Feedback from readers of Pricewatch

Reader regrets changing to UPC

A reader from Clontarf got in touch with a complaint about UPC that brought us back to the bad old days when the company featured so often on this page that we practically had its spokeswoman’s number on speed-dial. “I don’t like complaining,” his e-mail started, “but having seen UPC’s new marketing campaign , I really feel that you should warn your readers about their deplorable service before they decide to jump ship from their existing suppliers.”

Last autumn he had a number of sales people call to his door in Dublin 3 “and eventually they persuaded me to leave Sky and move back to them. I had originally been an ntl customer and had left about six years ago due to non-existent service,” he writes. He was, however, convinced that the problems of the past had been confined to the dustbin so he switched because UPC was cheaper.

“The phone and internet were installed with no problems but the same cannot be said for the television.” He had a Sky HD box on his main television and a SkyPlus box on a second television so he ordered the equivalent from UPC. Last December, UPC installed one non-recording box on the second TV “even though we ordered a box with a recording function”. As of last week, six months later, he says the problem had not been resolved.

UPC also left his family without any service on their main TV over Christmas “and eventually, five-and-a-half weeks later, installed another incorrect box, not the HD recording box that had been ordered. “The day before the installation, I rang to check that they had the right box and spent at least 45 minutes explaining that they were planning to install the wrong box, but to no avail.” Again, this situation had not been rectified, five months later. He says that “it is totally and utterly frustrating trying to deal with them by phone or more recently e-mail”.

We contacted UPC and in a short statement, the company said the matter had been resolved to our reader’s satisfaction. “The correct services have been installed and a follow up phone call has confirmed that is satisfied. Furthermore, we have apologised and he has graciously accepted.” While we don’t doubt that he “graciously accepted” the company’s apology, he did also get in touch with us after the problem had been resolved wondering why it took six months and the intervention of The Irish Times for the problem to be resolved. Many readers will probably wonder the same thing.

Weighing in against SuperValu

A Cork reader is getting “increasingly frustrated” at some of the practices she sees when doing her weekly shop – particularly the repackaging of goods to make them appear the same price or cheaper when they are, in fact, more expensive.

“In my local SuperValu, loose veg is being sold on a ‘pick-and-mix’ basis rather than by weight. What this means is that if I don’t want to buy pre-packaged onions, loose onions are only being sold as part of a pick-and-mix of veg which is being priced at 25 cent per item. A bag of 10 medium size onions would cost €2.50 to purchase this way,” she writes. “The bag I tested weighed 1.5 kilos and loose onions sell for around 75 cent a kilo. This new pick-and-mix format more than doubles the cost of a bag of loose onions.” She queried this with SuperValu and was taken aback.

“I was told that they are running this as an eight-week trial in selected shops and I was assured that my observations would be passed back to Musgraves. However, while I think it’s very reasonable for shops to trial new display and sales methods, I feel it is unfair to trial these methods while removing the option to purchase the goods in the old way.

“I have made a bigger effort to wait and buy from my local farmers’ market at a significantly cheaper price. In any case, the money goes straight to the producer.” The second item she noticed had to do with Persil Small and Mighty. “There was a special offer on large containers and I was comparing these to the normal size I buy. But the normal size looked a bit different to me and, sure enough, when I went home and checked, the standard size used to be 730ml and retailed between €4.95 and €5.90.”

However, the new package retails in SuperValu at €5.90 for 650ml (18 washes). “Change the packaging very slightly, keep the price the same and hey presto, a 20 per cent increase for the supplier. I don’t think a lot of consumers would notice this.”