This weekend i moved, and i needed to buy a Fridge freezer for the new place, as the rental i moved from had a build in.
as i wanted it Saturday i arranged a friend with a large van to meet me at the biggest Electrical retail shop in Southampton. Curry's at Hedge End.
i knew i would be paying a premium for buying in a shop who had stock, and i was willing to pay that, as i didnt think to order earlier.
walked in to their vast array of White Goods, myself and my G/F found the one we liked and hailed a sales assistant and this is the conversation:
Me: i would like to buy this fridge, do you have it in stock?
SA: No, (didnt even look at a computer)
Me: can you find out which store does have in it stock?
SA: no, well non of them
Me: is it a special item? which fridges do you hve in stock?
SA: no, we just dont have stock, we have that Beko in stock (pointing to a fridge freezer that was about half the size)
Me: ok, when can you deliver?
SA: Tomorrow, maybe
Me: ok can we arrage that?
SA: yep, it'll be £22 for delivery.........
Me: wait, what?!? £22 for delivery? when can i have free delivery?
SA: 3 weeks
Me: *laughing* really? Can you deliver to store, and i'll pick up from there?
SA: No we cant do that
Me: so because you (as a company) decide NOT to carry any stock, your going to peanilse me for that? your having a laugh.
SA: thats how it is, do you want me to process the order
Me: no
and i walked off, i had a similar conversation in Comet. White goods are considered as a distress purchase, there are really only 2 times people buy white goods,
1, when theirs have broke
2, when they move
the third reason is not all that comon
3, when they upgrade/refit their kitchen.
i know i should have ordered it ages ago for delivery on Saturday or the following Monday. but i wasnt expecting to find that these shops carried no stock except for the cheapest ones.
so i ordered from the internet, Tesco's Direct came up the cheapest.
£70 off on the ticket price, Free Delivery on Indesit white goods, so theres a £92 saving. and then a voucher for £25 off when spending over £75 on large white good.
so a total of £117 saving, delivery will be Thursday, i can wait till then for £117 saving. but i was willing to pay more, it was just their delivery charge put me off the sale, because they wont hold stock any more.
when i was in the Electrical Retail business, we always carried stock of most of our stuff, if we had no stock the customer had 3 choices, but we would charge for delivery if we had it in stock and they wanted it delivered.
1, get it delivered to the shop for free and they can pick it up
2, get it delivered to your home for a fee
3, go else where to buy it
i do not understand how they think its a good business model.