Carpetright breaking oft regulations!

jumpinjackflash

Does anyone have any views or knowledge regarding Carpetrights pricing & marketing stratergy?

As their "list prices" average 200-600% mark up on carpets & 800-1200% on underlay & accessories does this not seem extortionately excessive & underhandedly misleading toward the consumer!

A customer goes to Carpetright in good faith that the "list price" they advertise is directly attributable to the quality of the product they are buying... correct?

The customer then is mislead to believe they are getting 50% off the "list price", plus another 20% off etc. & think they are getting a fantastic price on a quality product... correct?

Errrrr no! They are actually being conned into believing that & end up with the same quality of carpet they could buy elsewhere for the same or even less money.... Carpetright massively inflate their "list prices" way beyond their duty of "professional dilligence"... so as they can continually promote falsely represented & misleading sales in order to dominate about 40% of the market!

They then go on to rip the customer off further with extortionately priced underlay & accessories, imaginary delivery charges when carpets are being fitted etc. etc.

Something needs to be done about this soon... it is debatably highly fraudulent activity on a massive scale... Any thoughts anyone? :mad:

GENERAL PROHIBITION OF UNFAIR COMMERCIAL PRACTICES SECTION 3 (OFT.GOV.UK)

somethingcorporate

No, the price/margins do not have to have anything to do with the cost price. They could charge whatever they like.

If people choose to go into the shops and offer the list price then that is their lookout.

Some products in my company have enormous margins (99%+), if people choose to pay those prices then great, they have the choice to go elsewhere.

fluffnutter

jumpinjackflash wrote: »

... their "list prices" average 200-600% mark up on carpets & 800-1200% on underlay & accessories

Citation needed.

You're getting rather excited about Carpetright. Can't you just shop elsewhere? Or perhaps you're not a customer... Seeing as you've made an assertion about the mark-up on carpets, I reckon you work for a rival carpet firm and are simply annoyed that Carpetright does more business than you do.

Hintza

You can add many retailers to this list:-

Beds
Furniture etc

The ones that are annoying me just now are the supermarkets they move their prices around so fast you haven't a clue which is the real price.

fluffnutter

Hintza wrote: »

The ones that are annoying me just now are the supermarkets they move their prices around so fast you haven't a clue which is the real price.

Aah, an existentialist dilemma... what, indeed, is the real price? With continuous offers, price matching and whatnot, does 'the real price' even exist anymore?

mattyprice4004

It's not a scam, and it's not against OFT rules. You can bandy any legislation around you want but it doesn't make you right.

For example, I pay practically nothing for the stock I use in my businesses, does that make me a scammer? I also hold many sales etc to boost income, is that a scam?

Seriously, what a load of nonsense.

somethingcorporate

The "price" is whatever figure the buyer and seller agree on - and it can be different for every single customer.

jumpinjackflash

somethingcorporate wrote: »

No, the price/margins do not have to have anything to do with the cost price. They could charge whatever they like.

If people choose to go into the shops and offer the list price then that is their lookout.

Some products in my company have enormous margins (99%+), if people choose to pay those prices then great, they have the choice to go elsewhere.

You are missing my point... It's not about customers offering "list price" it is about deliberately & falsely massively inflating their subjective "list price" to prices that are between 200% & 1200% mark up, if you think 99% mark up is enourmous the Carpetrights mark up is criminal!!

Customers automatically & naively assume that their "list price" is a realistic RRP for the product & reflects the quality of the product... when really the realistic & national average for that product within the industry is on average half of what Carpetright claim.. FACT!!...

They are then "lead" to believe they are making up to a 70% saving on the product compared to buying anywhere else

Customer has carpet fitted thinking it will last 10 years.. it lasts 2 years.. customer has to replace carpet, which lasts 2 years again, totalling 4 years, when they could have bought another suitable quality carpet elsewhere, at carpetrights original presale "list price" which would have lasted 10 years.. you do the math!

It is a completely dishonest practice, customers should be protected, they know nothing about carpets & their quality related to price & it is the retailers duty to exercise professional dilligence, which does not include lying to the consumer about the quality & objectively demonstratable market value of a product!

It materially distorts the economic behaviour of the average consumer through lack of professional dilligence... prohibited under OFT legislation... take a look for yourself

arcon5

Customers automatically & naively assume that their "list price" is a realistic RRP for the product & reflects the quality of the product... when really the realistic & national average for that product within the industry is on average half of what Carpetright claim.. FACT!!...

They are then "lead" to believe they are making up to a 70% saving on the product compared to buying anywhere else

More fool them for not doing their research properly. This is why you shop around before buying from a company.

I don't see the big problem, so long as it's clear what your paying, what your getting and all relevant information is available to you to make an informed decision.


You could also say the same about many [STRIKE]overpriced[/STRIKE] upmarket restaurants charging a small fortune for a meal that costs half the price from the place down the road ordering food from the same supplier. Amongst many other industries suchas antique, art, ect ect.

It is a completely dishonest practice, customers should be protected, they know nothing about carpets & their quality related to price & it is the retailers duty to exercise professional dilligence, which does not include lying to the consumer about the quality & objectively demonstratable market value of a product!

This changes things somewhat. Maybe give some examples of ways they have been "lying" to the customer...

Some retailers charge more for their products in order to allow them to offer a more prestigue service.. some charge pile it high and sell it cheap.. so not really sure how having to demonstrate the market average/value for the product helps the retailer offering better service.


The whole point of business is to make money -- not ensure consumers keep their own pockets well lined. So if a business can sell a crap product for a high price in a fair and non-misleading way then fair play to them.

fluffnutter

jumpinjackflash wrote: »

You are missing my point... It's not about customers offering "list price" it is about deliberately & falsely massively inflating their subjective "list price" to prices that are between 200% & 1200% mark up, if you think 99% mark up is enourmous the Carpetrights mark up is criminal!!

Customers automatically & naively assume that their "list price" is a realistic RRP for the product & reflects the quality of the product... when really the realistic & national average for that product within the industry is on average half of what Carpetright claim.. FACT!!...

They are then "lead" to believe they are making up to a 70% saving on the product compared to buying anywhere else

Customer has carpet fitted thinking it will last 10 years.. it lasts 2 years.. customer has to replace carpet, which lasts 2 years again, totalling 4 years, when they could have bought another suitable quality carpet elsewhere, at carpetrights original presale "list price" which would have lasted 10 years.. you do the math!

It is a completely dishonest practice, customers should be protected, they know nothing about carpets & their quality related to price & it is the retailers duty to exercise professional dilligence, which does not include lying to the consumer about the quality & objectively demonstratable market value of a product!

It materially distorts the economic behaviour of the average consumer through lack of professional dilligence... prohibited under OFT legislation... take a look for yourself

So come on then. What rival carpet firm do you work for/own?

bris

Nobody is missing your point, certainly nobody on here anyway who have seen it all before. Do you really think the likes of harvey's, scs etc can really be constantly half price without still making a huge mark up. In todays market place it's all about the marketing, and yes there is still people who believe that if they don't buy it right now they will lose the discount.
The fact is though they get away with it using the loopholes that dictate when an item can be put on sale.
So the next time you see a suite @ 5k in SCS just wait 28 days and you will get it for half price plus take an extra 30%off and all with interest free credit, bargain.