National shortage of Fridge Freezers?

mbailey

I ordered a Samsung Fridge Freezer from Dixons website in July. It is now nearly 6 weeks later and still no fridge freezer has arrived. I keep ringing Dixons and they kept saying they will have a delivery due in the next few days. When I ring back a few days later I am told the delivery has been delayed and it is still a few days away!

I went into my local Currys last night and got them to check the computers and now they are saying the fridge freezer I ordered is completely out of stock and they have no idea when it might arrive as there is a national shortage of white goods, especially fridge freezers!

Anyone else heard this?

Dixons have offered me my money back but I don't want to take it as I got a really good price for the Fridge/Freezer using a number of discount codes on the Dixons website in July!

The fact that Dixons have taken my money can I force them to delivery me the goods if I know another supplier has them in stock?

FilthyLuka

sorry i dont know the awnswer but i would imagine they have to supply your order in a reasonable time - what is the reasonable time for an FF? 1-2 weeks tops i'd imagine

if they cant get 'THAT' fridge surely they must have to supply an equal or better for the same price.

maybe they cant get your fridge because all of the discounts they applied are eating their profits? if thats the case they should tighten up the codes they issue

I need a freezer in a week or so - i really hope it doesnt take even 2 weeks to be delivered - anyon know whats standard?

v0n

This is what all high street chains do - Currys, Comets, you can walk in, ask for any household goods, 90% of chance it won't be in stock. And if it is, it's probably their "last" item. Every time I tried to buy something household related from high street chains, at least in the last 2 years was always out of stock. One day, before Xmas, we really needed to replace a dying freezer. We looked online, picked nothing fancy, 80 quid generic, no name freezer. Drove to 2 different Comets, none of them actually had it in stock, they offered to deliver for £25 extra. So we drove to Dixons, picked their cheapest model, not in stock, they checked in computer, no stock anywhere within 100 miles. So I picked one 10 quid more expensive - again, no stock anywhere. Picked another one, and another one - no avail. I got angry and said "I want a freezer I can take home now, I have Xmas food defrosting on my kitchen table, I need freezer today, now". The guy looked around, lowered volume of his voice and said "Try co-op"... And indeed Co-op had their cheapest freezer in stock. It was last, or the only one of that type in stock.

I believe the idea is for them to never have "dead stock" sitting in warehouses, take orders, when they reach certain level buy in bulk. Also, it gives them some defree of play around the prices - they can advertise the item £20 cheaper than department store simply because you cannot actually buy it at that price. There is no item in store, you can not de facto buy it for the price listed on "display model", you have to pay extra £20 or more for delivery...

mbailey

v0n wrote:

This is what all high street chains do - Currys, Comets, you can walk in, ask for any household goods, 90% of chance it won't be in stock. And if it is, it's probably their "last" item. Every time I tried to buy something household related from high street chains, at least in the last 2 years was always out of stock. One day, before Xmas, we really needed to replace a dying freezer. We looked online, picked nothing fancy, 80 quid generic, no name freezer. Drove to 2 different Comets, none of them actually had it in stock, they offered to deliver for £25 extra. So we drove to Dixons, picked their cheapest model, not in stock, they checked in computer, no stock anywhere within 100 miles. So I picked one 10 quid more expensive - again, no stock anywhere. Picked another one, and another one - no avail. I got angry and said "I want a freezer I can take home now, I have Xmas food defrosting on my kitchen table, I need freezer today, now". The guy looked around, lowered volume of his voice and said "Try co-op"... And indeed Co-op had their cheapest freezer in stock. It was last, or the only one of that type in stock.

I believe the idea is for them to never have "dead stock" sitting in warehouses, take orders, when they reach certain level buy in bulk. Also, it gives them some defree of play around the prices - they can advertise the item £20 cheaper than department store simply because you cannot actually buy it at that price. There is no item in store, you can not de facto buy it for the price listed on "display model", you have to pay extra £20 or more for delivery...

To some extent I agree with you. The cheapest prices are always there to get you into the shop and usually you end up buying something more expensive if you want it now.

At the end of the day it is bad business to holds lots of stock but in my case it appears that dixons have 8 on preorder for this particular model and they still don't seem to be able to get a delivery date from the manufacturer.

The other thing I have noticed with Currys/Comet/Dixons is that the web prices are always cheaper than the instore prices, but if you just mention that you can buy it for cheaper from the same store online then will always match the online prices instore. If you don't ask they will obviously charge you more instore!

mbailey

FilthyLuka wrote:

sorry i dont know the awnswer but i would imagine they have to supply your order in a reasonable time - what is the reasonable time for an FF? 1-2 weeks tops i'd imagine

if they cant get 'THAT' fridge surely they must have to supply an equal or better for the same price.

This is the bit I am not sure about.

Can I make Dixons purchase from another retailer that has them instock for me?

Can anyone else comment?

FilthyLuka wrote:

maybe they cant get your fridge because all of the discounts they applied are eating their profits? if thats the case they should tighten up the codes they issue

I also thought this might be the case, but when I found out that they have 8 on preorder and it is not just my order I decided this probably wasnt an issue.

silvercar

I saw the samsung fridge freezer cheapest at Dixons, but it wouldn't let me order online as it was out of stock for the next few weeks.

Checked out the same model £20 cheaper at appliancecity.com. They charge £20 for delivery so I'm back to the same price. Ordered Saturday, they phoned Monday and delivered Tuesday.

Mikeyorks

mbailey wrote:

Can I make Dixons purchase from another retailer that has them instock for me?.

In short ....no, you can't.

You can accept your money back, as offered, or be (more) patient / keep pressing them.

But worth checking prices here :-

http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/home-appliances/fridge-freezers/browse

..... and see if you can get a better deal?

mbailey

Mikeyorks wrote:

In short ....no, you can't.

You can accept your money back, as offered, or be (more) patient / keep pressing them.

But worth checking prices here :-

http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/home-appliances/fridge-freezers/browse

..... and see if you can get a better deal?

The problem I have is the price I paid on the web was around £300, with the current website price being £380 and the instore price being £450. Also I used my Egg Mastercard which had a 10% cashback promotion at the time with Dixons which brought the cost down to £270.

Currently the best price on pricerunner is £375.

As you suggest, I think I will just have to be more patient and keep waiting, along with a couple of weekly phone calls to customer service to keep the pressure on!

griff.

I recently did a hunt for them on the internet, and decided that for speed, price and quidco value the co-op was the best...

http://www.coopelectricalshop.co.uk/products/ProductList.asp?topGroupCode=REFRIG&groupCode=FRDFF

You get to choose your delivery date BEFORE you place the order, and they have some items that can be rapidly delivered in 2 days.

Mikeyorks

mbailey wrote:

Currently the best price on pricerunner is £375.

As you suggest, I think I will just have to be more patient and keep waiting, along with a couple of weekly phone calls to customer service to keep the pressure on!

Under those circumstances - you're right .. it will pay to be 'patient' - whilst being a bit terse with them. Unless, of course, the monthly shopping is defrosting in the old one!;)