As indicated in the book The Lazy Investor by Derek Foster setting up a DRIP can be done in a few easy steps and this blog is about shedding some light on my DRIP set-up experience and a few pointers that should make things a little easier for you.

1) The asked for the shares in question from my eTrade account and it cost me approx. $75 CAD (This cost covers the Priority Courier postage service used)

2) Do not fall for the customer service warnings about the process being lengthy and very complex. The CS rep I got tried very hard to convince me to keep my shares in my eTrade account after she told me in very short order that I did not have enough shares to qualify for the DRIP program offered by eTrade

3) Once you get your share certificate your HOLDER ACCOUNT NUMBER is located at the top right corner of the certificate and starts with “C” and approx. 10 to 11 numbers after the “C”

4) Check the web for the transfer agents website that administers the DRIP/SPP program for the company shares you have just gotten from your trading account

5) My transfer agent was Computershare. Go to the web site and register your shares and name with them. Once that is done you can sign-up for the DRIP/SPP program offered right of their website and no offline forms have to be filled and sent back in (even more money savings!)

If you come across any other cool tips and money saving options please feel free to leave them as a comment on this post.

Happy DRIP’ing
Mr. Lobo

P.S. If you have any further questions about the set-up process, please feel free to email me…

So here’s the Air Canada story I promised way back when and could not say much because I was so damn mad at Air Canada.

Overview:I’m on my way back from Denver, Colorado after a great week-end with my cousins (Sunday afternoon is my flight out) and all is going well till I get to the auto-check-in counter.

- When I get to the counter the system tells me that the flight is an hour late and I’m fly Air Canada as they are part of the Star Alliance with United

- It’s not a big deal and I have lunch with my cousins to pass the time and leisurely find myself at the designated lounge area about half hour before the plan is to leave

- Fast forward to me on the plane and all is going great. The plane looks good and I don’t have anyone sitting at the side of me, SCORE!

- We taxi towards the run way and stop before we take off. Multiple plans seem to start passing by us and that seems odd!

- The pilot comes on the intercom and announces that we are having minor wheel/brake problems and need to go back to the gate. He says that it wont take very long before we leave for Toronto.

- Once again nobody is too alarmed or worried. Then we see Fire engines, EMS teams and the police escorting us back. The pilot comes back on and says that it’s standard procedure.

- Once again no problem we trust the pilot. Then dudes in silver heat suites get out from the Fire engine and start checking the wheels and under carriage of the plane with heat sensor guns.

- Now most if not all the passengers and a little unnerved. The pilot comes back on and informs us that we have brake problems and that it will take about 15 minutes to fix, he then comes on another 10 minutes later to tell us that the plan is grounded and we will be met by a Air Canada representative outside for alternative flight arrangements and hotel stay if needed. He tells us to sit and wait till the person who has to meet us outside is at his/her desk.

- Then we get off the plane and guess what! Yup, there is nobody waiting for us outside. The Unite Rep who is there planning the next flight tells us that we need to connect directly with Air Canada as he knows nothing – So much for the Star Alliance (Alliance being key!)

- They then point in the general direction of the United Customer Service counter and leave us on our own. Oh! I should point out that All business class and above travelers where auto-booked on the next flight out and the captain even mentions this as we get ready to leave.

- Thankfully a woman walking out with me had an eTicket with the Air Canada 1-800 number. I called it as I was walking out and was put on the next flight out which was late as well (that’s another story). I had to pay CA $30 for the time it took me to stay on my cell booking another flight with Air Canada.

- I reached Toronto on Monday morning at 4:00 a.m. What did Air Canada or United do for me
– NOTHING – I’d like to thank the Star Alliance for real shitty service… Thank you folks much appreciated.

I realized yesterday that I had to give my American Express corporate credit card back and had my Shell easyPAY tag associated to the credit card.

I called the easyPAY customer service line and got Jane on the line. She was very helpful and changed my credit card number with no problems. In the end she tells me it’s going to take about 48 hours for the credit card to associate with my tag and that I cannot use my tag till Saturday (maybe).

To this I ask Jane if it can be done any sooner as I am leaving my place of employee as of Friday and want to have everything wrapped up by then. She say’s that it’s 48 hours and that’s as much as she can do at this point. I thank her and the conversation ends.

About 2 hours later I get a call from Jane who sounds her happy self and informs me that the new credit card has been associated to my easyPAY tag and I am good to go. Wow! I have never ever been given a call back by a customer service representative in this way. Kudos go out to Jane for an job well done. Now if we could only get some of the other CSR’ out there to follow suit!

Jane and her level of service make me want to stay with Shell (I know you environmental types are screaming about Shell’ not so great business practices but damn it folks I need gas to run my frigging automobile!)

Mr. Lobo

kayak2
Originally uploaded by Mr.Lobo.

Dealing with Customer Service @ Costco.ca over the last two weeks has been like hugging a cactus! Just when you think they have got it you get a prick on the phone…

We bought a kayak to enjoy on Lake Wicox but the item was delivered torn, tattered and scraped – a defected product. We have been on the phone twice with Customer Service from Costco.ca with little progress so far.

They have promised to exchange the product at no cost but we are still waiting on a call from the company to come pick-up the kayak (it’s been two weeks).

This experience has been bad enough that we will be sending in a formal Customer Service complaint in the “written word” – In this day and age when it comes to taking pen (printer) to paper you know things are getting UGLY!