Power City No Real Sale!

spongbob

my father is not impressed with DID and Power city January sales.....

Back in nov he went out and bought himself a 37in Samsung Lcd tv from power city - came as a package with glass stand and samsung dvd player, 1149 in total. or 1049 for the tv on its own.

He now wants to buy the same package again for my kid brother to play his xbox 360... So he went in and took notes of prices and model numbers of two samsung tv's in particular with his mind made up on the same pakage he already purchased from the same store, only a couple of days befor christmas..

The sly sneaky staff at power city took away the glass stand and player leaving the tv at the same price at 1149 and offered a 10% discount as part of a jan sales offer! which works out at 1030 or there abouts.

When my father asked the staff at power city where was the offer of the samsung 37in + stand + dvd player they said they were not running that offer today its 10% instead.....

When he question a 2nd member of staff the jolly owl fella said he could match the offer of the stand and player but no 10% off...

Can shops do this!? Have a package on sale @ 1149 a day befor xmas
And after xmas advertise 10% off everything and hide the package as displayed the few days befor!!

At the end of the day my father was not getting a discount for what he had wanted instead he got the store trying to pull a fast one

**A staff at DID said if he came back in a couple of week they would be running the same tv, stand and player offer again but not untill then.

Surly this is what they call price fixing or somthing ?? its very unfair and Sly!

DonkeyStyle \o/

I think the whole 'January sales' thing is a big load of old bollox anyway... shops know people are holding out until new-years, they know they won't have to twist anyones arm to spend a few quid in the "sales", so there's little incentive to offer big price cuts.
People see the big bright shiney SALE signs and think they're getting a great bargain even though what they're buying mightn't actually be among the "selected items".

Surly this is what they call price fixing or somthing ?? its very unfair and Sly!

I'm fairly suspicious of this too... looking around at the prices on LCD/Plasmas and they all seem the same from one highstreet retailer to the next... surely they can't be operating on such razor-thin margins that they can't afford to compete with eachother?
Why is it that the stores will only offer to price-match their competitors? Why is that really the best they can do?
It really is quite pathetic and disappointing.

mags16

spongbob wrote: »

The sly sneaky staff at power city took away the glass stand and player leaving the tv at the same price at 1149 and offered a 10% discount as part of a jan sales offer! which works out at 1030 or there abouts.

The stand and dvd price probably came to €119 or thereabouts meaning that there was no reduction at all. Reminds me of another thread I started about Dixons where a Samsung TV has a sale sign on it but isn't reduced. As you say, sneaky and sly. They must be all at it.

antoinolachtnai

This is not price fixing. Price fixing is when retailers consort together to set prices. It is illegal. There is no evidence of that here, is there? The reality is that these guys all buy this stuff from the same distributor and they all have fairly similar overheads.

I think it is a little unrealistic to expect prices to just drop 5 or 10 percent because it is January. In absolute terms, the Power City prices are fairly reasonable. There is a real hard limit to how cheaply you can make an LCD tv, pay the royalties and ship it from the far east to Ireland.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

I thought prices couldn't be marked as reduced unless they had been sold at the higher price for something like 28 days beforehand. Off to google with me....back in a second...

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

yep:

Are the prices really reduced?

If the shop says the products have a reduced price in the sale, they should have had these products on offer at the advertised original price for at least a month before the price was reduced.

For example, a shop is not allowed to have a sign or label on a product saying "reduced by 20 per cent" if this is the first time that it is selling this particular product.

from: http://www.consumerconnect.ie/eng/Hot_Topics/Tip_Of_The_Week/Tips_Archive/Consumer_rights_in_the_winter_sales.html

sounds like complaining time...

sofireland

Personally, i'm in the market for a new tv, but i'll probably in the UK, even after currency change and delivery, it works out a hell of a lot cheaper

Example, Sony V3000 40" + "Free" 40gb PS3 is €2000 in Sony Centre Blanchardstown, the same offer is in Argos (Argos.co.uk) for £999 which equates to about 1350 euro? Why buy in Ireland at all if we're getting fleeced all the time

antoinolachtnai

The thing is that they aren't making a specific claim that prices are lower than they were before. In any case, in the power city case, the price is actually lower than it was before, it is just that they are no longer offering the freebies (which you might not have wanted).

It is definitely a bit of a crap way to go on, I agree, but the customers love finding 'bargains' too.

Re Sony TV, will the UK model's tuner work in Ireland? For sure, Sony shop isn't a cheap place to buy anything.

Saruman

Was not impressed with power city or did myself. I went in on Thursday to DID to try get the bosch dishwasher for €199. By the time i got close enough to the dishwasher rep i could overhear him telling another customers there are none left... i wonder how many there actually were.. it said 15 per store but im dubious about it.

Anyway i then went to power city as i heard they would beat any price DID had. The teenage looking sales rep looked dumbfounded and out of his depth when i asked about a Dishwasher and told him i DID had a bosch for that €199, he went off to check and came back saying €299 was the cheapest they did dishwashers for (which its not). I asked him which ones he was talking about... he walked right past the ones with the €299 price tag and said... uh i guess its only these small ones.. indicating the slimline ones.

What a muppet... I said, i guess i better go to DID then and walked out.
I will probably buy in power city but not from him and may go to another store and speak to someone who looks intelligent.

brian_rbk

according to the powercity website, the tv that the op mentioned is 999 - 10% = 899 !

GrumPy

Saruman wrote: »

f. I went in on Thursday to DID to try get the bosch dishwasher for €199. By the time i got close enough to the dishwasher rep i could overhear him telling another customers there are none left... i wonder how many there actually were.. it said 15 per store but im dubious about it.

In fairness dude, I loled.

The only way you would have gotten a bosch dishwasher for €199, is if you had queued up since 7.30 that morning. Even if they had 15.
Power City had 20 €399 philips 32 hdlcds, sold out at 9.02 :rolleyes:

Kensington

Are you talking about this Samsung 37" at €899 (after 10% off)?

And have to agree with Irish GrumPy - you can't honestly expect the specials to stay available for very long. Most of the specials on offer in Tallaght Powercity were snapped up in a matter of seconds by people who had been queuing for hours before 9am opening time!

Saruman

Actually on checking through the power city website i can get a bosch dishawasher for €269 i think it was.. there is a web discount. Will probably go for that.

spongbob

Thats the correct 37in samsung alright, the price must have been reduced today, cause both myself and my father went to the stores mentioned and both were selling the t.v sets on stephenses day and yesterday (friday) with No stand or dvd player for 1049euro.

I recon somone tipped power city off about this boards site and they decided to play ball for a change and try and save there name from more slander

However the whole point about the issue is my father went down 2 days befor xmas and they had In stock "Samsung Package deals which included a FREE samsung dvd player and a FREE Nice Glass stand worth 199 on its own" for > 1149euro <

Stephenses day and they Reopen with the package no were to be seen and the tv by itself on display with a tag of 1149 10% Off = 1039/49. my father asked 2 members of staff where was the pakage that he seen a few days ago one lad disapeared the other said you dont get two offers its one or the other and he was grinning as he said it. Another lad said they had got the packages in the store room but it was on hold. if he wanted the pakage he could get it for him but No 10% off. So This is why my father is disapointed, in fairness they shouldn't be allowed to get away with it!

I dont supose anyone else has seen the package deal any where with samsung tv's ?

"At the end of the day my father was not getting a discount for what he had wanted and what the store had on sale befor the so call january sales! instead he got the store trying to pull a fast one"