No Harvey No

purplec

I now understand why they are all laughing on the ad about having the best prices, because when you try and go and collect on said price they look at you in dismay and say no that was a special and we don't do it anymore.

I went to Harvey Norman 2 weeks ago to look at cooker ranges, while there I seen one that was particularly nice. The salesman came over and we had a chat and I asked what his best price for the cooker was and have you got it in stock.

The cooker was a belling Richmond and it was about €1600 euros which is quite pricey, so the salesman came back and said great news it's in stock and on special until the end of the month..... Wait for it for €1250

Hallelujah a bargain, I asked if they had many in stock and how long the promotion will be running for. I was told it will be running for the month and they have about 20. I said great can you write the model number and price down please and il go and see what else I need with the savings.

Roll forward to the last day of the month I return with my cash and the quote for a bargain. I go seek out the salesman and show him the quote with the model and price that was given to me by his colleague on Harvey Norman headed paper. He looks at it and says there must be a mistake and that there was no special and that they would never sell the range at that price and that there was no promotion on.

I feel totally screwed over, Is there anything that I can do?
Cheers

whatsupdoc?

Yeah

1. Go into DID, Power City or the like and see how much they are there.

2. Take your business elsewhere.

Melendez

This post has been deleted.

Pythia

Ask to talk to the original guy and see what he says.

gbee

Just saying, for two separate items, over a few months, I've actually bought my purchases elsewhere, for the reason mentioned by the OP.

I've also got what I consider bargains, but, on the day ~ like they make up something, if you think it good, go for it, if you leave you lose seemingly.

Personally, overall and in general, I can corroborate the OP's experience.

anewme

Bought an iron in Harvey Norman. It was 100. Then a few days later, in Currys, see the same iron for 75. Sent a mail through their feed back website and 2 or 3 weeks later, no acknowledgement, nothing.

Now I know it was only 25 euro, but it was over 33% more expensive. I was not looking for my money back, but to point out it should be up to them to price match and when I go to any Electrical store, I expect them to have done their mystery shopping price matching and not me. I would certainly shop around for a larger more expensive item, but for an item in that price bracket, I would not usually.

Anyway, I work in an industry where it is up to us to give the customer best value and certainly not up to the customer to tell us where we are going wrong and set our pricing. Also, what is the point in having a website and asking for you to mail feedback when you are not going to do anything about it or just ignore it. Lack of communication is something which really cheeses people off. And if you have a captive customer, why let that customer go elsewhere. I'd love to see a list of Harvey Norman KPIs!!!!

Over the next few months, I will be buying a music centre and a hoover. Will I go Harvey?
No Harvey, NO!

Pythia

anewme wrote: »

I was not looking for my money back, but to point out it should be up to them to price match and when I go to any Electrical store, I expect them to have done their mystery shopping price matching and not me. I would certainly shop around for a larger more expensive item, but for an item in that price bracket, I would not usually.

What?! It's up to you to review your options and work out what the cheapest is. It's up to the store to charge as much as they can get away with. They are there to make money. It makes a shop very happy to charge more than another shop and still have people buying the product.

Different shops can and do charge different prices and that is the magic of business. It is 100% your fault and HN were clever to have got that extra 25 from you because of your lack of shopping around.

booboo88

anewme wrote: »

Bought an iron in Harvey Norman. It was 100. Then a few days later, in Currys, see the same iron for 75. Sent a mail through their feed back website and 2 or 3 weeks later, no acknowledgement, nothing.

Now I know it was only 25 euro, but it was over 33% more expensive. I was not looking for my money back, but to point out it should be up to them to price match and when I go to any Electrical store, I expect them to have done their mystery shopping price matching and not me. I would certainly shop around for a larger more expensive item, but for an item in that price bracket, I would not usually.

Anyway, I work in an industry where it is up to us to give the customer best value and certainly not up to the customer to tell us where we are going wrong and set our pricing. Also, what is the point in having a website and asking for you to mail feedback when you are not going to do anything about it or just ignore it. Lack of communication is something which really cheeses people off. And if you have a captive customer, why let that customer go elsewhere. I'd love to see a list of Harvey Norman KPIs!!!!

