B&Q VAT Changes

[Kevin]

I've just had to return to B&Q a light switch which was missing an internal screw. They wouldn't give me a replacement ("I don't know where they are") so they processed a refund and I went back into the store to buy another. I did find once I had paid that the till receipt didn't have the VAT discount on it - I paid the amount that was shown on the hanger.

Now, the switch which I bought on Monday this week was priced on the hanger at £1.98, and I paid £1.94 which was the amount that I was refunded today. However, the price I paid today was........ £1.98. I was told all the prices in the store were now correct and the VAT adjustment was no longer being made at the till.

I wasn't going to spend time in the store arguing over 4p, but I wonder how many other more expensive items have been kept a the old 17.5% VAT price?

Cheers - Kev

[fictitiousemail]

What they have possibly done is altered the pre-vat price then added on the 15% so the total is the same . They wouldn't be able to do that when the change was being made at the till as folk were wise to the change in VAT but now that time has passed they take it for granted that the price they see has had the vat reduced .It's only in circs like yourself that it becomes obvious .

[Man at B&Q]

Just shows how stupid the VAT reduction is and how limited Darling's understanding of the economy is.

MBQ

[nightjar]

There would have been nothing for you have argued about. There is only a 14 day period of grace following a VAT rate change, during which the ticket price can be varied by a general notice. After that, the price marking regulations require the ticket to show the price you will pay. As you have discovered, what this will mean in practice is that many retail stores will simply keep the ticket price the same, pay 15% VAT on it and make a bit more profit on the sale. It simply isn't worth the effort of changing all the prices throughout the store, particularly where low value items are involved.

Colin Bignell

[Peter Johnson]

The £1 shop hasn't reduced its prices for VAT rated items and neither has Travelodge, just two that I know of.

[tim.....]

The last time the VAT went up (remember that), I had the misfortune to have to send something back to B&Q for a replacement. The numpty on the till decided that as the VAT going up had made the item more expensive I had to pay the difference. This is completely wrong (as per the VAT guide), but unfortunately it was my dad that went back with the item and he didn't argue.

tim

[Old Git]

Yes, we've been here before with decimalisation, that was a nice little earner for most traders.

[Jonathan Pearson]

I suspect that kingfisher are skint! - I had a screwfix catalog from Spring

2007, which I made an £100 order from, once I made the order in the depot the final price was £120, thus in 2 years the prices have increased by approximatly 20% Jon

[mogga]

And a guaranteed way of putting prices up when it goes back up.

[nightjar]

I recall fish and chips at 1/6d in January 1971 and at 15p in February. By comparison, keeping the extra 2.13% of the VAT change is quite a meagre gain. However, I suspect it is mostly that a lot of businesses with retail premises don't think the benefit in sales justifies the work in changing lots of price tickets. It created a couple of weeks' work for me and, in theory, all I needed to do was to change one variable in the ecommerce programme. In practice, I needed to check a lot of prices for odd values as a result of the change.

Colin Bignell

[Frank Erskine]

How much do you pay nowadays for fish & chips? As a vegetarian I never buy them, but do (very rarely) pop into a F&C shop for chips - you pay well over a pound (sometimes nearer 30 bob) for six penn'orth of them :-(

[<me9]

If you plot a graph of inflation (using RPI figures from its inception around WW1 to current) it approximates to two straight lines intersecting, guess when....Decimal day!

I reckon that before then price rises weren't expected and weren't easily sneaked in. Since then it has become the norm, once they managed to get us to lose the traditional references.

[The Medway Handyman]

The great British takeaway is getting expensive lately. Two pieces of cod & one chips is nearly a £10 around here.

[Owain]

Black pudding supper £3

I haven't been able to afford a fish supper for years. I think it's over a fiver now.

Owain

[nightjar]

£4.20 last week for a medium cod and chips..

Colin Bignell

[Dave Liquorice]

Flipin 'eck, double egg, chips and beans (almost to much to eat), mug of= tea, eat in, =A33.20 in Sunderland last Saturday. Haddock 'n chips in Glasgow the other month about the same, curry sauce and chips about =A31= .70.

Obviously paid to much down south if you can afford =A310 for 2 cod and =

1 chips. Or was that from a trendy designer chain chip shop restaurant rather than your back street chippy?

[dennis]

Are they proper chips cooked in beef dripping like my local fish shop?

[dennis]

"nightjar.me.uk>"

I stopped eating cod ages ago.. its either haddock or basa fillets for me these days.

[Bob Mannix]

Haven't had them like that since the 80's (in Buxton I think) - you must be up north where they eat lard pies.

F&C £4.50 round these parts (cod).

Enough to turn you to religion "It's the piece of cod that passeth all understanding etc., etc"

[Frank Erskine]