Blog on here

PriceWatchis available as a blog on The Irish Times website, www.ireland.com. Post your comments on www.ireland.com/blogs/pricewatch

Below are some of the comments which have been posted on the site

On ESB's tendency to underestimate customers' bills if they can't or don't read the electricity meters: "The huge problem with this is that if you are paying by direct debit you can't stop the money going out of your account . . . If a huge bill came in I would be overdrawn and it would probably not go through, leaving me with extra bank charges. Why can't they employ more meter readers or allow people to send in their own readings? - Ciara

"The ESB is a classic State-run behemoth that cannot accept that times have changed, that people won't put up with its crap service any more . . . The sooner it's broken up the better. - Juniper

Why don't people do the easy thing themselves, and every time they get their ESB bill, go to the meter, take a reading and ring the number provided on the bill itself? This takes about five minutes every two months. If people are too lazy to do this, then I've no sympathy for any problems they incur. - Ronan

On unsolicited premium-rate SMS messages: It would be really quite easy for the mobile operators to filter incoming SMSs for a particular SIM card to block all premium-rate texts. . . However, all accounts in Ireland seem to indicate that none of the Irish operators are prepared to do this, which is a pity. - Justin