Go Outdoors - 20% off tents - misleading ad

johnsoni

Hi all,
Just be aware, Go Outdoors are pushing a "20% discount off all tents", Saturday 28th May.
Sounds a great deal, but what they're actually offering is "20% off any tent we actually have in stock, in the store you visit on that day.

Anything in their catalogue which would be worth buying, amazingly, they won't have in store. Even more amazing, is that they cannot order in anything that they don't already stock.
Sharp practice / out and out con / misleading advertising.. call it what you will..
Have complained to ASA and will be shopping elsewhere in future.

PZH

johnsoni wrote: »

Sharp practice / out and out con / misleading advertising.. call it what you will.

I call it reading the small print...

TERMS & CONDITIONS APPLY: A GO Outdoors Discount Card is required. Discount Cards are available in store to all customers at a cost of £5 for a year and are valid from time of purchase. Only one transaction per coupon and one coupon per Discount Card. Does not include carpets, footprints, canopies, porches or extensions. Offers available in store only. The coupon must be handed in at the till to receive the discount. Offer only valid for time specified on the coupon. May not be used in conjunction with any other offer. Subject to availability.

Azari

phoodless wrote: »

I call it reading the small print...

OP has read the small print.

It's what's in the small print that is being complained about.

johnsoni

Offers available in store only - suggests to me that the discount voucher has to be presented in person, in a store i.e. not used on the website
Subject to availability - is reasonable, but not when the store deliberately ensures that a large proportion of the catalogue is not stocked in the first place. i.e. they are applying a qualifier to the offer by not holding stock. Headlining the offer with "20% off ALL tents" when not all the tents are available to be bought is sharp practice.

What would the response be if Tescos ran a campaign announcing all champagne for £3/bottle - "subject to availability", and then withdrew all Champagne and filled the shelves with Mexican Cava?

bitemebankers

johnsoni wrote: »

What would the response be if Tescos ran a campaign announcing all champagne for £3/bottle - "subject to availability", and then withdrew all Champagne and filled the shelves with Mexican Cava?

In my experience, supermarkets and many other retailers run promotions like this, which they do to help clear the actual stock they have sitting on their shelves. Many a time I've gone into a store only to find that a promotion has been very popular and they've run out - that's just bad luck isn't it?

I certainly don't think it's reasonable to expect any retailer to order new stock in specifically for you *and* sell it to you at a discount. I think you've probably wasted your time complaining to the ASA.

biscit

I agree with bitemebankers, seems totally reasonable to me.

johnsoni

The point is, is that they have no intention of putting the stock, of a great many lines, on the shelves in the first place.
Running a promotion on a website listing x tents, saying you can 20% off any/all of them,
Clearly, it's a ruse to pull people into the store, trying to shift their own brand stock. Anything made by a "known brand" - with an established market price - is deliberately withdrawn from sale before the event. That practice, to me, is misleading.

Bitemakers. I think you're missing the point. If Tescos advertised £65 champagne for £3 but never actually put any stock out on the shelves, full stop. There would, rightly, be an outcry.
This is not about the store selling out of stock, it's that they never put ANY stock out at all in the first place.

johnsoni

BTW I'm not sure if you realise, that these vouchers only apply for one day only, Sat 28th May. This isn't a sale that's been dragging on for months and stock has now gone.. If they haven't got the stock, in store, now, it's unlikely they'll have it in time for the "sale day".

Oliver14

johnsoni wrote: »

The point is, is that they have no intention of putting the stock, of a great many lines, on the shelves in the first place.

Do you have any proof of this or is it just your speculation? I'm guessing the later. As a lot of sales are set up to move stock that isn't selling shops frequently don't get stock in just for a sale.

Perfectly reasonable business pratice that most shops use at one time or another

bitemebankers

johnsoni wrote: »

Bitemakers. I think you're missing the point. If Tescos advertised £65 champagne for £3 but never actually put any stock out on the shelves, full stop. There would, rightly, be an outcry.
This is not about the store selling out of stock, it's that they never put ANY stock out at all in the first place.

I'm not missing the point - I just don't agree with you. Big difference.

Go Outdoors, like many similar retailers, offer a far bigger range of products online and in their catalogue than it would ever be possible to offer in a store. There is nothing unreasonable or dishonest about this. So it stands to reason that if you pick something at random from their catalogue or website, it won't ever be available in the store, let along during a promotion.

daveyjp

Forget the offer.

Go Outdoors offer a price match plus 10% - this method saved me 30% on a new tent.