Gutted at price drop

Mum-2-4

Having 4 young children, on a limited budget, I shop for xmas presents all year round. This year my eldest 12yr old dd wanted a creative 30gb zen mp3 in pink. The cheapest I found it was at play.com at £179.99, one of my sisters, and her Nana chipped in, & I ordered one at the end of Sept. DD knew how much it was & was told that would be her only present for xmas, which she understood.
Over a month later I saw the mp3 had been reduced to £164.99 on the website, which I was unhappy about. What annoyed me even more was my sister phoned me from my local M & S just before xmas as they had the mp3 for £99.
I emailed play.com and complained about the price drop, their reply was "appreciate you are unhappy about price drop, price is set by their supplier etc", unable to return mp3 as over their 35 day return policy.
Really gutted tonight after finding out M & S had it in their sale for £39!
DD is really upset & keeps saying sorry, I have told her its not her fault, but she knows how hard money is with 4 little ones.
I feel bad knowing I could have saved £140, I have definately learnt my lesson & will no-longer buy presents so far in advance.

pulliptears

Unfortunately its usually the case, and few retailers will refund the difference. Now my 2 are older I tend to give them money to spend and they always get twice as much as they would have before christmas. They still have smaller gifts to open on the day, but they both appreciate that they will get more for less by waiting 2 days

THE_LONE_RANGER_4

the thing is my mate bought a tv for £1.300 6 weeks later ie yesterday its for sale for £700 , thats the way it goes annoying but you just learn as i did i always now find something i like and wait 12 months

gaming_guy

in my local o2 shop the SE K750i was £99.99 yesterday, now it is £10 cheaper at £89.99. the k800i was £199.99, now it is £189.99

darwin-rover

Thats what you get for buying so far in advance .

Really gutted tonight after finding out M & S had it in their sale for £39!

Surely some mistake ? A 30Gb top brand MP3 player for under £40 ?

Wig

You haven't lost that much on the deal, look at the prices
http://shopping.kelkoo.co.uk/b/a/ss_zen_30gb.html

Amazon £155

Just because you've seen them in sales at alledgedly £99 does not mean that had you waited you would have had it for £99, there might have been only one for £99 and you might not have got it. It's called "sod's law" if you waited you would have been paying £155, because you bought early you only think now you *could* have saved more money. The most you'd have saved I reckon would be £25 so don't beat yourself up about the fairytale price of £99 or £40

I also doubt it was in M&S for £40 maybe some cheaper model. Whatever the case the fact is you have paid about £25 over the price they are available for today and that's annoying for you but not too bad, It would be even less bad for you had you allowed her to use it from the time you got it, then she would have had use out of it and would have had a full 12 months guarantee instead of the 9 months she will have now. (another reason to buy close to xmas or just after in the sales.)

I reckon someone who is telling you they were on sale was mistaking this 2GB one
http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/3252676/Creative_Zen_V_Plus_2GB_MP3_Player/Product.html

For this 30GB one
http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/867369/Creative_Zen_Vision_M_30GB_MP3_Multimedia_Player/Product.html


If I were you I'd have told her she can have one after new years day (or after xmas day), that you are waiting for the sales and what ever the price is in January/end of Dec, she can have one then if she still wants one, she may have changed her mind and wanted something different by then.


Look at my example. I bought early when I saw a dvd for £20 (normal price £27) I usually take ages to buy something, I took ages to commit myself to the £20. After xmas (actually 24th Dec) I saw it at £15 and it's part II was £18 (previously £26). I wanted the part II so I thought I was going to get it for £18 but because I take so long to commit myself to things , It was sold and was now out of stock, so it is back up at £27 the cheapest price now.

You see what I mean? Just because it was in a sale does not mean you would have got it.

BTW(by the way) Amazon is better than Play because Amazon has a 30 day price difference refund policy, so you can buy before xmas and if the price goes down, you don't have to return the product they willl just refund you the money (if you ask) Somehow I don't think play would do that!.

N20Y1D

Mum-2-4 wrote:

Really gutted tonight after finding out M & S had it in their sale for £39!

i'd take that with a pinch of salt... their "sale" just seems to be a way of getting peoples details and they no doubt sold just one or two at that price.

nickyhutch

Don't make your DD feel so guilty! It's not her fault! She doesn't need to know all this, does she??!

Poppy9

I only buy early if I expect something to be in short supply and make sure I do my homework first.

Bought DD pink DS lite. Best value I could find was HMV and if I opened a store account I saved a further 10% and had 120 interest free credit period. I bought end of November and they were out of stock for most of December. When they did come back into stock in Game it was only the more expensive packs £179 for console and 3 games. I paid £103 for console, sims pet and accessory pack. So sometimes buying early can be :money:

havfrue2006

I do a lot of research when purchasing anything, but I have long ago decided tha with electronics it just isn't worth it checking up on prices AFTER I have bought the item as it just makes me upset. The way I see it is that it is no use always waiting for a better price or better model - there will always be a newer model or better price, and if one waits all the time, they will never buy anything electronic again!

I do understand how upsetting it must be though. hugs

jmarko

i wouldn't be too upset. there was a story in one of the papers recently about how the stuff in the M&s sale was actually not available to the public cos all their staff took it *all*.

that is not a bad price for a decent quality 30gb mp3 player by any means.

trust me, you couldn't have got it for 39.99 - whatever the m&s website said.

jmarko