The Blog According to Buzz

I like that Home Depot has free classes to show you how to do things. Install a toilet, build an interior wall, roof a shed. The slogan is “You Can Do It, We Can Help” and they live up to it.

They’ve got all the gear, they want to show you how to do stuff so you can buy the gear there.

With the weather turning, and our mud pit of a backyard starting to dry up, Jen and I are rolling up our sleeves and getting it fixed up this spring. New lawn, new plants, new gardens, new deck.

Guess what Home Depot has in their big flyer this weekend? Decking materials on sale, and classes on how to use said decking material.

We’re going to the Build a Deck class on Saturday morning at 9. Check out the site for a calendar of other classes being offered.

This type of marketing is brilliant. You have a product, you educate people, for free, on how to use it. You gain some good will and they come back to buy their supplies from you with their new confidence and knowledge.

Imagine if grocery stores did the same thing. They have all the supplies, why not have free cooking classes?

Computer stores could do it too. How many people know how to get the most from their computer or software? Why not offer free, simple, basic classes?

Arm your customers with education and they’ll know more to be able to buy more.

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?

I’ve gotten some interesting emails since I started writing about BPA and how it’s in many of the products we use to feed our children and ourselves.

Playtex’s PR people sent me a presser trying to say nothing was wrong.

I didn’t mention it, cause I don’t believe it.

Today, I got one from Sollight with a clever pitch to have you recycle your nasty Nalgene bpa bottles.

The last thing this planet needs is any more plastic in the landfills. But what do you do with your old polycarbonate water bottle (Nalgene or similar) that you don’t want to use any more? Don’t throw it away! With the incredibly handy LightCap200 you can turn your old (or new) bottle into the coolest home, deck, boat or camping lantern anywhere!

Just pull off the old cap and replace it with a safe, bright, environmentally-friendly solar-powered LED LightCap200 and you’ll have light anywhere you want without wasteful batteries, dangerous, toxic fuel, or electric cords.

The built-in light sensor automatically turns the light on whenever it gets dark, and off when there’s enough light for charging. Or you can click the water-tight switch and turn it off manually. It weights only 2.6oz and you can even use it as a flashlight. The four super-bright, white LEDs provide lots of light without giving off any heat or danger of chemicals in your water.

These lights have been around for a while. Jen got one for Christmas. My sister-in-law gave it to her as something she could use to easily find her water bottle when playing soccer at night.

Now they’re pitching them with a clever and topical marketing twist. Nice work guys.

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?

I’ve been on the BPA Bandwagon big for the past two weeks. Funny how having a baby changes your perspective.

When Mountain Equipment Co-Op was pulling the bottles from their shelves last year, I was aware of what was going on, but I didnt make the connection between sport drinking bottles and our son’s bottles. Now I’m a BPA Nazi.

And not everyone is hearing the message.

Earlier this week Starbucks was serving up free coffee to anyone who swung through with a portable coffee mug. Guess what most of them were probably made of? BPA. Have a look. If your mug is plastic and has a 7 on the bottom, it’s, most likely, made of the nastiness. A colleague of mine was in Starbucks downtown checking out the mugs and you have to actually remove the price tag (you know the one that still doesnt accurately reflect exchange rates) to see the recycle number. Clever.

I do my groceries at Save-On-Foods and had to swing through the baby aisle to pick up some teething cookies for Z. Guess what their entire section of baby bottles consisted of? Avent. It’s a GREAT bottle, it’s what we used. It’s also one of the worst offenders when it comes to BPA.

Here’s what’s on the Avent BPA FAQ site this week (which, for the record, is different than last week):

Do Philips AVENT baby bottles contain Bisphenol A (BPA)?

Philips AVENT reusable bottles, such as the AirFlex, are made from polycarbonate plastic. Polycarbonate plastic is approved for use and lawful for sale in every country where Philips AVENT products are sold, including in North America and Europe. [source]

They never did answer the question. Do they contain BPA? Yes. But they won’t admit to it. Instead, they throw up another misdirecting question.

Do ALL Philips AVENT feeding products contain Bisphenol A (BPA)?

No. Our range of baby feeding products also includes products made from materials other than polycarbonate, hence not containing BPA. The Philips AVENT Via Feeding System, Tempo Liners and Magic range (Cups and Sportster) are made from polypropylene or polyethylene, neither of which contains BPA. [source]

Okay, ALL Avent bottles may not have BPA, but guess what? The ones that most of us are using DO contain BPA and the company refuses to fess up to it.

