About seven years ago a sales representative from one of the two major portals came to me and asked for a 50% increase in our yearly tariff.
I was so horrified at the audacity of this proposal, that I thought I had misheard him. “Did you say 15%”? Even this ‘stuck in my craw’ as it was the equivalent of seven years worth of inflation in one hit. “No” he retorted, “I said 50%”, my worst fears were confirmed. He then tried to diffuse my mounting anger, by sheepishly asking me “not to shoot the messenger”. He explained that it was a diktat from the “head honcho” and there was nothing he could do about it.