micromanage. Some micromanage because they feel that in order to do their jobs they have to be in total control. Others micromanage because they crave power and micromanaging allows them to exert their power over you. Whatever the reason, the outcome is never good.

The joke in the corporate world is the overuse of employee engagement surveys which allows employees to anonymously express how they feel about their bosses, corporate culture, etc. The well-known micromanagers get abysmal employee engagement scores survey after survey, but nothing’s ever done. Eventually employees go survey blind and the micromanagers continue on as before without missing a beat. Nothing ever changes.

I’ve sadly come across very few good people managers in my long career. The old expression People leave managers, not companies is spot on. In fact according to Gallup polls, a full 50% of employees who quit cite their manager as the reason and 70% of the factors that contribute to your happiness and motivation at work are directly related to your manager.

Interviews are a two way street. Make sure that you have a list of questions prepared for the manager so that you can ascertain whether or not you want to work for them. Jobs are not unicorns. Don’t be afraid to pass on an opportunity where you see warning signs about the manager or culture. As I seek out a new opportunity for myself, I’ll be taking my own advice. 😁

If your job is to tell me how to do my job, you should at least know how to do my job.

Someecards

Make someone smile today.

Geri

Life’s Too Short

Life is too short to have anything but delusional notions about yourself.

Gene Simmons

So often we seem to live our lives on automatic pilot, content to maintain the status quo. But, stop for a moment and ask yourself if that’s enough? Are you are really happy? Do you like your job? Is your home your sanctuary? Are you surrounded by people who enrich your life?

I’m by nature a happy person. My manager in a previous job described me as having infectious positivity. I was recently in a position that was robbing me of my smile and I allowed it. It was a good job, with good money for a good company – everyone’s dream, but mine. The environment was stifling and oppressive. I felt strangled, deflated and defeated, but I soldiered on until I knew that I had no choice but to leave - my smile was gone and I couldn’t find it. Even though I didn’t have another position lined up, I gave my notice and reclaimed my smile!

This isn’t a dress rehearsal. Life’s too short to be miserable.

• Surround yourself with happy, positive people that enrich your life
• Find a work environment that inspires and encourages you to be your very best
• Stop caring what other people think
• Wear clothes and accessories that make you happy, not conform
• Don’t be afraid to stand out
• Stop obsessing over food and enjoy it
• Eat real butter, real cheese and dessert once in a while
• Being a size 0 shouldn’t be your goal in life
• Don’t waste your life commuting

I’m going to continue looking for a job that excites and inspires me every day. I have butter in my freezer and really good cheese in the fridge. From time to time I will have dessert. I was born bigger than a size 0 and have no desire to look like a stick figure. I embrace my quirky taste in fashion and have a closet full of less than conventional clothes that make me happy. My sun glass collection currently stands at 20 and is still growing. I value each and every one of the happy, positive, enriching people in my life. And I love coming home to my sanctuary. Now if only my golf game would improve…

Life is too short to live on low-fat everything.

Kristin Scott Thomas

Make someone smile today.

Geri

We’re Being Ripped off by the Postal Service

You know you're a fool when what you're doing makes even the post office seem efficient.

Joshua Cohen

I’m tired of being ripped off by a post office that provides inferior service at exorbitant prices. The cost of postage is an outrage and I’ve gone totally electronic. In fact this past Christmas I sent ecards exclusively.

My recent encounter with the post office astounded me! I was recently notified to appear for jury selection. As much as I would truly enjoy seeing the legal process in action, I can’t afford it. I’m self employed and if I don’t work, I can’t pay the bills. In order to be released from jury duty you have to send a letter to the Attorney General’s office explaining how being a juror would cause you undue financial hardship. I wrote the letter, and not wanting to take any chances (I have no faith in the postal system), I elected to send the letter by registered mail. I should preface this by telling you that the destination of the letter is within walking distance of my apartment, so imagine my shock when the postal clerk asked me for $11.30 to register my letter. Feeling that I really had no choice, I coughed up the money with great resentment. Thankfully my $11.30 registered letter reached its mark and I have formally been released from jury duty.

The usefulness of the post office to society diminishes with each passing year and as we become more accustomed to going electronic, their only use in the future may be to deliver the goods that we order online.

Mail your packages early so the post office can lose them in time for Christmas.

Johnny Carson

Make someone smile today.

Geri