I think items sound be automatically covered for more than 2 years if you’re buying a dishwasher for 700 or a washing machine for 500. Also to do away with having to register online when the machine arrives at your home, it should be automatic based on your receipt from date of purchase. And cars should be guaranteed for 10 years.
Why do we not have an active independent consumer body in Ireland?
- Thread starter Brendan Burgess
- Start date
Existing legislation offers cover up to 6 years on appliances. Manufacturer warranties are in addition to your statutory rights, they can't replace or reduce them.
Perhaps retailers should be made more accountable and discouraged from fobbing consumers off to the manufacturers? They'll quickly learn to stop stocking products from manufacturers with poor reliability.
From my perspective I always feel that a new customer should never be on a better deal than an existing customer
But that aside I think the main focus should be on the "standard pricing" and the discount policy's that they all offer
why has nobody questioned companies offering 20,30,40 % discounts off std pricing on what are nowadays considered essential services
Do we really need to spend money on a study when we all know the answer and we all know it's not going to make a difference
I've seen multiple theories put forward by all kinds of parties, often from nut jobs who have little understanding of the market or even worse vested interests who push the narrative in their favour. Perhaps there's a role for a trusted independent voice to cut through the noise and help focus attention on areas where greater efficiencies might result in savings, or where we just have to accept higher prices unless we address things like population density.
The challenge of course is the vested interests and uninformed will still likely just continue to ignore or undermine such work.
Whatever about that, evidence based policies are usually better than hunch/prejudice based ones.
Would be nice if our elected followed that bit of advice!!
The ones that do lose their seats.
That should not be within the remit of a consumer advocacy group.
All that should.
That shoudn't.
balders93
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The average Klarna cost to the merchant is a 5% transaction fee.
Coldwarrior
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Something like which.co.uk and www.moneysavingexpert.com for Ireland would be great. I guess Brendan is probably the closest thing we have to a Martin Lewis in the UK! 
One other thing a consumer agency here should advocate for, if your energy company increases their rates mid contract, you should be able to switch away for free without having to pay a break fee. The way they get around this currently by the contract covering the percentage discount off the standard rate, and not the rate itself, should be banned, it's completely one sided.
One other thing a consumer agency here should advocate for, if your energy company increases their rates mid contract, you should be able to switch away for free without having to pay a break fee. The way they get around this currently by the contract covering the percentage discount off the standard rate, and not the rate itself, should be banned, it's completely one sided.
Here's a clear case where a consumer needed help and was given the run around until the Irish Times intervened.
www.irishtimes.com
VHI didn't want to pay for her 2 days hospital stay in the Blackrock clinic because the VHI decided she could have been discharged after one day as 2 tests were done by 15:20 on that day. Her consultant only discussed them with her the next day when she was discharged.
She says she has “written on numerous occasions to the VHI putting my case to them, and appealing their decision, to no avail, I am hoping that you may be able to intervene on my behalf. €1,748 may not be much money to the VHI but it is a heck of a lot of money to me!”
- Honestly is this not the entire reason one has health insurance with the VHI and when you need it they try and deny your claim.
Woman hit with €1,784 bill after VHI rules Blackrock Clinic stay unnecessary
Reader Mary spent two nights in a clinic after a fall, but her insurer said one of the nights was not medically necessary
VHI didn't want to pay for her 2 days hospital stay in the Blackrock clinic because the VHI decided she could have been discharged after one day as 2 tests were done by 15:20 on that day. Her consultant only discussed them with her the next day when she was discharged.
She says she has “written on numerous occasions to the VHI putting my case to them, and appealing their decision, to no avail, I am hoping that you may be able to intervene on my behalf. €1,748 may not be much money to the VHI but it is a heck of a lot of money to me!”
- Honestly is this not the entire reason one has health insurance with the VHI and when you need it they try and deny your claim.
