Frances Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 Why do people have this fundemental misunderstanding that an organisation requires 'assets' to be worthy of investment? It is the revenue and therefore, the potential profits that are of 'value'. non-tangible 'assets' generally require some form of goverment intervention in the market - here the golden asset is the single user agreement that allows monopoly rents - there is no free market here nor is there any effective control of the monoply rent extracted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snaipyr Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 Moan away! Why the assumption that everyone is moaning - I'm quite happy with the Steam Packet!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smooks Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 Moan away! Why the assumption that everyone is moaning - I'm quite happy with the Steam Packet!! Maybe so but do you ever use it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonnyrotten Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 Although knocking the Racket is a national sport and a frequent opportunity for black humour in these pages, it seems self-evident that it's unrealistic to expect value-for-money service from any commercial organisation operating on a Government-protected monopoly. The temptation to overcharge, with no fear of any financial or legal penalty must be too hard to resist. The proof is in the evidence. There are far too many examples of (non-monopoly) ferry companies all around the British Isles providing similar (and usually better) levels of services at fractions of the Steam Packet prices for anything else to be true. This also rebuts the Racket's continual claim that it needs to charge high prices in order to maintain the level of service demanded in the user agreement. No-one else needs to do anything of the sort, and it can't ONLY be the Isle of Man route which has such enormously high running costs. The experience of freight operators bears this out. It is, I believe, still cheaper to send a container of freight from UK to China than to the Isle of Man. I would be interested to see the mathematics involved in this, but I doubt that our "enquiry" will unearth anything as detailed. In the same way we can expect that there will be all manner of sound reasons why the fuel surcharge should remain in place a year after the price of oil has halved. (Oh yes - it's because the company brilliantly bought futures at the inflated price [i'd like to SEE that contract] and now feels sufficiently protected by its government-granted monopoly to make its customers pay for its own incompetence. While I think an inqury is urgently needed, I'm afraid this one will come out with exactly the same answer as all the others - we've examined the evidence and there's no need to worry - we've discovered that IOMSPC (insert MEA or Mount Murray or he who must not be named etc in this space at your whim) are all jolly nice chaps and it's perfectly reasonable for them to charge you double the going rate for anything they like. Of COURSE a cup of tea on their nice new boat should cost you £2.50, even if it's only £1.75 at the airport. At the moment... Better to save the money wasted on the enquiry and use it to pay the fares for marshals at the MGP and TT. At least it will have been spent on something worthwhile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snaipyr Posted August 22, 2009 Share Posted August 22, 2009 Moan away! Why the assumption that everyone is moaning - I'm quite happy with the Steam Packet!! Maybe so but do you ever use it? Of course - I wouldn't know whether or not I was happy with it if I didn't use it!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snaipyr Posted August 22, 2009 Share Posted August 22, 2009 Had an all through boat/rail return ticket to Preston last week - £64. Great value. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempus Fugit Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 A recent trip on the Ben, reasonable price I would say (some people would spend that on a round of drinks on a saturday night), but the dog area is now half the size it used to be (about 12 seats) and really needs to provide more space for the travelling animals and owners considering it's now £8 per dog per sailing. Had a cabin on the way back and a nice snooze whilst it was rock'n'rolling around, nice new digital flat screen telly with signal all the way to keep you amused (not stuck on an rolling news channel like in the lounges). What really is a rip-off is £1.55 for about 100ml schweppes lemonade to go with a bottle of Italian beer to make a chandy in Pizza Express in Southport, but you only discover it when you look at the chit after you leave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manshimajin Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 This also rebuts the Racket's continual claim that it needs to charge high prices in order to maintain the level of service demanded in the user agreement. No-one else needs to do anything of the sort, and it can't ONLY be the Isle of Man route which has such enormously high running costs. Of course if that is the case they could approach the Government to renegotiate the terms of the UA so that they could offer better value and help stimulate the