Sutori - adrian's Recent Stories

BMO sucks eggs, but in a very nice, friendly and polite way

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 09:55:47 -0700

I once opened a checking account with BMO.
I even had a family friend recommend a financial planner over there, who was the nicest banker I've ever met, so I thought 'This ROCKS!'.
Except it didn't.
They started making mistake after mistake. For example, I got an RRSP loan, and I declined any insurance on it (I still have the form I signed then as proof), but I still got charged an insurance fee every month. So every month I had to pick the phone up and spend at least 15 mins to get it reversed. Once I got through to
someone at BMO, they were all nice and friendly and apologetic, and reversing the fee wasn't a problem at all.
Except it kept happening month after month after month.
Ordering cheques was another long-drawn ordeal - I gave in at the fourth incorrect batch, just couldn't put up with reordering them again (another 20 mins on the phone with a nice and friendly BMO person).
It's suprising how although they do have all the correct information on my account, the cheques always came out with typos ...
So I started counting their mistakes, and once they got up to 12 I closed the accounts and all my business with them.

I think I'm stupid

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 09:53:15 -0700

Well, finally I gave in and bought an iPod shuffle, and all my geek-selfconfidence (honed through 17 years of programming computers) went straight to hell.
Apple's software is touted to be highly user-friendly, but alas, not to me.
For the life of me I can not figure out what the rules are and what will be written to the iPod and what not.
Most of the times I end up with just a couple songs out of the dozen of albums I'm trying to upload on the iPod. Or with nothing at all :)
And it seems to me that the first thing iTunes does is delete everything on the iPod, just in case.
I read the booklet, I read the online help, I even slept with the booklet under my pillow just in case I'll figure it out, but to no avail. So I gave it away

Maybe I got the french version ? Or am I too corrupt by so many years of using evil software ?

smooth smooth smooth

Tue, 01 Aug 2006 11:48:59 -0700

Went to the one on 2nd and Main in Vancouver, BC, and it was quite surprising - the guys there were obiously having lots of fun yelling at each other (army style) to coordinate the guy in the pit with the guy outside,

It was the most entertaining oil change I've ever seen, and the guy used to work for Honda in India so he was quite knowledgeable about my car and figured out the shifter is sticky just by looking at the transmission fluid. Completely no-pressure recommendations for other work on the car, easy going guys.

Anyway, most entertaining experience, highly recommended, and the car runs better :)