For those who thought that I had run out of peeves back in 1999, think again. There are plenty to go around, and I am quite willing to share a few. Back in 1999, many of us were dreaming of a peaceful, problem-free millennium. Dream on! Some rotten apple always finds a way to upset the applecart.
SOME PEEVES FOR 2017Aye, 2017 involved mishandled opportunities to resolve a minor problem with the Fergus Scottish Festival along the Avenue of the Clans, but the manager and president no longer needs my assistance or my attendance. We'll see if his pledge to the Scottish Studies Foundation is honoured any time in the future.Now, we'll proceed to problems with BELL CANADA. In mid-November, their Field Sales Consultant, Siddiqur Rahman, appeared in our neighbourhood. Although we did nor require his services at the time, I did advise him that our telephone cable was lying quite exposed across our driveway on the south edge of the sidewalk. Our main concern was that the first snowfall was not far off, and any plowing of our driveway would cause the cable to snap. His response was rather non-commital. After the first snowfall in December, I phoned Siddiqur at 416-553-0120 and advised him that the snowplow had exposed the cable even more, and could he please send some maintenance workers to solve the problem. On December 22, after another snowfall, the snowplow finally snapped the cable, and we were without telephone service. My wife had to walk to the Bell store at Fairview Mall with the complaint, and a clerk arranged an "appointment" for repairs on Saturday between 10:00 AM and noon. [The technical staff will probably try to phone us in order to confirm the appointment!]  The BELL CANADA repair technician appeared at 11:00 AM, took a look at the broken cable, and proceeded to unhook the connections at the box at the side of our home. He proceeded to run a "temporary" wire from our neighbour's telephone box to our box. Two hours later he phoned me to check if everything was working and stated that a permanent solution would be scheduled exactly three weeks from now. Hmmm . . . that will be Saturday, January 14, 2018. If anyone believes that, please check back with us on that date!
Slàinte mhòr! Merry Christmas! I'd phone you if I could. J. Douglas Ross, BA, MEd, FSA Scot December 22, 2017. Back to Top |
