| "Convenient" Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 9/3/2008 12:02:36 AM | Ok I admit this is a bit of a gripe thread but I’m sure I’m not the only that’s annoyed with what is suppose to be a Customer Serviced/Focused orientated consumer world – but the customer appears to comes last.
I went into a well known national chain store today, found a item (ok a much not needed dress but hey it was on special) and not being the possessor of a credit card, and also the day before payday, I decided to lay by the item. Proceeded onto the labyby section. Went thru the whole process and when I received my receipt, I noticed that I was charged a extra $10.00 – written beside the $10.00 was “Convenience Charge” ….Hello ??? um what the hell is a convenience charge I asked the very young sales assistant…he mumbled that as I was lay bying, the company now charges a additional $10 per layby for the convenience of lay bying…sorry ah could I be lay bying because yes its convenient for me, but the item was on special and by now lay bying it, defeats the purpose of the item being on special as I’m now being charged $10.00 for the “convenience” ???…no amount of rationale (I thought) on my part could convince this kid that this new charge sucked.
I was so incensed that I rang the Head Office of this company to complain – (yep slow day at work) ….and was told that the company was sorry for the inconvenience of the “Convenience” charge but had been forced to introduce this charge as people failed to finalise their lay by’s…Ok I could see the reasoning of this as I said, surely if people fail to finalise or collect their layby goods, the company keeps the payments already made including the initial deposit and resells the item ?. The company said that by the time they go to resell the item, the item might not be fashionable or trendy any more and they are left with it…I doubt this very much but that was the reason given to me….so now you are charged for using a product that the store does encourage (they do) but now they will charge you for using this service – wait till everyone starts laybying kids toys etc for Xmas…a packet being made on this little rort if you ask me...
Another one
I went to pay my Moms electricity account for her via Bpay last nite. She said “No you can’t pay it, I have to pay it at the Post Office”, I said “No you don’t you can pay via Bpay on the computer”. She then showed me the bill and written in the smallest writing ever (even a Lillput person would struggle to read it) it states that no Pension discount would be given unless the account was presented at the Post Office for payment and the Pension card was viewed.
Again I rang the Electricity company and asked them why ?(told you, slow day ) surely if a person like my Mom who is a Veteran Affairs War Widow and always entitled to a discount, why she has to present the card each time in order to get her discount. Why can’t they be like Telstra who automatically give the discount ?. This query was met with “Im not sure” to “Perhaps her circumstances have changed”…oh yeah like what ?. So basically when I challenged the girl asking her that in order for my 82 year old Mom to get her discount she had to physically present herself each quarter to the PO to get it, she said “Yes” Ok, I asked her, what about pensioners who are infirmed, disabled, have no modes of transport, trapped by inclement weather etc…how do they get their discount if unable to get to a Post Office…you, long term want us to pay via internet banking etc yet want poor pension folks to struggle to get to a PO physically so they can get their like $12 discount and how many old folk missed out on their discount because they assumed that the discount was already given, or they cant read the writing as its so small…or they just cant get to a Post Office ….sorry but …whatever happen to customer convenience…every company talks about convenience but is it really convenience them or for us, the consumer ?
Have you got a similar gripe ?
 | |
|
| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 9/3/2008 12:44:07 AM | | I have never understood why the banks get you to pay a fine for paying off a mortgage early. They can just lend the money off again to someone else or invest it somewhere so they don't lose out anyway. They effectively double dip through the interest of re lending it plus your fine. | |
|
| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 9/3/2008 12:46:41 AM | . .
Proceeded onto the labyby section. Went thru the whole process and when I received my receipt, I noticed that I was charged a extra $10.00 – written beside the $10.00 was “Convenience Charge” ….Hello ??? um what the hell is a convenience charge I asked the very young sales assistant…he mumbled that as I was lay bying, the company now charges a additional $10 per layby for the convenience of lay bying…
I used to be the Layby Queen, but thank god I can't go to the shops as much as I used to
I know which one charged you $10 Peter Jones and the other department store Lyer they charge $5 for layby and mind you, you won't get the layby charges back either if you cancel it. They do it to discourage buyers from laybying. Also the other issue is people apparently don't pick up laybys and what happens the item loses money by the time layby is over. What I think they should do is honour you your layby charges if you pick your layby .
All you need is a big group of customers to complain about it and something will be done. | |
|
| |
| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 9/3/2008 1:13:59 AM | Oh yeah, I pay rent by direct debit and have to pay a $4 service charge for the pleasure - you are not allowed to pay rent through the real estate office any more so there is little choice in the matter.