Zrecs is a fantastic blog for info on BPA, they have done research on each and every baby bottle brand. They put Avent in their POOR list, the worst:

Dale Wytiaz, Avent America’s Vice President of Sales for North America, currently serves on the board of directors of the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association, which has maintained an aggressive stance in favor of polycarbonate plastic in public statements made as recently as February 2008. Avent is also listed as a member of the Coalition for Consumer Choice, a pro-BPA group which promotes anti-regulatory messages on behalf of major toy, feeding product, and trade organizations.[source]

And you wonder why I think these companies are just like big tobacco?

Avent sells a microwave sterilizer for your bottles. One of the ways the BPA is leeched out of the plastic is by heating the bottles. Nothing like sterilizing your baby’s bottles with toxin. We had one, thankfully our micro was too small for it to fit.

My blog’s traffic has seen a huge spike since I’ve been writing about BPA as the message spreads. You can see it in my GoogleAds at the bottom of each post. Most of them are BPA related.

The ironic thing is that while I have continued my attack on Avent and calling them out as a BPA offender, their ads continue to show up on my site. No doubt they have AdSense seeking out their name as a keyword to attach an ad to blogs and sites.

So here I am ripping them as a producer of toxic products for babies, and they’re gladly advertising on the site. They have to pay everytime someone clicks on their ad. I just want it to be clear I am NOT profiting from this toxic manufacturer. I am taking my site revenue and donating it to Team Diabetes.

If you have these bottles in your nursery, return them to London Drugs and get a full refund. Then use the store credit to feed your children using Born Free, Green to Grow or Think Baby.

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?

Back in February I started to get a little itch in the back of my brain. One that said proposing to Jennifer in Paris would be absolutely perfect. It was time.

I was driving up Burrard St in Vancouver, and the next thing I was inside Spence Diamonds checking out their open showcases of cubic zirconia designs.

You’ve heard the commercials, I know you have. They’re hard to miss. Everything in them is true. The dude who reads them is annoying as hell, but the experience at Spence is second to none. Now their website needs A LOT of work, it did little to help me choose the ring and price I wanted, but once I was in the store, Michelle was a breeze to deal with.

I told her my budget, told her the style, and she pointed me in the direction where I could find settings I’d like. Then she left me alone. Once I found a style I liked, she took me into an office and gave me a complete education on diamond buying. She showed me 3 different stones under a microscope and went out of her way to really help me understand what I was about to do.

Again we went through my budget and she went into their vault to see what sort of stones were on hand.

Here’s where it gets tricky. Jen’s favourite style of diamond is an Asscher cut, or a square Emerald. Spence doesnt carry that one. So the stone Michelle came back with was a round cut. It was .65 and beautiful. Michelle told me many diamond cutters will sacrifice to get to .7, so to find an ideal cut diamond at this size was a great deal. I put a deposit down and left with a big smile on my face.

But then the second guessing. This was a round diamond. Not what Jen wants. It seemed kind of small as well. I mean it looked huge, but I was really trying to get close to 1c with my limited budget, but I wasn’t going to sacrifice colour or clarity.

Then I started to look online. Sure, I’d thought about going the eBay way, but Jen would hand me the ring right back if she ever thought it was cursed with someone else’s bad luck.

I stumbled upon BlueNile.com when I was looking for information on Asscher cuts.

It has a beautiful and easy interface that takes you through diamond and setting selection. You can go through each and every important factor in the diamond from size, to cut, to colour, clarity and budget. Sliders let you adjust the importance and range of each factor and more or less stones in the inventory show up.

You can compare a cloudy big diamond vs a colourless tiny one. It was great. The most important part of the process was BlueNile carries Asscher cut diamonds. The one Jen wanted. And guess what? For the same price I had put down for the .65 round cut at Spence, I could get a full 1c stone from BlueNile.

I chatted up some of Jen’s friends and scoured the internet forums and Twitter to get as much feedback on BlueNile as I could. It was all golden. I called the 1-800 and dumped questions on the operator, all were answered perfectly. If I got the wrong size, they would adjust it for free, it was fully guaranteed etc etc etc.

I bought the ring with the idea that if it didn’t turn out perfect, I had the Spence stone on the side. But when it arrived via FedEx, it was exactly as promised. Huge. Sparkly. Perfect.

