ValueIreland.com

A good article here in the Irish Examiner by Paul Kelly about how consumers can end up spending more money when making calls to 1890 LoCall rather than less. Other numbers included in this analysis are Callsave 1850 and national 0818 calls.

The main reason that consumers end up paying more rather than less when making calls to such 1890/1850/0818 numbers from mobile phones and from landline providers like Eircom is because these calls are specifically excluded from minute bundles.

The journalist does show that there can sometimes be alternative numbers (local or national numbers) that consumers can call which would actually be part of their minute bundles and then wouldn’t incur extra costs.

Which is exactly what this site in the UK does - SayNoTo0870, where O870 is the UK equivalent of 1890. On this site, users provide alternative numbers to the 0870 number for users to call, and not incur excessive charges. There are different rules and issues in the UK, but the idea is pretty good.

So we in Value Ireland are going to do something similar. We’re going to publish as many local numbers for the popular companies which Irish consumers must call on a regular basis.

To kick things off, we’ll quote the suggestions provided in the article linked above:

AIB Phone Banking - 1890 242424 - use 01 6670024 instead
Ticketmaster Ireland - 0818 719300 - use 01 4569569 instead

A trick to finding these alternative numbers is to check a companies “Contact Us” page, and to look for a “From Abroad” number which is normally a local or national number rather than the 1890/1850/0818 numbers.

Do you have other alternative numbers that would work instead of these 1890/1850/0818 numbers? Post them here and we’ll keep track of them, or e-mail us.

In the past I’ve written about what I see to be certain Irish peoples attitudes towards shopping in Aldi and Lidl. One of these posts is here.

It seems now that the self-styled provider of “a strong voice to consumers in Ireland”, the NCA, is also too posh for Aldi and Lidl.

Their recent grocery price survey didn’t include a comparison of grocery prices in either of these stores to the prices in Tesco, Dunnes and Superquinn.

I’m told that this apparently because Aldi and Lidl didn’t have exact products for comparison purposes - i.e. no brand names easily recognisable to Irish consumers.

Which makes a load of sense from the NCA (not really) - particularly since accordingly to this article from Paul Cullen in Saturdays Irish Times under the heading “Branded: the dearest country”:

The Republic emerges as by far the dearest place to shop for branded items in a
six-country survey carried out this week by The Irish Times.

Why then would the NCA really ignore Aldi and Lidl from their grocery comparisons? I know, for example, that the raspberry jam from Lidl is the nicest I’ve ever tasted, and I don’t know who made it!

It seems that Ms.Fitzgerald is completely ignoring Aldi and Lidl according to the article here where she’s implying that we need more international competition in our grocery sector when she says “This points to the fact that the Irish market is too concentrated”.

Of course it is when you’re ignoring 25% of the main players in the Irish grocery market.

We’ve been asked by the publishers of the You and Your Money magazine to let you know about their Expo coming up in September.

A point to notice is the fact that this Expo is free - I understand that many similar type exhibitions actually charge entry fees. So, something for nothing, and you might even get some useful tips and advice from it.

RDS Main Hall, Dublin, from 7th-9th September and Nemo Rangers Stadium, Cork, from 21st-23rd September. The You and Your Money Expo with Eddie Hobbs is the
only one-stop shop for consumers looking to completely review their financial situation and spending options. Divided into eight targeted, relevant zones, the
Expo will offer visitors lots of great money deals, along with informative and engaging free seminars and advice and tips from the experts, including Eddie Hobbs himself. Don’t miss out on the year’s biggest and best financial and lifestyle show! For further information visit www.youandyourmoney.ie/expo

Earlier this month, I wrote about my positive experiences with the NTL customer service. I was reading somewhere since (but I can’t remember where) that NTL in Ireland are supposed to be making great efforts to improve the issues that their customers are having with their customer service.

I have to say, again today after another positive customer service experience, that their efforts are working. I rang today about 5.30pm (on a Friday!!!) and got immediately through to a customer services rep.

I explained what I needed done - change a couple of my subscriptions - and was told that I needed to speak to someone else. Instead of being fobbed off with some “waiting room musak”, I was put straight through to a different department and spoke to an extremely helpful lady.

She very efficiently took my details, made my requested changes, and sent an e-mail at my request to their Billing Department to ensure I got my refunds due. And by the time I got home, all my changes had been implemented.

Excellent work NTL. (Just don’t mess up now and forget my refunds!!!)

There’s an interesting article here from todays Irish Times about the unwillingness of Irish consumers to haggle. Presumably this follows on from our aversion to complaining – though in the last couple of years, I think that we may have come out of our shelves a little in that regards.

We can only echo the journalists comments with regards to “digging your heels in” when it comes to looking for a better deal when making purchases. And don’t just limit yourself to simply looking for money off an item – while there genuinely may be no flexibility in some cases, there may be optional extras which could be thrown in for free if push came to shove – spare refills of something, extra warranty, etc.

And remember, as touched upon in the article, while staff on the shop floor may not have the ability to give discounts or concessions, their managers are quite likely to have such power. And remember also, don’t be fobbed off by the “the manager isn’t here at the moment line” – there’s always someone in charge.

