We've got mail: John Moore from Kells, Co Meath, has been in touch to complain about the customer service offered by Sky Television. He has been a Sky satellite subscriber for some years and has always paid for his subscription by credit card. Recently, however, he received correspondence from Sky to say that he had instructed MasterCard to cease payment.

"I did not, and my credit card did not change in any way," he says. Sky demanded payment by cheque and imposed an administrative charge of around €4. "I paid the cheque and admin charge to get the service restored. They told me in writing that if I paid by direct debit I could save some €60 per year. I signed the direct debit for the subscription addressed to the Bank of Ireland," he says.

However, weeks later he received a demand from Sky for a cheque for €44.50 as well as a penalty administrative charge of €5. He contacted his bank and was told that it had not received any direct debit request from Sky. So he sent them another cheque but received yet another demand for payment.

"I have told them by e-mail that their subscription department is inefficient. That inefficiency is a Sky problem but I take exception to the imposition of an administrative charge from a company that cannot organise subscription billing in an efficient manner. They penalise me for their inadequacies and maladministration."

He contacted the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs but was told that since Sky was a company based in the UK, he would be better off making his complaint to the European Consumer Centre which he has duly done, cc-ing us in the process.

Moore also says he has spent more than an hour calling Sky's customer service number in vain as he "never got to speak to a human being but had instead to listen to adverts for Sky promotions!" He asks if other readers have experienced similar "service".

As if to prove the validity of his complaint, Sky Television was less than efficient in handling our queries on his behalf. After providing the reader's full address so the company could investigate the specifics of his complaint, Sky got back to us looking for his postal code before it could proceed. When we pointed out that there were no such codes in the Republic of Ireland, the company set about searching for his account details. Unable to find said details, Sky eventually contacted us again, asking for his mobile number, which we provided.

And the first question Sky asked him? "Can we have your postcode please?"

After numerous phone calls to the Sky press office in Scotland, we made contact with Sky Ireland's deputy managing director, Mark Deering. "We are looking into the situation urgently," he said. "There has obviously been some kind of mix-up. I have spoken to Mr Moore myself and I want to get to the bottom of exactly what has gone on here."

He said that Sky Television, which has 420,000 subscribers in the Republic, had recently appointed a director of operations here and all Irish calls to its customer service department were now being channelled towards a dedicated team, which, he said, would improve the efficiency of its Irish operation.

Mild, non-limey yoghurts

Our recent review of natural yoghurt prompted two manufacturers to get in touch. Onken Yogurts wrote in to say that while the Irish yoghurts we profiled might have an acidic kick to them thanks to the limestone soil common here, its yoghurts which come from Europe do not have as much acidity and as a result have a fresh mild, creamy texture.

Whatever the reason, PriceWatch tasted said yoghurt last week and can confirm that it does have a nice, mild creaminess to it.

As indeed does the Glenisk, which we did include in our review. Glenisk also got in touch asking us to remind readers that although we pointed out its 250ml pots were a little pricey, they also have 500ml tubs which are a lot more competitively priced.

Memory cards are made of this

A number of people e-mailed us following last week's item on the high cost of memory cards for digital cameras in Ireland. Cards which can cost more than €80 here sell for a fraction of the price overseas, our readers have found.

"The prices quoted for memory cards are astonishing," writes Ken Rafferty from Ballymakeera, Co Cork. He buys online from a UK-based company, www.7dayshop.com, where prices for the 512mb flash cards range from £6.99 (€10.38) to £9.99, with postage costing an additional £3.95. Michael Tracey mailed us to say he bought a 512mb card for €16 in Perpignan, France, last week. A third reader, David Power from Lucan, Co Dublin, says cards cost from as little as £9.99 plus £1.95 delivery from www.MX2.co.uk.