Argos & ex-display items

FloFlo

I went into Argos to pick up the canon camera I had reserved online yesterday and a sales assistant brought out an empty open box and said is the display model okay, its thelast one. I asked why I was being given the display model when I had reserved one and she said that the display model is counted in stock and this was the one I had reserved and that because it had been reserved late last night they hadn't had time to take it off display and put it back in the box. To this I replied 'you would have sold it to me without saying it was the display model' and she said yes it's company policy.
Well, I didn't buy it. Is this normal for Argos, I always thought that ex-displays were sold off cheaper when the product is discontinued.

pavlovs_dog

ex display is not sold off cheaper unless it is damaged. in this case, it is sold off at up to 10% less than the advertised price, however this is at managers discretion. any item sold under such conditions is sold 'as seen', which renders it exempt from the 16 day money back guarantee, although you are still covered by the 1 year manufacturers guarantee.

with regards to selling good stock from display, the sales assistant was perfectly right to tell you that sales stock is included within our stock levels as you would see them via the instore stockchecker, or over the internet. it is only at a till point or computer instore that a member of staff can tell you that the item is a display item.

more often than not, this should not be an issue, as an item such as a camera will be locked away in a display cabinet where no one can fiddle with it (unlike a hi fi or tv or sofa for example). there would be absolutely no reason to sell this stock at a discounted rate because it would be none the worse for wear for having been on display, as it was not in the public domian and therefore subject to damage like the aforementioned hifi/tv/sofa.

however, when you did pay for the item at the till, you should have been made aware that it was the display model. it is not company policy (not in my store at least) to sell an item off display without making the customer aware that it is a display item.


as an aside, many people confuse display stock (ie current stock which is available in the catalogue) and managers special stock (stock which is sold off cheaply because it has slight defects, possibly as a result if being an ex display model). these are 2 very different kettles of fish.

display stock will only be discounted (by up to 10% at a managers discretion) if it is damaged. if it is sold at normal catalogue price, then you have your normal 16 day money back guarantee (unless it is an exempt item eg mp3 player). if you take the damge discount on ex display stock, you lose that 16 day guarantee.

managers specials are sold 'as seen', and as such are generally automatically exempt from the 16 day money back guarantee


hope this helps explain things a bit :beer:

Mack_3

pavlovs_dog wrote:

however, when you did pay for the item at the till, you should have been made aware that it was the display model. it is not company policy (not in my store at least) to sell an item off display without making the customer aware that it is a display item.

It depends.

You can reserve an item online, an it will come through instore as the item is on display, and to take it off... however if thats not done, the system will persume it has.... sometimes people can come in to collect items within 15 mins, and in busy periods its impossible to rebox items. However i belive it to be injust not to tell people reserving items thats its actually a display item they are reserving.

However one thing to note as a bonus to quickpay machines is that for some reason if the item you are buying is actually on display the quick pay machines count that item as out of stock, its a glitch thats never been fixed!

anyway back to the point of the OP ... when the person comes to collect said item its now in reserve and the cashier has no indication (i.e. with something like a kettle that isnt reserved) that its in a cabinet somewhere, as its on the system as saved for a customer .... i.e. upstairs in the stockroom.

FloFlo

With regards to the 16 day money back guarantee this was already unavailable because it was a camera and therefore already excluded. I think it is wrong to sell items from display where the boxes have been unsealed and opened as full price new items. I wouldn't have wanted it if she'd offered a discount, I wanted a new boxed product and I assumed this was what I had reserved before I made a special trip to pick it up. They also made a real mess of the refund, the till went 'down' apparently and I have to wait now until the tansactions show with my bank to check that they've put the refund through properly.

deddogblues

The fact that an item has been USED for display purposes in the shop means it is used not new. It may have been locked in a case away from prying fingers, it may also have been sitting in full sunlight in the same display case, possibly for weeks. The effects of heat and sunlight on merchandice can be severe affecting the colour and function of some items.
As long as the customer is aware that the item is ex display they can chose whether to accept or reject it as they wish, however I would be very annoyed to find this out after making a trip to pick up a reserved item.
I always look upon ex display items as damaged goods and will negotiate a discount if I thought it was worth the risk.