tourism sector and help reduce 'import' prices to the Island. And pigs might fly too. The UA appears from previous Tynwald reports to be the major source of value in the company for its shareholders. Given that this diminishes a little each year - and a lot when it has less than 10 years to run they have to try and generate better value for the owners through the actual operations. One way is to charge as much as possible for a limited number of users - the Woodward "we are a small market" approach. Increasing costs and probably attempts to remove the Irish service to save money and get rid of one ship. The other way would be to generate less per user but with considerably more users - the EasyJet, Jet2, Ryanair approach. Charge less, cheap but high impact advertisments in the UK and Ireland, maximise on board income, occasional trgeted sales if bookings are low. The former is much easier for the IOMSPC management. The latter would be better for the Island but require more initiative. I still suspect that the company will be sold by the Macquarie fund that owns it well in advance of 2026 which I understand is when the UA was renegotiated to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DjDan Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 Right then, my turn at having a moan. Yesturday I tried booking a ticket online - (the method they actually encourage you to use). Having input all my details etc. the website kept on failing at the final point in which you are able to 'confirm' everything. I tried this a few times, and then gave up! I thought, no problem... I'll call them today. So I call... oh the website is working now! The price has gone up by £15! and when I tell him I tried to book this yesturday, but the website wouldn't allow me to do so... he says, "did you phone up yesturday?". I said no, it was after 8pm, I didn't actually think of phoning up the office at that time of night - assuming it would be closed. He replies, 'well it was open, and as you didn't call up yesturday, you have to pay the full price today. That's company policy'. eh? company policy is to rip us off? (yes, we all know that... but still !!) Why can't they just say, "very sorry about the trouble yesturday, we'll charge you at the price that you were quoted online at the time". But no, they want to get as much money out of us as possible - which they do. So effectively, it's okay for a company to prevent people from using their online booking system, so that when it's working the next day, they can up the prices and make people pay extra! what a joke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manshimajin Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 Why can't they just say, "very sorry about the trouble yesturday, we'll charge you at the price that you were quoted online at the time". So effectively, it's okay for a company to prevent people from using their online booking system, so that when it's working the next day, they can up the prices and make people pay extra! Write to Mark Woodward - there is a contact point on his Word From Woodward blog. Tell him what you think of service and ask if he will put a reply on his next blog entry. Also someone suggested deleting cookies as they suspected that the IOMSPC had a system whereby if the same computer contacted them, as you did, 24 hours later they had a system that upped the price. Sounds a bit too conspiratorial to me - but maybe its worth trying just in case... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheesypeas Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 Had an all through boat/rail return ticket to Preston last week - £64. Great value. [/quote Glasgow to London £16.00 each way. National Express 18 hours round trip. Your fare doesn't really look that great to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snaipyr Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 [/quote Glasgow to London £16.00 each way. National Express 18 hours round trip. Your fare doesn't really look that great to me. At the boat 1 hour before sailing, 4 hours on it, 1 hour waiting at Heysham for train, half an hour at Lancaster for connection to Preston plus time on trains - double it for return journey and I'm catching up with you! I still think everything's a bargain after paying £250 for a one-way foot passenger journey on Eurostar, Paris to Ashford, Kent (one and a half hours!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manshimajin Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 I still think everything's a bargain after paying £250 for a one-way foot passenger journey on Eurostar, Paris to Ashford, Kent (one and a half hours!). Yes indeed! Almost getting to NZ one way for that price (not quite). 1st class? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snaipyr Posted August 25, 2009 Share Posted August 25, 2009 I still think everything's a bargain after paying £250 for a one-way foot passenger journey on Eurostar, Paris to Ashford, Kent (one and a half hours!). Yes indeed! Almost getting to NZ one way for that price (not quite). 1st class? No, definitely not 1st class - and I had my niece with me so I actually paid £500! The alternative was to swim - the cross channel ferries were on strike or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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