Bo-Jangles

Looks like someone stuffed it up big time at Hardly Normal ... biggest sale EVER, with unbelievable prices, too good to be true.
Harvey Norman customers angry after 'biggest-ever retail sale' error | Stuff.co.nz

BEVS

Typical Hardly Normal.

It is a selection of franchises is it not? I may have that wrong.

Anyway, I steered well clear.

AceofSpades

Hahah yeah I was just reading about that. What a stuff up!!! Tell you if that happened over here they'd have the fair trade people breathing down their necks telling them to honour the sales agreements.

MrsFychan

you would think so but from what the lawyer said yesterday about the prospects of success with that type of case is going to be minimal

Pom_Chch

If that happened "over here?" Harvey Norman is an Australian Company...

MrsFychan

Fair Trade would say that it would be unreasonable to realistically believe that a company would sell goods worth thousands for $100 a pop. from what I have been reading and that is what a lawyer has also said.

my personal thoughts are it was advertised at the cost so should be sold at that cost but things aren't always what they seem

bourbon-biscuit

Yeah, it would be unreasonable to realistically believe it unless you were on the company's legit website and it processed the purchase. Yes, HN made an error but customers had no reason to believe it was anything other than a complete bargain purchase; HN should honour the purchase.

It matters not that HN are an Australian company - the issue is the NZ consumer protection that allows a seller to change the price of a product AFTER the product has been sold just because the company now believes it was too good a deal

Snap Shot

Three hundred customers purchased goods for less than a hundred bucks each. I wonder what the total value of the goods would have been if they had paid full price or even the normal discount.
To illustrate: 300 items of furniture sold for 100 dollars, i.e. 300 x 100 = $30,000.If the full price or selling price was $1,000 that makes it $300,000. How much profit would HN have made ? Can HN with it's million dollar profit not honour the original price and not lose that much money ? It's not a great deal to them, the marketing of this sale alone must be costing millions.

Bo-Jangles

It just goes to show the naivete of NZ in terms of global online shopping and how things are in the rest of the world. These people who bought stuff have been accused in the media of being greedy, deliberately targeting and taking advantage of poor little Hardly Normal. Cos in reality everyone who sees 'too good to be true' prices is going to ignore it because surely they know it is a mistake.
Cos that's the way the world works isn't it? We see a sofa online for $100; oops better reset that moral compass and not buy it, just in case anyone thinks I was trying to rip off the company. Said no one ever!!
In the UK there are message boards dedicated to this stuff, latching onto every last online pricing and discount glitch with people buying up large to sell on e-bay and the likes. Good on them I say.

Tom H

It's the same throughout the world... Mothercare had a price glitch on their website, selling a new buggy for 10 quid. Many purchased thinking they were getting it for a tenner, only for the purchase not to be honoured.
Very rare will you see any company honouring a cluster cock up on their pricing. $95 for a brand new 3 piece suite, not even John Lewis or Ikea would come to an agreement on that. Although they would offer a far better deal for their mistake than Harvey Poorman offered.
Then again, I understand the customer thinking of this. When you hear 'biggest ever sale' constantly rammed down your throats and you see that price, may be for once they are telling the truth that it actually is the biggest sale ever.