Being ripped off!

Who doesn’t know that feeling being ripped off. Mostly you feel it somewhere abroad in a place you are a stranger. And quite often it might be in the situation when you face the bill of the taxi you just took. Thinking once more ‘why did I not ask for the meter?’ or ‘You should have known it.’.

But even more frustrating is it if its happen back home and you should have known it! Had to call my insurance to ask couple of things. One of those 0844 numbers which are always suspicious. The call lasted 9min and 37sec and it cost me 8.46 CHF. Which would be about 0.88 CHF/min for an information hotline of an insurance. Somehow not really a surprise since insurances in general are kind of money business but this!

Anyway, I had to send them a couple of documents later on and mentioned in the same mail my phone bill. Where as the response was that they have no influence on how much they get charged by the line operator. Now, few weeks later I’m writing this and did a short look up on the web and just decided to response to this mail. The swiss government office for communication states on their website that such a number shall be free but not charge more than 0.075 CHF/min. So more than 10 times less!

I can understand if a taxi driver in a developing country might ask you for a little more than locals. I will also tolerate this to a certain point where it becomes obvious that it is a tourist trap. But being ripped off by an insurance its something different.

Edit: On the website of Bakom is mentioned how much the maximum rate would be for land line and a side note that mobile could be charged more. Swisscom -my provider- charges mobile user an additional 0.80 CHF/min for calling such a number! So they rip you off …

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