PriceWatch

You spot the prices, we ask the questions

A Dublin reader has been in touch about the "outrageous" cost of peripherals for mobile phones. Like many children, Christine Madden's daughter got a fancy new mobile for Christmas.

The phone in question was the Motorola E770V, which offers all manner of high-tech features, including two-way video calls, MP3 player, streaming video and a digital camera.

She was keen to be able to make full use of the phone by downloading music from her computer onto it; however, no USB cable came with the Vodafone package. "When we inquired at two Vodafone shops, they both said the cable cost €90 - not €19, we double-checked."

Staff in the shop suggested that in the absence of the necessary cable to connect her phone with the family computer, our reader's daughter could always go on to Vodafone Live and download tunes directly from there - "which of course costs extra".

"I tried to source a cable on the net, and could only find one example on the UK Vodafone website - which was the cable that goes in the more expensive mobile, comes with software and costs only £19 . This seems like a blatant ploy to get people, primarily kids, used to spending their money to go on Vodafone Live. And how can anyone charge €90 for a USB cable?" Madden asks.

PriceWatch went in search of a data cable for Madden's phone and fared slightly better. In one Vodafone shop we were told that the cable would cost between €50 and €70, and the helpful assistant made no mention of the Vodafone Live service. He also pointed out that the right cable could be sourced online for considerably less. Meanwhile, the Carphone Warehouse on the same street said it sold the cables for the Motorola phone for approximately €50 but had none in stock.

We then contacted Vodafone to ask why the cable wasn't supplied as part of the package. Apparently software and cables are included with new phones at the manufacturer's discretion. Vodafone, for its part, sometimes throws in data cables and software with handsets it sells as part of promotional deals.

"We were the first to market with 3G services and on some handsets and with certain packages we do include away-data cables," the spokeswoman said. However, she said that Vodafone had to "swallow the cost" of providing the cables in such instances and were not in a position to "do that on every handset".

She said that Vodafone had been trying to get stocks of the cable and software for the E770V from the manufacturer for a number of weeks and said that they should be available in stores next week. She accepted that there had been some confusion about the price of the cable and customers such as Madden had been given "estimated prices which have been inaccurate".

She apologised for any confusion and said that all stores are have been advised that the cables and software for the E770V will be in stock from next week and will retail at €44.