Nothing to do with photography or business practices, and way off-topic but:
1) For the upcoming G8 and G20 Summits in Canada this June, the federal government states that security screening will be performed by “competent authorities”. What? As opposed to the usual incompetent authorities?
2) Canadian phone company Bell has increased its interest rate to 42.58%. This not only proves that Bell is in the business of gouging consumers but also that it leads the Canadian corporate race to becoming a loan shark. (The Canadian legal definition of loan sharking is 60% interest.) Credit card companies and banks are probably wondering how Bell gets away with this.
Speaking of gouging customers, if you’re a Bell user, you may have noticed that Bell charges sales tax on each line item separately, rather than just on the total, and it rounds up each item’s tax to the nearest cent. Rounding up all the line items separately means the sales tax has been rounded up several times over. The net result is that you pay a few cents more each month. No one notices or cares, right? But if you multiply a couple of cents by over a million customers per month ….
3) Bell got caught (again) cheating its customers. This time, Bell was charging wrongly-imposed late fees. It settled a class action out of court. This is not to be confused with the other ongoing class actions against Bell for cheating its customers.
Bell’s settlement for the late fees is such that customers no longer with Bell won’t get any money refunded and current customers will only get credit on their future phone bills only if they stay with Bell. How’s that for a settlement?
If you own a cell phone in Canada, do look at this law firm’s page concerning a class action suit against all cell carriers in the country. This is concerning the government licensing fee scam (aka system access fee). This is not to be confused with the class action suit over the 9-1-1 fee.
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Added May 19, 2010: Bell got caught cheating its customers yet again. CRTC has ruled that Bell must refund the “Touch-Tone service fee” to customers who don’t have touch-tone service.
Added November 27, 2014: Bell got caught having its employees plant fake online reviews praising its new Bell app.
Added January 29, 2015: Bell got caught violating “net neutrality” rules.
Added April 17, 2015: Bell got caught yet again. Another class action suit against Bell for allegedly violating customer privacy by selling customer data.
