Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Monopolies, you just gotta hate them

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Monopolies, you just gotta hate them

    Okay, so I'm sitting at work (for a company that is almost dead anyway) and are opening the mail of the day, including one from our local and only gas supplier here in Hamburg, EON Hanse. And I am delighted to read that those guys think that we have used so much gas last winter that they feel it appropriate to raise our monthly payment from €200 to €540, and demand a back payment of €3600! Needless to say, we are all p!ssed big time now. As if there weren't enough roadblocks in our way already . We are now seriously contemplating dropping them and going old school by burning wood to heat our rooms. Monopolies s+ck a$$ .


  • #2
    Sorry to hear about that. We have a monopoly here too on fuel, but luckily for us they keep the prices decent. Do go for wood though, they produce more BTUs, and it is usually cheaper. Where I work(a lumber store), we heat on cold days with a woodstove, and it works very well. Some might even say too well, that is if you have to work up stairs.
    You've got to try to find what's right before your eyes-Finger Eleven


    Comment


    • #3
      ^^That's what we are planning to do as well, but then of course you have dozens of regulations to follow, on how much you can burn and how much smoke you are allowed to produce, yadda yadda yadda. We'll just have to be careful, and we still have a few trees on property that we could burn .

      Comment


      • #4
        Unwanted relatives work well on fireplaces
        Sam Rudge
        A 5D3, some Canon lenses, the Sigma L and a flash

        Comment


        • #5
          Regulations suck(sometimes) I think if our store was in Europe we would have been fined a long time ago

          Originally posted by Simpleboy
          Unwanted relatives work well on fireplaces
          ...And siblings Maybe even exes.
          You've got to try to find what's right before your eyes-Finger Eleven


          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Alaska Air Rules
            Regulations suck(sometimes) I think if our store was in Europe we would have been fined a long time ago
            Depends on the country . In Eastern or Southern Europe, you'd be subsidized, in Germany you would have long been shut down.

            Comment


            • #7
              Colin, what exactly does the company you work for do? And what do you do there?
              Sam Rudge
              A 5D3, some Canon lenses, the Sigma L and a flash

              Comment


              • #8
                The company I work for, Supreme Office Supply, is a printer supply delivery service, kind of like pizza delivery, only that we deliver cartridges and toners. And I'm working, if you can actually call it that, as a delivery driver/shop salesman.

                And as a side note, this lack of work at work is one of the main reasons why I'm so overly active these days on here , there's simply nothing else to do.
                Last edited by DAL767-400ER; 2006-07-18, 09:45.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Sad to hear that. The gas prices are a big problem nowadays. Two years ago in Toronto I payed 0.80 cents for a liter. Today it was as high as $1.15 CAN for a liter... In Poland gas price is more than 4.50 pln (which is like $2.25 CAN). I mean ti woukld be ok if people were earnign enought money but it often is not. What is scarry is that if we have another situation like i.e. a Gulf war then the gas prize will go hiiiiiigh.....

                  I hope the gas pirze goes down as it's a real pain in a butt when you have to buy gas every second day...
                  Good luck with your company

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Just to be clear, I am not referring to gas(oline), but rather gas(=air) . But since one price is tied to the other anyway (supposedly at least), it's not that much of a difference.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      we have a monoply for our cable. Comcast is such a rip off. They overcharge on cable TV and internet. I have to say their internet is pretty good at around 8mbps I think??? but its 55$ a month for internet and Tv is around 75$. Our cable is such a joke. We pay for HDTV broadcasting and all the channels are distorted and skip like crazy. well what can u do.. DSL sux.


                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Colin, maybe if you changed the business model for your business you would have something to do. For instance internet sales might be an idea, maybe get a monopoly or something going.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Monopolies? Try Indian Railways. They are the ONLY rail carrier in India, and I hope I live until the government lets some healthy competition...

                          that said, electricity/heating costs are skyrocketing here too. We don't have a monopoly, but when every company sends out "to serve you better, we are raising our rates by 5%" letters, then you wonder why there are so many companies in the first place. The commodity that IS a monopoly is water, and its cost is getting ridiculously high. Our sewage bill is greater than our water bill, but the same (govt) authority provides both so they combine the bill. Pricks.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by ATLcenter
                            Monopolies? Try Indian Railways. They are the ONLY rail carrier in India, and I hope I live until the government lets some healthy competition...
                            That didn't quite work in Britain - axing a monopoly from one day to the other isn't a solution either, at least in most cases.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by aloges
                              That didn't quite work in Britain - axing a monopoly from one day to the other isn't a solution either, at least in most cases.
                              RANT
                              Yea, but good God! The infrastructure is crap, every place is dirty, and the amenities are without fail revolting. I love travelling by non-A/C trains, standing on the footboard while cutting through the South of India, but some things just have to go. I've always felt if IR had some competition- even on some routes, things could go so much better.

                              IR has it own track guage which makes it impossible to import coaches from abroad. So no German coaches, etc unless they are custom made for India- that's bull and it shouldn't be that way. Mumbai is supposed to get a Metro like the Delhi Metro. The head of the project recently proposed building it in international guage, but NO! IR wants it to be built on the Indian guage a la the Delhi Metro. We'll have to see how BOM fairs with their Metro...

                              Seriously, try putting other train lines on Mumbai-Delhi or Chennai-Delhi routes and see what could happen. For many years, Indian aviation was IC and AI. And now? It has boomed thanks to 9W, S2, and so on. IR is the same way- it has no motive to keep high standards because there is competition. Don't like IR? Fine. Take a bus (2x time) or fly (5x cost)!

                              And I'm no IR hater either- as I said, I love dirty water cutlets and standing on footboards of moving trains. Hell, getting out of western A/C trains is sometimes a pleasure, but sometimes things need to be modernised. IR gave up on steam locomotives in the 1990s; they can give up on non-A/C coaches eventually!

                              END RANT

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X