Amazulu

Have a look at JL's website

steve`o

you didnt i was refering to your quote

"It would be election suicide for any government that introduced it".

i merely suggested that they do indeed try to put taxes in place that are detrimental to there own parties election possiblities ie the carbon tax

regards steve

lancastrian48

Gerry's made his money with rip off prices -now, move aside.

Amazulu

fair enough

GarryP

To be fair, it's not just that Australian retailers are incompetent, unresponsive and living with business models from the 1970s. It's also that Australian manufacturers translate "made in australia" to "bend over and smile"; and international distributors take the lead to overprice imports relative to their prices in other markets.

It's really somewhere that government should step in. Not to impose import taxes, but to hammer any company that inflates its Australian price more than 15% from that in another markets; and to slap idiots like Harvey upside the head and tell him to be less crap.

If you can have anti-dumping taxes, you can have anti-ripoff taxes.

And you can issue a yearly grading for Australian retail business, a report card that says "poor choice, poor customer service, not up to scratch". That should get Gerry's attention...

hoofie2002

One of the major issues with retail here which often doesn't get enough press coverage is shop rental. Rents here are punative compared to other locations overseas and the whole process is bent towards 'anchor tenants' of big shopping malls such as Myers, DJ, Coles etc. That directly affects the prices charged.

Mind you that still doesn't fully explain the usual stunningly poor customer service you find here and massive markups added onto imported goods.

p.s. There is a place in I go to buy tooling. Normally on a Saturday morning it's full of people being served by the usual sullen old b***ards at the counter. Last week it was deserted and the staff were considerably nicer and more helpful than usual.

iamthecreaturefromuranus

In the last two weeks I've had a washing machine delivered that was DOA... rang Bing Lee, new washer arrived within three hours, no questions asked.
I also had a Scanpan frying pan that had the non-stick start to come off near the rivets that hold the handle on... rang the customer service line, told "sounds like a manufacturing fault, send it back and here's the reply paid freepost number. New one is in the post". So credit where credits due...

Amazulu

The other thing to remember about the UK is that just walking into stores like Currys, PC World, John Lewis etc and buying without comparing prices with the internet, is going to see you paying more as these kind of stores can be a rip-off too.

In Exile

i forget, is haggling the norm in places like that, in the UK?
In Bing Lee you can often knock them down quite a bit, and fairly easily.

However I only have vague memories of someone once knocking a tenner off a stereo ages ago, he couldnt do any more because he insisted we wre robbing him blind anyway.

iamthecreaturefromuranus

I've certainly haggled in places like Comet and got a reasonable amount off, but realistically you are probably only knocking them down to prices that they charge in the 'sales'.... and it's not as easy to do as it is over here, where the sales guys all expect it.


I've also remembered when my wife bought an outfit in John Lewis, only to see it 100 quid cheaper in their sale two weeks later. She mentioned it to the sales girl and they gave her the difference back !

Amazulu

I don't think haggling is the done thing in the UK, although this may have changed since the downturn over there.

I went into a PC World store over there last year and saw little that was cheaper than somewhere like JB, but then it always was a mega rip-off chain.

GarryP

I ordered something online from an Australian company, paid extra for 'next day delivery'.

It turned up a week and a day later...

In Exile

tottenham court road in London, on the other hand, was an absolute gem for PC's both pre-made and and build your own.

Amazulu

I went there last year and it's not as good as it used to be - probably due to the internet. I did buy some stuff and got a good price (and VAT back) but if you live in the UK, internet is the way to go.

In Exile

thats a shame. I would regularly upgrade PCs, particulallry the graphics cards, and they would generally match net prices. (2004-2007 era)

I've only found a couple of stores similar to those on TCR in central Sydney and there's literally only ever one shop in any area!
Kind of takes away the competetive advantage of haggling.