Pricewatch: Readers’ queries

Shopper concerned about safety of witches' hats

A reader from Cork bought witches' hats in Lidl recently for a birthday party, at €1.49 each. As the children were playing at the party, he noticed that the wire supporting the brim of one of the hats had popped through at both ends.

Given that the pointy bits were metal and sharp, he took the hat and put it away, and didn’t think any more about it once the child’s tears had subsided.

“Within two minutes, I noticed there was a second hat with wires poking through the rims,” he says.

A week later he was shopping in a different Lidl outlet and saw the Halloween display and remembered the hats. He picked up another hat, which, as he was handling it, left him with a cut in his finger. He was allowed to use the staff bathroom to clean himself up. He spoke to the manager, who told him the hats would be taken off the shelves. They were still on display as he was about to leave, so he “made it clear I wasn’t going to be fobbed off. The manager said he couldn’t take them off the shelves, but would pass it up the line. I rang Lidl on Monday morning and explained that there was no way [it was a coincidence that] I could buy two hats and then check a third one and have the same thing happen to them all. They said they had sold thousands and had no complaints. I pointed out that I only handed them out early because of a birthday party and most people would not have used them yet.”

He contacted the National Consumer Agency, which said it would contact the store and get back to him, but also said it would take some time to get around to it.

In response, Lidl said its customer had made a direct complaint to the National Consumer Agency and had not been in touch with its head office. “As soon as the complaint was received by us from the NCA, it was looked into immediately. The buyer here at Lidl Ireland who looks after Halloween items has confirmed that all Halloween items have been on sale since October 14th, and this is currently the only customer complaint we have received.

"To date we have sold 5,000 of these items. The buying team have sent the safety certificate of the item to the NCA for examination. The NCA confirmed there was no design fault with the product and there is no need for it to be removed from shelves."

Irritated by retailers' minimum transaction policies

A reader called Pearse is "intensely" irritated about retail outlets that have a "minimum transaction charge" on debit-card purchases.

He recently bought a new wiper for his car in an auto parts shop. It cost him €13 plus small change.

He was told by the sales assistant that the minimum transaction on his AIB Visa debit card was €15, "and I had to find any product for about €2 to make up the balance.

“I hate ‘petrol head’ air fresheners, but, as this was the only product that cost the minimum, I had to suffer the indignation of acquiring the awful ‘Homer ’n’ Marge’ pine freshener.”

He says the product and its value are both irrelevant to him. “It is the simple principle of being forced into spending more money than you have to that causes my irritation. We all pay bank charges, so why should I have to pay for someone else’s bank charges as well? Of course, I’m assuming this is the reason for the minimum charge. Is this practice not illegal, as it is most definitely immoral and simply ugly business?”

He says he could have taken his business elsewhere and he will in the future, “but the fact remains that this practice is irritating and will only set an unwelcome precedent if left unchallenged.

"It already is becoming
very common to be charged 20-50 cent on your mobile phone top-up."

The Irish Payment Services Organisation, which oversees all card payments, has a view on this. It says that, when a merchant signs up to accept card payments, its terms and conditions include an
"honour-all-cards rule".

Under this condition, they are required to accept the cards for any payment by holders of the cards they have signed up for.

“In choosing to enforce a minimum charge, the retailer is operating outside of their terms and conditions.

“They can lose their terminal and card payment contract for doing this,” a spokeswoman for the organisation said.

“Any reports of such signs or restrictions in shops that are reported to this office are taken very seriously, and a relationship manager is dispatched to discuss the matter with the shop.”