Readers' forum

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Not music to Sky’s ears

Caroline Doyle from Wexford has been a Sky TV customer for a number of years and pays her account by direct debit every month. “Recently we opted to downgrade our TV package to a cheap one to include various options, including a music package for our 14-year-old daughter,” she writes.

She says that included in the music package is MTV+1 – the main MTV channel broadcast an hour later. “To get the main MTV channel we would have to pay an extra €2 per month which we were not prepared to do just to get the same channel content but an hour earlier. We changed our package in April 2011 and since we changed, we have not received MTV+1.”

She says she has telephoned Sky approximately 15 times “and each time we are told that they have to send signals through, send a stronger signal through, beam signals through, beam a stronger signal through, and we are often told to wait until the signals reach our box”.

She says she has also been told to “switch the box off because sometimes the signals won’t permeate the box while it is switched on, we’ve been told to give it 24 hours and we’ll call you to make sure it’s working”. But still they do not have the channel their daughter wants.

“We are at the end of our tether . . . basically we are paying for something that we are not receiving. One Sky representative mentioned that it is quite strange that MTV+1 is part of our music package when MTV is not. Perhaps you could see if you can get to the bottom of it.” We contacted Sky and are awaiting their response.

An Post horsing around

Declan Curley spotted a recent An Post promotion which proudly proclaimed that if a customer paid two bills through “bill pay”, they would be given a voucher to book a half-price family ticket to the RDS Dublin Horse Show, which finished yesterday.

“The front on the voucher says that ‘You must pre-book your tickets before 5pm on the 2nd of August, 2011,’” he writes. He sent us the mail at 5.40pm last Monday, August 1st “and, on going to the web site to book these tickets, I have been directed to the small print on the reverse of the voucher that states the booking must be made by 5pm on August 1st! What a scam. I wonder if other An Post customers have also been trying to book tickets today?”

We got in touch with An Post and were told that what was printed on the front of the voucher was correct and that the offer for tickets was available until 5pm on August 2nd. “The small print which said the closing date was a day earlier was printed in error,” a spokesman said. Not only that but Ticketmaster “did experience some technical difficulties on Monday and the offer was temporarily suspended but did reopen,” the spokesman added. The company apologised for the confusion and offered our reader some complimentary tickets to make up for it.

Crying over baby milk

Recently a reader by the name of Kiara got in touch asking why she could not get clubcard points in her local Tesco for infant formula. “My baby is 10 weeks old and I was unable to breastfeed despite strenuous efforts,” she said. “I am a long standing and loyal customer of Tesco, and a member of its baby club,” Kiara added, claiming that the retailer’s policy on baby formula seemed to designate it as “a luxury item, which it patently isn’t”.

The company subsequently contacted us. In a statement it said that “the Government rules that Baby Formula first milk cannot be included in any price promotion. Clubcard points are seen to be such a promotion; therefore they cannot be awarded on baby formula sales. Follow-on milks which are suitable for babies aged six months and upwards do not come into this category and therefore we can offer points on those particular products. This applies across all retailers.”

Teed off in Cork

John Cawley from Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon was travelling from Waterford to Killarney recently when he stopped at a hotel in a village in Co Cork – he names both the hotel and the village but we’ll spare the establishment’s blushes for now.

“We ordered sandwiches and tea for three,” he writes. “My wife had a toasted ham and cheese sandwich, my son a ham sandwich, and I had a chicken sandwich. We were given three mugs and a pot of tea, which I estimated held approximately half a litre of water, and three tea bags.” He was astounded to see he had been charged €6.30 for the tea. The sandwiches cost €4.40 for the toasted sandwich and €4.15 each for the other two. “We talk of ‘Rip-off Ireland’ and I believe this was a prime example,” John writes. So, what do you think? Is €6.30 a lot for a pot of tea? And how much is a fair price? Let us know what you think and we’ll compile a list of the worst offenders.