John Lewis needs a slap!

richard plumb

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OK, so JL need a slap. Got a call from their 'undersales' dept saying they won't pricematch RGB on the price of a Toshiba 37WLT58. Apparantly they've been 'investigated' and are guilty of negotiating prices, not having shelf sticker prices, and putting too many sugars in your tea.

I thought they didn't have a 'blacklist'? I rang RGBs shop in Ilford on Saturday morning, they had stock of the set, and the shop price was £1650 (as opposed to £1600 delivered from their internet store). To me, thats a shop price and should be matched.

Other *shops* with the set listed at around the same price:

Hispek
PRC
Empire direct
Sound and Vision
RGB
crampton and moore

Any others that you know of, please reply with their information so I can give them a big list when I call them up.

Its especially annoying as they don't have to change their shelf price, as the store isn't local. Just give the price to me, a customer who paid £2k to them 2 years ago for my last LCD set...

Anyone managed to get JL to change their minds? Any tips? I can feel a watchdog letter coming on :p
 
Just emailed John Lewis today and they said that "John Lewis Direct" do NOT price match. Only a John Lewis store would price match against another supplier providing they had a physical retail shop.
 
:thumbsup: I got JL to price match Crampton and Moore
 
crampton don't have any stock at the moment though. And it was JL High Wycombe I went into on Saturday after ringing RGB.
 
richard plumb said:
OK, so JL need a slap. Got a call from their 'undersales' dept saying they won't pricematch RGB on the price of a Toshiba 37WLT58. Apparantly they've been 'investigated' and are guilty of negotiating prices, not having shelf sticker prices, and putting too many sugars in your tea.

I thought they didn't have a 'blacklist'? I rang RGBs shop in Ilford on Saturday morning, they had stock of the set, and the shop price was £1650 (as opposed to £1600 delivered from their internet store). To me, thats a shop price and should be matched.

Other *shops* with the set listed at around the same price:

Hispek
PRC
Empire direct
Sound and Vision
RGB
crampton and moore

Any others that you know of, please reply with their information so I can give them a big list when I call them up.

Its especially annoying as they don't have to change their shelf price, as the store isn't local. Just give the price to me, a customer who paid £2k to them 2 years ago for my last LCD set...

Anyone managed to get JL to change their minds? Any tips? I can feel a watchdog letter coming on :p

JL's term are quite clear regarding price matching in that the shop in question should have the item in store on display with a clear price. The problem is that it would seem that each JL store sets there own terms and some will price match based on a phonecall to the retailer for a price quote. Some will even accept internet prices as long as the web retailer has a shop. Its all very confusing and all store should stick to theRGB so I assume I will be told the same thing as yourself. Though somebody a few days ago did get JL to pricematch RGB for a 26 inch Panasonic. I think the only thing you can do is contact their head office and point out that other branches have priced matched RGB. I dont think you have a chance with watchdog unless you can prove RGB have the TV you want on display at the price you are quoted.
 
JL price matching a bit of a sham really, they make out they will never be undersold and how they are looking out for the interests of customers but their online store won't even pricematch actual shop prices and there claim they will lower the price of goods so everyone can benifit is just wrong. I emailed them about the Toshiba 37WLT58 noting that the price they had is for was more than Sevenoaks national ads. But the website still has a higher price and very few shops have the screen.
They play the basic game of having these type of items in stock on their website but not competing on price while making it as difficlut as possible to get stock / price matching on new items in store.
The key is regardless of their little terms and conditions they are unsold on most items all the time and they don't care aa they are really looking for people who will just pay the standard price no questions.
 
Let's be fair, JL can set their rules as they wish. They are providing a physical store, demo facilities, 5 year guarantee trained staff,etc and we all want this but at the cheapest price in the market.
Great if you get it, but we cannot really complain if we do not! A touch of the having your cake and eating it, perhaps?
 
jimg said:
Let's be fair, JL can set their rules as they wish. They are providing a physical store, demo facilities, 5 year guarantee trained staff,etc and we all want this but at the cheapest price in the market.
Great if you get it, but we cannot really complain if we do not! A touch of the having your cake and eating it, perhaps?

I'm not moaning about JL setting their own rules. Of course they can.

I'm moaning because they seem reluctant to then uphold those rules - wriggling around to get out of price matching. They simply state they will match a shop with the product in stock. RGB have two shops in Ilford, I rang the shop and they had stock. The price was different, so I'm not trying to match their Internet price, just their shop price.

So far I have a list of about 6-8 shops to price match against. I'll go through all of them just to make JL run around. If they still won't match, I'll go elsewhere, and complain in writing to their head office.
 
jimg said:
Let's be fair, JL can set their rules as they wish.

That's not true. They are (and have been for ages) telling lies about price matching. They either do or they don't. They need to make their offers far more accurate and bold. They cannot have a 'list' of shops that they won't price match. This has been proven to be against trades description laws ie a shop is a shop.

DSG (Currys, Dixons, PCWorld, The Link) have had several visits to the courts for telling lies. DSG were hit for fines so often they eventually dropped the pricematch crap. I reported them at least twice for ****ing me about. Richer Sounds has even taken DSG to court IIRC for lying.

