General rip off examples

silver2020 · 10-11-2019 11:35pm

marvin80 wrote: »

M&S clothes.

Suit - Ireland: €260
UK: £199 or €230

I presume they give the excuse of transportation costs etc.. but it's bullsh*t when you consider say the Newry store in the North and the Drogheda store in the South are 40 minutes apart.

https://www.marksandspencer.com/ie/blue-checked-tailored-fit-suit/p/ds9a9804b9e835a9e27f7063666437cfb5

https://www.marksandspencer.com/blue-checked-tailored-fit-suit/p/ds9a9804b9e835a9e27f7063666437cfb5?prevPage=srp

That's a surprisingly small difference for M&S, the vast majority of their clothes have an exchange rate of 1.50

Debenhams are worse, they STILL use approx 1.6 on many items.

They are two stores to be avoided at all costs.

btw, retail operating costs are little different between the two countries these days. Back in the stupid days of the celtic tiger, rents here were stratospheric, but not anymore.

So definitely M&S and Debenhams top the league of general overall ripoff merchants

zeebre12 · 10-11-2019 11:39pm

GAA jerseys..€70 is shocking. What is it only a light piece of material?

Living Off The Splash · 10-11-2019 11:43pm

wassie wrote: »

My example was about the price of 'over the counter medicines' which, as as far as I am aware, none are addictive, so Im not sure what your point is.

Some of the codeine based painkillers can be addictive.

silver2020 · 10-11-2019 11:45pm

zeebre12 wrote: »

GAA jerseys..€70 is shocking. What is it only a light piece of material?

€10 for the jersey, €60 for the club directors expenses

But, yes a substantial amount of cost is in licencing fees. If you're a dub, pennys have a light blue short sleeve t-shirt for €2.50 - considering the dubs are in croke park every August/earl sept, this will be perfect

IrishHomer · 10-11-2019 11:47pm

€9.45 for a Vodka and 7up in the Bridge House Bar in Tullamore Co. Offaly. They won't sell a splash of 7up has to be a bottle.

I just had a 3 day Mediterranean Cruise including all I can eat food and drink and return priority flights all for €299, some rip off country here in Ireland.

L1011 · 11-11-2019 12:00am

A cruise for that price this autumn is an operator desperately trying to fill berths that they had expected Thomas Cook to sell; not someone covering their costs (they absolutely lost money on you). Alcohol provided at sea is duty free also.

However, 9.45 is an obscene price for that in Dublin let alone the Midlands!

odyssey06 · 11-11-2019 9:12am

Living Off The Splash wrote: »

Some of the codeine based painkillers can be addictive.

They were talking about paracetamol though. There's no good reason for the scale of the price diffs and restrictions here for OTC products versus UK except to perpetuate the ripoff and protect the 'jobs for the boys' in the regulatory sector here.

daheff · 11-11-2019 9:15am

WishUWereHere wrote: »

Re the round up, you do know you have a right to demand the EXACT change, ie 4.97, hand over a fiver, if you want it, they MUST give you the 3 cents change.

Heard this on Liveline a while ago.

Nope nope and more nope.

No legal requirement to give ANY change. Shops do because customers arent coming back otherwise

thenightman · 11-11-2019 10:42am

Deleted User wrote: »

Thought there might be a general thread for pics of the odd rip-off you see here and there which aren't worthy of a new thread every time..........Couldn't find one, so here we go:

Spar Merrion Row. Who in their right mind is paying this for a standard packet of biscuits?

edit: image was huge, trying to resize it now

Lots of upmarket offices in the area, someone sent out to buy biscuits for a meeting out of petty cash presumably.

decky1 · 11-11-2019 10:49am

Inheritance tax.

11-11-2019 11:03am

wassie wrote: »

Over the counter medicines a classic example of the restricted competition in this country and the nanny state we are live in. Nothing sh!ts me more than being told 'sorry sir, we cant sell you more because the Govt doesnt trust you'.

