All I'm doing lately is trying not to get ripped off!

And if you don't stand up for yourself, they'll walk all over you.

First, it was our Canadian Tire story last week where they tried to rip us off for $22.77. Had I not went to the manager, we would have paid $22.77 more than we were supposed to. And I'm not done with them yet. I still think we paid $35 plus tax too much.

Then, Bell Mobility had charged us a $15 plus tax connection fee to activate our mi-fi internet. I saw later that they had a special on that the guy didn't know about and the activation fee was supposed to be waived. One phone call was all it took to fix that.

Then, I ordered new brake pads for the little blue car. They actually had a good deal on at Amazon.ca...

Notice where it says "FREE SHIPPING" in bold capital letters.

This is a third party seller through Amazon, so it doesn't come from Amazon directly. I placed the order, got the confirmation, and then an email from the brake company telling me that we are in a "UPS extended service zone" and that there will be a $12.50 charge for shipping.

Nowhere does it say "free shipping with exceptions". There's no little star beside the phrase "FREE SHIPPING" that tells you that there's fine print. And when you go through the purchase procedure, nothing tells you that the shipping isn't going to be free unless you choose a faster shipping speed.

So I called Amazon, to see if they agreed with me, and they did. They also apologized profusely, and started an investigation. Then, I called the brake company and I had to jump through hoops and also talk to a manager, but sure enough I got that shipping charge waived and the brake pads are apparently on their way.

Then, I got my first bill from Bell Mobility. We had activated the device on April 29th, and then had the billing date as May 2nd. So our first bill was for only three days usage. We had used 1.6 GB of data in those three days and they charged us $35 plus tax. Yikes, that's $22 per GB!

This is our third year using Bell  Mobility for our internet, so I know that we normally use between 12 to 15 GB of data per month. And that costs us $105, or between $7 to $8 per GB.

We're on a stepped data plan, so the more we use in a 30 day period, the cheaper the "per GB" price becomes. But when they base our bill on only 3 days, they get a huge benefit. That's not fair.

First, I went on their "chat" service. The guy agreed with me, but said there was nothing he could do and I needed to call customer service. The girl I got there said she knew and understood what I meant, and she went and checked with someone and came back to tell me the charges were valid. Just as I was asking to speak with her supervisor, my phone went dead. I called back later, got another customer service agent, and he cancelled the $35 charge without much of a thought! Better than what I expected!

So had I not questioned anything, we would have paid $88 more than we should have this past week. I'd say that was worth the extra effort.

Oh, and we had bought some Johnsonville Smoked Sausage. We've bought Johnsonville sausage before and always been happy. But this was a new product called "Double Smoked" or something, and it wasn't even sausage. It was more like a hot dog wiener. Terrible. So I complained online, and they thanked me for doing so. They're also mailing me some money saving coupons for future product purchases. I've said before, if you don't tell them, they don't know.

Amazon does gift cards.  An easy gift for any occasion...

Amazon.com Gift Card in a box with free express shipping - USA

Amazon.ca Gift Card in a box with free express shipping - Canada