Over the next few months, I will be buying a music centre and a hoover. Will I go Harvey?
No Harvey, NO!

harvey norman are kinda crap anyway. they never actually know what they are talking about, and if your like my dad they practically ignore you, a bit like soundstore.

anewme

Pythia wrote: »

What?! It's up to you to review your options and work out what the cheapest is. It's up to the store to charge as much as they can get away with. They are there to make money. It makes a shop very happy to charge more than another shop and still have people buying the product.

Different shops can and do charge different prices and that is the magic of business. It is 100% your fault and HN were clever to have got that extra 25 from you because of your lack of shopping around.

Very shortsighed view and part of why so many businesses are closing their doors every week in Ireland. Things need to move on from that kind of "Im here to make money, so I'll stick the highest price on it" That only works short term.

Certainly within the industry where I work, the days of the Celtic Tiger (stick the highest price on it and see what happens) are quite rightly dwindling.
Customers now expect :
• Competitive Pricing
• Product Knowledge/clear communication
• Good Aftersales/warranty

With businesses spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on loyalty programs, mystery shopping etc to find out how their brands, customer service and pricing are percieved, every customer feedback Free of Charge is like gold dust. Any businesses who cares about customer satisfaction and customer retention would ignore any customer contact and feedback at their peril. A recent communication I received showed it cost considerably more to win back a lost customer than to keep the ones you have. If a customer wrote to me to say we were not competitive in our pricing, I would not think it was a win (yea I got a few extra bob out of them) in any sense of the word and would certainly not ignore that feedback.

I did not send the mail to ask for 25 back, far from it. Because I work in retailling, I would rather receive that customer contact to say, look you are not competitive on this item rather than that individual just be cheesed off and not return or possibly even worse, tell family/friends/that my business was not competitive. I would certainly not count it as a win that I had gained on one item, only to lose that customers business for ever.

If you think HN were clever in this instance, then you are quite clearly not seeing the bigger picture.

Maybe I just have a different view on it because I work within retail.
Any business whose mission is "to charge as much as you can get away with" wont survive this recession.

Pythia

Competitive pricing is down to a number of things and not just checking other people's pricing and beating it. Shops are competitive on some items and not on others, this is how they make money. For example, for every advertised price drop that Tesco make, they raise another one. There are costs which need to be covered and you can not just keep dropping prices when your competitors do. Cost structures are different also. Harveys may have bought the item in at a higher price.

You said it "should be up to them to price match and when I go to any Electrical store, I expect them to have done their mystery shopping price matching and not me". You need to change the way you think or you will be taken for a ride. It is not up to them. You should have checked around if this bothers you.

anewme

I'm going to have to agree to disagree with you on the subject.

If a customer writes to you on any subject - you acknowledge their correspondence. That is why companies have it in their charter that all complaints must be acknowledged within a certain time frame.

I've already said twice that I did not write to HN to ask for my 25 back. I wrote to tell them they were 35% more expensive and should speak to their pricing team. I would rather a customer told me this than just did not shop with me again.

If you thinking ignoring customer correspondence is in any way acceptable, it's not me who needs to change my way of thinking.

Pythia

anewme wrote: »

I'm going to have to agree to disagree with you on the subject.

If a customer writes to you on any subject - you acknowledge their correspondence. That is why companies have it in their charter that all complaints must be acknowledged within a certain time frame.

I've already said twice that I did not write to HN to ask for my 25 back. I wrote to tell them they were 35% more expensive and should speak to their pricing team. I would rather a customer told me this than just did not shop with me again.

If you thinking ignoring customer correspondence is in any way acceptable, it's not me who needs to change my way of thinking.

You are completely disregarding the point I'm making! I never suggested you asked for your money back. I'm not actually making any point on the email!

Also, not sure where 35% is coming from? 25/75 = 33.33%.

Anyway, I'm done here. Good luck not shopping around!