B&Q Price promise Boll**ks

If you go to a decent tool shop, you'll find several brands of tenon saws of different qualities and very different prices. Is this so hard to understand? So moving on, a B&Q branded tenon saw might be a very different animal from a Homebase one. The *only* time a price comparison really applies is if the item is *identical in every way*. And any shed which tries to vary this would be committing commercial suicide. Nice new Makita drill for the price of a NuTool, anyone?

Same product = same brand and part number

The electrical retailers have worked this scam out years before B&Q coppied it, they sell almost the exact same thing, with a different part number. Only when you buy a top brand product, like say a "Dyson DC01" do you have any chance with this sort of scam ..........

Rick

In message , Rick Dipper wrote

Photographic retailers have been doing this for 30 years or more and even on top brand products there was a slightly different model number for each retailer.

Technically owned by Kingfisher surely, who also happen to own B&Q among other well known shop chains.

In message , Rick Dipper writes

Why is this a scam?

Surely everyone knows it is a marketing ploy, to get you in the shop. If someone relies on this as a reason for shopping in particular place, well about time they were a little less naive

Ultimately yes, but there is a broad web of holding companies etc. and IIRC from when I looked at the Companies House site regarding Bargain Bob's., B&Q's immediate one is Castorama. No doubt there are corporation tax and other reasons for the complex structure.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

On a positive note for B&Q's price promise I did get 15 quid off them when I bought a new central heating controller a couple of years ago. Having noticed it in homebase for £45 I went around to B&Q where it was priced around the £60 mark and drew this to their attention when I got to the till. After a quick phone call to the local Homebase they dropped the price and gave me the difference. So they have at least been known to cough up for identical goods.

I suppose the issue here is whether or not the goods are effectively identical and how you go about proving that.

cheers

David

I don't like price promises, it's like they're saying they _could_ offer better value, but can't be bothered to unless _you_ do the legwork.

Though I expect they have a refund policy, so you could always get your money back and shop elsewhere.

You don't see many tradesmen shopping in B&Q do you? ;)

cheers, Pete.