HMV are trying to wind me up...and their Disney BOGOF is a con!

FatAndy

OK, I know that online retailers can and do vary their prices at the drop of a hat but someone at HMV seems to trying to get on my goat. On Saturday I was browsing as you do and spotted an Ipod Shuffle (old style) speaker dock in the sale for a fiver. As there's a new Shuffle out now I just assumed that they were flogging off some 'obsolete' stock. Yesterday I decided to buy one only to find it was now £14.99, i.e. three times more expensive than the day before :eek:.

I'd also spotted High School Musical 3 on DVD for £6.99. I went to order one today for my daughter for Christmas only to find that it's now rocketed to £14.99:eek:. Presumably this price rise is due to it now being available as part of a Disney buy one get one free offer. Bit sneaky though that they more than double the price of an item just before it become BOGOF!

Anyway at least I've now learned not to hesitate and to strike while the iron's hot in future.


Incedentally if anyone from HMV reads this I decided not to buy either item so you've lost yourselves a couple of sales.

pulliptears

I think it happens across all stores to be honest. I nipped in to a toy store last week to look for an item of Playmobil my DD wanted, it was £39.99. Not being 100% sure she wanted it I left it until she had her birthday money on Saturday. Price then? £59.99. I'm now watching carefully for the price to fall back to £39.99 with a sale sticker.

As it turned out, she changed her mind and bought herself something else.

Reverbe

TBH this has happened to me so many times lately with several titles of dvd I wanted to get for my birthday that I have gone in with exact money to pay the day after seeing it. I did try to bring this up with managers etc. They tell me their prices can change from day to day. I said yeah if its a coupla quid but this was often 3 times the price... I didnt buy needless to say and will wait until they come down again..

Alias_Omega

Happened to me with a local supermarket store..

They had lucozade bottles for 75p, i went into the shop and picked some up as usual. Got too the till and it was over £2 for the 2. I had missed the offer, the offer had ended..

thats life..

mrcol1000

FatAndy wrote: »

OK, I know that online retailers can and do vary their prices at the drop of a hat but someone at HMV seems to trying to get on my goat. On Saturday I was browsing as you do and spotted an Ipod Shuffle (old style) speaker dock in the sale for a fiver. As there's a new Shuffle out now I just assumed that they were flogging off some 'obsolete' stock. Yesterday I decided to buy one only to find it was now £14.99, i.e. three times more expensive than the day before :eek:.

I'd also spotted High School Musical 3 on DVD for £6.99. I went to order one today for my daughter for Christmas only to find that it's now rocketed to £14.99:eek:. Presumably this price rise is due to it now being available as part of a Disney buy one get one free offer. Bit sneaky though that they more than double the price of an item just before it become BOGOF!

Anyway at least I've now learned not to hesitate and to strike while the iron's hot in future.


Incedentally if anyone from HMV reads this I decided not to buy either item so you've lost yourselves a couple of sales.

But how many people don't buy something and then when they do come to buy it find the price is reduced. My OH was going to buy something last week for £120 and went to buy it last night to find it was reduced to £40!! So it works both ways. I have found that across HMV,Waterstones,Amazon and Play there are always huge price differences and with them all pretty much offering free postage its worth shopping around for them.

moonrakerz

You just have to be a bit more clever than they are.

Bought a pair of trousers in my local M&Co. £16 a pair. Several weeks later, "Sale" signs appear in the window - go in, trousers now £22, walk out.
Few more weeks later - "up to half price sale" - go in, trousers now £11, buy two pairs. Happy !

trumpton

HMV and WH Smith are notoriously sneaky with price manipulation on dvd's and games. Amazon, also - they put up the prices on Disney dvd's yesterday, now the BOGOF promotion has started. It's very annoying. I used to get lots of stuff from Play, but their sales often have stuff at the same/higher prices than they were before.

Like the OP, all it means is that now I only buy at these shops if I spot a real bargain. If the price is the same all over I will buy elsewhere.

nickmack

moonrakerz wrote: »

You just have to be a bit more clever than they are.

Bought a pair of trousers in my local M&Co. £16 a pair. Several weeks later, "Sale" signs appear in the window - go in, trousers now £22, walk out.
Few more weeks later - "up to half price sale" - go in, trousers now £11, buy two pairs. Happy !

Yes, instead of looking at the offer, always look at the product and current price.

It doesn't matter if it's been reduced from £50 to 50p, if it's only a packet of Chewing Gum that was never value to you at the pre 'sale' price.

FatAndy

As I said in the initial post I know these companys act like this. It was just coincidence that of the two items I was looking at one more than doubled in price overnight and the other trebled in price. I'm sure even Robert Mugabe would raise an eyebrow at that rate of inflation!

I do however think that they very much in the wrong to more than double the price of an item in order to include in a BOGOF deal. Imagine if Tesco did something similar with bread or milk. There'd be an outcry. HMV presumably think that they can get away with this because HSM3 DVD's aren't part of most people's staple diet and so most people wouldn't be aware of what they were up to.

I suspect that lot's of people have logged onto HMV over the last two days and thought they were getting a bargain with the BOGOF offer. How would they feel if they were made aware that they could have got the same items cheaper before the 'special offer' started. Probably not very impressed with HMV I would imagine.

voiceofreason

"Trying to wind you up"?

Out of spite? The b*st*rds.

FatAndy

voiceofreason wrote: »

"Trying to wind you up"?

Out of spite? The b*st*rds.

I think there's some little man sat in a dark office checking which items I look at and then pressing a button to treble the price as soon as I log off:think:.