Dick Smith Online Inflating Prices Then Having a % off 'sale'

Lacs on 01/07/2015 - 18:39

Was looking for Bluetooth Speakers on the Dick Smith website:

Monday evening - Logitech UE Megaboom Speakers are $299.
Tuesday evening the speakers are now $348 with a 15% off Final Countdown sale, limited to 415 customers/150 mins and entering code at checkout. This brings it down to $295.80
Wednesday morning - the price reverts to $297

This was annoying as it took me a little bit of effort to get home to place an order for what I thought was a good deal. From reading the forums, this isn't new for Dick Smith Online. My question is how can this be legal? I thought this type of thing wasn't allowed. On reading the QLD Fair Trading website, it states:

A business is likely to be breaking the law if they give you a misleading overall impression. This might be about:
•price
•value
•quality

I would like to take it further, at least making a complaint so this thing doesn't happen further. I have screen caps of all the relevant details including price, time/date stamp etc.

The reply from Dick Smith Online was this:

"thanking for taking the time to post us your message on our Facebook page and we appreciate your feedback. We have looked into your concerns and we can reassure you that our price movement is in line with the law. The promotion you are referring to was an online only blanket promotion across a number of products (with some exclusions) and which may have cut across products where pricing changed. From our perspective, at Dick Smith we are always are striving to provide customers the best pricing and these may come in many forms that are not necessary product centred promotions. Once again, we thank you for your interest in Dick Smith and look forward to seeing you our stores.” Thanks #DSHelp"

What do you guys think?

Electrical & Electronics

Related Stores

Dick Smith / Kogan
Dick Smith / Kogan
Marketplace

Comments

  • rcrowl on 01/07/2015 - 18:41
    +4

    It should be illegal, scammers

    • anonymous01 on 03/07/2015 - 12:35
      +3

      It's dick just being a dick.

  • spackbace on 01/07/2015 - 18:43
    +6

    A business is likely to be breaking the law if they give you a misleading overall impression. This might be about:
    •price
    •value
    •quality

    Petrol changes daily, it's just something companies are allowed to do. Car prices change monthly. Retail stores have monthly specials. HJs has a special every Tuesday.

    It's just a part of life

    • djmatt24 on 01/07/2015 - 19:32

      I think it's a little different here to prices changing daily according to specials. I read a great example in a post ages ago and I'll try to paraphrase.

      Let's say Dick Smith had a product that had an RRP of $1000, and since day one they had it for $800 on their shelves. Never sold it at $1000, so effectively $800 is their 'normal' price. Then they have a sale, set the price at $1000, apply "25% off", and sell it for $750.

      It's this practice that should be considered illegal.

      • spackbace on 01/07/2015 - 19:35
        +2

        That is illegal. There are rules about 'was' and 'save' prices. But Dick always reverts back to some sort of RRP every few days.

    • stargalaxy on 01/07/2015 - 20:44
      +1

      I think it is illegal in Dick's case as they jack up price and give you a discount code to bring the price down, the illegality is not because of the price changes daily but the impression that you are getting a good deal. For petrol, the price go up and down but they did not try to mislead you like Dick does.

      • spackbace on 01/07/2015 - 20:46
        +2

        Still not "illegal"

        • stargalaxy on 01/07/2015 - 20:49
          -1

          If it is not now, they need to make it illegal in the eye of law.

        • spackbace on 01/07/2015 - 20:54
          +3

          @stargalaxy:

          illegal in the eye of law.

          As oppose to…?

          Dick just runs sales more frequently than others. Other stores have a special once a month on a certain item, Dick has it every few days. Supermarkets have specials on a particular item every 2 weeks.

          Lets do an example of Dick's sales technique vs Coles for example:

          • Dick has Object X on special on Monday. On Tuesday it's full price, but with a coupon making it a bit more expensive than Monday. On Wednesday it's full price. On Thursday it's the same special as Monday… (and so on)
          • Coles has Packet of Chips Y on special first week of the month. On second week its almost full price, or with a small discount. The following week its back on special again.

          Both have the same 'sale', just that with Dick it's a more frequent change.

          As to a "good deal" - value is how we perceive it, of which anyone on this site perceives it differently. We see Google cache of a Dick product, see it was cheaper, so we wait for it to go on sale again if it's not urgent. General public see it on special 1 day, even though it's not the cheapest it's been, and snap it up in an instant.

          But again, Dick is no different to many other businesses.

        • stargalaxy on 01/07/2015 - 21:10
          +1

          @Spackbace:
          I think you still didn't get it, by jacking up price and giving a discount code, it led people into believing they get a bigger discount than the real discount is, like OP said, yesterday normal price is $299, today they jack up the normal price to $348, after discount is $295.80, a real reduction of only $3.20, they misled the customer into believing they actually get a discount of $52.20, which sways a lot of people into buying, they will most likely not buy it if they have checked yesterday price is $299.

