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Are Retailers really doing as bad as they say - I think not!
Comments
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AllSeeingEye wrote: »Now I don't believe you wanted to post that.
Young man!"Love you Dave Brooker! x"
"i sent a letter headded sales of god act 1979"0 -
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Brooker_Dave wrote: »Not the vats gone down they'll be 98pland?
Strictly speaking it would be 97.87pland, assuming of course that they would be passing on the full cut to the customer?
Gone ... or have I?0 -
I hardly think a flat screen TV is something that cannot be handled by one or two people. I managed to get my 37" LCD upstairs to my flat by myself.
Most reputable retailers would strongly recommend the they deliver such an item, due to the high risk of damage during transit. John Lewis certainly do.
The reason that retailers do not have high value items in plentiful stock is because they cannot afford to! Keeping stock levels of even two or three £1000 tv's in each store is tying up money that could be better used elsewhere.Gone ... or have I?0 -
The reason that retailers do not have high value items in plentiful stock is because they cannot afford to! Keeping stock levels of even two or three £1000 tv's in each store is tying up money that could be better used elsewhere.
Exactly....:T As for poundland or the 99p shops the prices will stay the same.0 -
Strictly speaking it would be 97.87pland, assuming of course that they would be passing on the full cut to the customer?
The bloke who runs it was on the radio this morning talking about exactly that. The gist was that they aren't changing from £1 but they'll be doing more BOGOFs etc. He kept going on about After 8 Mints.0 -
thescouselander wrote: »Today I went to our local shopping centre armed with several hundred £££ to buy a new HD TV. I knew exactly the make and model I wanted and I had seen it for around £550 on the internet.
I had decided to try in the shops to see if I could get a similar price and pick up the TV today so I did not have to wait in for a delivery. My experience was not good.
I tried several shops including Currys, John Lewis etc. In every case the price was way over what I had found on the internet. Ok, they have higher overheads so I expected to pay a bit more but they were not prepared to negotiate on price nor would they throw in any freebies (not even a HDMI cable).
What was even worse was that they didn't even have any stock (despite it being a popular model) and they all said I would have to order the TV and have it delivered to my house. The completely negates that advantage of going to the shop - I'd still have to take time off work to wait for the delivery. Add to all that the sales assistants were pretty indifferent in helping me. In the end I went home and ordered the TV of Amazon for a bargain price.
If retailers are suffering that badly its probably because of their rip off prices and poor customer service. Then again, they didn't seem too bothered about selling me anything so maybe they aren't doing as badly as they make out.
I'm gutted I wasted time battling through traffic to get to the shops.
Firstly, a question, when you say the assistants were 'indifferent' how do you mean? If they weren't falling over themselves to bend to impossible demands, it's not so much a case of indifference as having no other option but to let the sale pass. HDMI cables aren't free...I don't really understand why people don't understand that.
If there's an offer on, then go for offers. That being said, I've seen people refuse a free TV stand, because it's the wrong colour, but still buy the tv it came with. Surely they could sell it on?
Random protip - John Lewis won't be moved on promo items, such as £50 off a blu ray player with a certain TV, but if you see a similar ex display/used (by used, they're 90% of the time little more than simply items that have been taken out of the box, looked at and brought back because the buyer's wife moaned about it being too shiny/box shaped etc) item and see if that can be reduced a little in line with the offer. That has worked under some circumstances, but don't blow a gasket if it doesn't work.thescouselander wrote: »My point is that if the bricks and mortar retailer is going to charge more then they should provide something for it - such as the ability to take the item immediately. A bit of customer service wouldn't go amiss either. If they had offered those things they could have made a sale yesterday but they didn't.
As I mentioned, I was prepared to pay more if I could take the item immediately so I didn't have to wait in for a delivery.
In the end there was zero incentive to buy from them but they wonder why sales are flagging.
It may come as a surprise, but large items like 32" tvs and upwards don't come in in their thousands. A group might get 800 or so a week of the popular lines, but they most likely won't go to the shops themselves because of space constraints. Only the warehouses have the room to store them.