Was in Aus a while back, could get a generic box of 100 tablets of paracetamol (500mg) for AUD$2.49.....Thats €1.55 or 1.55c

I'm fine with the restrictions on paracetamol tbh. It saves a lot of lives. And while people generally don't like being told what to do if you regularly need more than 32 paracetamol on-hand you should probably be seeing a doctor and getting a prescription for them.

editorsean · 11-11-2019 11:32am

Almond 1 litre carton - Usually €2.39 for the Alpro brand and €1.69 for store own brand. Occasionally the Alpro brand goes on sale for 2 for €3.50 such as in Supervalu every 2-3 months. The cheapest I've seen it was €1.50 on one of the LIDL Super Weekend Savers several months ago.

In the North, the Alpro brand is generally always on sale for £1 per carton somewhere. When I was in Asda in Strabane last week, it was 90p per carton in Asda. Even when it's not or out of stock, the store own brand is 95p to £1 per carton in most supermarkets.

11-11-2019 11:47am

Cazale wrote: »

It's a 9% Double IPA which is what they cost.

It most certainly is not what they cost. McGargle's do an 8% double IPA that's available for about €3.50. Same with O'Hara's, think theirs is 7.5% though, but still, well under €4.

€6 for a single can is expensive no matter what way you slice it. That underdog place on Dame st is one of the dearest pubs in the city and they do a triple IPA @ 11% on tap for that kinda money.

ncmc · 11-11-2019 2:06pm

Was looking at a kids hat and glove set in Debenhams over the weekend. €25 with 20% 'discount' in the 'sale'. Looked it up on the .co.uk site and its £16 (less than €19) Debenhams seem to price stuff here with the sole purpose of giving a % off in their never ending sale and making you feel like you got a good deal.

WishUWereHere · 11-11-2019 9:34pm

daheff wrote: »

Nope nope and more nope.

No legal requirement to give ANY change. Shops do because customers arent coming back otherwise

https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/money_and_tax/personal_finance/banking/rounding_cash_transactions.html

Introduction
Rounding was rolled out nationwide on Wednesday 28 October 2015. Rounding means that the total amount of a bill will be rounded up or down to the nearest 5 cent. It applies only to cash payments and does not apply to bills paid electronically - by debit card, credit card or by store card.

Rounding aims to reduce the use of 1 and 2 cent coins. These coins are not actively used by consumers and the cost of issuing them is more than the value of the coins. A 1 cent coin costs 1.65c to produce while 2 cent coin costs 1.94c. However 1 and 2 cent coins will continue to be legal tender.

The key features of rounding are:

Rounding is voluntary for retailers and customers
1c and 2c coins remain legal tender
Rounding applies only to cash payments
The total amount of any bill will be rounded down or up to the nearest 5 cent
The retailer can apply rounding automatically without asking the customer – it is up to you to say if you don’t want rounding applied to your bill. However customers must always be given exact change if they request it.

I'm not argueing if its legal or not go give any change. My post was about the rounding up/down, & I stated that the customer has the right to demand their full change.

silver2020 · 11-11-2019 10:56pm

WishUWereHere wrote: »

& I stated that the customer has the right to demand their full change.

You have a right to ask, but your post said they "legally must" which is incorrect.

The problem about using such words is someone will then go into a sho and say the same thing and will look like a fool.

So its best never to say something is legally binding unless you can show what legal text proves such a statement.

Saying as you say in this post that a customer has a right to ask for correct change is more correct. (the store still is not legally obliged to give it, but would lose all their custom fairly quickly if they did not)

beachhead · 12-11-2019 12:23am

Complaints about "rounding" are not rare.Why would the majority of the population here want to go boards to complain.Most have never heard of boards.I use a card when the "rounding" is not in my favour.As said before,for the retailers who use it,it's a form of gouging.My local Aldi has started stocking 1 and 2c coins.So there must a some "rebels" emerging.

daheff · 12-11-2019 9:25am

WishUWereHere wrote: »

I'm not argueing if its legal or not go give any change. My post was about the rounding up/down, & I stated that the customer has the right to demand their full change.

Absolutely agree customer should get full change. Imo rounding is a scam (albeit on a small scale) for retailers to improve margins with pricing strategy.

If they were really so worried about rounding they would just change their prices to the nearest 5c and not have to go through the whole round up/down rigmarole.

But to counter your point, customer always has the right to demand full change, but retailer is not bound by law to give any change.

12-11-2019 9:43am

daheff wrote: »

Absolutely agree customer should get full change. Imo rounding is a scam (albeit on a small scale) for retailers to improve margins with pricing strategy.

