Rip off Ireland

ando

Just taught I'd share this as I'm still quite in disbelief... Rip off Ireland at its greatest. I've just saved €50... FIFTY F*CKING EURO!!!! on two phone covers. In Dublin, these covers go for €35, on Ebay they are got at just under €10 including postage. I wonder what else in everyday life we get completely ripped off on that we don't know about.

Basq

Jaysus... that second cover made my eyes bleed!

Dingatron

E-bay linky?

blahblah06

There not real covers. you just wasted your money. give it 3 weeks and those covers will be in bits. in a cover or not

dudara

blahblah06 wrote:

There not real covers. you just wasted your money. give it 3 weeks and those covers will be in bits. in a cover or not

Imaginary covers are they?

Basq

dudara wrote:

Imaginary covers are they?

It's an illusion....!!!! :eek:

Cabaal

Buyer beaware, you don't have to buy the product.
Its like people bitching thast CD's are expensive in town but yet they won't buy from cdwow.ie etc

Yes we all know phone covers, chargers, batterys etc are all over-expensive but people still buy them, atleast you were smart not to

blahblah06

dudura i dont think your awake yet. There not real nokia covers. there FAKES. you get me now ?

whiskeyman

Cabaal wrote:

Buyer beaware, you don't have to buy the product.
Its like people bitching thast CD's are expensive in town but yet they won't buy from cdwow.ie etc

Yes we all know phone covers, chargers, batterys etc are all over-expensive but people still buy them, atleast you were smart not to

Exactly.
Competition exists in this area - it's up to you, the consumer, to shop around and find the cheapest price.
The real issue with "Rip-off Ireland" are for goods and services that may not be directly comparable and / or have little or no competition.

skywalker

That purple one looks quite cool, have you got a link to the ebay page?

dudara

blahblah06 wrote:

dudura i dont think your awake yet. There not real nokia covers. there FAKES. you get me now ?

Thanks for the enlightment. You might just need to wake up yourself

blahblah06

smartarse. read my comment.

There not real covers. you just wasted your money. give it 3 weeks and those covers will be in bits. in a cover or not

THERE NOT REAL COVERS 2+2 = ???

dudara

OK, I can't stand this. The word you want to use is "THEY'RE".

Secondly, this thread should be in "Rip-Off Ireland" or "Consumer Issues"

and if someone can't notice when I'm being a bit sarky, then it takes all the fun out of it

whiskeyman

I think he means that one is a Nokia own brand, the other not.
To you they may be perfectly comparable and you dont understand the huge difference in price, but it may be that the workmanship and quality of the product is of a higher standard.
Either way, why anyone would pay €35 for a phone cover...(a cover!!!!) is beyond me..

dudara

whiskeyman wrote:

I think he means that one is a Nokia own brand, the other not.

No offense meant here Whiskeyman, but I think everybody reading the thread knew what he meant.

whiskeyman

dudara wrote:

No offense meant here Whiskeyman, but I think everybody reading the thread knew what he meant.

I had to state that to develop my point on the price difference...
Huge amount of offence taken btw.... *sob*

dudara

/pats on shoulder and hands over hanky

ando

blahblah06 wrote:

There not real covers. you just wasted your money. give it 3 weeks and those covers will be in bits. in a cover or not

oh so their counterfit goods :eek: , they look exactly like my original cover inside and out, but sure I'll see how it goes

skywalker wrote:

have you got a link to the ebay page?

well this is the guy that I got one of the covers from, you might find more in his online store

here's one for €7:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Brand-NOKIA-6230-phone-cover-matching-keypad-Black_W0QQitemZ5811308177QQcategoryZ20369QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

blahblah06

Ye ando there really different inside and out. I used to repair phones. however, if your looking for cheap phone parts go here. www.gsmsolutionsltd.com

adonis

im with whiskeyman on this.
if you dont have the sense not to pay 35 for a cover, then you deserve to be ripped off. a phone cover..
sorry...

Rb

adonis wrote:

im with whiskeyman on this.
if you dont have the sense not to pay 35 for a cover, then you deserve to be ripped off. a phone cover..
sorry...

