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JB Hi-Fi: should they cough up the tellies?

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cuttlefish

cuttlefish

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I was quite astounded to hear that not only had they advertised the wrong price (easy mistake) ... but their systems actually accepted orders, processed payments and delivered receipts based on this mispricing.

This makes me think there's a fairly serious quality control problem in their product management process.

They advertised it, they accepted the orders and payment, they issued receipts .... the deal is done imo - they need to bite the bullet, deliver the tellies and do a thorough review of some of their internal processes.
 
Re: JB Hi-Fi should they cough up the tellies?

cuttlefish said:
This makes me think there's a fairly serious quality control problem in their product management process.
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Something might have kicked in when they got one order for 65.

This is from the SMH.

Amanda Bodger, a consumer protection lawyer with Mallesons Stephen Jaques, said it was unlikely customers could force JB Hi-Fi to honour the original price through the courts.

She explained that, under contract law, when a product is advertised with a certain price tag, this is simply an invitation to the customer, who can then choose whether to make an offer to buy the product from the retailer.

The retailer must then accept the offer in order for a contractual obligation to apply.

The acceptance could come in the form of the retailer billing the customer's credit card or giving the customer a receipt.
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I would have thought that customers with a receipt are therefore in luck but the above laywer then goes on to say,

Terms and conditions listed on the retailer's website say it reserves the right to cancel any order without notice for any reason.

"In a situation like this, customers would face an uphill battle to bring a legitimate claim," Bodger said.
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http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/hometech/500-sweetener-for-that-15-jb-hifi-tv-20090724-dvr8.html
 
Re: JB Hi-Fi should they cough up the tellies?

You call them customers, I call them something I scrape off the bottom of my shoe. These people knew exactly what they were doing, and took a shot at a company to try and get an almost-free tv. Says a lot about their character in my opinion.
 
Re: JB Hi-Fi should they cough up the tellies?

Mr J said:
You call them customers, I call them something I scrape off the bottom of my shoe. These people knew exactly what they were doing, and took a shot at a company to try and get an almost-free tv. Says a lot about their character in my opinion.
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But companies that offer $20 airfares or $0 cost mobile phones are on the high moral ground? An offer is an offer - for all they knew it was a loss leader and they were the lucky ones to get in there before the other 50,000 viral marketing victims got lured to the site on the off chance that 1 in 100 would decide to buy a TV anyway.

No I don't think its fair to categorise them this way - businesses are as guilty of misusing these sorts of gimmicks as the consumer is.
 
Re: JB Hi-Fi should they cough up the tellies?

For example ... how much would it cost to get several minutes of prime time advertising during the news on every major station including the ABC as well as in the print media that you are offering televisions for sale for $2695?

Who's to say the whole thing isn't just a brilliant marketing plan?

(nb that $2695 figure is plucked out of my head - it may or may not bear any resemblence to the price that JB HI-FI is offering tellies for).
 
Re: JB Hi-Fi should they cough up the tellies?

I do. A $2000+ tv for $15? Please. Yes businesses can use these as marketing tools, but in no way should someone who paid $15 be entitled to a tv worth 100-200x that amount. It is as ridiculous as the typical claims of compensation we so often see these days.
 
Re: JB Hi-Fi should they cough up the tellies?

I don't think they should have to give the televisions for $15. It was a mistake and that should be obvious to the people who are making the purchase. Put it this way - if they over charged you by mistake $15 you would want your money back, and rightly so. I think it is the same but visa-versa.

They have offered a $500 discount to the actual purchase price to people who were caught up in the error, I think that's kind enough.

wonder.
 
Re: JB Hi-Fi should they cough up the tellies?

wonderrman said:
They have offered a $500 discount to the actual purchase price to people who were caught up in the error, I think that's kind enough.
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I imagine most, probably nearly all, will pull their orders.
 
Re: JB Hi-Fi should they cough up the tellies?

Mr J said:
I do. A $2000+ tv for $15? Please. Yes businesses can use these as marketing tools, but in no way should someone who paid $15 be entitled to a tv worth 100-200x that amount. It is as ridiculous as the typical claims of compensation we so often see these days.
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Cool I'll start a business tomorrow ... never been heard of ... I'll name it "Aussie Silly Discount TV Deals". I'll put an advertisement up on the web for a $20 flat screen TV. I won't bother putting any fine print about how this only applies to the first 20 customers because I don't need to since its just a mistake. I'll get a few million bucks of free advertising when every news program and newspaper in the country announces how I stuffed up. Then I will get a few million more of free advertising when the same news programs announce how generous I was to GIVE AWAY TV's to all the people that got caught out by mistake. (all 20 of them because I had my lackie pull the advert and cut off the ordering system as soon as 20 punter's had hit it).

They should cough up the tellies. Since when do you advertise something, take people's money, give them a receipt and be allowed to not deliver on what you sold?

