My
Canadian Experience Report for October to December 2024
My new cleaner came for
three hours but ended up only being here for 1 hour when she said she
couldn't continue due to poor air quality. So now trying to find
someone else but to date CHAPS haven't found me a replacement.
This month, October, I got my
usual 6 monthly inspection of my Furnace by Handy Bros and have to say I
was totally pissed off with what I was told.
I actually passed the
inspection but was told that I really needed to pay additional monies as
some items may fail and the items were not covered in the 10 year
warranty. To me this is unacceptable as I was told that I was
totally covered for all parts and labour.
I was told that York
were the best furnace company yet apparently some items are prone to
failure and those items are not covered in the 10 year warranty.
In addition I was told
if I didn't take up their offer I'd have to pay a $78 fee for them to
come back out to do the upgrade. Blackmail for sure.
I'll include the two
reports they sent to me so you can see for yourself...
I would thus not
recommend using this company as there is clearly a lack of honesty and
transparency.
I was told I'd get a
grant of $6,500 for the heat pump and $2,400 for the attic insulation
but so far haven't received this and have been told I am not eligible as
the dates of my application did not meet the agreed date deadlines. I
would point out that I was told I would get the attic insulation grant
after the first audit was done.
Guess I have not done
my own due diligence on this installation and trusted them to do what
was right which was my mistake sad to say. I did get the greener loan
for this but would point out that I discovered I had to do a fair amount
of work to complete the information they needed. I was also out of
time for this but they decided to let me have the loan which is 0%
interest over 10 years.....
Canada Greener Homes
Loan – Funding Released 11/29/2024
Hello,
We are pleased to advise that the funds for your Canada Greener Homes
loan CGH------ have been released.
The amount of $20,116.03 will be deposited into the bank account on
record within 10 days.
If you need any assistance related to your Canada Greener Homes Loan
application, please contact us at:
Phone: 1-866-292-9517
Email: questions@cghli.ca
Yours truly,
Intellifi Corporation
Service Provider for the Canada Greener Homes Loan Initiative
I would definitely not recommend Handy Bros
and I do now wonder if others have also had issues with them? You often
see charitable work as a cheap way to advertise and I do wonder if this
is the situation with them after all they do get a great amount of free
press publicity for their charitable work.
So their consultant,
Chris Davies and their grant person, Victoria, did not do a good job for
me. I feel it's because the company does not do any due diligence
and so in my view they should have picked up on this and phoned me to
say that I wasn't eligible for any grants and did I still wish to
proceed. That would have been the honest way to do business. And
of course on top of that I was told about the attic grant after the first
audit was done so clearly that was just wrong. So either their
consultant is a con artist or he needs better training. And the fact
that when I last talked to Victoria she said she'd talk to Chris and get
back to me which she hasn't done which makes me doubt their honesty. So
is this two rogue operatives or are they just badly trained.
Either way the company needs to do something about their standards of
honesty and transparency.
I would also note the
warranty issues as well as I was told with this system I would never
need to worry about any bills for the next ten years and then be asked
to fork out another $2,000 odd to cover bits that were not under
warranty. That was what put me over the top with them. And that is
why I would not recommend them.
Trying to find some transparency on this I
contacted energywerx to see what they had to say and this is what I got
back from them...
Hi Alastair,
Sorry I hadn't got back to you yet.
Regarding your inquiry about rebates, Unfortunately I don't have any
further information than what David had already shared with you. As I
had mentioned to you when I was first at your home, the rebates you're
inquiring about were available through the HER+ program which concluded
February 5th, my initial visit to your home took place February 22nd, 17
days after the conclusion of the program. Therefore, we were unable to
enroll you in this rebate program as it was no longer being offered. You
were enrolled in the Greener Homes loan, as that was the only program we
were able to offer at the time of your initial evaluation. So in
conclusion, the timeline of when your evaluations took place is the
reason for not being eligible. I'm sorry I cannot offer you a more
positive resolution here but unfortunately there is nothing I can do to
assist.
The other company in Chatham is Postma.
So why didn't I at least get a quote from them? Well in the past I
did use them but then one of their engineers visited to inspect my
furnace. He detected a fault so closed it down and said it was now
illegal to use it until I had fixed the issue. Now while I accept
this was the right thing to do it was his attitude that put me off.
He smirked at me and left it to me to find a solution. I didn't
like that attitude so decided to use someone else to replace the furnace
which I detailed in one of my earlier journal entries which is around 15
years ago now.
And as to declining standards see this
next item...
How Tim Hortons Managed To Ruin Its Brand Have you noticed changes at Tim Hortons? From longer wait times to lower
food and coffee quality, something just isn't the same. In this video,
we explore the rise and fall of this iconic Canadian coffee chain. We’ll
look at the history of Tim Hortons, including its humble beginnings, the
introduction of famous items like Timbits, and how corporate mergers
with Wendy’s and Burger King impacted the brand. We’ll also dive into
the controversies, such as cost-cutting, declining customer service, and
changes to traditions like Roll Up the Rim.
