Let's do brunch ... or maybe let's not. Yes, let's not.

Brunch is hell - The Globe and Mail

It’s a meal that should be the most relaxing time of the week. So why is brunch punishment for patrons and servers alike? A food-industry insider serves up the truth

Better just serve up eggs and toast yourself.

Here's a quarter, call someone who cares

I received an e-mail from Amazon.ca this morning saying that because of their pre-order price guarantee, the shipment I received from them yesterday had dropped in price after it was shipped, and I'll be getting a refund of 27 cents. Presumably mailed to me in cheque form at a cost to Amazon of considerably more than 27 cents.

EDIT: It turns out Amazon is going to credit my credit card for the 27 cents. That makes much more sense than sending me a cheque. Hey, it's free money.

A tale of two bank branches

My wife and I scooted over to the closest branch of a major bank today (an entirely different bank than the one we have all of our money with) to get a line of credit.

We were quickly told that the loan officer was booked up for the day. And wasn't in on Monday. And that the only time we could get an appointment that fit our schedule was late next Thursday. I said out loud that maybe we should try the other branch of the same bank just down the street. We were told that branch has the same hours, only only one loan officer and that we'd get in no sooner at that branch than at this one.

During this entire time, the person with whom we were dealing did not invite us to sit down while she looked over the calendar - instead she allowed us to stand awkwardly in front of her office while she shuffled about checking people's schedules. She did not inquire in any great detail about what we were looking for or why. She heard "loan" and she knew we couldn't be helped that day - or any day soon, for that matter.

So we fairly reluctantly made our appointment for next Thursday (after they took 5 minutes to find a business card for the person with whom we had the appointment) and proceeded to go straight to the other branch of the same bank just down the street.

There, we were greeted with a person who was immediately more interested in what they could so for us than what they could not. She apologized that they couldn't take us in right away, but they could see us early Monday afternoon. She thanked us for being willing to come back on another day. We were there approximately 1 minute, total, and felt more welcome in that 1 minute than in the 10 minutes or so we were at the other branch.

Same bank. Two very different branches. One wanted to do very little to help us. The other actually wanted our business. Guess which one we preferred?

My bank misses the point on low interest rates

I just came back from my bank, where I was trying to secure a low-interest loan or line of credit that I'd use to pay off my higher interest car loan.

Last I checked, the bank rate was 0.75%. The prime rate is 2.5%. My bank tried to give me a line of credit at 5.25%, and a personal loan at more than 8%.

WHAT?

These gourmet coffees are soooo complicated

I went to lunch today at a popular downtown restaurant with some friends and absolutely stumped the waitress when, apres lunch, I asked for a cafe mocha. She looked at me like I was speaking Norwegian.

"I've never heard of that," she said.

"It's like a cappuccino, but with chocolate milk," I said.

"So you want a cappuccino with a shot in it?" she asked.

I settled for a plain cappuccino.

Good customer service

I'm going to take the positive approach on this one and praise the good customer service I received from my local postal suboutlet at the grocery store than the strange customer non-service I received from the post office itself:

I ordered something last week from the U.S. I had been tracking it online and through e-mail updates.

Yesterday afternoon, I was sent an e-mail notification that Canada Post had attempted to deliver my package and was unable to, so I was to take my attempted delivery card to my new postal suboutlet a few blocks from my house.

There was only one flaw in this plan: There was no attempted delivery card left for me. It wasn't on my door. It wasn't in my mailbox. It wasn't in my "supermailbox" down the street.

And, of course, my wife was home during the period in which the e-mail said Canada Post had made the attempted delivery - in fact, she was sitting at the computer which is right next to our front door, so she would have heard him walk up the steps to drop the attempted delivery card in our mailbox.

So I have this feeling that the "attempted delivery" consisted of taking the package straight to the suboutlet and dropping off the attempted delivery card at a later date. I suspect when I get the mail today, my missing attempted delivery card will have appeared. (EDIT: Yup, it was in the supermailbox today. Unreal!)

Nonetheless, armed with my e-mail, I went down to the suboutlet last night and calmly explained that I had received the e-mail, but no attempted delivery card, and asked if he could get me my package anyway. The gentleman tracked the package in the system using my address, and pulled it off the shelf for me. I signed, paid the customs duties, and was on my way.

He could very easily have said "I need the attempted delivery card" and stymied me. Heaven knows, I've had that happen to me before.

Instead, he decided to solve my problem rather than compound it. Good for him.