AIB customers headed the list of complaints to Euro Watch yesterday as large numbers across the State found themselves still without their euro cheque books.
AIB cheques
AIB customers headed the list of complaints to Euro Watch yesterday as large numbers across the State found themselves still without their euro cheque books.
"All I can do is offer an apology to customers who have not received them and say they are en route," an AIB spokeswoman said.
She said the bank had taken a decision to go with the trigger system, sending out cheque books to people as they came to the end of their existing cheque books.
However, it has proved less than satisfactory with many customers left without any cheque-writing facilities now that Irish pound cheques are no longer valid.
A number of customers pointed to family members and friends who had received their cheque books from rival banks as far back as November.
Pound problems
Irish pound coins continued to cause headaches for consumers.
Around a quarter of the 400-plus calls to the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs yesterday related to outlets refusing to accept them.
Hard-pressed financial institutions are the latest to prove reluctant to tackle the time-consuming task of taking the large amount of Irish pound coinage out of the system at present.
Two Bank of Ireland branches informed customers yesterday that they would not be accepting coins for lodgment or exchange until after January 7th.
The branches in Drogheda and Dublin's O'Connell Street are both asking customers to come back with their coins when they are under less pressure next week.
A Bank of Ireland spokeswoman said the decisions had been taken locally and related to the length of queues.
"We are asking customers to be patient. Our first priority is to change cash for people. From next Monday, the chances are that it will have quietened down a bit," she said.
Meanwhile, an EBS customer complained he ran into problems when he attempted to lodge £130.10 in Irish coins to his account at the Baggot Street branch in Dublin.
But Mr Martin Walsh, head of lending at the EBS, said that in the normal course of events, someone coming in with £130 in coins would need an appointment.
Unlike the banks, the building society had no weighing scales or automatic counting machines, he said.
"There is also the issue of what is reasonable behaviour and what is considerate for other customers," he said, noting that all branches were hugely busy at the moment.
He asked those wishing to change large amounts of coin to leave it for a week or two and then phone in advance to pick a good time.
"People don't have to panic. There's still a few weeks left to change their money," Mr Walsh said.
Price hike
Price rises also remained a contentious issue with consumers.
The Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs received several complaints about retailers rounding up while Euro Watch spoke to a number of people concerned that businesses were taking advantage of the euro to hike prices.
A Kerry caller noted the Urban District Council in Killarney was charging 80 cent or 60p per hour or part of an hour in their New Street car park, up from 63 cent or 50p a few days ago.
However, the UDC's acting administrative office, Ms Marie Ní Cheallaigh, said charges for its three Category A car parks, near the town centre, had increased since January 1st as part of its 2002 budget.
"It just coincided with the euro. It's part of the car parking strategy but has nothing to do with the euro," she said.
Charges for its other car parks had been rounded down and an hour's parking was costing 60 cent compared to 50p previously, she noted.
Another caller noted that the Caffe Fresca restaurant in the Citywest business campus outside Dublin was charging €2.00 (£1.58) for a cafe latte that had cost £1.50 (€1.90) before Christmas.
The restaurant's manager, Mr Peter Bark, told The Irish Times that this was the first price rise since the restaurant had opened 2½ years ago.
Lotto prizes
The National Lottery was also the subject of complaint with callers noting that the cost of Winning Streak tickets had gone to €1.90 from £1.50 but the top prize remained at €25,000.
The cost of playing All Cash Gold had also gone to €1.90 from £1.50 while the £10,000 prize became €10,000.
However, a spokesman said players had not lost out in any way as a result of the introduction of the euro and the overall return from scratch cards had not diminished as the number of prizes in the game had increased.
The Lottery had restructured rather than reduced the prizes, bringing in more mid-range prizes in response to player research.
"The overall odds of winning any cash prize at £1.50 was one in 6.99 tickets. At €1.90, it is one in 6.72," the spokesman said.
He also noted that the chance of winning a prize in the €10 to €500 range was much greater with the prospects of a €25 prize almost doubling.
Legal issue
The first glitch in legal circles surfaced yesterday when a number of summonses were not issued because the stamp duty on them had been paid before Christmas in Irish pounds rather than in euro.
One solicitor told The Irish Times his client desperately wanted the summons to be issued and served yesterday but the District Court Office refused to issue it because it didn't have a euro stamp.
A spokesman for the Court Service confirmed that three summonses had been affected in this way. He said guidelines had been issued to solicitors in December, noting stamp duty had to be paid in euro from January 1st and urging them not to stockpile the stamps from last year. However, he said there were a few stray ones out there and staff had now been instructed to accept documents stamped in Irish pounds.
He noted that only three cases had arisen out of the many hundreds, if not thousands, of summonses issued each week.