The JLP seems a bit posh so maybe that's why nobody's grassed them up.
 
Just to add my experience of the pricematch :-

The Reading store would NOT pricematch Crampton & Moore, nor would they pricematch Hi Spek, citing lack of "shelf edge price" or non display of the model, which frankly, I think is a cobblers way to wriggle out but there you go.

I did finally get them to agree to match PRC Direct on a Panasonic TX32LXD500 for £1529 as PRC happened to have the set in stock when they made their enquiries.

As it was, (not helped by John Lewis having neither the LXD500 nor the Samsung 26R41BX in stock and then not bothering to answer the phone on Monday when I rang twice), I decided to give my business to Waratah who went out of their way to get me and the Samsung together on the same day I enquired.

John Lewis can go down the pan without my money ..........

Cheers.

UKBoy.
 
APPRIA40WR said:
That's not true. They are (and have been for ages) telling lies about price matching. They either do or they don't. They need to make their offers far more accurate and bold. They cannot have a 'list' of shops that they won't price match. This has been proven to be against trades description laws ie a shop is a shop.

DSG (Currys, Dixons, PCWorld, The Link) have had several visits to the courts for telling lies. DSG were hit for fines so often they eventually dropped the pricematch crap. I reported them at least twice for ****ing me about. Richer Sounds has even taken DSG to court IIRC for lying.

The JLP seems a bit posh so maybe that's why nobody's grassed them up.

Don't know what JLP t&c are for price match but I seem to recall certain shops lisiting who they would price match against. I think it might have been Dixons/Currys or Comet.

It was a very short list whoever it was and did not contain any recognised "good value" stores, just the over-priced high st equivalent. A cartel maybe?

Dave
 
Price match from JL is cobblers. Their undersales people are paid to go out of their way to ensure that the pricematch promise is not upheld. Think about it - they pay someone a wage to go out and investigate all these stores and prices, so they have to make that money back somehow - probably on overpriced goods that you can't get reduced via a pricematch.

Whole system is bonkers.

My example. Tried to get JL to pricematch a Panasonic PV500 plasma with another far chaper local store. John Lewis claimed that the store would disount the shelf price. What sort of idiot salesperson would give a disount on an already cheap PV500 when there are people queueing up to buy them? My conclusion - JL pay people so they don't have to pricematch so JL can swivel, i'll buy it from a cheaper store.
 
Rich,

there are about 15 shops JL will not price match. I was after a pricematch with PRC on a Panny 500, which was not one of the original 3 they gave me. Of the top of my head also included techtronics (forgot the others!). Ring them, they will give you the full list.

Agree that their policy sucks! I went into the store and complained, alas to no avail. PRC had it in stock, not a special offer or anything...but they would not match as they do not advertise their prices...well shady.

The best one...they will not pricematch if the shop charges delivery as theirs is free and it must be a like for like offer. How many shops do you know (apart from JL) that will deliver for free (not you picking it up)!

Dave
 
The problem is that JL clearly say they will only pricematch where the store in question has the item in stock, on display with a shelf edged price. It would seem that shops like RGB do not have prices(I assume they would lose a lot of business if they did). To be fair as people have mentioned JL have an excellent CS department and most of the online retailers dont. On the toshiba WLT58 thread someone bought from RGB. TV not working on delivery and they are being charged £60 to have it changed or a wait of 2 weeks for an engineer to come out. Cant see JL offering that type of service. So you pay for what you get.
 
I've also asked the Reading store to match Sound and Vision (picked at random from my list). If they reject, I'll try PRC, and cite that store having price matched that shop before.
 
Dune said:
Don't know what JLP t&c are for price match but...
The John Lewis price match rules.

Bits that I believe are of interest:
John Lewis T&C said:
Each shop checks the prices of likely competitors in the local area. (Details of the area covered are available on request from Customer Services in your local shop.) If we find a competitor within this area selling the same product that is part of our own standard offer at a lower price, our shelf price will be reduced to match. As a result all our customers benefit from the lower price, not only those who spot the difference.
My interpretation here is that they will price match a competitor local to the store in question. It is not a one off reduction, all customers in all shops will benefit from the price reduction including those using johnlewis.com

John Lewis T&C said:
The comparison must be with exactly the same item (brand, model, colour, size etc) and both we and the competitor should have the item in stock. We match the shelf-edge price the competitor displays, but not a negotiated or special price for particular individuals (e.g. their store card holders). We expect the goods to be offered on equivalent terms, and so we take into account any ‘hidden extras' charged by the competitor, such as delivery charges for items that would normally require delivery.
John Lewis offer a 5 year warranty and free delivery. So John Lewis would take into account that competitors probably do not offer the same warranty.

John Lewis T&C said:
If you have purchased an item from one of our shops and then find the same item selling for less in any UK shop, we will refund the difference. As we do not wish you to regret buying from us, we allow you up to 28 days from the date of purchase to claim this refund. We meet such claims on the same basis as the price checking done by our shops described above.

