Sounding Off:

We've got Mail: Ripped off? Stunned by good value? Write, textor blog your experience to us

Philip Tobin from Dublin was shopping in Dunnes Stores in theNutgrove Shopping Centre recently when he noticed most of the itemswere marked in sterling and euro. "The sterling price was in arather larger typeface than the euro price," he writes. "I felt thiswas misleading the customer, who might only find out at the cashpoint (of no return)."

His interest piqued, he decided to carry out a little experiment.He went home and returned with the exact amount of cash in sterlingfor a particular item of clothing. The cashier, however, refused toconduct the transaction and told him that she could only accepteuro. "I pointed out that the garment was priced in sterling andunder consumer law I was entitled to purchase the item for the pricedisplayed." A manager was sent for and she also said that thecustomer would have to pay for the item in euro; Tobin refused, andsaid he was not leaving unless he could bring home the item at thestated sterling price. "I was treated to a series of excuses as towhy the tag carried a sterling price and why they would not acceptsterling. Finally my persistence won out and I was directed tocustomer services desk where my money was accepted, transferred intoeuro and the transaction eventually took place."

While we admire Tobin's tenacity and are always pleased whenpeople stand up to major retail outlets (particularly when it comesto that old chestnut of dual pricing), unfortunately he was notstrictly correct when he said that he was entitled to purchase theitem at the sterling price. Dunnes was not under any legalobligation to accept that currency for the item.

We contacted the National Consumer Agency who confirmed that inthe Republic of Ireland Dunnes Stores only has to accept euro. Aslong as the euro price is printed clearly on the tag, they are notin breach of any consumer legislation, no matter how infuriating wefind it.

Warsaw wins wireless wars

Gavin O'Sullivan was moved to send us an e-mail late one nightwhile waiting for a flight out of Warsaw airport. He sent usinformation on the cost of one of the many wireless internetproviders in the airport, where 900 minutes of broadband costs about[euro]4. "Compare this to Eircom's (the only available service)charges at Dublin airport," he writes.

It's enough to drive you from drink

Eamonn Gallagher was pretty pleased with himself when he happenedupon a genuine bargain in Tesco recently. Between July 6th and 8ththere was a 30 per cent discount on any six bottles of wine, hewrites. He bought 12 bottles on July 7th and his dinner guests thatnight enjoyed these Australian wines so much that he returned to thestore the following day for more. "I filled a wine-carrier with sixbottles only to be told Tesco had dropped the offer," he writes."When one thinks of the countless millions in profit that Tescotakes out of Ireland each year this seems to be a very mean way totreat their customers and, of course, very poor PR; on principle Iwill not buy any more wine in Tesco," he says.

We contacted Tesco and a spokesman said there had been atechnical hitch on the Sunday of the promotion in some Tesco stores,so the promo had to be scrapped. The spokesman reminded us that thestore had published ads in national papers on two separate days lastweek in which it apologised for the hitch and announced it plannedto re-run it last Sunday.