Give Me Back My Five Bucks

<rant> TOMS Shoes I really like TOMS Shoes. I wear a pair of their canvas Cordones and love them. So when I bought a new pair, I was very disappointed to find out that the stitching had basically fallen apart after wearing them only twice. I’m outside of the return policy window, but thought maybe it would be covered under some sort of warranty. I tweeted to them (no response). Then I called customer service and asked if I could just get a refund. I got denied, and the rep told me to e-mail photos and some other information into their warranty … Continue reading →

If you didn’t win my $500 cash giveaway contest, you still have a chance at winning some money this holiday season! The folks at BrighterLife.ca want to help. All you have to do is tell them what brightens your holiday on their Facebook page, and you could win 1-of-3 prizes of $1,000. :) The holiday season seems especially bright this year. Especially when I reflect over what a crazy 12 months its been! I’ve come across so many amazing people through blogging – both in real life, and online – and it truly makes my day brighter whenever I receive … Continue reading →

Over the past few weeks, I’ve written a couple of articles on the etiquette surrounding tipping, and the service industry in general. The first, was “The one where the waitress added in her own tip,” where there was a lot of debate, but the general conclusion was that she was definitely stealing, and probably should have been fired. Then, for Moneyville I wrote “Tips on holiday tipping: how much and to whom?” and a similar type of article called “The etiquette of splitting a restaurant bill.” I then got flooded with at least a dozen e-mails and Formspring comments all asking … Continue reading →

On Wednesday I tweeted about how angry I was when I had to wait over 60 minutes on hold with Marriott in order to talk to a customer service rep. Well, yesterday someone from Marriott International called to personally apologize. I liked that, so I took to Twitter to thank them. Still, nothing will give me that hour of my life back … but the bonus Marriott rewards points they credited to my account sure helps ease the pain. :) Speaking of hotels, I’ve finally booked a place for my upcoming trip to San Francisco. I scoured VRBO and AirBnB … Continue reading →

Sorry for the sporadic posting. I thought I’d be spending most of the last few days holed up in my hotel room, catching up on work. But it’s been a pretty fun trip. As soon as I got to my hotel on Tuesday night, I didn’t even have time to go up to my room before I was in the bar drinking beers with the sales guys. Because I try to keep a bit of a dividing line between my work life and my personal life, it’s always such a great experience getting to socialize outside of work hours with … Continue reading →