Not cool, man: Dixons spanked over discount on luxury 'smart' fridge with wildly fluctuating price

4k for a fridge?

Really? Just how smart is it? Will it actually prepare the veg for me getting in or does it just let me know I'm running low on milk and mechango?

Time to "Freeze" DCPW

out of our lives once and for all.

They really are a total waste of space these days. Quite why anyone still shops there is beyond me. It is places like this that really do nothing for the retail cause in this country.

Trade Descriptions Act

Is is still the above that controls this sort of advertising?

i.e. To describe something as a discount the item must have been for sale at original selling price for x days within the last x months

Problem I always saw was that it didn't define the number of stores the original price had been charged at.

To my mind it should be the majority of a retailers stores to count. e.g. If they have 100 stores then it had to have been possible to buy it for original price at 51 stores or they can't call it a discount.

I also loved all the 'half-price' offers on toiletry packs etc. at Christmas. Last time any of those had been properly available was the previous Christmas where surprise, surprise they were also half-price. So when and where did they get offered at full price?

My local Tesco always seems to be one of the stores they use to set the 'was' price. e.g. Price of product X was £3, goes up to £4 for a couple of weeks. Price at Tesco down the road the price never changes but suddenly after 2 weeks the £3 is a 'reduced' price. In both stores.

The rules on this sort of stuff really need to be tightened up and given massive sharks teeth. Make the directors personally responsible for false advertising.

And if company has say 3 ASA complaints upheld in a year then all their new adverts for the next 2 years either have to be pre-vetted or they have to explicitly say they've had complaints upheld in the previous period on every advert they produce. One is a rubber mallet, the other is a sledgehammer. I wonder which one the firms would prefer.

American-Style Smart Fridge Freezer

"American-Style Smart" Fridge Freezer; is American Style Smart different to other styles of smart?

To American readers: I bet that smarts

Man, that guy got mad at them over what? A poxy fridge?

Jeez! He just needs to chill.

Nice to see

Trixons living up to their name.

Gaming the system

The rules say that a 'discount' or 'sale price' can only be listed if the product in question was sold at the claimed higher price for a certain length of time previously, correct? I don't know the exact criteria, but I do recall it's not very long and doesn't even cover all of the given retailer's stores.

Just as the regulator says it's ok to lie ('unlimited bandwidth' which in fact is limited, often using weasel words about 'fair use') so they have left a loophole the size of the Chunnel here. No doubt many retailers' lobbyists became friendly with the right people.

And the solution isn't hard to figure out, is it? How about "The item has to have been available for sale at the pre-sale price for at least 30 continuous days of the last 40 days, in every store which stocks it, which may not be fewer than 75% of all stores open for business".

Once carefully worded, it means that sale price cannot be confected for something sold briefly at a higher price in a handful of stores. It also means that no 'sale' for a given item could last longer than 10 days. It would largely put a stop to absurd highly localised over-pricing desiged solely to make later, sensible prices seem like special offers. This would greatly inconvenience the supermarkets and other retailers and force them to compete more honestly, instead of gaming rules that were sloppy in the first place.

(I would also ban the misuse of the word 'free'. If a condition of any kind applies, an item is not 'free'. Two-for-one offers, yes; BOGOF, no. If a tin of beans is genuinely 'free' that means I can simply take one. This would also inconvenience sellers ... by making them tell the truth. Marketurds are paid liars, and our society does not benefit from their activities, 'skills' or even existence.)

By the bye, I agree that it's perpetually surprising that Dixons/Carphone are still in business. I visit their stores only when an elderly relative insists on seeing a white goods item before buying it. Can't think why I'd personally cross their threshold ever, otherwise.

As for the likes of Tesco, if they have to sell another bizjet in order to afford to do business honestly ... tough. The German discounters' fresh produce is consistently better, and they don't play constant silly buggers with largely fictional sale pricing.

Or the Sports Direct method, apart from Nike, Adidas Mr Ashleys busineesses oqn or havs controliong stake in nearly all the brands they sell, so when they have a pair of Hiking Boots from one of their "Brands" (usually a big name well know, but now owned by SD) they can show them as MSRP £99, Our price £20.

Now you think your getting a bargain £99 pound pair of boots for £20 but what your getting is a something that the brand in its heyday (at current prices) wouldnt sully itself with selling, or would charge maybe a tennr for.

But as it is not a Sale, its not covered by thouse rules.

See Karrimor, Everlast, Slazenger, Dunlop, Airwalk and others.

If you're spending that much on a fridge are you going to worry about a grand here or there on the price?

In fact, it probably gives you bragging rights:. You only spent how much? Mine cost a grand more than that.

Dyson

The two most persistent pieces of electronics with very silly "normal" high street prices I keep seeing are Dyson vacuum cleaners and the fancier electric toothbrushes, they both spend about 50% of the year at the silly price and then the rest at 30-50% off. Unlike the examples in the article they do seem to (maybe) stick to the rules as to how long it was available at the normal price but they do also compare the discount to the even more ridiculous RRP in big text and the selling prince in much smaller text. I find this almost as snakey.

The watchdog told Dixons the promo was misleading because it suggested a saving could be made when that wasn't the case, and should not be run again in the same form

So they wagged their finger up and down at them and then told them to go play. The watchdog needs to get stuck in and start giving these businesses fines.

Perfect example, walked into a shop and there's massive sale signs everywhere. Trousers on sale £30 a pair, remove sale label and find the trousers had been £25.

Until the watchdog starts showing it's teeth and chomping down on these businesses they will continue to do whatever they want.

How much????

Who the hell spends £3000+ on a domestic fridge? Must be f****ing nuts!

Digging a hole for them selves!

To try and pull a fast one like they did is bad enough but to try and defend it to the ASA is just stupid and makes them look much worse.

I can't be the only one thinking that 3,299 less 10% is not 2,999 but 2,969 (rounding things to the nearest pound). So even the price they showed was not 10% off.

Yeah Dixons

You better have learned your lesson from the savage gumming you just received!