Heard this on Radio National’s ‘The National Interest’ yesterday …
‘You know how supermarkets round their prices up, or down, to expunge those pesky one or two cents in the price you have to pay?
Well, Tasmania’s The Advocate newspaper says a State government department is in the habit of rounding down amounts of money it owes members of the public.
For example, $9.21 gets rounded down to… Well, zero!
A Burnie pensioner by the name of Brian Munday sold his car to someone in Queensland, and took his plates to Service Tasmania — that’s the state’s customer-friendly one-stop-shop of government services. Mr Munday was told to expect a refund just short of $10 in the mail.
When no cheque arrived, he contacted the department but was told that refunds under $10 aren’t processed, and that he wouldn’t get anything back.
What’s more, the $9.21 couldn’t be credited to his other vehicle’s registration.
Mr Munday promptly asked this question: “If I get a bill from you for less than $10, does that mean I won’t have to pay it?”. He was told that it doesn’t work like that.’
(transcript and audio on line:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/nationalinterest/stories/2011/3155339.htm )