I'll start a shop with mispriced price tags - $15 on the price tag, ring up $35 ... run it through the eftpos and give the customer the receipt that they never look at. On the odd occasion somebody bothers to dispute it ... oh ... what ... oh sorry - mistake on the price tag - it said $15 but it was really $35 - but surely you knew that a gizmowhackothingy was worth $35 not $15 you evil customer you trying to rip me off. No I wasn't trying to rip you off putting a $15 price tag and charging $35 - you were ripping me off you nasty nasty shoe wipeable piece of dirt.
 
Re: JB Hi-Fi should they cough up the tellies?

This happened a while back this year with the ipod touch. The 16GB was advertised for $268 where the 8GB was $305... I couldn't get it at JB but I brought the catalog to BigW and they priced matched :D:D
 
Re: JB Hi-Fi should they cough up the tellies?

jono1887 said:
This happened a while back this year with the ipod touch. The 16GB was advertised for $268 where the 8GB was $305... I couldn't get it at JB but I brought the catalog to BigW and they priced matched :D:D
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aah - now there's an interesting ploy - for all those stores that say they'll match the competitors advertised price. The competitor can just advertise at whatever price they want and pull the actual orders. Thats gonna cause Dan Murphy's and Bunnings some grief I'm sure.
 
Re: JB Hi-Fi should they cough up the tellies?

cuttlefish said:
aah - now there's an interesting ploy - for all those stores that say they'll match the competitors advertised price. The competitor can just advertise at whatever price they want and pull the actual orders. Thats gonna cause Dan Murphy's and Bunnings some grief I'm sure.
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I'm sure most price match offers have conditions including the fact that the store advertising must still honoring the advertisement. I was lucky that they didn't call up JB to confirm this... The BigW store that priced matched was like the 8th store that I tried to get to price match, the others weren't as stupid :p:
 
Re: JB Hi-Fi should they cough up the tellies?

As Pauline Hanson so eloquently put it "Please explain? .... you were ripping me off you nasty nasty shoe wipeable piece of dirt

Don't forget that most retailers are offering 10% more discount than their competitors on any advertised price (until you read the fine print that is)
 
Re: JB Hi-Fi should they cough up the tellies?

I wonder what resolultion they would offer if they accidentally sold the TV's for $1000 too much..... oh hang on, that couldn't happen could it :cautious:
 
Re: JB Hi-Fi should they cough up the tellies?

cuttlefish said:
They should cough up the tellies. Since when do you advertise something, take people's money, give them a receipt and be allowed to not deliver on what you sold?
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Regardless of whether it was a marketing stunt or just a mistake, why should these people get TVs at 1-2% of their retail value? These people aren't just bargain hunters, I'm sure most, if not all, knew the price was wrong - very wrong. They took a shot hoping to get an almost-free tv. No different than falling over in the supermarket and then chasing the supermarket for compensation. These "customers" are not being ripped off in any way. I'd agree with giving them discounts if the genuinely want the product, but $15? Tell him he's dreaming.
 
looks like they're not gonna honor the mistake

http://www.smarthouse.com.au/TVs_And_Large_Display/LED/K7H6X7W3

The current JB Hi-Fi Ticket price for this TV is $3,487.00

JB Hifi considers the $15.00 sell price to be an honest and obvious pricing error and as such, cannot honour this price.

The website pricing for this TV has now been corrected to the "15% Off" promotional price of $2,963.95

For your inconvenience, JB Hifi will be happy to offer you a further discount and a special price of $2,500.00 plus freight, should you still want to proceed with the purchase.
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Re: JB Hi-Fi should they cough up the tellies?

cuttlefish said:
Cool I'll start a business tomorrow ... never been heard of ... I'll name it "Aussie Silly Discount TV Deals". I'll put an advertisement up on the web for a $20 flat screen TV. I won't bother putting any fine print about how this only applies to the first 20 customers because I don't need to since its just a mistake. I'll get a few million bucks of free advertising when every news program and newspaper in the country announces how I stuffed up. Then I will get a few million more of free advertising when the same news programs announce how generous I was to GIVE AWAY TV's to all the people that got caught out by mistake. (all 20 of them because I had my lackie pull the advert and cut off the ordering system as soon as 20 punter's had hit it).
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JB Hifi is looking like an absolute goose as a result of all this. I am not convinced that this is the type of advertising does any good to anybody. Won;t surprise me if somebody is getting their @rse kicked big time.

So Cuttlefish, if this is the type of publicity you want then go for it
 
Re: JB Hi-Fi should they cough up the tellies?

bingk6 said:
Won;t surprise me if somebody is getting their @rse kicked big time.
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Yeah... i suppose so. But its actually happened numerous times at JB. Its just this is one of the few times it made it to the media. I'd say JB prints out a typo once every 2-3 months. Although this mistake was far more significant than the others I have seen.
 
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