MSE News: Flaw revealed in John Lewis 'Never Knowingly Undersold' price guarantee

meher

Paulgonnabedebtfree wrote: »

They should start a new company. "Chameleon Marketing Ltd."

excuse me

Sooler wrote: »

The trick would be for JL to price match and give the same length warranty.

Argos Washing machine £219 with 1 year warranty

JL Washing machine £279 with 2 year warranty - no price match

JL price match Washing machine £219 with 1 year warranty.

why would they want to do that

It's their business model; one that classifies them in a different league, earns our trust and enhances their reputation.

it's a socialist business enterprise - I love john lewis

It appaears to be gimmicky that they haven't highlighted it in the front page but it is a department store and there's the assumption that you'd be well versed about the little writing before you actually start hunting for price match. I mean would you automatically expect them to include delivery and warranty in the pricematch?

tifo

many retailers don't price match and have too many exclusions.

last year, i wanted Dixons to price match a laptop i saw online (they price match with the retailer) as i wanted to collect the item rather than wait 4-5 days for delivery.

so i emailed then and waited ... and waited ... for around 4 days. By that time the item had gone up by a large amount and Dixons would not price match at the price it was before, when i first contacted them.

lesson learnt, forget price match, just buy it when there's an offer !!

Orrin

It seems reasonable that they are only going to price match if all the conditions (warranty, delivery, installation etc) are the same. This wasn't news to me and from what I remember it's clearly set out in their price match leaflet.

It's a price match guarantee with small print and exclusions. Who'd have thought it?

Lifes_Grand_Plan

This is no worse (in fact a damn sight better) than the likes of Dixons / Currys / PC World who do a price match promise but then add an extra letter or number to the product model number so that they can claim it is different...

I.e. They normally always stick an "a" on the end of the product number

stoneman

I love John Lewis, their staff are so much knowledgeable than others and really make an effort to make sure the customers are happy without being pushy.
The price match condition has been in place for years, nothing new here, next case please.

DJ_Mike

This is an on and off policy with them, from my past experience. How hard they stuck to the fine print when discounting like-for-like electrical goods was down to the friendliness of the person you were dealing with. One or two stuffy sales assistants would tell you the warranties weren't the same while plenty of others would have their heads screwed on straight (and realise keeping the sale was better than losing it!) and just sell to you at that price. Maybe JL have retrained their staff to be more scrutinising - I hope not, and that this is just a few unfortunate sales stories surfacing. It bodes poorly for JL's otherwise excellent customer service if true.

dmg24

Loanranger wrote: »

Not unfair at all!
John Lewis are comparing like with like.
Isn't this what Martin tells us to do when comparing insurance prices?

I agree, and I can't believe this is deemed newsworthy!

gt94sss2 wrote: »

Agreed - especially since expensive electronic items like washing machines and TV's will be covered for up to 5-6 years via the Sales of Goods Act - regardless of whether you buy it from John Lewis or another retailer - and regardless of whether they 'officially' have a 1, 2, 3 or 5 year warranty..

Regards
Sunil

I have highlighted the key phrase in your post - given the choice of a five year no hassle warranty or having to go to small claims to get a partial refund, I know which I would pick!

paulyb2008

While the pedants might criticise JL, this motto is outdated and I haven't taken any notice of it for years anyway.

You might be glad to read that my Samsung LCD TV (with a 5 yr warranty) packed up after 4 years and 10 months. John Lewis repaired the TV, no quibble, without even asking for a receipt as they had a record of the purchase on their customer database. I challenge any other major retailer to offer that kind of service after almost 5 years (apart from richer Sounds of course).

OK, so JL is not undersold, but it has a right to defend it's premium price for superior customer service; I'm also buying peace of mind, not just a product.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

Orrin wrote: »

It seems reasonable that they are only going to price match if all the conditions (warranty, delivery, installation etc) are the same. This wasn't news to me and from what I remember it's clearly set out in their price match leaflet.

It's a price match guarantee with small print and exclusions. Who'd have thought it?

Indeed, but the way I'm reading it is that they intentionally create the situation where a product can never be an exact equivalent to one sold elsewhere, therefore making any price matching promise totally meaningless. Therefore, the only point in them mentioning it in the first place would be to carry out a deception.
Small print and exclusions is one thing. Intentionally creating a situation where the small print and exclusions would always apply 100% of the time is quite another (IMO).

Paulgonnabedebtfree

paulyb2008 wrote: »

While the pedants might criticise JL, this motto is outdated and I haven't taken any notice of it for years anyway.

You might be glad to read that my Samsung LCD TV (with a 5 yr warranty) packed up after 4 years and 10 months. John Lewis repaired the TV, no quibble, without even asking for a receipt as they had a record of the purchase on their customer database. I challenge any other major retailer to offer that kind of service after almost 5 years (apart from richer Sounds of course).

OK, so JL is not undersold, but it has a right to defend it's premium price for superior customer service; I'm also buying peace of mind, not just a product.

I would have no problem with them marketing their business by saying that they charge a bit more for supplying a superior customer service, offer a superior shopping experience, offer a longer product guarantee as standard etc etc. It would probably be reasonably honest and fair to promote their business in this manner.
Indeed, I promote my own business this way. I'm not the cheapest and don't want to be. I offer and supply a much better than average service but charge a higher than average price for it. I don't go around pretending to match the oppositions' prices and then start tacking on extras or saying that because I do those extras I will charge more after all. I set my stall out from the start. My experience is that customers appreciate that. If a potential customer doesn't want to or feels unable to pay my price, I will sometimes even give them a phone number of another person who can supply a cheaper, but lower quality service. I will only do this once I am certain that they don't want to pay my price.