January 30, 2008
The page showing the costs of the flights, hotels and car hires had the following subsection on it.
Tax of €380.14. I wonder what the actual details behind that were. So I clicked on the link to see what I was paying for. Here’s what I was not so helpfully told:
The tax details are “Other”. Now what the hell is that? I’ve mailed American Holidays to find out. It’s hardly clear and transparent - I personally wouldn’t use this company because of this.
January 30, 2008
Supporting the findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General who heavily criticised the Irish e-government programme, the IIA website has the short list of the best of the sites.
January 30, 2008
You know all about rental car gas roulette: Either pay in advance for gas you’ll never use, or bet that you’ll have enough time to fill up the tank before you drop off the car. You might even know that some companies insist on a receipt as proof you’ve filled the tank if you take the second option.But now, there’s a third possibility: Pay up regardless. Some rental car locations are charging an extra fee to consumers who return their cars with a full tank. This “top-off fee” is being charged even if consumers present evidence they have that the tank is full. In other words, you’re dinged if you do and dinged if you don’t.
I wonder how long before our Irish businesses cotton on to this one.
January 30, 2008
To my plagiarising friends in the media (you know who you are),
Please find here a website that I’ve just discovered which may keep you all in stories for a long time to come.
And even better, it’s in America so you mightn’t even get found out any more.
Kind Regards,
Diarmuid
Value Ireland
January 30, 2008
If I told you about the research I was doing in order to come across this Animals in the Press website, you definitely wouldn’t believe me.
Their most recent story, Family pets fall victim to subprime crisis, was what caught my attention. Those damn capitalists have a lot to answer for:
Shelters across the country have seen sharp upticks in the number of people giving up their pets in recent months because they have been forced out of their homes. And — more tragically — neighbors, police and foreclosure agents are finding increasing numbers of pets left to fend for themselves in abandoned homes.
“We’re finding too many animals who have starved to death,” said Stephanie Shain, director of outreach for the Human Society of the United States.
While some people dump their pets on the street, others go so far as to lock the animal in a closet where their cries for help are harder to hear, she said.
It can take weeks for an animal to starve to death and desperate scratch and bite marks are usually found on doors and windows.
January 29, 2008
I see lots of coverage, particularly relating to Ryanair, where people talk about “hidden charges”. In most cases, these aren’t really hidden. They may be unfair, unwarranted, and just downright nasty, but in pretty much all cases, they’re not actually hidden as they’re shown to you before you actually commit to paying anything.
During my call to NTL referred to in my NTL post earlier, a curious thing was mentioned to me when I was getting my broadband upgraded. The lady mentioned that if I was to subsequently change my subscription again back to the lesser service, I would be charged a €10 administration charge.
Watch out for this. I wonder is it mentioned to everyone who calls to have their service upgraded - though you would expect to see it on their website.
January 29, 2008
Our fantastically useless National Consumer Agency strikes again. Today, they told us how they’d secured a prosecution against Tesco Ireland (the Dundrum store).
Excellent, they’re looking after our interests. The very naughty “Tesco Ireland was convicted in respect of failing to display the selling price of two items: twin pack tissues and toilet tissues”.
Telling us how great they are, in response to the prosecution, the NCA Chief Executive Ann Fitzgerald told us:
“Retailers must recognise that they have a duty of care to their customers. Without consumers they would not be in business. It is incumbent on them, therefore, to ensure that customers should know the correct prices of all products before going to the checkout.
“Consumers have a legal right to this so they can make an informed choice on whether to buy in that particular store or go elsewhere.”
And to show how successful the prosecution will be in teaching the very bold Tesco their lesson, the fine imposed was €1500. Technically, this was for 1 offence, but the presiding judge took account of the other 26 counts before him.
So, in reality, Tesco Ireland was fined about €55 for each instance of non-display of prices. Last year, the Tesco Ireland group made €2.7bn in revenues in Ireland (sub needed). If Tesco Ireland has about 100 stores at present, then Dundrum could account for €27m of that, though it’s likely to be much larger.
The fine imposed could therefore be about 0.00556% of revenues for the Dundrum store - €1500 out of €27m is unlikely to make them think once, never mind twice.
Well done NCA, that’ll teach them!
