Go Outdoors - Beware!

Murphybear

MarvinDay said:

Norman_Castle said:

powerful_Rogue said:

Norman_Castle said:

zaksmum said:

I had to buy membership at a cost of £5.

Its ridiculous customers are forced to pay £5 for the privilege of shopping there, I've never bought from there because of this annual "membership fee". They sell decent stuff but they're not cheap

No-ones forced to pay £5.

Can you shop there without paying it?

 

Possibly, but you can choose to pay for membership just as you can choose to pay to be a Costco member (provided that you qualify). No one forces you to pay the membership fee as it's left up to you to decide whether or not it makes financial sense to sign up.

Unless it’s changed you can shop there without paying the £5, you just pay more for the goods.  

photome

Norman_Castle said:

zaksmum said:

I had to buy membership at a cost of £5.

Its ridiculous customers are forced to pay £5 for the privilege of shopping there, I've never bought from there because of this annual "membership fee". They sell decent stuff but they're not cheap even with their claimed "discounts". The membership fee and discounts are a marketing ploy.

I bought a RAB jacket from there and with their, we will beat anyones price by 10%,  after paying £5 it was cheaper than anywhere else 

think the jacket was £180 in store, I found it online for about £150 at one retailer ( most were £180 or more), they than took 10% off the £150 price.

photome

OP, you have just been unlucky with the pricing

have you tried returning to store?

jon81uk

zaksmum said:

I bought a tent 5 weeks ago from Go Outdoors at a price of £325. To get this hugely discounted price, the salesman said, I had to buy membership at a cost of £5.

The same tent is now £225 at Go Outdoors, Amazon and others. I asked if I could return it and repurchase at the lower price as it has never been out of the bag, but they say the 28 day window for returns has expired by 7 days.

They suggested taking the tent to the shop and "try" to return it, but add that there is no guarantee the shop will accept it. They keep repeating "sorry for the inconvenience".

I realise I have no legal rights but just want to warn others to be careful when shopping at Go Outdoors. Their discounted prices are definitely not all they seem to be!

If the tent had gone up to £425 would you be offering to pay the extra £100?

Prices change all the time, sometimes you win and they go up, sometimes you lose and they go down.
If you didn't think £325 was a good deal at the time you shouldn't have bought it.

DCFC79

I dont see whats wrong here, you bought an item at said price and some weeks later its on special offer wher ethe price is now £225 so £100 less.

Lip_Stick

What tent was it OP?

Manxman_in_exile

Norman_Castle said:

zaksmum said:

I had to buy membership at a cost of £5.

Its ridiculous customers are forced to pay £5 for the privilege of shopping there, I've never bought from there because of this annual "membership fee". They sell decent stuff but they're not cheap even with their claimed "discounts". The membership fee and discounts are a marketing ploy.

Norman_Castle said:

powerful_Rogue said:

Norman_Castle said:

zaksmum said:

I had to buy membership at a cost of £5.

Its ridiculous customers are forced to pay £5 for the privilege of shopping there, I've never bought from there because of this annual "membership fee". They sell decent stuff but they're not cheap.

No-ones forced to pay £5.

Can you shop there without paying it?

 

Of course you can shop there without paying their "membership fee"!

I'm sorry but what a daft statement and a daft question.

We buy a lot of outdoor gear and the shop we use most is our local Great Outdoors shop.  They have a great range of gear and, I can tell you, their discounted prices (for a £5 pa fee) are very good and very competitive.

We've been members for about eight years, and each year as our membership has expired I've checked our previous 12 months of purchases and worked out if it's worth £5pa compared to places like Cotswold and Blacks etc.  We have always renewed.

As others have said, when you decide to buy or not to buy anything, you run the risk of it being cheaper (or more expensive!) five weeks later.

Never had any problems returning stuff to GO whether faulty or within their change of mind window.

forgotmyname

Had good service from them, wanted to purchase something under their price match promise and had several links ready for them
to check.  The very helpful assistant checked my links and said no problem and then said lets have a quick look and found a few
more sellers with even cheaper prices.  The type of sellers I would not have trusted but she took those prices as the price match
figure and knocked another 10% off.

Happy customer.   We often do not renew yearly, sometimes we don't need anything from there for quite a while after the
membership ends.  You can renew at any time.

Norman_Castle

Manxman_in_exile said:

Norman_Castle said:

zaksmum said:

I had to buy membership at a cost of £5.

Its ridiculous customers are forced to pay £5 for the privilege of shopping there, I've never bought from there because of this annual "membership fee". They sell decent stuff but they're not cheap even with their claimed "discounts". The membership fee and discounts are a marketing ploy.

Norman_Castle said:

powerful_Rogue said:

Norman_Castle said:

zaksmum said:

I had to buy membership at a cost of £5.

Its ridiculous customers are forced to pay £5 for the privilege of shopping there, I've never bought from there because of this annual "membership fee". They sell decent stuff but they're not cheap.

No-ones forced to pay £5.

Can you shop there without paying it?

 

Of course you can shop there without paying their "membership fee"!

I'm sorry but what a daft statement and a daft question.

Daft response. The vast majority of shops function fine without expecting customers to pay to shop there.

You can shop there but you pay the over inflated price which is designed to make the discounted price look attractive. Its bizarre and daft how defensive Go outdoors "members" are of a shop. Its hardly an exclusive club which members are privileged to join. Turn up with a fiver, you're in.

Being a "membership club" avoids other shops, including others they own, price matching their prices. I expect its also a healthy annual income for them and it manipulates customers into returning to get the most from their "membership" Do you think its charged for the customers benefit?

Manxman_in_exile

Well you're the person who made this daft and untrue statement

Norman_Castle said:

zaksmum said:

I had to buy membership at a cost of £5.

Its ridiculous customers are forced to pay £5 for the privilege of shopping there,...

On the contrary, nobody is forced to pay £5 to shop there.  

And then you confirmed you don't know what you are talking about by asking

Norman_Castle said:

powerful_Rogue said:

Norman_Castle said:

zaksmum said:

I had to buy membership at a cost of £5.

Its ridiculous customers are forced to pay £5 for the privilege of shopping there, I've never bought from there because of this annual "membership fee". They sell decent stuff but they're not cheap.

No-ones forced to pay £5.

Can you shop there without paying it?

 

Of course you can shop there without paying it!

We've spent literally tens of thousands of pounds on outdoor gear over the last 35 years.  Most of that has not been bought from GO, but I consider myself quite a knowledgeable and prudent purchaser of outdoor gear.  If it makes sense to pay a £5 fee to access a significant discount over what I know other outlets are charging, I will pay it.  If it doesn't, I won't.

Also, as @forgotmyname says, you don't have to keep continuous membership.  You can let it run out and not pay it for a couple of years and then renew it if you want to take advantage of it - but obviously you wouldn't renew it unnecessarily if you could get a better deal elsewhere.

If people are so stupid as to pay a fee that gives them no financial advantage over buying from an alternative retailer, then I'm afraid neither I nor you can help them.  But your assertion that paying a £5 annual fee can't give a purchaser any financial advantage is plain wrong and false.

Rather than "members" being bizarrely and daftly defensive of GO, it sounds more like you have some irrational grudge against them