In the wake of Costco Canada‘s recall of their Nature’s Touch brand Berry Cherry Blend due to possible Hepatitis A contamination, Costco Canada is offering free Hepatitis A vaccinations for anyone who has been affected by the recall. Vaccinations will be available at most Costco warehouses.

The Nature’s Touch brand Berry Cherry Blend was sold exclusively  at Costco warehouse locations in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Consumers should not consume the recalled product described below:

What you should do

Check to see if you have recalled products in your home. Recalled products should be thrown out or returned to the store where they were purchased.

Food contaminated with Hepatitis A virus may not look or smell spoiled. Consumption of food contaminated with this virus may cause hepatitis and produce a self-limited disease that does not result in chronic infection or chronic liver disease.

The illness is usually mild and starts about 15 to 50 days after the contaminated food is eaten. It generally goes away by itself in a week or two, although it can last up to 6 months in some people.

It can cause inflammation of the liver, and symptoms may include fever, low appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle aches, and yellowing in the whites of the eyes and the skin (jaundice).

If you suspect you have become ill from eating a recalled product, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) recommends contacting your doctor.

Click here to get more information about Nature’s Touch recall.

Following the announcement from WestJet regarding changes to their checked baggage policy, Air Canada have announced that they will also charge a fee of $25 on select fares within Canada, US,  Puerto Rico, Mexico, the Caribbean or the U.S. Virgin Islands.

These changes will not apply to tickets booked before today and only apply to travel after November 2nd.

Travel within Canada:

• Tango fares: Check a 1st bag for 25$ CAD/USD (per direction) and a 2nd bag for 25$ CAD/USD (per direction).
• Flex fares: Check a 1st bag free of charge and a 2nd bag for 25$ CAD/USD (per direction).
• Latitude fares: Check 2 bags free of charge.

Travel between Canada or the U.S. and Puerto Rico, Mexico, the Caribbean or the U.S. Virgin Islands:

• Tango fares: Check a 1st bag for 25$ CAD/USD (per direction) and a 2nd bag for 25$ CAD/USD (per direction).
• Flex fares: Check a 1st bag free of charge and a 2nd bag for 25$ CAD/USD (per direction).
• Latitude fares: Check 2 bags free of charge.

Between Canada or the U.S.* and Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua:

• All Economy fares: Check a 1st bag free of charge and a 2nd bag for $25 CAD/USD (per direction).

Click here for full details.

Some of you will remember LikeNet.ca when it was around in 2012 then closed down suddenly leaving many people owed money (those who did not have the minimum threshold to cash out when they changed it to a higher threshold without notice).

They claim that they will restore our balances and have new ways to earn, but will you trust them again?  Will you use them just to get to the cashout threshold to get what you were previously owed?

They promise to have more way to earn and exclusive deals but personally I think opening it to the USA means we will get less opportunities (not to mention the fact that they couldn’t handle a relatively small Canadian market before).

If you were not aware of LikeNet when they were around before, you can read more about them here.

On the evening of December 24th to the 25th customers making online purchases received an additional 50 percent off at check out. Tina Tenneriello of CJAD news is reporting that The Brick has contacted customers to say the discount was erroneous and customers who want the item will need to pay the advertised price:

Big name retailer The Brick is being accused of trying to go back on an online Boxing Day offer.

On the evening of December 24th to the 25th customers making online purchases received an additional 50 percent off at check out.

Now, on their Facebook page and by email The Brick has contacted customers to say the discount was erroneous and customers who want the item will need to pay the advertised price.

“I purchased a kitchen table for $199, then I received an email saying there was a pricing error online and due to this we need you to email us back with a phone number so we can let you know what the correct price is, there wasn’t an apology or anything,” Shadia Han, one of the customers who was contacted said.

“Then, they want to offer us a 10 percent discount instead, which I think is rubbish.”

The Office de la protection du consommateur says the price at check out is legally binding and customers in this situation should send a legal letter to The Brick asking them to respect that contract.

Otherwise, they can file a complaint with the office and take them to small claims court.

The Brick would not comment on what constitutes a contract but specified that none of the purchases had been completed. It also suggested customers who are upset about the change contact customer service.

[Source: CJAD NEWS]

The Brick’s Announcement on Facebook

Rexall have a new printable coupon for $5 off when you spend $25 on almost anything in the store this week.  Excludes prescriptions, products containing codeine, insulin, Rexall/PharmaPlus Gift Cards, Gift Card Express, lottery, postal services and stamps, transit tickets, baby diapers, baby formula, adult meal supplements, prepaid phone cards, photo finishing, tobacco products and taxes.  This coupon is valid today through Monday 2 September.

