We are being ripped off by providers

This article appears in today's INM newspapers.

By Michael Commane
Do you know how much your last phone call cost you? Do you know how much you pay for a kilowatt hour of electricity? Do you know how much our national rail company charges you per kilometre?

And please don’t tell me that this is not linked to morality. It certainly is.

Last week I received a telephone bill for a landline. Checking through it I spotted that a five second call to a mobile at an off-peak time cost 17 cent. I called the telephone provider. I was told they would have someone call me back. Days later and I still have not heard from them. But I did my homework and have calculated; yes that is the price they charge. How can any telephony regulator allow that?

Checking my most recent mobile telephone bill I noticed it is more an advert for the phone company than explaining in a transparent way, how much I was charged for usage.

I decided to change my electricity supplier. I discovered that my most recent bill had been estimated so I called the provider and asked what the protocol is for having my money refunded to me. I was told that I would have to contact them in order to have my bank account credited with the appropriate sum. When I questioned the system I was told in a curt fashion that that was company policy.

Surely it should be their responsibility to return my money to me without my having to go and ask them. How can an electricity regulator allow such a practice?

Sometime ago Irish Rail introduced an online ticket purchasing facility.

I travel weekly between Dublin and Tralee so the online ticket service offered significant reductions. When they first introduced the service there was no charge for using your laser card but sneakily they introduced a €2 fee.

The fares remained at constant prices. The 19.00 Dublin Tralee train cost €20 plus €2 card fee and the 19.15 Tralee Dublin was at the bargain price of €12.00.You just had to book two hours before train departure.

They were great fares and were attracting more and more passengers – ‘customers’ as Irish Rail prefers to call us. The word ‘customers’ seems to say we are all friends in this business!

Scrolling through the Irish Rail website during the Easter holidays it was clear to see that everything had changed and changed utterly too.

It is now far more difficult to get cheap fares and the chances of getting anything under €38 are slim.

If you buy a monthly Dublin Tralee return at a station it is €81.50. A five day return is €72.00 and a single is €68.50.

There seems to be no link whatsoever between the distance covered and the price of the ticket. I once asked if there was a price per kilometre. Of course I did not get a reply. I think they thought I was odd or simply a troublemaker.

If the rail company increases its standard fares it has to ask Government but when it comes to internet prices it seems to be able to do what it likes. What has the transport regulator got to say about this?

And at the same time Irish Rail has introduced a no-nonsense ticket checking system. If you are caught without a valid ticket it is a €100 fine plus the price of the ticket. No excuses accepted and the people doing the job have obviously been given training on how to show no mercy. I know that from observation and not from personal experience!

So if someone comes along to me and asks is it sinful to dodge a rail fare or how wrong is it to develop some small scam where I can avoid paying for all my telephone calls, what in truth should my reply be?

I for one am weary observing how the little man is forever trampled under foot while the strong and powerful have all the dice in their favour.

Pope Benedict expresses great concern about the current philosophy of relativism. But are we not living in a world that is governed by relativism. Everything is up for grabs. There is no price per kilometre on the railway. There is no absolute price per minute when I telephone.

It appears the big corporations can charge what they like, make up their own rules as they go along – of course they do it all the time under the guise of good PR advice. In this scenario surely the little person can also claim grounds for a certain amount of leeway.

Am I preaching sedition? But if so, I don’t want to be patronised, judged or condemned by someone who has not a clue of the price of a kilowatt hour of electricity or how much a five second call to a mobile is.

Nevertheless, these days travelling by rail through the lush countryside of Tipperary and Cork and the magnificent scenery of Kerry, I realise how fortunate I am to be living in a most spectacular corner of the earth.