Very Cold Weather

Don't you find it amazing, dear reader, how quickly the weather changed! Oh sure, it was cold out before but nothing like the temperatures around the 19th mark in January. And  now, is it ever even colder. As for snow, we had not seen anything like we are seeing this year so far.

Naturally the weather people give us predictions now about what is going to happen in the rest of January and then February but who knows how accurate they are going to be.

I could write a lot more about the weather but I do not see that there is a need for me to do so. I am sure that you know just about as much about it as I do. All that I know is that we went out shopping to buy the groceries before the weather temperatures dropped and the first big snow storms came.

Luckily for us, we had also gone to the Library and taken out a series of videos about Perry Mason. The collection that we were able to obtain had thirty videos in it. Each of the video stories was about an hour and a half long. With this cold weather, we watched two or three of them a day because they were so exciting. It certainly gave us an alternative to doing very little because of all the snow that fell.

Unfortunately, we did not watch the last four of the videos. I just happened to see that the actor who plays Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, had passed away and two other actors filled in for him for those videos. To be honest, I just could not handle watching someone else be involved in these types of lawyer/detective stories. I was able to convince my wife that we should return the video without watching those four. Burr played such a wonderful role so that I just could not bear watching some other people filling in for him in a similar role.

I even found some time to sit down in front of my computer and dictate a new posting for you, dear reader. Here are some issues that I hope you will find interesting.

ADVENTURE BAY POOL

How lovely recently was the nice story on Windsor’s swimming pool, Adventure Bay.

Mayor Dilkens attended its fifth year anniversary party recently. Here is the story I saw in the Windsor Star about his attendance at the pool:

“On Adventure Bay's 5th birthday, mayor talks new rides to keep it 'vibrant'” (Taylor Campbell, Windsor Star January 20, 2019) 

It is amazing to me to read what the Mayor had to say about the pool and its future

“We heard loud and clear before we built it that people in the community wanted something for kids to do, a place for kids to go, and something different, and we were able to keep folks here...”

Funny though that I did not see anything in his comments what how well the pool was doing financially. I did see this comment that he made:

“We thought, based on the conversation that the community was having before we opened, that there was going to be a lot of excitement about Adventure Bay, and that’s sort of proven itself out over time here,” Dilkens said.”

I was not exactly certain what this comment meant. Hmm, I wonder if this was why people got all excited. I have seen that the $78 million pool was still losing millions of dollars every year as I have seen in the past. The Mayor did not mention anything about it as he talked about spending even more money on the pool.

Oh well, it should be interesting to see what happens this year if the Mayor asks Council to spend more money on the pool.

AMBASSADOR BRIDGE PROBLEMS

More problems at the Bridge. However, I wonder how many people know whose fault it really is. There is no doubt that the Moroun Family will be blamed for this and that people will forget the real reason for the blockage in the future:

“The northbound lanes of Huron Church Road haven’t been easy for drivers lately.

For consecutive days this week, the heavily-used route to the Ambassador Bridge has been clogged with long lines of transport trucks due to delays on the U.S. side of the border crossing.” (Dalson Chen, Windsor Star, January 17, 2019) 

I found this comment rather interesting because it is what I expect to happen in the future:

“However, Comartin said he hasn’t heard of the delays being related to any “work to rule” protest by unpaid CBP officers.

“We’re not getting any information that it’s the result of that,” Comartin said.”

Of course, if that was done, then no one could blame the Ambassador Bridge Company in the future and if they did, no one would be able to state:

“There’s nothing we can do from our side,” Comartin said. “It’s all on the U.S. side.”

IT IS GREAT TO RENT AN APARTMENT HERE

Although this may seem spectacular to you, dear reader, I would suggest that it is not that unusual compared with what has happened here in the past. Unfortunately, not too many people seem to know about this both within our area and outside of it:

“Windsor has lowest rental rates in Canada, says apartment-hunting site

In an analysis of the rental data of 24 metropolitan areas in Canada, Windsor had the lowest median monthly rates in the country, according to the site PadMapper.com. (Dalson Chen, Windsor Star, January 16, 2019) 

Take a look at the rental rates between Windsor and London, Ontario:

“Windsor came in 24th, with a median monthly rate of $730 for a one-bedroom dwelling and $990 for a two-bedroom dwelling.

