in.ane - origin Latin "innis"; content that lacks sense or substance.

chat - origin Middle English "chatten"; to converse in an easy, familiar manner.

in.ane chat - origin "innis chatten" - to converse in a familiar manner, content that lacks sense or substance.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

How many signatures before...

Have you ever counted how many signatures it takes before you rent a car or buy a mobile phone contract or for that matter buy a house?
 
When buying my house/flat I signed, may be, on 5 different documents, with each signature costing significantly more than £50K
 
When getting a new mobile phone contract I had to sign 3 times, each signature costing about £200 if we take the total contract value.
 
But the crowning glory is for renting a car from Europcar. I had to sign a record 8 times before I could actually get the keys of the car that I had to return 4 days later. And how much did each signature cost, less than £30.
 
EIGHT signatures to rent a car, totally insane, it felt like I was signing my life away. It was more than the number of times I had to sign to buy a house, or when I was getting a student health insurance (that was around 3), in fact it was less even when I had to make a claim against the same health insurance (0, the hospital took care of everything and dealt directly with the insurance company).
 
EIGHT SIGNATURES?