Price hike by the minute

Kell

I was in The Porter House last Thursday and between 12.30 and whatever time we left the price of a bottle of Stella had jumped from €5 to €5.60.

Is there anything that can be done about this absolute profiteering?

K-

Fudger

its madness. Publicans are crooks. Drink at home and then go out later. Sounds like back in the day as a young underaged drinker but hey they where the days. Buckfast and wet grass........... nice

AntiRip

Not a thing can be done about it. Unless ppl stop paying for it, and that's not going to happen.

Although, I really have noticed in the last few weeks, the crowds have been getting smaller and smaller in alot of pubs in my area, i don't know about anywhere else.

Gillo

Drink prices cannot change anymore since the new licencing laws were passed my the Goverment.

Suggest you take your grip to the VFI first of all.

allo1

Centra supermarket at alderwood in Tallaght dublin 24 in the offlinence will set you back a whopping 3 euro and 29 cents for a baby smirnoff of 50 ml vodka I have shopped around and the cheapest for the same small bottle in the local area is 1 euro 89 cents
at the vivo supermarket offlinence, another place I checked at news and brews offlinence was
2 euro and 9 cents, what a ripoff at centra for a egg cup of vodka at CENTRA, I did speak to one of the lads in charge and they have refused to do anything about it. Allso at the vivo supermarket two small banbana's will cost you 97 cents
at londis two better looking banbana's will only set you back 42 cents. LOOK BEFORE YOU BUY :eek:

por

gillo wrote:

Drink prices cannot change anymore since the new licencing laws were passed my the Goverment.

Gillo, do you have a source for this, I am sure it would make interesting reading.

The practice is greedy, but if people are too drunk\stupid and keep paying the extra then the publican is dead right to keep doing it as long as the people keep buying, more fools they are.

sliabh

Publicans can charge whatever they wish for drink. However they must display their prices. So if the prices are changing over the course of the night challenge them on this.

You can also refuse to pay. Order the drinks. If you feel you are being ripped off. Refuse to pay and leave. When it keeps happening the publicans will start to take notice.

ChipZilla

http://www.odca.ie/cfmdocs/c_query/pubs.cfm

Prices are allowed to change at an arbitrary time, but the publican is required to have clearly displayed price lists displaying whatever price is in force at the time.

If he's not doing this, he's breaking the law and you can complain to:

Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs,
4 Harcourt Road, Dublin 2

Enquiry Line:
402 5555 (01 area), 1890 220 229 (outside 01 area)

Fax Number:
01 4025501

Email:
odca@entemp.ie

bambam

best thing you can do, is vote with your feet.

por

ChipZilla wrote:

Prices are allowed to change at an arbitrary time, but the publican is required to have clearly displayed price lists displaying whatever price is in force at the time.

Can the owners get around this by displaying the highest price they will charge (i.e. at 2am) and then start charging at a lower price early in teh night ?

ChipZilla

por wrote:

Can the owners get around this by displaying the highest price they will charge (i.e. at 2am) and then start charging at a lower price early in teh night ?

But why would they want to do that?

The price on the wall has to be what they are charging at the time.

sliabh

ChipZilla wrote:

But why would they want to do that?

The price on the wall has to be what they are charging at the time.

Is that what the law says though?

They can post a price of EUR6 per pint, then at 9pm charge 4.50. After midnight jack it up to 6. Possibly they can argue that they have not ripped you off as earlier they were charging less than the stated amount.

Now I do see an angle here. Under the new regulations they can't run a drinks promotion. And technically you could argue that selling "cheap" beer before midnight is such a thing. So if they want to charge EUR6 per pint they have to do it all the time.

How long would their business last if that was the price of your first pint of the night? :-)

ChipZilla

The link I posted above does say:

If a licensed premises' policy is to increase prices after a certain time (e.g. after 11pm) ?

The price on display should be the price that is being charged at any given time.

That seems pretty clear, and you'd still be entitled to report them (if you wanted to) if the displayed price is not what is being charged. Selling for less than the advertised price could be seen as a promotion - like you said - which is against the law too...

sliabh

At this point in the debate some field research is called for. Is there anyone out there that wants to pick a legal fight with a publican over the weekend

:-)

spongebob

A 33CL Bottle of Stella cost me £1 (thats about €1.50) in a boozer in London this year. It should not cost more than €3 here .....under any circumstances.

