Archive for December, 2008

€160 health levy

Published December 31st, 2008 in health insurance, over taxation, sucks, fianna fail and rip off. 0 Comments

The Government of Ireland included many unpopular measures in it’s 2009 budget.

But budgets are always unpopular. That is why even the upper house cannot veto a money bill indefinitely, belt tightening is sometimes just necessary, whether we like it or not.

The highlight, or rather lowlight, or the budget for us at Ambrand.com is the €160 levy on private health insurance. For those not familiar with the Irish health system health insurance is a must if you want to reduce waiting times, and stay healthy.

For example it costs € 55 to visit a General Practitioner (GP) and that comes out of the patients pocket. Some people have wonderious items called “medical cards” which are the defacto universal discount cards in Ireland; Free unlimited GP visits, reduced FOI request fees, and a whole host of other non health related benefits.

Alas, I am not self employed and cannot arrange my income figures suitably to enjoy a medical card. So I pay for my own Voluntary Health Insurance from the aptly named VHI.

Unfortunately my renewal date is after 1st January 2009, and so in addition to the premium I will be obliged to pay € 160 which will go straight into the coffers of the Government.

This reminds me of DIRT tax - a tax on saving. Alas, the Government must look after the “sponger” (use in a tongue in cheek fashion) by taxing the “well off”?

Naturally the levy tax has no sunset clause, and just like the 2 percent “temporary” levy on car insurance it will continue next year.

The Office of Tobacco Control

Published December 31st, 2008 in taxpayers money, squeezing small business, walmart, quanto watch, quango monitor, sucks, quango and irish government. 0 Comments

Having been established after a report on tobacco - which we all agree is now a harmful subsyance - The “Office” received statutory status in May 2002, with the enactment of section 2 of the Public Health (Tobacco) Act, 2002.

Their website lists the functions as

1. To advise the Minister for Health and Children, and assist him in the implementation of policies and objectives of the Government, on the control and regulation of tobacco products generally
2. To consult with relevant national and international bodies on developments in tobacco control
3. To advise the Minister on any further actions that should be taken to reduce or eliminate smoking or its effects
4. Organise research and disseminate the results
5. Coordinate a national inspection programme in cooperation with the health boards
6. To advise the Minister as required on the manufacturing and marketing activities of the tobacco industry
7. To perform such other functions as the Minister may assign to the Office from time to time.

We can surmise from the copious mention of the word Advise and Minister above that the essential role of the Office is to, well, to Advise the Minister on all matters relating to tobacco.

But on their website there is one extra paragraph under the heading of functions, it is not even assigned a bullet point number, but it is the most significant function.

“In addition the Office of Tobacco Control will perform certain specific functions such as the maintenance of a register of retail premises…”

So if you own a retail premises that sells tobacco, whether is it a newsagent or bar you will have to register that fact with the Office of Tobacco Control.

Naturally there will be a form to be completed by the retailer and we can understand that, but speaking from experience I just know the obligations will be more.

Once again, this is an example of “The Government” wrapping more red tape around the small retailer. There will be a form to complete, and of course, a fee to be paid. Sure lets make it every year, and because he won’t want it lets ensure there is a totally inappropriate penalty for failure to comply, perhaps a prison sentence?

Bear in mind the retailer is already busy going about his daily business - ordering tobacco as required - and now he will be required to pay a fee for something he never asked and doesn’t want.

pool.com locked me out

Published December 31st, 2008 in custhelp, problem, sucks and ambrand. 0 Comments

I am not a fan of pool.com

For some months now I’ve been locked out of my pool.com account. When I try to login it says my username/password combination is incorrect.

Firstly why can’t it be specific as to which is incorrect? Is it the username or the password. Well it turns out that both are correct. If I use the “Forgot Password” route I am emailled my password, which is correct.

But yet the system won’t let me in. The drones on technical support are of no assistance. As we all have experienced when dealing with large companies (anything above 20 persons in my book) a different person signs off each email, and despite there being a subject tracking number they never seem to read back one page. Thus the customer remains the expert on an issue and the customer service drone is a chair warmer.He or she only has the power and inclination tosuggest I do something I’ve already done i.e. use the “Forgot Password” route.

I assume pool.com eats its own dog food, and thus I must conclude the reason for the lockout is I have bagged a good domain and someone in pool.com wants it. They have ensured I cannot login so that I cannot update my credit card information. Once a certain period has elapsed the domain will revert into the hands of pool.com itself as I will be a non paying customer. At that point perhaps my account will be unlocked?

