PC Outlet
3181 Walker Rd. Unite #1
Windsor, Ontario
N8W 3R6

519-972-8900
www.pcoit.com

After being lied to, treated like garbage by PC Outfitters & rushing all the way over there only to have to walk back out 3 minutes later, someone recommended PC Outlet.

Unlike PC Outfitters, I walked into a nicely lite CLEAN storefront where Vince helped me with my computer. He was honest upfront & said maybe he could fix it that day, he would do his best to try – it all depends on what is wrong with it. He never lied to me both on the phone or to my face which is what PC Outfitters did.

Within 1 minute after screwing in the video card connection the computer was up & running. He even did a free diagnostic on some parts within the computer & he spent a lot of time with me discussing adding in more memory.

He only charged me a very small fee for his 1 minute of time when he could have easily tried to rip me off or gauge me like many other computer stores do. Although I can not be 100%, I’m pretty sure PC Outfitters would have charged me the full $60 just to screw that part back in.

If you are looking to have your computer looked after without fear of being ripped off or the person not knowing what he/she is doing, I recommend PC Outlet. I will continue to go back to them if I have any computer problems.

Michelle

Tocher Trading Company Limited
1-888-725-8386
www.naturescargo.ca

Tocher Trading Company is an exceptional company.

They distribute high quality sea salt & Himalayan salt all throughout Canada & now the US, and twice now when I’ve phoned to order from them I’ve received warm friendly service.

So because their customer service is so unusual, I have to boast about them & put them on my blog for being a company I love.

Keep up the great work.

Michelle

Earth Class Mail is a terrific company.

While I haven’t dealt with them very often (that’s a good sign, since no contact means everything is working smoothly), I have talked to their customer service area at least 5-6 times in the past 6 months, & every time they are polite, respectful, intelligent, genuinely happy to hear from me as a customer, & last time I contacted them (hence why I decided to review them), they listened to my suggestion & agreed that it needed to be implemented.

That is VERY RARE to hear a company agree with my suggestions on how to improve their system.

Most companies don’t want to do the work to improve, but it’s clear that Earth Class Mail does.

If you are ever looking for a post office box (P.O. Box) in the States, or a way to forward mail to you so others don’t know your home address, I highly recommend Earth Class Mail.

La Tourangelle

http://www.latourangelle.com/

510-970-9960

So I purchased La Tourangelle’s avocado oil from a health food store in Windsor, Ontario that clearly doesn’t keep track of their items that are about to expire.

Little did I know, that the oil was to expire in one week, & by the time I poured on my salad, it was bitter or something, so I called the La Tourangelle company & spoke to Michael Cohen.

He was very nice. We spoke for a while about healthy food items, etc. & he told me he would replace the oil & send me out a couple of others to try.

Well whoever packaged it didn’t do a proper job, & the oil containers were dented, so I had to call Michael back again.

La Tourangelle is in the States, so he had told his Canadian distributor to mail me the oil, so to be clear, it wasn’t Michael’s fault.

He then proceeded to find someone else to send me new oil & she eventually did.

I like their pumpkin oil (only use a little bit, it’s very strong).

I haven’t tried the avocado oil yet, I’m waiting until I start buying more salads again.

I recommend this company & their oils, they are of very good quality & as you can see, they really care about their customers, so I give them a 9 for customer service.

I hope they will eventually start producing organic oils because I can only use organic grapeseed oil since non organic grapes have the highest sulfate content of all produce which is terrible for a person’s health.

Michelle

Windsor Spring & Alignment
1016 Crawford Ave.
Windsor, Ontario
519-971-8895

So I was referred to Windsor Spring & Alignment by another mechanic who doesn’t do alignments.

I went in expecting to be there only an hour tops, but was quickly told they couldn’t do the alignment on my car because there were other problems with it.

They seemed honest, so even though I didn’t want to fork over that much money (close to $1,000), I knew there were problems with the car, so I told Dan to go ahead.

It was going to take several hours, so I had to bring the car back the following day.

