Auditel Consultant:
Lee Freeman

Summer’s been and gone

03 Sep 2010 | Filed under: auditel, cost management, golf, iPhone, Mobiles, Overcharging, Sawbridgeworth cricket club, utilities

Well it has been a while since my last post. I have, like most of the country I expect, just returned from a well-earned break (even if I say so myself). The opportunity arose to escape for a couple of days to Dorset and Hampshire, and I had forgotten how beautiful that part of the country is. It will certainly not be so long before my next visit. As well as giving the family a break I was also able to take in two more events on the Volvo Amateur Golf Tour at Ferndown and Hayling Island. As we near the end of the season the race to qualify for the UK final is hotting up and after a successful day on Tuesday at Ferndown I have now moved into the qualification places. With only a few events to go let’s hope I stay there. While talking about sport, my thoughts turn to cricket and our last league game of the season on Saturday. After a brilliant victory last Saturday (grasping victory from the jaws of defeat having been 10 for 4 chasing 158 to win), avoiding relegation is still a possibility but I do feel that only a win will do, a tall order as we are playing the team currently leading the division (please go easy on us Berkhamsted!!).

While talking about cricket it is difficult to do so without mentioning the subject of match fixing that has reared it’s ugly head again. My view is very simple on that, those that are found to have cheated, for that is what it is, should be banned from the game for life. And by life I do mean life (no time off for good behaviour). I know things like this are never as black and white as they seem from the outside but examples must be made if the game is to be cleaned up. As an example perhaps the players banned should be forced to take up golf, where the majority of people who play the game are very honest when it comes to breaking rules, and we even had the recent case of a player suffering a two shot penalty and missing out on the chance of winning a major when TV evidence proved he had broken the rules. Although he must have been terribly disappointed, he took the penalty in “good spirit” and got on with it. How many footballers or cricketers would have acted in the same manner!!!

Right enough from the soapbox and onto some items that hopefully you will find useful. The first area concerns an article I read recently about data roaming charges while abroad. Now most of us are aware of the change in legislation from the EU in July of this year which was meant to prevent most of us from receiving massive bills by setting warning levels on usage, but it appears that issues are still arising as described in the article below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11155947

As well as this issue with the iPhone and O2 I have also come across a couple of incidents recently at a client of mine whereby individuals have moved their SIM card to a new device and inadvertently fallen outside the data bundle tariff on their corporate contract. Luckily this was spotted at an early stage and action taken to minimise the cost. The moral of the story is to check the detail of any mobile contract and review your costs regularly and examine any discrepancy. Ok so you do not have the time to do that, so why not employ an expert to do it for you, and also one that doesn’t charge by the hour or day but only gets paid when they have saved you and your company money!! There is also really no excuse in today’s world for large surprises to arrive on mobile phone costs. Not only should most calls be covered by your tariff bundle of “free” minutes etc but most service providers and resellers now provide excellent billing platforms which allow users to set alerts at various levels so warning of usage during the month, and in worse cases enabling the phone to be deactivated if teh usage becomes excessive. I am however always amazed at the lack of corporate who actually take advantage of the functionality that such systems provide.

I will end this with a snippet I picked up on the subject of misselling. Not IFA’s or insurance brokers this time but the good old energy companies!! An investigation has been launched by Ofgem (the industry regulator) to establish whether 4 of the energy companies are complying with the new regulations concerning selling practices in the retail market:

http://www.utilityweek.co.uk/news/uk/electricity/ofgem-launches-investigation-o.php

As the article states if you believe you have been missold an electricity contract contact the regulator who will investigate your complaint.

Industry Tags: cricket, golf, iPhone, match fixing, misselling, Mobiles, O2, Volvo