Misleading & Deceptive conduct - Bond and Bond Queen Street

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sxz

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#106885 2-Aug-2012 10:03

Have been tasked with helping a friend buy a new Telly.

Had a look at Bond and Bond on Queen street, and lo and behold, I see the following picture which **apparently** demonstrates why we all need to get an HD feed rather than an SD feed on our new LCD telly's.

Check out the picture of it:

It was the exact same feed, but they have turned the brightness down on the TV on the right. This is not just skeakey - its just not cool. Old lady's like my mum would totally fall for that.

Edit: have added the picture to the post directly

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371 posts

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#665952 2-Aug-2012 10:40

Wow thats so blatant, you have to wonder how we all got by with SD TVs before 2007!

A new low for Bond & Bond or have they been doing this for some time? ...and they wonder why more people turn to the internet for their shopping these days.

Jaxson

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#665957 2-Aug-2012 10:43

Wow, just wow.

robjg63

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#666002 2-Aug-2012 11:17

It reminds me of the days a few years ago where Dick Smith had the monster HDMI cable 'demo'.
Two tvs - one with 'monster' hdmi cable and the other apparently without.
Turned out the other tv had composite cables - but the demo lead you to believe the astonishing improvement was purely because of the amazing monster cable.

Of course the hdmi looked lovely - just showed how that $150 cable was a good buy.

Never trust anyone.

Actually that Bond and Bond picture looks like it was just an appallingly badly set up demo.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

sxz

761 posts

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#666007 2-Aug-2012 11:22

robjg63: It reminds me of the days a few years ago where Dick Smith had the monster HDMI cable 'demo'.
Two tvs - one with 'monster' hdmi cable and the other apparently without.
Turned out the other tv had composite cables - but the demo lead you to believe the astonishing improvement was purely because of the amazing monster cable.

Of course the hdmi looked lovely - just showed how that $150 cable was a good buy.

Never trust anyone.

Actually that Bond and Bond picture looks like it was just an appallingly badly set up demo.

While I would be inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt, every other Telly had a decent level of brightness. There is simply no way anyone who knows enough about tv's to be selling them could do this by accident.

That said, many years ago at Uni I had a dude try sell me a stereo (i forget which retailer) and saying RMS on the speakers stood for 'Real Music Sound'!! Ha.

reven

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#666013 2-Aug-2012 11:31

are you sure a customer didn't just play with it in store?

sxz

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#666023 2-Aug-2012 11:44

reven: are you sure a customer didn't just play with it in store?

Yes I suppose that is possible, although it would be hard without the remote. Also, in the 20 odd minutes I was there there was no attempt to fix it. It was very, very obvious and I can't imagine a store employee would not notice.

But of course, it is possible.

Paulthagerous

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#666086 2-Aug-2012 12:24

http://www.comcom.govt.nz/online-complaint-form/

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bazzer

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#666095 2-Aug-2012 12:27

Did you ask them about it?

sxz

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#666126 2-Aug-2012 12:52

bazzer: Did you ask them about it?

No I didn't. I probably should have, but they all seemed busy and from past experiences I now try not to engage with most tech shop assistants as they more often than not don't seem to help...

And yes - I have passed it on to the commerce commission, will be interesting to hear what they say.

I don't usually get too pissed off by this sort of thing, but my mum is exactly the kind of person who would be suckered into buying the more expensive product on this sort of basis, and it pisses me off that they take advantage. For example: she was sold an iPad at Harry Norman with a surge protector, 3 year warranty and (wait for it) $130 anti virus because "if you use Internet banking on an iPad without virus protection and you loose your money you can't get it back from the bank / insurance". The next day I pointed out to the store manager that the anti virus could not actually be installed on the iPad, and that applications (such as antivirus if there is one)could only be purchased from the app store. He didn't even understand.

I then cancelled the warranty. He warned about the risks of there are battery problems - I told him that we would be ok because it would be covered under the CGA.

Long story short: one of the things that fires me up is people taking advantage of those who just do not know better!

Rant over - back to work

MurrayM

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#666282 2-Aug-2012 15:13

sxz: For example: she was sold an iPad at Harry Norman with a surge protector, 3 year warranty and (wait for it) $130 anti virus because "if you use Internet banking on an iPad without virus protection and you loose your money you can't get it back from the bank / insurance". The next day I pointed out to the store manager that the anti virus could not actually be installed on the iPad, and that applications (such as antivirus if there is one)could only be purchased from the app store. He didn't even understand.

I then cancelled the warranty. He warned about the risks of there are battery problems - I told him that we would be ok because it would be covered under the CGA.

I bought a camera from Harvey Norman a few years ago and they tried to sell me an extended warranty. I did what you did and said no thanks, I'll just use the CGA if something goes wrong with it. The sales person's reply was that using the CGA could be costly because they would insist that I get a professional to examine the camera and determine what was wrong with it before they would accept it back, and that I would have to foot the bill for the professional inspection. I think he was just trying to scare me, but it didn't work.

gzt

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#666315 2-Aug-2012 15:50

sxz: Had a look at Bond and Bond on Queen street, and lo and behold, I see the following picture which **apparently** demonstrates why we all need to get an HD feed rather than an SD feed on our new LCD telly's.

Lol. Unfortunately this kind of practice is well established in the audio/visual industry internationally and even promoted by manufacturer's sales training literature. There is no reason to think every distributor and sales person actually promotes or uses these techniques. No idea if that is the case here.

mattwnz

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#666321 2-Aug-2012 15:59

Maybe the backlight has gone in the one on the left, or possible a customer or kids have just turned the brightness down when playing with it. I mean it would be different if they were showing a 320x240 your tube video and comapring that with HD . I would give the retailer the benefit of the doub.
Not sure if the manufacturers would like that sort of comparison though, I wonder if they have guidelines.

Ham

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#666408 2-Aug-2012 17:34

mattwnz: Maybe the backlight has gone in the one on the left, or possible a customer or kids have just turned the brightness down when playing with it. I mean it would be different if they were showing a 320x240 your tube video and comapring that with HD . I would give the retailer the benefit of the doub.
Not sure if the manufacturers would like that sort of comparison though, I wonder if they have guidelines.

Comparing youtube with HD would be fine... SD vs HD.

mattwnz

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#666430 2-Aug-2012 18:11

Ham:
mattwnz: Maybe the backlight has gone in the one on the left, or possible a customer or kids have just turned the brightness down when playing with it. I mean it would be different if they were showing a 320x240 your tube video and comapring that with HD . I would give the retailer the benefit of the doub.
Not sure if the manufacturers would like that sort of comparison though, I wonder if they have guidelines.

Comparing youtube with HD would be fine... SD vs HD.

Not really, if it was only displaying 320x240, which is alot less than SD. Youtube also has full HD.

Dunnersfella

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#666619 2-Aug-2012 23:13

Looking at the picture...
The TV on the left has clearly been set up in 'shop mode', as it's cycling through the 'silent salesman' demo slides (you can see them at the bottom of the screen). One of the reasons a retailer would set up a TV in demo mode (aside from the horribly overly bright picture it produces in order to make buyers think it looks great) is that it resets the picture back to 'stock' every 15 minutes or so. Meaning people can stuff around with the picture to their hearts content without causing much grief for the sales staff.

The TV on the right doesn't have the 'silent salesman' demo on the panel whatsoever.
A coincidence?
I think not...
My hunch, is that it has been set up on Home Mode on purpose... otherwise it would continually go back to the stock Dynamic setting.
While I'm sure picture tweaking goes on quite a bit in the quieter stores (where they have time on their hands), I feel that these guys have gone too far and have been duly named and shamed.

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