Funferal

Overcharging in Ireland

The disclosure that my former employer has overcharged customers for ‘call management services’ (CMS) has led to yet more anger, following the overcharging by AIB and other banks:

It appears that if the banks don’t get you, now your phone company will. There will no doubt be the usual explanations about ‘unfortunate errors’ and ‘software problems’ that are always trotted out on these occasions. However, it will have occurred to many consumers how remarkable it is that these errors always appear to be the benefit of the company charging for the service and never to the advantage of the consumer. (Kathleen Lynch, Labour Party Spokesperson on Consumer Affairs)

While I share her anger at exploitation of customers, I must enter a caveat. Companies do make errors in the other direction. When this happens, they will often decide to write off the lost income, rather than draw attention to their error (and draw ire by retrospectively charging customers).
I must say that for my part, the most annoying piece I saw recently was a statement by AIB reassuring customers that the latest piece of overcharging was due to an error, rather than being deliberate theft like other overcharging they had engaged in. That this was meant to reassure was amazing, and shows just how apathetic, weary, and dependent on the banks we have become. Given the extent to which AIB has been subsidised by the state in the past, I would not be opposed to nationalisation, or some such move (though that’s probably not allowed under EU and WTO rules).