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Hanging on for the telephone

James Mulcare bought a phone from the O2 store in Cork in March and it worked fine until towards the end of last month, when it suddenly started freezing on him and switching itself on and off. "As it has been about three months since I bought it, I can't find the receipt," he writes. "I do, however, still have the original box for the phone and for the sim card."

With the boxes under his arm he dropped into the O2 store in Cork where he bought his phone to see if there was anything they could do to fix it. "The sales assistant asked me if I had a receipt. I told them I did not and produced the box instead. He informed me that there appeared to be a software fault in the phone and, as they were out of that particular model, he told me to go to the O2 Experience store on Patrick Street, where I should be able to get what he called a "swap out" while the phone was sent out for repair."

Mulcare did as instructed, but when he got to the O2 Experience store he was told they could do nothing, as he did not have a receipt, and, because the store where he had originally bought it was a franchise, they were unable to access their system to verify proof of purchase. You'd swear they'd never heard of the telephone. "So off up to the first store I went again, to be told there was nothing they could do without the receipt," he says.

He figures O2 would have had some record of the sale on their system and, given that he still had the original box and that when he bought the phone he had also transferred his Vodafone number to O2, believes they should have been in a position to help him out despite the absence of a receipt.

So do we, so we contacted the company and it turns out they agree with us. O2 apologised for the inconvenience to Mulcare and described it as "an exceptional circumstance" and "the first time we have been made aware of a situation like this arising since we launched our swap-out service last year". It went on to say that the whole point of its swap-out service is to make sure O2 customers are given an immediate solution if they experience difficulties with their handset. "While we do ask (as detailed on our website) that the customer produces an electronic receipt of the purchase when looking to avail of our swap-out service, we do endeavour to locate the receipt in-store when a customer visits us without one," it said in a statement.

The company accepted that this should have happened in the case of Mulcare and said it was now in contact with him to resolve the situation. "O2 is the only operator in Ireland to offer a swap-out service, which offers customers who have purchased a phone in the last 12 months a replacement phone on the spot when they return a faulty phone," the statement concluded.

Park strife in the Herbert

Last weekend, Aideen Waters took her daughter and her friend to the Justin Timberlake concert in the RDS. She decided for security "of the children rather than the car" to park in the Herbert Park Hotel car park. "As you go through the barrier and, too late to turn back, the pricing board shows €2.75 for the first two hours and €6.50 for subsequent hours," she writes. The total cost to her was a hefty €32.

She called the hotel to comment on their prices and said that, while she expected to pay over the odds for parking in the hotel, she felt this was exorbitant. She says she was told the fees were structured in this way to discourage non-patrons from using the car park so it could be kept free for guests or those eating in the restaurant. "I understand their motives but think the manner in which they display their charges and the level of charging is appalling, and I thought other unsuspecting clients should be forewarned.

A spokeswoman for the Herbert Park Hotel told us that, as Ballsbridge has "a large business community" and because of the many events that take place at the RDS, car parking is at a premium and prices reflect this. She said the hotel car park is available to the public, "but obviously residents and patrons of the hotel receive priority for our parking spaces". She said charges are "displayed before the barrier and again at the barrier, so that guests can clearly see the charges prior to entering the car park. Should a guest decide not to use the parking facilities for any reason they can easily reverse their vehicle away from the barrier. Alternatively they can enter the car park and exit immediately, for which there is no charge."