Tire Slasher - Health and Safety Issue

I bought an electric bike last year. I
never took it to work until Wednesday
April 29th, 2009. We had a two day
week that week (short work week). Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday, engine assembly
department was off. The two highest
seniority employees in my section had
to come in on Wednesday for clean-up
in their area. So I was in along with
a co-worker on the Wednesday.

The start of my shift was 3:30 p.m. But
I arrived a little earlier than usual
that day. I parked my e-bike in the bike
section of the parking lot adjacent
to the catwalk. I put my helmet in a
bag I was carrying. The day shift was
still on the line. I don't think too
many people knew about the bike and I
didn't mention it.

Fast forward to the following week.
I decide to take my e-bike to work
on Thursday, May 08, 2009. Both
shifts, days and afternoons were
running. A lot ofemployees saw me ride
in on the e-bike. Many asked questions
about the bike too. Oh by the way, I don't
drive, never have.

It's another short work week.
Engine Assembly department is not
running on Friday May 09, 2009. The two
highest seniority employees in my section,
on my shift in my secton have to come
in. So I come in on the Friday. That
night I pushed my e-bike home. Some
nutbar slash the rear tire on my e-bike.
There were two motorcycles,
parked in bike parking area. The tires
were just fine. It didn't take long did it?

I have no idea who did it or what set
the person off. I could unknowingly
set the person off again, so I thought
just in case Psychobob loses control
again, I reported the incident to the
police. The file number is 09-27090

I reported the incident to the company
and the union after reporting the incident
to the police first.

Now we know the conduct of the unknown
Psychobob is criminal. But
I would think that any act that
has the potential to harm an employee
in the workplace is a health and safety
issue as well and employees should be
made aware of the incident so that they
can take precautions.

The Window Stalkers or Stalkers- Part III

I wonder what would have happened
if I had not contacted NorthStar
and Canada Post, if the outcome
would have been different. Would
my registered mail and Xpress post
to NorthStar still appear to be
missing?

Now on to Ducana Joe. After I send
my letters, I wonder if Joe will
return my cheques. Oh by the way,
I indicated incorrectly in Part II
that Joe received my registered
letter on September 4th, 2008. He
received my letter on Wednesday
September 3rd, 2008.

The following day, September 4th,
I'm at work, on day shift, I'm on
my job, and a man walks by (lots of
men walk by my job) but this man walks
a few feet a head and turns to glance
back at me. I was shocked I swear
it was Ducana Joe looking back at me.
He had a clip board in his hand and he
looked at me and non chalantly turned
away and continued on to wherever
he was going. I watched him disappear.
I thought no way it can't be him, but
it looked like him. Whether it was
Ducana Joe or not (and I suspect it
was him, I'm sure Ducana Windows
does commercial work too), seeing him
made think that I wasn't getting
the cheques back. On that day
I put stop payments on the
cheques.

Joe choosing to ignore my letter
canceling my order, called numerous
times and left a number of messages
which I ignored, hoping he would get
the message. He didn't.

On Saturday September 06, 2008, Joe
shows up at my house. I ignore his
knock at my door. Later that day, I
head out. I notice Joe has left a copy of
my faxed August 29th, cancellation letter
taped to my storm door. On the letter he
writes that he can't cancel my order
without my signature. He ask that I
call him, for the zillionth time. If
he needs my signature, then it meant
I had to see him. I did't want to see
Ducana Joe.

I fax a letter addressed to Joe dated
September 8th, directing him to drop
off the documents he needed signed.
He didn't drop anything off. So I take
the Ducana invoice and the invoice
for the installation company and I write
on both, that the order was canceled
August 29th, 2008 by customer. I endorse
with my signature. I fax Ducana's invoice
to Ducana and fax the window installation
company's invoice to it. That should
end it, right. Nope. After I fax the
invoices, Joe calls again. I had enough.
I contact Ducana's head office.

I tell the women I speak to at Ducana's
head office, that I canceled an order for
windows and the salesperson keeps calling
me. She asks my name. I tell her and I
listen as her tone drops - like "oh it's you,"
That kind of tone. I immediately got the
impression she knew my name. She said
that she knew I canceled but she never
mentions my letter as the source of the
cancellation. She mentions my stop payment
as what indicated to Ducana that I canceled.
My cheques were never returned as I requested
in my August 29th, letter.

