READER'S  QUERIES:Aidan Maher contacted us to complain about what he calls the "dreadful service" he got from Currys because of its "failure to transfer all files from our old PC to the new PC we purchased from them before they wiped the old PC".

In August he rang a branch in Dublin and asked for a price for a PC. The company’s “customer services centre” in Sheffield took the call and he was assured a salesperson would be in touch within two hours but the follow-up call never came.

A few days later, undeterred by the call that never came, he went to the shop and bought a new machine. “I later delivered our old computer to the store for transfer of the files to the new one and the wiping of the old one,” he says.

A day later the store called him to say the transfer had been made and the PC was available for collection. He went to collect it and was given an assurance that all files had been transferred to the new one, so agreed that the wiping process could proceed.

“I connected the new machine to our system later that evening and set up our web connections. However, I quickly became distressed when I could find no files on the new computer,” he says. “My wife also failed to find any. She immediately rang the branch number which, of course, put her through to Sheffield. The agent did not appreciate the urgency of our call, so I rang customer services.

“I must admit I probably screamed about the urgency of contacting the branch. I was amazed they had no mobile number for doing so. It was now near the 8pm closing time and all they offered to do was send an email to the store. I expressed alarm at this and said the tower would be wiped by morning.”

The following day his wife went to the shop and was told that all data had been lost. She went home and returned to the shop with the new computer for the technician to try to resolve the problem: without success.

“At our insistence the old PC was eventually sent to the ‘know-how’ experts in their UK lab which deals with hard drive recovery,” he says. “We got a call from the technicians on September 16th to say that due to a slight error in their paperwork our old tower had been returned to Swords without any recovery attempt.”

They re-sent our computer to the UK. In the middle of October he was told that “the lab has not been able to recover any data and there is no possibility of recovering any files”.

He says no money can compensate him for the lost of the music and videos and other material on the hard drive. “However, as a gesture of goodwill we expected DSG (the holding company) to offer substantial financial compensation. To our amazement the only offer from the store and their UK Claims Unit is €60.”

Web cast too wide

We got a lot of mail commending us for our list of 20 websites – half of which were Irish – where people might find Christmas presents. We also got one very cross one from a reader called John Doherty.

“It’s wonderful to see an Irish newspaper that relies on Irish businesses’ advertising-spend promoting foreign websites,” he writes. “It will do wonders for the Irish economy to import all those lovely gifts at the expense of Irish shops and businesses and, God forbid, you might have to pay VAT or excise on your purchases from outside the EU. I hope they remember you when they are drawing up their next advertising campaign, especially when the retail sector contracts further on this fair isle.”

Anne Nolan from Waterford also got in touch in connection with that article although she was a lot less cross. She says she has used the play.com website for many years for dvds and books and the like. "Recently I ordered the Pirates of the Carribbeanset at €37.49. Imagine my dismay when I had to pay a further €7.87 VAT and €6 PO clearance totalling €13.87." She says she should have refused to accept the package but had promised it to her grand-daughter for her birthday.

“I got on to Revenue. They were very helpful and pointed out that any goods coming into the country for personal use worth over €22 are subject to VAT at 21 per cent, anything over €150 is also liable for customs duty and VAT.” She says “people should be alerted to these charges. I had intended buying a Kindle from Amazon, but the revenue told me that would be liable to VAT also. Christmas could be a lot more expensive by using these sites for items over €22.”

Shrinking Roses

Eugene Hayes from Limerick recently bought a tin of Cadbury Roses and noticed that since last year it has gone from 975g to 850g while Shloer, which was in 1 litre bottles, has been reduced to 75cl.