If they were really so worried about rounding they would just change their prices to the nearest 5c and not have to go through the whole round up/down rigmarole.

But to counter your point, customer always has the right to demand full change, but retailer is not bound by law to give any change.

On your last point, how long would a business last in the digital age if they refuse to give change? I suspect a quick post on one of the many social platforms and an email to media outlets would do the trick very quickly. So, though legally you may be correct, in reality you are not.

I really don’t see how retailers can be accused of profiteering for following a Government guideline. The cost of producing 1&2c coins exceeds their monetary value so they are being taken out of circulation.

Rounding up really isn’t going to make a difference to the bottom line, it would take 100 customers to make €1, about 60c after tax, how that could be considered a scam is beyond me. As others have pointed out, rounding up does not apply to electronic purchases, if you don’t want to pay it, tap and go.

daheff · 12-11-2019 3:13pm

Dav010 wrote: »

On your last point, how long would a business last in the digital age if they refuse to give change?

Yep I agree. I made that point earlier.

Also remember these laws predate any kind of social media.

daheff wrote: »

Nope nope and more nope.

No legal requirement to give ANY change. Shops do because customers arent coming back otherwise

Dav010 wrote: »

I really don’t see how retailers can be accused of profiteering for following a Government guideline.

Its a voluntary thing. If it was going to cost shops, you can be sure they wouldn't be doing it. Also remember that the larger multiples have quite sophisticated analytics which can work out how much they would earn extra if XYZ happens.

Dav010 wrote: »

Rounding up really isn’t going to make a difference to the bottom line, it would take 100 customers to make €1, about 60c after tax, how that could be considered a scam is beyond me.

Think of it over millions of transactions that they have annually across their group. 1 million transactions rounded up by 2c saves them 20k. Plus handling fees.

How often do you see transactions rounding down? More often than not (in my experience anyways) its rounded up.

as for the after tax part....shops have no control on tax rates. As such they look at Taxable profit and to maximise this.

Xterminator · 12-11-2019 4:27pm

daheff wrote: »

Think of it over millions of transactions that they have annually across their group. 1 million transactions rounded up by 2c saves them 20k.

How often do you see transactions rounding down? More often than not (in my experience anyways) its rounded up.

if something is 1.98 as per your example, and you buy 2, then its 3.96 and you benefit from rounding down!

have you worked it out yet? it cost a bloody fortune to try to keep small change in the tills, its bad for the environment to have to ship bags of coins around, and i as a consumer don't want to have loads of copper coins either.

you have a choice, use contactless, or pay in cash, and if it bothers you that much, use the calculator on your smartphone to benefit from rounding down!

daheff · 12-11-2019 5:57pm

Xterminator wrote: »

if something is 1.98 as per your example, and you buy 2, then its 3.96 and you benefit from rounding down!

True. But what if you have more that makes the last digit an 3,4,8 or 9?

As I said, retailers have analysts who will have worked out what products generally get purchased together to try to make as many transactions as possible end in a number that suits them.

Xterminator wrote: »

have you worked it out yet? it cost a bloody fortune to try to keep small change in the tills, its bad for the environment to have to ship bags of coins around, and i as a consumer don't want to have loads of copper coins either.

you have a choice, use contactless, or pay in cash, and if it bothers you that much, use the calculator on your smartphone to benefit from rounding down!

I think you are assuming I am bothered whether I am rounding up/down on my transactions. They are so small and infrequent that its not an issue for me.

What I am saying is that A) retailers are probably doing this for their own benefit, not the customers and

they actually don't legally need to give you change at all.

silver2020 · 13-11-2019 1:07am

daheff wrote: »

Think of it over millions of transactions that they have annually across their group. 1 million transactions rounded up by 2c saves them 20k. Plus handling fees.

How often do you see transactions rounding down? More often than not (in my experience anyways) its rounded up.
.

Almost every good store have an automatic calculation on their till that rounds up/down.

In addition, it only applies to cash purchases (less than 30% of purchases overall and in cities, its now less than 20%)

If they are doing a million transactions rounded up by 2c, then they are doing 5million cass transactions and probably 15 million transactions in total each year. Even at €10 av transaction, that's 150m turnover. Such a company will not notice 20k and their till systems would be the most up to date possible.