Also, if you happen to leave just enough money in your account to cover the electricity direct debit and that's the week the bank decide to hit you up for bank charges, then your account is overdrawn and they charge you a $35 fee.
Where's the love? I ask ya??????? | |
|
| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 9/3/2008 1:19:28 AM | Ah I can answer this one Curious and it is a rip off.
When you take out a mortage with a bank, they dont actually own your property, nor do you but in fact another bank does !!!
Eg: You take out a $300,000 mortgage with a big bank.....they sell your mortage onto the Money Market to raise additional funds for their bank at a projected value of what your mortage is worth against the value of your property, they sell this to another bank - all banks, building societies do this....so you win Powerball and want to go in and pay off your mortgage - as you do, but because your bank has sold your mortgage to another bank, they have to a) raise the funds plus interest to buy back your mortgage at todays price - which at times they lose out on but not often and b) they have budgeted in the fact that you wont pay off early...and therefore were counting on your interest in their projected budget (pockets) and they now have to recalculate everything...this why a small building society called Pyramid in Geelong got into so much trouble and went bust all those years ago (1990) because of this practice which was not as tight as todays internal lending is between the banks..
Thats why if you go into pay off your mortgage on one day, some banks will tell you it cant be done for a month while they run around trying to factor in the best time to buy your mortgage back from the Money Market and not lose out on profit/interest ....and thats why they hit you with the fees etc to terminate your loan, because they had counted on you not paying out and it costs them money to buy your mortage back, now they pass that cost onto you !!!!.......did that make sense ?....yep another ripoff that you the consumer has no choice but to swallow !!!
Oh Cinders too rite...I just looked at my bank fees for the last month as I have moved states and using different atms, but have not yet moved my banking...$48.00 bucks in bank fees....god you could have whole thread just on BANK FEES !!!...your rite...what love ??? | |
|
| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 9/3/2008 1:20:46 AM | Well Pookie, 10 points to your mum for reading the fine print.
I have one or two. Took my car to the dealer to replace a core heater. It's out of warranty, no other mechanic I spoke to had ever done one and since it was the first major thing to go wrong, I thought the dealer would be the best option. Anyway...huge job. The core heater isn't removed from the car, the car is removed from the core heater. Seeing that the thing is deep inside the dash (it's for warming your tootsies)..and had leaked coolant all over my carpet, I was pretty keen to have it fixed. That was ok. So a week later I get a phone call from the dealer. "Yeah we tested your coolant and you've got two different kinds in there. It's caused corrosion." Hmm, must be all that corrosion inhibitor causing that" I thought.
"We'll have to replace the water pump and thermostat housing and seals."
"Oh really".
"Yeah we think it would have spread and those components are very prone to that kind of corrosion".
"Well mate, I don't think that will be necessary, though thanks for the warning. You see the reason I have two types of corrosion inhibitor (coolant) in there is because half of the good stuff had already leaked onto the floor. I don't think topping it up with the premium grade stuff would have fixed it. So I think we'll just leave the other stuff til it does actually pack it in, if you don't mind".
That was fine, nothing more was said. So I pick the car up, pay them a couple of grand and notice the keyless entry isn't working. I noticed it was sluggish just before I dropped it off and put it down to a flat battery in the key remote. So a fortnight later, I eventually find the right size battery...It still doesn't work.
Call the dealer. "My keyless entry hasn't worked since I had my car worked on", I said in my most non-whinging voice.
"Sure bring it down and we'll reset it for you. Someone must have bumped something."
"No worries"
So I lob at the front counter and am speaking to the same customer service assistant. "Ok that will be a $50 charge, if you'd like to sign here, we can get the boys onto it."
"Umm, what?" said I as my wallet coughed it's last mothy breath. "I don't think you understand. My keyless entry was disabled, when my car was being worked on here". Just then one of the service personel walk through and says "Oh that'll be ok. We'll check it out, someone's obviously bumped something".
So about 45 mins later, I get a call to pick up the car, all is well, "but we've run a test on the remote battery and you're due for a new one."
"Oh really"...
 | |
|
| |
| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 9/3/2008 1:39:37 AM | | as a lawyer and accountant , allow me to show you the devious way banks behave --- when the bring down the interest rates --- watch how they pit up theor fees to offset this ----- and more | |
|
| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 9/3/2008 2:02:55 AM | If a policeperson pulls you over and issues a Vehicle Defect Notice (slaps a yellow sticker on your car), there are two possible outcomes, depending on whether the Defect Notice was correctly issued or not.
