Last minute Xmas shopping rip-offs

Got the Rockband game last week for €9.97 in PC World now up to €22.

Xbox 360 entertainment pack - one wireless controller & 2 games (Pure & Lego Batman) €129 :eek:, it's only €29 in Tesco, HMV looking €81.

Thats just two examples out of a load of price hikes within a week I saw while out shopping today, and retailers wonder why people are going up north or buying online :rolleyes:

ScouseMouse

Or maybe it supply and demand....

superscouse

superscouse wrote: »

Or maybe it supply and demand....

You could say that but from what I saw today majority of the price hikes are clearly rip-offs and retailers taking advantage of people doing a last minute shop.

Kimia

I agree, I've seen a few too. And as per my other thread, restaurants are also taking advantage of the busier few days before Christmas and are raising their prices just for the month of December.

Why don't they realise that if they do this they will forever be branded rip-off merchants and the profit they will make on the short term hike will be cancelled out by regular customers not returning during the lulls??

nmesisca

superscouse wrote: »

Or maybe it supply and demand....

then lets close this forum altogether cause everything is supply/demand.
:rolleyes:

K-9

hellboy99 wrote: »

Got the Rockband game last week for €9.97 in PC World now up to €22.

Xbox 360 entertainment pack - one wireless controller & 2 games (Pure & Lego Batman) €129 :eek:, it's only €29 in Tesco, HMV looking €81.

Thats just two examples out of a load of price hikes within a week I saw while out shopping today, and retailers wonder why people are going up north or buying online :rolleyes:

Sounds like you got them at offer prices.

ScouseMouse

nmesisca wrote: »

then lets close this forum altogether cause everything is supply/demand.
:rolleyes:

Yes it is.

The same as airlines charging more during the summer.

The same as ferries christmas week.

The same as shops at christmas.

K-9

K-9 wrote: »

Sounds like you got them at offer prices.

None of them were marked as offers or reduced.

rubadub

nmesisca wrote: »

then lets close this forum altogether cause everything is supply/demand.
:rolleyes:

Well not close the entire forum, but perhaps close 90% of the threads in here as most are not "ripoffs" but just common business sense/practise, most threads are better suited in the ranting & raving forum and are just pointing out extremely basic business concepts that I have seen 6 year olds able to grasp. I find it fascinating how little people apparently know about how business & marketing work.

animaal

rubadub wrote: »

Well not close the entire forum, but perhaps close 90% of the threads in here as most are not "ripoffs" but just common business sense/practise...

To be fair, an over-priced product or service is a rip-off. The purpose of this forum is to warn others of rip-offs. If people are made aware of over-pricing by a business, that business will have fewer customers. And then the "common business sense/practise" will be to lower the price.

I don't see a problem with that. Although some of the threads here are rants, they at least make me aware of where bad value is to be had.

It's still going on today, was in Smyths earlier and some of the games have gone up. I went in looking for a PS3 game that was €14.99 Christmas Eve, today it's maked "was €24.99, now €19.99" and it's not the only one.

HMV - Motorstorm 2 was €22.99 last week (wasn't marked then as a special offer), today €49.99....:mad:

rubadub

hellboy99 wrote: »

None of them were marked as offers or reduced.

Tesco do not mark their best offers as offers anymore, this has resulted in similar threads where people seem unable to establish or realise that something is a unusually good price. e.g. a 5 pack of donuts was a stupidly low €1 for a few weeks, then INCREASED 30% OVERNIGHT!!!! to a "shocking" €1.30:rolleyes:

I expect some other shops are doing this too since some price surveys chose to exclude advertised offers in their comparisons (which is utter madness!)

I do not know much about games, but €10 for a PC game sounds cheap to me. Do you know what the Irish RRP is on that particular game? I would bet my life if is more than €10 and there for I would consider it was an offer. I find it bizarre how many people mindlessly and naively trust a sign saying "offer" and then might not consider an amazing deal to be good simply because it did not have a reduced/offer sign on it.

hellboy99 wrote: »

I went in looking for a PS3 game that was €14.99 Christmas Eve, today it's maked "was €24.99, now €19.99" and it's not the only one.