Exactly.
It's only a bit of plastic ffs. :rolleyes:

Idbatterim

You want another rip off, was down in a hardware store if you can call it that, sells everything, bathroom, tiles, lights etc, in athlone a few days ago, they are looking for E4040 for a widescreen tv, this exact same tv costs £1,824.00 from prcdirect.co.uk or E2680! so id imagine prc are selling it at a decent profit! so you tell me how much those rip off merchants in athlone are making?!Samsung SP50L7HX is the tv by the way!

Idbatterim

Heres another good one. sick of paying E4.5 for 3 condoms? why not buy a bulk pack of durex from britishcondoms.com and get them for 17c each! This rip off republic is a bloody disgrace, and what do we get for it good service, good infrastrucutre?!

Guy:Incognito

Idbatterim wrote:

Heres another good one. sick of paying E4.5 for 3 condoms? why not buy a bulk pack of durex from britishcondoms.com and get them for 17c each! This rip off republic is a bloody disgrace, and what do we get for it good service, good infrastrucutre?!

How much are they to buy in a high street shop in the uk? or in a vending machine for that matter.

As far as the op is concerned there will always be a big difference in price for original parts. Why do garages use spurious parts for cars instead of original parts a lot of the time? The fake covers can be bout off those mobile accessories stalls in the middle of shopping centres (eg. liffey valley outside Virgin) and the covers arent anything like €35. To make a proper rip off statement, you have to be comparing like for like.

Oh, and theres a whole forum for this stuff.

Ann Elk

Idbatterim wrote:

Heres another good one. sick of paying E4.5 for 3 condoms? why not buy a bulk pack of durex from britishcondoms.com and get them for 17c each! This rip off republic is a bloody disgrace, and what do we get for it good service, good infrastrucutre?!

Heheheh.....ironic really, if the Government didn't allow us to get ripped off for condoms, we mightn't have had Eddie Hobbs.......heheh

But joking aside, we are very quick in this country to confuse getting ripped off with being lazy. I know a few German people who laugh their arses off at us complaining about the price of everything and then just handing over the cash - get up off your arses and shop around.

If the 'phone covers' (for god's sake will somebody please think of the children!) were bought for €7 then no-one was ripped off - they just had to look a bit harder for them. Why should we expect things to just drop into our laps?

Just like if the people really are convinced that the Government is to blame for all this, and that they should be sorted out why will we have such a ****ty turnout at the next election - just like the last one, and the one before that etc etc ad nauseum.

BigEejit

Ann Elk wrote:

......
But joking aside, we are very quick in this country to confuse getting ripped off with being lazy. I know a few German people who laugh their arses off at us complaining about the price of everything and then just handing over the cash - get up off your arses and shop around.

hit the nail on the head there, the reason they charge crazy prices is because they know some lazy person will come in and buy it without checking around (both in local shops and online) first ... you can be bloody sure that they couldnt sustain those high prices if no-one was going in and giving them their huge profits

Idbatterim

yeah you have to shop around, my mates used to take the piss that id know the price of most grocery items and i had to cause i wasnt exactly laden with cash, but now that they are working for their own money, they are looking out more too. I think there are a few factors involved in the rip off. The government definetly plays a part, so does consumer laziness, irelands smaller size .ie less competiton in everything, i.e energy, waste, insurance etc. But those FF thieves have to be voted out of gov, from what i get the PD's seem to be the most consumer friendly party. Fianna Fail are totally the opposite, look after the boys and the monopolies, wouldnt want to upset anyone important now would we?! Im not sure how much condoms are in uk stores or pharmacy, but my point is, if they are being sold for 17c each what the hell do they actually cost and if we can buy them that cheap imagine what boots etc with their buying power would be getting them for! Atleast from what i gather the groceries order is to be abolished and hopefully well be getting outr IKEA soon, and there are quite a few other new entrants coming into the market. Ill tell you one rip off that really gets to me, the cinema and cinema food rip off, i mean its would be very straight forward for everyone to just bring in their own grub and theyd have to lower their damn sky high prices!

Rb

Idbatterim wrote:

Ill tell you one rip off that really gets to me, the cinema and cinema food rip off, i mean its would be very straight forward for everyone to just bring in their own grub and theyd have to lower their damn sky high prices!

