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Stealth Inflation

Posted by michael on from the fraud-by-any-other-name dept.

prostoalex writes "The New York Times on the Web explores the topic of incorrect bills and numerous surcharges with names like 'assessment', 'handling', 'restocking', etc. David Pogue quotes Business Week magazine, where it says that such small charges $100 million annually for hotels, $2 billion for banks and $11 billion for credit-card companies. Users of landline phones, cell phones, checking accounts and credit cards are starting to suspect that such huge revenue might imply the mistakes are made on purpose. Is it just another conspiracy theory, or are we becoming victims to the stealth inflation?"

4 of 796 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Sad state of affairs... by gbjbaanb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    no, makes a lot of sense. For those places where you pay indirectly (ie through insurance), you must remember that you still pay. The insurance companies are never going to lose money by paying out outrageous fees without fleecing their customers in turn.

    Trouble is, everyone thinks that its free as they don't have to pay any of it, and so the fees are increased and increased, and the premiums go up and up.

    The other thing to watch out for is compensation paytments for everything. (you should have sued your doctor for .. something, a lawyer could give you a list :), and that would be ok, as her insurance would pay for it......

    its those that cause inflation, not a 0.02 here and there.

  2. Is there a difference? by pvt_medic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now I doubt that the companies intentionally make the mistakes in order to extract more money from the customer...

    Now that being said, I think that the companies intentionally do make extra charges all around and hide them intricately in deals as they see there. It wasnt 800 minutes but 700 plus 100 minutes. Now no one in the world is going to ask about that. I know to ask about extra hidden charges, but no that.

    I think that the companies then through the complication of such systems easily profit from mistakes related to calculating the charges and fees. And they are not going to do anything to fix such errors.

    So the question remains by not doing anything is that the same as actually cheating the customer... This client says YES.

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  3. Re:Sad state of affairs... by sdmartin101 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wouldn't that be mail fraud?

  4. Re:Sad state of affairs... by pilgrim23 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    To quote and rebut:
    Her salary
    All Professions
    Her rent
    All Professions
    Her electricity
    All Professions
    Her heating/AC
    All Professions
    Her transcriptionist
    All Business related professions (Computer Consultant for example)
    Her malpractice insurance
    Liability, though not as high, but there
    Her receptionist
    All Professions
    Her phone system
    All Professions
    Her disposable supplies
    All Professions
    Her equipment investment
    All Professions
    Her student loans
    Most all professions
    So now,tell me now where a doctor is special and gets off charging three times the rate of any OTHER profession!
    ALL PROFESSIONS have these charges. As a computer tech you have outragiously expensive equipment, strange arcane knowledge, a bizzare incomprehensible language, and all the other trappings of any of the High Priests of our culture. So how come I can't charge Lawyer/Doctor rates? A con gents is still a con. Even when you drive a BMW to the con.

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