For this example, let's say that the policeperson has claimed your steering wheel to be too small. ADR for steering wheel diameter is a minimum of 13 inches.
Scenario 1: Your steering wheel is only 12.5 inches in diameter and thus the Defect Notice was issued correctly. You go home, replace the steering wheel with a replacement that is half an inch larger, then go to the Pits to have your car evaluated. The people there deem your car to now be safe, and you pay a $50 fine for having infringed.
Scenario 2: Your steering wheel is 13 inches in diameter and the Defect Notice was issued incorrectly. You take your car to the Pits to prove that your wheel is legal. For their time and effort, you then must pay the people there $55 to have the Defect Notice legally removed from your car (it is an offence for anyone else to remove the yellow sticker).
So in essence, if you do the wrong thing, you get charged $50. If you did nothing wrong at all and the policeperson made a mistake, you're charged $55.
Just another of the nonsensical things car enthusiasts must endure due to a minority of "hoons" giving them a bad name. | |
|
| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 9/3/2008 8:34:14 AM | Lets hope none of you ever get a BLACK sticker.......This means the car cannot be moved from where it is stopped. It cannot be driven away at all. License revoked. It has to be transported via a tow truck, or depending on its roadworthiness the rubbish truck!
When I was involved in the Police Service last century,(sound bad??) if the police wished to keep any of the roving families from the South West, from moving on to another town, the cops, used to have an idea when the people would be moving and wait half way to the next town, hopefully, well past where a tow truck vehicle could be easily contacted, and proceed to attach a BLACK, DO NOT MOVE ticket to any vehicle that had past its use-by date.. Thats why for quite along time there was an abandoned vehicle collection on the Nullabor way out past Eucla! It was never ever done as a joke, as You need a magistrates signature on the road worthy ticket to get it removed... to drive it away and it had to be inspected where it first ticketed on (it was then anyhow) Maybe they have changed the rules since then!
I also note that some local councils won`t allow you to pay your rates anywhere else but in their own offices, they don`t always accept direct debit.. No Bpay etc. | |
|
| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 9/3/2008 4:28:44 PM | My little gripe may not be as big a financial loss as some have mentioned but i feel it is just as important as everyone is affected in some way or another, especially if you have children that go to school.......
As a busy single mother that works and studies , I am guilty of feeding my kids all those convienience foods that you put into lunch boxes, which leads me to my little gripe, Food companies are very subtle at "ripping " the consumers off , I bought a product that I buy regularly , to find there is less in the packet than there was last time i bought it, ok it was one less but still annoying, so instead of 6 in the packet there was 5 , the companies say that they do this to keep prices steady , is this the case i ask ???? I dont think so prices are still going up and you as a customer are getting less for your money .  | |
|
| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 10/22/2009 6:34:34 PM | here's a good one.... machine operators charging for "travel time"... even if it's just up the road a few miles... sometimes an extra hour charged...
that's a rort..... Isn't it enough to pay you for the work your machine actually does.. after you get it to the job?... doesn't your own bloated hourly rate cover your travel expenses, too?...
you want the work?.. bring your tools with you like everyone else on the job.... or I'll ring someone else... or I can dry hire my own machines on weekend rates to cut you out altogether....
your machine won't make much money for you sitting at home on the trailer....eh?.. the boom times are over for a bit... ... | |
|
| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 10/22/2009 9:43:05 PM | | How about a Ford dealership charging my daughter $480 to supply and fit a new timing belt on a Ford Ka. The Ka uses a reworked version of the old 60s Ford Anglia engine that doesn't have an overhead cam, it's pushrod operated, so there is no timing belt. It took a month for them to process the cheque for the refund and never actually acknowledged that they'd charged her for work that was never done using a part that couldn't be used in her car! | |
|
| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 10/23/2009 6:23:11 AM | Two words....
Speed. Cameras.
Saving lives my arse - the death toll in NT actually increased after they took away the unlimited highway limits (amongst many other studies, local and international, that disprove the nonsense that speed kills). | |
|
| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 10/23/2009 6:27:54 PM | Toll Roads ...
all roads are created equal... though some roads are more equal than others.... and more lucrative...
selling overpriced bottled tap water is another good rort, as well... | |
|
| |
| |
| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 10/24/2009 1:50:44 AM | Money making rorts???? How about when the government asks for a "fee-for-service"? Things such as drivers licences, motor vehicle registrations, payments to lodge documents etc...the list is long and insidious...
