CUNNING WHEEZES

[Tizer]

Some of you might remember me telling how Bridgwater council knocked down the swimming baths in the centre of town a few years ago so that Tesco could build a superstore. The council had promised residents that they'd build a new baths first but they reneged and demolished first, built later and the town ended up with the new baths on the edge of town, much less convenient to reach. Now what a surprise, in those years Tesco dawdled and there was bickering about the site and now they've announced they've scrapped the plan altogether. Why do I put this in the Cunning Wheezes thread? It now emerges that Tesco managed to get the council to give them £20,000 `towards planning'! I doubt the council will get anything back.

[Stanley]

Those were the days when Tesco was unstoppable and the hope for the future in retailing. Things are looking a bit different now.... Could be that reality has hit and the original business model is obsolete. The job of the CW departments is to fight against this trend and as we have seen, as soon as they announce cuts the markets flock to support them....

[Tripps]

Cunning wheeze - spin - weasel words? You decide.

"Following recent trials, from 9 February we will be asking myWaitrose members who wish to enjoy their free tea or coffee in one of our Cafés to also purchase a treat - such as a sandwich, cake, biscuit or piece of fruit. This change will enable us to continue to offer our customers the enjoyable service they expect"

[Stanley]

Whatever... It's a rather unctuous sales ply.
The repeated attacks on Labour by the Tories intrigues me. On the whole, more negative than Labour, one would think they were throwing up a smoke screen. A cunning wheeze but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.

[Tizer]

The Waitrose ploy is to get people to use the cafe by offering the free drink then rack up the conditions to make sure they still make a profit out of you. I would buy something I want from the store (e.g. packet of biscuits) then go and ask for my free drink - when they tell you to purchase a `treat' say you've already done so and show them the biscuits. You could even offer the salesperson a free biscuit to shame them!

[Stanley]

Which food company made the holiday offer and then had to renege on it? Cunning wheezes can backfire.

[Stanley]

TESCO See this link for trouble brewing in the Tesco cunning wheezes department.... About time too!

[Stanley]

Worth flagging up that all cunning wheezes aren't bad. We all use them. Any good examples?

[Tizer]

The trouble with identifying Tesco's cunning wheezes is that you don't know which are CWs and which are down to simple incompetence and poor staff training!

[Stanley]

True, and I expect many of the mistakes we hear radio announcers and journalists making stem from the same source.

[Stanley]

Donate 'free advisers' to politicians so that they can influence affairs from the inside.

[PanBiker]

Just received what purports to be an email from Paypal. It does not have my email address in the header but has been sent to my inbox. It supposedly confirms a payment made for Skype subscription services to the tune of £68.49. There is a link at the bottom to instigate a query supposedly with Paypal if I think there has been an error.

I do have a Paypal account which at the present has a zero balance as I am not currently selling on Ebay. I have made various small purchases From Ebay and paid using my Paypal account as single transactions from my instant access account. Paypal and Ebay go hand in hand as they are the same company.

I have checked my transactions and all are as expected, but I wonder how many people will fall for this spoof and chase up via the link, probably confirming all their card numbers and personal information.

[Stanley]

There is a rash of these phishing emails on the web purporting to be from Talktalk at the moment. Got a call yesterday from 'Lancashire County Council', as if.... Even if it was them I wasn't interested in helping them so I told the thick Indian accent lady no thank you..... My life will not collapse round my ears!

[Tizer]

Every few months I get emails purporting to be from Paypal telling me things like your message does, Ian...but I don't have a Paypal account. Banks always say they will never contact customers by email to tell them of fraudulent activity or to query unusual transactions. They say they would always contact by telephone. I don't know if Paypal/Ebay follows that policy or not. If they don't, then they are contributing to the problem.

[PanBiker]

Both Paypal and Ebay have both buyer and seller protection guarantees, different models of course as although its the same company the purposes of each are different. Paypal will not hold you liable for unauthorised purchases on your account should they occur similar to the credit card companies. They also uphold the same policy as the banks regarding contact.

[Stanley]

One thing that bugs me is the transaction charge my bank makes when cashing a US$ cheque. I get a trickle of royalty charges from Lulu. Normally they pay every month and the payments are so small that the bank charge would eat it all up. I asked Lulu to change it to annual reimbursement and they did, No problems at all, I get a paper cheque in the mail every year and though small the proportion gobbled up by the bank is less in proportion. I have an idea that this is a good little earner for the bank, they do a digital transaction and charge you for the old-fashioned physical method....

[PanBiker]

I still cant get my head round why the Yorkshire wont accept a building society cheque for payment of a bill, it's guaranteed money or the BS would not issue it?

[Tizer]

Ian, they don't want to receive money as cheques but they like to use them when they have to give you money because it lets them hold onto it longer.

Stanley, in the 1990s when we started our business I contacted the London branch of a big US bank and said I wanted an account with them so that I could deposit US dollar cheques and then withdraw the money as UK sterling without incurring a currency exchange charge. They thought I was mad to expect such a thing. I pointed out that the exchange was all `in-house' for them, they can shift `value' from the UK to the US subsidiary and vice versa. His response was "We can't do that" which I think translates as "We don't want to do that, we'd miss out on a cunning wheeze to make money".

