Current Affairs Cost of living…

[Ming the merciless]

Nobody is interesting in providing a good service and charging you appropriately any more. Making as much money out of you as they can is the credo today, the service is secondary.

 

[Rita_Poon]

Nobody is interesting in providing a good service and charging you appropriately any more. Making as much money out of you as they can is the credo today, any service provided is merely an annoyance and is meted out with ever greater disdain.

Indeed.

 

[Rita_Poon]

OMD give Liverpool gig compensation to food banks

80s synth-pop outfit give venue's pay-out over technical problems to charities.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Paulie]

I had a lease car while mines was in getting repaired after being crashed into.I got it late in the evening just before they closed. I returned it a few days later having barely used it and then got hit with a bill of £200 odd (Can't remember the exact figure) because of a mark on a tire. Those lease companies have so many ways to extort money from you either directly or indirectly via insurers.

I had this happen to me at Enterprise and I refused to pay. A small nick out of the tyre. They wanted to charge around the same and said its cheaper than the insurance excess, as if they are doing me a favour. I argued with the manager and he said he will check their records and phone me back, they never did.

 

[IrishBlue2022]

I had this happen to me at Enterprise and I refused to pay. A small nick out of the tyre. They wanted to charge around the same and said its cheaper than the insurance excess, as if they are doing me a favour. I argued with the manager and he said he will check their records and phone me back, they never did.

My argument was that I could buy a new tyre for a fraction of the price that they were charging but got nowhere.

 

[Paulie]

My argument was that I could buy a new tyre for a fraction of the price that they were charging but got nowhere.

Cheeky aren't they. Apparently you can damage the trim but not the tyre.

 

[Daveysgingerlovechild]

Nobody is interesting in providing a good service and charging you appropriately any more. Making as much money out of you as they can is the credo today, the service is secondary.

Yeah, I think so many service industries just offer rock bottom prices with barely any margin as a headline offer to get custom. Then there's every extra, or fine margin opportunity, or penalty to charge more.

Sure, folk like to keep costs down, but life would be less stressful without such antics.

 

[JimmyJeffers]

My argument was that I could buy a new tyre for a fraction of the price that they were charging but got nowhere.

I try and get a hire car a bit muddy before returning. Did a massive scrape on one of the alloys last time then drove through a load of puddles on country roads.
They must have been suspicious the way I strutted out the place after they’d checked it over and seen no damage. Was practically moonwalking.

 

[Rita_Poon]

I try and get a hire car a bit muddy before returning. Did a massive scrape on one of the alloys last time then drove through a load of puddles on country roads.
They must have been suspicious the way I strutted out the place after they’d checked it over and seen no damage. Was practically moonwalking.

 

[Daveysgingerlovechild]

I try and get a hire car a bit muddy before returning. Did a massive scrape on one of the alloys last time then drove through a load of puddles on country roads.
They must have been suspicious the way I strutted out the place after they’d checked it over and seen no damage. Was practically moonwalking.

I git caught between a third party booking site and enterprise. Basically got sold care hire with collision damage waiver, but the Enterprise collection desk swore blind there was none booked despite my paperwork saying otherwise.

Told me I'd pay full market value of the car if any damage was done. So paid the cover which was as much as the hire cost (we were a bit stuck otherwise).

Took it up with both companies at home, just passed it between each other, enterprise maintaing the CDW wasnt booked. So pulled a section 75 with the credit card company and got them to reclaim the original hire fee on the grounds of the product or service not being as described.

Wonder how many have been fisted this way?

 

[Titus Bramble]

My little one just started daycare a few weeks back. It costs us £585 per month for her to be in 3 days a week. We do pay through the tax free childcare account which brings it down. We have one due in August so will have 2 in the daycare system at the same time in the next year and a half. Fun times ahead.

It really creates an argument for atleast 1 parent not working.

Awful isn't it? Friends of ours have their daughter in a nursery which is costing them £80 a day, 3 days a week.

They're basically paying the same in childcare fees each month that we do rent.

This is exactly why my wife became a full time mum. She's always worked in retail, so if she were to return to work it would have been part time as a colleague in a shop/cafe etc most likely on minimum wage. We calculated that for the hours our eldest would spend in nursery while she was at work, we'd essentially get zero financial benefit as all of her earnings would have gone on paying someone else to look after him while she was at work. We'd also have the added 'stress' of pickup/drop off, not to mention having to take time off work if he was unwell.

It's bonkers.

 

[JimmyJeffers]

My little one just started daycare a few weeks back. It costs us £585 per month for her to be in 3 days a week. We do pay through the tax free childcare account which brings it down. We have one due in August so will have 2 in the daycare system at the same time in the next year and a half. Fun times ahead.

It really creates an argument for atleast 1 parent not working.

Mate was paying 1000 a month in Newcastle. Hardly Kensington or anything. Older generations haven’t got a clue

 

[Littlesue]

Awful isn't it? Friends of ours have their daughter in a nursery which is costing them £80 a day, 3 days a week.

They're basically paying the same in childcare fees each month that we do rent.

This is exactly why my wife became a full time mum. She's always worked in retail, so if she were to return to work it would have been part time as a colleague in a shop/cafe etc most likely on minimum wage. We calculated that for the hours our eldest would spend in nursery while she was at work, we'd essentially get zero financial benefit as all of her earnings would have gone on paying someone else to look after him while she was at work. We'd also have the added 'stress' of pickup/drop off, not to mention having to take time off work if he was unwell.

It's bonkers.

Most sensible thing. I wouldn't have had kids if I had had to go back to work full time. The amount of young mothers I've worked with over the years who so stressed and upset about returning to work.

 

[Titus Bramble]

Most sensible thing. I wouldn't have had kids if I had had to go back to work full time. The amount of young mothers I've worked with over the years who so stressed and upset about returning to work.

Funny you say that... my wife is desperate to get back to work. She really misses it and feels like she's lost her identity. She used to be 'Mrs Bramble, Store Manager for xyz', she's now 'Titus Jnr's Mum' which she doesn't like.

If it made financial sense, she'd have gone back to work months ago.

It just so happens that now we have a second (3 months old) but we've moved so we're only down the road from her parents who are retired/semi retired. When the youngest is a bit older we'll be in a position where the wife can go back to work with the Grandparents on babysitting duty a couple of mornings a week.

 

[Rita_Poon]

Most sensible thing. I wouldn't have had kids if I had had to go back to work full time. The amount of young mothers I've worked with over the years who so stressed and upset about returning to work.

This bit right here is the current reality.