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SHRINKFLATION

May 4, 2022 | ECONOMY, ECONOMY, TROUBLES AND BLOWS, TROUBLES AND BLOWS

Shrinkflation is the situation where the price of a product remains the same but its size shrinks.

Unfortunately many products have been affected by shrinkage.

Basically, a clever way to covertly raise prices by downsizing the content.

Many examples are listed in this video by The Wall Street Journal

I had already talked about the disappointment of finding a few cookies in deceptive packages that suggest larger quantities, but here we are facing a procedure for which a complaint has been filed to one hundred and four powers of attorney to ascertain that it is not part of the crime of fraud.

All this fits into a context that raises serious concern: the ISTAT publishes the provisional inflation data in April 2022 equal to 6.2% on a annua, and FAO complaint how world food commodity prices have made a significant leap in March to reach the highest levels ever.

The report Effects and expectations on inflation edited by IPSOS for FederDistribuzione of March 2022 does not reveal anything that we cannot imagine on our own: the main concerns of Italians are employment and the economy, as illustrated by this chart.

With my anxiety I certainly spoil the excess, but you are optimistic, right?

How do you go about purchasing?
Do you notice the weight of the product?
Have you had the opportunity to directly observe any cases of shrinkflation?

WHEN OFFICIAL STORE DOES NOT MATCH QUALITY

Jul 28, 2021 | TROUBLES AND BLOWS

While we are cheering for the athletes at the Olympics, the wave that overwhelmed us with the Azzurri’s triumph at the European Championships has not faded yet.

We all rejoiced, we all felt proud and grateful for the victory that gave us a glimmer of revenge in this long period of loss on all fronts.

Unfortunately, however, not everything that revolves around the team is up to the well-deserved five stars on the pitch.

Below I publish the photos of an official jersey purchased at the FIGC Italia Store

customization has an extra cost.

However, there is no doubt that the shirt, during the number stamping phase, was clearly badly placed on the mold due to hot printing.

This operation, not carried out in the correct way, has irreparably damaged the technical fabric which has an evident flaw.

For heaven’s sake, mistakes happen, but theoretically buying at an official store should match with guarantee.

But the conditional is a must.

Obviously I am not writing random things: I do not publish sensitive data but everything is regular, starting from the order up to the long long list of unheard complaint emails.

Now, it is true that the serious problems are something else and that ones can be happy even with a defective shirt, even if it cost almost 170 euros, but I find that in addition to the curl this jersey also represents a stain.

There is a lot of preaching to defend officialdom, to fight counterfeiting, to support “regular” work, but this does not mean that the customer should not have rights.

The money, requested in advance, had no flaws.

And in any case, at least an apology does not cost anything, even if you are the FIGC.

Since this is one of the injustices that I don’t like at all, since big companies are always strong in the fact that single people can’t have the power to be heard, I wonder what you think.

Maybe you had more luck, like the European champions!

LOST MAIL

Sep 17, 2020 | ITALY, TROUBLES AND BLOWS

5 million fine to Poste Italiane.
te the Guarantor Authority for Competition and the Market verbatim:
This is the maximum amount allowed by law, but it is not deterrent in relation to the specific turnover of Poste Italiane in 2019 of € 3.492 billion. For the Authority, Poste’s behavior causes damage not only to consumers, but also to the country’s justice system.

So anyway a trifle for them.
And only the damage related to the registered letters is taken into consideration, when instead in general the rest of the services do not work …

At the beginning of the year we had a lot of problems, as well as real economic damage, due to the fact that the correspondence for the month of December was not delivered to us.

It may happen that a letter is lost, but all of them!

And these envelopes are still not received today … I imagine them lying in some office stacked waiting to end their days among the paper to be recycled, at best.

Trying to contact customer service is a titanic undertaking, of course now on the sites it is practically impossible, and the email addresses are better hidden than the Holy Grail, in any case I managed to send a complaint with precise data and references.

The answer came to me a long time later as a sheet of paper in the mailbox and was: “it was not us who took care of the delivery of your correspondence but others.”

So what?
And so to put it in simple terms, we can safely put it in the pipe and smoke it, or alternatively hit the pike, at our choice.

So you will forgive me if I don’t feel particularly distressed by this sanction.

