Sounding offRipped off? Stunned by good value? Write, text or blog your experience to us
Look, no hands-free
A reader from Dublin e-mailed us to complain about Vodafone's failure to honour a promise made to her when she decided to upgrade to a new phone last October. She has been a Vodafone customer for nine years, and when she went into an outlet in Dublin city centre in search of a high-end phone that would give her access to her e-mail and enable her to surf the internet, a salesperson suggested the Nokia E61.
It was not only cheaper than the better-known Blackberry, but it was on special offer and was bundled with a free Bluetooth headset.
As the phone met her needs and the headset, which normally costs around €60, was something she actually wanted, she was sold. She took her fancy phone away with her and was told to expect her free headset in the post within seven working days. When she asked why she couldn't just take one of the many identical Bluetooth kits on display in the shop, she was told the promotion was organised through another company.
Five months on, she has been waiting forlornly for nearly 200 days for her free Bluetooth kit. She has gone into the store five times, and every time she's been told that they don't organise sending the headset out - another company is in charge - but they will contact said company on her behalf.
She has also phoned the company repeatedly without any joy. Like many who have tried to phone the company's shop on Grafton Street, she is always greeted with the message: "The mailbox is full and cannot accept new messages at this time. Goodbye."
Incredibly, she has also been told in recent weeks that since the special offer has long since finished, it might be "difficult to organise" her headset.
She is, understandably, furious and wants to close her account with Vodafone immediately, often the only avenue open to us when faced with shoddy service. "It isn't actually the cost of the product, but rather the principle," she writes. She is, in her words, "totally deflated by the whole experience" - and, incidentally, still without a headset as she "naively believed the sales people in Vodafone".
We contacted Vodafone on her behalf. A spokeswoman said that it appeared that a headset had been sent to the wrong address some time ago.
If this were the case, it seems odd that at no point over the past five months was this fact communicated to our reader.
The Vodafone spokeswoman accepted that the level of customer service offered to our reader was not good enough. "Vodafone is very disappointed to learn of this customer's experience, which falls way below our usual high standard of customer care. We have made contact with the customer and the matter has been resolved to her satisfaction."
Which is another way of saying that our reader has finally got her hands on her free hands-free kit.
Grasping glossies
Normally, our readers send in price spots from around this country but last week we received one about Budapest which shows Ireland is not the only country to boast rip-offs.
Fiona Cooney from Wexford was in Budapest recently and picked up a copy of Elle magazine in the airport. "As I was coming through Hungary from Sarajevo, I had no local currency and opted to pay in euro," she writes. She was "totally bowled over" when she was asked for €14.30 for the magazine. "Strangely, Cosmopolitan, which had the same sterling price on the cover, was selling for a mere €7.50. Bizarre." Bizarre is right.
Fond of the gargle
PriceWatch reader Brian Andrews was in Coleraine, Co Derry, recently, where he happened upon a clear illustration of the cheaper prices people living north of the Border expect to pay for even basic items.
Browsing the shelves of a Boots outlet, he noticed a 500ml bottle of Listerine mouthwash selling for £2.65 (€3.98).
He points out that the same product costs €5.19 in his local Boots in Cork. "This is over 30 per cent more than the Coleraine price."
Blog on here
End of side one
Long live the compact cassette (CC). While Curry's may not stock them, the glut of journalists' interviews recorded via CC over the decades are still on those treasured tapes in bank vaults.
Think of the student who taped Brian Lenihan Snr, leading to his fall from grace over calls to the Áras on the night a Government fell. Bugging scandals, radio airchecks, family sing-songs. Or taping Top of the Pops in a not-so-quiet livingroom, all on CC somewhere.
It's sad to see them go out of general use. But they will live on far longer than the 5.25 inch floppy disk. - Brian Greene
Sympathy for the delivery
Sorry - I don't have a lot of sympathy. I have "done my research" and Ikea Edinburgh told me from the start that the delivery crew would drop the stuff at the first door they met. If you contact the Glasgow store, they will deliver to any floor of an apartment block. Guess you live and learn. - Simon
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