Never knowingly undersold

unholyangel

rogercr wrote: »

Sorry for the delay in replying - your question only serves to detract from the issue - that is the claim by John Lewis 'NEVER KNOWINGLY UNDERSOLD' is untrue and in the words of a member of its staff - 'IT'S JUST A SLOGAN' - others might say 'A CON'

As the saying goes, there are ALWAYS strings attached. Their statement is actually true, based on their terms and conditions. Even if you found a store within 8 miles that was selling cheaper, they cant be expected to visit every competitor every day and check the prices of thousands of items......therefore if it IS being sold cheaper, they wouldnt know about it - hence "never KNOWINGLY undersold".

Likewise it has to be a like for like basis. A camera vs a camera with extras is essentially (for the purpose of terms and conditions and contracts) different products.....even if the cameras are the same model.

SallyForth_2

rogercr wrote: »

They don't say that on the telly do they? So this means that they knowingly sell certain products at much higher prices compared to shops more than 8 miles from a JL store. The slogan should be 'NEVER KNOWINGLY UNDERSOLD WITHIN AN 8 MILE RADIUS OF A STORE' :mad:

Are you sure that little bit of small print "Terms and Conditions apply" isn't lurking somewhere in the ad?

wealdroam

SallyForth wrote: »

Are you sure that little bit of small print "Terms and Conditions apply" isn't lurking somewhere in the ad?

Yes, it certainly is there.

See post #17 for full details of the ad.

Roger has so far overlooked that post.

MrsE_2

Soubrette wrote: »

As has been mentioned before - John Lewis is a premium shop, it would be naive to expect them to offer rock bottom prices too - you go to TK Maxx or Matalan for that.

I'd love to shop at John Lewis

I don't do price promises - if I can get it cheaper somewhere else then I buy it there, I think price promises encourage big shops to offer poor deals.

Sou

I don't understand the whole price match thing either?

Why not just go to the cheaper shop?

vyle

MrsE wrote: »

I don't understand the whole price match thing either?

Why not just go to the cheaper shop?

If tesco is selling a TV for £350 with a one year warranty and JL is selling for £400 with a 5 year warranty, it'd be worth getting JL to match the price and get it with a 5 year warranty.

Other people buy for the service. I've had people come in to compare PVR prices, for example. If somebody is thinking of getting one from Argos because it's cheaper, they sometimes report an undersale to get it from JL because they know that in the event of any problems, they'll get better service from JL than Argos.

If they don't know how to set it up or have any problems with it that require more than just a refund or repair, Argos will be useless, whereas I routinely end up setting up equipment and show customers how to use it. A one eyed, one legged 92 year old man struggled into the shop the other week with his ancient digibox. He'd somehow erased the channels and needed to retune it and had a host of other problems that were down to his unfamiliarity with technology. I wrote instructions for him and printed off a channel list so he knew that BBC 3 was 7 etc.

Would other shops do that? That's where the "on service" part of the undersales slogan comes from.

Of course, people take advantage of it by trying to get me to help them when they bought something elsewhere and that annoys me. If they wanted to get something cheaper online, then don't come to me expecting the company to give them the service they CHOSE not to buy.

But that's a rant I should save for when I go back to work tomorrow.

rogercr

vyle wrote: »

If tesco is selling a TV for £350 with a one year warranty and JL is selling for £400 with a 5 year warranty, it'd be worth getting JL to match the price and get it with a 5 year warranty.

Other people buy for the service. I've had people come in to compare PVR prices, for example. If somebody is thinking of getting one from Argos because it's cheaper, they sometimes report an undersale to get it from JL because they know that in the event of any problems, they'll get better service from JL than Argos.

If they don't know how to set it up or have any problems with it that require more than just a refund or repair, Argos will be useless, whereas I routinely end up setting up equipment and show customers how to use it. A one eyed, one legged 92 year old man struggled into the shop the other week with his ancient digibox. He'd somehow erased the channels and needed to retune it and had a host of other problems that were down to his unfamiliarity with technology. I wrote instructions for him and printed off a channel list so he knew that BBC 3 was 7 etc.

Would other shops do that? That's where the "on service" part of the undersales slogan comes from.

