Opinion: Regulate this

Prior to this snippet the only people we'd heard of who could get away with this were members of the legal profession.

And even they don't charge you when you complain against them; they just charge you to help you complain about someone else. But you have to admit; it's a bold marketing initiative.

Imagine how much fatter Telstra's bottom line would be if it could charge just one dollar for every whinger, er…customer…who raises a complaint.

The company could offer the rest of us a discount and pick up the slack with complaint collections.

Mind you, there are all sorts of creative ways to skim dollars off your customers, even when they're no longer your customers.

A colleague recently decided to switch insurance companies, and was told she'd have to pay a $32 service fee to cancel her old policy.

Now there's a nice little earner, as Arthur would say.

The customer is leaving, so make them pay you something for no longer providing them with anything. Works for me.

The insurance company had been paid up-front for the full 12 months so what exactly were their cancellation costs?

And, since our colleague was due a refund for the balance of the year, why not just refund slightly less money? Why did they bother to advise that they required $32?

All that achieved was bad feelings and bad word-of-mouth about the company.

Perhaps they're required to disclose all fees and charges under some regulatory regime. One that makes you disclose but not justify. A regulator without much reason to exist.

A bit like the regulators in the telecoms industry. But not for the reasons Telstra espouses, which just wants a regulation free zone.

No, we think the telco regulators are just way too tame and lame.

No point being the boss bully if you don't kick a few heads now and then.

There's an extinct bird that everyone agrees could do with a good kicking, just to make sure its dead.

That would get everyone's attention as well as restoring some faith in the process. And save the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman a pile of paper work.