The Telcos at it again...profiteering off the back of deceptive practices

Colin of Brisbane has had a nasty experience with a large telco through their outrageous policies with Smartphone data usage charges. Read on and be forewarned -

We routinely manage our girls mobile phone usage by allowing them a prepaid limit each month. We bought our eldest girl one of the recent http:\\CatchOTheDay.com.au LQ smartphones with the intent of her using the web facilities only through Wifi. On inserting the prepaid SIM and before we figured out how to turn off 3G-data, by simply loading a Welcome website, this used 560kb data, *** BARELY HALF A MEGABYTE *** ... for that luxury - Telstra ripped us off $12.32!
That is INSANE daylight robbery! I can get an entire 1GB data block for $15 or 5GB from my landline ISP for the same amount!

Brisbane Convention Centre Parking Rip Off

Anyone recently parked at the Brisbane Convention Centre at Southbank?

Well hey I did last week to attend a travel expo after work. I drove into the car park at the Convention Centre at 6.30pm on a Thursday evening and departed just after 7.30pm and was charged $14 for the privilege. Can you believe the proprietors of this car park charge a flat rate of $14 per exit (within a 24 hour period). What planet do they think we are on? $14 for one hours parking in West End is just outrageous!! Avoid this car park whenever possible!!

Why have I created "Brisbane Rip Offs" blog?

I have started this blog out of sheer frustration.

I was born and raised in Queensland and aside from 5 years in Melbourne between 2003 and 2007 have lived in Brisbane for 40 years. During this time I have seen Brisbane grow from a large country town full of hope and aspiration to a large bustling city whose keepers see opportunity at every juncture to strip its residents of its hard earned cash.

Brisbane is now the third largest city in Australia and is touted to be the second largest in the next 20 years. However, this prediction may be reviewed given the spiralling cost of living, the spate of recent disasters, and the lack of public infrastructure to support the burgeoning population.

Sure, Brisbane has become famous for its great weather and quality of life. Infamously, it is quickly becoming one of the most expensive places to live on the planet. Residents of South East Queensland are now at their wits end with escalating rents, petrol prices, utilities, food, entertainment and public transport costs.

South East Queensland residents are at breaking point. We are at the point where we are all numb to the all too regular affront of our political leaders with their schemes to save us from ourselves through the implementation of another tax, levy or government charge. Of course this has a direct effect on our hip pockets but it also has a knock on effect in every aspect of our daily lives.

Sure, Queensland has grown at a rapid rate. But this has not come about as a surprise. Our political leaders have been promoting Brisbane and Queensland to our southern neighbours for years. The government (both local and state) and have been happy to suck the cash out of the growing numbers of residents and businesses for the past 15 years but have had no vision to reinvest this cash bonanza into our failing and ageing infrastructure and services. Now we are paying the price for this blatant incompetence. Our state is 80 Billion dollars in debt, we have lost our AAA credit rating and its residents are frustrated with the spiralling cost of living and failing quality of life.

So, enough of stating the obvious. My reason for creating this blog is borne out of my desire to make public the outrageous and disgusting rip offs (both government and business) people in Brisbane and South East Queensland are being forced to endure on a daily basis. These rip offs normally go unrevealed with the victims having little chance of recourse or opportunity to voice their disgust.

My wish is this blog will be a bipartisan means for people to share some of the worst cases of 'rip off' with their friends and colleagues and in turn use people power to name and shame the perpetrators.

If you know of a 'rip off', either government, corporate or privately instigated, please let me know so we can share this with the people of this great state and perhaps change the habits of the scoundrels who have gotten away with too much for too long.