back to menuA recent personal experience of a car hire agreement shows that problems
of
small print still exist despite the efforts of the Office of Fair Trading
and
others. The terms on the back of the contract form were in minute
letters
printed in grey,
They were indecipherable even with a magnifying glass, though a blackened photocopy made them just visible.
Collision damage waiver used to mean just that. Now hire firms are adding a £100 excess charge which looks just like another hidden way of selling more extra insurance while appearing to keep prices down. We could insure against this excess charge with Europcar for £1 a day. In addition, without asking, they added a £3.50 personal insurance for the passenger! Luckily I spotted this and had it removed: "Nearly everyone takes it out" the assistant said in defence.
Perhaps they don’t read their own contract form! In Jersey they charge £12 for a half tank of petrol. We used so little there that this was yet another way they increased their profits.
Deciding to get mobilised for Christmas, I have been looking at the mobile-phone so-called ‘Pay as you Go’ brochures. In large print it tells you that now you need only pay for the calls you make. Hidden away on the back page of the same BT Cellnet leaflet in small white print on a blue background are the additional terms including the "minimum top up £l5 every sixty days to keep your line active". You only pay for the calls you make - pull the other one!
The payment vouchers for other firms also appear to have a comparatively short expiration date, also usually listed in very small print at the bottom of advertisements. I have settled for the Virgin voucher system which does not appear to have any hidden charges. I’ll keep you informed.
The green claims code does not seem to have improved the quality or integrity of products on supermarket shelves. In its report The Green Claims Code: Is It Working? the National Consumer Council calls on the government to stamp out misleading and false environmental claims.
Anna Bradley says "If the environmental information on products is misleading, it shatters consumers’ trust in these claims and ultimately puts them off attempting to buy green at all".
So writes a local newspaper columnist. He relates his experiences in Canada where you pay tax if you buy one doughnut but not if you buy six.
In Vancouver you can feed a parking meter once, but how do they know if you do it twice? (Perhaps the warden keeps a record of car numbers).
He quotes prices for some items. For a famous make of pen (I think we can guess which one!) he paid less than for just the refill in Britain. Coca Cola was only 15p a can while here the price of a litre of bottled water costs almost as much as 2 US gallons of petrol. But the standard practice in Wal*Mart of removing an unattended trolley after only 5 minutes did not meet with approval as the carefully selected articles were already being returned to the shelves.
A common UK telephone entry system for those in debt has been proposed by the Money Advice Trust. After being given basic advice, enquirers would then be referred to an accredited money advice service, preferably in their home area.
The Director General of Fair Trading has pointed out that many people find themselves in financial difficulty following a change in personal circumstances, rather than as an act of indiscretion.
It is proposed that a comprehensive disbursement system should be set up so that, once a debt repayment plan has been worked out, a single payment can be made which will be distributed among the creditors.
This is described on the packet in the USA as ‘a tangy and sweet real fruit treat’. No doubt you would expect to find dried mango inside? The fruit is in fact pineapple with artificial mango flavour.
A watch is advertised as water resistant to 50 mm! Not even suitable for diving into the bath. Meanwhile, back in the UK, Agricultural Minister Nick Brown has expressed his determination to clamp down on misleading food labels. He is particularly concerned about the real place of origin - not just where the item was last processed or sliced but also the origin of the individual ingredients.
You’ll have heard about NHS Direct, the nurse led confidential telephone service giving health care advice and information 24 hours a day. It started in April last year and has gradually been extended over the country until, by the end of December, more than two thirds of the population had access to the service and by the end of this year the whole country will be covered. The important number is 0845 4647.
Alan Milburn, the Secretary of State for Health, announced in December that, since its launch, about a million calls had been received and invaluable health-care advice given out. Many callers were directed to more appropriate health care than they had been planning, and in 2000 cases ambulances were called, possibly saving lives.
What Mr. Milburn did not reveal was whether this new service was causing the hoped-for reduction in demand for family doctor and accident and emergency services.
Two new initiatives were announced in December. Firstly NHS Direct has gone on-line at http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk. The second is an NHS Direct Healthcare Guide which covers the 20 or so most common symptoms. It provides clear and accurate advice to readers who know anyway that there is always the phone helpline and now the Internet help site. Over a million copies of the guide have been printed and they are available in pharmacies all over the country.
Following six deaths in the five weeks leading up to December, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) issued an urgent warning to users of mobile heaters which use liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Such heaters, if not properly serviced, can emit poisonous and potentially lethal carbon monoxide gas in less than ten minutes from being ignited.
The HSE points out that there are thousands of these heaters used in Britain. They are often kept for many years and brought out for extra heating in cold weather. New heaters, or those serviced regularly, should operate perfectly safely, but your heater could be suspect if:
The HSE warns:" If you think that your heater is suspect you must stop using it and either call in a CORGI registered gas engineer or take it to a gas service centre immediately. This could save your life. Also it is always vitally important to make sure that there is fresh air getting into the room.
Members of the LPG Association. will give out leaflets explaining how to spot a suspect heater to anyone replacing their gas bottle. They will also be available from the HSE Gas Safety Advice Line on 0800 300 363. Other useful numbers are 0800 169 2002 for the LPG Association for service centre details and 01256 372300 for CORGI for details of LPG certified Gas Engineers.
back to menu