Don't forget the scrubbing brush
Let me tell you a story about a scrubbing brush. It's a true tale about a special brush that was frequently sold, but never bought. Paid for, but never left the shop where it lay at the end of a long, busy counter. This is a story about a business that systematically cheated its trusting customers.
My late father was a shopkeeper. He was born at the end of the First World War and spent his early working life learning the grocery trade with a 'multiple' – a regional chain of shops in Lancashire.
In those days, supermarkets did not exist and the nearest thing to automation was a hand-cranked bacon slicer. And so, of course, there was no such thing as a till receipt. Customers trusted shop assistants to accurately add up their bills, often using nothing more than mental arithmetic.
What they did not know was that, often the price of a scrubbing brush would be added to the total. If someone returned to the shop and said: 'I think you charged me too much,' the assistant would point towards the scrubbing brush and reply: 'That's because you forgot about the scrubbing brush you bought.'
'But I didn't ask for one.'
'In that case someone else must have asked one of the other assistants for it.'
And so the money would be refunded and the brush would lie on the counter until the next victim came along.
Today's equivalent of the scrubbing brush trick is being automatically charged for something you don't need and haven't asked for when you shop online.
Rail booking company thetrainline.com has started adding £1 to the price of every ticket it sells, to pay for travel insurance. Yes, that's right – travel insurance for a simple, straightforward train journey.
Customers can escape the charge only by keeping their wits about them and clicking on a button to refuse it.
I'd say it was a fair bet that many of thetrainline's thousands of customers who pay for this 'service' are not even aware of it. It may not be theft, but it's a shabby, underhand scam any reputable company would be ashamed of.
My message to anyone thinking of using this outfit to book a rail ticket is: Give them the brush off.
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What a lot of tosh! Yes - The Trainline are ofering trip insurance. No - you do not have to buy it. You are clearly given the option to buy or refuse during the transaction, it's up to you to decide! I bought some train tickets from The Trainline a few weeks ago and decided to take up the option of insurance because the tickets I bought did not allow cancellation or alteration. If I am ill and cannot make the journey, for a mere £2 return I can insure the journeys and clain a refund. Much cheaper than buying tickets which include a refund option. Don't criticise before you know all the facts - you only end up with egg on your face!!
Posted by: Mike Booth | March 16, 2006 at 10:53 PM