Brightspark Moves Overseas?
June 08, 2004
As the first birthday of Brightspark approaches I'm really very excited to mention that I had a meeting with a UK based company last week to discuss how Brightspark can help them to achieve results for their site. They were referred to me by an Irish company that excels at what it does and was talking to Brightspark about how they can really start to profit online using their website.
Speaking of profiting - it's no surprise that the banks in this country are in disgrace. I moved my bank accounts from BOI to AIB in March, largely due to the fact that BOI makes no distinction in how it charges you for the 'service' you receive. So I was paying the same for using the internet as someone who demands to see a bank manager!! Also, BOI doesn't have a great many branches on the northside of Dublin so I was finding it hard to deposit the many cheques that flow to Brightspark.
Anyway, I moved banks and was surprised to receive a bill for €100 from BOI. Without any request from myself, they took it upon themselves to issue me with some new credit cards, and yet their credit card services department had no working phone lines for the past couple of weeks. Not only that, but the government charge which they levy on 1 April somehow found itself charged to my account in May - 11 months early. I wonder if they would have charged me again in April? And also, the bank continued to pay out on a direct debit mandate that has now been cancelled 3 times. All of that and the levied a charge for the use of Business Online, the BOI business internet offering which isn't available for Mac users, ie. me. But they still charged me for it.
I just spent 40 minutes sorting this out. I agree with Conor from Stephens Green BOI branch that this "really is a complete fuck-up". True. At least some people in Bank of Ireland speak the truth.