RE: When a thing looks too good to be true...
Posted on: 02/01/2007 @ 15:53
That's the nature of business.
Basically if you want to have resellers (like Orange do i.e e2save etc) then you can't go around undercutting them, at least in public.
For example if e2save offered you a deal for £20 a month, but you could get it from Orange direct for £10 a month then no resellers (i.e e2save) would bother selling Orange which cuts out Orange's reseller channel and leaves them at a disadvantage with other networks.
RE: When a thing looks too good to be true...
Posted on: 04/01/2007 @ 20:00
Has anyone noticed that in general retailers today are not offering attractive cashback deals like they were 1-2 years ago? Not sure if its collusion or whatever but definately there seems to be a change in the market.
Maybe racer does have a point afterall, these cashbacks deals are simply not sustainable, well in the long term at least.
RE: When a thing looks too good to be true...
Posted on: 21/01/2007 @ 16:41
I print out everything in the store for the customer with full instructions on how to claim the money back we even give them a stamped addressed envelope so as to make sure they are given every opportunity to remember to claim their money. We also adbvise them to use recorded delivery or special delivery to make sure that if it does not arrive they have evidence that it has been received and signed for.
I had one numbskull in the shop the other day that asked why should he have to pay for recorded delivery and that he's only do it that way if he got paid the money to do it. I advised him that we were doing a lot more than some other retailers would do by offering a stamped addressed envelope and if he wanted to risk not getting £90 because he didn't want to spend 50p on a recorded delivery that was at his own risk.....ah well you can't please them all!!!
CPW is bringing in a new facility on our system so we can track the chequeback claim for a customer to help prevent them losing out on it. I think partof the reason for the slowdown on chequebacks is two-fold:
1/ More people are remembering to claim their money back
2/ Networks are starting to take action against retailer that don't honour their promises at point of sale: The 3 network has said that it will clawback £300 for each complaint that is upheld, and bearing in mind a lot of the cashback deals are on the 3 network some of the dealers have cooled on it.
This is where buying from a shop can have its advantages: if we don't help the customer get what they are promised they will come back to the undividual that sold them the phone. If I supply copious information and the customer doesn't look after it, then I have the moral high ground if they fail to claim for it....
I do still get one or 2 individuals that say that I haven't advised them, but I copy the procedure in to the customer's lead notes which covers my back
RE: When a thing looks too good to be true...
Posted on: 21/01/2007 @ 19:27
The points I was trying to make at the head of this thread were principally about the problems that can arise with retailers who do not have the resources of a multi-million pound public company to bale them out when they underprice their deals too aggressively and underestimate too optimistically the percentage of customers who will file their cashback claims diligently.
The cashflow problems that arise from this are a recipe for disaster, the early symptoms of which are long delays in issuing cashbacks. The gullible perceive this to be inefficiency instead of realising that it is caused by a shortage of funds - which is likely to lead, sooner or later, to collapse of the company and nobody receiving any cashbacks at all.
Once it gets to the stage of people resorting to the Small Claims Court and the retailer having to pay court costs as well as cashbacks, the entire economics of the business plan goes out the window and a crash becomes almost inevitable.
My concern is that some retailers are using commissions on new sales to pay off past liabilities for cashbacks and that process, like a pyramid scheme, can only end in one way - insolvency. It is also fraudulent.
RE: When a thing looks too good to be true...
Posted on: 07/03/2008 @ 12:10
Fascinating to read this thread again after all that's happened since...
I was amused to see that it begins with my own very first posting to this forum and there's even one from Pottsy in it.
I guess we've all learned a lot in these last eighteen months. Some saw their worst fears realised and some had to eat their words; some got their free 'phones and airtime, some lost all their cashbacks and some lost their commissions.
And one, the nicest and kindest one of us all, became an international superstar.
I wonder what the next eighteen months will bring us?
I'll be happy if it just brings a 3G iPhone with a 3MP camera and the ability to swap batteries.
RE: When a thing looks too good to be true...
Posted on: 07/03/2008 @ 12:24
Its a mystery to me how advanced certain technologies have become over that period yet we still want the most basic of things when looking for a mobile phone. I'm settling for a poor camera, no memory card slot and a keypad that even I can only describe as 'usable and functional' while the software is also quite basic. I honestly don't know what is so hard about producing a selection of mobile phones that give us what meet our expectations.... Or - is it me?
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