Argos refused 1/3 off spend over £100 offer

iwillis

I wanted to buy a new shaver and found the one I wanted in Argos. It was priced at £99.99, and had a offer of spend £100 on Philips shaving products and get 1/3 off. I decided if I replaced my dodgy battery shaver I use for travelling I could spend more than the £100 and get 1/3 off both. Bargain! The wording of the full offer details are:

"Save 1/3 off Philips Male Grooming when you spend over £100 on Philips Shaving products. Offer ends 20 July 2012."

When I get to the store they come up at full price. I question the cashier and she asks a colleague, who comes back and says the offer only applies if you spend over £100 on a single shaving product. She calls customer services and they confirm this. Nowhere on the web site does it say the offer only applies to a single product. It actually says "on Philips Shaving products", so could be read as only applying to multiple products. Although she agrees that I'm spending over £100 on Philips Shaving products, she refuses to sell the items to me at the discounted price. She also refutes that the offer is misleading. It certainly misled me.

I'd made a special trip into town so I ended up buying the shaver I originally wanted, and paying the full price for it. But I've been let down by Argos, and won't be going back there in a hurry.

Azari

iwillis wrote: »

I wanted to buy a new shaver and found the one I wanted in Argos. It was priced at £99.99, and had a offer of spend £100 on Philips shaving products and get 1/3 off. I decided if I replaced my dodgy battery shaver I use for travelling I could spend more than the £100 and get 1/3 off both. Bargain! The wording of the full offer details are:

"Save 1/3 off Philips Male Grooming when you spend over £100 on Philips Shaving products. Offer ends 20 July 2012."

When I get to the store they come up at full price. I question the cashier and she asks a colleague, who comes back and says the offer only applies if you spend over £100 on a single shaving product. She calls customer services and they confirm this. Nowhere on the web site does it say the offer only applies to a single product. It actually says "on Philips Shaving products", so could be read as only applying to multiple products. Although she agrees that I'm spending over £100 on Philips Shaving products, she refuses to sell the items to me at the discounted price. She also refutes that the offer is misleading. It certainly misled me.

I'd made a special trip into town so I ended up buying the shaver I originally wanted, and paying the full price for it. But I've been let down by Argos, and won't be going back there in a hurry.

You have to appreciate that they probably inflated the price of all the qualifying products so that they could offer that discount.

Obviously they are not going to honour the offer on something for which they have not inflated the price.

Typical tawdry business practice but, as I've no doubt you will see in due course, there is no shortage of people here who will find this sort of shenanigan perfectly acceptable.

Crisp_£_note

You could have just told the shop assistant you no longer wanted it! Can you not simply take the shaver back for a refund or credit?

nomoneytoday

Crisp_£_note wrote: »

You could have just told the shop assistant you no longer wanted it! Can you not simply take the shaver back for a refund or credit?

Then the OP's beard growth would be there instead

iwillis

Crisp_£_note wrote: »

You could have just told the shop assistant you no longer wanted it!

Yes, I could have. But I did want it and was there. I had some vouchers which I could use in Argos, so decided to go for it anyway. I an just disappointed in Argos since they did not honour the offer they were advertising, as it was advertised.

FunnySaving

Given that this offer shows on their website specifically on the pages of products which cost significantly less that £100, I would agree that this is misleading. Even when you click the link for 'Full Offer Details' it just says 'Save ⅓ off Philips Male Grooming when you spend over £100 on Philips Shaving products. Offer ends 20 July 2012.' with no reference to any other conditions attached. I would contact them - it may just be that the till wasn't processing the discount properly but if they are plastering this onto pages for non-qualifying products then it certainly seems designed to mislead.

munchpot

You should also consider reporting the to the Advertising Standards Authority. They now regulate online marketing messages, and whilst they have no power to fine the negative publicity for firms like Argos may well force them into doing the right thing

kezza1234

I must be reading their offer differently from you- it says to me that if you spend over £100 on Phillips Shaving products you get 30% off Male Grooming Products. The shavers are not in the Male Grooming section. Male Grooming seems to be body hair trimmers (vom!) and hair clippers. And to be honest, it really doesn't seem to be good deal

Meepster

kezza1234 wrote: »

I must be reading their offer differently from you- it says to me that if you spend over £100 on Phillips Shaving products you get 30% off Male Grooming Products. The shavers are not in the Male Grooming section. Male Grooming seems to be body hair trimmers (vom!) and hair clippers. And to be honest, it really doesn't seem to be good deal

That's the way I read it too...

iwillis

kezza1234 wrote: »

The shavers are not in the Male Grooming section.

It may be that Argos are putting your interpretation on the offer, however:

1. Argos don't have a "Male Grooming" section on their site. They do have a "Men's beard trimmers and hair clippers" section and a "Men's shaving" section.

2. I believe that shaving is a form of grooming.

3. I was told by Argos staff that the discount would apply to a single shaver if the price of that shaver was over £100.

iwillis

I've just received an email back from Argos customer services in reply to an email I sent them yesterday.

I contacted our buying department who confirmed that the offer advertised on the website enables you to purchase more than one item in any one transaction which amounts to over £100.00. This then entitles you to purchase, in the same transaction, any accompanying Philips male grooming product with one third off.

(my emphasis).

I'm still not clear what qualifies as a "Philips male grooming product".

It seems that the staff in-store and at customer services were even more confused than I was by the offer.

In fact I did buy some Philips hair clippers in the same transaction as the £99.99 shaver. Had I known the actual terms of the offer I could have bought the battery shaver as well and saved 1/3 on the clippers (assuming of course that they count as a grooming product).