Dubray Books. How can they justify Euro/Sterling exchange rate being used.

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SlugBreath

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I purchased a book in Dubray Books Blackrock today that cost £12.99 GBP. At the till I was charged €18.15 for the book.

That is a rate of circa .71 when today's rate is .85.

I reckon I was overcharged by about €3 for the book.

How can they justify an exchange rate of this magnitude?
 
SlugBreath said:
I purchased a book in Dubray Books Blackrock today that cost £12.99 GBP. At the till I was charged €18.15 for the book.

That is a rate of circa .71 when today's rate is .85.

I reckon I was overcharged by about €3 for the book.

How can they justify an exchange rate of this magnitude?
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Er, would Customs charges be anything to do with it, given it has come from the UK? I'll correct myself in that VAT is not applicable on books.

Best,

Opus2018
 
Im not going to justify their pricing but the difference isnt just the exchange rate.

They bought that book from a wholesaler or publisher at a price, added the cost of doing business in Ireland and their profit margin to get their retail price.
The fact that a bookseller in the UK has a different cost of doing business and profit margin so a different retail proce is irrelavant. Probably costs a different price in France or Germany.
 
Dubrays do not have to justify the exchange rate - they are selling books in euro in Blackrock

You can accept the euro price or shop elsewhere

The recommended price in £ sterling has little to do with the price Dubray offer - they can offer what they want, you can accept their offer or not and take your business elsewhere
 
Had the same problem in a well know high end store in the Blanchard's town centre.the lable price was 45gbp but at the till it was 95e so I decided not to buy it.We have a choice.
 
huskerdu said:
Im not going to justify their pricing but the difference isnt just the exchange rate.

They bought that book from a wholesaler or publisher at a price, added the cost of doing business in Ireland and their profit margin to get their retail price.
The fact that a bookseller in the UK has a different cost of doing business and profit margin so a different retail proce is irrelavant. Probably costs a different price in France or Germany.
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This is it exactly. Recommended retail price means nothing in the UK either tbh but is required by law to be listed.
 
mustang01 said:
This is it exactly. Recommended retail price means nothing in the UK either tbh but is required by law to be listed.
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The addition of the word recommended by a producer/wholesaler is a means by which they can avoid allegations of price fixing which is against the law.

The retailer is free to ask any price they choose.
 
jpd said:
The recommended price in £ sterling has little to do with the price Dubray offer - they can offer what they want, you can accept their offer or not and take your business elsewhere
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The book was only priced in Sterling. There was no Euro price on it. I only found out the Euro price when they asked me for payment. The book should have been priced in Euro only, this is Ireland not the U.K.
 
From the Consumers Association of Ireland.

Does the price have to be displayed in euro?​

Under EU legislation, the price of products on sale in Ireland must be displayed clearly in euro. The product may also be marked with the price in other currencies – for example, sterling – and there is no requirement that the euro price be larger or more obvious than the price in other currencies.
 
Salvadore said:
But to your original question, the offence was not overcharging. It was a failure to display a euro price.
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When you are browsing the bookshelves in a bookstore the last thing on your mind is calculating the "custom charges", "the cost of doing business in Ireland", the "profit margin", the "exchange rate". We have no idea how Dubray Books calculate these add-ons. It looks as if €5 has been added on to a £13 book for all of these things. Is this a lot? Standard?
There is also the original profit built in to the recommended Sterling price remember.
So after browsing you decide to buy the book. You only have a Sterling price on the shop floor. You go to the payment area and only then are you told the Irish price.
It is easy to say that you can still walk away when you hear the Irish price, but you have made a commitment to buy the book at this juncture.
I would say that very few people walk away at this point in the transaction and Dubray Books know this.
Why else would they have only the Sterling price on the book?
 
It may have been an oversight on the part of whoever was supposed to put euro price stickers on the book.
Maybe another customer scratched the euro price sticker off to see what the sterling price was.

There are so many unknowns, jumping to the conclusion that Dubray's are scamming customers by using an inflated exchange rate is a bit premature -
 
I have bought many times in Dubray ( no particular loyalty to them or their prices) and the euro price has always been prominent. All we know is that it wasnt in this case on this one book.
 
I will be travelling to a shopping centre where they have an outlet, next week.

I will randomly check about 20 books in their store to see what the story is and report back.
 
Showme tm said:
Had the same problem in a well know high end store in the Blanchard's town centre.the lable price was 45gbp but at the till it was 95e so I decided not to buy it.We have a choice.
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That's the worst one I've ever heard of
 
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