Click here to print your coupon

They also have two Air Miles deals valid this week:

• Today though Thursday get 30 Air Miles when you spend $30 – click here for coupon
• Friday – Sunday get 100 Air Miles when you spend $50 – no coupon needed

While many users got their free Skechers gorun/gowalk shoes without incident, others are venting about the poor communication and service during this promo.  Several users report that Astro cashed their cheques but months later they do not have the shoes but receive multiple calls/emails from the promotional company saying they no longer have the shoe in stock and to choose another one, even though they went through this and chose an ‘in-stock’ shoe a month before!

Others sent their PINs and info within the required time and postmarked within the dates given but their envelopes were returned as late.

What do you think of these ‘item’ promotions where you cannot be sure if they still have the item in stock (or in your size) when you buy the product?

Do you think that after the first ‘sorry we don’t have this colour/size’ they should make it right and honour the second choice that the person chose while on the phone and confirming that it would be sent in 2-3 weeks?

We have all seen posts on the forums with people saying they will never buy a product or shop somewhere again after bad service – but how much do you stick to those threats?

I made complaints to two companies in December, one from a company I had sent a compliment to before but I must have bought an item a bad batch.  It was a polite email letting them know that there was an issue with the batch number and expiry date so they could look into it.  A month later they had not responded at all and after seeing a facebook post from them, I sent the facebook rep a message about my email.  They responded to my original email but did not even apologize for the month it took to reply.  Just asked for my address so they could send me a coupon to replace the item.  We all like coupons but to not apologize for making someone wait a month for a reply and not addressing the wait time?

The other was a store refusing all coupons because ‘they are all fraud’, I got an email back saying they would get in touch with the store and get back to me within 3 business days – that was on Dec 20th.  Yesterday I received an auto-generated email from them saying that they were so happy my issue had been resolved and asked me to take a survey on my experience with their customer service which got them a few choice words in the comment box of the survey.

I honestly think that I will buy neither the product nor shop in that store again.   I didn’t expect anything but a ‘sorry you experienced this’ no freebies etc, just an apology.

Are you swayed by bad customer service?  How many people do you tell about a bad experience and do you wait for them to attempt to fix an issue before you share your experiences?

My local Zellers closes in just over a week, so we thought we would go by and see what deals they had left.

In the clothes section, people were arguing over a Jockey hoodie, one holding it by the hood, the other by an arm both saying they had seen it first – there were 6 more on the rack and it was not even the most amazing deal! In the electronics section, someone actually hit someone else with a Wii game.

But the mess amazed me, the picture above was taken beside a price checker, people were just looking at the price then throwing the item on the floor if too expensive.  None of the items we bought came up at the price it should have, one item that should have been $32.99 – 60% came up at $4.19 once the discount was taken and I price checked it at $32.99 so price checking was redundant anyway.  There were areas where everything had been knocked off the shelves and as quickly as staff were putting it back, people were throwing it back on the floor.

What is it about a liquidation sale that makes us lose all sense of how we should behave? 

There is no way we would go into a store on a regular day and just throw things we don’t want on the floor.  Return them to the wrong area maybe, but not just chuck it on the floor right in front of a staff member who has to clean it up.  I know it is partly that the staff don’t care as much with just a few days left and are likely not cleaning up as quickly but that alone cannot account for the disaster in these stores.

Banana Boat/Energizer is pulling two types of continuous spray Banana Boat sun care products from stores across Canada – Banana Boat Ultra Defense Spray Sunscreen and Banana Boat Sport Performance Spray Sunscreen.

Energizer who own the Banana Boat label says there is a “potential risk of product igniting on the skin if contact is made with a source of ignition before the product is completely dry.”  There are five cases of users catching on fire, four in the US and one in Canada.

The products were sold nationally from January, 2010, through Sept. 20, 2012.

If you shopped in the US, the list is much longer, view it here.

Consumers who purchased the products are being told not to use them. More information is available from the manufacturer at 1-888-SUN-TIPS (1-888-786-8477) Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET. or by sending an email to: [email protected].

With so many Mini-Wheat coupons, I thought this one was worth posting even though it is a ‘low level recall’.  Kellogg’s Mini-Wheats have been recalled due to metal “Extraneous Material” in the cereal.  The recall includes original frosted and brown sugar flavour across the country with best before dates of “2013 AL 01 TO 2013 JL 29”.

See details on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s website and check your cereals, chipped teeth are expensive to fix!