January 28, 2008
Tried to get through 3 times to upgrade my broadband package (the previously mentioned Slingbox needs a faster upload than I had already). And I also wanted to cancel my Setanta Sports package – I had it for the Rugby World Cup (link) but it’s not really doing much for me these days. I wouldn’t watch Liverpool playing in my back garden never mind paying €15 per month on the offchance they’ll be shown every couple of weeks.
First time I got through after a hold of about 5 minutes, I made the school-boy error of saying first up that I wanted to cancel a subscription – I was immediately put back on hold, and I’d still be there I reckon if I hadn’t hung up.
So, second time up I knew I’d have to go with the “hello, I’d like to give you more money” rather than saying I wanted to give them less. After waiting again for another 5 or 6 minutes, there were a couple of ominous clicks before I ended up speaking to a customer service person in India. I gave them my requirements, upgrade this, cancel that, and the said to hold on till they put me through to someone who could do that for me – back onto the hold queue. After a couple of minutes, nothing happened, so hung up again.
Third time lucky? Well, yes. Again after 4-5 minutes waiting, I got through to a lady in their Irish centre who (relatively) efficiently processed by broadband upgrade first, and then my Setanta Sports cancellation.
Still – 30 minutes to get a 3 minute job completed. That works out at €2 per minute for the money I won’t be paying NTL in the next 12 months. Just as well I had the alternative to their 1890 number so at least the phone call didn’t cost me anything and just came off my 02 monthly minutes.
January 28, 2008
Via the Eddie Hobbs Rocket:
Brendan Investments Property Management Limited (BIPM) is in a position to organise direct investment in residential investment units, both new and refurbished buildings in Dresden. Known as the “Florence on the Elbe”, Dresden has become the economic centre of Eastern Germany. There is substantial industrial movement within the German market itself towards Dresden and it is also benefiting from tourist growth given the redevelopment of its historic city centre. The population of Dresden is also increasing.Loan to value of 80% is available through the package arranged by BIPM allowing purchases to take place on the basis of 20% equity down as cash. Capital appreciation has been in the region of 6% to 8% and price growth is likely to continue over the next number of years as rental yields compress.
A complete package is available covering legal costs, notary fees, etc., through BIPM, simplifying the whole process for you.
If you wish to explore building a portfolio of residential investment units in Dresden please send us an email and we will introduce you to Hugh O’Neill, ACA, who is fulltime in Germany as a fulltime director of BIPM. Alternatively, you can email Hugh directly now at hon@brendaninvestments.ie.
Brendan Investments Property Management Limited will receive 1% of the gross asset value of the property purchased by Brendan Investments Pan European Property plc for the management of the property and development portfolio.
Still with me? So, the Brendan Investments Property Management Limited, in which Irish consumers were not invited to invest in, is now branching out into flogging residential property to these same Irish consumers.
Any profits made by Brendan Investments Property Management Limited will not accrue to the investors in Brendan Investments Pan European Property plc.
The question becomes: where will the focus of Brendan Investments Property Management Limited actually be? Will it be on managing the Brendan Investments property to best maximise returns, or will it be focused on selling residential property to further enrich the promoters behind Brendan? And, I’m guessing it was, but how much information on this diversification in the tied property management company was provided in the original prospectus?
January 28, 2008
That Monday, some work contacts arrived from Canada for a two week trip staying in one of the O’Callaghan Hotels. The original charge was €15 per 24hrs, which they’d queried and it was knocked down to €10. Whoopdee doo! (Though, for one of them got a voucher that never ran out, so they actually got 2 weeks internet usage for €10).
This was all mentioned in the context of the charges in the Shelbourne, where they’d stayed previously, and which was mentioned in the SBP article. What had originally struck me in the article was the €20 per day charge in the Shelbourne Hotel for their “hotel wide WiFI access”, and this was backed up by my Canadian friends’ experience when they’d stayed in the Shelbourne back in November.
€20 per day to me is a ridiculous cost – that’s how much it costs me to get internet per month at home. This article from TripAdvisor seems to suggest that the costs can be even higher if you’re a business user. For a hotel that charges between €250 and €550 per night for it’s rooms, you’d expect your wireless internet for free. Damn it, I stayed in a perfectly acceptable hotel in Shanghai for €20 per night and got free wireless internet.
