YOUR CONSUMER QUERIES ANSWERED:A reader called Rachel contacted us to see if we could help her with a problem she has been having with O2 and the Carphone Warehouse (CPW). Last November, she went to the latter and asked about getting an IPhone 4S. She was told that to get it with O2, the provider she was with, she would have to pay a little over €100.

The shop assistant then said “I could change to 3 Mobile and get the phone for free. She checked her system and it showed I was able to change providers as I was not in a contract. She changed me over as I waited in the shop. I paid my last bill that arrived by post with O2.”

A couple of weeks later, Rachel got another bill from O22 for €141.57. “I rang O2 straight away and asked what the bill was for. They said I broke my contract a few months early. I was in a contract until February. I explained to the lady on the phone what my situation was. I asked if if should have shown up on CPW’s system, and she said it should have. The two systems are linked and they should read the same information.”

So Rachel went back into CPW and explained the situation. The staff member she had dealt with initially “said she would never have changed me over if I was in contract. She said it was no problem and they would sort it out. I didn’t hear from her so I dropped in again. They were waiting for the O2 rep to come in early the next week.”

Our reader heard nothing further, and when she went back in, she was told that she was in contract with O2 and there was nothing they could do.

“I have been in to CPW a few times and they have basically told me they aren’t accepting the blame, O2 should have updated their systems. She put me on to someone in O2 who basically told me that I must be a fool to have not known I was in contract with them, and it was my own problem and they wouldn’t help me.

“The bottom line is, I had been with O2 for the past 17 or 18 years in and out of contracts. I have never changed provider and didn’t particularly want to as I have been very happy with them. The only reason I changed was my iPhone 3 didn’t work any more and CPW got me the phone with 3 for free. I couldn’t afford to pay O2 for the handset. Since I have moved, I haven’t been happy with the 3 signal for calls or internet. I would never have changed over if I knew I was breaking a contract. If I had had the money, I would have just bought the phone, it would have been cheaper.” She has since been contacted by debt collectors acting for 02.

We contacted 02 who said our reader was due to be in contract until February 12th next. “Why she was incorrectly informed by Carphone Warehouse that she was out of contract is something we will discuss with them as a matter of urgency to ensure such confusion does not happen again,” a spokesman said.

“On the basis that the customer was informed that her contract had come to an end, and this may have shaped her subsequent decision, we have waived the cancellation fees due on her account as a gesture of goodwill.

“We have already been in touch with the customer to let her know, and to bring this issue to a close. We sincerely apologise for the experience she has had on this occasion.”

For just €18 a bag, you can help feed the dog with Tesco’s finest

Last week we highlighted a 50 per cent price increase that Tesco imposed on its own-brand wheat biscuits. The price of the biscuits had, overnight gone from €3.09 for 48 to €4.59, and a reader wanted to know why. So we contacted the store and it turns out that the price increase was as a result of “human error”.

While it may have been human error, Tesco managed to make a tidy profit out of it. We calculated that if Tesco had sold just 20 boxes of this own-brand cereal in each of its 138 shops across the State each day from January 13th (when the “error” was made) until January 27th when it was corrected, then it would have made €58,000. A lot of money by any measure.

A number of people have contacted us about some other Tesco price anomalies. The price of its own-brand firelighters drew particular attention, having jumped from 99 cent to €1.49.

Another reader has a Labrador who likes her grub. “We always bought the Tesco Complete 15kg bags of dog food for €13.95 per bag,” he writes. “Around Christmas time we went to buy a few bags and found that the price had increased to more than €18 per bag. Is this another case of ‘human error’ that happens to benefit the Tesco Human, or are they genuinely introducing a 25 per cent increase in the price of dog food?”

We contacted Tesco to see if it would be donating the wheat-biscuit money to a good cause and to find out about the other price hikes, and are still awaiting a response.