But what is also at play is the mind - you tend to notice things more that affect you negatively. Example is fuel prices when they go up by 1c or 2c, and you'll hear people complaining in minutes.

But have you seen any posts about the fuel prices dropping in the last 4 weeks (now about 3c lower than the day before the budget hat added 2c)

Muahahaha · 13-11-2019 2:21pm

daheff wrote: »

How often do you see transactions rounding down? More often than not (in my experience anyways) its rounded up.

What I've noticed is often products are priced so if you only buy one thing then it is rounded up. i.e 98c goes to a euro. Lots of 8s and 9s in individual products. But if you are buying two products then the chance of a rounding down goes up, eg my local Supervalue I sometimes buy a packet of Meanies (78c) and a Stinger bar (29c) which comes to 1.07 so rounded down to 1.05. If I bought those two items individually then it would be 80c and 30c so 1.10 all up.

I think its a case of some you win, some you lose but over the course of a year you are only going to be up or down by a few cents. Its not worth worrying about imo and if it does get on your wick then just pay by card and you get the exact price every time.

stefanovich · 14-11-2019 4:37am

Muahahaha wrote: »

What I've noticed is often products are priced so if you only buy one thing then it is rounded up. i.e 98c goes to a euro. Lots of 8s and 9s in individual products. But if you are buying two products then the chance of a rounding down goes up, eg my local Supervalue I sometimes buy a packet of Meanies (78c) and a Stinger bar (29c) which comes to 1.07 so rounded down to 1.05. If I bought those two items individually then it would be 80c and 30c so 1.10 all up.

I think its a case of some you win, some you lose but over the course of a year you are only going to be up or down by a few cents. Its not worth worrying about imo and if it does get on your wick then just pay by card and you get the exact price every time.

My god, you eat what I ate in the 80's.

daheff · 14-11-2019 4:57am

silver2020 wrote: »

If they are doing a million transactions rounded up by 2c, then they are doing 5million cass transactions and probably 15 million transactions in total each year. Even at €10 av transaction, that's 150m turnover. Such a company will not notice 20k and their till systems would be the most up to date possible.

Try turnover of 52bn (tesco 17/18). take av of 200 sale amount( way overstating.. its probably a quarter of this). thats 260m transactions. So if they are making 20k per 1m transactions... that gives them scope of up to additional 5.2m in profit (plus whatever else they make from price changes & less cash handling fees).

Multiply that across several years and you have a compelling argument that retailers have an incentive to adjust pricing to round in their favour.

rubadub · 14-11-2019 10:28am

L1011 · 14-11-2019 11:55am

daheff wrote: »

T

Multiply that across several years and you have a compelling argument that retailers have an incentive to adjust pricing to round in their favour.

But you've absolutely zero proof of this actually happening. And your calculations are based on every transaction being cash and benefiting them by 2c, neither of which is true even if you do go to huge efforts to try and skew pricing in your favour.

daheff · 14-11-2019 1:37pm

daheff wrote: »

So if they are making 20k per 1m transactions... that gives them scope of up to additional 5.2m in profit (plus whatever else they make from price changes & less cash handling fees).

L1011 wrote: »

But you've absolutely zero proof of this actually happening. And your calculations are based on every transaction being cash and benefiting them by 2c, neither of which is true even if you do go to huge efforts to try and skew pricing in your favour.

Likewise you have zero proof that its not happening.

However I do see prices that are no longer the X.X9s in the shops more and more (prices ending X.6/X.7/X.8)....I'm also noticing that more often than not, my transactions end up with the rounding being not in my favour...which only leads me to believe there is a certain amount of 'gaming' of the system by retailers to try to increase profits.

I know not all transactions are benefiting the retailer....thats why I used "if" and "up to" in my comment. I also assumed an average transaction value of 200 GBP...giving 260m transactions. Tesco have put out media slides before claiming 42m transactions a week (or 2.18BN transactions annually). So in my example I'm vastly understating the volume of transactions.

I'm not accusing any particular retailer of doing it. I'm merely suggesting that it would seem to be distinctly possible and quite possibly profitable for a large retailer to do so. They also have the sophisticated systems and resources to do it if they wish.

Also for those who think I have an issue with it on a personal level -its only a couple of cents to me. not a big issue out of my pocket..i don't think I'm that hard up that I can't face paying it or have to change to using my credit card to get around it.

