Must *everything* have a price on it in Irish shops?

BigEejit

The reason I ask is that me and the wife were in brown thomas in Cork (don't ask, women are attracted to the most expensive makeup/perfume like moths to a flame) ... anyway, all of the makeup counters in there didnt have a single price on any item on them ... so, is the legislation about putting a price on goods for food and clothes only? are brown thomas being naughty?

b20uvkft6m5xwg

Victor kindkly contributed info about this a while back and its still a sticky- here's the thread...
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=79725

I must say I havent seen prices on all things- I noticed it when I was clothes shopping the other day!

Victor

/me feels vaguely important.

Essentially, they need to either put it on the shelf edge lable or on the actual product or in some other way clode to / identifiable with the product.

Products of less than 50g do not need to have the €/kg on them.

Tesco are claiming that products sold by number (e.g. 3 onions or 12 Jaffa cakes) do not need to comply.

dmeehan

Tesco are claiming that products sold by number (e.g. 3 onions or 12 Jaffa cakes) do not need to comply.

how much do these way, are they less than 50g???

Victor

Originally posted by dmeehan
how much do these way, are they less than 50g???

I doubt it. Each individual Jaffa cake is (apparently) 11.7g (about 140g for 12) and I imagine onions (of the the merchanable kind) are 100-300g each.

BigEejit

I fired off an email to the odca@entemp.ie anyway ... see what happens...

BigEejit

Has anyone sent a email off to odca@entemp.ie? ...did you get any form of a reply? ...did they act on it?

Victor

Originally posted by BigEejit
Has anyone sent a email off to odca@entemp.ie? ...did you get any form of a reply? ...did they act on it?

I got a "we are busy ....".

antoinolachtnai

I got this email in response to a complaint about B&Q:

At 14:41 22/09/2003 +0100, you wrote:
Our Ref: DC3767

22nd September 2003

Dear Mr O Lachtnain

Thank you for your email concerning B&Q

This office will investigate the matter raised by you. I should explain
while it is the policy of the Office to follow up on all complaints it is
not possible because of the volume of correspondence required to revert
back to every complainant.

Of course the Office will contact you if the need arises either in the
course of or on completion of the investigation.

Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.

Regards

Patricia Percival
Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs


My original email was as follows:


17 September 2003

22 Lr Grand Canal St
Dublin 2

Director of Consumer Affairs
4, Harcourt Road
Dublin 2

Dear Madam

I write regarding B & Q hardware store in Liffey Valley retail park, Co. Dublin.

I visited the store yesterday (September 16) and was checking the price of waterproof membrane material in the building supplies area of the store. I checked the barcodes of the goods on display against the prices marked on the shelf and found that the prices did not correspond to the items on display. The prices for many of the items were not displayed at all.

I felt that the layout of the pricing labels was deceptive on the shelf. Many items were priced. Items were placed above the price labels in such a way as to convey the impression that items were less expensive than they actually were.

I asked for a price check on a specific item. I was told to walk to an information desk in another part of the store (some 50 yards from the shelf where I found the unpriced item). It was over ten minutes before my query was dealt with.

I asked why the item was not priced. I was told that the reason was that all the items were being repriced, and that as a result, the prices had been removed. I said that this was unsatisfactory and asked to speak to a manager.

The manager (Graham) eventually called me back this morning, apologising to me for being on the phone when I wanted to speak to him. He confirmed that a large number of items had been left unpriced in the store. He said this was as a result of a 'pricing review'. He said that it was standard procedure to remove prices from display for a period before putting up new prices. He insisted that this was company policy and that it was perfectly legal. He did so in a rude and off-hand way.

As you know, this behaviour is in fact an offence under the European Communities (Requirement to Indicate Product Prices) Regulations, 2002. I also noticed that many labels in the store fell short of complying with the regulations regarding the display of unit prices.

The manager would not undertake that a future breach would not occur. He made it clear that this was standard practice for B&Q and that B&Q would remove prices from display any time it was convenient for them. He made it clear that this was B&Q's policy, and that it was not merely an accidental occurrence.

B&Q has decided (apparently at the highest level) to blatantly ignore aspects of Irish law which are unfavorable or inconvenient to it. Rather than dealing with the issue when confronted, it has acted in a rude, intimidating way. This is Ireland's biggest store, owned by a company that should be providing a positive example to all retailers in Ireland.

On that basis, I would ask that you instigate a prosecution against B&Q.

I will be happy to help you in any way regarding the prosecution.

I would be obliged if you could acknowledge this correspondence as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully,

Antoin O Lachtnain

BigEejit

Wow.... antoinolachtnai ... If I may ask a question, when did you send your original email? and where did you send it? (odca@entemp.ie???)

My email to them by comparison was ...er .. short and sweet (not that yours is long-winded ) ...

Hi,
I would like to point out that there is no pricing on any of the perfumes etc in Brown Thomas on Patrick St in Cork, it is not on the items and it is not on the shelving. Will you talk to them about this? will you go there and threaten them with €3000 fine per infringment?.

Regards,

antoinolachtnai

Well, I think that if you're complaining at all, it's as well to get it right. I think it is very important to ensure that you are identifiable and contactable. Otherwise there's a chance they might dispose of it as 'just an email'.

I can't see that there's any point in asking them to 'talk' to the shop. Presumably you talked to the manager yourself and they told you there was nothing they could do because of store policy or whatever.

To be fair to the ODCA, they do get a lot of calls and emails and letters, and it's only right to bring complaints to them which you have already brought to the management's attention and which the management has refused to deal with. I think everybody has to do their part in complaining, and not just depend on the ODCA.

In that circumstance, you might as well ask them to go in there and prosecute. There's no point in talking about it if they've said they're not going to do anything about it.

Of course, in practice, I suppose there is a high probability that they will just talk to them and give them a little slap on the wrist. But at least the card is marked.

a.