Of course, people take advantage of it by trying to get me to help them when they bought something elsewhere and that annoys me. If they wanted to get something cheaper online, then don't come to me expecting the company to give them the service they CHOSE not to buy.

But that's a rant I should save for when I go back to work tomorrow.

I purchased my camera from a local HI TECH shop where the staff are possibly more knowledable than John Lewis. When I went back to the shop with a query they plugged my camera in to one of the TVs and checked the issue and they could not have been more helpful. I received a five year Panasonic Guarantee and I paid £150.00 less than the John Lewis price. John Lewis has known that the camera and service are available at lower prices elswhere for over one month yet they continue to ask their high price. The John Lewis TV advert is deliberately misleading and to hide behind the lie by calling it a slogan is disgusting. There's nothing in the ad that says 'not to be taken seriously it's only an ad to catch you'. John Lewis has completely lost its way and its integrity.

Having traditionally shopped at JL for years it is extremely sad that I've lost my respect for them.

In answer to Wealdrome, the leaflet you keep harping on about is not what is shown on the TV.

vyle

rogercr wrote: »

I purchased my camera from a local HI TECH shop where the staff are possibly more knowledable than John Lewis. When I went back to the shop with a query they plugged my camera in to one of the TVs and checked the issue and they could not have been more helpful. I received a five year Panasonic Guarantee and I paid £150.00 less than the John Lewis price. John Lewis has known that the camera and service are available at lower prices elswhere for over one month yet they continue to ask their high price. The John Lewis TV advert is deliberately misleading and to hide behind the lie by calling it a slogan is disgusting. There's nothing in the ad that says 'not to be taken seriously it's only an ad to catch you'. John Lewis has completely lost its way and its integrity.

Having traditionally shopped at JL for years it is extremely sad that I've lost my respect for them.

In answer to Wealdrome, the leaflet you keep harping on about is not what is shown on the TV.

Odd that they've not matched it :-|. Did you go into store and fill in an undersale form at all? I got my TV because my store price matched a TV £300 cheaper than the normal asking price to make it stupidly cheap (for that spec).

KeithP

rogercr wrote: »

In answer to Wealdrome, the leaflet you keep harping on about is not what is shown on the TV.

I think he's "harping on" about "what is shown on TV", not the leaflet.

As Wealdrome said, there is no speech in the advert.

The words "Terms and conditions apply" did appear on the screen though.

Surely you don't expect screens full of small print on your television, do you? I imagine you would complain if that happened... I would.

I see we're still no nearer finding out what model of camera you bought.

smcaul

I don't understand your problem, they offer a price match, not a deal match. At least they don't do things like Comet etc, where they get manufacturers to put a slightly different model number on the goods they sell so they can say that it is a different model and is not included in their price matching!!!!

People shop in various stores for various reasons, our main TV was from JL, it was 13 months old and went pop last week, no quibbles, no offer of repair, just offered a full refund or replacement, replacement delivered (higher spec) within 2 days, that went pop within 2 1/2 hours (these things happen), after a bit of a phone call was allowed to upgrade to a much better tv for free and collect it from my local store (original was a JL direct net purchase) so I could get it the same day. The store were great, could not have been better - now if that had been Comet/Curry's etc then I know i would still be waiting for a repair on the TV, instead I am sat here watching the weather on a very clear pictured Panasonic TV. Thats why I shop at JL.

rogercr

KeithP wrote: »

I think he's "harping on" about "what is shown on TV", not the leaflet.

As Wealdrome said, there is no speech in the advert.

The words "Terms and conditions apply" did appear on the screen though.

Surely you don't expect screens full of small print on your television, do you? I imagine you would complain if that happened... I would.

I see we're still no nearer finding out what model of camera you bought.

I can't help wondering why the people here are defending so vigorously a company with a misleading advert. Using all sorts of ploys to get away from the fundamental issue. John Lewis themselves will admit that they are not able to match prices the way they did in the past yet they continue with their untrue slogan. They just wish it were still true. They should now come clean and think of a new slogan - perhaps 'A Store of Quality'. This I believe is largely true but the pretence that they 'Never Knowingly Undersold' is a thing of the past and is a lie. Come on JL - regain your integrity and change your slogan to match the changing market.