Mothercare prices

LooksLikeRain

Watch out for a trick from mothercare. It appears they raised their prices in order to say they have reduced them.
I was in mothercare carrickmines on Saturday and some chap was arguing that the sale price was dearer than the price last week, the price on their website, in store brochure price and some ad on TV3.
Manager claimed to know nothing about the internet, said the brochures were out of date and she could not remember last week.
Anyway I checked on the web from my phone and sure enough my daughters lift off rocket was nearly € 10 cheaper. I also noticed many other items listed on the website as cheaper than in store. As they don’t do internet shopping is this false advertising?
Went to smyths instead but cant help feeling that mothercare are taking and treating their customers as fools.

aidan_walsh

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wmpdd3

Mothercare do internet shopping.

It wouldn't be false advertising as they do not say, these are the prices you will pay instore.

Some Mothercare stores are franchise as far as I know, so those stores may charge their own prices.


I presume the OP is referring to the offer at the weekend where there was 20% off in Mothercare. The offer was promoted on TV3 on Friday morning. A store can change prices at anytime, it is plausable that someone could be watching the price of a big ticket item( pram) and presume they would be getting the last price they saw minus 20% but the shop does not have to do this. All they have to do is reduce the item by 20% of the price on that day.

dominatorsorus

When we went to buy our buggy there was a similar scam on in the tallaght shop.
We put money down on deposit on a buggy last spring - a few months before baby was due
went to put money off and the ticket had changed to a sale ticket but the price hadnt gone down!
So they were trying to say that the price was more expensive that it had been - trying to make out there was a bargain when there wasnt.
it wasn't costing us any more money but it was an eye opener alright.

January

In Charlestown Shopping Centre the Mothercare and ELC are connected and ELC are selling mothercare toy stock. Was passing by two weeks ago and seen a childs keyboard reduced from €37.50 to €27.50, was going to buy it but hadn't got enough money.

Went in on Wednesday to buy the keyboard and had advertised in the store "20% off everything today!"

Great so, keyboard was still cheaper than €37.50 it was before the special offer... nope, they had raised the price of the keyboard (same one!) to €54.00!!!

LooksLikeRain

My mistake, they do internet shopping. Browsing from a phone is not a great idea.
Anyway, I was in Blanchardstown this week and went in to see what their prices were like. I do not know which item Victor Meldrew ( I don’t know his name but that is who he sounded like) was arguing about but the rocket my daughter wanted was cheaper than in Carrickmines which was supposed to have 20% off. I got talking to a very nice store assistant in Blanchardstown who explained a lot.
Firstly, TV3 did a live broadcast in the Carrickmines store to advertise toys on the Friday morning before Victor Meldrew was in the store so the Manager must have know about it, but claimed not to. You can still view this on the TV3 website. At the end of the ad it was announced that there was 20% off the prices featured in the broadcast in all Mothercare and Early Learning Centres. Seemingly, this was a mistake but the store assistant in Blanchardstown said they would honour these prices if anyone asked.
Secondly, she also said they would match the mothercare.ie prices if they had the item in stock. The manager in Carrickmines claimed to Victor Meldrew that she had no access to the internet nor did she know anything about a mothercare website.
One of the items on the ad, a build it construction set, was priced at € 33.60, yet on the day in Carrickmines with 20% off it was € 48. On the internet on the same day it was less than €30. There is plenty more confusion with pricing if you check in store displayed prices, brochure prices in store and their website.
While I don’t think the manager is to blame for the pricing mix up she could have explained to Victor Meldrew that there was a mistake rather than playing dumb. Not a very respectful way to treat your customers.
As far as I could see Victor Meldrew did not purchase anything anyway left very annoyed at the lack of clarity of pricing.
I believe that all mothercares in Ireland are franchised so it is not fair to say all mothercares are trying to trick the public with their prices. Certainly the store assistant in Blanchardstown was apologetic and acknowledged that a mistake was made.
Honesty goes a long way to keeping customers.
So, check before you buy,
Rainer

Greaney

If I remember consumer law in Ireland from my school days, doesn't an item have to be a certian price for 28 days before the reduced price is advertised as a 'sale' price.

According to Citizens information.ie the law regarding The Consumer Protection act of 2007...

"This act also covers claims about prices. Actual prices, previous prices and recommended prices of goods and services must be stated truthfully. Where a price is stated it should be clear what particular item it relates to. It should be the total price and there should be no hidden extras. If a retailer makes a mistake the buyer does not have the right to demand that the goods be sold to them at the marked price."

For more info on this you can go straight to the Consumer Protection act of 2007

YOu could report this to the National Consumer Agency, click on 'Taking Action' for more information,

snappieT

Greaney wrote: »

doesn't an item have to be a certian price for 28 days before the reduced price is advertised as a 'sale' price.

There are ways around this, such as saying "20% off normal prices", where normal prices may be the list price that the item was once sold at. It's no longer "20% off" - it's "20% off normal prices".