As when complaining, always be reasonable. If you are asking for money off something, make sure your demands can’t be dismissed immediately as being unreasonable. Be polite, friendly, and show your genuine interest in making a purchase.

Finally, decide your desired outcome of any such discussions. Are you willing to walk out of the shop without making a purchase if you don’t get your discount? Is there a minimum that you’re willing to accept?

My final friendly pitch in such negotiations, mostly when I’m willing to walk away without making a purchase, is to politely explain that I’m in a take it or leave it situation, and that I’m able to walk away from the purchase – whether or not the seller is ready/willing/able to do so is up to them.

Bottom line, if they don’t want your business and you can, walk away! The way I’d look at such things would be to gauge their willingness to get your money from you and to compare that to what their willingness might be to help you out if you’ve problems with your purchase later – after they already have your money (which is their bottom line).

Anyone notice this little piece of propaganda from the ESB in the past week. According to this article here in the Irish Times, ESB chairman Tadhg O’Donoghue is bemoaning the fact that the Irish Energy Regulator (CER) sets a price for electricity rather than setting a maximum price. This, according to Mr.O’Donoghue is preventing the ESB from reducing it’s costs now, and making them wait for the CER to reduce the prices later this year.

Firstly and by way of diversion, why the hell does the CER need to wait until later this year to reduce the price of electricity? If this was the government we were waiting to make such a decision we’d all be up in arms, and the governments defence would be that it’s busy doing other things. But why must we wait for the CER – all it’s there to do is raise (mostly) or decrease (rarely) our ESB and Gas prices. Why can’t they meet tomorrow and reduce the prices?

However, my main thoughts on the above article were how interesting it was to see the ESB actually being on the side of consumers in wanting lower prices. If you were to read most coverage of those comments, you’d see no dissenting voice and presume that we, the hard pressed consumers of electricity, now had a great new ally, and that the big bad “man” was actually the CER rather than the ESB.

I certain didn’t believe for a moment that that was the case. What is more likely is that by allowing a maximum price to be set by the CER, the ESB would use that as an opportunity whenever any new market entrant decides to enter the Irish electricity market to lower prices to make it harder for that new entrant to compete on a level playing field when it came to price. So, while the initial lower prices would be of benefit to consumer, in the longer term, such maximum pricing would be to the detriment of electricity supply competition and ultimately detrimental to the pockets of electricity consumers.

It was interesting to see that pretty much all coverage of this statement from the ESB chairman didn’t look at the longer term issues at all. Most commentators seemed to be blinded by the short term gain – obviously what Mr. O’Donogue would have been hoping for. It’s left for Arthur Beesley in todays Irish Times (hidden away on the normally quiet Finance pages) to draw our attention to the bluff being orchestrated by the ESB. Read his excellent article here.

My sister was recently out looking to buy a new car. She pretty much knew what kind of car she wanted, and it was simply a case of shopping around for the best price. She was looking to spend in excess of €25k, so it was of great importance to get a test drive to make sure everything was to her liking.

Most garages she visited were obviously quite agreeable to this test drive – either happy for her to leave her car behind, or for someone to accompany her while on the test drive. However, there was one garage that she mentioned to me that just took the biscuit.
This garage, which shall for the moment remain nameless, would only provide an accompanied test drive if she, the prospective customer, committed to purchasing the car, and paid a deposit to confirm this intention. Unless such a commitment was forthcoming, there would be no test drive. Ridiculous!

I do hope there are no car buyers out there willing to succumb to such an absurd condition. There’s no way anyone should spend that kind of money without trying the merchandise first!

Apparently, according to this article in the Evening Echo the minister is seeking our thoughts (we, the public) on the way concerts tickets are priced. Hmmm! I wonder! Do we like the way things are at the moment? Both in the prices and the pricing!

Does he not read the papers, or listen to the radio? Or use the internet at all? Here’s hoping http://www.ticeidi.com/ can follow up on their campaign of a couple of years ago.

Some advice in yesterdays Irish Independent from Michael Kilcoyne of the Consumer Association of Ireland. The article, Beware of hotel minibars fitted with sensors, detailed how some hotels were using sensors in their minibars to determine if people were using the highly overpriced items provided there-in.

One of my good friends actually used to work for a company that sold and install such systems in hotels. As alternatives, hotels either have to work according to the “honour system” and trust that people will own up to what they use, or send staff around to each room before people checked out to see what was being used.

Based on recent coverage (which I can’t find at the moment) where Irish consumers admitted that they wouldn’t normally return money if they were given too much change in a shop, you’d have to wonder how many people would fully admit to what they’d used in a mini-bar. And obviously hotels would reckon that the overhead of sending staff around would be too costly and inefficient. So we’re left with the sensors.

The article claims that even moving items within the mini-bar could incur the charge, and Mr.Kilcoyne tells customer not to pay for anything that they haven’t actually consumed. I would have thought that that’s standard practice. He adds that consumers should to check their bills to make sure they’re not charged - and to question any issues.

Maybe better advice would be to stay away completely from mini-bars where items are usually priced at massively overinflated prices than you’d pay in a normal shop.

Some interesting comments here about mini-bars in hotels.