6 Furniture chains -'fake prices', 'not genuine', and 'tricked customers'

Computersaysno

6 furniture chains [as yet unnamed...gee I wonder who they might be???] accused of misleading pricing.

Usual stuff wrt 'reference prices' ie 'was £2500, now £999'. found some chains had never sold one at the higher price, and that over 95% of items were always sold at a 'sale price'.

BBC news link :http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23797882

Computersaysno

Update: Carpetright and the ScS chain are among the six being investigated. [BBC website]

Browntoa

I've always taken the "sale" claims/prices with a pinch of salt

is anyone actually foolish enough to fall for it anyway ??

Computersaysno

Andy Foster, from the Trading Standards Institute, says even sceptical shoppers can be drawn in. [on the story on BBC]

Actually very interesting - talks about even if you don't believe the price you can get drawn into the store and 50% of people who 'just went in for a look' end up buying something!!!

and then there's 'price anchoring'...really interesting stuff [covered well by Prof R? Wiseman in one of his 'pop-psychology' books]

jacques_chirac

Browntoa wrote: »

I've always taken the "sale" claims/prices with a pinch of salt

is anyone actually foolish enough to fall for it anyway ??

Look at the Grabbit board - plenty of people will get drawn in by the words sale or bargain

OP, your title is wholly inaccurate - no one has been found 'guilty of massive fraud'. No one has even been prosecuted.

Computersaysno

jacques_chirac wrote: »

OP, your title is wholly inaccurate - no one has been found 'guilty of massive fraud'. No one has even been prosecuted.

Sorry, I meant to say....

6 chains accused of massively misleading the public with very misleading prices and adverts which then cause the public to purchase items from these stores at inflated or misleading prices which is to the detriment of the public.

So in essence the stores are [STRIKE]lying about price reductions[/STRIKE] using misleading price claims and the public are being[STRIKE] defrauded[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]overcharged[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]paying too much [/STRIKE] misled??

Computersaysno

jacques_chirac wrote: »

OP, your title is wholly inaccurate - no one has been found 'guilty of massive fraud'. No one has even been prosecuted.

You are correct in that 'No one has even been prosecuted'.

The OFT said "accused of misleading their customers with fake prices.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said the stores had all advertised price cuts which were not genuine.

In particular, they advertised reductions from previously higher prices, which tricked customers into thinking they were getting a bargain."

Now I'd suggest that the above description of their activities falls broadly within 'fraud'....especially 'fake prices', 'not genuine', and 'tricked customers'.

However to keep my ar5e safe I'll state that [sadly] there have been no legal convictions for fraud nor any actual proven 'criminal' actions, and I was using it in its broadest sense.....namely getting someone's money through 'underhand' activity.

I would also make the point that the main reason there is no action is that it's too costly for the gov to take it and the regs/guidelines are not robust enough to be actionable.

Computersaysno

I've amended the title [to cover my ar53].

It did say 'guilty of massive fraud'...but someone didn't like that, so I've changed it.

Prothet_of_Doom

As a manufacturing engineer, I'm very aware of the difference in manufacturing cost, and market price.

Market price is not related to cost it's related to what you can convince the customer to pay for it, in a competitive world where there are multiple solutions and products.

Convincing the consumer that they are getting the best deal is an art, an illusionist trick, and the sooner we as consumers accept that in most cases smoke and mirrors are being used to convince us, the better.

I've come to the conclusion that the words sale, bargain, off, saving, etc should be banned.

The retailer, should display a price. The price it is today. Not the price yesterday, an arbitary recomended price, the price tomorrow. Just Today's price. Once a product is displayed at that price, it should be impossible to put the price up for 3 months. If the price is put up, after 3 months there should be a sign saying was £50, now £55.
If the price is reduced, there should be no reference to what is was before.


I use the Pringles example. It's got to be the one product with the most price changes in the most shops I've ever seen.

Was £2.46, now £1.85, Now £2.00 but 3 for £4.50. Was £2.00 now BOGOF. The market price is actually £1.20. If they are more than £1.20 I'll buy them and if not I won't.

When it comes to furniture, I work out what I need, have a look what options are out there, try to be very objective, ignore anything but the actual price. I don't care if you tell me it's 80% off today, just that you want £350 for it. Is that price fair? Well what are your competition charging for something similar.

Computersaysno

Yes, perfectly logical and an excellent 'engineers' approach.

Sadly you are in a very, very tiny minority.

westy22

If they are more than £1.20 I'll buy them and if not I won't.

As a bargain hunter rather than an engineer I'll buy them when they are less than £1.20