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

EVELYN MURRAY sent us a "tale of woe" last week. Her son travelled from Milan airport to Dublin and then on to Cork on March 5th this year. His bag was three days late getting to Cork and its spring-loaded handle was broken, making it unusable.

She made a complaint in writing to Aer Lingus on March 10th and another on March 25th. Neither letter received a reply.

"On April 11th I phoned Aer Lingus to be told - as you know - that it is not possible to get in touch with customer care by phone. I was given fax no 01-8863832, and I duly faxed another letter that day."

She got a reply on April 18th and began to think that Aer Lingus would address her problem and cover the cost of a replacement bag. "I wrote again on April 18th enclosing a copy of a receipt for €80, the cost of a similar, though slightly smaller, replacement bag." She wrote again at the end of April, the beginning of June and in the middle of July.

"This makes six letters (two by fax) and one attempted phone call. I did get a reply to my third letter. I complied with Aer Lingus's instruction and waited and waited for the airline's 'immediate attention'. I do hope that you can help me. There is no point in my contacting customer care in view of their very shabby treatment of this customer."

We contacted the airline and received the following statement: "When a passenger sends in a letter to Aer Lingus Customer Relations, our aim is to acknowledge and respond to the query within five to seven working days. We regret that, in this instance, this has not been the case, and can confirm that a customer service representative has now sent a written response, and that the passenger will be reimbursed for the damaged bag. Aer Lingus apologise for the damage caused to the passenger's bag and for the inconvenience this has caused."

Friends in cheaper places

Keith Nevin is in the market for some maps of Australia for his Garmin satellite navigation system. He needs the maps so he doesn't get lost when he goes down under for his upcoming honeymoon.

He went online to buy the maps, but was dismayed to find out that the Garmin website sells these ones only to US residents.

"To buy them from Ireland you must use one of the agents who sell their products," he writes.

He contacted an Irish-based company which responded very promptly and told him the cost would be €200.

"The maps would be posted out in a card which I could slot straight into the sat nav system.

"The company also suggested that it might be cheaper to buy the map upon my arrival in Australia, although finding the dealer might be a problem without my maps!"

Out of curiosity, he went back on to the US website to see how much they would have cost had he been a US resident.

"The maps would have cost $144, plus charges. This is approximately €98.

"I phoned the Garmin helpline and a gentleman confirmed that if I was in the US and purchased the SD Card from the US website and had it posted to me in the US, the maps would work in my sat nav system. So I'm getting my friend to purchase said maps and he'll bring them here."

Smart fella.

It is eco-friendly after all

Marlin Talty from Co Clare writes to say Pricewatch should have mentioned that refill bottles for the Ecover Cream Cleaner which we reviewed in Value for Money on this page last week are available.

"The last time I had refills I paid about €1.32 for 500ml in my local health food shop. This would make the price a lot more competitive," she writes.