She asked me who the salesperson was. I tell her
Ducana Joe's name. I tell her he won't stop
calling me. She then asked the strangest
question. At least to me it was strange. She asked,
"Why would he do that?" Does it matter? I responded,
" I don't know. He just won't accept the cancellation."


I then go on to tell her that my fax machine
records all incoming calls, and I have a record
of all Joe's telephone calls. She said she would
send hin a voice mail and tell him to stop.

Shortly after speaking with the women from
Ducana, my telephone rings. I check my caller
I.D. There's no name appearing on the screen
and the telephone number I don't recognize.
I wonder if it's Joe using a different number.
I decide to call the number. It turns out not
to be Joe but the installer.

The installer after receiving the invoice I
faxed earlier called to find out what was
going on. He asks why I canceled. This question
annoyed me. I think I was just annoyed with the
whole matter. I tell him, it doesn't matter why
I canceled, I canceled. He said he spoke to Joe
and Joe told him that he wasn't certain that I had
canceled. I don't know when the installer
spoke to Ducana Joe. I assumed he spoke to
Joe after he received my fax.

The installer told me he was at my house to
take measurements of my windows. I told
the installer that Joe should not have sent
him to my house to take measurements on my
windows when he knew I canceled the order.
The installer apologized. I accepted his
apology because I knew he didn't know I
canceled the order when he came on my property
to measure my windows. So while I'm at work Joe
has the installation company on my property.
The nerve of this stranger.

I wonder why Joe would have the installer take
measurements of my windows knowing that I canceled
the order. Did he intend to have the windows installed
anyway? Would I come home from work one day to find
that new windows had been installed in my home.
The installer would need to get in the house, right?
Joe would need to provide the installer with a key
to my house, which means someone would have to provide
Joe with a key to my house. It sure wouldn't be me.

I make a mental list of who had the keys to my house
before I me. The previous owner (next door
neighbour) and the law firms involved in the sales
transaction. Maybe no one had another set of
keys to my house, but on the other hand Joe's
behaviour made me not so certain of that. I've
since changed the locks on my house.

Since I spoke to the women at Ducana's head office
I have not received another telephone call from
Joe.

By the way, I did have an energy assessment done.

To see letters sent and other info.

http://picasaweb.google.ca/lh/view?uname=scwmark&q=THE%20WINDOW%20STALKER&isOwner=true#

The Window Stalker or Stalkers - Part ll

Joe's business card doesn't show
a fax number. I find the head office
fax number on the Ducana website. I
fax a cancellation letter to Ducana's
head office. To be certain Joe know's
of the cancellation, I send a copy
of the letter registered mail on Saturday
August 30th, 2008 to Ducana's Chatham
store address. The Chatham address is the
address on Joe's business card. Now how
I ended up with a Ducana rep from Chatham,
I don't know. The Chatham number is
not in the yellow pages. I'm thinking
maybe when I initially contacted
Ducana I was asked for my address. I recall
the person I intially spoke to - not Joe,
saying that they've replaced windows on my
street. So I must of told the person my
address. But that doesn't explain why Joe,
does it? Or maybe it does.

I decided to take a closer look at the
papers that the lawyers assistant gave
me with the keys to the house on August
15th, 2008, the closing date.
They were photocopy receipts
for windows that the previous owner
had replaced by Northstar Windows. What
I had not noticed before was there was
a warranty transfer for the windows that
had to be mailed to Northstar by
the second owner within 30 days of taking
possession of the home. So I immediately
wrote a cheque for the required $100.00
administration fee, put the certificate
in envelope and sent it registered mail
on the same date, August 29th, 2008.

I check Canada Post's on line tracker.
Joe's registered letter reaches Chatham
on September 4th, 2008. But the tracker
indicates that the registered letter to
Northstar shows as "accepted at Windsor"
The appearance is that the envelope with
the warranty transfer is still sitting
at the Windsor post office. I head to the
post office to find out what's going on.
They don't know and give me a card with
a list of Canada Post numbers I can contact
to get help. I don't call right away.
I have sneaking suspicion that the missing
registered mail containing the window warranty
transfer is not a fluke.

I notice another warranty transfer certificate.
I'm not certain whether the $100.00 administration
fee covers both certificates or if I need to
send $100.00 for each certificate. I decide
to write two separate cheques. I figure if
the fee covered both, Northstar would return
one of the cheques. At least I hoped so. You
never know these days.