Windsor’s nearest neighbour on the list — London — came in at 16th place, with monthly rates of $1,020 for a one-bedroom place and $1,210 for a two-bedroom.

That’s 39 per cent and 22 per cent more expensive than Windsor.”

It seems to me that this could well be a good reason why people in more expensive cities should decide they should move to Windsor as I did years ago. Sure, if the person is not retired, he/she must have a nice job here to help pay for the rental cost. I would suggest that salaries are not all that different between cities in Ontario so that fewer people can really afford to be living in the higher rates of rent in other places.

It is certainly a great reason why out of town businesses should set up an operation in the cities and towns in Essex County. Their employees will have a relatively inexpensive place to work and will not demand higher salaries so they can afford to pay the outrageous sums they must pay for rent where they are living now. Or for the purchase of homes.

I have to admit, dear reader, that I expected some of this to happen when I first moved here so many years ago. I saw the same kind of numbers back then. I thought it was a great advantage to live in Windsor as I was experiencing when I bought a house here that was so much cheaper than my home in Toronto even though it was actually bigger in size. Unfortunately, nothing very much has ever been done to convince people that they ought to move here to work and to convince their employers to setup an operation here.

It would be wonderful if lots of people in our area finally figured out that it is something that should be promoted right now in order to be successful in future growth here. It is also time that it should be done.

A House Pricing Story

My way of writing stories now is a lot different than the way I used to do so in my old Website. I do not have the same reason for writing now as I did before.

For me, these days, I write just because I like to do so. It is not a “hobby” although it might seem like one. I do act in the way that I used to do so before when I used to write online. I still try to do all the research that I think is necessary for the story from the sources that I think are required. Then I write and complete my story in the best manner that I possibly can.

Where I am different, however, is that I am writing now on a whole bunch of topics that are a lot different than I wrote previously. I do that because I do not have the same reasons for writing as I did before. These days I just want to write about what interests me whether it involves me creating one story or a series of them. Oh sure, I do post stories on some of the same subjects as before but I also post stories that are a lot more personal now and cover issues that may not be all that important except I enjoy writing about them.

It is fun reading comments from newspapers to radio and TV shows to magazines and educational stories. After reading something that I find fascinating, I sit down and prepare something for you to take a look at, dear reader, setting out my perspective of it. In addition, it is just as interesting to take a look at material from individuals that may give me a reason to write something.

I hope that you coming to my website is still of value to you. I hope that the topics that I write about are of interest and that you will keep coming back just to take a look at what I have to say.

Now here is a subject that I would like to discuss with you.

HOUSE PRICING

Supposedly, the house prices in Toronto and Vancouver not doing all that well these days. They are apparently dropping in amounts received on sales by some significant percentages. Oh well, they have risen dramatically so it is hardly a surprise if they are going down a bit.

What is significant as well is that house prices have risen dramatically all around this country over the past little while. If you live in Windsor/Essex, you know that your prices over the last several years have risen dramatically:

“Windsor was among the Canadian markets that enjoyed one of the largest increases in home prices in 2018.” (CTV Windsor, January 13, 2019) 

Here are some of the statistics set out in the story:

---two-storey homes in Windsor had a 17.2 per cent in 2018 increase over 2017.

--bungalows had a 7.1 per cent increase over 2017.

--condominiums had a 28.7 per cent increase over 2017.

Here are some interesting comments made by Royal LePage in their latest report. It would not surprise me if prices in our area keep going up even if not as high a rate as in 2018: ()

“Secondary cities outperform larger cities led by Windsor, Kingston, and Moncton...”

“Of the regions studied in the Royal LePage National House Price Composite, Windsor and Kingston saw the highest appreciation rates in Ontario, rising 14.7 and 13.8 per cent year-over-year, respectively.”