FloFlo

Don't ask actually went to the argos in the next town centre to pick up one from there - tried it out just after leaving the shop and it wouldn't turn on. They didn't have another one, so another refund. Went to Comet on the way home and they price matched a Sony Cybershot W50 £159.99. Argos never again!

sinandie

You should NOT have been able to reserve an item that was on display as the system automatically thinks that it is out of stock ( i know this as i have just tried it with an item that i know is the last on display in my store ). However what could have happened is someopne has come into the store to purchase one before you came to purchase yours, they will have been told it was the one on display and the person picking the item has brought the full box out ie. the one you had reserved. So i can understand your frustration but it is a camera that as previously stated not had people touching it all the time. It is not the fault of the cashier but the person picking the item should really have picjked the item that woulkd have said on there ticket that it was the display item. Sorry that you had a bad experience but problems occur no matter where you shop and stores no matter who they are try to learn by these. I do hope that you find another reason to shop at your local store maybe when the bargains come up again near cat launch

FloFlo

It was the attitude of the sales assistant about the display item that was the problem and as I had 2 bad experiences with Argos in 2 days and have to wait until Monday to see if they refunded my card correctly the first time I think I'll give Argos a miss in future. The customer service in Comet was first class, pleasant staff, well trained and knowledgable in their job and could supply a new boxed item at a reasonable price.

bingo_bango

deddogblues wrote:

The fact that an item has been USED for display purposes in the shop means it is used not new.

Not true. By this reckoning, every new car sitting in a showroom is used?
The definition of used is pre-owned. This would include pre-registered cars in a showroom, or items returned to Argos under the 16 day guarantee, as someone else previously had title to the goods.

deddogblues wrote:

It may have been locked in a case away from prying fingers, it may also have been sitting in full sunlight in the same display case, possibly for weeks. The effects of heat and sunlight on merchandice can be severe affecting the colour and function of some items.

I'd agree with this part though. Always worth trying the item, and inspecting fully to see that you're happy with it.

Mandles

I worked in a shoe shop and would very ofen sell shoes from the window.They always sold for the same price as a pair never out of a box and no one ever complained. Some products may only be on display for a week or so if they are hot sellers.
Saying that though if i was spending a lot of money on an item i would want one that had not been on dispaly.Maybe the shop should state on reservation that it is a display model as they have our email address so this should be possible.

Stockie

Mack wrote:

However one thing to note as a bonus to quickpay machines is that for some reason if the item you are buying is actually on display the quick pay machines count that item as out of stock, its a glitch thats never been fixed!

It's not a bug, all systems which customers have unaided access to DO NOT count display/sob/permanent displays as being in stock. However stockcheckers, tills and AURA do (apart from permanent display which only shows on AURA), it's done for the very nature of preventing this sort of thing.(so the CA's can tell you it's on display)

What has happened as pointed out by sinandie is that the store had two (one on display, one that you reserved). Someone else came into the store to buy the same camera, were probably told it's on display, and when the picker when to get the box for the display item as they were instructed by their ticket, they saw your reserved stock item and took that instead of doing what they were told. A case for more training to follow instructions I think.

As for the whole "if an item is used in a display is it still new?" debate I would say generally yes.
My thoughts would be: :think:

Almost all shops I walk into have almost everything they sell on display, I wouldn't complain in my local supermarket that the wine/crisps/fruit had been in direct sunlight. In fact I expect them to have windows. Nor do I expect them to tell everyone to keep their hands of the supermarkets products. (How many people have handled your fruit/veg etc before you bought it?)

Also things like shoes/clothing or similar, when buying the item of the shelf/rack you have to consider that other people may have tried it on before? (I know most times I get new shoes I have to try at least 3 pairs before I find ones that fit my feet)

Small independent shops have things such as jewellery/ electricals etc on display without having mountains of stock "in the back" since they only sell ones or twos of things it would be unprofitable. I think if you told them they couldn't sell items from display at full price, and that you wouldn’t shop there if they weren't competitive on prices, most would shut down giving less competition, which in my opinion is a bad thing.

However if the reason i wanted the product or it's performance / characteristics changed because of being on display and i wasn't satisfied with the condition it was in i would reject it. If you go straight from collection to customer services, all the store's i've worked in will refund anything you've just bought 16 day exempt or not. Once you leave the store or use the item then it would change.

One note though with digital camera's. If you leave the lens open and pointing at direct sunlight for long periods of time it can damage the CCD (especially with zoom and "mega zooms") so try and avoid it. Len's caps don't look as nice as a raw camera but can save it!

Stockie