Category Archives: product complaints

why are toilets so sh#!!y

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Traveling much, I come across hundreds of different toilets and showers every year.

Why are they so crappy?

Showers are one of the few things essential to my life. Why are HOT and COLD reversed so often? (When the hot water tap works, the flow and temperature is often unreliable.)

Is this 1911 … or 2011?

Couldn’t somebody get rich inventing a voice controlled, temperature-accurate shower?

In 1959, Heinlein published Starship Troopers. Military life was rough … but at least they had individually programmed shower routines.

I have seen a few good showers. The best of the best (surprisingly) were in campgrounds.

Due to remote location, campgrounds often must hack their plumbing, inventing unique solutions. Once in a while, that solution turns out better than the cheapest, minimum-code-allowable versions we get in cities.

This toilet in a Swiss campground worked perfectly.

A commercial product, it’s as steep and deep as any I’ve ever seen. No splashback. No need to brush.

It had an old style individual water tank mounted high.

Gravity does all the work, a simple mechanism. The force of water falling from just a few feet was tremendously effective in flushing.

I’m no plumber. (My IQ is higher than the maximum allowed.) But I’ve been studying plumbing since visiting Gandhi’s toilet research centre in the 1990s.

Why is toilet technology evolving so slowly?

booking Aeroplan?

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Any tips for booking a flight with Air Canada AEROPLAN points ?? …

I tried booking a trip to Asia online via the link above.

First attempt was 75,000 points AND $778.68 CAD taxes. … I’m guessing that’s normal for Aeroplan.

But what’s the advantage of using my points again? … I might find a NEW return flight for $778.68.

Once I use these points, I’ll completely abandon frequent flyer programs. I don’t use any one airline enough to make it worthwhile.

What Does a Gigabyte Cost?

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In expensive Canada, about $0.07 / GB.

What does your ISP or Phone company charge YOU / GB?

In Canada, folks are charged as much as $10 per gigabyte. (Companies try to convince that there is a shortage of electrons traveling over wires or fibre. That’s a lie.)

Once the wires are in place, the cost for extra electrons is almost zero.

related – CNet – Are you overpaying for smartphone data?

average Canadian cellphone bill $58

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What do you pay a month compared with the average Canadian in 2010 …

Are you happy with your service?

Do you feel you get good value?


…Overall, the number of wireless subscriptions in Canada grew by 8.5 per cent to 25.8 million, just slightly higher than the eight per cent growth the year before.

At the same time, the number of households with broadband internet subscriptions grew by 9.2 per cent to nine million — significantly higher than the six per cent growth in 2009. …

CBC – Average cellphone bill $1 cheaper in 2010

One Report from 2010 found Canada to have the highest costs of any nation in the world, overall – An International Comparison of Cell Phone Plans and Prices

More competition doesn’t seem to be helping much.

… I still don’t own a phone.

airports: Dublin v Geneva

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International jet-setters like moiself spend a lot of time cursing airports. (The terrorists have already won).

Ultra-modern airport in Dublin is a superb … shopping mall. I spent 20 minutes walking through shops carrying near identical over-priced product just to get to my departure gate. Do many travelers make impulse buys out of boredom?

I assume they do.

By contrast, the Geneva airport needed a serious renovation … in 1995. How can one of the richest cities in the world have such a crappy airport?

For the first time ever in an airport, I saw a fellow going from rubbish bin-to-bin collecting recyclables. Do homeless people (aside from me) live there?

… But I experienced a magical incident in the Geneva airport. Confused hovering over a ticket machine, trying to navigate my way by train to the centre of town, an elderly German gentleman appeared my shoulder. He quickly got a ticket (from another machine) and delivered me to the departing train. … With specific instructions on how to get to the Hostel.

By the time I’d lifted my suitcase on board, he was gone.

I write from City Hostel Geneva, one of most enjoyable in years. UPDATE: By the end of my 2-day stay hostel staff had bungled my reservation, the washing machine flooded and the promised long term luggage storage turned out to be a myth.

