The following story would have been amusing if it wasn’t real.

It depicts the growing power social media gained in public opinion, access and usage. Just as much as it can contribute to a firm or individual PR, it can make a nightmare as well.

The story is a simple customer care issue that evolved via social media into an overnight nightmare, goes as follows:

An American guy named Dave Carroll flays United Airlines and in the process his guitar gets damaged in the cargo process. Carroll applies to UA, asks for covering his damage and the company takes few months to reply with a decision. Once they do take the decision it is not other than sorry, but no compensation, in so many words.  

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Retail bankers are letting consumers down,” said Meglena Kuneva, the European commissioner for consumer policy. This statement is published after a survey done by EU commission exposing that EU banks’ transparency and business conduct is much below expected level and is bordering violation of EU laws.

EU banking basic fees were reported to fluctuate from 27 Euros annual fees in Bulgaria, via 46 Euros in the Netherlands and up to 154 in France and 253 in Italy.

The EU report covers prices of various banking fees of 224 banks, accounting for 81% of the EU market.

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Dutch Tax refuses to speak English

To our regret, about two years ago, the Tax authorities in the Netherlands have taken the decision not speak any language than Dutch while speaking to local taxpayers. The decision includes all communication with taxpayers even and especially if the Tax employee is able to express himself in other language.

This one-sided harsh decision was coming as a surprise to most non Dutch speaking people in the Netherlands and has caused a major frustration among individual as well as companies.

The Netherlands is characterized by hosting hundreds of foreign firms and thousands of expatriates living and working locally. Some governmental authorities such as the NFIA are concentrating their efforts on attracting foreign firms to invest in the Netherlands.

Ironically, the same Tax authority that grants the ruling 30% as an incentive to expatriates, is the very same authority that refuses speaking even English with them.
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