Sure, prices are not expected to go up as high in 2019 but they will go up. Here is why price increases started going up a little bit slower in 2018:

“The invisible hand that guides our complex economy hit the real estate reset button in 2018 and that is a good thing,” said Phil Soper, president and CEO, Royal LePage.

“Major market home price inflation through much of the decade had led to dangerous overheating in our most populous regions. Government regulatory intervention and rising interest rates, when combined with property price overshooting, triggered the correctional cycle we find ourselves working through today.”

I noticed on Facebook that some of the real estate agents in town are telling us about sales where the sale price increase over the asking price of a specific unit has been dramatically higher even now. It will be interesting to see how long that lasts.

Notwithstanding how wonderful everything seems to be, the real problem is, even though one’s unit price has increased significantly and which will produce a significant profit over the original purchase price, how does one pay for a larger unit whose price has also risen dramatically!

That is the real problem for which I do not know the answer and which I expect will keep the price increase size down this year if we actually get one. Seriously, who can predict these days as to what will really happen in the next 12 months.

It Is Cold Out

Brrrr, the weather is not all that good these days. I just find it to be quite cold, cold enough that I really do not want to go out for a walk. Instead, I stay inside our condo and do things here to occupy my day. Naturally, I have to do some exercising so I go down to the basement and do work on our equipment down here so that I can stay as fit as I possibly can.

One of the events that I find it difficult to deal with is the weather forecasting. For example, a while ago it was supposed to be quite a miserable weekend with rain falling. Instead, it was nothing like this whatsoever. There was no rain coming down at all. In fact, at the last moment, the weather forecast changed completely. I have found the weather forecasts not to be all that accurate to be honest. Is it the weather itself that causes the changes or could it be that the weather office just cannot come up with something that we can expect to happen. For whatever reason that is.

It does mean that I produce more articles than I expected. After all, I do need to spend some time doing things. I just do not want to spend my time only watching movies on television. Naturally, as I have pointed out before, it does take some time for an article to be started and then finished. However, I do enjoy doing this because I am generally learning something new every time I do my research before I start posting my newest article.

I am looking forward to spring coming. As I am sure that you can guess, I will be going out as much as possible once the weather warms up just to keep myself in good shape. That has become a very important project for me to do after my illness. If the weather is at the right temperature, I will be doing walks several times a day just to keep myself in shape. Also, it gives me a chance to look around at all of the plants that are being grown by my neighbours in the area. I just find the beauty quite something.

I think that I had better stop talking, dear reader, and start producing some materials for you to enjoy reading today.

GOVERNMENTS WAKING UP

Well, well, well. It seems that the Federal and Provincial governments have figured out that they better wake up now and start doing something on the job situation with General Motors or else the Parties in power might find themselves thrown out in the next election. The Federal Government especially should be concerned given its election in a few months.

I saw this in the media recently:

“Unifor takes fight against General Motors to the Detroit auto show” (Trevor Wilhelm, Windsor Star, January 14, 2019)

Here is the key paragraph:

“As you’re all aware, we have not been overly thrilled with the lack of fighting from the provincial premier, from the prime minister’s office,” Dias told reporters. “But today has been a very important day, because in discussions today with Minister Bains from the federal government and a face-to-face meeting with the premier, it appear as if people are starting to take a different tact.”

The “people” sure are. The approach that they are taking is that they better get off their you know what and start doing something or else they might lose out in the next election. Even if it means pretending that they are doing something when they know that nothing will change.

Just to remind you, dear reader, if GM Canada closes down, it could be the starter for what happened in Australia as I pointed out before:

“The doors have just closed on the Australian car manufacturing industry forever. General Motors’ Aussie outpost, Holden, turned out the lights on 20 October, when the Commodore production line fell silent just two weeks after the local Toyota Camry factory shut.

Holden and Toyota were able to carry on manufacturing for 12 months after Ford closed its assembly line last October because they had higher production volumes, but not enough demand to survive in the long run.” (Autocar, October 16, 2017)  

WHY BE WORRIED

Seriously, why should anyone in our area be concerned about the automobile industry jobs that we have here. Oh sure, plants are closing down in other areas in North America as they have around the world but everything is so wonderful here that we ought not to be worried, right.