I go to a post office at another location and
this time I send the warranty by Xpress post
because I'm running out of time. It has to
be at Northstar by September 15th.
Guess what? My suspicion was right. It wasn't
a fluke. The same thing happened. The Canada
Post tracker indicated that the mail was
"accepted at Windsor." Nothing further. Again
the appearance was it never left Windsor.
I still didn't contact the post office. I
decided I would after I contacted Northstar.

I contacted NorthStar's head office in St.
Thomas. I spoke to someone who transferred
me to their accounts receivable department.
I then spoke to a women about the warranty
transfer. I asked if I could fax the certificates
and pay the administration fee by credit card.
She said I could. So that's what I did. I faxed
the certificates and paid the $100.00 administration
fee by credit card on the last day that I had to get
the certificates to NorthStar, September 15th, 2008.
I also put stop payment on all three cheques.

I made a mental list of those I knew were aware of
the warranty transfer. The previous owners who
coincidentally are my next door neighbours, who
coincidentally had the two NorthStar workers
doing work at their home, the law offices involved
in the transaction. Those are the parties that I
know were aware of the warranty transfers.

A couple days later I contact Canada Post. I
give the employee the tracking numbers for
the envelopes sent by registered mail and
Xpress post. She reads the same thing, "
accepted at Wiindsor." She finds it bizarre.
Her word.

She asked me what I was sending.
I explain to her that I just moved to my
home and that it was a warranty transfer
for windows that had to be submitted within
30 days of my taking possession of the house.
She asked the name of the company and the
telephone number, which I provide. She tells
me Canada Post can reimburse me for the
money, but I there would be no investigation
if I'm reimbursed first. I tell her to
investigate first. She gives me case number
for the register envelope, case no: 648 9842
and for the Xpress post, case no; 648 9906.

The following day, Tuesday September 16th, 2008,
while I'm out arranging for stop payments on
all three cheques written out to NorthStar,
the women from NorthStar's account receivable
department leaves me a message indicating
that she had three cheques from me for $100.00
each that she was returning to me. I could hear
her lightly chuckling. I can't say I blame her.
She also indicated that she was including a
receipt for my credit card payment of the
administration fee.

I receive two telephone messages from Canada
Post indicating that they were going to
reimburse me for my cost. For some reason,
although NorthStar did receive my mail, once
the envelopes left Windsor, for some reason
they were not scanned again, giving the
appearance when viewing the tracker, that
the envelopes never left Windsor.

The entire thing was really strange. It
made me think that someone did not
want me to benefit from the warranty
transfer. It was really odd to register
two letters on the same day, different
addresses, to have one letter reach its
destination and other containing the
warranty certificate, appearing on the
on line tracker as if it never left
the post office. For the same thing to
occur at different post office...well?


In between the issue of the missing warranty
transfer certificates, I was dealing with a
Ducana sales person, Joe, who didn't want to
understand that cancel means cancel. I'll
be posting Part III shortly.

The Window Stalker or Stalkers - Part 1

I speak to a Ducana Windows sales
rep on the phone. We agree on a time
and date for the sales rep, I'll
call Joe to meet at my home. Joe
arrives at my home promptly on
Friday August, 29th, 2008. He was
just as pleasant in person as he
was when I spoke to him on the
phone. He appeared to be a nice
guy. While he was in my home my
opinion of him later dimmed, but
I'm not going to post why.

There were two men doing work at my
next door neighbour's home. One of
the men knocked on my door while Joe
was still in my home and asked that
my husband move his vehicle. Joe had
his car parked half on my neighbour's
driveway and half on my driveway. I
told the guy, he's not my husband, he's
a sales rep from Ducana. I asked Joe to
move his car. He did.

So we wrapped up the order and Joe left.
A couple hours later, I head out. I return
a few hours later. The two workers are still
at my neighbour's. As I'm walking up my
driveway, the older of the two, calls me
over. He points to the work that he
and his partner were doing for my
neighbour. He then asked me how much Ducana
was charging me for the windows. I tell him
and a knowing look passes between him and
his partner. Then he tells me that he and
his partner put in the windows in my house.
He said it was Ducana Windows that they
replaced. He said that Ducana was charging
way too much. He then gives me an estimate
of how much they would charge. Of course
it's much lower. I ask the name of the company
they work for and the older gentlemen says,
Northstar, as in NorthStar Vinyl Windows and
Doors

The NorthStar workers mention a government
program. They tell me that I could get $30.00
from the provincial government and $30.00
from the federal government for each window I
replace. My neighbour overhearing the conversation,
(that's what she said) comes out of her house
to add to the discussion.
They tell me that all the window businesses know
about the government program and the Ducana rep
should have told me. They suggest that I cancel
my order with Ducana. And that's exactly what I
did.


