On 31st January, I traveled by overnight ferry from Birkenhead to Belfast - fare, 40 pounds, to include a dinner in the evening and breakfast the next morning. On February 3rd, I returned - fare 40 pounds, but "as from 1st February we no longer include dinner and breakfast in this fare" - and dinner is priced at 14.95, breakfast at 8.95.

The crossing was booked with DFDS Seaways, who's name in on the outgoing boarding card. But their operation has been bought by Stena, who's name is on the return boarding card. So Stena now operate all the Belfast boats - to Heysham and Stranraer, as well as to Birkenhead. And having a monopoly on the route, I guess there's nothing to stop them charging 63.90 on Thursday for the same product that DFDS charged 40 pounds for on Monday.

I was handed a piece of paper at checking that tells me that the Office of Fair Trading is looking into the takeover, and that Stena are only doing limited integration of the businesses prior to their report. Bookings, for example, are to continue through the DFDS website for the moment. It strikes me that all the Stena have all the advantages for them (such as price rises now that they have a near monopoly) already, but they're leaving customer advantages (such as the ability to book out one route and back another) until the OFT reports. Could it just be that this is somewhat manipulative - by the time the OFT reports it'll be far to late to unravel the routes, and if the OFT objects they would just be seen to be blocking the advantages that customers could gain?

Not my 'battle' this one - but prices rising 60% within the week takes the biscuit!

(written 2011-02-04, updated 2011-02-10)

 Z521 - Navigable waterways - Canals, Rivers and Sea
  [598] Should we cruise around the world? - (2006-02-09)
  [708] Linescapes of Mull - (2006-05-03)
  [776] Naming Rooms - (2006-06-24)
  [793] The Wilts and Berks Canal - (2006-07-05)
  [820] Robert and William Whitworth - (2006-08-01)
  [1657] Farewell, Newcastle to Stavanger, Haugsund and Bergen - (2008-05-29)
  [1986] Walk to Bowerhill - (2009-01-10)
  [2588] Freddies Wood and the K and A Canal - (2010-01-17)
  [2730] Bird Watching on the Melksham Avon - (2010-04-18)
  [2796] Sunday - waiting for the ferry. - (2010-06-06)
  [2807] Canal through Melksham - the options and issues - (2010-06-13)
  [2950] Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, turns first sod in Melksham Link Canal - (2010-09-09)
  [3023] Autumn walk from Bowerhill - (2010-10-31)
  [3183] Redevelopment on the banks of the Avon in Melksham - (2011-02-25)
  [3266] Easter on the Canal - near Melksham, Wiltshire - (2011-04-26)
  [3282] The future of canal management and charities - Kennet and Avon Canal bias - (2011-05-08)
  [3345] Cruising - (2011-07-04)
  [3482] Taking a boat down Caen Hill Locks - (2011-10-15)
  [3483] Canals, watererways in the Melksham area - (2011-10-16)
  [3815] The Melksham News - July 2012 - Part 2, TransWilts Rail, Wilts and Berks Canal - (2012-07-23)
  [3998] Travelogue - from the Netherlands to London via Hook and Harwich - (2013-02-07)
  [4472] Rosslare to Fishguard - foot passenger on the ferry - (2015-04-24)
  [4577] An update - Melksham Link Canal and river - (2015-11-14)

