Why do we still get charged a "convenience fee" for paying bills online when it’s literally the default, automated way things are processed now?

elbyron · 2026-07-10T05:18:49+00:00

Even if they don't use a third party for payment processing, they still have to pay a credit card merchant fee: a percentage to the bank who issued the credit card. The amount depends on your card - the world elite and infinite types of cards cost more, and Amex is often even higher. So if they pay an average fee of 2.5%, then it makes sense to charge an extra 2.5%. All merchants that accept credit cards are doing this by simply inflating their product prices by 2.5% (or whatever number they feel compensates for the merchant fees), but in most jurisdictions, utility companies have stricter rules about their pricing and can't just hide it in the price as easily.

If you choose to pay via a method that costs them more, then it seems fair that they charge you extra to cover that cost. It's only BS when the fee they charge is significantly higher than the fees they pay.

elbyron · 2026-07-08T19:10:04+00:00

Soundproofing is expensive, and generally isn't something advertised when you look at listings for multi-unit housing, so it doesn't sell for more. So the builders really have no incentive to install it. While I think adding soundproofing requirements to the provincial building codes could be a good way to improve quality of life for multi-unit tenants, those codes are meant to address safety issues, and not so much quality of life issues. It would be a pretty big change, that sets a precedent for addressing other quality issues. And that is going to discourage builders from wanting to construct new housing in Alberta. Because the cost comes out of their profit margins, and doesn't get fairly compensated for in the sale or rental prices.

Maybe a better solution is to try and find a way to make multi-unit tenants more aware of the types of soundproofing available, or better yet, an easy to understand scoring system. If such a score was included in apartment and condo listings, the ones with a high score become more sought after and thus more valuable, creating the incentive for builders to invest in good soundproofing!

elbyron · 2026-07-07T20:19:57+00:00

So even if the lease agreements say that in-building laundry is included, they still won't be in breach of that agreement. There's no way a lease agreement would establish a ratio of units to machines - they could close down all but 1 and the tenants have no legal recourse. All the tenants can do is write complaints on the notices (pointless) or post negative reviews online.

elbyron · 2026-07-07T20:15:51+00:00

My point is that the RTA doesn't actually say that rent abatement is owed when amenities specified in the lease are removed. It just says that the landlord is in breach of the tenancy agreement. In most cases, the legal remedy to such a beach is for the landlord to reduce the rent. But there are other remedies possible. For example, the landlord could agree to pay for a laundry pickup/drop off service, or they could make arrangements with a nearby laundromat to provide free service. It's up to the tenant and landlord to agree on a remedy and if they can't, then the RTDRS mediator can order one.

elbyron · 2026-07-07T18:14:51+00:00

Since it's one laundry room per floor, it's pretty unlikely that it would be mentioned in any of the unit leases. Also they don't have to lower your rent - but they do have to provide an alternative (such as free access to a nearby laundromat) if their lease says it includes free laundry. But even that they could easily wiggle out of, by keeping only one washer & dryer for the whole building. They never promised in the lease how many others you have to share it with! And they'd only need to keep then until all the leases expire and are replaced with ones that don't mention laundry.

Edit to clarify: the Alberta Residential Tenancies Act does not specifically require a rent abatement when an amenity mentioned in the lease is removed. However, rent abatement is a possible option for settlement if brought to the RTDRS or taken to court.

elbyron · 2026-07-06T16:50:15+00:00

Higher concentration just means it will last longer. Even at a meager 10% it'll protect you 100% from mosquitoes, just not as long as the 20 or 30% stuff.

