THE BIGGEST telecommunication operators are having problems displaying dual prices in the run up to the introduction of the euro. When checking the sales and customer sites of companies or their business representatives, the Telecommunications Office found out that firms have not made accessible, in visible places, the value of the conversion rate by which all crown items will be calculated in euros from January 2009; or they have incorrectly rounded them, the ČTK newswire wrote on September 29.
According to the office, operators were also at fault when showing the conversion rate, which must be given with four decimal places; and some goods lacked price tags in both currencies, or were not readable.
“In the event that flaws are found, the Telecommunications Office explains their obligations to the operator and how they should make a rectification,” the office’s spokesman Roman Vavro said. So far, the office has not given out fines to any of the companies.
Prices in crowns and euros were not correctly displayed even in public payphones. During its inspection, the office checked on 73 sales outlets in 15 towns and cities.
In total, there are more than one thousand telecommunications operators registered in Slovakia. Among the biggest are the fixed-line operator Slovak Telekom, mobile operators Orange, T-Mobile and Telefónica O2, internet providers Slovanet, GTS Nextra, SWAN, and cable operators UPC Broadband and SATRO.
Price displays in shops and restaurants are being checked by the Slovak Trade Inspectorate, according to whom problems have been found at half of the sites inspected since obligatory dual-display pricing in both crowns and euros was launched on August 24.
