Price fixing?

Aber_2

Hello :j

A well known home shopping catalogue only 2-3 weeks ago had a product (leather 2 seater sofa) on sale for £1049... (this was not in a sale or on offer).. looking at the same sofa couple of weeks later I noted it had gone up to by £900 to £1949, I emailed the company yesterday and awaiting the response though I have no faith in them actually getting back to me though they did send an email saying they would investigate and that

"Please be advised that the price of an item on our website keeps changing according to the demand and the availability of an item."..

Today on checking the sofa price they now have them on sale for £1401 and I cannot help but smell a rat, call me cynical :rotfl: but to increase an product by almost 100% then reduce it to 50% above the original price seems like a scam to this Jose.

Trading standards? where on earth are they??? everything now appears to be handled by the CAB? where does one report this sort of shenanigans that are obviously being played out?

Thanks for reading this and any info on what people do now to report what looks like very dodgy trading would be grateful, as I don't wish to phone CAB at 9p a minute either.. the rules seem to have changed and wondering if we the consumer are now fair game?

TonyMMM

It is the standard way that almost all shops make things appear to be a sale bargain .... it is legal as long as the item has been on sale at the higher price for a certain number of weeks in at least one of their stores.

Not illegal - just cynical marketing ..... and how places like DFS and others manage to have "Massive Sales" all year round.

Shop elsewhere.

wealdroam

Aber wrote: »

Trading standards? where on earth are they??? everything now appears to be handled by the CAB? where does one report this sort of shenanigans that are obviously being played out?

Thanks for reading this and any info on what people do now to report what looks like very dodgy trading would be grateful, as I don't wish to phone CAB at 9p a minute either.. the rules seem to have changed and wondering if we the consumer are now fair game?

Yes, CAB handle this type of 'report'.

Do you really pay 9p/minute to 03 numbers?
If so, it's time to review your phone tariff.

Also, see this CAB page:

Reporting a problem to Trading Standards

and this page:

Call the Citizens Advice consumer helpline

Oh... and there is no price fixing here, and nothing worth reporting to CAB or TS.

bris

They have to increase the price to a level way above it's true price for x amount of days before they can legally reduce it to it's selling price and call it a sale. Yes the gullible still believe in sales and as long as people believe they are saving 50% then these companies will never change their tactics.


All legal and nothing to report to anyone.

unholyangel

Pricing practices are usually covered by the CPRs.

Theres nothing explicitly stating what is against the law - instead its more of a blanket coverage saying that certain things around pricing can be an unfair practice if it causes - or is likely to cause - the average consumer to take a different decision as a result.

Quite a few companies have been told off for it and some have even been fined. Like Tesco - who sold strawberries at a higher price for 2 weeks, then sold them as "half price" for a longer period - they were fined £300,000.

The pricing guidelines state that a price used for comparison should be a retailers most recent price that was available for 28 consecutive days or more.

You can read the guidance here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/31900/10-1312-pricing-practices-guidance-for-traders.pdf

Aber_2

Thanks for the heads up peeps and I must be stuck in time as I always thought this sort of thing was illegal, but there you go, now I am up to speed on how things are done and can spread the word..

unholyangel

Aber wrote: »

Thanks for the heads up peeps and I must be stuck in time as I always thought this sort of thing was illegal, but there you go, now I am up to speed on how things are done and can spread the word..

It can be but not always.

For example a national chain only selling in one store at the higher price for a week or two and then advertising the discount nationwide for 6 weeks would likely be a breach of the CPRs.

It should be a genuine price they use as a reference (genuine in that they have actually sold units at that price)

mo786uk

Bumping up a price for just 2 weeks and then putting it on sales is highly likely to be a breach of the CPRs (consume rprotection from unfair trading regulations 2008) - but to be sure you would need to look at the pricing history to see exact dates of price changes.

usually a price has to be 'established' before it can go on sale otherwise its just a made up price.

unfortnatley with the marketpalce so competitive and lack of regulation i suspect it hapens a lot of people are kind of used to it now.

dacouch

Which have instigated an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority into similar pricing practices by supermarkets.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/shopping-and-consumer-news/11551351/Supermarkets-face-inquiry-into-rip-offs.html

Which explained why Supermarkets sell Easter Eggs immediately after Xmas which everyone always found surprising. The real reason they sold them then was they inflate the price to double the normal price as their was no real market for them then. In the lead up to Easter when there's obviously a big demand for Easter Eggs they were able to sell them at 50% off...