Pricewatch »

• Phoney Business

  June 1, 2007 @ 12:56 pm | by Conor Pope

  I knew there’s be more!!! Eircom has confirmed that 100,000 customers who rang premium rate competitions phone lines in April and May were overcharged as a result of what they are calling “a software fault” . An internal investigation by the station was prompted when callers to a Late Late Show premium-rate competition line found they’d been charged for attempted but uncompleted calls. It now appears that it wasn’t just the Late Late that was affected. About 500,000 calls made to 30,000 lines between April 24th and May 17th last were involved. Eircom has not said by how much people have been overcharged but promoese to refund those affected next month at the latest.

• Paying for phantom texts

  May 28, 2007 @ 7:16 am | by Conor Pope

  A reader who occasionally enters a newspaper text competition contacted us to complain about the ultimate rip-off. Each time he enters a competition it costs him €1 and each time he enters he gets a confirmation text.

  “Last Friday I sent an entry but got no reply. On checking my phone I found my message was undelivered so I re-sent it.

  “Later, I checked the status again to find the second message was undelivered. I re-sent, and it was acknowledged as correct.”

  Days later his mobile service provider – which he does not name – told him he’d been charged for the non-delivered messages, and that this was their regular practice.

  “Are mobile service providers allowed to charge for services they don’t provide?” he asks. “If my local postman cannot deliver a parcel to me, he leaves a note to arrange collection or call back at a later date with it. He does not take the parcel home and keep it for himself.”

• eircom’s phone watch

  May 19, 2007 @ 1:22 pm | by Conor Pope

  Red faces all round at eircom then after the company was forced to admit it had charged people who had tried but failed to get through to a Late Late Show competition hotline. Thousands of viewers were overcharged by an average of €1 a pop after trying to connect to premium rate phone lines on the three most recent shows before last night’s programme. Some viewers dialling from mobiles could have faced even higher charges. “The problem appears to be the result of a software upgrade in Eircom’s network, implemented by one of the company’s key suppliers. This upgrade may have resulted in some customers being charged for attempted but uncompleted calls,” eircom said in a statment filled with completely unnecessary conditional words. “May have resulted in” “appears to be” – Pah! Eircom assured affected customers that they would be “fully rebated”. That’s nice of them. What about a little compensation too to teach the company a lesson. And I wonder was it only the Late Late Show that was affected by the software glitch given the increasing prevelance of premium rate phone lines across TV and radio schedules.

• Package plunder

  May 7, 2007 @ 9:33 am | by Conor Pope

  Claire Anderson from Dublin got in touch looking for help after a travel company cancelled her summer holiday because the package she had chosen had been overbooked. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the company was then unforgivably slow in issuing her a refund. The story begins in early February when she and her boyfriend booked and paid in excess of €2,000 for their summer sun holiday. In early April, however, they received a letter from Direct Holidays saying that, as their holiday package had been overbooked, they were the unfortunate ones who were being bumped off it.

  The couple were given two options. The first, to pick another destination from the company’s brochure, seemed like a good idea.

  However, when they looked at the choices on offer they found that all the places they liked the look of had already been booked for the dates in question. “The other option was a refund,” she writes. “With reluctance, we decided to get our money back. You can only imagine the trouble we are having trying to book elsewhere, and the increased cost.”. She says this will most likely mean no sun holiday for her this year as both she and her boyfriend don’t have a whole lot of flexibility and need to give their employers notice of their holidays early in the year.

  “The last contact I had with Direct Holidays was on April 19th, when I mentioned I was taking the issue further. I was immediately contacted and promised that I would have the refund in the next ‘couple of working days’.” It is now May, however, and she has still not got her money back. “We are left in the situation where we have to take our leave and holiday probably in Ireland and without the €2,312 we paid up front! I can’t tell you how upset we are.”

  We contacted the UK headquarters of the company to find out what was going on. A spokesman for the company was quick to hold his hands up and agreed that there had been an unacceptable delay in issuing Anderson with her refund. He apologised for the delay and assured us that it was being dispatched as we spoke (last Thursday morning).

  He also said that as “a goodwill gesture” to our reader the company had agreed to offer her an additional €300 – a sum which, hopefully, will go some way towards helping her and her boyfriend find a holiday in the sun this summer. Although, if the glorious weather we experienced here over the past few weeks is repeated in June or July, she might be well advised to stay at home to catch some rays instead.

• Row about Ryanair’s refund policy grows wings

  April 1, 2007 @ 6:15 pm | by Conor Pope

  Last week’s item on Ryanair’s reluctance to return the taxes due to people who have paid for, but not taken, flights with the airline prompted other people to get in touch.

  Peter Lannon recently booked a Ryanair flight from Dublin to Bristol. Initially he had booked a flight leaving on a Monday morning but as his requirements changed he booked a second flight for the evening before. “At the airport I went to the Ryanair ticket sales desk to inform them that I would not be taking the Monday morning flight and I was advised by the girl working there that I could write to Ryanair and request a refund of the taxes and charges.” He did so, and got a reply stating that he wasn’t entitled to a refund. “What I find even more strange is that on a recent flight I chose the insurance option by mistake, yet when I e-mailed later to cancel and ask for a refund, it was processed with no problems! So how can Ryanair have admin fees for one refund but none for another?”
  (more…)

• Round up your gas cylinders

  @ 6:14 pm | by Conor Pope

  A reader from Celbridge asks why gas cylinders for which he paid a hefty deposit suddenly become worthless when he tried to return them. “My gas supply for my barbecue needed replacing , so naturally I expected to get at least one free full cylinder as I was handing in three empty ones,” he writes, “based on the deposit I paid two years ago.”

  However, all the outlets he has contacted have said that while they will certainly take the cylinders off his hands they will not give him any credit for it. “This would appear a little rich as the cost of purchasing a new one without a cylinder is €23.86 for the gas and €27.50 for the cylinder,” he says. He would love to know who ends up with the €27.50 deposit.

  We contacted Vincent Jennings of the Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association, who told us that when retailers buy cylinders of gas from the fuel merchants they have to pay a deposit, which works its way through the chain up to the gas manufacturer. We think if our reader were to contact the maker of the cylinder he should have a good case for a refund.