When is a sale not a sale?

freccle

Currently Merlin are advertising a sale on their web site http://merlinannualpass.co.uk/. However the prices have NEVER been the higher prices - up to Dec 27 they were about 30% lower so how can they advertise a sale on a price that hasn't been charged yet? And for an item to be classed as reduced, doesn't it have to have been on sale at a higher price for so long prior to that?
Anyone know the legalities please?

bod1467

Any T&Cs? Do they mention anything about the price being discounted with respect to RRP?

bris

Sales are all kidology, the vast majority are just made up to take your money.


The real sales are mostly seasonal stock such as clothing shops who need to clear the racks for the new spring /summer collections.


Furniture, kitchens, bathrooms electrical goods etc are all just all year round treat the customers as idiots sales. Boxing day is just a better excuse as it once was a traditional sale day, those days are gone in the place of corporate marketing.

Herbalus

I don't believe there are any more 'real' sales, apart from end of line stock clearance.

The other day I saw the same TV that people fought for on Black Friday at pretty much the same price at Tesco. Ignore the sales signs - focus on the price - are you happy to pay that for the goods?

I avoid most shops that have 70% off sales signs - if their margin used to be over 70% then I refuse to shop there, and if it's a made up RRP to make you feel like you've got a bargain, I still refuse to shop there.

Happychappy

When it's at DFS :eek:

oldoakey

To stay inside the law a shop should by law sell goods for at least 28 days to then be able to advertise a sale price.

To get around this just about all large multi type stores will put one piece in one of there stores for the obligatory 28 days at a hugely inflated price, they probably will not sell many if any at this price but that does not concern them as they can then advertise these at the sale price for 3 months across all of their stores.

So just about all the (full) prices you see are fake, made up fairytales that lead you to believe that your then getting a bargain when in fact you are not. Lies, lies and more lies they are all at it.

freccle

But Merlin have never sold the passes at a higher price - and still haven't.The price only goes up at the beginning of Feb yet they are offering a sale price on the higher prices

JJ_Egan

freccle wrote: »

But Merlin have never sold the passes at a higher price - and still haven't.The price only goes up at the beginning of Feb yet they are offering a sale price on the higher prices

If you have real evidence of that then contact Trading Standards .

Laz123

oldoakey wrote: »

To stay inside the law a shop should by law sell goods for at least 28 days to then be able to advertise a sale price.

To get around this just about all large multi type stores will put one piece in one of there stores for the obligatory 28 days at a hugely inflated price, they probably will not sell many if any at this price but that does not concern them as they can then advertise these at the sale price for 3 months across all of their stores.

So just about all the (full) prices you see are fake, made up fairytales that lead you to believe that your then getting a bargain when in fact you are not. Lies, lies and more lies they are all at it.

When I worked on the MFI account they used to use this ploy all the time, hence like DFS the never-ending sale.

Money-Saving-King

freccle wrote: »

Anyone know the legalities please?

Are you planning to buy or not? If not, why do you ask?

freccle

Yes I WAS planning to buy but am really peed off that it will cost me £120 more than it would have done on Christmas Day. They kept on and on about their boxing day sale that I hung on.