WTF - I pay my taxes and believe the taxes that I pay are my purchasing of government services. As a matter of principle, I only ever pay for something once - in this case, government services through the payment of my tax. If the government can't provide the services its supposed to, then either it economises (rationalises programs, reduces workforce like any other business or household) or it charges more. But to expect me to pay for its services is just a little over the top...especially when it passes laws to ensure complicity with its regulatory requirements... | |
|
| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 10/24/2009 2:26:43 AM | ^^^^^ you got it in one. You pay tax whether you work or are on social security...then comes three little letters.....GST.....guess who doesn't benefit from this list....government, businesses, punters? And what is with this stamp duty on buying cars......not new ones but second hand ones....tis double dipping at its finest..I got given an old old vehicle....cost to me...zilch....sell on value...two parts of eff all (and I have to give it away not sell it..karma and all that) and yet I had to estimate a value to pay them money....they wouldn't accept $25, they wouldn't accept $100...greedy greedy little piggies. I also object to having to buy a license every year...once you have it surely that is enough?
Not that this is really relevant but whilst I have to be frugal I estimate that I spend roughly 200 per year on shit....literally..sheep, cow, chook....strange how one doesn't resent spending money on animal faeces but one does on essential life saving medicine..... | |
|
| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 10/24/2009 2:55:23 AM | another easy grab for the Gov with car ownership...
selling Personalised number plates of various boutique state designs/colours/logos/names... numbers for letters sometimes...
it's big business... and you wonder if the owners put more thought into the catchy plate than the car itself....
plates used to be a way to tell which state the car came from at a glance... now you wonder what planet some are from.. | |
|
| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 10/24/2009 3:15:23 AM | Yeah the drivers licence one annoys me too. Every 3 or 10 yrs, no retest but a huge fee to reproduce your bit of plastic.
As for banks. I do all my payments and tranactions online and then the bank charges ME the fees for me doing all the work. I get charged extra fees for more transactions that I do. All they have to do each quarter is print and mail a statement.
I can't understand the OP's gripe on the layby issue though. The shop has to store it in a different place (rent) process part payments over several months and yet you don't expect to pay for this service? Somebody has too and you're the one using it! I supply and send goods to 400 shops around the country and they all want it sent free, as in we pay the freight. I tell them honestly that we could include the freight but we would then put the prices up to cover for it. So they pay either way. Do they want an upfront charge or a hidden charge? | |
|
| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 10/24/2009 4:40:12 AM |
selling Personalised number plates of various boutique state designs/colours/logos/names... numbers for letters sometimes...
it's big business... and you wonder if the owners put more thought into the catchy plate than the car itself....
Nah, that’s not a rort. If people want personalised plates then they choose to pay extra for it. All good for the rest of us as it increases the coffers of the state transport dept which means they keep the parking ticket fees down. Win/win.
But, the best one I ever saw – a 20 something year old hopped out of a VERY expensive low slung black sports car. Everyone on the road was looking…… and wondering how he got it…..then I noticed he had the number plate 000SUS. Took me a minute to work out what it meant. Pretty clever I thought.
Yeah the drivers licence one annoys me too. Every 3 or 10 yrs, no retest but a huge fee to reproduce your bit of plastic.
Yeah, but now you can do it online and they use the old photo. Farking marvellous – no one ages! Woo hoo!
You want to know about a rort? How about private health insurance. Do they cover the (huge) gap between specialist fees and the medicare rebate? Nope. How about anything towards the cost of prescription medicines? Nope. Oh well, when you get prescription glasses they must surely cover that? Nope – not unless you pay for extras. Ummmm…..what do they cover? Oh that’s right………. sweet fanny adams. Do sweet fanny adams cost much? | |
|
| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 11/5/2009 6:09:23 AM | | I think fraudulent schemes are almost infinite in their variety and ingenuity. I think a major problem is many people don't understand the complexities of the modern commercial and corporate world (banks, large government agencies, large private corporations, etc) and also the complex rules which surround transactions involving property and the obligations under contracts. While Australia has a lot of consumer protection laws aimed to protect people, I don't really think the temptations and incentives for fraudsters have really diminished. If anything, the complex information society offers entrepenurial criminals and fraudsters more opportunities to fleece people. | |
|
| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 11/5/2009 5:23:28 PM | | I am not in the least interested in Capitalistic methods, banks etc. Which makes me and I know it a doofus in today's society. I mean I don't really care if my car is shiny or not but, on topic , could anybody tell me in doofus language if the newish Debit Card is a bit of an example where the customer pays. I've just grasped the awful truth of a credit card and now I am determined to start my Capitalistic career by knowing what a Debit Card does and is? | |
|
Home
login 
...
