Hi,
First, read this article: http://www.theage.com.au/business/gerry-harvey-sick-of-inter…
How many good Hardly Normal deals have we seen? Achem.
Is THIS the Funniest Thing on the Internet?
machej on 31/08/2012 - 18:55
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The last time i bought something from Hardly Normal was when they had the 2 for 1 point and shoot cameras lol
"A lot of them [Harvey Norman franchisees] say people do research online and so the number of people that are researching our product online has jumped 25 per cent but our sales haven't jumped at all."
Then your pricing isn't competitive is it? The guy is deluded and living in a fantasy land.
Most of the time HN clearance prices aren't even better than the regular prices found on Staticice. Their "Hot Deals" page should be retitled "Back to reality prices".
He's basically saying:
The company i lead is spinning you BS.
We spin you BS because our competitors are spinning you BS.
We also spin you BS because i'm afraid of being called names - names like 'dinosaur'.
I think i've only bought one or two things from HN, and he just explained why, which i think was quite good of him.
I like Harvey, a little bit. If he didn't exist, you'd have to invent him.
oooww, poor gerry, only made a $172m profit. whaaa
Every Harvey Norman I have been too have ridiculous prices and the most incompetent staff I have ever seen. Last time I was in they had computers saying "facebook check in place for great deals" What is that!? How about great deals for us regular people of society that come to the store for a deal in the first place, not to stuff around on computers and liking your stupid facepages.
Last two times I went to HN stores:
Bennetts Green NSW - stood a few steps away and looked right at salesmen for over 10 minutes while they leaned over mucking around on a computer on a desk doing something on the internet. One stood up and hurried by me as I said, "Can you please tell me…" and was gone. Other 3 guys look up at me and then back to screen. Twenty seconds later I was gone too.
Purchased a scanner from Maitland NSW store. Took it home, didn't open the box for two weeks. On opening found the scanner was SECOND HAND. It had scratches all over it. Took it the long drive back. Fobbed off - come back tomorrow - manager not in today. Drive back again (I'm up to three 30km round trips so far). Sorry no more stock. And can't give you a refund because you had it too long. Say what? I just opened the box yesterday!? Manager basically "sneered" at me in front of customers, saying the guy that sold it to me had left and he must've given me a special price because it was below cost and so I must've known it was secondhand. Then tried to get me to buy another model which to get the feature I wanted (photo negative scan) I would have to add nearly $100. After much attitude and arguing I finally got my money back.
It now gives me great satisfaction to look at products in HN. Then buy them elsewhere.
to be fair, if you had it for 2 weeks, how do they know you only opened it yesterday? i think that point was pretty valid 2 weeks is plenty of time to scratch something up (not saying you did it, but you can see how it can be construed)
about point 1, yea service at HN is particularly horrible from my experience as well
Heh - you didn't see the scratches. It was obviously either a display model repacked, or, more likely, the one they used themselves out the back. It even looked "aged" and dirty. The only way it could have got that way was if I owned a Delorean inc. flux capacitor.
Anyone could buy something a month in advance as a gift say - and a couple opens it on their wedding day to find what I did. The first guy promised if I came back the next day I'd get a replacement or refund from the manager. They had my phone number and could have called. Yet the next day I'm now up to ~90km of travelling and they tell me I'm not getting a refund. Heck - I never even got as far as opening the software, plugging the power supply in, etc. I got the scanner halfway out of the box, saw the damage and slid it right back in again and drove there to return it. Then tried to rip me off. No refund and no warranty for some dirty trick their own staff member had dreamed up.
100% totally unacceptable.
"I'm out there labelled as a bloody dinosaur."
He seems to be more worried about being labelled a dinonaur rather than avoiding the fate of dinosaurs, dinosaurs like the old Waltons which couldn't compete with the Harvey Norman "spin and bullshit" of its day.
Saw it posted on PowerRetail.com.au
http://www.powerretail.com.au/editorial-2/gerry-harvey-speak…
With this "Gerry as Dinosaur" image:
http://www.powerretail.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Ger…
It really is a case of Gerry not so much shooting himself in the foot, but the head.
Extract from article:
"…we have Harvey, seemingly at odds with the strategic element of Harvey Norman’s board, telling the world that he still considers online retail to be a waste of time, cutting his own spin doctors off at the knees by exposing their game".
Cant blame the guy for wanting to avoid the spin from the expected legions of online retail consultants and omni channel partners. I dont work in the space but I have worked in consulting before and I imagine he is being bombarded by the likes of KPMG etc trying to sell him hundreds of uni graduates at $300 an hour to write him up a couple of reports and develop him some dodgy websites that wont work.
Not defending the guy but I detect a degree of skepticism that he is being forced to entertain the legions of modern day snake oil salesmen known as omni channel marketing consultants!! The problem for the big retailers is that the web has taken away the barriers to entry and allowed little guys that are more agile to enter the space and undercut them due to their lower overheads. It used to be that you had to have a big shop and loads of employees, now all you need is a website, an ABN and some space in your garage.
Does Gerry Harvey do anything but spin? He's all over the TV and the radio advertising specials that are twice as expensive as most other places.
The dinosaur should just retire.