If our last trek to the US a couple weeks back is any indication of the mass of Canadians that will be heading down to the US to jump in the frenzy that is Black Friday… It shall be an onslaught. As mentioned in a previous post, it took us 3 hrs to cross the boarder a couple weeks back. So you factor in the strong Canadian dollar, Christmas around the corner and massive sales thats the norm with BF and it’s a recipe for a stampede of Canadians crossing the boarder. Many of whom have already checked into their hotel, scanned through the flyers/circulars and made a plan of attack as soon as the doors open tomorrow.
For those of you dumb enough to try leaving in the morning, here are a few websites you should check out before you leave. They give you updates on how long the wait is at the various boarder crossings..

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/general/times/menu-e.html 

http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/traveller/
(Ontario Ministry of Transportation)

http://www.mtq.gouv.qc.ca/en/information/cameras/frontieres/index.asp
(Transports Québec)

http://www.peacebridge.com/webcam.php
[Peace Bridge)

http://www.ambassadorbridge.com/bridge-report.php
(Ambassador Bridge)

http://www.dwtunnel.com/traffic.html
(Detroit-Windsor Tunnel)

http://www.borderlineups.com
(British Columbia)

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/border/
(Washington State)

BTW, do you know what Cyber Monday is?

The term Cyber Monday refers to the Monday immediately following Black Friday, the ceremonial kick-off of the holiday online shopping season in the United States between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas. Whereas Black Friday is associated with traditional brick-and-mortar stores, “Cyber Monday” symbolizes a busy day for online retailers. The theory was that consumers would return to their offices after the Black Friday weekend, making purchases online that they were not able to make in stores. This theory has not survived the test of time (see below). However, Cyber Monday has evolved into a significant marketing event, sponsored by the National Retail Federation’s Shop.org division, in which online retailers offer low prices and promotions.  (source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber_Monday)

Once a week I usually head over to the didyousmellthat.com to read what my mentor is up to, since he’s one of the few people usually leading from the front when it comes to business and generating income. Earlier in the week he posted a video from YouTube that was very scary! Especially when you consider the fact that I have 3 children. You have to see the video to know what I mean…

BTW, www.didyousmellthat.com is one of those blogs I highly recommend you start reading.

Every telecommuter knows that it takes a special kind of dedication to be able to perform effectively when you’re surrounded by people who never seem to get it that though you’re home, you’re technically still at work. Then there’s all the “around the house” work that always seem to require your attention.

Take this morning for instance… I had plans of waking up early and starting to write content for a new website I want to launch Jan 1 2008. But I guess mother nature had other plans for moi! The video I took says it all:

So guess what I’ll be doing for the next couple hours? This is after I spent 3 hours cleaning the garage and back yard yesterday. Plus I’ve already cleaned up 7 bags of leaves from the front (same place as in the video above) last week.

Seems the cell phones we got for our girls last Christmas was the NON-COOL variety, so with the anniversary date soon approaching they’ve been pestering us for new ones. When the account is a year old we’re supposed to get a free upgrade of hardware (cell phone)… well that is what the customer support agent told me the last time I called in to dispute a charge on the account.

What she failed to mention is that since it’s a family account with 4 phones, only 1 of the phones on the account will qualify for a free upgrade. However, it will be a higher value upgrade.  What good will that do me? 1 out of the 3! I can already hear it now… “how come ‘name’ gets the upgrade?” “I guess you like ‘name’ more than us”. We only found out we could get 1 upgrade when we spoke with a sales agent at Costco.

This does sound like a challenge to me, so I think their customer support line will be getting a call from me to stress the point that originally we were told that the “account” qualifies for free upgrades after a year and the account does have 4 phones on it. I just love when sales people say it can’t be done!

The point of this post…

Since I now have to get 2 other COOL phones (Sony Ericsson w580 and the w580i), I’ve been looking on Ebay for deals on unlocked phones. Can you believe the amount of people working out of their homes making top dollar selling stuff on ebay? Next time you go to Ebay, click on the sellers profile (rating) you’ll see how many items they’ve sold in the past few months and how much the items were sold for. You get a clear picture very fast on the power of generating cash on Ebay.

BTW, is there anything you can’t buy on Ebay?

If there is one aspect to an Ebay transaction that I think many sellers can improve on is the time they take to respond to your questions, when they decided to actually respond. Both before and after the transaction. My beef is with after the transaction. So you go through that nervous 30 seconds before the auction ends, hoping that no one beats the last minute bid you placed. You get the “You’ve Won” email and head over to pay via Pay Pal. Your part is done. You won, you paid and now you sit waiting. Would it kill the seller to send you a message confirming that he/she received the payment and that your item will be processed and shipped? How about including any tracking info!

I hate sitting here having paid my hard-earned money,  hoping that I wasn’t scammed! Hey, you want to keep this customer happy? Keep me informed during the ENTIRE transaction. from the time I win your action to the time I received it.

Send the following emails:

- thanks for participating in my auction, you’ve won and we did receive payment.

- your items was shipped, here is the tracking info.

- did you receive the item? Please leave me your feedback.

I may even add you to my favorite seller list

How many of you tried Jones’ Thanksgiving-themed soda packs last year… with Green Pea, Sweet Potato, Dinner Roll, Turkey and Gravy, and Antacid sodas? I can confess that they were never introduced to my taste buds and probably never will. I heard on the radio this morning that they were launching a couple new themed packs in time for the holiday season, this Sunday.

The Christmas pack will feature such flavors as Sugar Plum, Christmas Tree, Egg Nog and Christmas Ham. The Hanukkah pack will have Jelly Doughnut, Apple Sauce, Chocolate Coins and Latkes sodas.

“As always, both packs are kosher and contain zero caffeine,” Jones said in a statement.

BTW, a portion of the proceeds is going to charity.

I wonder if there will ever be an up-chuck flavor?