[Whyperion]

I donated my USD cheques/money orders to an international charity- told them to send them to their US office!

As much as I dislike paypal it did have the advantage of dealing with foreign currency transactions much better than banks, US banks systems are quite poor (or built on USA govt paranoia I can never work out which), compared with UK Faster Payments/BACS/Chaps and credit card transaction. Mind you HSBC was the worst on trying to pay bills to HK from the UK, it was easier and cheaper to use a third party payment agent, ridiculous for a supposed international bank, and for internet reports they could only max out 200 transactions a day downloads, (despite being able to feed their end of month statement run all 300+ transactions on a daily summary- neatly printed in reverse order to the daily download. Wheeze or incompetance I don't know.

[Stanley]

I got advice from Peter on Cat World for my mates in the US who are migrating and want to bring their cats in. They were told they had to use a broker at $600 a cat. Roger thought this sounded like a scam so he followed Peter's advice. Here's the email exchange this morning. As he says, it looks like a cunning wheeze...

Dear Stanley,
Yesterday I called the Pet helpline and spoke with a very helpful person, who explained to me that people always use brokers. The reason is that the cats arrive at Heathrow, but the office that gives the final OK is located in Manchester. I was told that the paperwork at Heathrow is straightforward but the hitch is the Manchester office. It seems to me the people at Heathrow could fax the forms to Manchester for final approval, but no. This, however, basically what the broker does. Someone has a sweet deal going here. Best, Roger

My reply: Hard luck Kid! Welcome to the world of outsourced UK! We have a topic on Omeguy called Cunning Wheezes. it will get posted on there.... Of course you could always abandon the cats...... Love S.

[Tizer]

About 8 days ago I placed an order with Amazon for 10 small, unrelated items, all different, each worth no more than a few pounds, all on their `Free Super Saver' delivery and all `delivered direct from Amazon'. I use the free delivery method frequently and often get the items very quickly, normally through Royal Mail. This time I heard nothing from them, then I received a letter in the post trying to get me to sign up to their Amazon Prime paid delivery scheme. I didn't blink and waited for the free delivery...now I'm receiving individual email messages, one for each item, telling me they are being dispatched and giving a delivery date. So far I've had five messages, and they tell me that one item will arrive today, two on Tuesday, one on Friday and one next Saturday. I don't know when the other five will arrive. I'm sure this is a cunning wheeze to try and grind me down and get me enlisted in Amazon Prime.

[Marilyn]

I had similar angst with Ancestry certificates, Tizzy.
Paid the £8 extra for early electronic delivery ( 10 day) and got an email Thursday saying it was ready to send ( and that they would indeed email it as soon as the paper copy was poted). Was hoping someone might push the send button before the four day Easter break, but of course, it never happened. So I can't see my £8 extra electronic copy arriving much before the snail mail copy.
Will save my £8 next time...

[plaques]

all on their `Free Super Saver' delivery and all `delivered direct from Amazon'.

I got suckered into a Prime delivery. This was supposed to end automatically after one month. Fortunately I spotted the debit of £79 for the year and cancelled it. It was cancelled and the debit returned less the previous postage. You must do this within the first month. . Make absolutely sure you state that you don't want to sign up to Prime.

[Tizer]

I always take care to avoid it when buying from Amazon but they make it easy to tick by mistake and there must be many who join inadvertently. Mind you, Ebay are much more devious at trying to get me to sign up for Paypal.

EDIT at 17.00: I'd mentioned in my original message earlier today about the Amazon order that I'd had "five messages, and they tell me that one item will arrive today, two on Tuesday, one on Friday and one next Saturday." Well I've had two today, in separate packages, and both delivered by Royal Mail, and I've had more messages. The delivery dates so far are:
Estimated delivery date: Saturday, April 04, 2015
Estimated delivery date: Tuesday, April 07, 2015
Estimated delivery date: Tuesday, April 07, 2015
Estimated delivery date: Thursday, April 09, 2015
Estimated delivery date: Saturday, April 11, 2015
Estimated delivery date: Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Estimated delivery date: Monday, April 20, 2015

[Stanley]

I agree with you about Prime which is far more than simply an alternative delivery service. Despite my eyes being so bad I have managed to avoid their clutches so far! This trend towards trying to lock clients in by contract is spreading and I resist it every time. Talk talk will give me no end of goodies at a cheaper rate if I resign for their new service. The reason why I am targeted is because I am out of contract and refuse to budge from my original package which suits me fine. I was reckoning up the other day and realised that the total cost of all my access to the web, email, and telephone calls each month is less that I used to pay for a Guardian each weekday and an Observer at weekend....
I have a natural antipathy to 'special offers', there's no such thing as a free lunch..... Even a BOGOF in the Cathedral of Choice has a cost but in that case borne by the manufacturer or supplier.