"Price promises aren't usually worth the paper they're written on" Blog discussion

Paulgonnabedebtfree

I did actually get some money out of B & Q once for some paint. I wasn't looking for it though. I had been to Homebase around the corner and they didn't have the full quantity of the paint I wanted but they had enough for me to make a good start. I intended to return the following week to get more but decided to have a look in B & Q while I was out. B & Q did have the remainder of the exact paint. They also had a price promise of "refund the difference + 10%". So they did. No hassle. No argument. It was only a fluke that I became aware of it though.

irrelevant

I nearly did the whole JL price match thing - buying Presents for Tiddler this Christmas, we wanted a v-tech v-Motion console.

Argos had it at £35, but JL was at retail of £49 according to the website. Next day, JL had changed to match it, but by the time we got around to buying, they had both increased the price again. In the end, we bought direct off v-tech's own website for £29.99 - different included game, but that wasn't an issue, plus v-tech had a deal going too, where we grabbed some extra games, which JL didn't stock anyway, and got a free clock that teaches telling the time, and which she's ended up playing with more than the v-motion!!

Most satisfying price match deal I ever did was with Currys - we were in the market for a Dyson, and the model we wanted was on offer in Argos for about £25 less. So printed off a reservation, to prove Argos had it in stock, then got it from Comet on their "price match then an extra 10%". Manager was not amused; they usually manage to wriggle out of them: "Sorry, it's a different product, ours has an 'A' on the end of the model number." !

I sort-of price matched Comet against themselves once - bought a very expensive plasma telly a few years ago.. had some issues with it from the off, so went back in the store, and they'd dropped the price by £400! Sneaky. Told them they could either fix the problems and give me the difference in price back, or I'd just reject the order and they could give me all my money back! They did...

kaya

currys price promise states that the product must be within a 25 mile radius of their store and they will match the price, i wasted an hour of my life on boxing day in the store, the extremely rude and arrogant managers i spoke to refused to honour the stores policy stating that the store was more than 25 miles away using AA autoroute, i did explain what a "radius" was and that you cannot measure distance via AA autoroute, but still they refused to honour the policy,(it was 25.7 miles via autoroute and exactly 19 miles as the crow flies) i walked several stores along to PC world who are owned and run by the same company as currys (dixons) and they happily honoured the policy, they didn't have the tv i wanted in stock though so they sent a staff member with a trolley to the curry's store who refused me and collected a screen from there for me, so i got the screen i wanted at the price i wanted and it came from the same company in the end, what a farce, waste of time and poor advert for curry's stores countrywide

Alexander56

Just over 2 years ago I bought a 50" Samsung TV from John Lewis at £799 with a 5 year guarantee. A month later the same TV was offered for £699. I contacted John Lewis and had £100 refunded - I was very pleased.

oldoakey

I own/manage an independant furniture store and am fed up of the untrue claims by many of the larger retailers. This is just one of many tricks they use to basically con the public into thinking they are getting a good deal.

They do have a guarantee of being the cheapest and you could find the same item cheaper but not in the same fabric. Hence they can then charge what they want with absolutly no recourse to the claim of being the cheapest as their buying power means that they get exclusive deals with manufacturers on models in fabrics you will not be able to specify even if you did find the same model cheaper.

One of the other tricks they use is to put a suite/dining set etc. in one of their shops at twice the price they would normally charge. If they do this for 28 days then they can legally offer this same sofa accross all their stores at 50% off for the following 3 months and legally call it a discount!

One day I am going to have a £100,000 sofa on my shop floor for a month then I will offer 99% off and sell the same sofa for £1,000 just what I was looking to sell it for in the first place. :mad:

nomoneytoday

Pmarmalade wrote: »

JL have offered an extra 5 years warranty on some TVs in the past so it was definitely worthwhile doing the pricematch legwork! Now, there's no point at all. Just buy somewhere else.

Richer Sounds actually beat competitors prices instead of just mtaching, though they're not as generous as they used to be with this.

Probably due to tighter margins in the first place..

Supportspice

I have only looked at one price promise before, Thomas Cook, I found my holiday cheaper elsewhere and when I looked it only applied if there were two of you booking. I thought 'that sucks' (and thats marketing/advertising) so I ignore all such blurb now and just look for the cheapest price and best service combination.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

kaya wrote: »

currys price promise states that the product must be within a 25 mile radius of their store and they will match the price, i wasted an hour of my life on boxing day in the store, the extremely rude and arrogant managers i spoke to refused to honour the stores policy stating that the store was more than 25 miles away using AA autoroute, i did explain what a "radius" was and that you cannot measure distance via AA autoroute, but still they refused to honour the policy,(it was 25.7 miles via autoroute and exactly 19 miles as the crow flies) i walked several stores along to PC world who are owned and run by the same company as currys (dixons) and they happily honoured the policy, they didn't have the tv i wanted in stock though so they sent a staff member with a trolley to the curry's store who refused me and collected a screen from there for me, so i got the screen i wanted at the price i wanted and it came from the same company in the end, what a farce, waste of time and poor advert for curry's stores countrywide

I sincerely hope that you made a point of wheeling the product into Currys to show him what you had just got.
I probably would have but I'm a bit childish like that sometimes

choc_mouse

Supportspice wrote: »

I have only looked at one price promise before, Thomas Cook, I found my holiday cheaper elsewhere and when I looked it only applied if there were two of you booking. I thought 'that sucks' (and thats marketing/advertising) so I ignore all such blurb now and just look for the cheapest price and best service combination.

I was waiting for a bus and couldn't help but notice the Thomas Cook shop window in front of me. I can't remember it word for word but it basically read: "If you find your holiday cheaper elsewhere within 48 hours we'll promise to match it. If we can't we'll give the holiday for free!"

The last part was quite a ridiculous statement. Surely they would prefer to make a small profit/loss rather than a massive loss?

callum9999

choc_mouse wrote: »

I was waiting for a bus and couldn't help but notice the Thomas Cook shop window in front of me. I can't remember it word for word but it basically read: "If you find your holiday cheaper elsewhere within 48 hours we'll promise to match it. If we can't we'll give the holiday for free!"

The last part was quite a ridiculous statement. Surely they would prefer to make a small profit/loss rather than a massive loss?

Yeah you're right - quite a few companies do it as well (like the flight centre). The manager would have to be a complete moron to refuse to honour even a £100 price match on a £10,000 holiday. £100 is better than giving it away for free!