Pricewatch »

• Natty new sterling/euro site

  January 15, 2009 @ 10:39 am | by Conor Pope

  Before Christmas, like many people Jamie Lawerence started wondering what the price differences between the Republic and the UK were once the currency differentials and VAT were taken out of the equation. Unlike most of us, he had the techy know-how to work it out and build a website around it. “A bit of work later and I launched dualpricing.ie which lets the user enter a UK and Irish price and it calculates the actual price difference after excluding the differences in currencies and VAT,” he writes. “The website also keeps track of the average price differences for each store and records the best and worst performers” and is, in my opinion well worth a visit.

• Play.com outrage

  December 18, 2008 @ 9:47 am | by Conor Pope

  While I’ve been hearing a lot about the ridiculous price differentials between north and south and the shameful failure of many retailers to pass on the savings that are due to shoppers in the Republic because of the weak sterling, play.com deserves special mention for this bizarre pricing. A bundled Nintendo DS which British-based customers are being charged £140 for costs shoppers in the Republic €399.99. To save you doing the maths, based on today’s rates, £140 costs €149.25. So play.com are charging us €249.75 or over 150 per cent more for exactly the same product which is shipped from exactly the same warehouse in the UK. I know where I won’t be shopping again. Ever.

  UPDATE AT 12.12 Weird thing. When you do a search for that Nintendo bundle now, it doesn’t show up. Here’s the link though, in case anyone thinks I’m bonkers.