Pricewatch: Readers’ queries

Frustrated trying to call airline over lost iPad

A reader called Sally recently travelled to Malta from Dublin with Ryanair. About an hour after landing, and having left the airport, she discovered she had left her iPad on the aircraft. "I knew the plane had turned around to go back to Dublin, so immediately I rang Dublin Airport after failing to find any contact number for Ryanair on the website," she writes.

She expected to be able to tell them where she had left the iPad so she could safely retrieve it when she got back to Dublin. She was, however, told she would be put through to the handling agents, not Ryanair. “A nice man there reassured me that 95 per cent of items were usually returned, and told me to call following day, which I did, and another seven times since, but unfortunately the iPad was never returned to them,” she says.

She also rang Ryanair’s handling agents in Malta on the night she discovered the loss in the hope it had been found when the aircraft was cleaned before turning around, but again no joy.

“I decided to claim under our travel insurance, but I found that I needed a ‘property irregularity report’ issued by the carrier. I have found this impossible to get, as there is no obvious way to contact Ryanair from the information supplied on its website. When I asked the handling agents for one, they said they couldn’t issue one and I would have to get it from Ryanair.”

She did get a contact number but has struggled to get through. “How do I get in contact with Ryanair and get this report or am I naive to think this is even possible?”

Mega phone bill not in line with new EU roaming tariff

A reader by the name of Maeve got in touch "having just received yet another exorbitant phone bill from my mobile phone provider".

She wants official clarification about the rates that phone companies are permitted to charge for roaming.

"I have attempted to find out from Vodafone how much they are charging for roaming in the EU. Initially on contacting Vodafone, the man I spoke to said he had no knowledge of new EU roaming tariffs that were published on July 1st, 2013. Vodafone had not issued any directives to staff members, he informed me," she writes.

"I asked him to investigate the matter and after a few minutes he came back on the line to tell me what he had discovered. Vodafone are charging customers 55 cent per megabyte for mobile internet usage abroad, yet, if I am not mistaken, the EU regulators have fixed the tariff at 45 cent per megabyte since July 1st. Vodafone have said it will take up to 30 days for them to 'review' my bill."

Eczema sufferer sore at price of cream in Ireland

A reader called Áine uses a product called Dermalex Eczema Repair and has been buying it in various Doc Morris pharmacies over recent months.

“The price I have being paying is €27.95,” she writes. “I have queried this price a number of times and was told that this is the price set by the manufacturer.”

She asked the question in the first place because she had been told that the ingredients do not justify the high price tag.

"I showed the product to a dermatologist, who said there was not a lot different in it,
and at that price she could
not recommend it to her clients.

"I was in France on holidays in July and purchased the exact same product for €11.95 in a chemist in Riberac."

She then looked in other chemists in the area to see if this was a once-off price and discovered the same price was charged, although in one instance it was slightly
higher, at €13.60 – still way off the price charged in Ireland.

"The product is a good one and works well on eczema.
The problem is the price and the fact it can be bought for less than half the price in France."