Mum's plea for parking help sparks wave of support
A mother in Canada was told to get her baby to the ER immediately when ultrasounds revealed a loop in his bowels filled with air and fluid. But Kaylee Goemans, a mother of three who'd lost her job when she was 28 weeks pregnant, couldn't afford the hospital's $15 parking fee so she fed a street meter with enough change to get her through four hours, thinking she'd be out with time to spare. When that proved wrong, Goemans turned to Facebook - specifically, a group of local mothers. And they rallied: over the next several hours, five women went to Goemans' car in Barrie, Ontario, in a tag-team effort that fed the meter, and 100 people left encouraging comments and offers to run errands or drop off coffee or food. "It's a rough world right now and we only have each other in it," Goemans told local media. "We need to show the next generation how important it is to help others who need it."
'Loyalty' deal carries a sting
Mike was considering changing his electricity supplier, but his current supplier offered him a $200 credit retention incentive to stay for a contracted period of a further 18 months. "I calculated that this was more than what I would have saved by changing suppliers, so I accepted the offer," he writes. "Then three months later, my supplier then had a general rate increase and put their charges up. If I was to now change suppliers, they would require me to repay the $200 credit. They think this is quite fair, even though they had contracted me in for 18 months. They say the credit was a loyalty incentive only and that there was no mention of holding the rates for the duration of the contract period. Whereas I automatically assumed that the status quo would have remained for the period of the contracted term. I think that this was very much a one-sided deal. I would be interested to know what some of your readers think."
