The kid stays in the picture - at a price

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

Recently, a reader called Sile went to get some passport photos taken in Fuji Film in Dundrum Town Centre, and was less than happy with what unfolded.

“I was told the cost was €10 and it would take about 10 minutes,” she writes. “However, when the sales assistant noticed that it was for my seven-month-old baby, he said that the cost was €15 as it takes longer to do.”

Our reader said she would take her business elsewhere. “I went to the chemist’s in Swan Centre in Rathmines where the whole process took no more than five minutes; the photos were taken by a very helpful assistant and cost €6.99!”

We contacted the shop and the manager confirmed that the extra charge for infants existed. He said that he charged more because taking photographs of infants took substantially longer to do. “They can’t stand on their own so they have to be positioned carefully. Then the image has to be tweaked in Photoshop, which takes more time.”

He said that the shop offers a guarantee that it will get it right first time. To be fair to Fuji Film, it is not the only one to charge more for taking passport photographs of infants; we have come across shops which charge over €30 for taking them.

Dress without excess

Eimer Walsh read our article on first communions last week and it caused her to wonder if she lived in some alternative universe. “We also had a first communion this year,” she writes. “I bought my daughter a beautiful dress in Debenhams for €88 and the cardigan, veil and bag came to another €80. The shoes we received as hand-me-downs from a friend.” There were no fake tans, limos, false nails or parasols.

Walsh goes on to say that almost every gift was for €20, in either cash or book token form “with only one €50 exception”; the total in cash was €315 and €40 in book tokens. “We had lunch for 12 at home and invited the neighbours in afterwards for a glass of fizz and some cake. She smiled from the moment she got up until bedtime and had a blissfully happy day.”

She says the dress got torn slightly during the fun and games on the day, but she is going to have it mended as she has two younger daughters who will also wear the same dress in years to come. “We don’t know what our neighbours and her classmates’ parents spent and whether they splashed out on hotels or were at home like us, and we don’t know how much their children received in gifts. Because we didn’t ask. Ignorance is bliss!”

Prawns gone awol

Brendan Sliney notes that there were no Irish prawns reviewed on the page last week. “I know there are still prawns being caught off our coast in large numbers – where are they going?” he asks. “While I am a serious prawn lover I have given up eating them since reading an article on how they are ‘reared’ in tanks in China and India and other eastern countries.”

Filter off-kilter

Still more on the euro/sterling price differentials. John Lernihan has sent one which just might be a record. “When looking online for a Brita water filter jug, I discovered that a Brita Elemaris Cool Water Filter Jug retails for £12.19 (€13.79) on www.argos.co.uk, but is a staggering €36.95 for the exact same product on www.argos.ie. Almost three times dearer using today’s exchange rate.”