John Lewis 'Never Knowingly Undersold' - a misleading claim?

ghanagirl

WildPaw wrote: »

Lucky old PC World is all I will say. They got my money and John Lewis did not. Very annoyed and disappointed with "good old John Lewis"and so glad its not MY business that depends on their policies. Don't reply to this post with with 'oh John Lewis have to make profit, etc' - they will lose out to the competition anyway, so that's NOT a reason! Business is business, no sympathy. SO glad I am not that sales guy - felt really sorry for him.

You will see the difference between JL and PCWORLD five minutes after your purchase goes wrong.
As for Don't reply that JL has to make a Profit you are joking right ?
are you telling us your business sells products for less than it paid and its business plan is to make a loss ?

You are missing the point of NEVER KNOWINGLY UNDERSOLD. its the KNOWING in NKU thats important, the onus is on you to inform them of a product being sold cheaper and the minute you call them and say xxxxx is cheaper at yyyyy then they know their being undersold, when they call you back and make you an offer then its up to if you buy it or not.

prowla

ghanagirl wrote: »

As for Don't reply that JL has to make a Profit you are joking right ?
are you telling us that your business sells products for less than you paid for them ?

Does his business have "Never knowingly undersold" as his logo?

ghanagirl

prowla wrote: »

Does his business have "Never knowingly undersold" as his logo?

he says in his post
Originally Posted by WildPaw
Don't reply to this post with with 'oh John Lewis have to make profit, etc' - they will lose out to the competition anyway, so that's NOT a reason! Business is business
So i am asking him does his business sell their products cheaper than they purchase them.

You are missing the point of NEVER KNOWINGLY UNDERSOLD. its the KNOWING in NKU thats important, the onus is on you to inform them of a product being sold cheaper and the minute you call them and say xxxxx is cheaper at yyyyy then they know their being undersold.
The Logo dates from 1925 and will soon only be applied to stores within a 8 mile radius

look up the legal definition of Knowing.

1carminestocky

I do like JL as a retailer but they are in a fairly privileged position with regard to their KNU pledge on account of their immensely loyal customer base who seemingly are happy to pay their 'ordinary' prices on most things...which are invariably higher than most other places. It's almost as if their existing loyal customers allow JL to 'subsidise' the odd savvy shopper.

Doc_N

ghanagirl wrote: »

You are missing the point of NEVER KNOWINGLY UNDERSOLD. its the KNOWING in NKU thats important, the onus is on you to inform them of a product being sold cheaper and the minute you call them and say xxxxx is cheaper at yyyyy then they know their being undersold.
The Logo dates from 1925 and will soon only be applied to stores within a 8 mile radius

look up the legal definition of Knowing.

Absolutely. Today's slogan ought to be 'Frequently Knowingly Undersold'.

Unlike a few years back, when I think they genuinely tried to deal with undersales fairly, they now seem to use every trick in the book to avoid having to reduce their prices, which are often very high. The delay they deliberately build into the price checking often gets them off the hook, but they can pretend that NKU still operates.

They used to check out undersales immediately by phone if you asked them to. Now they won't. Draw your own conclusions why not.

Chris25

richardw wrote: »

I bought a TV from John Lewis that was already reduced because of a price match, it was a great price, then within the next 28 days it went down in price and I got a £54 refund.

snap! - that happened to us a few months ago - we emailed them to say that the price had dropped again and within an hour we had a reply and a refund.

taxiphil

ghanagirl wrote: »

You will see the difference between JL and PCWORLD five minutes after your purchase goes wrong.

In my experience John Lewis are Sale of Goods Act dodgers just like PC World et al. I had a £900 computer from JL go stone cold dead just outside its 1 year warranty and I was stonewalled by store management and head office. Their denial of my statutory rights was like something straight out of the PC World training manual. (However I eventually sued JL and they ended up paying).

Doc_N

taxiphil wrote: »

In my experience John Lewis are Sale of Goods Act dodgers just like PC World et al. I had a £900 computer from JL go stone cold dead just outside its 1 year warranty and I was stonewalled by store management and head office. Their denial of my statutory rights was like something straight out of the PC World training manual. (However I eventually sued JL and they ended up paying).

That's interesting - there are a lot of people in here who seem to think that JL can do no wrong. Some of them have no idea how much they've changed for the worse over recent years. You won't find out until you actually have to try to get them to match a genuine undersale or deal with something just outside the warranty under the Sale of Goods Act.

(Don't forget the poll above, anyone who hasn't voted)

cowbutt

Doc_N wrote: »

We dont match outlets such as factory outlets, membership clubs, market stalls, duty free shops, mail order catalogues, the Internet and home shopping channels.

The local area is an 8 mile radius from the branch, details of the exact area this covers are available from customer services in your local branch

I've been successful in getting JL to refund the difference on a number of purchases I've made in the past, but I think these two rules are more recent and do indeed limit the likelihood of being able to get them to price-match.

The other thing to watch out for is the increased use of limited-availability brands and models, even if the product is absolutely identical; e.g. one retailer will sell a Foocorp FX-100a and another the FX-100b, so neither have to pricematch the other. This is more a complaint targeted at the likes of furniture stores, DSG and Comet rather than JL, though.

That said, JL would still be my first choice for white goods, providing they aren't much more expensive.

zappomatic

taxiphil wrote: »

In my experience John Lewis are Sale of Goods Act dodgers just like PC World et al. I had a £900 computer from JL go stone cold dead just outside its 1 year warranty and I was stonewalled by store management and head office. Their denial of my statutory rights was like something straight out of the PC World training manual. (However I eventually sued JL and they ended up paying).

1 year? You get a 2 year warranty at John Lewis.