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is now urging consumers to ask stores where they get their beef as they expanded the recall to include steaks, roasts, sausages and other cuts of meat in addition to the original (expanded) ground beef.

You can check the various lists on the CFIA website to see if the meat you have is recalled.  Due to the size of the list, and the fact they are all on different pages, this page which sorts by store selling the items, may be of more use.

For those who entered the contest to receive a free sample from Garnier we blogged about here, many members received an email before the contest was over saying they had won the grand prize.

It was clear by just the number of SmartCanucks members that this was an error, many of us received an email stating we had won one of seven $100 Lululemon gift cards and a full size lotion, which is the week 4 prize.

Last night, Garnier sent these ‘winners’ an email stating:

We understand your disappointment and appreciate your patience. In gratitude for your loyalty to Garnier, a voucher for a FREE full-sized (400 ml ) bottle of our new Garnier Body Intensive 7 days will be sent directly to your home within the next two weeks.

Good for them trying to make it right instead of just saying ooops, sorry.

MrsSunshine on our forums brought up an interesting topic.  She bought a bedding set and the cashier mentioned that it was non-returnable.  On opening the packaging at home, there was an awful smell coming from it, not something that makes you want to snuggle up in your new bedding.

The store in question has offered a refund but should stores be required to allow refunds when the item is not as you expect? Obviously worn underwear would be a no no for me, but what about other items.

Everywhere I go I hear or see women ranting about the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy written by E.L James.  I had heard so many women gush about how amazing the trilogy was. I gave in and ordered them off Amazon a few months ago.  I wish I could get a refund.

I’m one of the select few that just hasn’t really enjoyed the book. So much so, that it took me quite a while to read the first installment.  Generally when I’m engrossed in a book life stops.  I don’t want to put the book down until it’s finished. I have to know how it ends!   50 Shades, complete opposite. If anything I found it nothing short of a Hustler short story or Penthouse erotic S&M story.  Don’t get me wrong I’m not too conservative but this book was just too much.  Without going into deep detail I just found it unbelievable.  6 orgasms in one sexual encounter, some just by being touched? (Insert eye roll) among other sexual references I just found it meh.  I didn’t find Christian as this super sexy romantic man. I found him to be frail and someone whom was sexually abused as a child.

While I haven’t read book two or three I don’t have much hope left for the trilogy.

Have you read the books? Did you enjoy them?  Did you find they were like the Twilight Saga? (Another series I didn’t like)

Have you ever made the face above after receiving your monthly cell phone bill? Well, I definitely have, but that ended a couple of years ago after I threatened to leave my dog-logo telecommunications company.

(It wasn’t an empty threat either because I did my homework, calling all the competitors, to do a price comparison. With this information, I told said company that I was able to get a deal elsewhere.)

After I said the magic words, “I’m leaving”, I was passed onto a supervisor and put on a special retention plan. 🙂

My old plan was $25 for 200 daytime minutes, free after 7pm, and on weekends. Not terribly bad per se, but after all the features were added + lovely taxes = over $30. And for what? Not much.

My new plan is $17 for 200 daytime minutes, free after 5pm, and on weekends. Plus since they screwed up a bill, they threw in 100 free text messages/month for a year.

Since I’m not much of a gabber, I don’t need more than my plan provides. HOWEVER, Call Display would be nice, but I’m not willing to pay $8/month (+ taxes) for that 1 feature. I’m also unwilling to spend $11/month (+ taxes) for the Call Display/Call Waiting/Voice mail package.

I find these charges to be highway robbery and Call Display, at least, should be free. An Aussie friend of mine told me that all those features are included in his monthly cell phone bill. I asked a couple of friends who live in Asia and they said that an average plan usually includes 300-500 free texts/month.

So when I heard a recent news story, similar to this one from the Toronto Sun, reporting that Canadians pays the highest cell phone bills, it wasn’t a surprise to me!

I’m sure that the majority of high school kids now have either an iPhone (4s) or at least some kind of Smartphone. And I don’t even want to know how much their plans are with Data, texting, and stuff like Facebook/Twitter.

Unless you run your own business, I don’t think it’s necessary to pay for a Data Plan. Sure, it’s convenient to have, but I don’t want to become one of those people who cross the street with their head tilted down, go to dinner while both my partner and myself are on our separate devices, &/or a customer who proceeds through the cash while snickering about something posted on Facebook.

So how much do you pay for your cell phone bill? Have you ever tried lowering your monthly bill by talking to your cell phone provider? And if the data on the news stories is correct, is there anything we can do as a country of cell phone users to LOWER our costs?