An Post sorts it out at a gallop

SOUNDING OFF: Ripped off? Stunned by good service?  Write, blog or text your experience to us

Margaret Wilson got in touch with a tale of “excellent customer service” that she received from An Post. “You may not be familiar with horse passports,” she correctly surmises. “They comprise about 20 pages, include a title page for horse name, breed, date of birth,” and also have a marking page to identify the horse with microchip number and pages to enter vaccinations and travel history.

“There is, however, no page to give owner details on the horse (presumably because these can change). For a number of years now, a horse cannot travel without a passport, even within Ireland.”

At €200, the cost of a replacement passport is pretty hefty. “I am a veterinary surgeon; as such, I enter influenza vaccination dates on horse passports which I then sign and stamp with my name, address and telephone number to authenticate.”

Last week, Wilson received a phone call from “Pat” at the An Post sorting office in Portlaoise saying that he had found two horse passports and wanted to trace the owner. “The only link he could find was my name and telephone number on the vaccination entry. On telling me the horse’s name I was able to look up the owner. Pat then swift-posted the passports to me and they were picked up by the owner at the office the following Monday.

“Unfortunately I didn’t get Pat’s surname but I would sincerely like to commend him on his excellent customer service.” She says that in “these times it is easy to be disparaging about state services”, but Pat’s phone call renewed her faith in human kindness, “and I’ve been telling everyone about it since. The universal reaction is ‘really, that was very nice of him!’ So hear, hear to An Post and the many good people they have working for them. It is indeed the small things that count!” Indeed.

For peat’s sake

Padraig O’Dwyer wants to know what the story is with Bord na Móna peat briquettes. “In four shops within a quarter of a mile of my home in Glasnevin, the price of a bale varies from €4.20 to €4.99. Recently I bought them in Mayo for €3.75. Is there a recommended retail price?”

Well, we called Bord na Móna to find out, and a spokesman said that it gave retailers no guidelines on how much they should charge and that it was “left entirely up to the shop”. We then asked for the wholesale price of the briquettes, but this was unavailable.

Hummus hunting

And, sticking with price differences from shop to shop, Aedin Gormley sent us a mail about hummus. “I made a discovery last week as to how the price of one brand can vary within a very small radius from Camden Street to Georges Street.” The hummus in question is Old Mac Donnells Farm (Co Wicklow), “which is very good quality.” In Listons on Camden Street, it costs €3.20; in the Fresh Supermarket on Wexford Street, the price falls to €2.99; while in Dunnes Stores on Georges Street, it climbs to €3.99.