To my readers today was an upsetting day and I really don’t have anything of interest to discuss. I received a call today from a very close friend who lives on the other side of the country. He was diagnosed with cancer, being a mere 30 years old and he has cancer. I know it does not have to be a death sentence anymore and some cancers are beatable but it scary when someone close to you and as young as you is diagnosed.

The rest of my day was spent in contemplation of what I can do to help him and his wife. He is a VERY strong and kind person and I believe he can beat this as long as he keeps believing. When cancer hits this close to home it hits you harder than you can think. I am not a religious person so praying does me know good. All the praying in the world will not change the things that happen, if we really want to make a difference then HELP or DONATE to the organizations that treat these horrible diseases.

The more time and money we put into actual science and research to learn how to beat these diseases the better chance we have of developing a cure. The golf tournament proceeds that I sponsored and played in yesterday were donated to the cancer society, that is how you make a difference and support those that really do need it.

http://www.cancer.ca
http://www.beatcancer.org/

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What is going on in todays business world? Where has customer service gone? There is no such thing as calling up a company providing you a service that you pay for and have them correct a problem or accept responsibility for a mistake on their part. If you haven’t seen my post on the poor service from my previous web hosting company please read and you will understand why I am tired of dealing with companies that don’t care about customer service.

The latest experience in with my cellphone provider Bell Canada. For the last 3 months my bill has gone up by $20 because the company dropped one of my promotional codes 3/4 of the way through my contract with them. For two months I contacted customer service and was promised that it would be corrected on the next bill (all be it after a lengthy hold and the most annoying automated answering system). The second month there was no correction made for the over payment the previous month, I called and was told my next bill would be $20 less than normal as there would be a correction from the previous month.

The next bill comes and its $60 higher than what it was supposed to be so as you can imagine I was extremely irritated when I called Bell’s customer service. The rep I ended up speaking with looked into the over charge and guess what my 750 minute plan had been dropped to 350 mins. Keep in mind I have a 2YR contract with this company and they can’t even keep the contract accurate through the term. After about 20 mins the minutes are corrected and the extra charges are removed from the bill. Then it comes to the missing credit from the previous billing error. The rep could not even figure out the math for three months of bills even with me walking him through it over the phone. There was a $20 credit that was never applied to my bill. Seems pretty simple well not for this customer service rep is was not.

After another 30-45mins of arguing with this idiot he finally admits that yes I was over charged and the credit was never applied back to my bill and gets my bill corrected for me. Thank god my contract expires in august and we now have number portability because you can be damn sure I will not be continuing with this Bell.ca for my cellphone service.

Ive lost all faith in the service industry, I am a business owner that provides many services and I ALWAYS deal with problems right away, respond to clients and answer calls. When I was a sales manager for a big box retail store I did everything possible to make sure all customers left the store happy no matter what the original problem was. I am still waiting for a company to reinstall some faith in the customer service industry.

That is my rant for the day guess I should expect this from the same company that is throttling its internet service and trying to control what it’s users do on the net. Check out this complaint letter template you can use to get some revenge on the service company if things don’t get worked out in the end.

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Thanks again to Craig Walters Realestate a client of mine for the invite to sponsor the Old timers hockey Golf Tournament again this year. This year it worked out so that I was able to play in the best ball/scramble at Cedar Hill Golf Course.

These scrambles are always a lot of fun, my team was a pretty solid group of players and we had a great strategy going into the first hole of the round. This strategy and some fantastic golf shots netted us a T1(tie for first) with a score of -10 on a par 67 course.

The Cedar hill cooks had an amazing buffet lunch with some Grade A steaks, taters, mushrooms and all the trimmings. The food was fantastic, the weather turned out wonderful, great golf and tonnes of fun.

I look forward to next years tournament.

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What is blogging? or What is a blog?

The wonders of blog are that they give the everyday surfer the ability to have their OWN magazine publication online. Running a blog is just like running a magazine online, you need to publish articles that your readers will want to read, sell and manage advertising space on the blog to maintain a constant revenue stream in order to pay for the costs of running said blog.

Like magazines you can have a general blog with random information about anything you feel like talking about or you can target the blog to a specific group or interest. I for example run this blog which is kind of my personal rants and raves, conspiracies and opinions etc. I have just launched a golfing blog for personal golf statistics Of which I am looking for golfers to blog on for a share of the revenue created from that blog.

Wow I kinda feel like a publishing company except all my magazines are digital. If there are any other people out there with a little bit of time on their hands each day that wants to take a crack at having their own online magazine then please read my Free Blogs page and drop me a line so we can chat about the options that are available to you for your own personal free blog and or business partnership.

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