Giving a discount doesn't suit them

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

At the beginning of April, Daniel Sexton went into Brown Thomas in Dublin to buy a suit for his upcoming wedding. He is full of praise for the shop assistant in the store and he ended up choosing an €850 Paul Smith suit. As is usual in such purchases, the shop hung on to it to make alterations and he collected it two weeks later.

“When I went back to the shop I discovered that there was now a ‘post-budget’ 20 per cent off all items, including my suit. Naturally I asked the sales assistants, four of whom were gathered by the cash register, if they would give me the advertised discount.” He was told in no uncertain terms that he would be getting no discount as it was strictly a “post-budget promotion”. He says one sales assistant talked over him in a loud voice before “leaving a quieter, older gentleman to find my suit for me. I’ll admit that her response gobsmacked me to the point of being unable to say another word.”

He is aware that his complaint “is the equivalent of being annoyed to see a pre-Christmas purchase reduced in the January sales, but the total refusal to even entertain me after having forked out €850 just 10 days previously, for something that was not yet in my possession, infuriated me.”

He says he has always shopped in BT “and I know it makes little difference in the grand scheme of things, but I will now be going out of my way to ensure I never spend so much as a brass cent in BT ever again.” He also asks what is the point of anyone spending any amount of money if they believe the prices could be slashed at any moment.

We got in touch with the store and received the following statement: “We are very disappointed that a valued customer of Brown Thomas had a disappointing service experience in our store. We will endeavour to ensure that this does not happen again.”

Pills for pence

A few weeks ago Fintan Ryan from Dublin was in a Boots outlet in Belfast where he bought 16 generic paracetamol tablets, “all properly boxed, leafleted and blister-packed for 16 pence”, he says. That works out at about 1.1 cent per tablet. Last week in a Boots in Nutgrove, 12 generic paracetamol tablets cost 99c or 8.25c per tablet. “In Spar locally, 12 paracetamol cost €1.98. That is 16.5c per tablet, about 16 times more expensive than Belfast.”

When Ryan asked the pharmacist in Boots in Nutgrove why the store did not import the ones from the UK, he was told that all paracetamol sold in Ireland has to be sold in lots divisible by 12. “He told me he could not sell 16 paracetamol here although he could sell 24 or 48 without a prescription. It seems clever drafting of regulations can allow people to make very large profits!”

Wage gauge

“Wonder why it’s cheaper in the North?” asks Alan Fairbrother before providing what he believes is an explanation. He says that a retail worker from Dundalk recently lost her €11.50 an hour job and applied for one in a supermarket in Newry. “She was offered £5 per hour or €5.49. Go figure why it’s cheaper across the border.”

Let’s talk value

Following on from our item about dropping landlines, an Eircom spokeswoman got in touch to highlight a range of bundled packages they have which are a lot less than the €85 deal we referred to. “Customers can order a 1Mb always-on broadband with Talktime Friends (unlimited off-peak local and national calls and 200 minutes to Meteor mobiles) [which is] priced at €45.11 per month,” which does seem like very good value.