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

rickbonar

Really price promises are a clever marketing ploy, the quote about the lady and John Lewis shop proves the point they never put the price of the item down although it had been brought to their attention. However the ASA should perhaps rule against it but then again knowing them NOT.

To be fair this often large price differential between shops and suppliers has been about for a long time and I know in the past if you realised another shop had the same item for half what you paid then tough luck.
So at least they offer to refund the difference. The shop bot things here on this site can often find the cheaper deals. Places like house of fraser and John Lewis are obscenely expensive anyway so unless you got the funds of an MP claiming expenses then it's way too dear to even consider shopping there.

By the way have you noticed Waitrose price matching with Tesco?

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You'll laugh when you realise that they're price matching with the dearer Tesco products lol!

JT1984

Paulgonnabedebtfree wrote: »

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.

I recently did a lot of shopping around for a new kitchen as there were some good sales on in the new year. Focus was by far the cheapest at almost 40% less than the others. Both Homebase and B&Q claimed they did a price match plus 10% of the difference but when it came down to it neither of them would honour the offer. Homebase wouldn't even consider it and said they don't price match with Focus...not that it says that anywhere. Then I spent quite a while with someone in B&Q who was pretending they would price match but eventually she said 'the price difference it too great, there's no way it's the same product'
I responded by showing her the sizes, materials and original price of each item, all matched up. The difference in price was that Focus gave me an extra 24% off the total cost of the kitchen which was already on sale. I don't know why they bother saying they will price match when clearly they have no intention of it.
And I'm VERY pleased with my Focus kitchen!

rickbonar

I remember I did get a price match at Comet once when I showed them another shop was selling the same for less but I don't think they were too keen to do it again and said it had to be a shop in the same town.

It's just advertising bluster sells goods but I do think too much is allowed by ASA look the previous poster above with the Homebase items ..... Homebase you can usually find the same items can be for more a quarter or less if you do the right research on the net first.

They sell on the principle that it's there in front of you in your face and OK it's 3 times the price you know you can get in your local ironmongers (and they're overpriced too) but you need it now.

bbloke

Just been on Comets website for a new freezer. Saw the Price Promise and did a search on the net to find it cheaper. Within 30 seconds I found the item on 5 websites all cheaper and upto £50 off the price Comet was charging.
So I gave Comet a call and all they could offer was £19.99 off their quoted price.

So much for the price promise eh?

Not only that, their competitors actually don't offer the majority of large items Comet offer or they are out of stock and so their price promise is in fact a waste of time. Infact I would go as far as to say a joke!. And so Comet have just lost themselves nearly £600.00, even though they claim to check their competitors every day.

Another reason to thank the net, and not only seek out a bargain but show up the marketing flaws these types of businesses try to push on customers.

Madboater

With nipper #1 on its way, I was very happy with Mothercare who price-matched all our pram and accessories for a saving of approx £135 and we picked it up from a single reliable source rather than the rag tag sites that I found the prices on (they were sites that I would not have given my credit card details, but I wasn't going to tell mothercare that). We also get the two year guarantee on the travel system.

blair7412

Reminds me of the truth of this article:

bbc.co.uk/news/business-16002303

Crucially: '... what we buy is always cheaper, or at least not much more expensive, than it would have been elsewhere...' and the subtext in the context of this discussion is we (mostly) never bother to check, so they get away with it.

It's a con, and the cheapest is cheapest whatever deal or offer is supposedly on.

That said, cheapest doesn't always mean best value, and sometimes we may choose knowingly to pay more for the same product when the service (perhaps being spoken to by an actual human being at John Lewis, as opposed to a computer at Amazon) or aftersales care (being able to return something physically to a store and have it exchanged there and then with no postage) is more valuable to the individual.

Price promises should add nothing to that individuals decision though.

Madboater

Just thought I would let everyone know about my experience at Homebase. We had a design appointment with one the design staff at Homebase and once the design was done and the final price was calculated we explained that we were getting prices from some other stores (B&Q, Wickes and IKEA). The sales person pointed out that they currently had a sale on, and if we bought now we could save 20%, and also that they price matched, so we could "buy with confidence".
I expressed that I would still prefer to obtain several quotes, and that I felt that a price match on a kitchen was not possible due to the fact that the ranges that each retailer would be different. The sales person clarified that Homebase had a list of ranges from each retailer that they would consider as similar enough to match against.
We continued to obtain quotes, B&Q and Wickes were very similar however IKEA was considerably less, recognising that we could get the Homebase kitchen (£3362.40) at the same price as the IKEA (£1921) one, and save a further 10% (£144.14). We went back to Homebase and asked if they would price match against IKEA.
The conditions applied where;
That the kitchen had to be from the equivalent range (in this case the Homebase Portland v IKEA Adel Yellow White), which both of our quotes were.
Homebase were also specific that the units had to be of identical construction, which they were.
The sales persons original view was due to the significant price difference this would need to be passed to her manager, however we went through the two different quotes and checked item by item to ensure the units were the same. Apart from some minor differences that would be present when comparing two different ranges, both quotes were the same.
Having spoken to the manager, they wanted further time to compare the quotes, and passed them to the regional office.
They have now come back and explained that due to the significant price difference they will not price match against the IKEA kitchen despite meeting all their match requirements. The salesperson obviously felt awkward when given the reasons (presumably acknowledging they are breaking their guarantee), she also said that there were slight differences between the units, such as the delivered trim lengths were different, she couldn't argue that this was a little disingenuous as these differences would mean the range was not comparable in the first place, and the IKEA quote either offered more (larger corner units) or any excess would be waste such as trim and worktops.
What surprised me the most, was not that they snuck out of their price match promise, but open said it was do to the significant difference. It was essentially saying, we will price match as long as you don't find it cheaper anywhere else!
Oh well, let all know that IKEA do better value kitchens...