I called Spence to drop the deposit and they were awesome again, no questions asked. I really can’t say anything bad about these guys (other than I got a ring 50% bigger for the same price)

Now while I LOVE the convenience of shopping online, the after service makes it a little tough. Had I bought from Spence, or Tiffanys I could just drop in to the store to get a clean or adjustment, I can’t really plug a USB key into Jen’s ring to get the same service. So fingers crossed nothing like that will be needed. In the meantime, I would HUGELY recommend BlueNile.com for those who trust the internets, and Spence for those who want to go the B&M way.

Hey, now that I’ve blog about Jennifer’s engagement ring, does it become a tax deduction? I mean, I do make a couple hundred dollars a year off the blog - surely that’ enough to offset the few thousand I dropped on the diamond as a legitimate business expense?

Just wondering.

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?

It’s a question tossed by d-list celebrities trying to get into a club, and by media types trying to get preferential treatment.

In the case of the d-listers, if you have to ask the question they probably don’t know who you are, and most likely don’t care.

In the case of media, we’re usually somewhat anonymous, being in print or on radio, so we try to flip the phrase. Sometimes, just like having Olsen On Your Side, being a guy from the radio can get you what you need.

I’ve been having a problem with Future Shop since Christmas. I bought something online and it hasn’t arrived yet. The problem is most likely Canada Post’s fault, but I gave my money to FS, so they’re the ones I’ve picked a fight with.

For 7 weeks I have been calling the 1800 number, each time re-explaining my situation to a different phone operator, each time being told it will take a couple days. The couple days pass, I get no update, then a couple more days pass before I remember to follow up, and the frustration levels have built.

Then this week I got a note from the FS Media Relations person inviting me to an event they were having. I took the opportunity to fill her in on my little drama. Without a word of a lie, I received an email from the head of Customer Service within 90 minutes promising my items would be shipped immediately, at his expense, and I would be receiving a gift card for my troubles.

Why? Well, he obviously knows who I think I am. A blogger, a radio host, and a technology columnist. But should it really matter?

I told a friend, who said, “The fact they solved it so quickly proves they could have solved it all along.”

It’s true, but I was dealing with 1800 operators, not the head of Customer Service. The phone ops have a mandate, a list of procedures, which work in most cases to get things solved as customers get tossed around in the wheel. It’s the managers who have the ability to really solve things quickly. They have the authority to hand out promo cards and put missed orders on their corporate account to get things solved – the phone ops don’t.

You can squeak all you want on that phone to that operator, but they’re going to read you a response straight out of their operations manual.

Next time you have a problem, ask for a manager and drop a “Do you know who I am?”

It just might work.

I have long lamented the gong show that is my Boxing Day Sale purchases from Future Shop.

Here’s the short version: I bought an SD memory card and an iPod shuffle on December 24, and I still haven’t gotten them.

I have phoned THREE times to the Future Shop customer service line and each time been told it will be a couple of days to investigate the situation.

When you buy something online, and it gets shipped, you get a tracking number from Canada Post. I’ve tracked my package and Canada Post says they delivered it on January 7. But here’s the kicker - I didnt receive it.

So who do you bitch to?

Future Shop cause that’s who you paid your money to, or Canada Post because they’re the ones “lying” about the delivery?

Apparently I will now know on Friday what will happen with my case. How it will end, is still confusing. I just know I spent $165 in a 3hr online marathon over a month ago and I still don’t have anything to show for it.

As I have said here and here, online shopping sucks.

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?

Okay, so I bought many of my Christmas presents online, preaching the convenience and joy in doing so from my pyjamas to many of my friends, only to have a few of my gifts arrive in January. I guess 3 weeks wasnt enough time to come all the way north from Everett, Wa.

I would have thought things would be easier doing some Boxing Day shopping from Future Shop. Uh no.

I’ll not bore you with the details of what a gong show their Boxing Day Sale was, (it actually started at 5p on Christmas Eve) all you need to know is I scooped a couple great deals and I haven’t got them yet.

Once again, I was laughing at all the sad sacks who camped out 20 hrs in the cold to save $200 on a flat panel tv. Yet here they are, enjoying all their HD goodness while I am still waiting for my tiny little SD Card and iPod Shuffle.

After re-checking my invoices etc last night, I found the parcel was shipped December 27. I got a tracking number and matched it up with Canada Post, who said my item was delivered January 7. It may have been delivered, but it wasn’t delivered to me.

So what do I do? I tried to send an email to Future Shop’s customer service, it bounced back undeliverable (of course). Do I take it up with FS? Canada Post? Visa?