Yeah it's a pain in the arse alright.
Heard about Movies@Dundrum? I'm sure it'll be pricey anyway there but they've actually added a "vip" section in each screen which is €18 per ticket to get in :rolleyes:

netwhizkid

rb_ie wrote:

Heard about Movies@Dundrum? I'm sure it'll be pricey anyway there but they've actually added a "vip" section in each screen which is €18 per ticket to get in :rolleyes:

Jeez what a rip, wait a few months and add a few euros and you could buy the dvd and the girlfriend can watch it with you then also for free, after watching it a few times, then providing you haven't scratched it all up you can flog it on ebay for a tenner. This country is out of control.

Blackjack

whiskeyman wrote:

Either way, why anyone would pay €35 for a phone cover...(a cover!!!!) is beyond me..

Could not agree more. It's pretty much supply and demand. If there are fools out there willing to part with 35 quid for a flippin phone cover, there will be sellers out there willing to sell it for 35 quid.

whiskeyman

Blackjack wrote:

Could not agree more. It's pretty much supply and demand. If there are fools out there willing to part with 35 quid for a flippin phone cover, there will be sellers out there willing to sell it for 35 quid.

Yup - like what Ann Elk stated, a lot of the apparent "Rip-off" culture is due to the fact that many people dont bother shopping around for the cheapest price of comparable items in a competitive market, thus allowing traders to keep their prices high as they know demand is there.

However, there still is the rip-off culture where competition does not play a part - likes taxes (direct and indirect), things like stamp duty.
I may also argue where a cartel is operating - and Ireland mobile phone industry is a clear example of this. It's not as if we can get a cheaper mobile phone service from a provider based elsewhere in Europe, unlike how we can purchase goods and services online.

I think this differenciation is crucial.

Colly

bought a nokia battery from ebay in car phone warehouse the nokia battery BL-5c for the 6600 etc is 35Euro and I bought it for 1.45Euro yep a bit of a saving ehh! with delivery it cost 7.46 in total still a fifth of the price, I couldnt spend too much as I am sure I will be buying a new phone in the next year or so and that will be on ebay or the internet somewhere anyways

Defo worth buying online as it is far cheaper and easier to shop around as the government recently suggested.

dundalk cailin

i bought a phone cover off eBay a month or two ago, round 10 euro as OP said, yes its not the best of quality, but im so careless with my possessions in general that if id bought a *genuine* one, i probably woulda wrecked it anyway, so this way i dont feel so bad

Wertz

Colly wrote:

bought a nokia battery from ebay in car phone warehouse the nokia battery BL-5c for the 6600 etc is 35Euro and I bought it for 1.45Euro yep a bit of a saving ehh! with delivery it cost 7.46 in total still a fifth of the price, I couldnt spend too much as I am sure I will be buying a new phone in the next year or so and that will be on ebay or the internet somewhere anyways

Defo worth buying online as it is far cheaper and easier to shop around as the government recently suggested.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/08/22/woman_burned_by_exploding_cellphone/

Attol

Stekelly wrote:

How much are they to buy in a high street shop in the uk? or in a vending machine for that matter.

Free in family planning clinics that anyone can attend. You only get Durex extra safe though. A pack of 3 in Boots is about the same as in Ireland.

parsi

netwhizkid wrote:

Jeez what a rip, wait a few months and add a few euros and you could buy the dvd and the girlfriend can watch it with you then also for free, after watching it a few times, then providing you haven't scratched it all up you can flog it on ebay for a tenner. This country is out of control.

That's not a ripoff. People are choosing to pay for this additonal service (whatever it is) and they don't have to if they don't want to. The country isn't out of control. What seems to be out of control is spending with people willing to pay such amounts just to go watch a film with some vague VIP treatment...

J.R.HARTLEY

Idbatterim wrote:

Heres another good one. sick of paying E4.5 for 3 condoms? why not buy a bulk pack of durex from britishcondoms.com and get them for 17c each! This rip off republic is a bloody disgrace, and what do we get for it good service, good infrastrucutre?!

ah now, you don't want ripped johnnies lads, leads to all sorts of problems.

RobertFoster

J.R.HARTLEY wrote:

ah now, you don't want ripped johnnies lads, leads to all sorts of problems.

I agree. I don't think our bodies could survive the continual leakage of cocaine through long haul flights.