YOUR CONSUMER QUERIES:ON THE night before they went on holiday early this summer, Mark Gilleran's wife decided to skip cooking and instead bought a pizza from Apache Pizza via the website Just-Eat.ie. She had no cash and her local Apache outlet does not accept credit card payments, so she used the third-party website, he writes.
“Apache has been advertising any pizza, any size for €9.99,” he continues. “That is unless you buy via Just Eat when the price rockets by 100 per cent. Now, it is only a tenner, but it is the principle.
“The price is of a pizza is widely advertised as €9.99 with no terms and conditions applied for purchasing through a third-party agent.”
We had a look at the terms and conditions and, while they do say that pizza deals can not be availed of using Tesco vouchers or Tradefirst vouchers, there is no mention of third-party sites, so the gripe seems valid to us.
All's not fare going one way
A reader called James is an Irish resident who was need of a one-way flight from Birmingham to Dublin recently. “When searching, I accidentally selected return flights and it quoted the Birmingham to Dublin leg as €59 plus admin of €6,” he writes.
After realising his mistake and changing to one way from the English city, he could only get a quote in sterling and the price was listed as £60 (€76.36) plus admin of £6 (€7.64).
“How is this price differential excused, given the disparity in exchange rates? Being an Irish resident I wish to pay in euro and Aer Lingus has the cheek to then offer me an exchange rate which converts the £66 to €87. Salt in the wound.”
ID cards for all would ease sales of alcohol
A READER called Esther sent us a mail in connection with the policy on selling alcohol at Dunnes Stores.
“While on our way to Castlepalooza , my friend and I stopped in Dunnes Stores in Tullamore town to buy some alcohol,” she writes. “We were doing a trip for a few of us, so we were buying a considerable amount.”
The pair brought it to the till and were asked for identification. “It was flattering as I have just turned 30 and my friend is due to turn 31 next week. We were told categorically by both the shop assistant and the manager that they were not going to sell alcohol to anyone who did not have a passport or Garda ID even if they looked over 18. No ID, no booze. I would never carry my passport to a festival. Never,” she says.
They didn’t have any ID on them, but she had her driver’s licence in the car so she offered to get it for them. “They would not accept my driver’s licence as a form of ID.
“If I was stopped by the Garda and they asked me for ID, I would give them my driver’s licence and they would accept this. Why on earth would a shop not accept this? They lost over €100 worth of business from us,” she writes.
“Perhaps we need to introduce a standardised ID in this country, one that cannot be easily faked, but also one that is always accepted.”
Sounds like a good idea to us.
Taking liberties with car insurance quote
A READER GOT in touch to share “a very worrying experience” she had recently with Liberty Insurance (formerly Quinn Insurance). “My car insurance is due for renewal this week, so I have been contacting various companies to try and reduce my premium,” she writes.
“I have heard several ads on the radio for Liberty Insurance quoting very competitive rates, so I decided to contact them. I went onto their website and filled in the necessary information. However, when I clicked the button to get the quote, the system informed me that it wouldn’t be able to quote me online and that I would need to call them.”
So she called and was told that because of her address the company would not be able to quote her online and she would have to fill in a proposal form.
“When I queried what exactly she meant by my address, she told me that as I am living in Dublin 15, an extra loading would apply.
“I was horrified at this and asked her to explain as to why such a loading applied. She said that for certain areas in north Dublin an extra loading was added to the policy.”
Our reader pointed that this kind of attitude by the insurance company was a sort of discrimination. “While I live in Dublin 15, I live in a very nice area, have no criminal record, do not live beside drug dealers, etc, etc. However, as I needed to get the insurance I decided to fill in the form and send it back to them.”
She then was quoted €831.58. “I am in total shock at this. I drive a four-year-old Kia worth about €10,000, I have no penalty points, I have been driving for 20 years and have a full no-claims bonus. The quotation I have received from other companies is about €400, so this one is double.”
She was curious to see if her address was the reason the quote was so high, so decided to try and get another quote based on a different address.
“I filled in the form online using an address in Co Meath and surprise, surprise the quote came in at €362.25 – nearly €500 of a difference. All the details apart from address are exactly the same so obviously I am be penalised for living in Dublin 15.”
She is thinking about contacting the Financial Services Ombudsman to see if this kind of loading based on address is legal. “Needless to say, I will not be going with Liberty Insurance.”
I have contacted Liberty Insurance and asked them to explain this huge difference in the two quotes, but have not heard anything back.
While we can completely understand our reader’s frustration, there is probably no point in her contacting the ombudsman as what the company is doing is not only legal, it is also very common. In fact, almost all the major insurance companies in Ireland impose higher charges on people who live in areas which are perceived to have more risks.
It comes down to numbers. Actuarial studies show that certain places attract a higher percentage of claims and of exaggerated claims than others, so everyone in that area gets penalised for the crimes of the few.