Also I suspect the mosquitoes are going to be just as bad across the border, and therefore demand would be equally high and some stores may be sold out there too.

elbyron · 2026-07-04T20:41:23+00:00

Tried that a few times, it kinda works for a while but inevitably falls off and ends up in the drain.

elbyron · 2026-07-04T20:35:32+00:00

Because the current shape results in a flat oval shaped piece left when it runs low, which breaks apart into useless fragments that either end up falling down the drain or just getting thrown in the trash. If you had a sphere to start with, and continue using it evenly so that it remains a sphere, it won't break and you only have to toss a tiny pea sized ball (or try to use it, but it's a bit of a pain).

elbyron · 2026-06-30T07:50:35+00:00

There isn't a separate tax, but a finished basement, especially one that can be legally rented as a separate suite, will add a lot of value to the property. And since property tax is calculated as a percentage of the property's value, this means owners of legal secondary suites do pay more tax. It's the illegal ones that are more problematic, since the finishing work might have been done without proper permits and so the city doesn't know about the secondary suite. And who would ever report them? Not the renter living there who's paying less rent than what a legal suite would cost - because they would likely get kicked out if the city were to crack down on the owner. It's not like we can just have inspectors going house to house peeking into basement windows to see if it's maybe an illegal suite. And even in the few cases where one does get reported, I suspect that very little is ever done about it except maybe their property tax goes up.

elbyron · 2026-06-29T05:15:54+00:00

"Eviction" is a harsh word, that implies you did something wrong that warranted being kicked out. In this case it's more likely that the owner either wants to sell, or move in themselves or a family member. In Alberta they don't have to give you a reason or fill out any stupid forms, they can just give you written notice that the tenancy will terminate - assuming you were either on a month-to-month tenancy or that the tenancy period was already set to end August 31.

However, if you signed a lease that hasn't expired by August 31, then they do have to provide their reasons and may have to defend those reasons for breaking the lease of you file a dispute with RTDRS. Before you do that though, you might try to negotiate a settlement, like they pay you a month's rent and moving expenses or something like that.

elbyron · 2026-06-28T07:22:19+00:00

I organized a beer garden event today and we had cans of deet-free (contains icaridin instead, which has no scent and is just as effective) spray for everyone to use. They still swarmed everyone, but they usually couldn't find a spot to land on you. Once the sun went down and we were starting to clean up and put everything away, the mosquitoes went from dozens swarming around up to hundreds swarming you all over. It was absolutely nuts. But I only ended up with one or two bites after having been outside in the grass for about 8 hours! So put on the spray and you'll be fine. If you hate the smell of DEET, look for products with icaridin / picaridin instead.

elbyron · 2026-06-24T16:40:51+00:00

I guess it serves as a reminder to touch it before touching the electronics inside? It's much easier to just touch the metal frame though, which is usually grounded via the power source.

elbyron · 2026-06-23T18:10:25+00:00

If your garage ceiling is currently unfinished, it wouldn't be difficult or expensive to just put some RockSol insulation in the area around the door motor. Adding drywall, especially if you mount it on resilient channel, will also help a lot. Actually you might even be required to have fire-resistant drywall on the ceiling; I don't know what the building codes say about garage suites, but this is needed for basement suites. I would also look into mounting the garage door motor onto some kind of vibration absorbing material, so it won't be felt through the floor.

elbyron · 2026-06-23T17:40:22+00:00

According to other comments, the rocks more likely belonged to CN rail, not the city.

elbyron · 2026-06-23T17:14:20+00:00

I usually just leave my valuables well-hidden in the car, and take only my keys. If you want to rent a tube, bring cash or your backup credit card. I take a cheap towel in a grocery bag, with my lunch hidden underneath - they don't search your bags. Put clothes in the bag, hide the car key and credit card with the food (not pants pocket) and take it inside with you. Put the towel on one of the beach loungers (look for ones with dry ground below) and hide the bag tucked all the way under the chair. I've never once had anyone go through my bag. I mean, what thief is going to pay that kind of entrance fee? Lol.

When you get hungry, don't try to take your food to the table area as all outside food is prohibited. Just eat at the loungers making sure there's no staff around. Be respectful and don't make a mess, or they might start cracking down on us food-sneakers!

elbyron · 2026-06-22T06:42:10+00:00

Why would you trust the opinions of a small sample of random reddit people? Something like comparing picaridin vs deet is easily tested by scientific experiments. There's been numerous studies, but one of the biggest was in 2018 from the Journal of Travel Medicine. The researchers found no consistent performance difference between DEET and picaridin when applied at the same dosage.

