It’s time we the people said we’ve had enough

This week’s column in The Kerryman newspaper.

Michael Commane

While waiting on someone last week I was browsing about in a pharmacy, looking at products for sale and prices. 

The last words a retiring dentist said to me was to make sure to dental floss my teeth every day; for once I’m doing what I was told. While in the pharmacy I spotted a dental floss brand I’d never seen before. 

There was no price tag on the product nor on the shelf above or below. I brought the floss over to an assistant, explaining that there was no price on the product. She said she would check on the cash register which she did, but I pointed out that the price should be on display and easy to see. 

The assistant said that because the prices change so often there was no price on that particular dental floss. It sounded a daft reply to me and again I said that it was a legal requirement clearly to display the price of every product for sale. I have no doubt if I had pursued the issue it could have become awkward, even contentious; I simply said thank you and left the shop.

A few days earlier I returned a pair of walking boots to Lidl. The boots were a replacement pair for a faulty pair I had bought earlier. This time the sole had come away from the boot and indeed was very nearly the cause of my falling down a stairway.

Because the boots had been bought in April the Lidl assistant told me that he was unable to refund my money. Because it was more than three months since I bought the boots I’d have to contact Lidl HQ either by post, phone or email. I was having none of it and explained this was totally unfair; the rigmarole I would be put through to have my refund. In the end he gave me my refund. What would I’ve done had I not my electronic receipt of purchase? 

In the last few days I have been helping someone change her telephone provider. She is shy, not-so-young, indeed, scared to say boo to anyone. I have no idea of the cumulative time I spent on the phone waiting to speak to a human voice. How much nonsensical advertising I had to endure before speaking to a person. Is it possible to survive today without a computer or smart phone?

But besides that, I keep thinking we are in many respects being treated like slaves.

Someone said to me that it is a strategy of companies to leave you waiting on the phone so that you will run out of patience and hang up.

And there is something very odd about it all. We believe that we are living in enlightened times; we can all speak up for ourselves, the individual reigns supreme. 

That might be so for some but certainly not for the ordinary people. If we want to get what’s due to us we have to grovel or simply be brazen and scare the person to give us what is our due.

What exactly are the regulators doing? They certainly need a wake up call, that is, if you know where to find them.