John lewis has local service buildings that can store larger items and from which they can be collected, but the stores don't tend to have anywhere near enough space to hold them.
The incentives to buy from a shop are that you can see it in the flesh, speak to an advisor and find out what everything means, play about with it and also get aftersales support. If the TV from amazon goes wrong, will you have a 5 year guarantee? Will delivery be free? Will they take it back for free, or will you have to pay postage?
As has been said, shops have much higher overheads, so can't afford to reduce prices at random, especially on items that may already be discounted in line with competitors.
Can you elaborate on "A bit of customer service wouldn't go amiss either," because again, if it relates to NOT getting freebies, then to be fair you can't really complain.
Out of interest, what TV was it?0 -
Brooker_Dave wrote: »Young man!
Oi, Brooker, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!0 -
Firstly, a question, when you say the assistants were 'indifferent' how do you mean? If they weren't falling over themselves to bend to impossible demands, it's not so much a case of indifference as having no other option but to let the sale pass. HDMI cables aren't free...I don't really understand why people don't understand that.
If there's an offer on, then go for offers. That being said, I've seen people refuse a free TV stand, because it's the wrong colour, but still buy the tv it came with. Surely they could sell it on?
Random protip - John Lewis won't be moved on promo items, such as £50 off a blu ray player with a certain TV, but if you see a similar ex display/used (by used, they're 90% of the time little more than simply items that have been taken out of the box, looked at and brought back because the buyer's wife moaned about it being too shiny/box shaped etc) item and see if that can be reduced a little in line with the offer. That has worked under some circumstances, but don't blow a gasket if it doesn't work.
It may come as a surprise, but large items like 32" tvs and upwards don't come in in their thousands. A group might get 800 or so a week of the popular lines, but they most likely won't go to the shops themselves because of space constraints. Only the warehouses have the room to store them.
John lewis has local service buildings that can store larger items and from which they can be collected, but the stores don't tend to have anywhere near enough space to hold them.
The incentives to buy from a shop are that you can see it in the flesh, speak to an advisor and find out what everything means, play about with it and also get aftersales support. If the TV from amazon goes wrong, will you have a 5 year guarantee? Will delivery be free? Will they take it back for free, or will you have to pay postage?
As has been said, shops have much higher overheads, so can't afford to reduce prices at random, especially on items that may already be discounted in line with competitors.
Can you elaborate on "A bit of customer service wouldn't go amiss either," because again, if it relates to NOT getting freebies, then to be fair you can't really complain.
Out of interest, what TV was it?
Well to answer the points you brought up:
Once I actually found an assistant they didn't offer much in the way of advice about the TV (nothing at all in fact), it would have been good customer service to offer up bit of advice. Also, John Lewis will only deliver on 1 particular day in the week (which they specify) and I can't guarantee to be in due to work commitments. On the other hand Amazon delivered next day (on a Saturday too) for a grand total of £5.
Ok, the John Lewis guarantee would have been nice but it wasn't worth the price difference and the hassle of actually buying from them. To be fair to John Lewis they were the cheapest of all the shops I looked in.
I realise shops have higher costs but as I have said before they need to add some value if they are going to charge top whack. Surely the difference in cost is to pay for things like storage so they can give you the item to take home.
In any case, its all academic, the TV has arrived and I'm quite happy with it and the service from Amazon who delivered extremely quickly.0 -
Most reputable retailers would strongly recommend the they deliver such an item, due to the high risk of damage during transit. John Lewis certainly do.
The reason that retailers do not have high value items in plentiful stock is because they cannot afford to! Keeping stock levels of even two or three £1000 tv's in each store is tying up money that could be better used elsewhere.
But then you have to ask yourself, why not buy it online. You won't need to leave your house, it will be cheaper and the customer experience can't be any worse than currys anyway. So what do Currys offer over an internet based company?
I had this happen about 9 months ago when I was looking for a LCD TV. Picked the one I wanted and was quite prepared to pay the £50 odd pound more for it than buying from somewhere else online until the sales assistant said I would have to wait for delivery = currys saying goodbye to £600ish
More fool them0
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