YOUR CONSUMER QUERIES

A READER from Dublin bought a pair of Cydwoq boots in the Birkenstock shop on Wicklow Street, Dublin, at the end of December last year and spent €299 on them, but she figured they were good value for money as they were handmade, leather and she was assured of their quality.

“In June I noticed that the leather uppers had split and brought them back to the shop on July 10th. I hadn’t even worn them that much, so was obviously disappointed.”

She asked for a refund but was refused and the owner explained that he would have to send them back to the manufacturer in California to assess what could be done.

“I asked how long it would take and he said no more than three weeks. He was adamant that that was all he could do for me, so I asked him to call me with an update,” she writes.

“He did leave a voicemail about a week later to say that he’d sent them and then I heard nothing further. I went back in on August 24th (seven weeks after I had left them in) to find out what was going on. He said that his son deals with all the emails etc and then he’d get him to find out. I asked him to ring me when he knew and I’ve heard nothing.”

She says that most people know that they are entitled to a repair, replacement or a refund for a faulty product, but asks if there is “a timescale in which you can reasonably expect to get one of these. I’ve been without the boots now for almost two months and I still have no idea when I’ll get them back and what state they’ll be in when I do.”

We contacted the shop and were told that they were aware of the issue. “The trouble is the shoemaker is on holiday and we can’t get an update from them,” a spokeswoman said.

“We did ask them for a refund but because the shoes are handmade they wanted to assess them first. Every evening of this week we have tried to phone them and as soon as we had news we were going to get back to this customer.”

She said the store had “never had this problem before”.

“This is genuinely not how we work but we have not been able to get a response from the company. We are very cross about it. We don’t like to see our customers in this kind of position.”

Shop Irish to buy Irish

VIVION TARRANT contacted us about last week’s buy Irish piece.

“Tesco advertise buy Irish to Irish consumers, but actually stock overwhelmingly British-made food products,” he says. “Their biggest line, their own-brand products, are British- made. Tesco’s Irish profits are not declared, doubtless because they are unjustifiably high.

“The best way for the Irish consumer to support the Irish economy is to buy in Irish- owned stores. Buying in euro-zone stores such as Lidl and Aldi also makes economic sense.”

Cut-price coffee tastes even sweeter

WE ARE always giving out on this page, so it is nice every now and then to say something nice. Adrian Kelly has made that possible.

“I buy coffee to go in the Runner Bean on Nassau Street, Dublin, a few times a week,” he writes. “While the owner explains how it is ethically sourced etc, for me it’s the best-tasting coffee around. The ethics are a bonus. And I was impressed that the VAT reduction was passed on by this little shop, when some of the bigger chains kept the reduction for themselves.”

It gets better. One morning last week when he went for his coffee, he was surprised to be told it was 25 cents cheaper. “That’s the first time I’ve gone to a shop on a regular basis for the same thing and been told it just got cheaper.

I thought that was worth commenting on.

“By the way,” he added, “I think if there was ever a competition for the best takeaway sandwich, the Runner Bean would do very well.”