Advice for recent purchase

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dt

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#1881862 11-Oct-2017 11:34

Lizard1977:

I had an experience a few years ago which is similar (but not identical) to the OP situation. I bought two appliances from HN on finance, and the day before they were due to deliver they had a sale and the price of one of the appliances dropped by $150. Under the Credit Contracts Act (or whatever its called), it sounds like you can cancel the contract if the goods have not yet been delivered. I went in to speak to the salesperson armed with this knowledge, and asked if they would apply the newly discounted price. I figured if they said no, then I could ask to cancel the contract, and then purchase at the new price. As it turns out, I didn't have to do this, as the salesperson agreed. Maybe they were aware of this or maybe they just saw the opportunity to build rapport with a customer, but either way it was a good outcome. And that same salesperson has benefited to the tune of several thousand dollars worth of subsequent sales - I now seek out that particular salesperson for future purchases - all because they could see the benefit of long term over short term gains.

The situations aren't the same, but the principle is. If there's a real possibility for future business then they should weigh up what the true cost of that discount really is. Unfortunately, I think too many businesses can't think beyond the short term...

I had this same experience 5 years ago with Noel Leemings, when we bought our house it was new TV time.. we bought a couple of TV's from Noels, took them home, set them up and started watching TV.

Two days later while watching I see them advertising a 20% off sale which would have made our TV's $500 (each) cheaper than what we paid..

Thought id have to march in there and speak to their manager but no, the sales guy I dealt with was fantastic saw where I was coming from, refunding the original sale and put it through again at the new discounted price.. for such a large refund he needed the store manager to come in and input his password to approve the refund, the store manager was even apologetic saying they don't know about the sales until the night before!

Has been my go to appliance store for the past 5 years now...

geoffwnz

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#1881878 11-Oct-2017 11:51

Super Cheap Auto goes one step further and automatically loads the value of any price drop or sale price of an item you've purchased onto your club card if that price change happens within a certain time of you purchasing the product.

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MurrayM

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#1881880 11-Oct-2017 11:52

Indeed it's very annoying when this happens but legally I don't think the store has any obligation to refund you the difference.

Of course it's in their best interests to keep you happy, but many stores are short-sighted and don't see it this way. They certainly could have handled it better; if they didn't want to refund the difference then maybe they could have offered you a free extended warranty or free servicing of the unit for a couple of years or something that wouldn't cost them much but would be of value to you.

Geektastic

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#1882018 11-Oct-2017 16:44

jonherries:
floydbloke:

Geektastic:

If they had any BD skills, ....

Off topic, what does BD stand for please?

(Google suggests the following, none seem appropriate:

Baby Dance [trying to get pregnant apparently]

Butadiene [no explanation, sounds like a drug of some sort]

Banda Desenhada [Comic Books]

Broken Dreams

Black Disciples [a gang] )

I expect he means Business Development - it is in common usage in our firm (in the UK) when talking about sales and marketing.

Jon

Correct.

Geektastic

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#1882019 11-Oct-2017 16:46

dt:

Lizard1977:

I had an experience a few years ago which is similar (but not identical) to the OP situation. I bought two appliances from HN on finance, and the day before they were due to deliver they had a sale and the price of one of the appliances dropped by $150. Under the Credit Contracts Act (or whatever its called), it sounds like you can cancel the contract if the goods have not yet been delivered. I went in to speak to the salesperson armed with this knowledge, and asked if they would apply the newly discounted price. I figured if they said no, then I could ask to cancel the contract, and then purchase at the new price. As it turns out, I didn't have to do this, as the salesperson agreed. Maybe they were aware of this or maybe they just saw the opportunity to build rapport with a customer, but either way it was a good outcome. And that same salesperson has benefited to the tune of several thousand dollars worth of subsequent sales - I now seek out that particular salesperson for future purchases - all because they could see the benefit of long term over short term gains.

The situations aren't the same, but the principle is. If there's a real possibility for future business then they should weigh up what the true cost of that discount really is. Unfortunately, I think too many businesses can't think beyond the short term...

I had this same experience 5 years ago with Noel Leemings, when we bought our house it was new TV time.. we bought a couple of TV's from Noels, took them home, set them up and started watching TV.

Two days later while watching I see them advertising a 20% off sale which would have made our TV's $500 (each) cheaper than what we paid..

Thought id have to march in there and speak to their manager but no, the sales guy I dealt with was fantastic saw where I was coming from, refunding the original sale and put it through again at the new discounted price.. for such a large refund he needed the store manager to come in and input his password to approve the refund, the store manager was even apologetic saying they don't know about the sales until the night before!

Has been my go to appliance store for the past 5 years now...

An excellent illustration of how to deal with it in a way that benefits both parties.

Had they refused, you possibly would never have gone there again and told many people of your negative experience. This is the principle reason companies such as Amazon are so easy to get refunds etc from - they know what it does for their sales in the long run.