G502 - Well House Consultants - Business Practice
  [15] 90 to 10 or 80 to 20 rule - (2004-08-15)
  [27] Sales technique - (2004-08-25)
  [68] Get the strategy worked out and the tactics just fall into place. - (2004-09-30)
  [77] Telephone systems - (2004-10-07)
  [88] Getting the right level of trainer - (2004-10-14)
  [95] Five red flags - (2004-10-21)
  [108] A typical morning - (2004-11-03)
  [121] Fair and Simple - (2004-11-17)
  [125] Staff theft - (2004-11-21)
  [129] Trawling our site to prevent student copying - (2004-11-24)
  [137] Certification schemes - (2004-12-02)
  [157] Automatic service upgrades - (2004-12-19)
  [180] Skunk works - (2005-01-17)
  [188] Pink elephant and appreciation - (2005-01-24)
  [200] Tips for the top - (2005-02-03)
  [211] Look after your staff and they'll look after you. AOL. - (2005-02-12)
  [217] Use of time - (2005-02-16)
  [226] Growing our systems - (2005-02-24)
  [297] A reminder that the customer is King - (2005-05-01)
  [321] Sales - the alternative close - (2005-05-23)
  [399] simplicity hides real size - (2005-07-31)
  [438] Fair system for travel and accommodation expenses - (2005-09-07)
  [457] Do the work and take the risk - a PHP contract to avoid - (2005-10-06)
  [467] Tell them three times - (2005-10-17)
  [487] On line course booking - credit card protection - (2005-11-06)
  [491] Being atypical is typical - (2005-11-10)
  [536] Cancellations and penalties - (2005-12-21)
  [626] Not just a pretty face to answer the phone. - (2006-02-26)
  [652] Morning Post - (2006-03-20)
  [664] Ruby course - oops - it's not happening - (2006-04-01)
  [766] Discounts and approved supplier lists - (2006-06-17)
  [808] Sales call - (2006-07-19)
  [849] Staff Meeting - (2006-08-30)
  [869] UNABLE TO ATTEND - (2006-09-16)
  [883] Age discrimination law - (2006-10-01)
  [906] A commitment we won't be making - (2006-10-27)
  [1057] Selling by phone and Skype - our policy - (2007-01-30)
  [1084] Writing terms and conditions for conferences and other events - (2007-02-17)
  [1133] B-2-B Networking, 20th April. Useful for YOUR business? - (2007-04-03)
  [1157] Speed Networking - a great evening and how we arranged it - (2007-04-21)
  [1165] Extended Credit request - train in June and be paid in September - (2007-04-27)
  [1243] Heavy duty hole punch - (2007-06-24)
  [1260] An inspirational business talk from one of our prospective MPs - (2007-07-06)
  [1263] 0800 043 8225 - a new phone number for Well House - (2007-07-10)
  [1319] Customer feedback - lifeblood of a business - (2007-08-25)
  [1342] Google, wwmdirectory, Freshwater, ATP - new scam? - (2007-09-09)
  [1373] New Month, New Quarter, New Laws - (2007-10-01)
  [1394] Business to Business Networking - North and West Wilts / Melksham - (2007-10-17)
  [1453] What makes our courses special? - (2007-12-02)
  [1485] Copyright and theft of images, bandwidth and members. - (2007-12-26)
  [1626] Early May - a short chance to regroup and improve - (2008-05-01)
  [1713] Ways to accept credit cards - or not! - (2008-07-19)
  [1855] Volunteer v Employee - a skewed balance? (FSB) - (2008-10-25)
  [1913] Alastair Darling helps make paperwork and confusion - (2008-11-30)
  [2044] Please Trouble me - (2009-02-16)
  [2122] Commission Creep - (2009-04-08)
  [2126] Weeding out old phone numbers - (2009-04-11)
  [2161] Get it right ... if it goes wrong, it takes so much effort to sort out! - (2009-05-08)
  [2187] Are we IITT (Institute of IT Training) members? - (2009-05-17)
  [2190] How you are (re)presented at an exhibition - (2009-05-19)
  [2283] Everyone is in the customer relations business - (2009-07-12)
  [2331] Certification Revisted - Lua - (2009-08-09)
  [2465] Melksham Town - asleep or awake? - (2009-10-21)
  [2598] An excuse for making a sales call - (2010-01-26)
  [2788] Cost of Sales - (2010-06-01)
  [2821] Chancellor George Osborne inspires Perl Program - (2010-06-22)
  [2936] The service that customers should receive - (2010-08-27)
  [2966] Cheap Country Hotel in Melksham, Wiltshire? - (2010-09-21)
  [3073] Customer Service - the boundary - (2010-11-27)
  [3333] Honesty and a friendly welcome goes a long way - (2011-06-25)
  [3506] Cold call contacts - preference services and turning off spam sales approaches - (2011-11-03)
  [3613] Keeping Business Local. But is that realistic? - (2012-02-13)
  [3665] Will will smile? - (2012-03-22)
  [3750] Matching opening hours to when customers can come in and buy - (2012-06-04)
  [3755] Cruising on the Mersey Ferry? - (2012-06-07)
  [4107] Snog, Marry, Avoid - (2013-05-31)
  [4293] Certification - (2014-09-15)
  [4415] Buffet review - taking the price into account - (2015-02-05)
  [4520] No cold sales calls please - but delighted to hear from others! - (2015-09-29)

Back to Splitting data reading code from data processing code - Ruby

Previous and next or Horse's mouth home

Forward to Ruby training - some fresh examples for string handling applications

TransWilts rail - what picture represents us
Extra courses - Advanced PHP, MySQL and Lua
Returning multiple values from a function call in various languages - a comparison
Ruby training - some fresh examples for string handling applications
A new monopoly on the ferry to Northern Ireland
Splitting data reading code from data processing code - Ruby
Rake - a build system using code written in Ruby
Changing a class later on - Ruby
Points West to Belfast
Jargon busting