I wonder if these rare occasions, which fall like rain in the desert, can really be enough to restore confidence in justice, and to ensure that users do not feel completely abandoned to their fate.

TV YIN OR TV YANG?

Feb 3, 2020 | ITALY, TECHNOLOGY, TROUBLES AND BLOWS

According to the idea that we always should separate into two opposing factions, in Italy it seems to be back to the times of Guelfi and Ghibellini. If you are not on one side, it must mean that you are on the other, (and I wonder WHY), also TV’s are apparently dividing the roles … yes, I know, I’m talking about “dated” devices for the current average duration, even if in reality they aren’t that old.
So at home for example on a TV Mediaset channels are still visible but no longer La7 and others, and vice versa.
From 1st January 2020 DTT channels (digital terrestrial) are going to abandon the current MPEG-2 encoding standard to switch to MPEG-4 which is currently provided by HD channels i.e. in high definition.
But this will only be the first phase: the final transition will end by 2022 and involves the passage to new transmission technologies such as HEVC “High efficiency video coding” which offers better data compression, or DVB-T2 “Digital Video Broadcasting Terrestrial Second Generation ”or regulated to bring the HDTV signal on digital terrestrial.
Why all this?
Because the frequencies which we are using at present must be left free for the 5G network, therefore for mobile communication, ensuring a high connection speed for mobile phones.
What about disabled TVs? We will need a decoder. Again
At this point the question: does television still offer a useful and adequate service?
The programs that do not take sides neither with the Guelphs nor with the Ghibellines to be clear, the serious programs, the programs that make culture or even entertainment that is not the famous “copy of a thousand summaries” are perhaps used on the fingers of one hand .
Considering we already have to pay a tenancy tax by continuing to call it a fee, which is stuck in electricity bills, is it really worth spending more money?
The way we are used to advertise, and I’m not just talking about advertising, honestly, doesn’t it have to be them paying us?

BLOW FOR WHO?

Jan 23, 2020 | ITALY, TROUBLES AND BLOWS

I have read various titles that speak of historical and stave sentences, but the historical sentence is simply as desirable, only that we are no longer used to correctness, to the point that when it is put into practice it makes news; and the sting, on balance, remains on the shoulders of consumers.
I refer to the resolution of Agcom against three large telephone companies that have applied additional costs to users with rechargeable option tariffs, unilaterally modifying existing contracts.
Without getting lost in my slightly labyrinthine speeches, it is certainly better if I mention my husband’s example:
With this extra charge, with the aggravation of the ironic adduction of the “customer distraction”, the telephone companies will have gained by hypothesis 10.
This fine, boasted as exorbitant, for them will represent more or less 2.
However, there is still a gain of 8.
The penalty goes to the state.
Has anyone ever thought of a customer refund?
To truly balance the accounts, companies should return 10, which is what stolen, to users.
And the fine of 2 should be an extra once and for all.
Yeah, but that’s another story …

WHY HAS THE OLD NO LONGER VALUE?

Jan 17, 2020 | TROUBLES AND BLOWS

Old mug or new mug?
If you receive new cups, how do you deal with the old ones? Do you immediately stop using them, put them in the cupboard, do you get rid of them?
I do not do text, I have already described this feature of mine a little out of time.
Anachronistic. True.
And, in general, I find the guidelines originating from the evolution of many procedures increasingly incomprehensible.
For example, I do not understand the policy of the phone companies according to which favorable conditions and reduced costs are offered only to new subscribers.
If you have been a subscriber for years, your rates have risen over time but you cannot have the concessions reserved only for non-customers.
I do not understand why.
Or rather, of course, the reason is always the gain, this is a fact, but the meaning is equally elusive.
So we find ourselves being taken for granted, like the cups of all time, those that do not break, those that have passed decade, fashions and models.
You, who have always paid, for years, are not important, you are there, you’re for granted.
And, even on the day you stop being there, you will only be considered like a lemon to squeeze to the last penny under any pretext: without scruple they will continue to issue invoices to the bitter end, charging any type of cost that can be assumed.
Invoices addressed to a person who has been a customer since the days when telephones first entered homes, gray, with the big wheel and the wire.
Invoices addressed to a deceased person.
But respect is also dead.
Any reference to facts that really happened is by no means casual.

So is it worth continuing to be a new customer?
I’m asking.