Bedstar - Deceptive Price 'Promise'

Quartermass

I'm currently buying a new matress, so after researching which one is best suited, I decided to check the price around other retailers to ensure I had the best price.

The company I was going to order from, bedstar.co.uk had a price promise, which simply says they'll match anyone elses price, and throw in two free pillows.

So I duly found a cheaper price (£70 cheaper), and filled out their form. Today I got home from work and they have replied refusing to match the price
> Thank you for your enquiry. I have looked into your price match request
> and I am afraid in this occasion we would not be willing to match the
> price as advertised on our competitor’s website. This is because the
> mark-up on this product is so low that we would be losing money should
> we honor the price match.

I'm rather annoyed that their price match promise simply means that they want the chance to match the price... or they can simply decline it and say it's not worth it. I delayed orderering the matress due to this, and had the offer I was going for ended yesterday would have lost money. Thankfully it did not and I've placed my order elsewhere. In their terms and conditions of their price match they reserve the right to decline any price match, which as far as I'm concerned means it simply is not a promise.

I'm creating this post in the hope that it makes people think twice before ordering from them.

Timalay

I would reply to their email saying that they have lost a valuable customer in this economical crisis.

emmell

I can't understand why you would want a price match. Surely you would want them to beat a price or you are not gaining anything by giving them your custom.
I preferred to buy from our local bed shop as they had give me a lot of their time and luckily they did it for less then the cheapest online shop which happened to be Bedstar.
ML.

saintscouple

Timalay wrote: »

I would reply to their email saying that they have lost a valuable customer in this economical crisis.

jdturk wrote: »

Like that matters, they have refused the sale so not actually lost a valued customer have they?

But they have lost potential new customers by the OP posting their review of the service they (did not) receive.

I ordered a divan from bedstar back in Nov 2008. I did the same as the OP and found the divan i wanted cheaper elsewhere, though bedstar matched this price for me, plus i got the 2 pillows (cheap quality, so you didn't miss out there OP).

I can only praise bedstar from my experience.

Tim_Deegan

Price matching is a marketing ploy which is designed to stop people shopping around, and giving them the confidence that they will be buying the product at the lowest possible price. And if it turns out not to be the lowest price, then you will get the difference refunded.

The retailer relies on the fact that people will see that there is a price promise, and won't even go anywhere else. Although in many cases the retailer is far from being the cheapest. Most retailers who give a price promice accept that occasionally they may not make a profit, and may even make a loss by honouring a price promise. So it is a marketing gamble that doesn't pay off 100% of the time. In extreme cases it can start a price war, which ends up in companies going bust.

Some bigger retailers like Dreams get around the problem by offering a price promise, but they have all their products either re-named, or made specially for them, So you can't actually buy them anywhere else, and they can charge what they want.

So if a retailer sticks their neck out, and takes the gamble to offer a price promise, then they should stick to it. If they don't, then their price promise is worthless, and they should be reported to Trading Standards, and The Advertising Standards Agency.

Tim_Deegan

jdturk wrote: »

to be honest it wouldn't stop me trying, it wasn't a damning verdict on their customer service, the level of quality etc it was just that they could not match that price without making a loss and that they were not willing to which is well within their rights to do and most price matching promises will all have the same clause in their T&C's

It's a damming verdict on their honesty and integrity. How can you trust them if they don't even stick to their main selling gimmick??

mickeypops

emmell wrote: »

I can't understand why you would want a price match. Surely you would want them to beat a price or you are not gaining anything by giving them your custom.
I preferred to buy from our local bed shop as they had give me a lot of their time and luckily they did it for less then the cheapest online shop which happened to be Bedstar.
ML.

That's the point that's always confused me about price matching. Surely you'd want to give your custom to the supplier who offered you the lower price in the first place, rather than someone who hoped to sell it to you more expensively?

cybergibbons

Quite a lot of price matches are things like "double the difference". I then feel like I'm likely to be ripping off the more expensive company and causing them a loss, probably benefiting the cheaper. In my head at least.

Tim_Deegan

jdturk wrote: »

They have, look in their T&C's

Because their main advertising gimmick is "Price Promise", when they don't actually give a price promise at all. It doesn't matter what their T&C's say when they contradict their advertising.

Tim_Deegan

cybergibbons wrote: »

Quite a lot of price matches are things like "double the difference". I then feel like I'm likely to be ripping off the more expensive company and causing them a loss, probably benefiting the cheaper. In my head at least.

If someone gives a "double the difference" price promise, then they are obviously far too expensive in the first place,

emmell

But 'double the difference' is a supposed price beater, matching the price gives no benefit at all, you're just giving companies that price their goods higher custom they don't deserve.
Currys Electrical are the worst for these price matching/beating promises. If you go into their store they don't even match their own internet prices.
ML.