Tax/Duty free shopping

lgb2100

tomtontom wrote: »

OP are you sure you're reading the receipt right? The DF website shows the high street price as £26.xx, I too cannot understand why you were charged that much. Have they charged you for a different item? Can you upload the receipt?

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=46F54C489264DA98!22717&authkey=!AMG3Li45WURlmRo&v=3&ithint=photo%2cjpg


Receipt showing purchase price of £26.49 (no VAT breakdown)

Pollycat

George_Michael wrote: »

And you haven't responded to the questions asking why you saw the bottle priced at £18.99 yet were willing to hand over £26 at the checkout.

lgb2100 wrote: »

I thought I had in my OP.


"Knowing that there was a price promise, I thought on my return home, I would check out my local supermarket, and submit for the price difference to be provided."


and even the cashier mentioned that there was a price promise, so thought that I wouldn't lose out, other than have a voucher to spent at the airport on a later date.

No you didn't.

Posters have asked why - when something was priced at £18.99, you allowed yourself to be charged £26 at the till.

See post #18 for all the posts asking why you didn't query this at the time of the sale.

If you went into Tesco and bought a loaf of bread that was priced on the shelf at £1.00 and when you got to the checkout, you were charged 40% more (£1.40) would you just pay it?
Because that's what you did with the £18.99 priced bottle of Bacardi by paying £26.

phatbear

This must be some kind of wind up right?

So you allowed yourself to over pay on an item in the assumption that you could possibly get the difference back in duty free vouchers which you can only use in one chain of shops rather than having the money in your pocket and being able to spend it anywhere you wanted.

wendel

I've had similar situation. Was told that the price was for long haul destinations.
There was no price for europe destinations, altough the price of my item wasn't as great in difference to what lgb2100 had paid.

Unsure why a 40%+ difference was applied when VAT is only 20% - the receipt shows no VAT ammount (is this legal, or is this one of the duty free 'scams' that has been highlighted)

Purchased an Item in duty free, thinking it was the best price, then found that I could have purchased it locally on the high street cheaper.

Wish I knew about the price promise then !

Not sure about the previous responses regarding why you would purhase something that is more expensive at one place, when you could purchase it cheaper.

I have purchased items that have cost more at one shop than another, simply because the store had a cashback deal (which the other store didn't have), and the final cost after cashback was the cheaper option.

Perhaps this is what lgb2100 was thinking when he purchased the item.

or perhaps, he wanted to take the item with him, and if he had no hold luggage - his best option then would have been to purchase it a 'Duty Free' shop to take on-board as hand luggage.

It's good to see that lgb2100 has received the promised price match.

Hopefully he saw the same item at Schiphol for €19.99

Pollycat

wendel wrote: »

I've had similar situation. Was told that the price was for long haul destinations.
There was no price for europe destinations, altough the price of my item wasn't as great in difference to what lgb2100 had paid.

Unsure why a 40%+ difference was applied when VAT is only 20% - the receipt shows no VAT ammount (is this legal, or is this one of the duty free 'scams' that has been highlighted)

Purchased an Item in duty free, thinking it was the best price, then found that I could have purchased it locally on the high street cheaper.

Wish I knew about the price promise then !

Not sure about the previous responses regarding why you would purhase something that is more expensive at one place, when you could purchase it cheaper.

I have purchased items that have cost more at one shop than another, simply because the store had a cashback deal (which the other store didn't have), and the final cost after cashback was the cheaper option.

Perhaps this is what lgb2100 was thinking when he purchased the item.

or perhaps, he wanted to take the item with him, and if he had no hold luggage - his best option then would have been to purchase it a 'Duty Free' shop to take on-board as hand luggage.

It's good to see that lgb2100 has received the promised price match.

Hopefully he saw the same item at Schiphol for €19.99

I think you've missed the point that most posters have been making.

Regardless of what price is on the shelf, if you're expecting to pay £x and the sales assistant says 'that'll be £x + 40%, please', isn't that the time to say 'hang on a minute, I thought it was £x?

phatbear

wendel wrote: »

I have purchased items that have cost more at one shop than another, simply because the store had a cashback deal (which the other store didn't have), and the final cost after cashback was the cheaper option.

Perhaps this is what lgb2100 was thinking when he purchased the item.

But that scenario is different to the OP's.

The difference being you were gonna get cashback not a voucher for the difference which can only be used if you are flying somewhere also, even though there is no legal obligation from the retailer, but if you hadn't got your cash back on your purchase you could, usually, return it the the shop you purchased it from for a full refund, the OP wouldnt be able to do this as even if he is a frequent flyer he wouldnt be allowed to take the bottle airside.

Im not sure anyone, barring the OP, would knowingly purchase something for 40% than advertised on the off chance they will get a voucher back for the difference thats advertised at their local tescos, its not even like they are making a profit on the transaction

shaun_from_Africa

wendel wrote: »

.Unsure why a 40%+ difference was applied when VAT is only 20% - the receipt shows no VAT ammount (is this legal, or is this one of the duty free 'scams' that has been highlighted)

You are missing one important factor in your price calculations.
If it was alcohol or tobacco that you were looking at then the difference in prices isn't only VAT as there is also excise duty to take into account.
For an average 1 litre bottle of spirits the excise duty is about £14 (the excise rate varies depending on the alcohol content and is £28 per litre of pure alcohol).

wendel

Does that means that the duty free shop can charge what they like, even if they advertise it at a different price, and it's up the person making the purchase to decide whether or not to accept the sale at the price applied at the till ?

That's crazy. I'll be more warey shopping at airport shops in future.

Why was Duty free allowed to charge 40%+ in price ? have I missed anything (I'm new)

The OP could get a full refund - uk.worlddutyfree.com/uks_en/refunds-returns , or is this just a waste of time.

phatbear

wendel wrote: »

The OP could get a full refund - uk.worlddutyfree.com/uks_en/refunds-returns , or is this just a waste of time.

He could indeed however he would need to send the bottle back to them.

On average a litre weighs a kilo add say 250grms for the bottle that would cost him approx £8.90 to send back to them, thats assuming the post office didnt add a 40% surcharge onto the transaction

Pollycat

wendel wrote: »

That's crazy. I'll be more warey shopping at airport shops in future.

Why was Duty free allowed to charge 40%+ in price ? have I missed anything (I'm new)

.

Always a good idea (and very MSE) to be wary when shopping anywhere.

We don't know why 'duty free was allowed to charge 40% extra' - because the OP won't tell us why they just paid up instead of challengeing the price asked.