Marks and Spencers 'Sale'.

adandem

I have been looking at the sofas in M&S for a few weeks as I won some vouchers and it's the only thing I really need/want.

Before the sale, the sofas I liked were £599 each, buy 2 and get 30% off - making them £420 each.
They are now in 'sale' for £489.
I realise that if you are buying only one it is a reduction but the 30% deal is a continual offer and so the price they would normally be selling for.
I called customer services to ask for a price history on the product and was told they didn't have one. Don't believe this as I know they would have one.
They even told me to wait until the sale had finished to get a better offer!!
I think they should publish the previous selling prices as the sale prices are very misleading.

Not happy M&S, not very transparent and definitely not a 'sale'.

meer53

Why do you need the previous prices ? If you like the price now, buy them, if not, buy somewhere else.

They're not going to change the price for you are they ?

Money-Saving-King

adandem wrote: »

Don't believe this as I know they would have one.

And how do you know this?

wealdroam

adandem wrote: »

I think they should publish the previous selling prices as the sale prices are very misleading.

An excellent idea, and many might agree with you.

You already know the 'was' price and the 'now' price, they are under no obligation to publish anything more.

Money-Saving-King

wealdroam wrote: »

An excellent idea, and many might agree with you.

You already know the 'was' price and the 'now' price, they are under no obligation to publish anything more.

I still don't get the obsession with this anyway. Buying is a simple process to me, sales matter nothing. The product gets checked on Amazon, eBay & gets Google'd as well including checking forums in case there was a rock bottom price at some point which may be repeated. I then buy it from the cheapest place. How many X hundred pounds it may have been before I really don't care about.

George_Michael

adandem wrote: »

I called customer services to ask for a price history on the product and was told they didn't have one. Don't believe this as I know they would have one.

Money-Saving-King wrote: »

And how do you know this?

It's called basic accounting.
Do you honestly think that a retailer such as M&S wouldn't be able to find out the selling price history of a particular item within a few seconds?

How do you think they would be able to work out the profit or loss figures on anything they sell if they didn't have a record of how much they were selling items for at any particular time?, and what do you think the reply from HMRC would be when it came to submitting their tax returns if they stated that they didn't know how much they were selling items for at any given time?

Money-Saving-King

George_Michael wrote: »

It's called basic accounting.
Do you honestly think that a retailer such as M&S wouldn't be able to find out the selling price history of a particular item within a few seconds?

How do you think they would be able to work out the profit or loss figures on anything they sell if they didn't have a record of how much they were selling items for at any particular time?, and what do you think the reply from HMRC would be when it came to submitting their tax returns if they stated that they didn't know how much they were selling items for at any given time?

I'd expect an accounts department to know the overall figures not the prices of particular items. I very much doubt HMRC need the price history of everything. I'm self Employed, they want to know what's come in and what my expenses were and what moneys gone where. With retail companies they will have figures of commodities eg confectionery/food etc as some have VAT & some don't but I very much doubt they need to know what every single item ever sold for as far as accounting reasons go. How much profit a particular item made is not a HMRC requirement as far as I know so there would be no need for price history to be stored, only the essential figures I've already mentioned. The profit made on an item is not a HMRC requirement, eg HMRC don't need to know if an item was sold as a loss leader to attract footfall.

Are you really sure knowing the price history of every line in a company that probably sells 100,000 lines is basic accounting? (seems way complex to me compared to what they need) I very much doubt it, it's not what HRMC actually need to know. Do you actually think HMRC have the money to go over a companies entire stock at every single price it has ever been sold at which will often be in the 6 figure area, then times that by the amount of companies in the UK. Of course they don't go line by line and every single price ever sold, a tax investigation of a company into that amount of detail would probably end up taking 10 years! and then who would pay for this? It quite simply doesn't work that way. They're there to make money for the Government not to cost way more than they could ever actually could reclaim which would be the case if they studied line by line price history (which has nothing to do with an overall amount of tax a company would need to pay in any given tax year).