They were nice & drove me to Devonshire Mall while I waited for the car to be fixed.

The only thing that kind of irked me is that they charged me the $20 for balancing the tires & at that point you would think it would have been thrown in for all the money I was paying out, but it wasn’t. Fine, I accepted that.

Once I received the car, I noticed it was still pulling to the left still & now there was a rattling noise on the dashboard.

I quickly phoned them & we decided I would wait until I had driven it on many different roads before deciding if it was still a problem.

The following week I brought it in again because it was definitely a problem & after paying out that much money, I wanted it to be perfect.

Al was there this time & within 30 minutes they established that there was a problem. I was holding my breath because I thought, what if they try & charge me for something else now & I knew that rattling wasn’t there before I brought the car in.

Al & I talked & he was nice enough to arrange to get me home while leaving the car there.

So far both brothers (didn’t realize they were brothers until I was looking at their business card just now) were very nice. I can tell they run a professional well run shop.

The following day I went to pick up the car again & there was no charge, so I sighed relief. Turns out the mechanic who put in the part (don’t ask me what it’s called LOL) didn’t put it in exactly as it should be, so it was rubbing.

The car seems okay now, but there may still be a rattling noise. I haven’t driven it enough to establish & it seems intermident.

Overall I’ve been happy with Windsor Spring & Alighment & will go back if there are issues with this work down, or if I need other work done.

Michelle

Dean & Deluca

http://www.deandeluca.com/

Dean & Deluca sells high end food, cookware, coffee, cheese, gift baskets, chocolate, unusual food items like Mac & Cheese with Lobster, etc.

For my special assistant who I adore, I wanted to get him something for Christmas & I was investing a lot of time trying to find him a place that would come to his home & cook him dinner,

When I read some reviews of some places, I wasn’t too thrilled.

Then because the Universe was trying to help me, I was having a conversation with my assistant Andy & he was gushing over this site he came across called Dean & Deluca.

I recognized the name from my research & was so excited that he had just told me what he wanted for Christmas without knowing it.

After I hung up with him, I called up Dean & Deluca & talked to a girl & placed my order for a gift card. I gave her specific instructions to mail it so it would get there a day or two before Christmas.

Unfortunately they made a mistake & mailed it out too early. He got it like a week to 10 days before Christmas.

This caused me problems because I was also getting Andy a coffee club from www.coffeecoffee.com, & I didn’t want him to waste his money on the coffee at Dean & Deluca when he could get other things there. The coffee club’s gift card wasn’t going to arrive until much closer to Christmas.

I had to tell him to wait on ordering from Dean & Deluca which was very embarrasing. Who sends a gift & then tells people to wait before using it LOL

I phoned Dean & Deluca, spoke to a manager & he said he would fix the problem.

While the problem took another 10-14 days to solve which I felt was too long, in the end what they did for me was MORE then enough & I will be using them again for future gifts.

I hope next time my gift card is sent out on time & calls are returned promptly.

Andy loved what he ordered & it was like he was a little kid in a candy store.

Thank you Dean & Deluca

Michelle

I was in the market for buying a bike in Windsor because I was finally in a city where I felt comfortable biking & I wanted to start getting into shape.

At first I made the mistake of purchasing a bike from Costco.

I love Costco a lot, but when it comes to bikes, they only have one kind, & for a short person like me, it turned out to be a huge mistake.

I had rushed to Bicycle World in Windsor, Ontario to outfit the bike with a padded seat, lights, a bell& a basket. I made the mistake of not only being in a rush, but also not making sure I took the original seat with me.

They didn’t give it to me, & they seemed very disorganized & rushed over there. The guy who originally helped me the first time was nice, but I felt stressed when Mary helped me & that day when I went in to pick up the seat because it had to be ordered in.

I moved & didn’t ride the bike until a month or so later. After riding it twice, I realized that the bike was killing me. I was told by a bike shop in Leamington that I shouldn’t be riding that sized bike, so I had to come to terms with the fact that I had to return it which was a big deal since I don’t have a van & the drive back & forth was taxing.