Just take a look at this so you will understand why everything is so positive in our area:

“Ford Motor Company remains invested in Windsor-Essex, VP says”

Presumably this should last for quite a period of time:

“There’s a lot of change happening in the auto industry, but it’s going to take time to play out,” he said. “We think it’s going to be a transition we can manage, and we’re really excited about our plans in Windsor.” (Trevor Wilhelm, Windsor Star, January 14, 2019) 

It is not just the Ford plant that will be opened in Windsor for the long-term but take a look at what Chrysler is saying:

“I think if you look at our performance inside the segments — let’s first start with the minivan Pacifica and then combined with our Caravan, we’ve actually had our best year in a long time in terms of total sales, in terms of actual market share.”

He pointed out that the company completed $2 billion in investments at the Windsor plant in 2016.

“I consider that our place and home for our vans,” said Beahm. “We just made a massive investment, not only on our product but also in the plant. So my view is we got a home, and we got a home where we’re going to be building cars at and that’s the plan as far as my knowledge.” (Trevor Wilhelm, Windsor Star, January 14, 2019) 

Wow, this is unbelievably wonderful is it not, dear reader! Who needs to worry now about our future, right! I probably would have said this except for this small comment here:

“Mike Manley, FCA’s chief executive officer, said he wouldn’t make specific announcements about the future of any plants.”

Yes, dear reader. Everything is so positive except who knows what is going to happen down the road and when that time is.

Mmm, Mmm...NOT SO GOOD

“That’s what Campbell soups are,” at least respecting some that are made in Canada, based on a story that was published about a year ago that I only saw recently:

“Campbell Soup closing 87-year-old Toronto facility; 380 jobs to be affected” (Eric Atkins, Globe and Mail, January 26, 2018) 

This is being done because:

“Campbell Soup Co. will close its 87-year-old Toronto factory and shift production to the United States amid a decline in soup consumption.”

The soup will now be provided by Campbell through its US Plants.

The story also provides that a lot of farmers in Ontario will suffer because of this.

Some New 2019 Stories

I have to admit I am pretty disappointed about what is going on in our Stock Markets. I am talking about the Stock Markets in both Canada and United States.

I cannot believe how nice the Markets were in the early part of the year by increasing so well and then how badly they were doing and how far the Markets have fallen. Now, they seem to be rising again.  

To be honest, I don’t have the faintest idea whether they are going to go up, go down or stay around the same position for some time. I am not exactly happy either to see that the Markets have not finished off very well to end 2018.

Oh sure, one can give reasons why the Markets are doing what they are doing but who knows if they are true or not. Are the economies doing well even now or are they having economic/financial problems arising? Are we facing problems between different countries in the world that hurt businesses?

All that I know is I will be out of the markets for quite some time and hopefully be able to go back in when all this financial mess is over. Whenever that is. After all, it is the way that I can hopefully make a few dollars to live better given my real-life situation.

I have to let you know this, dear reader. I just found it funny how little we were warned that the Markets were in bad shape. I really did not see very many stories in the media about it. Oh sure there was the odd one about prices going down but I don’t remember seeing anything telling people to sell our shares to protect ourselves against major falls. 

All of a sudden now, I can see stories in the media warning us about the mess that we are in.

Notwithstanding all this, dear reader, I wish everybody great success in this new year of ours. And just to occupy your time a little bit, I have written these stories for you to read.

UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBERS

This is absolutely fantastic isn’t it, dear reader:

“Windsor’s unemployment rate dropped to its lowest point in nine months, according to the latest labour force survey by Statistics Canada.

The city’s unemployment rate for December was 5.4 per cent, matching the provincial rate.

Both the city and the province’s unemployment rates are down 0.4 per cent from November.” (Taylor Campbell, Windsor Star, January 4,2019) 

One little problem for me was that this just seemed so unexpected:

“The economy has been percolating pretty well in Windsor over the past few years, but this is a pleasant surprise,” said Stephen MacKenzie, CEO of the Windsor-Essex Economic Development Corporation.”

