60th wedding anniversary. Love FTW!

Reason #527 as to why Canada rocks. We have amazing food from across the globe. Thai tonight, Ethiopian tomorrow?

Trinity Bellwoods in the fall. Stunning!

So it seemed the art community boycotted the event this year, most small galleries took the night off. Sad, is it the end of the road for what used to be Toronto’s best event?

So it seemed the art community boycotted the event this year, most small galleries took the night off. Sad, is it the end of the road for what used to be Toronto’s best event?

Every Albertan should watch this film for perspective on the tar sands. It’s on Netflix which offers a 1 month free trial, so no excuses.

First tumble.

Up until now, I thought Canada had the most frustrating telecom companies to deal with as a consumer. That is until I had the displeasure of dealing with Airtel in India.

Whenever I travel, I usually research providers beforehand to try and find those with greatest coverage. My research on India led me to believe none of the providers were that great – with no one providing 3G outside the major cities. So, I went with my second strategy for selecting a provider – the one that has the best presence at the airport.

As of today, I still don’t have internet access working on my iPhone. I’ve wasted about 3-5 hours with various Airtel employees and researching online, below is a summary of my experiences:

• Been straight up hung up on at least 10 times by agents working their “help” line.
• Been SMSed 5 times that “Your phone will be activated within 24 hours” to no avail.
• Been redirected multiple times to a “supervisor” whose phone simply rings forever
• Been redirected to a manager who told me “maybe in 4 days it will work, thanks for calling!”
• Talked to at least 4 agents who could not speak english, this despite me picking the english option via the automated system
• Been laughed at by Airtel employees in Kerala who told me “you had to activate it in Delhi!”
• Found that even in Delhi, there is only EDGE coverage – meaning even if you get internet working, it’s dead slow.

In short, I simply can’t believe the incompetence of Airtel. It is truly shocking. If you are a traveller looking for mobile access while in India, pick any other vendor – there is no way you could have a worse experience.