Geneva is ranked as the fourth most expensive city in the world, though. I find it surprisingly run down and disorganized. It’s not my 4th favourite city in the world.

I’m organizing to travel to Corsica for hiking next.

Samsung Series 5 Chromebook a failure

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… Tomorrow, the first one goes on sale: the Samsung Series 5 ($500 with cellular, $430 Wi-Fi only).

So what is the Chromebook concept? Assumption 1: These days, you can get online almost anywhere. Assumption 2: Google’s free online software can do almost everything regular software can do — e-mail (Gmail), Web browsing (Chrome), chat (Google Talk), photos (Picasa), word processing, spreadsheets, slide shows (Google Docs). …

I liked the concept when I first heard of it.

Unfortunately, after a week trying to use this thing as his primary computer, David Pogue was ready to toss it like a Frisbee.

BIG FAIL.

DIE Continental Airlines DIE

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I flew Continental from Los Angeles to Halifax, the fare quite good.

Airfare Price Total( CAD Dollars): $356.40 + $25 for a suitcase

Sunday May 22, 2011

Airline: Continental Airlines 40
Departs: Los Angeles – International (LAX) at 6:45am on Sun May 22

Airline: Continental Airlines 2274
Departs: Newark – Newark International (EWR) at 6:10pm on Sun May 22

… Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. It was my worst airline experience since RYAN in Europe.

Somebody please BUY Continental and put those employees out of their misery.

Amongst other things they bungled, Continental lost my suitcase. It was about 48hrs late getting to me.

I’m eligible to apply for compensation for baggage delayed that long. But here’s how that works (PDF)

I must fill out overly detailed PAPERWORK and snail mail to Houston, TX with all sorts of photocopied support documents, including Driver’s Licence.

I’m not going to do it. The hassle exceeds the payback.

I assume it’s deliberate on the part of Continental not to allow claims online. Nor to offer them automatically to customers they’ve screwed.

I’ll never fly Continental again. And advise you to avoid them too, if you can.

car rental insurance

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Renting in the USA can be incredibly inexpensive. I have a vehicle right now in California that cost only $115.49 / week, including taxes.

Yet AS ALWAYS I was faced with the dilemma of what additional insurance to buy.

Should I buy none, counting only on my VISA card’s promised collision/loss damage insurance?

Or should I get one of the three different options available from the rent-a-car company:

$10/day
$12/day
$30/day

Reading this article in the Globe and Mail doesn’t answer my question:

Do I really need car rental insurance?

Leave a comment if you’ve any advice for me.

Is Your Dentist RIPPING You Off?

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Your brain surgeon should be very well paid.

But why should a dentist be a millionaire?

by Sarah Lorge Butler for CBS MoneyWatch.com:

Cost of the (2) crowns: $1,395 apiece. Cost of foundation fillings, or “cores” to put the crowns on: $326 apiece. Total bill, if you’re scoring at home: $3,442.

His dentist sold him membership into an office savings plan for $319 for the year. So that saves him 20% on all dental procedures and gives him two free cleanings. Knock off 20% (but add back in the $319) and we’re down to $3072.60 on this bit of drilling.

When I look at this bill, I wonder why I obsess about the weekly price fluctuations of Cheerios or the shrinking size of a can of tuna. All the economical choices a family makes in a year can be wiped out by a trip to the dentist. No wonder people are going to Thailand and Mexico for dental work. …

read more

Is $3000 over-priced for 2 crowns?

What is the cost for the materials?

How much are those working on your crowns paid?

How much does the dentist pocket?

If we knew those numbers, I’m guessing that we’d agree our dentist is ripping us off.

There are over 1000 comments on that post, most feeling ripped off.

A stranger recently contacted me for advice on my dentist, Dr. Lorenia Estrada, in La Paz, Mexico. I enthusiastically recommended her.

If you suspect your dentist is ripping you off, get a quote from Mexico. … The only down side is that you have very little recourse if unhappy with the work there.

Thanks Dana.