My, my. Aren’t you surprised, dear reader, that it seems that he did not know this was going to happen considering that the unemployment rate a few months ago was 7.3%. It would seem that he was not involved in reducing that rate.

In reading the story, I found it interesting that it did not tell us how the reduction happened. Was it something that happened based on some good job creation or could it be simply that a whole bunch of people have just stopped looking for work and dropped out of the market. That would reduce the unemployment rate, not finding a new job.

Let us see what happens in the future, dear reader. And let us see if we can find the real reason why the rate went down.

RENT VS. MORTGAGE

Tell me dear reader, are you better off economically buying a house or just renting an apartment? What is interesting to me, and should help answer that question, dear reader, is how the real estate market has changed so drastically a number of times over a relatively short time. Who knows if it is still going to happen in the future but let me tell you what I mean.

When I was much younger, I bought a house to live there. That’s all, nothing very dramatic. Interestingly, a number of years ago, a person could live someplace for a relatively long period of time and, when the place was sold, the sale price was very close to what that person paid for it when it was purchased. One did not make capital gains in the real estate market.

That changed and in a very surprising fashion. What seemed to happen is that one would buy a home and then sell it but at a price that was remarkably much higher. It came to the point that one bought a house not merely to live there but rather to sell it and make a lot of money. Then one would buy another place and try and do it all over again. It became a way of making money, not just by getting a job and going out to work.

To be direct about it, if one timed everything perfectly, then a lot of money could be made. Of course, it was difficult to do that timing but I suspect that some people have tried and were successful at it.

I thought about this all over again when I saw these numbers:

“The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the Windsor Census Metropolitan Area, which includes LaSalle, Tecumseh, Lakeshore and Amherstburg, was $915 a month, an increase of 4.3 per cent from 2017 to 2018.” (Sharon Hill, Windsor Star, January 4, 2019) 

Moreover, that rental amount was expected to increase in the future as well. Now consider the following example that I am going to provide to you.

If one went back several years before the house prices rose as high as they are today, only a few mind you, you would get a very interesting set of numbers. If one had a monthly mortgage payment of what the rent is today, about $915 a month, then one could have purchased a house in the $250,000 range with a big mortgage in the sum of of around $200,000. However, the mortgage payment every month is based on a very low percentage rate, probably under 3% per year.

Of course, I expect that the rental rate set out in the story is probably low since this is not the location of one of the higher cost areas and does not include some of the other amounts the tenant has to pay when renting these days.

Jump forward to relatively recently. Of course, the mortgage amount is still the same because one would have probably entered into a five-year renewal mortgage back then. The rents however would have risen fairly dramatically and are expected to go up even higher these days. Here is why:

“The average rental rate is expected to rise six per cent across Canada this year, according to a Rentals.ca report released Friday.

“Landlords currently hold a lot of power generally in the Canadian market,” Ben Murchison, head of communications for Rentals.ca, said Friday.

There is little turnover as tenants remain in their apartments, in part because it’s difficult to enter the housing market, Murchison said. The report predicts that will continue as interest rates rise.”

Now here is a very interesting part with respect to the value of the house. Between a few years ago and today, a house price of $250,000 could have risen dramatically higher. It could have increased, depending on the location, to over $400,000! That is a tax-free profit of $150,000 in a very short period of time.

Do you see what I mean, dear reader? Buying a house for $250,000 and paying a relatively low amount for the mortgage, about the same as renting a 2 bedroom apartment, puts a person into position of making a huge profit in only a very few years.

Of course, one ought not to buy another house at the high price today just to be able to resell it quickly afterwards at an even higher price as far as I am concerned since I expect the price to go down. In certain circumstances, it can go down a significant amount as happened in the past. Therefore, one has to be careful what steps one takes to make the huge profit because it may not be possible right away to buy another house if its expected price would go down significantly.