Again if they didn't really care on rounding, they'd just change all prices to end in a 5 or a 0.

Anyways this is dragging off topic so I'm not going to make anymore comments about rounding.

L1011 · 14-11-2019 8:32pm

daheff wrote: »

Again if they didn't really care on rounding, they'd just change all prices to end in a 5 or a 0.

Potentially adding vastly more to their profit margin than any scheming about rounding would.

Rounding is done in many other countries. If there was some retail scheming about it it would have ended up being documented somewhere - every other bit of cost saving/margin engineering has textbooks written about it!

Living Off The Splash · 15-11-2019 3:32pm

I have been buying my petrol in Applegreen for years now. Over the years I built up points and waited until they allowed you redeem points against an actual petrol purchase. I think they might have done this twice in a 10 year period.

I have no interest in discounts to Heritage sights etc which was really all that was available to spend points on.

A couple of months back I received an email to say that they were discontinuing their current points system and I had a few weeks to redeem my points. Again all that was available were pretty awful offerings. I couldn't even redeem them in their own shops or for petrol or oil.

I no longer purchase my petrol in Applegreen.

L1011 · 15-11-2019 11:27pm

Applegreen sent you a 5/10/15/20 'cash' (fuel or shop product Euro value) voucher every Christmas if you had enough points, if that was twice in a 10 year period you bought very little there! The payout rate was tiny though; I spent enough there when I was in a road job that they phoned me to ask if I'd stopped using them for some reason (!) and used to get a tenner a year.

I await their new system but I suspect the old system was still going to have been better for very high volume users at least.

silver2020 · 16-11-2019 1:57am

Living Off The Splash wrote: »

I no longer purchase my petrol in Applegreen.

Don't think they'll be too concerned. Their turnover last year was over €2,000,000,000 (2 BILLION euro)

But where's the ripoff??

JoseJones · 16-11-2019 2:42am

daheff wrote: »

Likewise you have zero proof that its not happening.

However I do see prices that are no longer the X.X9s in the shops more and more (prices ending X.6/X.7/X.8)....I'm also noticing that more often than not, my transactions end up with the rounding being not in my favour...which only leads me to believe there is a certain amount of 'gaming' of the system by retailers to try to increase profits.

If the prices are going from X.X9 to X.X8, X.X7 or X.X6 then the prices are getting cheaper!

fin12 · 16-11-2019 8:41pm

Make up sponges, pack reduced from 20 to 8. Still same price.
Shop: Superdrug

earlyapex · 01-12-2019 12:49pm

Easons
I bought at book for €20.
The following week that book is priced at €25 as its now included in a 3 for 2 offer. So you think you're getting the third book for free? No, you just overpaid for the first two by 25%.

silver2020 · 01-12-2019 4:20pm

earlyapex wrote: »

Easons
I bought at book for €20.
The following week that book is priced at €25 as its now included in a 3 for 2 offer. So you think you're getting the third book for free? No, you just overpaid for the first two by 25%.

Hardly a rip-off?

One promotion ends, a new promotion begins.

One promo, you get the book reduced by 20% and you don't have to buy anything else to get the discount , the other promo requires you to buy 2 other items to get a discount.

That's how retail works these days

Bikerman2019 · 09-12-2019 8:21pm

So just went in for something for the child.

Sign says 4 euro until 4pm, 5 euro after.

So ordered and he says 5.50. I pointed out the sign and he ignored it. I walked away.

I wonder how many people go into Roma takeaway and order for the family and don't notice they are overcharging people on the kids deals ??

johndaman66 · 20-04-2020 5:39pm

I had to laugh at this this. Twirl bars in the clearance section of Tesco. Reduced from €1.15 to €1.14.

Then when you look at the UK RRP on them it is 55p.

johndaman66 · 20-04-2020 5:40pm

UK RRP of 55p

rubadub · 20-04-2020 5:47pm

You want your head checked if you buy bars singly though. I am always amazed they dedicate such a large section to it. 55p is still expensive

a 48g snickers is €1.15 in tesco. You get 10x51g snickers in dealz for €3, that is over 10.5 48g bars.

johndaman66 · 20-04-2020 7:03pm

rubadub wrote: »

You want your head checked if you buy bars singly though. I am always amazed they dedicate such a large section to it. 55p is still expensive

a 48g snickers is €1.15 in tesco. You get 10x51g snickers in dealz for €3, that is over 10.5 48g bars.

