Schuh rip-off: Can i do anything??

forgetfulgirl

Theres a pair of Polly Pepper shoes by irregular choice for sale on the British version of the Schuh website which retail at 63 pounds. in ireland they retail for 95 euro. using todays cnversion rate, 63 pounds works out at 70 euro. thats a mark up of 25 euro. just insane.


can i lodge a complaint to anybody about this? and anyone want to tell me the quicket route to schuh shop across the border from galway

GerardKeating

forgetfulgirl wrote: »

Theres a pair of Polly Pepper shoes by irregular choice for sale on the British version of the Schuh website which retail at 63 pounds. in ireland they retail for 95 euro. using todays cnversion rate, 63 pounds works out at 70 euro. thats a mark up of 25 euro. just insane.


can i lodge a complaint to anybody about this? and anyone want to tell me the quicket route to schuh shop across the border from galway

what do you plan to complain about, they all do it.

Creamy Goodness

use the internet and buy them off that.

you can do **** all about shops charging more than shops in other countries.

you walk into a shop to buy the item you are making the contract with the shop that you want to buy them. you can argue the price all you want but they won't budge

meglome

It's not just Schuh, although I was looking at runners in London for 50 quid which are 75 euro here. We are being screwed left right and centre. If you need to buy a few things get the bus or drive up to the North and buy it all there. Maybe they'll get the message eventually.

rubadub

forgetfulgirl wrote: »

thats a mark up of 25 euro. just insane.

It is not a mark up,

Markup is the difference between the cost of a good or service and its selling price. A markup is added on to the total cost incurred by the producer of a good or service in order to create a profit. The total cost reflects the total amount of both fixed and variable expenses to produce and distribute a product. Markup can be expressed as a fixed amount or as a percentage of the total cost or selling price.

it is an increase of 25 euro to you the customer, an apparent increase since if you travel to another country to buy stuff your travel expenses might be more, also postage from another country could be more too. I very much doubt they are working on such different markups, there is free competition so other shops would take it up. People are ringing shops here owned by UK prices and asking them to match or at least lower, they are usually told no way. This is because they are NOT on the same markup. If a shop here dropped the price €25 it could be selling at a loss.

When you say markup you are presuming they pay the same wage, have to charge customers the same VAT, have the same overheads etc, and one huge factor -you presume they pay the same wholesale prices.

can i lodge a complaint to anybody about this?

Maybe try a local TD if you have a complaint about the existence of a free market. Or just accept it exists, get over it, and buy it in the cheapest place you can.

gleep

You can purchase the shoes online at the .co.uk site for the sterling price and select to have them delivered to your preferred irish store e.g. dundrum!

havana

I don't disagree with you rubadub

but

i can only assume that these companies factored in all those figures last year when the exchange rate was lower(higher? Can never work that out). While i don't expect businesses to change prices daily to reflect currency fluctations and while there may now be higher vat or other costs i really don't belive that this accounts for the huge discrepancies we are currently seeing in prices.

meglome

rubadub wrote: »

Maybe try a local TD if you have a complaint about the existence of a free market. Or just accept it exists, get over it, and buy it in the cheapest place you can.

The real problem here is there isn't a competitive free market, like the one that exists in many other countries. We pay a premium on almost everything over almost every country in Europe. At the beginning of 2000 I bought some chairs for a business I was involved in, they cost £99 each on offer. They should have been £125 so the full price would have been about €150. I saw the same chairs in the same shop for €345 less than five years later. We have sat back and paid whatever anyone asked us to pay no matter how overpriced it was. I don't expect to pay the same as they pay in most other countries but I don't expect to get robbed across the board. I should be able to shop around but in practice most shops have mysteriously similar high prices.

rubadub

havana wrote: »

i can only assume that these companies factored in all those figures last year when the exchange rate was lower(higher? Can never work that out).

yes, I know my company has fixed rates for the year for STG and USD. Also sales people have agreed commisions and sales targets, not sure what would happen in those cases if the manager just decides to slash prices in half and in effect doubles their targets.

I know the OP might have been using the term "mark up" very loosely but it should be thought about more.

havana wrote: »

i really don't belive that this accounts for the huge discrepancies we are currently seeing in prices.

Some do some don't. If they really were fleecing people so much then why are businesses closing down here? surely they can just drop their prices and match the UK guys and still make as good a living as them?- I don't think many can... Look at zavvi trying to match online retailers, now people are moaning that HMV charge too much, if they did not they would have to close too!

meglome wrote: »

The real problem here is there isn't a competitive free market, like the one that exists in many other countries.....

I should be able to shop around but in practice most shops have mysteriously similar high prices.

So they have similar high prices here. In other countries I expect the prices are similar enough too (albeit low). In my mind this is the same, I do not believe there is any cartel going with most retailers. If retailing was really so profitable/lucrative then you would have economic graduates who study/know this opening up retail stores the second they leave college. I actually feel sorry for many retailers here, they will simply have to close up shop since they cannot compete anymore, or find a different product to sell/service.

Jip

gleep wrote: »

You can purchase the shoes online at the .co.uk site for the sterling price and select to have them delivered to your preferred irish store e.g. dundrum!

Don't think you can, last time I tried that I got a mail later saying the order was cancelled as I was using an Irish address, credit card etc and to use the Schuh.ie website to order. A common enough occurance.

forgetfulgirl

gleep wrote: »

You can purchase the shoes online at the .co.uk site for the sterling price and select to have them delivered to your preferred irish store e.g. dundrum!

could that work?? i tried to buy them on the british store and get them sent to ireland but they dont allow that. you can only buy from the irish site. they have us screwed!!

forgetfulgirl

just saw jips reply there. so i think its a no go. just to make the point i think ill get a friend to post them from england. that price difference is just not on.....im making a stand!

gleep

I did this myself before christmas, bought online at schuh uk site and selected store delivery, then selected schuh in dundrum as delivery point. Got them no bother

gleep

Just remembered I was using a uk credi card when making this order, maybe thats why it let it through? If this does fail to work then you can save a little by buying through the cashback site www.bethrifty.ie, they are offering 6% cashback on orders with schuh!

Hal1

Have you checked the uk site and compared the price of your purchase? for example I went to schuh.ie and priced a pair of Goliath dragonfly runners price €65 or £58. Then I went to the schuh.co.uk and checked the price which where £43 or €49. The same goes for every other online purchase, I'll always do that comparison.

Edit: just seen Gleep's already suggested this.