Price match policy change in DSE stores?

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#803346 21-Apr-2013 22:20

networkn:

Not to concerned if price matching disappears. I will just go to whoever is cheapest. The days of customer loyalty are long gone.

Well not for everyone. Pity some have such a selfish view of the world though.

Hmmm, I won't take that personally as I am sure that's not how it was intended. Fact of life is that my income only goes so far, and if I can save a few bucks here and there I will. If I had a heap of disposable income then I can certainly think of a salesman or two that I would love to buy everything off, because frankly they deserve it.

When I win Lotto I will give them a call :-)

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

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#803349 21-Apr-2013 22:29

scuwp:
networkn:

Not to concerned if price matching disappears. I will just go to whoever is cheapest. The days of customer loyalty are long gone.

Well not for everyone. Pity some have such a selfish view of the world though.

Hmmm, I won't take that personally as I am sure that's not how it was intended. Fact of life is that my income only goes so far, and if I can save a few bucks here and there I will. If I had a heap of disposable income then I can certainly think of a salesman or two that I would love to buy everything off, because frankly they deserve it.

When I win Lotto I will give them a call :-)

Well it was directed primarily at you actually. You didn't state anything related to your income, you made a general comment about customer loyalty being long gone (and inferred yourself in that group). Thankfully for those of us who can't/won't compete on price alone, there are customers who don't mind spending extra if it means they get quality friendly knowledgeable service (Including after the sales are made).

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#803354 21-Apr-2013 22:40

JimmyH:
networkn:

Well not for everyone. Pity some have such a selfish view of the world though.

Why is it selfish? It cuts both ways. If they no longer have loyalty to customers and differentiate themselves on customer service and product knowledge, why would you go anywhere other than the best price?

I do have places where, within limits, I will pay more than the cheapest for some things like cameras. But that's because they are retailers who know their onions, and look after their customers. If a retailer can't/won't compete on that, then they have to compete on price in my books.

Correct me if I am wrong, but your post implies that looking after customers is price matching? Thats the result of cut throat retail electronics market. Looking after customers is friendly service, and not being a difficult store to deal with if the product has a fault.

Recently I saw a BR/HDD recorder. NL had them at $849, common price was $944. NL had no stock, HN pricematched over the phone, even though I said its not on the NL website as no stock. I was impressed. My teen daughter got given a Turtle Beach headset for her XBox. Intermittent noise levels on one side. DSE swapped it out, and allowed me to upgrade to the better one that also had PC inputs as well, impressed.

Yes, I want best price, but I also allow for service, as per my examples above. Whether you can get a price match on everything may vary, but you cant blame the retailers, its cut throat.

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#803357 21-Apr-2013 22:44

One of the things that has happened since people stopped caring about what it cost to run a business and provide premier service is that retail stores that contain floor models are getting smaller and less common. It's almost impossible to find a retailer that has demo units of a reasonable selection of headphones for example, because people go into a store and then use the store as a choosing spot, get on-line to save themselves a few dollars. I love a good deal, but I have a policy of trying to get a price from a store I demo or get decent advice from that we can both live with.

mattwnz

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#803358 21-Apr-2013 22:53

I have found that far more people care more about price, than customer service these days. It is proven by the fact that low cost airlines do so well. You get the most complaints about their service and canceled flights, yet people continue to use them, and they mean that established full service airlines have to cut down on their own services to compete.

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#803359 21-Apr-2013 22:55

mattwnz: I have found that far more people care more about price, than customer service these days. It is proven by the fact that low cost airlines do so well. You get the most complaints about their service and canceled flights, yet people continue to use them, and they mean that established full service airlines have to cut down on their own services to compete.

Yep and it's a downward spiral. It's a lot more generational I believe. GenY and Even GenX tend to be more focused on price.

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#803360 21-Apr-2013 22:57

mattwnz: I have found that far more people care more about price, than customer service these days. It is proven by the fact that low cost airlines do so well. You get the most complaints about their service and canceled flights, yet people continue to use them, and they mean that established full service airlines have to cut down on their own services to compete.

And the $8 filled rolls they sell!

I agree, if people buy cheap, as per your airline, that's the expectation. If they expect to pay a 6/10 price and get 9/10 performance, they are in dreamland.

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#803362 21-Apr-2013 23:03

tdgeek:
mattwnz: I have found that far more people care more about price, than customer service these days. It is proven by the fact that low cost airlines do so well. You get the most complaints about their service and canceled flights, yet people continue to use them, and they mean that established full service airlines have to cut down on their own services to compete.

And the $8 filled rolls they sell!

I agree, if people buy cheap, as per your airline, that's the expectation. If they expect to pay a 6/10 price and get 9/10 performance, they are in dreamland.

What is quite interesting is the number of startups that come along offering cheap products and decent service who once they are established realize it's not really long term sustainable, then slowly increase prices or suffer service lapse due to growth without profit, and start to end up aligned with the rest of the market somewhere near the middle.

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#803364 21-Apr-2013 23:07

networkn: One of the things that has happened since people stopped caring about what it cost to run a business and provide premier service is that retail stores that contain floor models are getting smaller and less common. It's almost impossible to find a retailer that has demo units of a reasonable selection of headphones for example, because people go into a store and then use the store as a choosing spot, get on-line to save themselves a few dollars. I love a good deal, but I have a policy of trying to get a price from a store I demo or get decent advice from that we can both live with.

I like that. Support the bricks and and mortar if they can meet you somewhere, thats a good policy.