Here's another shocking case from Revolut
www.irishtimes.com
- Wife's card declined in Lidl
- husband's 2 revolut cards declined in Lidl
- they had the money on the accounts
- there were security issues raised by revolut that turned out to have no substance, only resolved when the Irish Times got involved
- revolut to be avoided for main banking would be my view
Irish Times:
We have to say we have never heard of anything like this before. It begs many questions, including, why did this happen? Why did Revolut not tell the couple it was happening? Why did Revolut not lift the security block when they were alerted to the issue? Why was the provider freezing some of the couple’s money on the one hand and telling them to withdraw it on the other?
Revolut leaves customers without cash and tells them to sling their hook without reason
A reader found himself unable to pay for shopping at Lidl because Revolut blocked him without explanation
- Wife's card declined in Lidl
- husband's 2 revolut cards declined in Lidl
- they had the money on the accounts
- there were security issues raised by revolut that turned out to have no substance, only resolved when the Irish Times got involved
- revolut to be avoided for main banking would be my view
Irish Times:
We have to say we have never heard of anything like this before. It begs many questions, including, why did this happen? Why did Revolut not tell the couple it was happening? Why did Revolut not lift the security block when they were alerted to the issue? Why was the provider freezing some of the couple’s money on the one hand and telling them to withdraw it on the other?
Booking.com
I can't find the article now, but it was about an elderly couple who used booking.com to book flight tickets, arrived at the airport in Australia to fly home to Britain and the airline said they had no booking. Booking.com were less than useless and tried to blame the airline.
NEVER book airline tickets via a 3rd party, always book direct.
I can't find the article now, but it was about an elderly couple who used booking.com to book flight tickets, arrived at the airport in Australia to fly home to Britain and the airline said they had no booking. Booking.com were less than useless and tried to blame the airline.
NEVER book airline tickets via a 3rd party, always book direct.
Brendan Burgess
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I had an issue with Laya years ago. But they were right to get further information and they did pay. I have seen very few complaints about health insurance companies not paying out. I doubt that the issue would be a priority for a campaign.
In this case, everything was done by 1 pm.
The consultant could have visited the patient and told her the results and discharged her.
But instead they kept her in another night to suit the consultant.
You can be quite sure that if there had been a full hospital and people in a&E waiting to get a bed, she would have been discharged.
Maybe the Consumers Association should be looking at why private hospitals keep customers in longer than necessary?
I agree entirely with this.
Myself and my wife have used both private hospitals and have gone public on different occasions. We found that the public hospitals were not anxious to keep you in whereas the public ones were very happy to keep you in for additional nights - it's not difficult to guess why.
Her last test was at 15:20, not sure why she couldn't have been released than but it's entirely possible the consultant only came back on his rounds the next day. If it's the case that Irish private hospitals are keeping people in unnecessarily the VHI were right to query it, but they didn't need to stress the patient. VHI/Laya should have a means to directly complain with the hospital.
Also shocking the Blackrock only sent the bill 18 months later.
Hardly a reason to keep a person in hospital overnight in an expensive hospital bed just because the consultant couldn't seem them until the next day. The woman in question doesn't seem to have be so unwell that she needed hospitalisation, she was in for tests.
A certain private hospital in Cork formerly run by nuns was notorious for this. Once you were in you nearly needed to shimmy down a drainpipe to get out again and if you went in for anything an excuse was found to book you in for the night. The nuns were very good business women and you always signed your insurance forms before you left.
Agree entirely.Something like which.co.uk and www.moneysavingexpert.com for Ireland would be great. I guess Brendan is probably the closest thing we have to a Martin Lewis in the UK!
Then take it a further step, link it with a TV programme that publicise stories, names the wrong doing party etc.
The CCPC are useless, and are sadly let away with it....despite the claim on their website....
We protect and promote competition and consumer rights
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Brendan Burgess
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No treatment or tests appear to have been done after 15.20. The consultant should have been around on the day of the tests.