SOUNDING OFF :Jeanette F Huber sent us a mail from Kinsale highlighting "exemplary customer service". A special bed pillow she has used for a long time was apparently discontinued by her American source some years ago. "At 76 I depend on it and have been dismayed I could not buy a new one," she wrote.
That was until she saw a mention of MTE Living in The Irish Times recently and visited the company website. She sent a mail asking if they could provide a custom pillow for her. They couldn't, but they sent her in the direction of a company called Silver Hill Feathers who in turn said they could make the pillow if she supplied a template or a drawing with measurements. This she did. Days later she got her pillow from the company, a little smaller than she would have liked, but otherwise perfect. She was a little puzzled when she saw the "with compliments" slip that was included in the box. When she contacted the company they confirmed they had made her the pillow free of charge.
And what was behind this act of unprompted generosity? It turned out that the company had accidentally discarded her original pillow before making the new one, which explained the slightly smaller size. Because of this the company said they "felt it only fair to replace the one sent, free of charge". It is, as Ms Huber points out in her mail to us, "very rare in 2008 to receive such efficient, considerate attention and service". More's the pity.
Having their 5c worth
Deirdre Delany was doing her Christmas shopping in a Jack and Jones outlet recently when something distinctly peculiar happened which she said was "definitely a new one" to her. She bought a jumper which was clearly marked "€IRL29.95" on the price tag, which also had 15 other prices for other countries. "At the till, the assistant scanned the item and said '€30 please' . . . I am not the type of person that would usually quibble over 5 cent, but I pointed out the discrepancy to the assistant. She drew my attention to small print on the label which states: 'Prices may vary due to local VAT and economic conditions.'
"Stupidly I accepted this explanation but on reflection, I wondered is this legal? At that rate, they could charge any price for an item. Surely the retailer must sell an item as priced?"
They certainly should. Under consumer legislation exact prices must be displayed and failure to do so can lead to prosecution.
Setting it straight
Last week we carried an item about the differing prices of jackets in Cashel, Dublin and Luxembourg. A reader sent us a mail saying she saw a Basler jacket in Daverns of Cashel with a price tag of €469. She said she saw the same jacket selling in Luxembourg for €273 and in Brown Thomas for €455. Days later she saw the jacket selling in Daverns but this time it had a price tag of €355.
The owner of the Cashel shop Raymond Davern contacted us to explain what had occurred. He said that the jacket he was selling was 100 per cent cashmere and that he had contacted the distributor for the Benelux countries after reading last week's item. He said he had been told that while the jacket for sale in Luxembourg might have been exactly the same style, it was not made with cashmere but a mix of angora and wool. "I would like to compare apples with apples and not apples with pears," he says.
He said that the lower price in his shop on the second occasion our reader visited could be explained by the fact that in recent years the store had taken to having a pre-Christmas sale and the jacket in question was substantially discounted. He said that he followed up personally complaints about pricing "because it is in my interest to do so. I haven't been able to keep my customers happy all the time but I do try." He pointed out that the Vat rate in Luxembourg is 14 per cent compared with the 21 per cent we have to pay.
