Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Unfair business practices

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Unfair business practices

Have you come across any unfair business practice, e.g. excessive charge, hidden fees, non-transparency, onerous penalty. Give details in this survey.

15 comments:

Tan Kin Lian said...: No one has responded to my survey yet. Why?

Are there no examples of bad business practices? Perhaps there are so many examples, that consumers take them to be acceptable practices.

I wish to share some of my examples.

a) My bank wants to charge me $100 to transfer a foreign currency deposit to another account. This is excessive. They might as well charge $1,000.

b) A credit card company wanted to charge $50 for late payment, in addition to the interest charge. Surely this is excessive?; October 14, 2009 7:05 AM
Anonymous said...: Why are we paying TV licenses when they are receiving grants from us taxpayers, and also from advertisers and sponsors.; October 14, 2009 7:39 AM
Anonymous said...: The problem is how to define "unfair"? Isn't it a very subjective and debatable matter, especially where value and money is concerned?

Just like why some are rich and others are poor. Why so unfair?

If we debate it I think there will be no end.; October 14, 2009 11:28 AM
Anonymous said...: How about the 10% service charge levied at restaurants? They do not goes to the service staff, yet they charge us for it. BTW, aren't serving the customers the job of the service staff? Alternatively, allow us to collect our own food from the kitchen, to save the 10% service charge - it will be a nightmare for the restaurant owner!; October 14, 2009 1:38 PM
Anonymous said...: I also opposed to the 10% service charge that restaurants impose. Nowadays, I hardly visit a restaurant anymore.; October 14, 2009 3:05 PM
Vincent Teo said...: You go to a food court and they serve you some unpalatable food and charge you almost double the price compare to most hawker centres and coffeeshop. Sometimes there are places whereby there are no other coffeshop or hawker center in the vicinity (e.g. Tampines Central, Orchard Road), so you are left with no choice.

Granted you do enjoy some air con, but does that warrant the price? So can this be counted as excessive charging?; October 14, 2009 3:23 PM
Tan Kin Lian said...: How to define "unfair"? Use your common sense and judgement. If it cost $0.10 to make an bank transfer, why should it cost $100 to transfer a foreign currency deposit? Is the bank abusing its position?

Why should a credit card charge $50 for a later payment? Already, they are collecting interest at a high rate.

It seems that business can charge any amount that they wish and will make hundred millions of profit. This is ripping off consumers.

We have to speak out against unfair practices, rather than ask "what is unfair"?; October 14, 2009 4:56 PM
Anonymous said...: Why should we pay huge commission to insurance agents for doing nothing and filling up forms on our behalf?
Why isn't there a direct channel where we can buy life insurance products without having to pay for commission?
We don't need agents. They are bump and good for nothing. They are not qualified. They are salesmen and women and koyok pushers.; October 14, 2009 8:00 PM
ALICE said...: Dear Mr Tan,

I am having a very pleasant and smooth experience in placing my funds in foreign currncies both in S'pore and oversea banks.

There are no charges at all when I transfer my foreign currencies from one account to another, e.g.

a) from one FCFD account to another FCFD account of the same bank;
b) from one FCFD account to a FC current account of the same bank;
(above refers to same type of foreign currency); and
c) from one FCFD account to a S'pore dollar account of the same bank (using that day's exchange rate).

The only time when I have to pay charges (remittance fees) is when I request a bank from another country to transfer money to my account in S'pore or vice versa. The remittance fee is like $30 only.

I am not sure if you are transfering one type of foreign currency in an account to another type of foreign currency in another account. If this is the case, then you will need to pay the spread in the buying and selling rates (i.e. converting from one currency to another).

May I know which bank are you refering to? Change to another bank to avoid paying the unnecessary charges. So far, I never had to pay for transfer charges, as long as they are of the same foreign currency and transfer to my own accounts.; October 14, 2009 9:45 PM
Tan Kin Lian said...: Hi Alice
I cannot tell you the name of the bank that overcharges for the transfer. They will sue me for defamation.

Maybe, you can disclose the name of your bank that charges lower fees.; October 15, 2009 6:34 AM
Anonymous said...: I have written to the IRAS to raise my shock to see GST being levied on the Water Borne Tax in our utility billings. A tax levied on another tax? The reply was that the Water Borne Tax was part of consumption, and thus need to be subjected to GST. How ridiculous.; October 15, 2009 7:01 AM
Anonymous said...: Good Grief!

I can't believe Annonymous (11.28am). You even need Tan Kin Lian to tell you what is unfair!!

Whether something is fair or unfair is decided by "society".

That's why democracy works so much better with an active citizenry, lively political parties and an inquisitive press.

If you want to live in a democracy, you cannot wait for "higher ups" to tell you what is fair or unfair. Your action or inaction will determine what is fair or unfair.

So different societies will have different acceptable standards of right and wrong and fairness.

We inherited the English legal system.

History Lesson (Source Wikipedia)
---------------

The essence of English common law is that it is made by judges sitting in courts, applying their common sense and knowledge of legal precedent (stare decisis) to the facts before them.

For example, there is no statute making murder illegal.

It is a common law crime - so although there is no written Act of Parliament making murder illegal, it is illegal by virtue of the constitutional authority of the courts and their previous decisions.

Common law can be amended or repealed by Parliament; murder, by way of example, carries a mandatory life sentence today, but had previously allowed the death penalty.; October 15, 2009 7:42 PM
Vincent Sear said...: Many people seem to think that insurance agents are paid very high commissions for filling in forms. That's not true. They're paid for making the sales, convincing the clients to buy insurance. People do walk into banks and make deposits, the tellers do perform form-filling services. Drivers do buy motor vehicle insurance, they're compelled to by law. But life insurance is still sold, not bought, i.e. the agent makes the effort to reach out to the client to prospect for business, sit and wait for the client to walk in.; October 15, 2009 10:43 PM
Vincent Sear said...: Correction:

Many people seem to think that insurance agents are paid very high commissions for filling in forms. That's not true. They're paid for making the sales, convincing the clients to buy insurance. People do walk into banks and make deposits, the tellers do perform form-filling services. Drivers do buy motor vehicle insurance, they're compelled to by law. But life insurance is still sold, not bought, i.e. the agent makes the effort to reach out to the client to prospect for business, instead of sit and wait for the client to walk in.; October 15, 2009 11:39 PM
Anonymous said...: Vincent,
there is where hell breaks loose.
Because of the need to sell and convince, the insurance agents have gone overboard , performing non financial works. Whatever they perform, they don't deserve the high commission they receive because they DON"T add value to the financial life of the consumers.Form filling is among the many things that are non financial.
Because insurance is not bought but sold how can the agents justify product pushing in the fact find form? The consumers are prospected and hunted and haunted and yet the insurance agents claim in the fact find forms that their customers 'want to buy' this and that product that 'meets' their 'needs'.
The truth is insurance agents have no intention of helping the cleints but themselves. The agents already know what products to sell
even before they meet the clients. They have sixth sense and know the 'needs' of their victims.
The only solution is remove the commission from all products and let's hear what tune the agents will sing.Now there are only 2 tunes , wholelife and endowment and they can cure all illnesses.

Is it a wonder why Singaporeans are under insured after so many decades of 'noble' insurance selling by the noble 'profession' and by the 'noble' insurance agents??
The truth is all this while the buying public have been taken for a ride with the collaboration and blessing of MAS.; October 16, 2009 9:35 AM