I just wanted an 8 gig SD card and a cute shuffle. 3 weeks ago!

Online shopping still sucks.

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?.

Last week the recording industry released sales figures showing the sales of physical cds is plummeting.

I argued that with digital sales rising, the books should really be balanced because of the decreased costs in manufacturing and transporting music that’s digital. All you have to do is upload a song once and you’re done. You don’t have to burn cd’s, print artwork or stuff jewel boxes, all you do is throw the song on a server and cash the cheques.

I’m a fan of Sia. She’s done work with Zero 7, has her own solo career and has a beautiful quirky style that I find magical.

I was in Starbucks yesterday and saw her new album. A total impulse buy, I thought about getting it until I flipped it over and saw the price was US$13.95 / C$16.95. Hmm .. a little steep, and throw in the exchange imbalance and I said no. Now before you chastize me for wanting to buy music in a coffee shop, you need to know my life does not revolve around a mall. I’m in Starbucks more than HMV, so it’s convenient for me.

So I put the CD back, too expensive (mind you I did pay $6 for a chai latte and a treat), reminding myself to check iTunes later.

I just looked up Sia on iTunes. The CD, the whole album, is $9.99. It’s not a part of iTunes +, so that means the tracks have Digital Rights Management attached to them, and I won’t be able to move them between my devices easily, so I checked Amazon MP3. Sia - Some People Have Real Problemsis $8.99 and totally DRM free.

Almost HALF of what a CD would cost me.

That’s why I’m not buying CDs, cause y’all are screwing us!

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?

I recently chatted with Dan Kesselring from Panasonic to get some tips on how to buy a digital camera for my column in 24hrs.

Megapixel is where a lot of people get confused. It simply refers to the dots in the image.

If you have a 7 megapixel camera vs one with 10, you’re really only going to see the difference if you’re using the camera to make very large prints, say beyond 19×13. Dan says really 5 megapixels is enough for most of us who are just printing 4×6 or archiving family memories

When it comes to specific features, “image stabilization should always be top of mind,” says Kesselring. “Its almost become a generic term, but there are different types and optical is providing the best form of stabilization.” [link]

A test done by a German company is now coming out with similar information. More megapixels does not equal more better.

The study actually finds that picture quality over the last 3 years has actually decreased as megapixels have increased.

But why? Well, compact cameras are supposed to be small and reasonably priced. Therefore small image sensors, e.g. format 7.5 x 9.4 mm or 5.4 x 6.8 mm, are built into the cameras. To increase the pixel count, the sensor has to be divided into smaller and smaller pixels.

The result is a decrease in sensitivity of the camera and an increase in noise because the amount of light collected by a single pixel is smaller. [link]

So as the CCD sensors have to stay small for the point and shoot, they have a harder time getting the larger amounts of data processed properly. The study found the optimum relationship between CCD and MP comes in at 6 Megapixels.

That’s got to be the reason so many more people are stepping up to Digital SLR. Me? I’m not quite ready, so I picked up the Panasonic FZ-18 instead. It’s $500 list price, but I managed to grab it on sale for $250 at Amazon.com. What a steal!

Check out some of the pictures I’ve been able to grab with it:

Since the FZ18 is kind of a “hybrid” between a DSLR and a point and shoot, it’s offering me the chance to just grab it and take a picture, or work with the settings for something more artistic.

For that sunset shot, I just pointed and clicked. Nice.

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?

Miss 604’s latest flickr pic reminded me of something I’ve been thinking about for a while now.

With the trend towards canvas and reusable bags for groceries and assorted shoppingness, is it really better for the planet?

I mean, we already have all these plastic bag plants set up and producing the stuff we’re using at WalMart, The Bay, Canadian Tire etc. Now that we’ve decided it’s trendy, fashionable and sensible to switch over to canvas, how many manufacturing plants are going to have to be built to sate our need for reusable baggage? And are the gasses and crap spewed by these canvas bag makers any better for dear Mother Nature than the plastic people?

If you’re making the switch, good for you. But don’t think you need just one canvas bag - you need lots. There’s trendy bags coming out all the time. That generic green Save-On bag won’t cut it next season, oh no! So you’ll need a new one.

And God forbid you might forget your bags. If that happens, instead of being a bad plastic bag person, you get another canvas one, of course. Pretty soon you have 45 canvas bags filling up your broom closet.

So - do we really need canvas bags, or is the status quo good to go?

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?