More Stories For You To Enjoy

Perhaps this was the Christmas present for this area. Before this month's rate was published recently, I saw that the Jobless rate for our area decreased from 6.9 to 6.0. More people got jobs. In looking at the list provided by Statistics Canada, the jobless rate drop was the largest in this area compared with the rest of the country. I have to admit that I do not know why it happened but it is something for us to be pleased about.

Everything seems be going up and down these days. Do you remember how a short time ago everything seemed so wonderful for the automobile industry in our area. And then recently, the automobile industry appears to be in serious trouble and who knows what the impact will be here over the next few years. What is one to think!

I have pretty much given up now trying to predict what may happen. How can one do it anymore? One may believe that everything is just perfect right now in a particular area. Then, suddenly, something unusual happens and all that one sees is difficulty arising.

All that I think that I can do on here, dear reader, is comment on matters that I see at a particular time and then suggest what alternatives I may see happen in the future.  What I will do is tell you what seems to make sense to me at the time based on what I have discovered up until then.

Now, let me tell you about some stories that I have seen recently.

FOOD PRICES

You might want to go back and take a look at my story about pricing in the food industry in Canada involving leaders of the food companies in a story that was written on August 15: “WILL GROCERY PRICES INCREASE”

I sent out this quote:

“Canadian grocery giant Metro Inc. is already facing pressure from suppliers to accept higher prices in light of a recent tariff war with the United States and consumers should expect slightly higher food bills in the future, its CEO said Wednesday...

Metro will continue to ensure its retail prices are competitive, he said, but expects the company, as well as the market as a whole, will have to accept some cost increases.”

Surprise, surprise…NOT. It looks like there might be some relatively large cost increases next year as predicted:

“Your grocery bill could rise 3.5% in 2019, study predicts” (Susan Noakes, MSN.com, December 4, 2018)

Here is where the changes could take place:

“Canada's Food Price Report 2019, an independent analysis produced by university researchers, predicts the price of meat will drop by up to three per cent and seafood by two per cent.

But those drops are more than offset by rising prices in other areas, led by a 4-6 per cent hike in the price of vegetables.”

I’m sure that you will find this article very interesting about grocery food price increases if you go and take a look at it. There are lots of explanations about why the pricing will change. However, what seems strange to me is that there is little discussion about what could be a significant cause of some of these price increases as I shall discuss next.

Now I have not gone out and researched a lot about grocery store pricing. I just don’t have the resources to do so. However, I can tell you that I do a lot about considering pricing in the grocery business. After all, I go at least twice a week to grocery stores to buy food! I have noticed that pricing seems to be higher this year than last year. In fact, I’m noticing in their advertising that the grocery stores don’t have a lot of sales every week as they seemed to have had in the past. Sure, some items are reduced in price but not that many now.

Why could this be you might think? Here’s an interesting alternative for you. How about several grocery companies offering a settlement to the Competition Branch if there’s a threat of an anti-competitive lawsuit against them. Obviously, they will have to acquire some dollars, a lot of them probably, as the settlement fee they would have to pay.

What if they have been considering that and looking for a way to find that money. Perhaps they can get that money out of the business that they have been running for quite some time to pay for it in which prices have been increased already. They may need more money this year if they have a feeling about how much they will actually have to pay. In order to do so, perhaps they need to increase even more the pricing the people have to pay or, alternatively, not reduce them.

Do you see where I’m going? Now you may understand one of my reasons why prices may be going up.

OUR AIR QUALITY

Wow, I knew it was not the best but I truly did not believe that our air quality was this bad in this region:

“As we look at Canada as a whole, we are doing extremely well when it comes to our air quality. On average our particulate pollution reading is at 5.6 points.

However, there is one region that has tipped the scale when it comes to pollution. Essex county (near Windsor, Ontario) comes in at 11 which is officially over the WHO’s standard.

People in the region are currently seeing 0.1 years, or one month, lost in life expectancy due to air quality.” (Rachel Schoutsen, Weather Network, December 7, 2018) 

Oh sure, the change is not that significant but being placed at the bottom of the scale is not something that we ought to be too thrilled about. Here are some more statistics that ought to concern you especially because it happened so many years ago:

“In 2005 The Ontario Medical Association estimated that in Essex County (including Windsor), there were 260 premature deaths, 900 hospital admissions and 2,750 emergency visits associated with poor air quality.”

