ValueIreland.com

It seems that our work over on the SayNoTo1890.com website is causing both the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI) and ComReg to launch investigations into the pricing of 1890 and 1850 numbers for people calling on their mobiles.

I have already followed up with the ASAI to offer any assistance they may require and to get the outcome of their investigation. - no response as of yet.

I haven’t yet, but will follow up in the same way with ComReg later this week. The full story from the Sunday Times is here:

ASAI set to call on ComReg to investigate pricing anomoly

“LO-CALL” numbers, set up by state agencies and businesses to save callers money, cost up to 49c a minute when dialled from a mobile phone.

The cost of phoning 1890, 1850 and 0818 numbers is shared by businesses, but only if the caller is on a landline. Because mobile phone operators treat these numbers as “non-standard calls”, consumers are being charged at normal rates and don’t get to use their minute allowance. As a result, it is much cheaper to call a business’s normal landline instead of the supposedly low-cost alternative.

The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) is to raise the anonmaly with ComReg, the telecommunications regulator. “There is definitely an issue here of consumer knowledge, and we will be having a discussion with ComReg about it,” said Orla Twomey, its assistant chief executive.

In a bid to help mobile phone users circumvent lo-call numbers, Diarmuid MacShane, a consumer watchdog, has established Saynoto1890.com. “The 1890 numbers were set up to allow consumers call national businesses at local rates,” he said. “This works fine if you call from a landline. For example, the Eircom lo-call rate is about 5c per minute. Yet mobile phone companies are charging much more for the same call. It defeats the purpose of having a lo-call number.”

MacShane has found alternative landline numbers for the Financial Regulator, the Data Protection Commissioner and ComReg. “I’ve just managed to get a normal landline number for e-Flow,” he said.

He has also posted a list of prices charged by different mobile companies for phoning to lo-call numbers. Vodafone is the most expensive — its pre-pay customers are charged 49c per minute during peak times for a call to an 1890 number. The cost for “pay monthly” customers ranges from 18-35c.

O2 customers are charged 35c per minute for lo-call numbers, while Meteor’s are levied at 15c per minute.

Dermott Jewell, chief executive of the Consumers’ Association of Ireland, has criticised mobile phone companies’ refusal to include lo-call numbers in minute bundles. “The onus needs to come heavily on mobile providers to change their package deals,” he said. “Now that ComReg is aware of this, I would be surprised if something was not done.”

In its defence Vodafone said that “mobile offers the mobility that landline customers do not benefit from. It is important when considering value to the customer to consider the overall pricing structure rather than one price in particular”.

O2 said it charges a flat rate of 35c per minute to “ensure transparency” and the exclusion of some non-standard calls from bundled minutes on price plans is “standard industry practice”.

Meanwhile the National Consumer Agency has begun an investigation after O2 customers discovered that account upgrades they had earned had been revoked. Dozens of users found that the upgrades had disappeared when they went to use them.

The customers have been told that the eligibility criteria had changed and they need to spend more money on calls if the upgrade is to be reinstated.

One user on Talk2O2, the company’s online forum, said: “If I had been told by the customer service agent who gave me the reference number that the upgrade was only going to be valid for two weeks, I would have upgraded immediately.”

O2 said: “It is standard industry practice to review and update criteria [for mobile phone upgrades] on an ongoing basis. Such reviews result in both increased and decreased entitlements to upgrading customers depending on the time of review.”

The company said anybody who rang customer care, or was called by customer care to advise them they were eligible for an upgrade in the last 90 days, is still entitled to it. Customers entitled to an upgrade but who did nothing about it have lost out.

Since the advent of the barrier free tolling, one or two readers of the Value Ireland Blog have voiced their suspicions that the NRA sensors at the M50 toll plaza are selectively not identifying cars using non-eflow tags in order to snuff out competition to the eflow tags themselves.