I'd expect the people in charge of departments may have some knowledge of history of prices but only due to being in a position for some time and simply remembering past prices. As I've said above I cannot see how HMRC need to know all this, they only need income, expenses, costs and a breakdown of the sales on commodities and how money is moved about the company.

I would not therefore expect someone on a customer service help desk to have that sort of information available to them within a few seconds as you have said.

adandem

meer53 wrote: »

Why do you need the previous prices ? If you like the price now, buy them, if not, buy somewhere else.

They're not going to change the price for you are they ?

I have vouchers which I will add to, don't think other shops will take them they have told me to wait until after the sale when the items will be cheaper. Most likely the items will be full price for a week so they can claim the 30% off again, which is a virtually permanent offer.

You can any item scanned in store and it will show the price history, even for a pair of socks. How can you claim a % reduction without a history?

meer53

adandem wrote: »

I have vouchers which I will add to, don't think other shops will take them they have told me to wait until after the sale when the items will be cheaper. Most likely the items will be full price for a week so they can claim the 30% off again, which is a virtually permanent offer.

You can any item scanned in store and it will show the price history, even for a pair of socks. How can you claim a % reduction without a history?

I still don't see why it matters.

Your sofas could have been £2000 each last week and £3000 the week before.

If you like them and have the money to buy them at the price they are now, what difference does a sign saying that they're reduced by x% make ? If you can't spend your vouchers anywhere else, then that makes your question even more irrelevant !

OlliesDad

Money-Saving-King wrote: »

I'd expect an accounts department to know the overall figures not the prices of particular items. I very much doubt HMRC need the price history of everything. I'm self Employed, they want to know what's come in and what my expenses were and what moneys gone where. With retail companies they will have figures of commodities eg confectionery/food etc as some have VAT & some don't but I very much doubt they need to know what every single item ever sold for as far as accounting reasons go. How much profit a particular item made is not a HMRC requirement as far as I know so there would be no need for price history to be stored, only the essential figures I've already mentioned. The profit made on an item is not a HMRC requirement, eg HMRC don't need to know if an item was sold as a loss leader to attract footfall.

Are you really sure knowing the price history of every line in a company that probably sells 100,000 lines is basic accounting? (seems way complex to me compared to what they need) I very much doubt it, it's not what HRMC actually need to know. Do you actually think HMRC have the money to go over a companies entire stock at every single price it has ever been sold at which will often be in the 6 figure area, then times that by the amount of companies in the UK. Of course they don't go line by line and every single price ever sold, a tax investigation of a company into that amount of detail would probably end up taking 10 years! and then who would pay for this? It quite simply doesn't work that way. They're there to make money for the Government not to cost way more than they could ever actually could reclaim which would be the case if they studied line by line price history (which has nothing to do with an overall amount of tax a company would need to pay in any given tax year).

I'd expect the people in charge of departments may have some knowledge of history of prices but only due to being in a position for some time and simply remembering past prices. As I've said above I cannot see how HMRC need to know all this, they only need income, expenses, costs and a breakdown of the sales on commodities and how money is moved about the company.

I would not therefore expect someone on a customer service help desk to have that sort of information available to them within a few seconds as you have said.

As above, I doubt that HMRC would ever need to know how much each individual item sold for. More likely would be that they would tell HMRC we bought stock for £20,000 and sold it for £100,000 (example figures).

I would however expect pricing departments to know previous prices, however that information wouldn't be readily available to frontline staff.

I personally do check previous prices, as if a product is continually on rotation at various prices, I will wait to make the purchase.

Fosterdog

adandem wrote: »

You can any item scanned in store and it will show the price history, even for a pair of socks. How can you claim a % reduction without a history?

Most shops don't do this, the till systems would be bogged down by useless data. Somewhere in the company there will be a record of prices but not in the shop itself or with customer services. It's not information that's relevant to the public.