Your questions answered
Slipping up on banana costs
A couple of weeks ago we carried a complaint from a reader who was going to buy seven bananas in a bag in Superquinn priced at “only €2”.
She then discovered that they could be bought loose for just €1.02, which equates to €1.25 per kg.
“They should try buying loose bananas in Spar in Phibsboro,” a cross reader writes.
“They charge €0.40 per banana. At that rate their seven bananas would have cost €2.80 or €3.20 a kilo.”
Cutting cost of Christmas
Elaine Mullen contacted us to alert us to an Ikea deal that is running on real Christmas trees.
“Pick up a tree next Saturday for €30 and you get a €20 voucher to spend in store after Christmas.
“There are terms and conditions but still, a real tree for a tenner is a bargain.” Can’t argue with that.
Mail-order company fails to deliver over mistake
A reader recently ordered something online from Littlewoods. “It was delivered on time, which is good, but Littlewoods delivered the wrong item, which is not so good.
“I rang them immediately and was told I had to return it to them through the post office,” our reader writes.
He points out that to do this he will have to either “dispense with my lunch break and go to the post office during its busiest time of day, or take time off work. Not to mention buy a post bag/envelope big enough to take the item and pay for the postage (although they will reimburse postage if I send them receipts). This is a lot to ask from someone to rectify a mistake that they made.”
So he emailed Littlewoods and got the standard reply about the post office “but was also told that their courier service would pick it up from my home address at a charge of €6.30. Again, this is their mistake and yet I would be expected to pay for it.”
A reader offer that will help keep the clampers at bay
We had a big response to our clampers story from last week. An elderly woman had her car clamped because although she paid for her parking, the wind blew her stub over and the clampers couldn’t see it. The company – NCPS – had a bit of heart and gave her her money back.
“Last year, having paid and left the ticket on the dashboard, I returned to my car to find a €40 fine and the ticket on the floor,” writes Christine Scott.
“I sent the cheque with a letter to my local authority pointing out that the ticket must have blown down because the wind was strong, and also, this did not happen with the old tickets, which stuck to the windscreen.” Her cheque was returned “just this once . . since then I keep two coins in the car to weigh down the ticket.”
Well we have a better idea than two coins. Ed Darcy has developed a “simple little solution” to the problem of tickets being blown on to the floor and the like. His DisplayRite plastic envelope can be affixed to the windscreen and then parking tickets can be slotted in. He is going to give 25 parking ticket holders to the first 25 Irish Times readers who mail him at eddarcy42@gmail.com. On your marks, get set, go.
