Rant ffs bloody specialty cables :eek:

[nath]

Then why is John Lewis still around with their never knowingly undersold policy? I find it hard to believe that if PC World charged £5 quid for their USB cables they'd go under. They'd still make a profit, only it would be a reasonable one. One of the ideas behind the free market is that you can buy shit elsewhere if it's too expensive, PC World are exploiting their position and you agree with that. So what the fuck are we arguing about?


Anyway, at the end of the day there are companies that behave like ***** and ones that behave a bit more decently (within reason). In my experience, John Lewis is one of the few retail stores that aren't managed by total ***** - so it's possible to run a business without behaving like a fuckwit, it generates good will which makes people loyal.

 

[Chilly]

The john lewis gubbins comes into the "lots of factors when setting prices". In that case they are effectively subsiiding sales with marketing budget. And lol at "knowingly" More like "never undersold when you make it extremely clear to us, and when the product is identical (including colour and hardware revisions)." etc... you get the picture.

 

[nath]

Of course, but the rule is there, and it's basically a guarantee that when you buy a fridge-freezer or whatever it's not going to be more expensive than one at the local white-goods shop. Of course they have to have conditions, that doesn't mean that it's a pointless rule, just that you can't use it to fuck them over.

Anyway, clearly it's best to assume that any company is trying to fuck you over but that doesn't mean a company *has* to fuck you over to be successful. The point about the PC World USB cables is that they're charging WAY more than they need to, that generates bad-will among customers that know what they're doing. That can spread and it could hurt them in the long run. The mega-fuckwit™ business model simply doesn't seem like a good idea with people buying online more and more. You don't even need to hunt for it, amazon sells the same thing for £2.78.

 

[bob269]

It's worth noting that DSG is currently on it's arse (the group that owns dixons, curry's, pcworld and the worldwide equivilents) so maybe if management fucked off this rediculous pricing bollocks and charged sensible prices then they'd start making a profit.

It's better to sell 100 items at a smaller profit than 10 items at a higher profit.

 

[TdC]

well, I received a message today that my cable has been shipped to me at the grand total cost of 3.94GBP incl shipping. Mr Halfords can go be buggered by a stinking elderly scurvy riddled one legged aardvark.

 

[Zenith.UK]

Anyway, clearly it's best to assume that any company is trying to fuck you over but that doesn't mean a company *has* to fuck you over to be successful.

Use mobile phone companies as the example here. They all have a "retentions dept" where they try their hardest to keep you on as a customer, even going as far as offering deals that are better than what new customers get. I'm out of contract and trying to get a SE Xperia X1 out of them for free. I'm waiting for them to get them back in stock, but once they do, I should be able to get the phone for free on a tariff better than what I'm on right now. So they might use sharp business practices sometimes, but they also do alright by the customer at other times.

 

[DaGaffer]

It's worth noting that DSG is currently on it's arse (the group that owns dixons, curry's, pcworld and the worldwide equivilents) so maybe if management fucked off this rediculous pricing bollocks and charged sensible prices then they'd start making a profit.

Except they probably wouldn't. Put aside Currys for a moment and just look at PCWorld. DSG have to support a level of overhead in physical buildings etc that online only rivals don't. They can get some of that cost back by better buying, higher pricing, or selling a lot more at a lower price (or renegotiating rent and wage costs, but we'll assume they can't). Taking each of those threads, Buying is by far the biggest cause of PCW's recent problems; they failed to forecast netbooks and they've mistakenly tied themselves into long-term PC building deals rather than buying on the world market, and they got massively burned by the failure of Vista (to the tune of £100s of millions). Secondly, PCW's pricing isn't that bad. Heresy I know, but hear me out. On non-time-sensitive items, e.g. monitors, printers etc. PCW are competitive; seriously, go check. Their ranges of these items sucks, but that's back to the poor buying again. However, on time-sensitive items (e.g. you're halfway through an upgrade and you've lost a cable, you've just moved house and you really need that Cat5 cable and a router NOW), then PCW are expensive. Which is prefectly reasonable. The kind of customers who buy that kind of product from PCW are almost always in a situation where its a distressed purchase, and that distress justifies the premium they charge. If PCW dropped the price of these items to similar levels as online only players, the inelasticity of demand would mean they wouldn't sell a lot more, just more or less the same for less profit. So...

It's better to sell 100 items at a smaller profit than 10 items at a higher profit.

This isn't necessarily true, because it makes the mistake of assuming you'll sell a 100. (its also not necessarily true for a lot of other reasons, but its not worth getting into that).

 

[DaGaffer]

Use mobile phone companies as the example here. They all have a "retentions dept" where they try their hardest to keep you on as a customer, even going as far as offering deals that are better than what new customers get. I'm out of contract and trying to get a SE Xperia X1 out of them for free. I'm waiting for them to get them back in stock, but once they do, I should be able to get the phone for free on a tariff better than what I'm on right now. So they might use sharp business practices sometimes, but they also do alright by the customer at other times.

This is just a situation where your interests and theirs are aligned. Its way cheaper to keep you by giving you a new handset, than it is to acquire a brand new customer. It also relies on the fact that 99% of customers will take the upgrade deal they are offered, rather than negotiating a better one. If everyone did it, the economics would change (although I bet it would still stack up for them).

 

[Jupitus]

A wave of the magic paypal wand

Oi! You little grotbag!! It's effing freezing here and you are making me go to the bank at lunchtime instead of paypalling you some doobry... you pulling my bits or what???

 

[Jupitus]

Mr Halfords can go be buggered by a stinking elderly scurvy riddled one legged aardvark.

.... I'm on my way!!

 

[TdC]

Oi! You little grotbag!! It's effing freezing here and you are making me go to the bank at lunchtime instead of paypalling you some doobry... you pulling my bits or what???

I'm not going anywhere near your bits, like, evar. I can pay with paypal but not receive (iirc) as I do not have a whatchemercallit account? you know, old fashioned user here, never did anything with my account but pay?

.... I'm on my way!!

to the bank I'm sure. try not to freeze a bollock off and remember to PM me your address hehe