Take one reader, for example, who has an eazypass tag. For 6 times out of 10 trips through the M50 toll area, their eazypass tag wasn’t recognised by the eflow equipment, and 6 non-payment lettera were sent out. The other 4 times, the eazypass tag was recognised successfully and money was deducted from the eazypass account. On some days, the tag was recognised in the morning, but not in the evening. On other occasions, it was recognised going southbound on one day, but not the next day. So, the tag works - and the tag position is correct within the car, yet more than half the time, they’re getting the non-payment letters.

As some of you may know, I like a conspiracy theory as much as the next person, maybe more than most, but I think this deserves to be looked at. Basically the NRA are working both sides of this M50 tolling fiasco. I can imagine that the temptation to playing both sides of the game and gaining an unfair advantage might be hard to ignore.

The NRA, through their company eflow, are providing the hardware and software required to manage the scanning and billing of cars and lorrys that pass through their toll area. Therefore, all toll tag and service providers must interact with eflow to ensure that their tags are suitable to be used, that their customers are identified going through the toll area, and that the correct companies are notified of charges incurred by their customers for such trips across the M50.

Yet eflow also provides a service in competition to all of those 3rd party toll tag service providers. eflow provides it’s own tag service, as well as providing the number recognition and pay as you go service.

Hypothetically then, consider if the part of eflow responsible for identifying tags and number plates of cars sets their systems up to only sometimes identify all of the 3rd party tags of the eflow tag competitors. By doing this, many more non-eflow tag holders would get the toll overdue paper work and notification of non-payment of toll letters than really should do.

And hypothetically, every time a driver who has a non-eflow tag gets such an unwarranted letter, they’re then forced to ring the part of eflow responsible for billing to get the mess sorted out. And, hypothetically, no matter what the user says to eflow about their competitor tag being set up correctly, and working some of the time but not all of the time, the eflow customer service people maintain that the problem isn’t on their side, but on the side of the competitor tag provider.

And then, hypothetically, the 3rd party tag provider such as eazypass is now so overrun with calls from irate customers who are getting non-payment notifications through no fault of their own that they don’t even answer calls to their own customer service number.

How long then, hypothetically, before the user of the competitor tag decides that it’s not actually worth their while suffering all the grief they’re getting from having to deal with both their own tag service provider and with eflow customer service all the time and can’t be bothered with all the hassle - especially having to follow up regularly to ensure they’re not stung for the extra non-payment of toll fines?

How long, hypothetically then, before the user of the M50 who originally signed up with an eflow tag competitor decides to make their lives easier and just signs up for the eflow tag itself and cut their losses and save themselves the hassle?

Through the Value Ireland Savings Plan, we propose an idea that will help you save money on a monthly basis, but will also help you cut down many unnecessary expenses that you may incur in day-to-day life. A successful application of the Value Ireland Savings Plan to your day-to-day life will reduce your outgoings and increase your available cash, to do with as you choose.

There are 2 key concepts to the Value Ireland Savings Plan. Firstly, reduce all unnecessary outgoings. Secondly, reward positive money incoming.

Reduce Unnecessary Outgoings

Do you regularly go overdrawn on your bank account and end up paying interest or penalties at the end of the month? Could you be more careful about how you conduct your bank business and reduce the amount of bank fees you pay? Do you find yourself wasting money because you’re too lazy – taking a bus instead of a taxi, or paying for parking instead of walking?

Do you end up paying for plastic bags when out shopping instead of reusing old bags or having a “bag for life”? Or are there other areas in your life where, after spending money on something, you think to yourself, “I wish I hadn’t done that”? It could be as simple buying an occasional packet of cigarettes if you normally don’t smoke.

The first part of the Value Ireland Savings Plan is to keep track of all of these unnecessary outgoings on a weekly basis, and total them up at the end of the month. This total amount is what you should match and put away as savings for that month.

So, if your unnecessary outgoings are exceedingly high, you’ll end up having to put away large amounts of money each month. This may be a difficult thing to do – but while you’re trying to keep your expenditure under control, you’ll be adding decent amounts of money to your savings pile. However, if you stick with it, you’ll find ways to reduce these unnecessary outgoings, reducing the amount of money you waste on a monthly basis.

