Eric C. Bow

The Civil Service isn't the only place where bureaucracy and rules sometimes get ridiculous . Witness my experience in switching from Roger's Cable TV to Bell's satellite TV.  You've all seen the ad with the blue and red couch.  Okay I believed it;  I could get everything I was getting from Roger's and more at up to 20% less.  Actually you can't - Kitchener's CKCO is not on Bell nor is Turner Classic Movies or American Classic Movies.  In fairness to Bell, it does give you a lot more movie channels in their movies theme package.  So I went to the website to investigate and it did seem to be true so I went ahead with the switch. I ordered what I thought would give me all my favorites  stations plus six theme packages and a PVR player.  The monthly bill looked like it would be less than  I was paying Roger's.

My Bell Order Confirmation showed Bell TV -HD & Digital = $33.00; HD PVR Plus receiver ($15/mo for 12 months, $20/month thereafter $20) = $15; Product subtotal $48.00. Even if you add in 6 Themes  (to get stations like Space, History, etc that I got with Rogers plus a lot more movie stations Roger's didn't provide)  at $26 a month for a total of $74 an month, that's still less than my Roger's monthly bill of $82.53 (over 10%) and I get a PVR with Bell!.  But what really sold me was the phone salesman who helped me by phone  with my online ordering telling  me if I bought the PVR outright I could get rid of the $20.00 monthly rental fee. They were also having a big promotion. I said yes and the salesman initiated the process. 

My Bell Order Confirmation (#2) showed 1 HD PVR Plus - $499.00; Taxes GST or HST - $39.92 for a total of $563.87 to be billed to my Bell account immediately and a Hardware credit of $200.00 and  Bell.ca Credit of $25.00 to be credited 6 week later) .  It all seemed so easy, the salesman said he would handle it all then and there.  BUT he failed me here; I found out 6 weeks later that he did not cancel the rental agreement as he was supposed to and initiate a different process.

My October 12th Bell bill did not show the $563.87 amount I was expecting; it showed first and last month TV charges including $40 (two months) for rental of the PVR Plus.  When I inquired about the rental fee at my local Bell mobile office the clerk there phone Billing and was told about the initial salesman's mistake.  She was also told that to correct it I would have to send back my PVR and cancel my rental agreement (costing me $50 and the cost of shipping the PVR back) then replace the order and wait (without TV) for a new PVR Plus .  Talk about bureaucracy.  NO THANK YOU! I'll stick with the rental for now and hope that down the line I'll be given the opportunity to buy the PVR again.

I highly recommend when dealing with Bell to go to one of the offices (I had excellent help from the Bell Mobile Office on Victoria St. N.) where you can talk to someone face to face. Don't use the online service especially if you are a hunt and peck typist like me.  I kept getting messages from the Bell chat representative asking if I was still there.  It got so bad that a supervisor/salesman phoned to assist me - unfortunately it was a bad line and he had an accent - I had a bit of trouble hearing him.  He was also the salesman who sold me on buying the PVR Plus instead of renting it. Even though the savings are not as great as expected I'm happy.  A saving of $8.54 (over 10%) a month is not all that bad and I do get a lot more movie channels.  I can pull in CKCO with a set top antenna and the signal will improve when CKCO goes digital and I get a digital tuner box. 

I can't help thinking of the Avro Arrow and the loss of all those aeronautical engineers to NASA when I read about the Bankruptcy courts in Canada and the United States approving the sale of Nortel Network to Ericsson. Avro was a leader in aeronautics just as Nortel was once the high-tech flag ship. Both received all manner of government assistance. At the present time Canadian Industry Minister Tony Clement says he hasn't decided whether to intervene in the planned sale.  It's interesting that it was a Conservative government that shot down the Avro Arrow with the cheaper and unproven foreign built Bomarc missle. If the Government doesn't intervene and stop the sale, both Clement and Harper risk being lumped together with John George Diefenbaker as destroyers of Canadian technological. If the Conservatives are serious about developing global centres of excellence in high tech industries, they must intervene and stop the sale to Ericsson.  Canada, to recover from the recession, needs to keep it's high tech innovations and developers home. RIM is Canadian and best qualified to build the world's next-generation wireless networks , for which Nortel's technology holds the key.

I am becoming increasingly irritated by the Conservative attack ads. Hey what’s wrong with Ignatieff being out of the country for more than 30 years? It makes him cosmopolitan - a citizen of the world well-qualified to deal with global crisis like the current economic one. Although Harper is a university trained economist and like Ignatieff, an intellectual, all his experience is relatively insular, much of it with the Citizen’s Coalition.  Look at Ignatieff's family, as Canadian as they come - his grandfather wrote Lament for a Nation! - and coined the term "Red Tory". I am sure Ignatieff picked up a lot from the conversations around that kitchen table. His time abroad makes him better able to see Canada as the world sees us than Harper is with his limited world experience. As for arrogance, I think Harper is far more arrogant; he seems to be very controlling and doesn't seem to want to listen to anyone even within his own party. For Harper it's "my way or the highway".  The attack ads are convincing me that I really want Ignatieff and his team as the next government of Canada. Our best Prime Ministers were intellectuals and men of the world who gave us very good government - King, St. Laurent, Pearson, Trudeau - and kept us united.

Hebrews 4:14-5:6. We have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God...not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.
It just occurred to me that Christ being without sin doesn't necessarily mean he was celebrate.  Original sin is disobedience to God.  Christ was obedient to death "Not my will be thine."