Bedstar - Deceptive Price 'Promise'

artbaron

Equaliser123 wrote: »

Bedstar Ltd reserves the right to decline, terminate or revoke any request made by the customer

This last statement says it all (if you ignore the logical impossibility of being able to "revoke" a customer request). Basically it says that, regardless of anything else, the company doesn't have to honour a single price match request. And that's that.

It's like saying to someone "I promise to give you £10 if you ask, unless A is true, or B is true, or C, D and E are true. Oh, also I don't have to give you anything."

Equaliser123

artbaron wrote: »

This last statement says it all (if you ignore the logical impossibility of being able to "revoke" a customer request). Basically it says that, regardless of anything else, the company doesn't have to honour a single price match request. And that's that.

It's like saying to someone "I promise to give you £10 if you ask, unless A is true, or B is true, or C, D and E are true. Oh, also I don't have to give you anything."

I think it is a shameful policy and is very misleading.

Coopdivi

Quite frankly, in my opinion, Bedstar come across as being a bunch of shysters.

Any reputable company would put their exclusions from their 'price promises' in a prominent posisition not hidden away in their terms and exclusions.

Gordikin stick to Greggs Slices. You're the expert on that subject...

Tim_Deegan

gordikin wrote: »

So Asda excluding 10% of their stock because nobody else sells Asda own label stuff is the same as Dreams who have deliberately renamed all their beds so they don't have to price match?

Anyway the point I'm making is that the Asda price promise is subject to conditions ie 30% of items are excluded from it...but it's a promise never the less!

Yes, Asda are excluding the items that only they sell because you can't buy the same item anywhere else. Dreams are excluding 100% of their stock which is wrong.

Tim_Deegan

Equaliser123 wrote: »

• The approval of the retailer is up to the discretion of bedstar Ltd.

So this is a complete get out clause which makes the promise worthless, and therefore false advertising.

Tim_Deegan

artbaron wrote: »

Sales Gimmick Not In Interests Of Customer Shocker!

I agree fully that it's deceptive, but so are 99.999999% of offers. It will all be covered in the small print of Ts & Cs, which they know the customer won't read as it's not feasible to do so. I think it's dispicable that the customer has to constantly be on the lookout for misselling, deceptive advertising and general weasel words but that's the way of things.

Exactly my point. :T:T:T

Tim_Deegan

jdturk wrote: »

I don't run a business but however I just don't think what they have done is wrong, it is in their terms and conditions, as far as I am aware it is not illegal and if you think it is go talk to the relevant authorities and see what happens (however I think you will hit a brick wall!)

So you would be happy to be deceived this way would you?

Equaliser123

jdturk wrote: »

Also show me a price promise that has no conditions and then I may start believing what Bedstar are doing is wrong

I can show you a price promise where you have to dig around and eventually find unfair terms which don't mean a darn thing.

I actually believe the price promise is a misrepresentation in this case.

Equaliser123

jdturk wrote: »

Every price promise as far as I know has conditions so really people shouldn't be that gulliable to believe that any price promise is a proper one

No but if the T's and C's are drafted like that, it is a total misrepresentation.

vyle

Surely the shop is just saying "We promise to match a price, so long as we're not losing money," which is fair enough imo.

They're not taking a non-refundable deposit, they're not stopping people buying elsewhere - the consumer takes their chance to wait or not.

It's not an unconditional promise. And like someone else said, it's not like they'll be getting regular repeat business, or have much else they can sell to build up the sale to make it worthwhile.

People who are saying that them losing a sale in this climate is very bad are missing an important point that in this case, not making a sale would be worse financially than no sale.

If you buy a car for 500 and sell it for 510 you have made £10 profit. If someone wants it for 450 you're effectively giving them the car, plus £50 of your own money. In this case it'd be better to keep it and still have the car to sell later on.

If the company did sell at a loss, then OP may tell people about how great their price promise is, but it's only going to invite people to run them into the ground.

Where I work right now, we're matching the price of Wiis at a loss, but as a result, we've created a bundle of games which saves the customer a small amount of money but drives the margin up to make a profit overall. It's not like a bed shop can really do that due to the nature of their business.