Everything is a Photo Opportunity #5

This isn't exactly a photo, but this is the image that greeted me when I went to the knitting blog Rhythm of the Needles this morning.  I won a book!  How fantastic!  I won "It Itches" and it is a humorous book for knitters. Many thanks to Joanne at Rhythm of the Needles for this fun contest! :)

To Enjoy The Whole Year Through

I reluctantly took down my Christmas cards yesterday.  I know, it is the middle of February, but I love greeting cards and love having the "cheer" hanging around.

Look how festive and happy these are!

As I was taking them down, I got the bright idea to leave the string up and display whatever random greeting cards I'll receive throughout the year.  Previously, greeting cards would sit on my desk, but due to limited space they were easily knocked over and didn't get the attention they properly deserved.  Now with them hanging up, I will be cheered the whole year through!

Look how festive and happy these are too!!

What do you do with your greeting cards?  I have a giant box of them from over the years. Every time I move, I look through my giant pile and clear out any that I'm not attached to anymore.  I also have a plan to make a scrapbook that showcases the greeting cards that I'm really sentimental about...but that will be a BIG project, so it hasn't moved past the planning stages.  So what do you do with your greeting cards?  Do you display them, store them, or toss them?

Sunbeam Humidifier: Remarkable Customer Service and an International Adventure

We bought a Sunbeam Humidifier in Barrie in November.  It was on super sale, only $17.99, so it was worth the drive to go buy it.  The store return policy was within two weeks of purchase, and wouldn't you know the humidifier started causing problems a day or two before the return window was to end.  We were set to return it, but a giant snow storm got in our way and we missed our window. The other return route was to contact the manufacturer (Sunbeam) and try to get the problem resolved with them.

Enter phone phobia.

I'm great when I'm on the phone (my hours of used in-plan minutes can prove that), but depending on the nature of the call, actually picking up the phone and dialing can be a problem for me.  Especially if I perceive the call as having a conflict.  In the case of calling Sunbeam, I just avoided doing it, convincing myself it was an added hassle to my day that I just didn't need.

Until two weeks ago.  I woke up with a take no shit attitude and dialed.  And it was the best customer service experience I have ever had.  I don't remember the woman's name, which is unfortunate, because she was kind, funny, attentive, knowledgeable, and she really wanted to help me.  I explained the problem (the unit kept shutting off on it's own) and she trouble shot with me for a few minutes and then said: "We'll send you a new one."  She then said that the model I had was no longer available and she would tell me the details of another model and see if I would "accept it".  The model she described was amazing, and retailed at over twice the price I paid.  I told her that and she said: "In replacing your unit we are comparing features not prices, so we want to ensure you get the features you wanted."  Amazing!  I asked about the old one, and she said not to return it, just put it out at the side of the road.  I told her that she won at customer service, and she said: "We're Sunbeam.  We stand behind our products."

Once off the phone I discussed it with John and we hypothesize that the original unit we purchased must be a trouble unit and it is probably easier for them to just send out a new one rather than go through the hassle of trying to fix something that might not be fixable.  Whether that is the reason or not, my $17.99 humidifier turned into a $44.99 humidifier, and I still have the broken one!

Not only did I have the best customer service experience, they sent my humidifier over 2000km via UPS.  Starting in Missouri on Feb 8, I tracked it's journey across America and into Canada, and I am awed by the complexity and efficiency of the shipping process.  One week after departing, it arrived at my door right on schedule.  I Google Mapped my humidifier's journey, and I can't believe all the effort that was made to send me a free humidifier!


View Larger Map

I have been running the humidifier steadily since I got it yesterday and so far so good.  I can't imagine they would ship a broken one 2000km, but if they did, I know that their customer service is excellent and I will have no trouble phoning them.

A Slippery Slope

I'm not a crazy person, but I recently made the following:

It's a coupon binder!  I picked up a pack of hockey card sleeves at Dollarama (8 pages, with 9 pockets on each page for $1.00).  John gave me an old binder of his and then I was set.

I easily get obsessed with things, and my new thing is couponing.  I definitely won't use all these coupons, but now that they are organized, I can easily find a specific one if I want to use it.  For example, I wouldn't normally buy Dawn dish detergent (I'm a store brand or Sunlight-on-sale kinda girl), so I most likely wouldn't use the "buy two Dawn save $1.00" coupon that is in my coupon binder.  However this week, the fun people at Smart Canucks posted their Hot Coupon Flyer Deals, and it turns out that Dawn detergent is on sale at Giant Tiger for $0.99.  If I buy two bottles for $1.98, I can use my coupon and save $1.00, so the two bottles of dish detergent are actually only $0.49 each!  That is a deal I can go for!

Do you collect coupons?  How do you keep track of the ones in your collection?

Awesome of the Week - 02/14/11

It's the Awesome of the Week: Anti-Valentine's Day Edition!

Oh Valentine's Day.  Such a silly, consumption-driven, made up holiday.  As someone who can't stand buying things just because "you're supposed too!", I think Valentine's Day is pure trash.  If you are partnered, it is hyped as a day when your beloved showers you with gifts and tokens of their love, but in reality, we impulse buy chocolates and stuffed animals at Shoppers Drug Mart on route to Valentine's Day dinner.  And if you don't get those hastily purchased, mass-produced, generic love-themed gifts, you better start questioning how much your partner actually loves you.  Such. Trash.  I choose not to participate.  Also, if you're not partnered, it is just another stupid reminder that you are single.

To celebrate my disdain for Valentine's Day, the Awesome for this week is an anti-love ballad called Bruised, preformed by The Ben's.  At Valentine's Day karaoke a few years back, I actually sang this song (it's been an anti-Valentine's anthem for a while now!)  Happy Love Day everybody!