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| Thread ID: 63108 | 2005-10-29 22:26:00 | Information withheld when companies put prices/fees up | Shortcircuit (1666) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 400401 | 2005-10-29 22:26:00 | OK, it's that time of the year again, the usual round of price hikes. My thinking is that it is a good time for companies to put things up because winter is over, Christmas is far enough away not to worry, the sun is shining and people are more 'relaxed' about things, The gripe I have is that I have had two letters in the last week, one from the bank and one from the power company, both raising their fees/prices. In each of the letters there is listed the new fees/prices, but no mention of how much the amounts have increased or a list of the previous amounts. In the bank's example they say "We are making some changes to your card...", no mention of whether it's for better or worse or the reason for the change. The annual credit card fee has actually jumped 40% (along with smaller rises in other fees) and considering that this particular bank has made their largest profit ever it is difficult to swallow (and probably the reason they have not tried to justify it!). In the power company's example they timed the price rise nicely about a week after they credited my account with the dividend from Vector shareholdings that all Vector households received. Again, no indication of how much the prices have gone up and their reasoning was something like the "rising cost of electricity". My bet is that over a year the price rise will nicely allow for the increased dividend that they have paid out. My thoughts are not so much about the actual price rises, more to do with the slightly 'underhand' nature of how those rises are presented to clients and whether or not people realise that they are being 'managed' by those companies so that the client's reaction to the rises will be less vocal. Does the knowlege of how you are not being given the full picture by these companies give you less confidence in them, or do you just shrug your shoulders and go "Oh well..." ? |
Shortcircuit (1666) | ||
| 400402 | 2005-10-30 09:25:00 | Good point. I suspect most people are sickened by the slimy doublespeak used in such announcements. I'm sure one of the reasons Telecom is unpopular is the selfserving announcements it makes. But plainspeaking is out. Every company and organisation, if big enough, has a public relations spokesperson. Their job is to "massage" facts into a good story for their employer. There are a few companies which try to keep it simple and factual. The Warehouse is one. |
Winston001 (3612) | ||
| 400403 | 2005-10-30 09:58:00 | Prior to 1998, all Electricity Companies were required to disclose the price increase by publishing both old and new prices . This was forced on them after the Ministry of Consumer Affairs criticised all the customer contracts in 1997, the representative body for the companies (ESANZ) issued a set of model codes, which the Industry voluntarily complied with (in most cases anyway) . Then along came the Electricity Industy Reform Act 1998, (from Max Bradford) and they were forcibly split up . ESANZ disappeared and there has been no control or transparency required ever since on the Retail price . The "lines" charges from the network company are semi-regulated by the Commerce Commission but they are then "rebundled" into the retail price by the retailer, usually invisibly . So unless you do your own sums you cannot determine what the cost change to you will be, or if it relates to changes in line charges, energy charges, the "rebunding" method or all of them . . I do not call that progress . |
godfather (25) | ||
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