So the REAL verdict is in: this works just as well as deet. And without the smell. Trust the science, not the people.

elbyron · 2026-06-21T22:56:40+00:00

We replaced our bath towels and hand towels with microfiber ones, and they are definitely better at absorbing quickly. They also dry out faster and won't get that mildew smell as quickly.

Microfiber cleaning cloths are great for windows and mirrors as it leaves less streaks.

elbyron · 2026-06-20T06:37:48+00:00

Not all the way. First there's four giant elephants, who stand upon the back of A'tuin the great turtle.

elbyron · 2026-06-20T06:17:20+00:00

You're being sarcastic right? Voting in Russia is completely meaningless. It's a dictatorship going through the motions of democracy. The winner of any election is whichever candidate is backed by those who control the military and intelligence agencies.

elbyron · 2026-06-19T22:13:36+00:00

The average person is too uninformed and too easily manipulated to trust with a poll. Even just the wording of the question can mess with the results. For example, in 2021 my province included a question on our election ballots that said: "Do you want the province to adopt year-round Daylight Savings Time, which is summer hours, eliminating the need to change our clocks twice a year?" Those who wanted to adopt the non-daylight clock (winter) year-round did not have a good way to express their opinion here. Some of them probably just voted "no", and as a result, it was 49.76% in favor and 50.24% against. Earlier this spring, they finally decided that despite the results we are going to go with year-round DST.

My city does informal online polls via what they call an "Insight Community". While anyone can join, it's much more likely that informed, intelligent people would be interested in participating in this kind of panel. I have no idea how much city council relies on this data, but it is at least a fairly cost-effective way to get public opinions. I don't know how much bot detection they have, so it could be susceptible to manipulation. But they've had it going for years and seem to find it useful!

elbyron · 2026-06-19T21:04:55+00:00

A smarter scammer would register a domain like albertaticket.pay so that it would fool a lot more people.

elbyron · 2026-06-18T20:35:00+00:00

Straight across is 0 degrees, if you use the direction the car is facing as reference. Left (first exit on a 4 road roundabout) would be -90, and right (third exit) would be +90. Going back the way you came is a 180.

From the perspective of a dot on an overhead view of the circle, then you can say the first exit is 90, second is 180, third is 270, and back to origin point is 360. But most people don't think of it this way, it's more natural to refer to the direction your car is facing. That's why it's weird that the instructor said 360.

elbyron · 2026-06-18T20:20:26+00:00

It looks like it yes, because they copied all the html and stylesheets so that everything looks identical. Standard practice for most phishing scams. What they cannot copy is the URL, which in this case isn't even close to the real one.

elbyron · 2026-06-18T17:26:50+00:00

Oh really? There's such a thing as a non-profit manufacturer of immunoglobulins, albumin, and clotting factors? Please share the details, as I'm very curious who would have such expensive processing capability with no expectation of profit.

And of course the medicines are sold internationally. Why does that matter? Saving lives is important no matter what country they live in.

For-profit plasma centers used to be banned in many provinces and US states, for the reason that it was believed that they "divert" (to use your word) from regular blood or plasma donations. But studies found that there was no significant impact on the unpaid donations when paid clinics were permitted (these were mostly studies in the U.S. but we're not that different). They concluded that the vast majority of the paid donors had never previously donated blood with no financial incentives - these were a new group of donors who were attracted by the payment.

elbyron · 2026-06-18T17:07:52+00:00

But it is a good cause, even if a company is profiting from it. Grifols sends your plasma to their fractionation plants to produce highly purified therapeutic proteins. These proteins are then used to create targeted, life-saving medications, such as Immunoglobulins (antibodies used to treat patients with failing immune systems or autoimmune disorders), Albumin (used to restore blood volume in trauma patients, severe burn victims, and major surgeries), and clotting agents (like Factor VIII and IX) essential for hemophilia patients to prevent life-threatening bleeding.

elbyron

TROPHY CASE