I expect that it is even worse today.

I am sure, dear reader, you understand that we need to take action to minimize the pollution in this area. What has to be done needs to be talked about ASAP and then accomplished. If we do not act right away, we might find now that people from out of town may not be all that interested in moving here based on this information

My Next Blog

I enjoy sitting down in front of my computer and doing another Blog for you, dear reader.

It gives me something very challenging to do to keep my mind working.

I try hard to take a look at different media outlets to find stories that I think are interesting and for which I can comment. Obviously, a lot of what I write about is “political” in nature because that is what has interested me for so long in my life. However, what I do try to do these days is find other topics about which I can provide my opinion.

All of this is done on the Internet. It truly is amazing. After a relatively short period of time, we are all experiencing life in a substantially different way. I can write something today and since some of my readers are in other countries, it can be seen in other countries around the world almost immediately and vice versa.

Everything is so much different out there now. The most obvious to me is the various kinds of telecommunications products that so many people use. Don’t you see people walking down the street and talking on their “telephone” or typing a note to send to their friend. The phones these days are much more than just a telephone. Some of the more expensive ones are virtually small PCs with all of the tasks they can accomplish.

However, for someone like me who does not have the need to upgrade my cell phone, I still just have a regular one that I use and it works well for me.

Perhaps one day I should sit down and comment about all the changes caused because of the creation of the Internet. Or at least, the ones that I seem to be familiar with.

I thought I would post a “fun” story today about a situation that occurred at an establishment here that we go to often for treats.

STARBUCKS

This is a company that provides a variety of different products for people to eat and drink. 

One can buy a number of different types of beverages, as well as food for snacks, breakfasts and lunches. They have high quality choices that taste delicious! We have sampled quite a few of them from their herbal teas to pastries and sandwiches.

However, that is not why I want to write about Starbucks today. I am going to tell you about the situation I had with problems with their website and how these problems are dealt with so courteously and effectively.

For whatever reason, either I or a family member who has an online account have had some real miseries using their website system recently. Accordingly, we have had to call their Customer Service Department and deal with one of their customer reps.

This is not something that is unique to Starbucks. Clearly, many websites have people who can be contacted if an issue arises either by phone or e-mail.

The issue this time involved a previous US Starbucks account, a Canadian one, converting US dollars into Canadian dollars, transferring money from the US account into the Canada one, old accounts closing down, new ones opening and some accounts seeming to disappear without anyone knowing about it but not really disappearing at all. Sounds quite fascinating doesn’t it, dear reader.

All I wanted to do was to have one account so all of our accumulated money could be in our Canadian account in Canadian dollars.

I am not going to go into the case in a lot of detail since it may be unique to my situation. However, how it was handled is important for you to understand, dear reader.

The conversation over the telephone started at about 9 o’clock in the morning. It lasted for about 40 minutes. We had to go through a number of steps with the Rep in order to see if it could be it done correctly. We wanted to set up a system so that we could do it as effortlessly as possible. Even she was not experienced with what we had to do so it took a lot of effort on her part for it to be successfully concluded. Finally it was completed!

What was interesting was how pleasant the rep was throughout the entire period of time.

There was no concern on her part that she had to exit our conversation quickly, even if the problem was not solved. She always told us what she was doing and what was not working. She tried very hard to get it done as quickly as possible but because that was not something that was easily workable, she had to take a considerable amount of time to accomplish the result.

When everything was finished with her, I did not hang up the phone. Rather, I asked her to put me in touch with her supervisor so I could speak to that person about the lady who helped me out so much. The call was made and the supervisor was very happy about how pleased I and my wife were about all of this accomplished so well based on her efforts.

So that is what happened, dear reader. A problem was resolved. Sure it took time but the Customer Service Rep was prepared to spend as much as necessary to get everything accomplished.

Now, I feel pretty good about going to the site and placing my order!