Thumbs Down

Coff-ing up: If you thought the price of a coffee in Dublin was steep, spare a thought for PriceWatch reader Kathleen Puech who was charged £3.70 (€5.34) for an Americano at Heathrow Airport while en route from London to Dublin.

She complained to staff at the Weatherspoon's beside departures and a passing manager intervened and gave it to her for £1.99 (€2.87). Two weeks' later, she met a friend in a small Italian coffee shop on London's Leicester Square. Even their prime view of the stars arriving at a nearby film premiere couldn't compensate for the £9 (€13) they were charged for an Americano and a cappuccino.

Broad questions

In the wake of last week's reader's complaint about the poor level of customer service offered by BT Ireland, quite a few people contacted PriceWatch echoing almost identical concerns about the company. But it's clearly not just BT's problem as Smart Telecom's appearance at the bottom of today's page illustrates. Questions are being asked about the level of service offered by the broadband industry at large and we would like to know more. If you have had a problem with the customer service or support your broadband provider offers contact us (see below) so we can find out what's going on.

Sky-high calls

Spare a thought for a reader who had to call Ryanair's hideously expensive premium rate customer service line after his printer jammed while he was in the middle of printing out the all-important confirmation code for two flights he had just booked. When the paper jammed, his booking code disappeared and without it he was unable to access his flight details. Not having received a confirmation e-mail either, he had no choice but to phone the Ryanair 1570 number at a cost of €1.75 a minute to retrieve his details. The call lasted two minutes so the printer hiccup cost him a fairly hefty €3.50. "That's a low service airline for you," he writes.