Ah pretty much knew that already. For the purposes of the thread I was just highlighting how they were justifying putting them in the clearance section by reducing the price by one cent and all the while the UK price is dramatically less.

Regarding your own point though, you could say the same about a lot of confectionery and them kinda on the go minerals and crisps etc. Still if that is the case then a lot would want their head checked. I know from working in a Centra many moons ago them overpriced snacks absolutely fly out the door.

WestWicklow1 · 20-04-2020 7:15pm

I was badly stuck at the weekend go get the mower going again after a problem that necessitated the oil being drained. No motor factors open.

Circle K Blessington, Co. Wicklow €18.99 for ONE litre of 5w30 synthetic motor oil!!!

I would be used to buying 5 litres for about €34.00 in the motor factors.

johndaman66 · 20-04-2020 7:23pm

WestWicklow1 wrote: »

I was badly stuck at the weekend go get the mower going again after a problem that necessitated the oil being drained. No motor factors open.

Circle K Blessington, Co. Wicklow €18.99 for ONE litre of 5w30 synthetic motor oil!!!

I would be used to buying 5 litres for about €34.00 in the motor factors.

Christ sake. I bought 4 litres of Castrol Magnatec 5W30 in Hellfrauds for €19.20 lately when it was on offer there and think it was closer to €17 for it when I presented my now very out of date Axa card.
On a side note are you sure 5W30 is good to be putting into your lawnmower?

WestWicklow1 · 20-04-2020 7:45pm

johndaman66 wrote: »

Christ sake. I bought 4 litres of Castrol Magnatec 5W30 in Hellfrauds for €19.20 lately when it was on offer there and think it was closer to €17 for it when I presented my now very out of date Axa card.
On a side note are you sure 5W30 is good to be putting into your lawnmower?

Yep. That's what the manual says.

What do you use?

johndaman66 · 20-04-2020 8:02pm

WestWicklow1 wrote: »

Yep. That's what the manual says.

What do you use?

You know what, scrap my comment! That seems right enough after I checked the half empty bottle. Synthetic 5W30. More used to chucking it into the car and there was me thinking for some reason that the generally recommended oil for a typical lawnmower was a much thicker oil.

TallGlass2 · 20-04-2020 11:36pm

WestWicklow1 wrote: »

I was badly stuck at the weekend go get the mower going again after a problem that necessitated the oil being drained. No motor factors open.

Circle K Blessington, Co. Wicklow €18.99 for ONE litre of 5w30 synthetic motor oil!!!

I would be used to buying 5 litres for about €34.00 in the motor factors.

If your ever that stuck again if there is a Tesco Extra near you try them out first, you'd get oil there. That's some price for a litre of oil in fairness.

bernard0368 · 24-06-2020 3:21pm

Monthly prescription:

Mc Cabes pharmacy €22.50.

Exactly the same medicine in Pure pharmacy €7.50

rubadub · 24-06-2020 3:30pm

bernard0368 wrote: »

Monthly prescription:

Mc Cabes pharmacy €22.50.

Exactly the same medicine in Pure pharmacy €7.50

I got savings there too, not as much as that though. They are usually giving generics in pure and many other pharmacies do not do so unless you ask, and even then some just do not bother stocking them.

Muahahaha · 24-06-2020 7:48pm

Pharmacies are definitely one that needs to be looked out for especially if you're in a rural area. In my local town there are three pharmacies which are all owned by the one person. As to why there are three within 400 metres of each other I dont know but I can only speculate he went a bit mad during the Celtic Tiger buying up property.

Either way I doubt another pharmacy would get planning permission in the town now to compete with him so he is effectively operating as a local cartel as there are no other pharmacies within a 15km radius. And it shows in his prices- last year I was charged 77 euro for a script, complete shock to me but I paid it and went home fuming. Rang Boots and priced it up with them- 49 euro. Both prices were for generics. Of course with medications you cant bring them back even if the bag is still sealed up with their own sticker so that was an expesive lesson. I havent darkened his door since and nor will I ever again.

General rip off examples

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