Price change - can they do this?

arcon5

esuhl wrote: »

That's true, but they can't sell an item for £1000 for a day in a single shop and then advertise it as "£100 - 90% off!" in hundreds of shops indefinitely. But I'm not sure exactly where the line is drawn, legally.

This page from Consumerline suggests you contact them if you have a complaint about price mis-representation:
http://www.consumerline.org/search/?cat=Buying+Goods+%26+Services&item=Misleading+Prices

The likes of DFS and CSL seem to have been getting away with it for a long long time now. The odds are they put them on sale for ridiculous prices for about 28 days in a single store then branched out the sales price to all stores.

Tina20

There is a limit, they have to actually sell at the full price for a set amount of days before declaring that it's reduced.

But yes, all marketing I'm afraid and legal

antrobus

arcon5 wrote: »

The likes of DFS and CSL seem to have been getting away with it for a long long time now. The odds are they put them on sale for ridiculous prices for about 28 days in a single store then branched out the sales price to all stores.

I would imagine that was the case.

Allied Carpets (are they still going?) followed the same business model of almost perpetual sales of 'half price carpets'. A journalist once tracked down the deserted Allied Carpets store on some industrial estate somewhere which actually charged the so-called 'full price'.

vyle

The OP oddly reminds me of something I read in an article about japanese quirks regarding price and quality.

The article used an internet cafe as an example. The reporter went into a cafe that was showing its prices as being cheap, but it was an old price list and had since doubled its prices but didn't advertise it, and it was really popular because of it.

The writer wasn't too pleased, being english and finding out his bill was double, and his japanese friend was really confused.

The writer asked why the place was so successful, and why they didn't have the correct prices. His friend explained that the japanese would rather something turns out to be expensive. They go into the cafe expecting something "cheap" and when they find out it's expensive, they feel like their quality expectations have been exceeded and don't worry that it costs more.

If they did it the other way round (high prices advertised but cheap in reality) then it would be as if they went in expecting top quality, and ended up with cheap rubbish, so it would fail. And if they just charged the prices shown, it would not be noteworthy.

I always found that really interesting, and OP is exhibiting the same mentality. "Aww, I thought it was worth more, but now it isn't I think it will be rubbish despite being the same thing with a different price."

DVardysShadow

smp77 wrote: »

I needed to buy a new sofa and being a single parent I don't have a lot of spare cash and don't want to get in debt. I found a sofa I really liked from Argos that was listed in the sale at the end of June that had been reduced to less than half price. It was on sale for £297 instead of the original price of £599. I thought that with the original price being £599 it would be fairly decent quality and that I was getting a bargain. I had until 3rd of July to order it and get this offer.
When I went to track my order, I noticed that exactly the same sofa is now in the sale for £349 (which I know is more than I paid which is not a problem, plus it lists the previous sale price I paid) however it now states its a £50 saving because the original price is now listed as £399!!!! So they have literally knocked £200 off the original selling price...but why?! I feel this is so misleading because although I saved money on the sofa I was lead to believe I was getting a better deal than I have, plus I thought the sofa would be better quality than it is because it was listed as a higher price! Can they legally do this? I am pretty miffed!!!!! :-( advice would be gratefully received!

How much money have you lost? And is your miffedness in proportion to the amount of money?

Valli

also (I don't think it has been mentioned above, I may be wrong) SOMETIMES stores tell you a price is RRP (recommended retail price) or MRP (manufacturer's recommended price) and the item may NEVER have been sold at that price.

Kite2010

Look at Sports Direct, they can claim to give you "up-to 70%" off on products made by them as they have a store in Shirebrook (probably one next to their head-office on some business park) selling the products at full price,

Or look at Tesco last year with the half-price Turkeys which were the same price in the other supermarkets as they were selling them for full price during the summer months to allow them to do the "look it's half-price" stuff.

Mr_Toad

Kite2010 wrote: »

Look at Sports Direct, they can claim to give you "up-to 70%" off on products made by them as they have a store in Shirebrook (probably one next to their head-office on some business park) selling the products at full price,

The Sports Direct store at Shirebrook is Massive, have a look on Google Maps.

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=shirebrook&hl=en&ll=53.196687,-1.207393&spn=0.018665,0.02914&sll=53.147195,-1.198674&sspn=0.149492,0.233116&t=w&hnear=Shirebrook,+Derbyshire,+United+Kingdom&z=16&iwloc=A

dacouch

esuhl wrote: »

Companies try tricks like this all the time. Have you seen all those "special 1/2 price" bottles of wine in supermarkets that you'd never noticed being sold at full price before? I'm sure they just get one or two bottles, "officially" sell them in a couple of shops for £15, then a few months later flood the country with cheap plonk (worth maybe £5) and stick up big "half price - only £7.50" signs.

It's the same with everything -- you need to base your estimate of quality on the price you actually pay, not on the psychological games that all shops play.

Having said that, there are laws that limit the way that companies can represent sale and "original" prices. There are a lot of "loopholes" that most shops will exploit to their advantage, but (in my unqualified opinion) it sounds like they may possibly be breaking the law here.

Assuming you ordered the sofa very recently and did so online, you can probably use the DSRs to reject it.

Otherwise, it might be worth having a word with Trading Standards...

I ignore all the marketing BS around wine (I'm a bit of a wine snob) so I always buy this wine.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6794626/second-cheapest-wine[/URL]

terra_ferma

arcon5 wrote: »

The likes of DFS and CSL seem to have been getting away with it for a long long time now. The odds are they put them on sale for ridiculous prices for about 28 days in a single store then branched out the sales price to all stores.

DFS have cheaper sofas 'on sale' at the front of the store, and all the 'full price' ones hidden at the back of the store, not to be sold until they are reduced. Normal stores do it the other way round, they want to sell you the stuff at full price!