John Lewis price matching

youngwilly

My only experience of JL price matching is a good one - I saved over £300 on a TV that JL were selling at £960 but they price-matched another supplier (one I had never heard of but had a walk-in shop) who had it in stock (not 'on display' - just in stock) after just one phone call to check the price of £630 - plus I got a free 5 year warranty !!!!! Fantastic deal!

I can't think of any other retailer who even comes close to this for value for money and customer service - certainly not the D*****, C***** and C**** groups who sell 'exclusive' models of popular brands to avoid having to meet their own price matching promises. A couple of years ago I needed a new washing machine and finally selected Brand X model HP1200 - and when I pointed out in D***** that it was £20 cheaper in C**** they pointed out that theirs was a model HP1200D - 'exclusive' to them but identical in every other way apart from the model number - so no price match!! Needless to say I haven't bought anything from any of these stores since and never will again.

jicms

zappomatic wrote:

As a John Lewis Partner, let me tell you that the margin on electrical products is miniscule. For example, a certain TV (I'm not going to mention which model) sells for £1395. The cost price (ie. the price we buy from the manufacturer at) is £1132. In a margin of £263 we have to cover the cost of buying the TV (ie. head office), distributing the TV, maintaining stores and warehouses, the wages of the person selling you the TV, delivering the TV to a potential distance of 30 miles, and providing a 5 year guarantee and any after sales service and advice - and somehow make a profit in there. At the same time we have to make sure we stick to our standards, so every detail clearly displayed and nothing hidden (sometimes to our disadvantage) versus internet retailers with much lower overheads and potentially non-existant after sales service plus delivery charges.

Currently this particular TV is being sold at or below cost price in 3 branches in order to honour "never knowingly undersold". Unfair?

Well this TV is on sale in John Lewis for £799 and is available at more than a dozen suppliers many with retail outlets for around £650. Is this honouring their "never knowingly undersold" policy?! I am struggling to get then to pricematch.

barvid

I used the price match service to get £20 off a plasma TV in December when I'd seen it cheaper in Currys. I had no problem doing it, but the key point I picked up was that TV was advertised "delivered", i.e. it included the delivery charge. For the price match to apply, I would have to pick it up myself (which I did). Basically, Currys charged £900 and John Lewis charged £920 because Currys would have charged £20 delivery (i.e. £920 total). So I could have the price reduced to £900 but if I then wanted it to be delivered then it would go back up to £920 as that's what I'd have paid in Currys.

Does that make sense?!

beekay1943

My one and only experience of John Lewis' "Price Promise" was quite a few years ago now when my wife had bought me a JVC Video Camera for Xmas at a cost of around £1,000. She had opted to pay for it in installments but within a week or so of her purchase, we saw that this same model was being sold by Dixons (I think) at around £50 less. We approached John Lewis for a refund of the difference and, after they had checked the Dixons price, we got our £50 refund. A couple of weeks later, we saw the same model in Jessops, at a special price of £799. We again approached John Lewis fully expecting to be shown the door since we had already received a £50 reduction on the original price. However, after a further check was made with Jessops, they gave us a further reduction of £151 without any quibble whatsoever.

I have just bought an LCD Tv from John Lewis at a cost of £540 - I could have bought it a little cheaper elsewhere but the free 5 year warranty from JL swung the balance in their favour. I eagerly await to see if I can find a cheaper offer and hold them to their "price promise" again!

DrMoney

I found a TV I like at Richer Sounds (online), they only sell this model at their stores (not online). John Lewis is a little closer so I thought as they price match I could get it from them. I asked them if they could price match. They said they would need to check and this would take 2 to 3 days. This is really far to long to wait to see if they might price match. It is the same TV and they have in stock. Richer Sounds also offer a very cheap 5 year guarantee. So I will go to Richer Sounds in the morning. I get the impression JL advertise that they will price match to make you think they have a competitive price. In truth they have the a far higher price than nearly all the competion (over 25% higher for this TV). The Edinburgh branch of JL is huge and must have 100's of staff, but only 2 can price match. They do this delibrately because they don't want to lower prices, they hope you will give up so that they can keep they high price and sell to people who don't have time to check and assume they are getting good value. Comet are the same, if not worse!

I agree its not all about price but feel Richer Sounds offer as good a service as JL for the products they sell. Dixons, Currys, PC World and Comet I would not buy from if they were half price. At least for anything that could break!

DrMoney

Ok this is how the John Lewis Price matching works. If you find a company selling the same item for less then you ask John Lewis to Price check. They tell you this takes them up to 5 days, but hopefully less. What they do is make sure the store you match against has stock in for each of these 5 days. If on anyday they run out (even just for a day) then they do not match the price. They do this because they really don't want to price match. They just wish to appear to be the lowest price. I went to JL and aksed the assistant to price match he seemed helpfull and said he was just going up to ask. He came back and said they could not contact the store. I used my mobile and called the same store in the same time and they had in stock. I then went to other store to buy. The next day I had a letter saying that they would not price match. I think you can price match them against big stores like comet and dixons but this does not get you the best high street price. The other store did run out of sets but only for a day and they allow customers to reserve. So for me JL was not a good deal.

rl290

zappomatic wrote: »

Currently this particular TV is being sold at or below cost price in 3 branches in order to honour "never knowingly undersold". Unfair?

What?!?! So now, if I want to make sure I get the best price on a TV with my local John Lewis, I have to check if other branches of JL have the same TV in cheaper?! What a con - in order to be completely fair and transparent, JL should have one price across the UK. To not do so means that JL is inherently aware of other places that are cheaper, but hopes that its customers do not find them out! I'm sure it will quote that it check other local suppliers to set its locl prices, but this certainly isn't implied in its advertising.

R

JezzaBill

Altarf wrote: »

As you say John Lewis will price match 'bricks and mortar' shops (and they don't have to be local), but not internet only retailers.

<snip>
I have always found John Lewis to operate their price match policy in a more honest way to any other high street retailer.

I attempted to order a Miele chest freezer from John Lewis and found a 'bricks and mortar retailer' to match the price - John Lewis price £379, other supplier £325. John Lewis would only match the price if that item was in stock available for sale. No one including John Lewis stocks this item as they take up too much retail space and they're all despatched direct from Miele. If you run a price check on a Miele GT263ES, John Lewis is the highest price because they know they can get away with this loophole.

New strapline: 'Occasionally Knowingly Oversold'.

vyle

By in stock it means available to buy, be it in a distribution centre or in the store itself. Companies like richer sounds sometimes have items that are ONLY available in one shop, say, in newcastle, rather than in cornwall, so a cornish JL wouldn't match it because it cannot be bought for that price.

One reason why they do local undersales rather than country wide, is because it would be impossible to keep up.

Imagine how many shops are competing with the same items? The prices could be changing 100 times a day. It just wouldn't be manageable.

3under3

We recently bought a Plasma TV from JL. They pricematched with Richer Sounds but refused to price match with RJB direct or any other wholesaler (such as Tesco). They seemed to have a long list of stores they would not price match with - we went with them as we got the 5 year warranty as standard.