Some days I feel under siege. From the system. From this hungry, greedy commercial society we live in. It feels like whichever way I turn, somebody is wanting to take a piece out of me, using whatever dishonest trickery they can bring to bear.
I often have this feeling, in a general way, and it’s usually no more than an irritated awareness that the world can be a pretty dog-eat-dog place. But it boiled over recently, so I’m letting off steam by having a whinge to you. I hope you don’t mind too much.
Mechanics.
Twice in recent times my sons have had to visit mechanics – one in Sydney and one in Newcastle. Both times, in my opinion, they were robbed. I’m not a car expert, but I’ve had a lot of cars and spent a lot of hours working on them. I’ve also been lied to and cheated by mechanics quite a few times, so I have a high level of scepticism about their advice. We have a trusted family mechanic whose advice I feel I can rely on, but on these occasions I’m describing my sons either couldn’t, or didn’t want to, talk to him. The son in Sydney needed a registration inspection and we knew the car had one or two minor issues. He went to a mechanic who was highly recommended by friends. Most of us should realise that registration checks can backfire horribly. Unscrupulous mechanics sometimes find all sorts of “problems” that can justify them refusing to pass a car until you fork out the funds to fix these “problems”. This mechanic was one of that sort, and the list of issues he found with my son’s car was ridiculous. The only advice I could offer was to thank the mechanic and say goodbye, taking the car to somebody else. You can’t escape the list of “faults” the first mechanic has generated, but you can try to escape the risk of further expensive deceit at that person’s hands. Needless to say, the Sydney mechanic was very unhappy that he wasn’t going to get the thousands of dollars he was after. Our trusted mechanic agreed that the list of faults was mostly nonsense, but once an issue has been flagged as part of a registration check it has to be addressed. That’s the trap.
Our other son fell into the other common trap of booking his car in for a routine service. This shouldn’t be a drama but it often is. In his case, after paying nearly $400 for what amounted to an oil change he was handed a long list of recommended work that included replacement of the air filter and a parking light. How can such an expensive routine service not include those cheap items? Disgusting, in my opinion.
Veterinary surgeries.
It seems to have been our fate to have needed these services on weekends or in the wee hours when premium charges apply. With vets I have found that it pays to shop around. Some of them, I am sure, are wonderful people who charge reasonable fees. But I have encountered some, I’m sorry to say, who exploit the emotional attachment we have to our pets to extract absurd sums from our accounts. When we have phoned around for quotes to provide care, the variation in prices has sometimes been astounding. A recent visit to a vet with a dying long-time pet met with a choice between euthanasia or $5000+ in treatment. As a result of our experiences over the years I now approach vets with the same level of fear and suspicion I’ve long reserved for dentists.
Dentists.
Don’t get me started. Perhaps you’ve only had good experiences with dentists. If that’s the case then I’m very happy for you. Our family could fill a book with tales of dental misdemeanours: dishonest advice, overcharging, unnecessary and damaging procedures . . .
Just one example: years ago a dentist told me I needed five fillings. I got a second opinion, received no fillings and still have the healthy teeth.
My advice for anybody contemplating dental work is get second and third opinions, if you can, but never tell the dentists you are doing so.
Doctors.
Never, ever agree to any expensive procedures without doing your homework. Get second and third opinions but be careful. The saying that, to a hammer, everything looks like a nail, can be applied to some medical practitioner who simply want to do remunerative procedures. I recently went to a practitioner who gave me some advice that would have involved him doing some expensive things. I got a second opinion from a practitioner who disagreed with the first guy, but who reckoned I needed some different expensive things done. Sigh. Obviously certain areas of practice are more subject to this kind of criticism. Ask questions. Be sceptical. Take notes. Don’t get railroaded. Good luck!
Insurance companies
Insurance companies are not our friends. They want to extract high premiums from us but they don’t like paying claims.
My recent insurance gripe was definitely my fault in part. My car insurer which, in year one, had demanded a premium of more than $800 to cover my car for an agreed value of $20,000, sent me a renewal in year two with much the same premium. What I didn’t notice was that the agreed value had been slashed at the insurance company’s whim (Shannons, via Suncorp) to just $12,000 – a long way below replacement value. I found this out when we had an accident and had to pull out the policy document. I believe they do this in the expectation that a certain proportion of customers will just pay their renewals and not read the numbers. They can always hold their hands on their stony hearts and recite the mantra that it was the customer’s job to read the document fully. I believe that, for such a large and material change – a 40 per cent reduction in “agreed” value – they should be obliged to draw it specifically to the customer’s attention.
And by the way, did you know that it is not illegal to change lanes across intersections? If you are turning from a side road onto a bigger road with multiple lanes you are apparently at fault if a person in the right-hand lane on the bigger road changes lanes across the intersection and wipes you out. Always something new to learn . . .
“Care” providers
Got an elderly relative or friend on a government care package? Then you know about some of the companies and organisations that administer the packages, clipping the ticket in a hundred different ways to make sure the client gets hardly anything from the money the government supplies. Administration fees, padding on the pay of care workers who are encouraged to cut corners and short-change on hours spent working, margins on goods purchased. And all so opaque and hard to decipher. Vampires, in my opinion.
Telephones
Almost all phone calls on our landline (yes, we still have one) and many on our mobiles are now scammers or contractors working for charities. We all think we are too clever to fall for the scams, but so many people I know have been sucked in. If you have ever had the misfortune to be targeted by a stalker then you will know how telephones can come to feel like an enemy: a direct line allowing threats into your life. Scammers have me feeling almost the same way. Answering machines and number-blocking help, but the scammers never sleep.
As for telephones, above. The barrage of scam emails is so intense it gives me the horrors. Fake phone bills, fake messages from the tax office, weird threats and promises from creeps and bots in the wicked jungle of cyberspace. Every single one of them probing for vulnerabilities, searching for way to take a bite. And sadly, many of them are successful. One friend, for example, has recently learned that the online “crypto exchange” he invested a large sum with was actually just a clever scam and he is now much poorer for the experience.
This list could be longer. Much longer, sadly. But that’s enough for now. I’ve got it off my chest for the time being.
It’s just how things are when we live in an economy, rather than a community. Sharks on every side.