Thank god for Costco’s return policy.

When I was about to return the bike, I realized I didn’t want to return it with the $30 seat I had purchased, so I called up Bicycle World asking where it had gone. I was praying they still had it in the back somewhere.

I won’t go into long details other than to say I had to call back twice because no one called me back the first time, then I was told to come in because they weren’t even sure they had my seat (you can’t miss a brand new seat) & once I got there, the situation still wasn’t resolved, the seat Mary showed me was clearly very used even though I told her it was brand new, how can you forget a customer who was rushing because it was the day of her move.

Her & I came to odds even on the phone because at one point she said something that wasn’t true.

When I got there, the owner eventually did handle the situation & found me a seat, but the brand new one that had been on the Costco bike was gone & I felt guilty not giving that one back. Why a bike shop would throw out a brand new bike seat is beyond me, but hey, I don’t run a bicycle shop. They said it was because they don’t have room. Ok, I won’t comment on that, they had room for the worn out looking one.

I happened to be mentioning my story to a guy at Costco, & he said he had had problems with Bicycle World as well, so he recommended Courtesy Bicycles (Bikes) on 3154 Sandwich Street W (near the bridge). 519-252-0080

He said they will always take back things you don’t want & will help you until you have what you want. That’s not how I felt treated at Bicycle World, I felt like I had to keep whatever I purchased even if it didn’t work for me because the padded seat I bought turned wasn’t very comfortable.

I talked to the manager at Courtesy Bicycles named John (the owner’s name is John) & he seemed nice.

A week or so later, I finally went down to try out some bikes.

I didn’t like any of the bikes & was actually becoming disallusioned. John had initially recommended this comfort bike from Trek, but it was so expensive & way beyond my budget.

Finally in the end I tried it out. It was the last bike I tried. I fell in love with it immediately. It was like night & day compared to the other bikes.

I was told I could put it on layaway & so I eventually put money down on it.

If I have any complaint about the store, it was having to wait & wait & wait for John to talk to me. I was there for hours trying out bike after bike & I had to wait each time for him to suggest a new one.

I don’t mean waiting 5 minutes either, we were there for probably 3 hours & there was no place to sit.

I also had to wait to talk to him about the price & there were times that I would be standing there & he would be talking to someone else, & wouldn’t even look my way

I tried not to let that affect my decision to buy the bike & I’m happy I didn’t.

About 1 1/2 months later I go down to pay off the rest of the bike. I bought other accessories & the guy who helped me was very nice & attentive.

In the end I ended up losing money on the accessories I had purchased from Bicycle World, but I live to learn

I did have to bring the bike back one more time because there was some noise with it & this time the owner helped me & took the time to patiently show my son how to put the front tire back on. I wouldn’t have had the patience for that.

I also purchased lights for the bike because the lights I purchased at Bicycle World weren’t lights for really dark streets & one of them broke the band so I couldn’t put it on my bike anymore.

Because John the owner took the time to help me, when my son got hit by a car (he’s ok) & his bike was broken, Courtesy Bicycles was the first place I thought of for buying a used bike, because we couldn’t afford a brand new mountain bike.

John the owner took great care of him & we even bought lights for him & a helmet.

Courtesy Bicycles has another loyal customer to add to their list.

Thank you guys

Michelle

AR Moving – http://armoving.ca/ – Toronto, Ontario & the GTA
Aleks – 416-834-3004

Ok, I’m VERY happy to say I finally found a GREAT moving company.

Unfortunately I’ve been moving around a lot in the Toronto area for several years now, & I have never had a good mover.

Passable, yes, but never one that was excellent at a great price.