MikeB4

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#1882021 11-Oct-2017 16:57

Disclaimer; not a lawyer

The Fair Trading act prohibits unfair practices. It could be argued that a substantial price change within a few days is unfair practice. A talk with the Commerce Commission would a good thing to get their handle on this.

mattwnz

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#1882022 11-Oct-2017 16:58

Geektastic:

dt:

Lizard1977:

I had an experience a few years ago which is similar (but not identical) to the OP situation. I bought two appliances from HN on finance, and the day before they were due to deliver they had a sale and the price of one of the appliances dropped by $150. Under the Credit Contracts Act (or whatever its called), it sounds like you can cancel the contract if the goods have not yet been delivered. I went in to speak to the salesperson armed with this knowledge, and asked if they would apply the newly discounted price. I figured if they said no, then I could ask to cancel the contract, and then purchase at the new price. As it turns out, I didn't have to do this, as the salesperson agreed. Maybe they were aware of this or maybe they just saw the opportunity to build rapport with a customer, but either way it was a good outcome. And that same salesperson has benefited to the tune of several thousand dollars worth of subsequent sales - I now seek out that particular salesperson for future purchases - all because they could see the benefit of long term over short term gains.

The situations aren't the same, but the principle is. If there's a real possibility for future business then they should weigh up what the true cost of that discount really is. Unfortunately, I think too many businesses can't think beyond the short term...

I had this same experience 5 years ago with Noel Leemings, when we bought our house it was new TV time.. we bought a couple of TV's from Noels, took them home, set them up and started watching TV.

Two days later while watching I see them advertising a 20% off sale which would have made our TV's $500 (each) cheaper than what we paid..

Thought id have to march in there and speak to their manager but no, the sales guy I dealt with was fantastic saw where I was coming from, refunding the original sale and put it through again at the new discounted price.. for such a large refund he needed the store manager to come in and input his password to approve the refund, the store manager was even apologetic saying they don't know about the sales until the night before!

Has been my go to appliance store for the past 5 years now...

An excellent illustration of how to deal with it in a way that benefits both parties.

Had they refused, you possibly would never have gone there again and told many people of your negative experience. This is the principle reason companies such as Amazon are so easy to get refunds etc from - they know what it does for their sales in the long run.

I think in that case they have a price match policy within a certain period of time. I have done this myself when they reduced the price of a tv the week after

Lenovo

Shop now for Lenovo laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

dickytim

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#1882192 12-Oct-2017 06:38

dt:

Recently we purchased an air conditioning package consisting of a ducted system for upstairs and a highwall for the down stairs living area.

The issue I have is the highwall went on promotion 3 days after installation for $1000 less than what we paid for the unit..

When I phoned the company to query about finalising the invoice and asked if they could apply the promotional pricing they flat out refused and basically pointed me at their terms and condition and said that its the price I agreed to and they were within their rights to not offer the new promotional price

Yeah OK fair enough about T&C's but come on.. 3 days and such a big variation in price.. had I waited the weekend to get back to them about going ahead with the quote my family would have been $1000 better off..

The installs were split into two different days.. the high wall first prior to the promotion and the ducted after the promo started

High wall was installed on the 18th the promo started on the 21st and goes through to the end of this month.

Am I being impracticable ? should I pursue them or just cut my losses as in their words im not entitled to the discount..

Their problem is likely that the supplier of the units will be giving them a special price for a set period, meaning they would have had to buy your unit at the more expensive price.

Seems like a bit of bad luck to me.

htbrst

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#1882198 12-Oct-2017 07:08

Can you pay with a credit card and then claim the difference; EG with the BNZ Platinum visa:

"We offer you price protection through PriceGuard. If you buy an item with your BNZ Platinum Card and find an advertisement for the same item at a lower price, we will give you a refund for the difference. The minimum purchase price for any single item is NZ $150."

It kicks in if you find the advertised price within 30 days of buying the items and "pays" up to $1K

Bung

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#1882228 12-Oct-2017 07:52

L V Martin's used to have a refund policy if the price dropped. Of course they knew what they'd sold and wouldn't have dropped the price on something until it had a slow sales period.

The Supercheap Auto price promise is only a store credit that expires after 28 days.

dt

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#1882242 12-Oct-2017 08:40

dickytim:

Their problem is likely that the supplier of the units will be giving them a special price for a set period, meaning they would have had to buy your unit at the more expensive price.

Seems like a bit of bad luck to me.

Understand and likely would have been more agreeable had they taken a few moments to kindly explain something like that to me over the phone instead of just dismissing me.

Also in my case the unit was brand new to the market, they didn't even have stock.. I had to wait until their stock (assuming a bulk order) had arrived.. once it arrived they installed it then 3 days $1000 cheaper.

I have "a feeling" the unit I paid full price for was apart of their bulk order allowing them to run such a big special as their promo is only for the first 50 unit sold.

dt

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#1882254 12-Oct-2017 08:46

htbrst:

Can you pay with a credit card and then claim the difference; EG with the BNZ Platinum visa:

"We offer you price protection through PriceGuard. If you buy an item with your BNZ Platinum Card and find an advertisement for the same item at a lower price, we will give you a refund for the difference. The minimum purchase price for any single item is NZ $150."

It kicks in if you find the advertised price within 30 days of buying the items and "pays" up to $1K

Good idea, Thanks, will look into what our Westpac credit card offers as the balance of the invoice is due today.. might be an excuse to finally get around to activating it :)

dt

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#1882255 12-Oct-2017 08:48

MikeB4:

Disclaimer; not a lawyer

The Fair Trading act prohibits unfair practices. It could be argued that a substantial price change within a few days is unfair practice. A talk with the Commerce Commission would a good thing to get their handle on this.

Will give them a call today, thanks for the advice :)

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