Our promise to you extends beyond the local area to cover any conventional shop in the UK where you find the same item on display at a lower shelf-edge price with the same availability and terms.
This seems to remove the localisation clause mentioned above, but only once the TV has been purchased. A potentially risky thing to do if they do not uphold the reduced price.

Obviously JL's price is only an offer to purchase. They are not obliged to actually sell it to you. No where in their T&C do I see anything about price matching stores outside the locality of the purchase other than a refund once the purchase is made. This is my interpretation and I am quite happy to hear someone elses. But whilst their slogan is open to interpretation, their T&C seem to cover the reasons why most people have been turned down. Certainly I don't think they can be acused of lying, just a bit of marketing that people have taken at face value and an inconsistent application of their own T&C by different stores.

-Ian
 
Our promise to you extends beyond the local area to cover any conventional shop in the UK where you find the same item on display at a lower shelf-edge price with the same availability and terms

that part is separate from the 'if you buy and later find out' part. So while they check local stores, you can personally bring one to their attention and they will price match. Although this is likely to be a one-off and will not then be used to reduce the general price instore (that part is restricted to their local scanning)

thats my reading of it anyway.
 
jimg said:
Let's be fair, JL can set their rules as they wish. They are providing a physical store, demo facilities, 5 year guarantee trained staff,etc and we all want this but at the cheapest price in the market.
Great if you get it, but we cannot really complain if we do not! A touch of the having your cake and eating it, perhaps?

I can't see what all the fuss is about with JL :boring: , i wouldn't pay their premiums :eek: warranty or no warranty :D
 
OK, so JL High wycombe refused to pricematch RGB.

JL Reading then refused to pricematch Sound and Vision.

I then gave them a list of 6 shops (as in SHOPS) I'd found with good prices. They came back with 3 that they might price match against, including RGB (?!).

I'm now waiting for their comments. Its quite a fun game really
 
JL in Reading actually gave me a ref no when they finally agreed to pricematch against the Panny 32LXD500.That was Wednesday last week as PRC actually has the set in stock at the time of the pricematch.

In the end I decided a 26 inch would do so went with the much better value for money (for me and my video games anyway) Samsung 26R41BD.

UKBoy.
 
JL are in a bit of quandry. Their price matching used to be a good deal for them (and they are in business!) and for the customer - I've ben a JL customer for years and generally very satisfied.

The coming of widespread internet shopping has, however, changed the environment in which they operate - and nowhere more so than in consumer electronics. Their "never knowingly undersold" tag has served them well for years. It even coped with the arrival of the out-of-town suppliers (e.g. Comet), but I think they are going to have to think through the challenge of internet price matching and a "national" market place. It may be that in the end, they will have to move all their own TV etc sales to the Internet. What they are trying to do, obviously, is to keep a barrier between Intenet prices and "shop" prices. This is currently working only patchily, and I don't think they can keep it up for long.

ATM, customers like those on this forum want JL store facilities AND Internet prices. I am far from convinced that JL (or any other big store in a central location) can provide that. It must be galling for them to have people using their stores as demo areas and then buying over the 'net.

When I buy, it may be JL - if they have the screen I want. My new screen will be up 2 sets of stairs, and so I shall want someone who won't demand to have the screen returned to them if there are problems. I've heard so many stories of failed lights and damaged goods arrving that I shall want the JL engineer to come to me (which they say they would).

db
 
Hi

I must have been luck when I rang Jl last week then as the Milton Keynes store agreed to price match with a shop in Coventry. Maybe the radius applies to some of their other stores around the UK as well.
 
deeplyblue - I agree. JL have two nice policies for TV. 'never knowingly undersold' and 'free 5 year warranty'.

For a large department store, either would be a good sales point, but both is the icing on the cake. I'd be (relatively) happy for them to drop the undersold bit and hang onto the 5 year warranty. For TVs, thats still a big selling point for many people, and clearly they've done the maths on actual repairs and its practical (Do they cover it themselves, or hand it off?)
 
As far as can see JL are doing nothing wrong. The problem is people do not understand their T&C and also some branches seem to be working on if the price sounds right we will price match.

Also when people do get a price match they tell the world on forums like here meaning the next thing JL knows is they have a number of people trying to get the same offer arguing that they did it for so and so therefore they have to do it for me. This not the case. Just because a branch of JL offers a TV at a price does not mean every branch has to.
 
I remember when I used to work pt at JL Southampton on the Audio and Tv dept, (2000/2001), when we would match any internet price if they had it in stock. That was obviously madness as we still gave customers free local delivery and the 5 year guarentee. Plus far higher customer service etc. Got my parents a £1,700 Sony tv for £1,250, with the aforementioned free del and 5 year guarentee. Also remember the 1st 42" plasma from Phillips that had a 480p res and cost £7,500 with stand, £7,000 without. Large lcds weren't even talked off. 15" lcds was still something of a novelty.

As for training, I was given no specific AV product training so any knowledge I did have I had to pick up on the job. Lucky for the customers, I had an interest in AV and would read the mags that JL would subscribe to. I was one of the few people who wanted to take the mags home to read up on. Saved me having to buy them but most people saw it as homework. At the end of the day most people see shop work as simply a job. Any advice they give is very much based on their own biases, opinions etc.
 

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