SOUNDING OFF: Ripped off? Stunned by good service?  Write, blog or text your experience to us

A reader who identifies himself as KOS from Cork sent us an example which he reckons “must be well up there on your scale of rip-off prices in Ireland”. For the past number of years, his wife has been on medication for osteoporosis – one bisphosphinate tablet a week and two calcium tablets a day.

“It is dispensed on a monthly basis and costs €71.65 for four bisphosphinate tablets and 60 calcium tablets. The four bisphosphinate tablets alone cost €55.75 – nearly €14 per per tablet!” he says.

Recently, the couple visited his mother-in-law in Holland who happens to be is on similar medication. “She had just received her 12-week prescription and the Irish price is exactly 12 times the Dutch price. The tablets are exactly the same except the Irish ones are manufactured by Merck (Fosamax) and the Dutch ones are manufactured by Sandoz – it may be that the Sandoz version is a “generic” but this can hardly account for the enormous price difference,” he says.

Pricier plots

A reader by the name of Derry got in touch to see if we could find out more about the dramatic rise in the cost of graves in Fingal Cemetry. He says that a plot which cost €1,600 up until the end of last month costs €2,000 today, “a massive 25 per cent increase in difficult times”.

We contacted Fingal County Council to find out more. A spokeswoman confirmed that there had been a price increase in recent weeks. She said the price of a plot had gone up from €1,600 to €1,900, while a foundation cost a further €200. She accepted that it was a significant price hike but said it was “not a money-making exercise” on the part of the council. She said that the local authority needed to cover its costs and to put money aside for new land acquisitions as land was at a premium. She said it was a one-off cost and not something which would benefit from falling costs elsewhere and pointed out that a plot in the cemetery remained the cheapest in the Dublin area.

ESB letter is a turn-off

A very annoyed Dave McCabe got in touch with us to complain about the heavy-handed policies being adopted by the ESB of late. “It would seem that the ESB becomes agitated when you switch to Bord Gais Energy,” he says. “I was a direct debit customer for over 20 years and as a result always paid on time. Yet when I switched over, the ESB cancelled the direct debit mandate without taking the last bill amount.”

He says the very next piece of correspondence after the normal bill was a solicitor’s letter demanding payment. “I am appalled, angry and insulted at the way the ESB treats its customers; no wonder thousands are making the big switch, and good riddance to the ESB.”

We got in touch with the company to try and find out if it was common practice to send solicitor’s letters to ex-customers in circumstances such as this. A spokeswoman said that the letter was sent out “inadvertently”. She said that as a result of a glitch in the system, McCabe had been sent the threatening letter and she denied that such an approach was common practice.

“We have been in touch with the customer to clarify the situation and very much regret that this letter was sent to him inadvertently. It should not have happened,” she said.

Lighter than ere

Simon Stokes wants to know if we noticed that the “big” bags of Maltesers now weigh much less than before but the price has stayed the same? No, no we hadn’t.