In November I got my Covid booster shot
and also my flu shot. Got that done at Shoppers Drugmart on Queen
St.
I also noted
that the Wednesday Market was closed outside Chatham. Am told the
company increased their prices and so the traders decided it wasn't
worth taking up space and so it closed.
Also noted a lot of discussion in Chatham
about re-purposing the Sears department store to become a new civic
center and library. Seems many people in Chatham are not happy
about the expense but the majority of local councilors have voted it through.
Personally I can't wait
for the Conservatives to come to power in the elections next year.
Given what Trump in the US is going to do in the USA in his new term as
President I think we'll benefit by getting in a new Conservative
government in Canada.
I also note that a
100 year old British pensioner, that now lives in Canada tried to see
the British Prime Minister to ask him to do right by British overseas
pensioners by also increasing their pensions. When any pensioner decides
to move to another country it usually means their pension is frozen.
I might add this doesn't apply to the USA as they have an appropriate
arrangement with the UK. Anyway she didn't manage to meet with him but
did talk to several other MP's while she was there so good on her.
Weather wise it's been
very mild in Chatham. Got the first fall of
snow... around 2 inches... on the last day of November.
Here is the forecast
for first week in December...
Had a wee bump in the
parking lot at Shoppers Drugmart so had to report into the police the
next day as they document the damage and you have to fill out a report.
The insurance company covers the cost but I think they need to decide
who was to blame. Essentially another car blocked my access to the
car park but I decided there was just room to pass. I got half way
past the car when we collided and I suspect the other driver moved and
thus we collided. Just a bit of paint damage so no big deal.
However the other driver said she'd just paid $40,000 for her car so she
wanted the paint work repaired. I did note that her windows on her car
were so dark you couldn't even see if anyone was in the car. I believe
that's illegal in the USA but don't know what the situation is in
Canada.
As to my diabetes, I am
now taking some short acting insulin again as my A1C went up to 7.4 and
so I need this so I can reduce the highs. I am still not experiencing
lows so that is good. I did get more comprehensive blood work done and
saw a new doctor while Dr. Mhadi is off on pregnancy leave. Was told my
kidney function was ok and he decided to let me use the short acting
insulin to reduce the highs I've been experiencing. Cholesterol is also
fine as is my blood pressure. He gave me another blood work form for
January.
Got a
phone call from CHAPS saying they'd found me a cleaner, Medina, and she
would phone me to arrange a visit on Wednesday. So looking forward to
seeing how this works out.
Canada Post is on strike so big backlog on
mail and parcels and it's having a major effect on many businesses.
Trouble is the Unions want more money but Canada Post are losing over
$300 million this year so they need to do something to get them back to
profitability.
Why
Canada Post and its striking workers can’t reach a deal
Since then they are now
back to work as of 19th December.
She did a good job on
her first visit and she's arranging to come every two weeks on a
Wednesday so we'll see if she turns up but I do have my fingers crossed
:-)
In fact she
came on Saturday at 10.00 am.
Got my smoked back
bacon and other products from the Dutch Market. While they closed their
Chatham branch they still have their shop in Sarnia. They thus now
allow you to place an order on their web site or you can phone them to
place your order. They deliver each Friday.
Am getting a visit from Postma as they've
apparently taken over the service agreement on my water heater from
HanyBros. When they came they said it was in excellent shape and in fact
he said he'd never seen such a good condition after the 3 years I've had
it. So that was nice to hear.
Have been using Instacart quite a bit over
the past couple of years. I must confess I didn't realise that they
didn't pass on in-store promotions. For example I ordered from M&M
three products and the in-store receipt showed CAD $82.24 whereas Instacart
charged me...
Items Subtotal $125.36
Bag Fee $0.05
Tip $12.54
Service Fee $9.67
Service HST $1.26
Total CAD $148.88
I only found this out due to receiving a
flyer from M & M in my mail box which made me want to take advantage of
a couple of the promotions they featured.
I noted that Elon Musk questioned
companies with long terms and conditions and wondered what they were
hiding. So here is the
Instacart Terms and Conditions for you to look over in pdf format.
On that basis I am going to do a deal with
my cleaning lady for her to pick up and deliver products for me.
So it's been quite a quarter with some
expensive decisions which didn't work out for me but that's life and
I'll learn from them.
Madina did come back on the 21st at 10.00
am and she told me that they've just moved into a basement apartment. They
share the house with 1 other but were sharing with 5 others in there old
accommodation. Both her and her husband are doing care work at the basic
level sp are not well paid. She told me their rent is $1500 a
month so they are very tight on money. I only relate this to show
how some families are struggling in Canada under the present Liberal
regime.
So on December 30th I now close this year
and look forward to 2025 and hope all my readers have a good year ahead
where I hope we'll have a new government in power that can take Canada
forward to where it should be in the world.
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