Companies that do price gouging with Covid-19 related products

Forums › Off topic › Companies that do price gouging with Covid-19 related products

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sbiddle

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#2450266 30-Mar-2020 19:21

lchiu7:

Not here yet but some major grocery outlets in the US are refusing to honour returns for some goods citing possibly health reasons and in some cases, not rewarding those who stockpiled during the initial days and now now find they didn't have to.

As I'm sure you'd know returns in the US are very much a no questions asked policy across all retail outlets.

It's not uncommon during events such as hurricane warnings that people stockpile essentials and then just take them all back afterwards. It's just a way of life for people.

boosacnoodle

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#2454638 4-Apr-2020 20:59

Mitre 10 is not honouring their 15% price guarantee with the argument that it's only available in-store which is not an option right now under Alert Level 4.

Similar can be said for PB Tech. They will not be performing any price matching.

Jase2985

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#2454658 4-Apr-2020 21:24

boosacnoodle:

Mitre 10 is not honouring their 15% price guarantee with the argument that it's only available in-store which is not an option right now under Alert Level 4.

Similar can be said for PB Tech. They will not be performing any price matching.

sorry what the issue? they have never matched prices online.

or is it you cant go into the store to match the price?

Lias

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#2454707 5-Apr-2020 02:59

shrub:

Check out Dragon PC prices. eg ryzen 5 3600 on special 22% off @ $393. last weeks normal price was $296

Pricespy history shows a bunch of stores have raised their prices on these starting on the 18/03, and most of them put the price up in the range of $80/unit.

There are huge issues globally with supply chains being upended due to the virus, so I suspect that's an upstream issue rather than Dragon PC price gouging.

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Handle9

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#2454714 5-Apr-2020 04:06

Lias:
shrub:

Check out Dragon PC prices. eg ryzen 5 3600 on special 22% off @ $393. last weeks normal price was $296

Pricespy history shows a bunch of stores have raised their prices on these starting on the 18/03, and most of them put the price up in the range of $80/unit.

There are huge issues globally with supply chains being upended due to the virus, so I suspect that's an upstream issue rather than Dragon PC price gouging.

These are traditionally fairly volotile products anyway. Supply and demand pricing is totally normal for computer stuff. Look at the price of GPUs during the crypto craze.

Senecio

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#2454727 5-Apr-2020 07:35

Possibly also influenced by the poor NZD FX rate currently.

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kiwiharry

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#2454734 5-Apr-2020 07:57

sbiddle:
As I'm sure you'd know returns in the US are very much a no questions asked policy across all retail outlets.

It's not uncommon during events such as hurricane warnings that people stockpile essentials and then just take them all back afterwards. It's just a way of life for people.

A few years ago I was working in San Francisco for 3 months. I purchased a bike and the local guys I was working with told me to take it back and get a refund before the 3 months is up. They said it would be no questions asked.

Morally I couldn't do it, so sold the bike to one of them for $50 a few days before I left and gave him the receipt.

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freitasm

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#2454805 5-Apr-2020 09:35

aucklander:

I have a construction project started at home (house extension in Akl) and of course everything stopped now, no workers will attend site for weeks. I also have a portable toilet on hire for the site, from KIWI FLUSH. I asked if they still charge rental for this period and their answer was "business as usual". Surely there is nothing as usual on this construction site...

As a comparison, I had scaffold from GET IT UP Scaffolding and when I asked them about the hire charges over Christmas period (2 weeks) they were happy to drop the hire charges for that period. That provided the project with a very useful $800 breath of fresh air... and they were under no obligation to do that.

@aucklander sorry, late reading this thread. Did you get this fee waived?

If not, and seeing it's business as usual, ask them if they want to come and collect it (joking, I wouldn't let anyone close to my house for this).

Seriously though, some businesses have a clause in their lease/rent agreements that is about emergency situations when premises can not be used, with a reduction or full waive of rent. Perhaps check your contract/terms with them to see if there's such a thing for services too?

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ezbee

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#2454808 5-Apr-2020 09:43

I have heard of the ' returns no questions asked" in Aussie as well.

I knew of someone who worked for a outlet selling tools and automotive products.

He regularly had to accept tools used over the weekend for car repairs and such no questions asked.

Tools covered in crap and with obvious wear etc.

These were mostly regular "customers" who bought little or nothing else.

It did his head in.

When he became shop manager though he would regularly get a bollocking from head office for the poor numbers due to volume of returns

He pushed back on the worst 'regulars'.

Promptly got a severe reprimand for head office.

Got out of there as quickly as he could.

sudo

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#2461269 14-Apr-2020 17:40

So the question is, will we seeing normal discounts re-appearing post-lockdown.

The Aussie prices are still low. At least, on handsets that I have been monitoring.

I think the global supply chain line may affect some items. But is like the supermarkets where they don't have have a captive audience, so they just stop offering specials.

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