Joe is hosting a poker game in our basement tonight. So instead of yelling down the steps with a back and forth for our column, I said I would write one on my own. Or rewrite, as the case may be. Writers are notorious plagiarists of their own work. A version of this column was in the
I complain every time I see charges like this. In most cases the charge is taken off, but it is a dishonest way of doing business. The "little" charges on phone bills now are ridiculous. And some of them can't be explained by the employees when I complain.
I think hidden fees have become egregious in restaurants, too. Every time you see a price on a menu, you have to remember to calculate in tax and tip and now, often a credit card fee to the bill.
This is why I’ve always appreciated France. When you see a price for anything, it includes everything. Taxes, service, credit card fees, etc. (Oh, once in a while a town or community will charge a wee “taxe de sejour”—a tourist tax—on a hotel bill, but it’s usually about a Euro. Nothing like the 30% markup that you pay at hotels and restaurants in the U.S.)
I think consumers are really starting to get weary of all this in ways that might cause a backlash. We could write all the letters we want, but when hotels and restaurants stand half-empty, that’s when something might change.
Your post reminded me of a novel I read many years ago. The novel was ‘The Plagiarist’ by Benjamin Cheever. One of the characters in the novel was a marketing executive with Repeat as a nickname. He got the nickname at a previous job for a consumer products company. At a meeting to figure out how to sell more shampoo, he came up with the brilliant idea to add repeat to the instructions on the side of the bottle. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. I can’t imagine having a job that requires you to come up with these kinds of dumb ideas.
I complain every time I see charges like this. In most cases the charge is taken off, but it is a dishonest way of doing business. The "little" charges on phone bills now are ridiculous. And some of them can't be explained by the employees when I complain.
I think hidden fees have become egregious in restaurants, too. Every time you see a price on a menu, you have to remember to calculate in tax and tip and now, often a credit card fee to the bill.
This is why I’ve always appreciated France. When you see a price for anything, it includes everything. Taxes, service, credit card fees, etc. (Oh, once in a while a town or community will charge a wee “taxe de sejour”—a tourist tax—on a hotel bill, but it’s usually about a Euro. Nothing like the 30% markup that you pay at hotels and restaurants in the U.S.)
I think consumers are really starting to get weary of all this in ways that might cause a backlash. We could write all the letters we want, but when hotels and restaurants stand half-empty, that’s when something might change.
Your post reminded me of a novel I read many years ago. The novel was ‘The Plagiarist’ by Benjamin Cheever. One of the characters in the novel was a marketing executive with Repeat as a nickname. He got the nickname at a previous job for a consumer products company. At a meeting to figure out how to sell more shampoo, he came up with the brilliant idea to add repeat to the instructions on the side of the bottle. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. I can’t imagine having a job that requires you to come up with these kinds of dumb ideas.
Sounds ingenious to me.