But you may say, won’t this reduce the amount of money I’m saving each month (because you’ll like the idea of saving money by now)?

Not if you’re following part two of the Value Ireland Savings Plan.

Reward Positive Money Coming In

Through this part of the plan, any money that you receive in a manner that you may consider a bonus, or extra, is recorded on a monthly basis.

So, if you keep your current account in the black, you may receive (probably very small) interest on your money. Or you may explicitly save money though having shopped around for a particular item.

You may have won money on the horses, or the football (though if you loose money, maybe it should be noted in the Unnecessary Outgoings). Or you could have won money on the Lotto or scratch cards (though again, your stake money could be considered an unnecessary outgoing).

The second part of the Value Ireland Savings Plan is to keep track of all of the positive money coming in on a monthly basis, and total them up at the end of the month. This total amount is what you should match and put away as savings for that month.

You may also receive interest on your savings. This is where you’ll win both ways with the Value Ireland Savings Plan.

As you decrease your Unnecessary Outgoings, your Positive Incomings are going to increase – either through money you consider you’ve saved, or through an increase in the interest you receive as you begin saving more and more money. Either way, you’ll be putting away sums of money each month.

Monthly Savings and Spreadsheet Assistance

At the end of each month, you total your Unnecessary Outgoings and your Positive Incomings and put that money away as savings for that month.

How you save that money is up to yourself. Ideally it should be put into an account earning a decent rate of interest where it is relatively difficult to gain access to it. If your savings targets are relatively long term, you might think of putting the money into Prize Bonds (and have another potential for positive incomings if you win).

The spreadsheet, available by clicking here, can help you keep track of your Unnecessary Outgoings and Positive Incomings. You can either manage your money through using this spreadsheet on your PC, or just print out the sheet and fill in by hand.

There is an example page in the spreadsheet also to give an idea how the Value Ireland Savings Plan may work for you.

Conclusion

So, by adding together the money deemed Unnecessary Outgoings and Positive Incomings on a monthly basis, you’ll gain the following benefits -
bullet

And most importantly, you’ll begin to build up a growing savings nest egg.

At the end of it all, how successful the Value Ireland Savings Plan is for you depends on how regularly you monitor your money in and money out, and how strictly you classify how you may be wasting your money through Unnecessary Outgoings.

Through the experience of the promoter of Value Ireland, following this plan has built up a sum of €3500 over the past 4 years. This is purely through following the ideas set out here and is completely independent of any other type of savings or investments.

A nice little sum based on putting away amounts of money each month that you’ll hardly notice, while also helping you manage your expenses.

Shopping around and researching online has never been so important — as highlighted by some price comparisons between the current Argos and Smyths catalogues.

In a recent discussion on an Irish parenting website, one mother alerted users to the fact that she paid €29.99 for a toy in Smyths — and then noticed the exact same product retailing in Argos for €72.99.

Dublin mum Julie Galvin has a 21-month-old boy. She says: “I bought my son a toy in Smyths last week. It was €29.99. I saw the EXACT same toy in Argos for €72.99. I couldn’t believe the price difference, whatever about a few euro, but €43?

That’s an incredible price differential for the same toy — the Thomas the Tank Engine Sodor Adventure Land Deluxe.

Other differences include: Little Tikes camera — €49.99 in Smyths and €57.99 in Argos; the Chou Chou My First Tooth Doll — €39.99 in Smyths and €51.99 in Argos; the V-Tech Digital Camera — €64.99 in Smyths and €85 in Argos; and a JVC Mini DV Camcorder — €199.95 in DID Electrical and €229.99 in Argos.

A spokesperson for Smyths confirmed that the toy products are identical in all four cases.

The above prices and products are available to view online on the Argos website (www.argos.ie), Smyths website (www.toys.ie) or DID (www.didstore.com) There have also been substantial price increases on some products when comparisons are made between the Argos spring/summer and autumn/winter catalogues.

