back to article Apple: 'Court-appointed antitrust regulator is taking advantage of us'

This was the week when Amazon announced its plans to build a drone army to deliver parcels around the United States... well, to people within a 10-mile radius of a warehouse anyway. The scheme has a number of issues against it - legality, distance and weight problems, etc - although the drones being shot down by thieves isn't …

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  1. Eradicate all BB entrants

    RBS et al didn't need to invest that much in tech ....

    ...... as they used to have a large number of highly skilled techs that maintained existing systems while upgrading others for newer functions. They had a history with all of the systems and knew what would work and what wouldn't even before testing had started.

    This would have allowed them to replace and upgrade over time with minimal disruption.

    Then they decided, in order to save some money on the balance sheet and give some more clueless middle management extra bonuses, to offshore all of it to techs with no experience of the systems and their quirks who were taught by people who did not have that level of experience either.

    So now we have a majority state owned bank losing more money through compensation than it saves from off shoring having to spend even more money to replace systems their 8000 mile away techs are unable to repair.

    And still no one senior has been sacked for the complete shambles.

    1. deadlockvictim

      Re: RBS et al didn't need to invest that much in tech ....

      Nor will they.

      The problem was that they dffshore enough of their legacy systems. That would have produced instant results.

      Now, what they need to do is to migrate everything to the Cloud. The bankers get their bonuses for being positive and active in times of a crisis (well, actually, just for being bankers), the IT-staff get fired (thus generating more savings and showing how active the bankers have been) and everyone (i.e. the bankers) wins.

      One final point, just to keep it topical, they had better do it quick, because the NSA don't like not knowing what people are doing with their money, although, in the case of RBS, the answer is nothing.

  2. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    some of these decisions may affect our workforce

    That is a mastery of understatement.

    1. Sir Sham Cad

      Re: some of these decisions may affect our workforce

      Indeed. Translating from the Business Bullshit to English dictionary reveals "Some of these decisions are going to right royally screw our workforce".

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Think twice

    "Particularly since it was Cyber Monday, the frenzied pre-holiday online shopping day:

    Millions of rbs and natwest customers couldn't use their credit cards yesterday so cyber monday largely fucked-bet you it's back next week."

    I don't think many people will be sympathetic that you could not indulge in your rampant consumerism.

    You're not a person who thinks buying stuff IS Christmas are you?

    1. Richard 12 Silver badge
      Happy

      Erm, no, it may well be back.

      If it had a significant effect on sales, then there will be a repeat.

      You forget what "Cyber Monday" is for - it's to give the online shops a good time to get rid of the year's old and over-stocked items by knocking down the price a little and letting hysteria over Christmas clear the warehouse, ready for next year's stuff.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Apple has also been back in the courts this week, this time to complain that the court-appointed antitrust regulator it was forced to take on in the wake of the ebook price-fixing trial is too expensive for it.

    Michael Bromwich has apparently billed the firm for $138,432 for his first two weeks on the job, including a 15 per cent surcharge because he's taking the business through his consultancy business rather than his day job as a lawyer and the princely hourly sum of $1,100. Apple moaned:

    Mr Bromwich appears to be simply taking advantage of the fact that there is no competition here or, in his view, any ability on the part of Apple, the subject of his authority, to push back on his demands."

    This was so delicious adding any sauce or condiment would taint the pure taste.

  5. CmdrX3

    To be fair to Apple

    I do think Bromwich is taking the piss and a few liberties with them, actually in much the same way as Apple is taking the piss and a few liberties with the carriers...... in pretty much the same way as the carriers are taking the piss and a few liberties with us, their customers. Karma often has a funny way of catching up.

  6. Martin Budden Silver badge
    Happy

    Apple to carriers: Bend over and take it, bitches!

    Bromwich to Apple: Bend over and take it, bitches!

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