FYI


Did you know that under Ontario's
Consumer Protection Act, if you make
a purchase or sign a contract in your
home and then change your mind you have
within 10 days to notify the company
of your change of heart. The 10 days
is referred to as the cooling off
period. It's best you do so in writing
by fax or registered mail. Once the
company has been notified, it has 15
days to return your money.

Ministry of Small Business and
Consumer Services
http://www.gov.on.ca/MGS/en/ConsProt/050451.html

The Window Stalker or Maybe Stalkers

In my last post I wrote that my next post
would be about a window salesperson going
stalker because I canceled in writing by
fax and registered mail, an order for windows.
I'm working on it. Stay tuned.

Insubordination or Insolence?

I got more time off. An additional
one day suspension on Tuesday September
9th, 2008 for insubordination on Friday
August 8th, 2008. The only problem with
that is I was not insubordinate because
I did not refuse a direct order. If I
was accused of insolence, well I suppose,
an employee calling one's supervisor Hitler
and a piece of shit, would be seen as
insolence, by some, but not HR. It's
seen as insubordination.

A little research on the net informed me
of the difference between insubordination
and insolence. Insubordination is an
intentional refusal to obey an employer's
lawful and reasonable order. Insolence
is an employee's derisive, contemptuous
or abusive language, generally directed
at a superior.

So what do you think? Was I insubordinate
or insolent?

My next post will be about a recent incident
involving a window salesperson and his
refusal to accept my in writing canceled order.
I canceled my order only a few hours after
agreeing to purchase windows. Short of calling
the cops on this guy, the steps I had to take
to get rid of my window stalker. Stay tuned.

Consumer Protection Act -Part I

I speak to a Ducana Windows sales
rep on the phone. We agree on a time
and date for the sales rep, I'll
call Joe to meet at my home. Joe
arrives at my home promptly on
Friday August, 29th, 2008. He was
just as pleasant in person as he
was when I spoke to him on the
phone. He appeared to be a nice
guy. While he was in my home my
opinion of him later dimmed, but
I'm not going to post why.

There were two men doing work at my
next door neighbour's home. One of
the men knocked on my door while Joe
was still in my home and asked that
my husband move his vehicle. Joe had
his car parked half on my neighbour's
driveway and half on my driveway. I
told the guy, he's not my husband, he's
a sales rep from Ducana. I asked Joe to
move his car. He did.

So we wrapped up the order and Joe left.
A couple hours later, I head out. I return
a few hours later. The two workers are still
at my neighbour's. As I'm walking up my
driveway, the older of the two, calls me
over. He points to the work that he
and his partner were doing for my
neighbour. He then asked me how much Ducana
was charging me for the windows. I tell him
and a knowing look passes between him and
his partner. Then he tells me that he and
his partner put in the windows in my house.
He said it was Ducana Windows that they
replaced. He said that Ducana was charging
way too much. He then gives me an estimate
of how much they would charge. Of course
it's much lower. I ask the name of the company
they work for and the older gentlemen says,
Northstar, as in NorthStar Vinyl Windows and
Doors

The NorthStar workers mention a government
program. They tell me that I could get $30.00
from the provincial government and $30.00
from the federal government for each window I
replace. My neighbour overhearing the conversation,
(that's what she said) comes out of her house
to add to the discussion.
They tell me that all the window businesses know
about the government program and the Ducana rep
should have told me. They suggest that I cancel
my order with Ducana. And that's exactly what I
did.


FYI


Did you know that under Ontario's
Consumer Protection Act, if you make
a purchase or sign a contract in your
home and then change your mind you have
within 10 days to notify the company
of your change of heart. The 10 days
is referred to as the cooling off
period. It's best you do so in writing
by fax or registered mail. Once the
company has been notified, it has 15
days to return your money.

Ministry of Small Business and
Consumer Services
http://www.gov.on.ca/MGS/en/ConsProt/050451.html