A Metal Triple Sleeper Bed cost €294.99 at the start of the year and now retails at €399.99. The Oslo Bunk bed was €329.99 and now costs €459.99. The Cussina Walnut Dining Table and eight Chairs was €799.95 and is now €1,021.95. The latter product retails on the Argos UK site (www.argos.co.uk) at £679.95 — or €855.

When contacted, a spokesperson for Argos declined to comment on price differences on individual items, but did issue the following statement: “Argos strives to be the best value general retailer and, with over 1,700 pages of products in the Irish catalogue, we are committed to offering choice, value and convenience to all our customers in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

“Unlike our competitors, we have to publish prices in the catalogue which will last for the full six-month lifespan of the catalogue. This means that the prices published in the catalogue are the maximum prices that customers will ever pay.”

However, consumer watchdogs state that it’s important for consumers to do their own research. “If the prices differ that much, then it just shows the value that there is in shopping around,” says Diarmuid MacShane, of www.valueireland.com.

“What’s particularly interesting is that people wouldn’t have had to leave the comfort of their homes to find out the price differences. All the information necessary to make the right and cheapest choice is available on the internet,” he adds.

“Argos is obviously pushing the boat out in charging what they’re charging for those items, but it’s also obvious that they’re charging those prices because there are some people who are willing to pay those exaggerated prices.”

The National Consumer Agency (NCA) also advises shoppers to do their research before parting with their cash. “As there is no price capping in Ireland, retailers are allowed to charge what they want,” says a spokesperson. “The NCA are delighted that this issue has been raised as it highlights the savings to be made by shopping around.”

ASAI set to call on ComReg to investigate pricing anomoly

“LO-CALL” numbers, set up by state agencies and businesses to save callers money, cost up to 49c a minute when dialled from a mobile phone.

The cost of phoning 1890, 1850 and 0818 numbers is shared by businesses, but only if the caller is on a landline. Because mobile phone operators treat these numbers as “non-standard calls”, consumers are being charged at normal rates and don’t get to use their minute allowance. As a result, it is much cheaper to call a business’s normal landline instead of the supposedly low-cost alternative.

The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) is to raise the anonmaly with ComReg, the telecommunications regulator. “There is definitely an issue here of consumer knowledge, and we will be having a discussion with ComReg about it,” said Orla Twomey, its assistant chief executive.

In a bid to help mobile phone users circumvent lo-call numbers, Diarmuid MacShane, a consumer watchdog, has established Saynoto1890.com. “The 1890 numbers were set up to allow consumers call national businesses at local rates,” he said. “This works fine if you call from a landline. For example, the Eircom lo-call rate is about 5c per minute. Yet mobile phone companies are charging much more for the same call. It defeats the purpose of having a lo-call number.”

MacShane has found alternative landline numbers for the Financial Regulator, the Data Protection Commissioner and ComReg. “I’ve just managed to get a normal landline number for e-Flow,” he said.

He has also posted a list of prices charged by different mobile companies for phoning to lo-call numbers. Vodafone is the most expensive — its pre-pay customers are charged 49c per minute during peak times for a call to an 1890 number. The cost for “pay monthly” customers ranges from 18-35c.

O2 customers are charged 35c per minute for lo-call numbers, while Meteor’s are levied at 15c per minute.

Dermott Jewell, chief executive of the Consumers’ Association of Ireland, has criticised mobile phone companies’ refusal to include lo-call numbers in minute bundles. “The onus needs to come heavily on mobile providers to change their package deals,” he said. “Now that ComReg is aware of this, I would be surprised if something was not done.”

In its defence Vodafone said that “mobile offers the mobility that landline customers do not benefit from. It is important when considering value to the customer to consider the overall pricing structure rather than one price in particular”.

O2 said it charges a flat rate of 35c per minute to “ensure transparency” and the exclusion of some non-standard calls from bundled minutes on price plans is “standard industry practice”.

