It’s the era of the trickster and three-card trick merchant

This week’s column in The Kerryman newspaper.

Michael Commane

We live in the strangest of times and I can’t help thinking that it’s the era of the trickster and the flash salesman or woman.

Some weeks ago now I discovered on RTÉ news that there had been a malfunction with some of the new super duper ESB meters. The following day I checked my account to discover I had one of those meters. It meant it was showing that I had used exorbitant amounts of electricity in one day; nothing could have been further from the truth. I contacted ESB. Received two reply emails, PR jargon. 

When I pointed out to them that I would have preferred to have heard directly from the company than from the media they had nothing consequential to say. 

Some weeks later I logged on to the digital version of my daily newspaper, a note popped up  telling me it was not available. I called the newspaper and was told that the digital version was no longer part of my package. They explained that my package included the delivery of the newspaper to my home Fridays and Saturdays, but the digital version was a complimentary add-on.

It must be four or five years since a salesman knocked at my door asking me was I interested in subscribing to the newspaper. We chatted and I agreed to purchase. I understood the deal to be home delivery on Fridays and Saturdays, and digital version every day. There was no mention of the word complimentary.

It turns out, that unbeknownst to me, the digital aspect was complimentary. But to make it even more annoying they cancelled it without notifying me. 

When I pointed this out on the phone the agent, who was professional and pleasant, told me they were calling everyone to explain it to them but that they had not yet got around to calling me. And this from a newspaper that prides itself on being the paper of record.

I was flabbergasted and let him know how I felt. In the end we did a deal, whereby my digital newspaper has been restored and I still receive a hard copy of the newspaper on Fridays and Saturdays, indeed, I may be getting the full package at a cheaper rate than I was originally paying.

But it’s all the haggling and hassling that I have to do that simply exhausts and annoys me.

In recent days I’ve heard experts on radio advising people to shop around for cheaper private health insurance. 

Similar story with car insurance, one phone call, tell them you are going to change to another company and suddenly €50 might be knocked off your premium. What about the quiet, shy retiring person who would never think of making that call. 

Trump’s book ‘The Art of the Deal’ co-written with Tony Schwartz in 1987 is a handbook on how to become a trickster, a sort of up-market three-card trick merchant.

It seems to be the norm across all society these days.

Has loyalty lost its standing; is there any sort of moral code guiding us through these troubled times?

I keep asking myself is it all a scam, one big joke.

But it’s the season of Easter; I have hope.