CONOR POPEanswers readers' queries

Cereal killer for hubby who did the shopping at Tesco

Catherina has been in touch about the price of wheat biscuits in Tesco. She took our advice before Christmas and changed from Weetabix to an own-brand option from the retail giant. When they made the switch, the Tesco option cost €3.09. Last week her husband did the weekly shop “and to our amazement the cost has risen to €4.59, a whopping increase of €1.50”. She wants to know what is behind the increase.

We contacted Tesco and were told the higher price was as a result of human error. A spokesman said it would be corrected over the weekend.

What's with our drug prices?

While visiting Tenerife recently, Teresa checked the price of her prescription medicine.

In Dublin the drug Eltroxin costs €14.69 for a month’s supply.

“What a surprise to purchase three months’ supply for €4.25.Why are we being ripped off here?”

Why indeed? Have you come across any drug-price differentials you’d like us to highlight? Please get in touch.

Can you be charged for paying a bill?

Bernie is one of a number of readers who has been in touch about UPC’s billing service. She has a phone, internet and TV bundle for €66 a month. She pays her bills as they come in.

“My most recent bill came in at €72.29”, which she says “is €6.29 higher than my standard agreed bill. When I went through it I discovered a ‘Payment Administration Fee’ of €3.75.”

This was confusing as her bill had been paid in full.

“I phoned the customer helpline and after a nine- minute wait I got to speak with an adviser. I was told this charge was for the bill. I kid you not, I am actually being charged to pay my bill.”

She was told it was because she did not have a direct debit set up with UPC. She was told she could do this at any time. “However, as I have had numerous problems with UPC billing, resulting in me having to query my bill almost on a monthly basis, I am reluctant to do this.

“A company that overcharges on the majority of my bills should understand why I might be reticent to give them direct access to my bank account. However, I am appalled that if I don’t, I will continue to incur a monthly fee of almost €4.”

Another reader, Freda, is on long-term sick leave and on a social-welfare payment. “I pay my UPC account online and I’ve never had arrears or outstanding payment. My latest bill has an ‘other charge’ of €3.75 and it’s called an administration fee.”

Other readers signed up to UPC have been in touch to try and find out about the random nature of their bills. “I have signed up to a set package that was supposed to cost €66 a month,” writes one, “but sometimes when the bill comes it is over €68 and sometimes over €70.

“These are small sums but I can’t understand why the amounts vary. It is not like I am using the web all that much, so it can’t be for downloads above any agreed limit. Surely if I have signed a contract to pay a set amount each month I should be billed for that amount?”

In response, UPC said its administration charge had been in place since 2007. A spokeswoman said people could avoid paying the charge by direct debit and she said that 80 per cent of its customers did just that.

We did some maths and if UPC has 500,000 customers, around 100,000 do not pay by direct debt, so the company profits by €4.5m each year from them. That’s more than €20m since the charges were introduced.

In connection with the varying bills, the spokeswoman suggested that changes to the bundle charges could relate to call charges, which fall outside the call pack.

Netsize, a mysterious gobbler of phone credit

Thomas is a pay-as-you-go customer of O2. “Shortly before Christmas I bought €20 credit,” he writes. “This was reduced to €1 within days although I had made only four or five short local calls.”

In the middle of January, he bought another €20 worth of credit, which fell to just €3 within three days, even though he had made only four short local calls.

“I complained to O2 and was told that an organisation called Netsize had accessed my phone on six different dates and that was the reason my credit was reduced.”

The mobile-phone operator said it would contact Netsize and ask it not to access his phone anymore. He also phoned Netsize and got “a recorded message which indicated that they would cease accessing my phone.O2 said they could not compensate me for the loss of credit which amounted to €30-35. I know nothing about Netsize and I have never contacted them.”