Deals not what they seem to be...

[Revs1972]

Ok,
Was looking at an item on FFX website yesterday which was priced up either at £595 or £599 ( can't 100% remember but it was definitely under £600)
Popped on tonight through a link for something else, and there is a 5% off banner at the top of the page that runs till midnight.
Thinking , oh I might as well make that purchase now then, only to find its increased in price to £629

That ain't cricket. Oh well , that's one transaction they have lost

 

[skotl]

That's pretty cynical

 

[anto44]

I bought a chainsaw last year for €229, there was no sale or discount that was just the price. About 2 months later the shop was advertising their big end of season sale and the saw was €299 reduced to €249 for one weekend only.

 

[julianf]

Ok,
Was looking at an item on FFX website yesterday which was priced up either at £595 or £599 ( can't 100% remember but it was definitely under £600)
Popped on tonight through a link for something else, and there is a 5% off banner at the top of the page that runs till midnight.
Thinking , oh I might as well make that purchase now then, only to find its increased in price to £629

That ain't cricket. Oh well , that's one transaction they have lost

FFX is an expert at this.

You can be sure that the item is the same price whatever "deal" is running. Often they have a 20% off ebay thing, but youll find that the price is identical (to within a couple of quid) to their web site price with whatever coupon is current at the time. And then the coupon expires, and they have a "sale" and, whaddya know, the price drops to what the coupon would have given you anyway. Sale ends, and there is a new coupon. Coupon ends, a new ebay offer.

Its like a perpetual DFS or Halfrauds sale, just a bit smarter, as the price never really changes at all. At least at Halfrauds you can find a rare time when there isnt a sale on!

 

[Gritineye]

Sainsburys do the same, shoppers gotta be sharp!

 

[MetalMonkey]

I've found FFX do this quite a bit, especially with their ebay shop where they will take part in the 15% or 20% off selected sellers, but put their prices up 25% beforehand.

It’s a shame because they do offer some competitive prices and free delivery, but it does put you off using them.

 

[waddycall]

why don’t you just look around and buy it at the best price you can from a trustworthy retailer. You’d have to be born yesterday to believe a lot of marketing.

 

[JMS1972]

Amazon are pretty bad for this type of thing so some one created a web site to track prices. They also compare third parties so might be worth checking before purchasing....

https://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/

 

[James1979]

Cookies play a big part in it also. Airlines / hotels are known for it. If you search a price for a flight on your computer it’ll be one price. Look again and it’ll have gone up a bit. Look again or look around and it’ll go up a bit more.
Use a fresh device to search and you’ll start from square one again. Which is exactly what I do to book flights - use the office computer to the leg work then turn WiFi off on my phone and use that to book.

 

[frank horton]

james1979, smart cookie..thanks for that.....

 

[sako243]

If it's just cookies (rather than them tracking metadata such as IP address, user agent etc) then you could use the private / incognito mode of the browser to log in instead.

 

[skotl]

It does seem that the Sale of Goods Act seems to be largely ignored online. If I recall correctly, bricks and mortar shops have rules they need to follow around describing something "in a sale" - was it not something like it had to have been on sale at the higher price for 28 days in the last ... six months ...?

Anyways, whatever the details it does seem that online vendors just ignore the rules with little chance of being pulled up or prosecuted for it.

 

[hunter27]

Having said all that, when I buy larger tools I usually have a good search around on the net for the best price on a particular model. I often end up buying from FFX. on price and service but you have to juggle their Ebay price that is usually a bit more expensive but often offering a discount and compare it to their shop price. I have not had a bad experience with them yet.

 

[droopsnoot]

It does seem that the Sale of Goods Act seems to be largely ignored online. If I recall correctly, bricks and mortar shops have rules they need to follow around describing something "in a sale" - was it not something like it had to have been on sale at the higher price for 28 days in the last ... six months ...?

There was something like that, yes. I seem to recall a mate that worked in a large chain of stores said that in the case of multiples, the item only had to be on sale at full price for a certain amount of time at one of their stores, so I think they just had one in an affluent area that had everything at full price all the time. Not sure how that related to online, though.

Euro Car Parts have form for this, too. Just as they're running up to an "up to 60% off" campaign, everything goes really expensive. Maybe they get around things by offering discount codes rather than actually just dropping the prices.

 

[merryman]

priced up either at £595 or £599 ( can't 100% remember but it was definitely under £600)
Popped on tonight through a link for something else, and there is a 5% off banner at the top of the page that runs till midnight.
Thinking , oh I might as well make that purchase now then, only to find its increased in price to £629

Whole lot more simple, one half of the website hasn't been updated. Either the "runs till midnight" was yesterday and should have been removed, or the price hasn't been reduced for the offer, as it should have been, in the pricing software. £599 + 5% = £629

 

[SierraV6]

I've found FFX do this quite a bit, especially with their ebay shop where they will take part in the 15% or 20% off selected sellers, but put their prices up 25% beforehand.

It’s a shame because they do offer some competitive prices and free delivery, but it does put you off using them.

I recently bought a Makita DBS180 from FFX via eBay using a 15% off code. I saved roughly a tenner versus the cheapest online price I could find so whilst it wasn’t exactly deal of the century it was a legit saving. You’re right though it doesn’t always work out so it certainly pays to check first.

 

[Gritineye]

My first job after leaving school at 14 (1959) was bicycle delivery boy for a bespoke tailors shop.

I got called in to help with the price fixing the day before a sale, on every sale item ticket I had to write a higher price above the regular price and then cross it out..

Customers loved it!

 

[slim_boy_fat]

I'm probably wasting hours of my life but if I visit a new website I make a habit of rejecting cookies manually although my browser [Chrome] is set to do it.

It's amazing how many have screeds of Companies under "Partners" and "Legitimate Interests" . Once you click "Accept" on their first website page, all the dozens of Companies worldwide have instant access to your data.

Edit: As an example, I found one on a 'Legitimate interest' list - says the company stores their cookie for 3650 days [yes, 3650 - prob a typo but you agree to it none-the-less].....

 

[ajlelectronics]

It does seem that the Sale of Goods Act seems to be largely ignored

Well it would be, it hasn't existed since 2015.

 

[MysterG]

Oh that brings back lovely memories of working in the local supermarket (Presto .. do they still exist?) as a lad and having to do price changes.
No barcodes back then you had to price every item with a ticket gun, or an ink stamp for tinned goods (????)
Price changes down were fine you could just slap another label on it. price changes up meant removing the lower priced sticker first, or wiping off the ink with a rag and bottle of white spirit.
Them was the days .... hours of fun.