Pricewatch: your consumer queries answered

Surprise charges incurred while booking flights

In September Brian Ó Súilleabháin booked a return flight for two to Prague via the Aer Lingus website. "Having selected my travel dates, I was presented with three price options: Low, Plus or Flex. I selected Plus, which offered one bag each and seat selection. I was then asked to confirm that I had read and accepted the terms and conditions, which I did. The next page asked about bags and gave a map from which to select seats," he writes.

“When I had completed the process and authorised payment I noticed that I had been charged a total of €40 for seat selection. When I arrived at the check-in area I presented my problem to the person at the Aer Lingus desk, who informed me that the error would be rectified on my next credit card bill.”

There was no refund on his next statement, so he went to the Aer Lingus website and complained via email.

“This elicited no response from Aer Lingus. When my next credit card statement still had no refund, I telephoned Aer Lingus customer care. I was told that seat selection with the Plus fare only applied to economy seats.

“At no point in the booking process was this made clear. When I pointed this out I was told that it was in the terms and conditions. I have since revisited the terms and conditions and find no such clarification. At no point in the online booking process is there any reference to economy.”

Aer Lingus says its Plus fare includes a free seat but not what are called "choice" or "exit" seats, so these have to be bought as an upgrade. "During the booking process, a table displaying three fare options appears on the "select flight" page: Low, Plus and Flex. The table displays the benefits associated with each fare type. Each of the icons, as highlighted in green when hovered over, displays a pop-up with details of each benefit," a spokeswoman says, adding that the price of "choice" and "exit" seats was clearly displayed on the seat map. "If a customer chooses an upgrade seat option, this is added to the cost of the flight and appears in the cumulative total box. This customer selected 'choice' seats, at €10 each way, amounting to €40 for two passengers for two sectors."

How to avoid a large bill after your phone is stolen

Eloise Murray had her phone stolen in a night club. "When I left the club after it closed I went to get my phone to find the rest of my friends. As soon as I realised it was missing I ran back to the club and began calling it. It was ringing out so I assumed it had fallen out of my bag in the night club, but they wouldn't let me back in to check," she writes.

“As soon as I got home I tried to locate the phone on iCloud, but I had my internet switched off so it couldn’t pick it up. I continued to ring it, but it still rang out. I tried to contact the phone and night club all day the following Saturday but only got through to the night club at about 10pm. They were incredibly busy so the lady I spoke to said she would have to get back to me later on when she could check the lost-and-found box.”

On the Sunday she was told the phone had not been located. The following morning she went in to O2 to cancel the phone, organise a replacement sim card and so on. “I was told that €350 worth of international calls had been made on my account. I immediately printed off a list of all the numbers called on the phone and brought them to the guards. I signed a witness statement but unfortunately, as all the calls were international, the guards told me there was no way that they would be able to follow it up,” she writes.

“Since then I have repeatedly been in contact with O2 about what to do about the bill. They told me that, because the calls were made before I reported the phone stolen, I am liable for this bill. I contacted the consumer ombudsman and they told me the same.”

She has spent weeks trying to sort out the bill and has been in contact with O2 multiple times and “absolutely no one has been able to give me a straight answer”.

“This bill is going to affect my credit rating. I have no way of paying it. If nothing else comes of this, I really want to spread the message the guards told me; that the current trend with thieving gangs is spotting people with expensive smartphones, as they usually have a bill contract, which allows them to make these calls. They are following people around to get their pass codes and swipe sequences (this is what happened to me) and then making expensive international calls. They switch off the internet so you can’t locate it and don’t make any calls to Irish numbers as these can be traced.”

Her advice to anyone who loses their smartphone is to cancel it immediately “even if it’s ringing out. I would hate for anyone else to be in this situation.”