SOUNDING OFF: Ripped off? Stunned by good service? Write, blog or text your experience to us
A reader who just wants to be known as Mary got in touch in connection with her house insurance. “When I re-mortgaged my house a few years ago with what is now Permanent TSB, they organised my house insurance with Allianz.” She says she knew it was on the expensive side “but was amazed to get my renewal notice this January. For a fairly average house in Dublin 5 the cost had increased from €643 in 2008 to a whopping €808, an increase of €165.”
She phoned Permanent TSB to ask why there was such a large increase. “They said that the rates increase was index-linked. This is at a time when building costs are going down. Then I phoned Allianz directly. The price they gave me was €486.”
She couldn’t see how Permanent TSB could justify their price. “I continued phoning around and ended up with AA insurance, who quoted €321, a saving of almost €500. This policy includes accidental damage and new for old.”
A curious case
Julie Walshe visited the Vue cinema in Liffey Valley, Dublin, recently to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. "To my dismay, when I went to pay for the tickets, I was told that there would be an additional €1.50 on to the price of each ticket (already a pricey €10.40) as the 8pm show was a special screening."
She was told by the cashier that Vue was holding this “special screening” every Tuesday at around this time, whereby the movie being screened would be deemed over-18s even if the film’s age limit was lower than this.
This was in response to customer complaints about younger people in the audience causing distractions. The €1.50 charge was to compensate Vue for having an employee in attendance for the whole film to ensure that no one under the age of 18 entered the cinema and perhaps to remove any disruptive audience member(s).
She felt that it was too late at that point to reorganise everyone's plans (as well as holding up the queue even more), so she proceeded with purchasing the six tickets, which cost the princely sum of €71.40, or €11.90 each. "When I spoke to a manager, she confirmed this 'special screening' charge but assured me that it was clearly set out on the cinema's website. As of this morning, this was not the case. This is the most ridiculous charge I've ever heard of – in fact, at one stage, I searched around to check if I was the victim of a new Naked Cameraepisode!"
A glitch with a web buy
Recently we suggested that people should consider the internet when looking for good value. However, prospective purchasers should be aware of potential problems with product guarantees, writes David Evans.
“I bought a Nikon camera while in the US in September 2007. I subsequently mislaid the instruction manual, so got on to Nikon’s website for queries from Ireland (and the UK). I was required to register the serial number of the camera and supply the usual amount of personal information that seems to be called for.”
He did all that was asked of him but then received a message saying that his camera had not been purchased through the proper channels “or words to that effect”, so the information he required could not be supplied. “It also stated that my guarantee was not valid for the area in which I lived. It was only valid in the US.”
A taste of Italy
Recently we carried a reader’s query about the disappearance of decent pasta, such as Barilla and de Cecco, from Tesco shelves. Tesco told us this was due to customer demand, a claim we were dubious about, but anyways. Greg O’Connor got in touch to say that Little Italy on North King Street in Dublin’s Smithfield (www.littleitalyltd.com) sells Barilla for around €1.05 for 500g, or €10.50 for 5kg bag. “Buying blocks of Parmesan there, and probably in other specialist shops too, is also a lower-cost alternative to buying the small, pre-packed, Clingfilm-coated, portions sold in the main supermarkets – and is probably better for you too,” he says.
