READERS' FORUM:Have your say

It’s a new year so we might as well start on a positive note. A reader called Joanne had a very good customer experience before Christmas which she wants to share. “Seven of us had a Sunday birthday lunch at Locks restaurant in Portobello,” she writes. ”It was a great lunch with great service – we had the set menu with a few bottles of wine, some desserts and coffees – and when the bill came, one of the guys did the sums and rounded it up to €65 each. We each put our share into the middle of the table and left.”

That is not, however, where the story ends. She had made the original booking and soon after she had left she got a call from one of the staff to say that for a group of seven people, service was included and he thought they might have over-tipped.

“Sure enough, my friend had added things up incorrectly. With a big group, where the bill was being split, and after a few glasses of wine, none of us would have noticed had the restaurant not called us back. The manager was really good about it – he said the €100 was in an envelope in the safe and to come and collect it whenever we liked. We weren’t made to feel mean about going back to pick it up – in fact, when I did go back, I was offered a coffee or glass of wine while the manager was called so that he could give me the envelope personally.”

She says the whole group were really grateful for the waiting staff’s keen eyes and decency. “The reimbursement went on to fund another night out for us. Shame on us for not doing our sums correctly to begin with but well done to Locks for spotting it, for not assuming it was a tip, and for being so gracious about giving it back to us.”

Aer Lingus cheque subject to delays

Another reader has not been so lucky in getting her money back, this time from Aer Lingus. On June 18th Ann Doolan-O’Brien received a letter from an Aer Lingus “customer response representative” informing her that the airline had “authorised our accounts department to issue a cheque in the amount of €456.69 in refund of your meal, accommodation and transport expenses. This will be mailed to you under separate cover.” Obviously our reader was delighted. “I was being reimbursed for all my expenses for two people for five days.” However she is still waiting for her cheque despite writing to Aer Lingus in August and October telling the company she had not yet received the cheque.

We contacted the airline and were told that a cheque had been issued and posted on June 25th last year. A spokeswoman said that there should be no problem re-issuing the cheque and we put her in touch with our reader.

The sting caused by a newsagent’s paper cut

A story close to home now. On Monday December 27th, a Dublin reader went to buy The Irish Times. "It was about 5pm," she writes. "There were no newspapers on display so I enquired if there were any available. The shopkeeper told me that the shop was closed but he went off and got a copy from a bundle of newspapers. He charged €1.90." All was well until she got home, where she discovered that the bottom left hand corner of the paper where the barcode sits had been cut off.

“As far as I understand, this means that the paper was being returned to the supplier for a refund. The following day, when I queried why the bar code section was cut from the paper the shopkeeper said he did not know and offered to give me back the bar code.

His assistant wondered why I was questioning the removal of the bar code and did not seem to be aware of the significance of its removal. My query is, should the paper have been charged for the previous day and am I correct in thinking that the removal of the bar code section means that the paper is returned for a refund? This is only a very minor issue but I would be interested in your comments.”

The bottom line here is the retailer was trying to pull a fast one and it is a practice that would be very much frowned upon by all newspapers and consumers. If the barcode is returned, the retailer will get a full refund for a newspaper they sold at full price. The decent thing for him to have done in this situation would have been to give the newspaper to our reader for free.

Pricewatch is in the process of establishing the name of the shop in question and further action will be taken.