Meanwhile the National Consumer Agency has begun an investigation after O2 customers discovered that account upgrades they had earned had been revoked. Dozens of users found that the upgrades had disappeared when they went to use them.

The customers have been told that the eligibility criteria had changed and they need to spend more money on calls if the upgrade is to be reinstated.

One user on Talk2O2, the company’s online forum, said: “If I had been told by the customer service agent who gave me the reference number that the upgrade was only going to be valid for two weeks, I would have upgraded immediately.”

O2 said: “It is standard industry practice to review and update criteria [for mobile phone upgrades] on an ongoing basis. Such reviews result in both increased and decreased entitlements to upgrading customers depending on the time of review.”

The company said anybody who rang customer care, or was called by customer care to advise them they were eligible for an upgrade in the last 90 days, is still entitled to it. Customers entitled to an upgrade but who did nothing about it have lost out.

Shopping around and researching online has never been so important — as highlighted by some price comparisons between the current Argos and Smyths catalogues.

In a recent discussion on an Irish parenting website, one mother alerted users to the fact that she paid €29.99 for a toy in Smyths — and then noticed the exact same product retailing in Argos for €72.99.

Dublin mum Julie Galvin has a 21-month-old boy. She says: “I bought my son a toy in Smyths last week. It was €29.99. I saw the EXACT same toy in Argos for €72.99. I couldn’t believe the price difference, whatever about a few euro, but €43?

That’s an incredible price differential for the same toy — the Thomas the Tank Engine Sodor Adventure Land Deluxe.

Other differences include: Little Tikes camera — €49.99 in Smyths and €57.99 in Argos; the Chou Chou My First Tooth Doll — €39.99 in Smyths and €51.99 in Argos; the V-Tech Digital Camera — €64.99 in Smyths and €85 in Argos; and a JVC Mini DV Camcorder — €199.95 in DID Electrical and €229.99 in Argos.

A spokesperson for Smyths confirmed that the toy products are identical in all four cases.

The above prices and products are available to view online on the Argos website (www.argos.ie), Smyths website (www.toys.ie) or DID (www.didstore.com) There have also been substantial price increases on some products when comparisons are made between the Argos spring/summer and autumn/winter catalogues.

A Metal Triple Sleeper Bed cost €294.99 at the start of the year and now retails at €399.99. The Oslo Bunk bed was €329.99 and now costs €459.99. The Cussina Walnut Dining Table and eight Chairs was €799.95 and is now €1,021.95. The latter product retails on the Argos UK site (www.argos.co.uk) at £679.95 — or €855.

When contacted, a spokesperson for Argos declined to comment on price differences on individual items, but did issue the following statement: “Argos strives to be the best value general retailer and, with over 1,700 pages of products in the Irish catalogue, we are committed to offering choice, value and convenience to all our customers in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

“Unlike our competitors, we have to publish prices in the catalogue which will last for the full six-month lifespan of the catalogue. This means that the prices published in the catalogue are the maximum prices that customers will ever pay.”

However, consumer watchdogs state that it’s important for consumers to do their own research. “If the prices differ that much, then it just shows the value that there is in shopping around,” says Diarmuid MacShane, of www.valueireland.com.

“What’s particularly interesting is that people wouldn’t have had to leave the comfort of their homes to find out the price differences. All the information necessary to make the right and cheapest choice is available on the internet,” he adds.

“Argos is obviously pushing the boat out in charging what they’re charging for those items, but it’s also obvious that they’re charging those prices because there are some people who are willing to pay those exaggerated prices.”

The National Consumer Agency (NCA) also advises shoppers to do their research before parting with their cash. “As there is no price capping in Ireland, retailers are allowed to charge what they want,” says a spokesperson. “The NCA are delighted that this issue has been raised as it highlights the savings to be made by shopping around.”

This is doing the rounds at the moment (thanks Niamh!). Not sure how valid a money saving tip it actually is, but it’s quite interesting anyway.