Yes, we all can buy stuff online. My experience with Mighty Ape recently was absolutely excellent.

Problem is, if there were zero shops, as everything was online, I think many of us would not like that. Plus for me, there are some things I will only buy at a store. (I want to see, experience it, or I am relying on expertise and support with it.) However, if there is going to be an online and store option, the stores will suffer. It will evolve. What to I am unsure, perhaps a The Warehouse domination of physical stores as they can control costs better, get better prices, and have volume

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#803365 21-Apr-2013 23:10

tdgeek:
networkn: One of the things that has happened since people stopped caring about what it cost to run a business and provide premier service is that retail stores that contain floor models are getting smaller and less common. It's almost impossible to find a retailer that has demo units of a reasonable selection of headphones for example, because people go into a store and then use the store as a choosing spot, get on-line to save themselves a few dollars. I love a good deal, but I have a policy of trying to get a price from a store I demo or get decent advice from that we can both live with.

I like that. Support the bricks and and mortar if they can meet you somewhere, thats a good policy.

Yes, we all can buy stuff online. My experience with Mighty Ape recently was absolutely excellent.

Problem is, if there were zero shops, as everything was online, I think many of us would not like that. Plus for me, there are some things I will only buy at a store. (I want to see, experience it, or I am relying on expertise and support with it.) However, if there is going to be an online and store option, the stores will suffer. It will evolve. What to I am unsure, perhaps a The Warehouse domination of physical stores as they can control costs better, get better prices, and have volume

Yah I couldn't imagine buying items like Shoes, Clothes, Squash Racquets etc from an online retailer sight unseen. I don't believe you can buy headphones or other things if you want the higher end experience without listening to them first.

Recently though I had an experience where a specialist retailer had headphones I wanted to try then buy, when I asked them the price of the phones after I decided i wanted them, they were 35% above the RRP. I was grateful they had a pair, and had they have been within 10-15% I would have happily bought them, but it was just beyond a joke how much more they were. It's also a dollar value thing, 10% of items worth thousands makes a big $$ difference.

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#803366 21-Apr-2013 23:19

networkn:

Recently though I had an experience where a specialist retailer had headphones I wanted to try then buy, when I asked them the price of the phones after I decided i wanted them, they were 35% above the RRP. I was grateful they had a pair, and had they have been within 10-15% I would have happily bought them, but it was just beyond a joke how much more they were. It's also a dollar value thing, 10% of items worth thousands makes a big $$ difference.

Wow, that is beyond a joke alright. Methinks they may struggle, but OTOH a specialist store will probably always have a regular clientele, and the ability to charge RRP. Over RRP, never seen that before

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#803367 21-Apr-2013 23:22

tdgeek:
networkn:

Recently though I had an experience where a specialist retailer had headphones I wanted to try then buy, when I asked them the price of the phones after I decided i wanted them, they were 35% above the RRP. I was grateful they had a pair, and had they have been within 10-15% I would have happily bought them, but it was just beyond a joke how much more they were. It's also a dollar value thing, 10% of items worth thousands makes a big $$ difference.

Wow, that is beyond a joke alright. Methinks they may struggle, but OTOH a specialist store will probably always have a regular clientele, and the ability to charge RRP. Over RRP, never seen that before

Well recently I have started to see RRP down to within 10% of a products buy price, a lot of retailers or specialist places need/want to make more than 10%. It used to be that RRP was so far over the buy price you never saw items sold for RRP let alone more than..

mattwnz

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#803394 21-Apr-2013 23:54

networkn:
What is quite interesting is the number of startups that come along offering cheap products and decent service who once they are established realize it's not really long term sustainable, then slowly increase prices or suffer service lapse due to growth without profit, and start to end up aligned with the rest of the market somewhere near the middle.

Yes you see a lot of those. The funny thing is that you often see in their blurb, that they claim they setup the company because they claim that NZers were paying too much for a service, and they could give NZers a better deal. So essentially they undercut the existing market, and something has to give. I don't think many make a profit, but hope that another company may buy them out instead.

I have seen a few online real estate companies do this, they start out at $1000 fixed fee. Then over time it rose to 2k, then to 5k, as they probably realized that the initial figures weren't sustainable. IMO it shows a poor business plan.

b0untypure1

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#803397 22-Apr-2013 00:17

scuwp:

Not to concerned if price matching disappears. I will just go to whoever is cheapest. The days of customer loyalty are long gone.

interesting and i agree fully. the only loyalty i have is comparing a known trusted site i've purchased from before (like playtech, or shotgun supplements) with one i don't know (first time shop). If it's a small difference ill shop where i've been before. However, in town, loyalty doesn't exist. cheapest shop is the place to go.

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#803433 22-Apr-2013 08:03

networkn:

Well it was directed primarily at you actually. You didn't state anything related to your income, you made a general comment about customer loyalty being long gone (and inferred yourself in that group). Thankfully for those of us who can't/won't compete on price alone, there are customers who don't mind spending extra if it means they get quality friendly knowledgeable service (Including after the sales are made).

Then be very thankful that you obviously have more disposable income than most these days. Most people I know (including me) can't afford to spend hundreds extra on large ticket items just because the salesman happens to be one of the near extinct breed that actually knows their product and provides good service.

I have other priorities such as clothing and feeding my kids and paying the bills. If I can save a few hundred dollars on a TV by walking 500 metres down the road then that is extra money my family has to spend elsewhere. And I reckon 9/10 people would do the same.

I don't think that's selfish at all, and I didn't think name calling was called for. I call it being realistic.

/rant

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

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