Mea Culpa …..Or OK It’s My Fault
I had an email late last week from our Social Media Czar (aka Nikkie Yeaman), pointing out that I had not written a blog for 2 plus months and I was falling behind in my intention this year to write at least 1 blog a month. I was surprised on 2 fronts – a) I never thought anyone read them (they probably don’t but Nikkie likes to make sure we have something new up there), b) I thought it was longer than that since I last wrote anything! Knowing you have to write a blog is a bit like knowing you need to replace that inaccessible light bulb, but somehow you just keep putting it off!
So I fell to wondering why I hadn’t been writing anything. There has been a lot going on in the last few months. We’ve had the Directive Review programme – the setting up two working groups – one on the activities of Claims companies and another on reviewing the RDO exit strategies. Also seem to have been putting in fairly regular appearances on BBC R4’s “You and Yours” consumer programme, to such an extent that someone asked recently if I have a regular slot – I wish, but at least it means the BBC are coming to RDO on timeshare and related issues and both these recent programmes were to do with ITRA and Voyager (the latter piece initiated by Alberto Garcia) – so some good team work there. We have also seen the recent return of the TCA – who seem to be pursuing the same line as the late Sandy Grey, only more aggressively looking for claims business? All this is only to be expected as PPI work dries up in the UK and companies look for areas where they can supplement their income. It just means the industry has to be more pro-active and ready to deal with the legacy issues of an ageing ownership demographic.
It has taken me so long to get round to writing this blog, I am now in the second week of the family holiday – the first was taken up with a major amount of RDO work on another matter – more about that later, so hopefully will get a couple of days in before returning to the fray. The encouraging thing is, that I do believe we are getting ahead of the curve now and those companies/operators that we know are causing the most damage to consumers and the industry’s reputation by their activities are in our sights and the evidence is being collected.
For those of you about to take a break, have a good one and for those (like me) for whom it is already fading into the haze – know how you feel!
