The store was small, but nice and bright; table and chairs inside and even one or two outside.  I wasn’t sure what I wanted so thought I would check out the menu.  A small plain coffee started at about $1.75+ – some specialty coffees $4.15+tax.  Now… I do like coffee……but please … if you had a couple of cups, you would be paying close to $10.00 – in fact… I paid $4.99 for a large can of coffee at the grocery store this afternoon which could make a few dozen cups!   The fact that people think it is ‘normal’ to pay over $3.00 for a cup of coffee and have several such cups each and every day is rather ‘telling’.

I will, however, change the name of the company/web site involved – lets just call the web membership site ‘got-cha’ .  Here is what happened.

I attended a ‘got-cha’ meeting here in Toronto and was told that I needed to join on-line to continue attending.  Amount totaled $97.00 for a one year membership.  After some heavy thinking, I made the decision to join and paid for my membership using my PayPal account.  Three weeks later at the ‘got-cha’ meeting here in Toronto, I was told that the membership for ‘got-cha’ was now ‘free’.  Because I create web sites, I do know that to change a web site with on-line memberships, etc., takes planning and not done over night.  In other words, when they took my money, they knew a membership was about to become ‘free’.

At no time was I contacted by ‘got’cha’ with an explanation or an offer to refund all or part of the $97.  In fact, when the head ‘got-cha’ person here in Toronto inquired on my behalf, they responded stating that they could do whatever they wanted as to charging or free, they would not refund any money because part of the money had been distributed and I had received what I had paid for…. really!!!

I had heard about PayPal and their handling such disputes and decided to check it out.  Lets face it, I know that I would be horrified if someone reported me to PayPal for not providing a service or product that I promised.  This is the internet…… not a good place to do unethical business.  So I put in a complaint to PayPal  copying ‘verbatim’ the response from ‘got-cha’.  Please note – you have a specific number of days to put in a complaint.  Then after a couple of weeks, PayPal enquired as to whether or not the matter had been resolved and if not,whether I wished to escalate to PayPal.  Once escalated, PayPal would make ‘final decision’ in the matter.   I decided to hand over to PayPal.

To be honest, I really didn’t think anything would come of it – after all – I’m an ‘individual’ and ‘got-cha’ is bigger and well known.  HOWEVER – WOULD YOU BELIEVE…. I received an e-mail last night from PayPal AND here is what they wrote :  ”We have concluded our investigation into your case and have decided in your favor.”  I still can’t believe it – My money is being returned to my account.  How cool is that????

So… who do you think I will highly recommend as a service to sell/buy on-line from now on?   Yup… only PayPal.

Please note:  Links will open in new windows for your convenience.

So a word of warning.  Many programs that we use regularly send us ‘new version’ announcements and often (and I know you do too…) we ignore.  Let’s face it, if we feel all is well, why take the time just to update something that is working just fine.  It appears that these ‘new and improved’ hackers, might have gained access to my site through a program that I did not update.  Naturally, the updated version has a new security patch which most likely would have stopped these particular hackers.  Do I know this for sure?  Not exactly.  But….I think from now on I will update to new version when I receive notification – can’t hurt….

And – another suggestion might be to completely strip/clean your old computer before selling or giving it away.  IF you have a password stored in that computer and the new owner/user visits a ‘sick’ site, your stored information might be ‘grabbed’ and that might allow hackers access to your web site(s) – been known to happen.

So there are my two little tips for the day.

I am presently starting  a new web site development business (Enet Web Design) with a very talented programmer (Shawn) and was wondering what would make us different from all the rest of the many designers currently marketing their design skills.  And now I know.  I do not ‘geek speak’ to my clients.  Everything connected with my client’s web site is discussed with them in plain English and in terms they can easily understand.   Imagine that!  :)

First – I had no idea!!  How come this is not taught in school??  Why is that??….  You might want to tell your daughters/grand daughters – It wasn’t that long ago… it was less than 100 years.   In fact, there are many females living today in Canada who were born but not considered a ‘person’ under law, but as chattel ……  interesting  … and sad…. even in the 50/60′s when women wanted equal pay for equal work, they were ridiculed, etc……. not that long ago …. And in 1978 I mentioned something about a raise in pay to my boss, and his reply was (and I kid you not) – “What do you need money for?”  I couldn’t make that up if I tried….

So here is the history lesson – without the horrific photos that were originally received – I think the truth is strong enough and all we need.  Because this is about women in the U.S., please don’t point fingers – remember that this story was never told to me in school and I wonder about the Canadian women and what happened to them and what was not put in our history books.  Canada passed the bill to allow women to vote  in 1918 (sooner than the U.S.,) but only Federally and in some provinces, a woman could vote only if she owned land – full rights came a few years later … yup – all kinds of things left out of my school history book…

This is the story of women who were ground-breakers. These brave women from the early 1900′s made all the difference in the lives women live today.  And one just needs to look at different countries in the world today to see how fragile our rights are and how fast they can disappear – for both men and women.

Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.

The women in those days, were quite innocent and  mostly defenseless, but when, in North America, women picketed in front of the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote, they were jailed.

And by the end of the first night in jail, those women were barely alive. Forty  prison guards wielding clubs and their warden’s blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of ‘obstructing sidewalk  traffic.’

(Lucy Burns)
They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.

(Dora  Lewis)
They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed  her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate,
Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the  women.

Thus unfolded the ‘Night of Terror’ on Nov. 15,  1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson’s White House for the right to vote.

For weeks, the women’s only water came from an open pail. Their food–all of it colorless slop–was infested with worms.

(Alice Paul)
When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

All women who have every voted, have ever owned property, have ever enjoyed equal rights need to remember that women’s rights had to be fought for in Canada as well.  Do our daughters and our sisters know the price that was paid to earn rights for women here, in North America?

2009 was the 80th Anniversary of the Persons Case in Canada, which finally declared women in Canada to be Persons!

Please, if you are so inclined, pass this information  on to all the women you know, so that we remember to celebrate the rights we enjoy.

“Knowledge is Freedom: hide it, and it withers; share it, and it blooms” (P. Hill)