Sounding Off

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Last week we featured correspondence from a reader who attempted - and eventually succeeded - in paying the sterling price for some clothes in his local Dunnes Stores on a point of principle, as he felt the dual pricing was misleading euro shoppers.

It was just one of many queries and complaints we get about the practice some stores have of putting both the sterling and euro prices on items. The central complaint is generally about the ludicrous exchange rate the stores employ - almost always to the euro shopper's disadvantage.

When questioned as to why the sterling and euro prices bear little or no resemblance to the actual value of each currency, retailers inevitably claim that the Republic of Ireland price is higher because of higher overheads here and the need to set their in-store exchange rates months in advance.

Last week a reader sent in a price tag that sets a new record for outlandish exchange-rate application - and it comes from Dunnes Stores, a company that does the vast majority of its business in the euro zone. A pair of "cheapo trainers", as our reader calls them, were priced at £5 and €15. We checked and, based on last Tuesday's exchange rate, £5 would equal about €7.45. We contacted Dunnes to ask how a pair of trainers that cost the euro equivalent of €7.45 in Newry had a price of €15 in Dundalk.

We contacted Dunnes Stores but no one was available to explain to us how the store had arrived at this most unusual currency conversion.

Frustrated about a bed in a box

Having your bed made is not that easy if you buy it from House of Fraser in Dundrum, as Sarah-Jane Larkin recently learned. She ordered a bed frame from the store and paid a deposit. Once it was available for delivery from the UK, the full amount, including a delivery charge, was debited from her credit card. "At the time of purchase we had been told that the delivery people, coming from the UK, would assemble the bed," she writes.

At that time she also told the sales person that she wouldn't have the keys to her new house until July and was told this wouldn't be a problem. It seems to have been, however, and throughout June she had to field repeated phone calls from the delivery company threatening to charge a storage fee unless she was prepared to accept the delivery immediately.

Eventually she got the keys to her new house and delivery was arranged for early this month. The delivery men arrived with the flat-packed bed but said they were not responsible for assembling it. They dropped off four boxes and left.

She said that House of Fraser initially responded to her complaint by saying it had had problems with its delivery service, but since that initial contact its customer service department has been reluctant to take her phone calls. They have told her she will have to wait until the next delivery to Ireland in four weeks to have her bed built.

"Meanwhile they are refusing to refund us our money, saying that we are in possession of the goods. What we have are four boxes of wood - not the bed frame we paid for weeks ago." She says House of Fraser is retailing premium furniture products without appropriate support. "Luckily, while waiting to get this sorted we have a mattress to sleep on ordered and delivered without any fuss from a local Irish company."

The store said that, following our intervention, the matter had been resolved with our reader. In a statement, House of Fraser said it assembled all furniture as part of its delivery service. "In this instance this did not happen as it should have done. We pride ourselves on the standard of service we give our customers and are reviewing our procedures as a result of this incident."

Costly confectionery

On the Cork-Dublin train last week, Anne O'Leary attempted to buy a small bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolate. When she heard the bar, which costs about 85 cent in your local shop, would cost €1.85, she promptly put it back.

"Newsagents already substantially mark up confectionery," she writes. "Is there any reasonable justification for Iarnród Éireann more than doubling the price of an already overpriced product?"