M


M

LFCFan

the only pubs I see anyway filled these days is late bars and they only fill up after the normal bars close. More and more I'm seeing empty pubs. At the same time publicans continue to rip us off and blame the smoking ban. When are they going wake up and realise that to get their customers back they are going to have to reduce prices. Muppets!

JTMan

On a related note ...

It was great to see Capital Bars suffer a profit slump this week. Their reasons for the slump were a joke. They blammed clamping first (!!) then public transport and public drunkness for the decline. The PRICE OF A PINT hardly got a mention. A least some people are walking with their feet.

Gillo

Publicians are not allowed to change the price. This was brought in as part of the intoxicating liquers Act last year. The reason for is to stop happy hour's and similiar promations in order to "curb binge drinking".

por

gillo wrote:

Publicians are not allowed to change the price. This was brought in as part of the intoxicating liquers Act last year. The reason for is to stop happy hour's and similiar promations in order to "curb binge drinking".

Ok so if it is illegal, then why are so many places doing it and why is this the only place people are talking about it and not on radio and tv discussion programs.
I would like to see this phenom. for my self but it seems to be a Dublin thing, can anyone collect real evidence and do something with it.

LFCFan

What publicans are not allowed to do is reduce the price for a specific amount of time in the day or offer 2 for 1 promotions etc. They could if they wanted to, bring the price down permanantly. Bottle of Smirnoff Ice in K3 last night - €5.40. While prices remain like that Publicans are going to continue to lose money

RuggieBear

I've noticed in a pub a few weeks ago that had dual prices up on its pricelists....one price up till 11 and then an extra euro on everything after 11. Not sure on the legality of that but at least they do tell you (if you look) that the price is going to go up. Can't remember where it was.....

On another note:

I was in The Porter House last Thursday and between 12.30 and whatever time we left the price of a bottle of Stella had jumped from €5 to €5.60.

I was in the PorterHouse in Temple bar last year and was drinking pints of Erdinger at €5 a pop (I actually can't drink any of their own home brand microbrewry ****e...all of them have this aftertaste of socks to me). Expensive but its a premium beer and it was my mates birthday (He wanted to drink there), so i thought pricey but fair enough. After 11 (i think) the price went up....think it was to 5.50 or 6....anyway, i refused to pay it, the bar man called a bouncer over and i got "escorted out".

Good old rip off ireland

p

Kell

pekelly wrote:

anyway, i refused to pay it, the bar man called a bouncer over and i got "escorted out".

Good old rip off ireland

p

Surely there has to be some legal ramification there for removing you from the premises?

Anyone?

K-

RuggieBear

Kell wrote:

Surely there has to be some legal ramification there for removing you from the premises?

Anyone?

K-

Well basically they told me i was no longer welcome on the premises....i suppose it might have something to do with the pubs right of admitance and refusal or sumting!?

Anyway i've learnt to go quietly.....i was once got kicked out of a pub at a xmas party....basically a barman said i was "theiving" pints (I wasn't) and i told him what i thought of him and his bar and got the entire party expelled (about 90 people)....i made a complete tit of myself in front of some important (careerwise) people!

p

RainyDay

Kell wrote:

I was in The Porter House last Thursday and between 12.30 and whatever time we left the price of a bottle of Stella had jumped from €5 to €5.60.

Is there anything that can be done about this absolute profiteering?

Yes - Drink elsewhere. That's the most effective response. As long as punters keep paying, they are going to keep charging. Wouldn't you if it was your pub?

ionapaul

Fungus wrote:

On a related note ...

It was great to see Capital Bars suffer a profit slump this week. Their reasons for the slump were a joke. They blammed clamping first (!!) then public transport and public drunkness for the decline. The PRICE OF A PINT hardly got a mention. A least some people are walking with their feet.

But are they still in profit? If so, not enough people are voting with their feet. We need to ensure these publicans are making a loss month to month, rather than a reduced profit.