        • spackbace on 01/07/2015 - 21:23
          +2

          @stargalaxy:

          I think you still didn't get it

          I get it, believe me!

          which sways a lot of people into buying, they will most likely not buy it if they have checked yesterday price is $299.

          And as I said, many buyers don't know or care what price the item was previously, either the day before or the week before or the month before. They perceive it to be of value because of the discount.

          Generally speaking, Dick has a site-wide coupon. Products are marked at RRP, coupon brings the price down. This act isn't illegal. The fact that the product was any cheaper the day before without a coupon isn't illegal and is actually smart business.

        • stargalaxy on 01/07/2015 - 21:40

          @Spackbace: Yes, it is smart business, else they will not be doing it everyday, but it is not right to manipulate people's feeling that they are getting a bigger discount that we OzBargainers knows what the real discount is and we should not encourage them to keep doing so. I do however have to agree that from time to time, they did have real discount but most days it is not.

  • Forenti on 01/07/2015 - 18:58
    +8

    I think the best course of action is to just stop shopping there. If you don't like their pricing system, don't support it by shopping there. I don't think what they're doing is illegal but even if it is, it would be very hard to prove that the reason they are changing prices is to offset discounts

    • cloudy on 03/07/2015 - 14:02

      Completely agree. I am reading one of these scenarios regularly on ozbargain, and the fact is, their sales are not genuine.

      The best course of action, legal or not, is just boycott their shop.

  • Nutrino on 01/07/2015 - 19:37

    Dick smith is a very polarising company to ozbargains, mainly negative, their marketing is unlike ive ever seen from any company.

    How ever annoying it maybe, i think they know it. Their marketing team must be laughing atm.

    I ask the question, will a red hot deal, eg 30% off apple forgive them for all the spaming they do on this site? (Hyperthetical).

  • grasstown on 01/07/2015 - 19:38

    If we could compile and consolidate the proof of all this I'm sure what they are doing is illegal. ie, advertising a sale, but raising the price for the sale only. That their sale price is very similar to the price when there is no sale and the difference is nowhere ear what the sale claims.

  • PJC on 01/07/2015 - 22:11

    Dick Smith are unusual. These days, I compare their website with their eBay shop. About 3 weeks ago I ordered yet more Fujitsu AAA batteries on their eBay shop, paid $5.99 per 24-pack with PayPal, promptly received SMS and email confirmation, and collected the next day. Instore, I could have pulled a 24-pack off the shelf for $24.98. Three days later, their website offered 4 10-packs for about $4.60. Another few days later, it offered a 2-pack for $6.98. In May my neice collected headphones for me which cost $21.52 on their eBay shop. Instore they were $129 3 weeks ago.

  • srhardy on 02/07/2015 - 08:14

    After buying a product with a bonus and never seeing the bonus, nor replys to emails ive given up buying from DS. I just spam it

    The constant sales and price manipulation is so bad its not worth reading anymore. Goodbye DS, its only a matter of time before you go the way of TANDY

  • alxr0101 on 02/07/2015 - 12:05

    Got sick of the relentless email bombardment of non-deals from DSE… so unsubscribed.

    • ThirdRonnie on 02/07/2015 - 16:36

      Me too - a year ago.

  • huydn on 03/07/2015 - 15:04
    +2

    Know your prices people! While I agree that DS is being a dick, if their price is not what you're willing to pay then don't buy it. It's simple really, just do a bit of research beforehand:

    1. What's the RRP?
    2. What's the 'normal' selling price (if any)
    3. What's the historic low or the usual sale price? Can do a quick and easy search on here. Can also check staticice for current prices.
    4. Decide the price you're willing to pay and WAIT! When it hits that price then buy it, otherwise just don't. Sounds pretty easy to me.

    They can never ever scam or mislead you this way. And if you need something asap then it's not much of a choice really. Buy the cheapest, even if it's DS.

  • McFly on 03/07/2015 - 16:44
    +4

    Misleading prices may include:
    * ‘before’, ‘was’ or ‘strike through’ price that is not the price those items were sold for in a reasonable period immediately before the sale period started
    * ‘before’, ‘was’ or ‘strike through’ price where only a limited proportion of sales were at the higher price in a reasonable period immediately before the sale period started
    * comparison between ‘cost/wholesale’ and ‘sale’ prices if the ‘cost/wholesale’ price is greater than what the business paid for the products
    * price comparison with a competitor’s price for identical goods, but the stated price is taken from a different market or geographical location
    ‘savings’ or ‘discount’ statements when compared to the recommended retail price (RRP), but the goods have never been sold at the RRP or the RRP does not reflect a current market price.

    Businesses may also mislead consumers about prices if they:
    * promote a ‘sale’ or ‘special’ price which is not in fact a temporary sale price, thus creating an unwarranted sense of urgency to make an immediate purchase
    * represent that an advertised price is the total price that you will have to pay when it is not.

    www.accc.gov.au/consumers/prices-receipts/price-displays

  • Tech5 on 03/07/2015 - 17:28

    So their response was basically "(profanity) off, you can't report us"

    K den.

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