Suggestion: If you use pool.com then input your credit card that has the longest expiry date.

ParkByPhone.ie is dead

Published December 31st, 2008 in parking and cork city. 5 Comments

As of December 1st 2008 Park by Phone Irl (sic) Ltd cease operation of the phone parking system in Cork City, Ireland.  Cork City Council have engaged another company trading as ParkMagic to operate the service.

Existing Park by Phone customers have been issued new windscreen stickers by ParkMagic, a photocopied generic welcome letter, which appears to have been completely written and posted by ParkMagic - as the headed paper, and frank does not match the current City Council version.

The system can be accessed by calling 0818 220101 or 0818 220330.  The price has increased to € 2.00, which it appears is on par with the cost of a disc. Unfortunately the Cork City Council only provided an undated price list. But if the cost of both the paper disc and ParkMagic is now the same then the latter is unattractive, as a phonecall to a revenue sharing (i.e. think premium rate) must be made.

French Film

Published December 31st, 2008 in sketch, french film, too many categories, third reich, nazi, atari jaguar, hitler and parody. 0 Comments



Visual humour bypasses language boundaries

Tom Lehrer

Published December 28th, 2008 in over enthusiastic categorisation, almost as good as dudley moore, political humour, parody and piano. 2 Comments

Tom Lehrer BA MA (1928-) is an American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, and mathematician. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater. Lehrer is best known for the pithy, humorous songs he recorded in the 1950s and 60s.

His works combine my two loves; the piano and black and white film. The piano playing is spot on, perhaps if I had not had a deprived childhood in a piano-less house ;) I too could play.

The woes of a postman (or numerophobia breeds contempt)

Published December 18th, 2008 in eire postcode, PONC, pon code, irish post codes and an post. 3 Comments

When it comes to postal addresses Irish people seem to suffer from an extreme case of numerophobia, a fear of numbers. The ideal Irish house is a one-off rural dormer bungalow, with a token 3 metre tarred driveway, overt kerosene tank, and electic gates. The ideal Irish address is as short as possible; “John Smith, Townland, Town, County Cork”

In my youth - which was not that long ago - I earned some extra money as a postman. At this time of year, having taken it for granted like running water or electricity,  the public tend to briefly think of the postal system as they send Christmas cards. The classic advice to posters to make sure the destination address is correct and to include a return address in case it is not. But what about the other side of the postal journey? The receiver.

Housing estate and even street houses do not always display numbers, so if you have an envelope to deliver to number 14 you will have to search for any house that has a number displayed and then find another one near it to see which direction the numbers run in, and only then can you find number 14. In Australia many councils stencil spray paint house numbers onto the kerb, so that if a particular owner finds the idea of having a number on hisoak door repulsive it doesn’t matter.

and when you finally reach the door of number 14 you might find a buzzer for 4 apartments, naturally the labels will not given surnames as that would require too much effort, so you ring Apt 1-4 and there is no answer from any. So you toss a coin (twice) and put the “Sorry I missed you” delivery note into Apt 1’s slot.

Often occupiers will disregard numbers entirely. Housing estate houses in gentrified areas often disregard their actual number and adopt a name instead, such as “Maryville”, “Windrush”, “The Gables” and so on.

Housing estate residents often consider their estates so well known that they drop the Road name, so 14 Rath More, Smith Road, Ballybeg, Co Nonsuch becomes 14 Rath More, Ballybeg, Co Nonsuch. Bearing in mind that Ballybeg could have 25+ estates a delivery driver finding himself on Main Street has no idea where the “Rath More” estate is.

Sometimes upon arriving at a house you find there is not letterbox, or that it is tiny (do builders not follow construction guidelines?), some houses don’t even have doorbells.

Ah I have fond memories of my days delivering envelopes and packages, I remember one house that I held on a pedestal. It had a visible number on the pillar, a number above the letterbox itself, and even a plaque reading “J Smith”. I don’t know why Mr Smith found it necessary to put his name on the outside of his house, perhaps he was someone important, but it sure made my job easier.

An Post will never complain about these matters, because their advantage over private sector couriers is in their staff personal knowledge of lcoal areas. An Post will never voluntarily promote postcodes either for this reason.

Advertising

.