John Lewis price matching problem

[Goochie]

Before Christmas (December 13th) we bought a washing machine in John Lewis for £312. As you may know they promise to refund the difference if you find the same thing elsewhere within 28 days.

At that time their online price was £312, however I checked 2 days after boxing day and it had dropped to £241 but was "out of stock"

The problem with it being out of stock was that you couldnt find it by browsing their website, I simply clicked the item in the "products you've recently viewed" section and it came up.

I called the Solihul branch and explained it to them, even giving them the web address from my browsers address bar so they could check it for themselves.

The problem is that it has gone up to £362 !!

John Lewis say that the website price is £362 and hence I'm not entitled to anything back.

I have a PDF of the webpage but would that be sufficient to prove that the price did go down (albeit for a very short period)?

Any advice??

FYI. This is the webpage in question, showing the new higher price: http://www.johnlewis.com/230443521/Product.aspx

[toasty]

Maybe it was a typo, get over it.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Surely the spirit of the undersell is against the competition, not themselves?

[Wacky Racer]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Surely the spirit of the undersell is against the competition, not themselves?

Probably be in the small print "any other retailer".......

Forget it and move on...................

[RDE]

You should have got it from M&S. They have the rather odd policy of refunding the difference if something you bought goes on sale within the return period (I think).

[Goochie]

The John Lewis price promise covers reductions in their own stores and on their own website (they wont match OTHER websites). You can do this at the time of purchase or up to 28 days afterwards.

Its not as if its a tenner!

[Ribol]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Surely the spirit of the undersell is against the competition, not themselves?

No, they will refund if they drop their prices within 28 days of a purchase.

My mate bought a Sony Bravia, the price dropped two weeks later, they refunded the difference no problem.

They are however very picky with price matching in general, item has to be on display with a price tag on it, in stock etc etc.

[anonymous-user]

I bet they changed the shape of a knob & added an extra letter to the item code.
Thats why it is never possible to price match!

[Goochie]

thegavster said:

Surely they would want proof of it being on sale at the lower price currently, which it isnt.

But is had been, during the 28 day period.

Presumably, it sold out partly due to the significantly lower price.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Ribol said:

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Surely the spirit of the undersell is against the competition, not themselves?

No, they will refund if they drop their prices within 28 days of a purchase.

My mate bought a Sony Bravia, the price dropped two weeks later, they refunded the difference no problem.

They are however very picky with price matching in general, item has to be on display with a price tag on it, in stock etc etc.

actually, thinking about it, I got a free hand held telly from 'em on this basis

[Ribol]

Goochie said:

thegavster said:

Surely they would want proof of it being on sale at the lower price currently, which it isnt.

But is had been, during the 28 day period.

Presumably, it sold out partly due to the significantly lower price.

The priced reduced item has to be on sale at the lower price at the time you are making the claim to qualify.

[Goochie]

Ribol said:

Goochie said:

thegavster said:

Surely they would want proof of it being on sale at the lower price currently, which it isnt.

But is had been, during the 28 day period.

Presumably, it sold out partly due to the significantly lower price.

The priced reduced item has to be on sale at the lower price at the time you are making the claim to qualify.

Do you KNOW that or is that just a guess?

The terms of the refund etc. are a bit vague here: http://www.johnlewis.com/jl_assets/pdf/nku_oct08.p...

[Ribol]

Goochie said:

Do you KNOW that or is that just a guess?

That is what their undersales department told me.

[H_Kan]

However at the point he sought a refund, it was at the lower price.

[g_attrill]

RDE said:

You should have got it from M&S. They have the rather odd policy of refunding the difference if something you bought goes on sale within the return period (I think).

Amazon also have a 30-day price drop refund guarantee, it's not published but apparently you can submit claims for past orders here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/contact-us/returns...

edit: oh hmm... it ended in September:

http://consumerist.com/5044911/amazon-ends-post+or...

Edited by g_attrill on Tuesday 6th January 22:57

[touching cloth]

Yep, definitely has to be in stock when claiming (wife works for JL), having been in stock once is not enough. Think of the silly deals Harrods do on sale day selling £2k tellies for £1 just for the exposure, JL would theoretically have to sell all of their stock, also for a pound, for the next 28 days if it only had have been temporarily available at that price. It wasn't in stock when you found it at that price so even though it's their own website you don't have a claim.

[Vipers]

I think John Lewis's claim is they are never undersold, but can't match stuff brought on line, not sure if that applies to their own web based stuff.

[pokethepope]

I worked in the leccy dept at JL until Sept. last year. I would have refunded the difference.

One thing to try:

Ring up and ask them to check the price history on mainframe. This will show the price was at £240 or whatever it was within the 28 days, and doesnt mention stock levels at that time so i can't see how they can argue with that, as long as you say you put in a claim when it was at that price. Failing that, ask to be put through to CS Dept Manager or L.Elec DM, the shop floor staff, let alone the managers were told to bend over backwards to please customers when i was there because of the whole 'Customer service is our USP'.

Edited by pokethepope on Tuesday 6th January 23:00

Edited by pokethepope on Tuesday 6th January 23:01

[Goochie]

touching cloth said:

Yep, definitely has to be in stock when claiming (wife works for JL), having been in stock once is not enough. Think of the silly deals Harrods do on sale day selling £2k tellies for £1 just for the exposure, JL would theoretically have to sell all of their stock, also for a pound, for the next 28 days if it only had have been temporarily available at that price. It wasn't in stock when you found it at that price so even though it's their own website you don't have a claim.

bugger

[2something]

As a slight side note, I have seen random electrical stuff at a very competitive price on the JL website, but it's never in stock.

I assume it's to pull in some business via price checking websites, searches, whatever - then people just flip to a similar model that is 'normally' priced ?