HMV - Motorstorm 2 was €22.99 last week (wasn't marked then as a special offer), today €49.99....:mad:

Again no need to say it is an offer to be an offer, €15 for a PS3 game sounds very cheap. It sounds like you held off buying stuff expecting it might be cheaper in the "sales", but seems it just backfired on you. I expect they are used to people making these assumptions and take full advantage of them -very smart business sense there. People are probably getting vouchers for kids thinking they will get stuff cheaper after xmas, so they jack up the price and get that money back. Very clever IMO.

animaal wrote: »

To be fair, an over-priced product or service is a rip-off..

I could as easily say an expensive item is NOT a ripoff, it is what it is, expensive, you have the choice to buy or not, there is NO deceit going on, there is no raping going on, it is pure consensual transactions.

People on here tend to have differing opinions of what constitutes a ripoff. In my mind a ripoff should be a shock, something you discover after you bought it and go "the cheeky bastards ripped me off, look what they did". In 95% of these threads this does not happen, people willingly paid for an item, they knew what it costed and obviously determined that it was good value. If it is too high a price they just did not buy it, and probably nobody else would either.

If he bought a PS3 game, went home and it was a PS2 game in the box, thats a ripoff. If a marsbar is €10 it is not a ripoff, if I go home and find my 10cent marsbar is 40g instead of 65g then thats a ripoff, since I did not get what I willingly paid for.

animaal wrote: »

Although some of the threads here are rants, they at least make me aware of where bad value is to be had.

Why do you want to know where is bad value, I am far more interested in good value so check out bargain alerts, I know a high price when I see one. This thread could have been in bargain alerts pointing out the cheap prices before christmas, it would have helped people get what seemed like good bargains.

However at least this thread does point out the apparent practise of possibly increasing prices after xmas, and my theory is to take advantage of the voucher buyers.

rubadub

rubadub wrote: »

It sounds like you held off buying stuff expecting it might be cheaper in the "sales", but seems it just backfired on you. I expect they are used to people making these assumptions and take full advantage of them -very smart business sense there. People are probably getting vouchers for kids thinking they will get stuff cheaper after xmas, so they jack up the price and get that money back. Very clever IMO.

Had to hold off till after Christmas as my son didn't know what he was getting . I'm just amazed at some price differences in just 3 days (2 days not including Christmas Day), even my son commented on it. Even Xtravision are at it, SC4 for PS3 was €9.99 new 3 days ago, today in their sale it's €14.99.

All the crying over the last few months retailers have done about losing business to the north and yet they still haven't coped on or changed their attitudes :rolleyes:

Gamesnash.ie: Pat

rubadub wrote: »

I do not know much about games, but €10 for a PC game sounds cheap to me. Do you know what the Irish RRP is on that particular game? I would bet my life if is more than €10 and there for I would consider it was an offer. I find it bizarre how many people mindlessly and naively trust a sign saying "offer" and then might not consider an amazing deal to be good simply because it did not have a reduced/offer sign on it.

I know

The original Rockband across all formats has a reduced RRP of €24.99 - €29.99 here in Ireland ( was up to €59.99 when it first came out for stand alone software ) - it's not available on PC so I presume the OP was on about the Xbox 360 as that was the format of the other product. €9.97 is definitely below cost price.

The wireless entertainment pack generally comes bundled with xbox consoles. Some retailers price it so high so that they can give it free with a console and describe it as a "save huge money" offer. Costs about €40 to buy in so Tesco are most likely selling below cost whilst PC World most likely have a very large "saving" in an Xbox bundle.

toomuchdetail

rubadub wrote: »

and my theory is to take advantage of the voucher buyers.

Does this not go some way to prove the very short sighted mentality of a lot of retailers out there ,
The message is probably lost in the commmunication here , its not about the price of a game now compared to early Dec or last week it about the prevailing theme of "screw the customer and expect them to say thanks when finished "! A lot of retailers are working very hard to change in changing times but there are lot of retailers who still think they can do what they like . This is why (answering a previous question) I want to know where there is bad value , I do not want to make mistakes with my disposable income.We also should not mix up price and value, expensive can be a good value as well as cheap been a rip off.
My tuppance worth.