I just used AR Moving & experienced the following during a move that you know can be very very stressful:

• excellent customer service
• they were friendly
• there was no attitude from any one of them for the entire move
• gave me a quote they stuck to
• they do long distance moves
• their price was better than anyone else’s
• they had the 26 ft. truck I needed
• they took great care with all of my things
• they disassembled my bed & put it back together for me, they even did the washing machine, & my blinds & drape

I’ve never been so happy with a moving company, so I highly recommend you use them. You know how I care so much about quality

Michelle

www.Headsets.com

I thought there was a www.headsets.ca, but I guess I was wrong.

What www.headsets.com does though, is respect Canadians, and allows them to purchase and send items to Americans.

I was looking for a headset for my assitant, as he’s been with me for over 3 months now and he deserves a present.

I called up Best Buy, Circuit City, and Walmart in the States, because my assistant lives in the US.

I wanted to use my US credit card, but of course the address on my credit card statement is here in the Toronto area.

None of these companies allowed me to order through their site using my Canadian address, it’s like they didn’t even care that a Canadian may want to purchase for someone in the States.

Nothing irks me more, than American companies who give Canadians a hard time. If you don’t respect your neighbours to the North, I would NEVER give you my money.

I didn’t want to purchase from Best Buy or Circuit City here in Toronto, because the shipping would be more expensive, and if my assitant wanted to return the item, he’d have to ship it all the way back to Canada because the Best Buy in the US sure wouldn’t take it.

In fact Walmart doesn’t even allow you to order from their site and have the product shipped, all they do is have the items shipped to the closest store. I guess Walmart is such a small company, they can’t afford a good programmer and website coder.

I was going to buy him a Plantronics headset, so I contacted Platronics customer service through their site, but the guy who helped me wasn’t too bright, and he was making suggestions that made no logical sense. I don’t think he understood I’m over here in Canada. I guess you have to tell them several times before it sinks in.

So anyway, after wasting an hour to an hour and a half of my time on something that should have taken 15 minutes tops, I finally decided to search on Google, and came across www.headsets.com.

From the moment I called I was treated with respect. It was clear they really value their customers.

The only glitch I had was that she gave me the price in Canadian dollars, and I thought it was in US dollars, so when I told her that their amount was so much higher than Best Buy’s price, she told me to write away to their price protection department.

Unfortunately they were closed since it was early Friday evening, so I had to wait until Monday to get the entire order processed, but  she took down all the information to put in my file in the meantime so I could just wrap things up on Monday.
She also told me that for my troubles, the shipping would be free, so I was a happy camper. 

On Monday I was called by someone else to follow up on the order because she hadn’t received my e-mail, and she was wondering why the order was still open.

I resent the e-mail, and within 20 minutes she realized the problem, called me back, told me their price was even a smidgen cheaper than the Best Buy price, and away the headset went.

It arrived even faster than the 3 days I was told it would take, and the only glitch was that the note that was supposed to go into the package wishing my assistant a Happy Holidays was forgotten, so they had sent the headset and the note separately.

I would really love it if these companies offered cards and wrapping you could send out with the item during Christmas or Valentines Season.

I’m shocked they haven’t thought about this before.

My assistant was slightly confused because of the card with no item, but eventually he figured out what was happening when he got the second package.

He was very very happy, and like I tell everyone, once you go headset, you never go back

Thank you www.headsets.com

Michelle

Galaxy Nutritional Foods
www.galaxyfoods.com
1-407-855-5500

I have been eating Galay’s mozzarella rice cheese for around 4 years now & I love it, although I prefer the taste when it’s cooked/melted cheese, as apposed to fresh.

It’s the only rice cheese I’m aware of, but then again I’m in Canada, so I don’t know what the States has available.

So Loblaws wasn’t carrying it for almost 2 weeks, & I was wondering what was going on.

Finally they got it in, I bought 3 blocks, but when I went to taste it, it tasted  a smidgen different, so I called them & left a message.

No sooner had I left a message, when 20 minutes later I got a call back.

The woman was very very nice on the phone, she really wanted to hear what I had to say, was going to pass this off to the QC department, and was going to send me something in the mail.

It’s a joy to come across a company that really cares about their customers.

Michelle