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You rely on your furnace to work well for about six months a year. You don’t want to it to get too old and turn into a safety hazard.

You try to prolong its life by buying a plan that includes furnace inspection or maintenance once a year, plus emergency calls and visits if there’s a breakdown. Direct Energy sells them as do others (such as AtlasCare, my contractor).

But can you rely on the technician who comes to your house for an annual furnace check? I wonder when I hear stories like this one, which I wrote about last Saturday.

I received many comments from readers and I’m helping those who need it. Meanwhile, I’m concerned about people being rushed into replacing furnaces ..read more

If you want to catch my speech this Wednesday, it will be webcast live. You can register and follow this link. There’s no charge for the service.

Bell continues to frustrate, annoy and enrage its customers. I found out when I did my latest Star column on Bell Blues and got a very enthusiastic response.

I wondered if there was a chance that complaints were levelling off. No way. Only one reader tried to defend Ma Bell, while many others gleefully diagnosed its faults.

See comments below and at Bell Blues, where number 600 is in sight. Investors may wonder, as Bylo does in his comment posted today, how much better this company could perform if it could sharpen up its laggard approach to service.

I sold my company, Smart Bear, in December of 2007. I haven’t talked about it at all on this blog, and it’s time I spill my guts about the whole affair.

You’d think selling a company would be a glamorous, exuberant experience, but I was surprised at the reactions I got. These are actual quotes:

“How could you sell your baby? I’m shocked.” “I thought you said things were going well. Hmm.” “You’re such a sell-out! You used to be one of the few cool people I knew.”

Interestingly, 100% of the negative reactions were from people who had never started their own ..read more

This time, it’s Sears Canada that is redirecting customers overseas when they call for information or help.

I’ve heard from a few long-time customers who feel betrayed by this move. You can read their laments below.

I also want to mention Bloomex, an online florist that often delivers orders late or sends something that doesn’t match the client’s specifications. You can find complaints here, as well as here .

Remember if you see positive comments about Bloomex, they’re probably planted. The company tries to manipulate online discussion forums, but isn’t very skilled at doing so.

Instead of dealing with my readers’ complaints, Bloomex now sends puff my way, such as this comment from Brian on Aug. 27, 2009:

Everything was fine with the order and flowers were ..read more