TELECONS

We blogged the other day about the demise of our blackberry trackball. It had a terminal fur ball.
Essentially Telecom's "authorised dealer" was going to charge us $250 to replace and fit a new roller ball. The phone is out of warranty but they refused to supply the drop and load trackball kit. and it would take a week.

We smelled a con. And we were right. We paid $20 including post and package from Arwel in Porirua on Trade Me.Turn around time to get the replacement parts - 48 hours.
Time to take out old bit and put in new bits - 45 seconds - yip you read it right - 45 seconds

It works a treat.

So we will be ringing Telecom tomorrow for some answers.

We will blog in due course.

NZX - COMMAND AND CONTROL ?

We like Cactus think that there is a fair degree of whiffiness about the purchase of CountryWide Rural publishing by NZX. Yesterday we put up a post about the concerns Australian regulators are having over the merging of advertorial and editorial, the greying of the media. Trans Tasman is asking ComCom to take a look a the purchase.

Fran O'Sullivan has done a very considered piece on the NZX media purchase but she too wants ComCom to take a look at just what they are on about after leaked memo indicates that NZX is heading towards " world dominance" of rural information.

We think that the last few paragraphs of this story are the most pertinent. Fran asked Weldon if the new stable of publications would have editorial independence - of course says Weldon. Then she asked him about the feisty Alan Robb who has written some pithy articles in Diary Exporter about Fonterra and NZX's wimpy attitude to some disclosure issues.

""One intriguing factor is that NZX Rural will now own NZ Dairy Exporter, which has published some vigorous articles by accountancy expert Alan Robb questioning why the exchange did not compel Fonterra to restate its recent interim accounts to directly marry up with the 2007 financial year interim result.

Robb has taken a gutsy approach on this score.

Weldon maintains that Fonterra disclosed the nature of the changes to the market, and the NZX had communicated with the co-op and was comfortable that there was sufficient disclosure to meet the needs of bond investors.

Herald: "Would the exchange protect the editorial integrity of its publications?"

Weldon: "The answer to that is, without question, yes. There is, I have to say, a fair degree of disappointment from myself and internally that we've got this person Alan Robb whom we now pay who apparently has issues with presuming what our level of integrity about editorial is."

Speaks volumes.""

Yip we agree, ComCom needs to have a look and it reiterates our point in running the post about the merging of editorial and advertising. If Weldon doesn't get it then he has no business buying an independent media stable.

RODNEY GETS MORE RESPONSIBLITY

Yip and as if Rodney doesn't have enough to do already. Key obviously has much faith from the boy from Rangiora.

According to the NBR Rodney is now in charge of the Commerce Commission. And Paula is back. And the Fox is in the Chicken House.

What does all this mean for big business?

And who will Rodney put on the Commission - well we reckon that they will be very business friendly.

HUMOUR FROM THE HUMOURLESS

The Commerce Commission shows some rare wit today as it warns consumers about the vagaries of on line IQ quizes...

Commerce Commission Director of Fair Trading, Adrian Sparrow said, “Many complainants felt misled about this continuing text subscription. However, if terms and conditions are clearly displayed on the website, as is the case on the sites the Commission has examined, it is really a matter for the consumer to make an informed decision.”

“If you want to check your IQ, the first test you should pass is knowing to read the terms and conditions and fully understand what you are entering into,” said Mr Sparrow.

Funny thing is we have worked with Mr Sparrow and we never thought he was capable of such dry toast wit.

Hat tip NBR

TIME TO REVIEW THE COMMERCE COMMISSION

While we agree with the need for a body to keep everyone in the commercial world on the straight and narrow - oppressive picky police state crap needs to be reigned in. Comcom's performance over the Shell fuel additive issue is woeful. It has taken ComCom two years to investigate the Shell fuel additive issue- meantime the Advertising Standards Authority chucks out a complaint by rival BP - ( funny that ) over the same issue - their inquiry takes less than a month and the venerable institution of consumer protection Fair Go gets AA to do a trial and finds that the claims that Shell makes about its fuel stack up. So why is ComCom spending tens of thousands of dollars investigating a complaint that everyone else has seen fit to dump?

Makes you wonder who made the complaint. And Why?
Now we are Blonde but even we get it.
Shell has made a bold move by stepping up and standing up for its product. Bloody good on the Dutchies we say - Go buy Shell.

And National needs to reign in CommComm chair Paula Rebstock. No more spurious nanny state crap.

wonderful side show - but bigger fish to fry.

The Owen Glenn donation saga has been a wonderful side show to the main game and thats corruption.

Winston will be sacked - either late tonight or tomorrow depending on when the vote for the ETS legislation is taken.

All the Glenn privileges saga has shown is that Winston is a liar.

The Serious Fraud office and the police and the electoral commission will prove corruption.

A couple of predictions - it will emerge that Philip Vela has been running the whole show.

So what did Winston do to piss the big guy off. Or was Vela just sick of a Labour government and wanted a change and just felt like seeing if he could make it happen?

You see Vela was well known in the seafood industry for being a power broker -

He was one of the most influentual members of what was known as the G10 - a group that existed but didn't - because COMMCOMM could have had a go at them for collusionary practicies.

And while the heat of the next few days will be centred around the donations scandal , it is to be hoped that the paper trail indicates what we all knew a few years back - and that was Winnie got cash for changing the course of the scampi inquiry.


So this saga wont just stop with the resignation of Winston Peters - it has only just started...