DID 'Midnight' Sale

I know they do one of these every now and again, and was just wondering if anyone has ever been to one and how is it done?

Are things actually marked with reduced prices, or does "No reasonable offer refused" mean you'll have to just work around the proper price and haggle with them?



I'm interested in getting a SONY VAIO laptop off them and may go up tomorrow. Dunno how much I should offer though. Their regular price for it is €599, but I got them down to €500 a few weeks ago (though I didn't actually buy it in the end, as a bill appeared I had forgotten about) so I was wondering should I try to haggle them down under €500, or am I pushing it as it is?


Will anyone else be going up to have a mooch around?

drog5920

might check that out myself, usually stick with harvey but i need a dryer and a tv pretty bad

Went up to them and had a word with the floor manager about the laptop I was interested in.


Said he could knock 10% off their marked price (they had it at €579 I believe) but refused to go any lower. When I mentioned that other stores would easily beat him on that price (Power City and Harvey both have) he said I'd need a quote.


Not much cop for a sale really. Very poor effort if they're only gonna knock 10% off their prices. I mean it's a 6 hour sale that they have hyped in the newspaper and they even closed their store from 5 to 6 so they could 'prepare' for it. For a sale that's only 6 hours in duration, I expected much better.

drog5920

god that was a waste of my time. went in, they had a laptop there toshiba 1aq for 499€ with theyre sales guys saying its the latest model... dunno if its just drogheda but seriously who are they kidding. i know harveys, currys and powercitys staff mite be a little not up for it at times but at least they wont blatantly lie tya. but the best was they have a 1dn laptop there for 497, i asked cud they beet harvey at 477, they said they must have proof. now come on 20€, wudn mind if its 70 or 80. like i tried, i did try but they are defo bottom of my list.... dare i say it, id give dat robbin bas**rd briscoe my hard earned money b4 them

I actually went back up to them after I had left again. I printed a copy of a Power City invoice and D.I.D beat the price on it for me. Power City were giving it to me (SONY VAIO Laptop) at €500, so D.I.D. went to €490 on it, and I had a €25 D.I.D voucher that I got for free, so it only really cost me €465 in cash. I'm pretty happy with that.


The D.I.D sales assistants really were struggling though. The ad in the paper with the "No reasonable offer refused" wrote on it really made things difficult for them. It was almost embarrassing watching customers coming up saying "but the ad in the paper says no reasonable offers refused!?" and the poor sales staff having to reply with things like "yeah, well you see we reduced the prices for you so you wouldn't have to make an offer" (actual quote). Poor guys were really, really unprepared for what they got.

drog5920

id say if ya tried harvey with a price he wuda won.........sure fair play ya got a deal but im on d verge of gettin an ns20 don to 430, cos i know a guy d\t wud pretend for ya

Pretend for you? I don't buy into that for a second.


I was in Harvey's! D.I.D told me I should go to Harvey to get a written quote for the price of the laptop and then bring it over to them and they'd beat it.


I rang Harvey in advance and they agreed over the phone that I could pick it up for €480 in their store whenever I wanted. I went up to them less than an hour later and I decided to take the honest approach and tell them that I wanted a quote to see if D.I.D would be able to compete with it. The guy I was talking to was the same guy I talked to over the phone and because I was going to try elsewhere, it changed from them giving me the laptop for €480 whenever I wanted it, to me having to supply them with a quote from Power City (the price they were originally beating).


The thing that bugged me most about Harvey's store is that the guy i was talking to and the manager i spoke to, too, were very stand-off-ish (real word?) and tried to make me feel like a cheapskate for shopping around (whereas D.I.D, despite their terrible sale, were encouraging me to and get better price for the laptop so they could beat it)


Unless I need to get something that only Harvey's have, or that they're selling for a price that's ridiculously lower than Power city/D.I.D I won't be going near them again.


Drog5920, I know you only seem to have good things to say about Harvey's (and though you don't say it, judging by your posts I'm fairly certain you work there) but every time I've shopped in there I've not had a great experience at all. The first time I went there I purchased my desktop that I'm currently using (last February, cost me about €1,150) and the sales assistant didn't seem to have any real idea of what he was selling me at all, and instead just kept repeating to me what the sales sticker said. The sales assistant then 'highly reccomended' I buy an €80 4GB Memory stick (I didn't know any better at the time, so i took it for that stupidly ridiculous price) and then when i went home I opened it and then found that there was an 80GB external HDD included with the computer that the sales assistant knew nothing about when I asked him about such stuff.


The other time after that was to buy a pair of headphones that I wanted (didn't want these specific headphones, just headphones in general as I had broken my previous ones). This was about a month or two after my PC purchase. The headphones were €105 I do believe, and they were the only semi-straight forward purchase I had (though the sales assistant decided to tell me about their volume by putting his hands over his ears and shaking his head back and forth whilst saying "it's like this, you know man!").


And then the next time I visit them is described above. I am told I can pick up a laptop for €480, but upon entering the store that's clearly not the case.



I don't consider myself an awkward customer. I've bought electical items in D.I.D's, Power City, Dixons/Currys, etc. and I never have and problems. The sales assistants are always happy to help me out and seem to know what they're talking about.


D.I.D's staff seem to suffer when it comes to anything that's not a 42" plasma screen, but if you ask them a question they don't know the answer to, they'll be honest and tell you (in my experience, anyway). For example, when I was buying the laptop, one of the guys hadn't a clue what RAM was, and went and got me someone else who knew more about laptops.


Power City's guys I never really dealt with, but in my one experience with their staff, the guy knew where everything in the store was, but not a lot else.


I don't think that any of the electrical retailers are perfect, but Harvey's are the worst in my opinion. I'm sure some people love them, but every product I've enquired about in-store has been met with less than satisfactory replies from the staff, so I really don't want to bother with them any more.


I'll give them one thing though, they might not have improved much, but at least they're consistent.

drog5920

ha ha nah i dont work for harvey, never did and never will, i run my own small business which i need regular upgrades and maintenace for my computer systems and harvey is the only place that supplies these services. Aswell as that ive built up a rapport with the lads were instead of going in and trying to basically take the piss cos lets face it thats what you sound like your doing, i use them regulary and they look after me, and i can honestly say evrything i have bought from there the only place i could find it cheaper was in the north or on the net and i dont like using either for shopping. just a qsimple one, did you ever put yourself in the salesmans shoes and imagine how many people try scam them evryday, not saying you were but if you dont trust them chances are they dont trust you

petes

drog5920 wrote: »

hi run my own small business which i need regular upgrades and maintenace for my computer systems and harvey is the only place that supplies these services.

Havey Norman are the only place that provide regular upgrades and maintenance?

You really should open your eyes.

lgoring21

and how rude is the worker on photos in harveys? i will never go there for pics again rudest man ever

drog5920

drog5920 wrote: »

imagine how many people try scam them evryday

You above posted about how you are about to get a laptop for €430 because the salesman was going to "pretend" for you...?


Before I even entered the store, I was told that they were going to sell me the laptop for €480. I could have just bought it, brought it over to D.I.D with the receipt and go them to beat it that way, but I decided to take the honest approach with them so no one was being mislead. When I mentioned D.I.D Harvey did a 180 and went straight back to their old price.

drog5920

first of all i use flexirent which is basically a lease, i claim my Vat back and my corporate tax, aswell as this they fully insure the computers + theyve someother company that service them evry month. now been straight up i havent found any other place that can match the sertvice at the price.

kkv, please pretend im u, your a sales guy.

me: can u beet a price
u: yeah no prob

i arrive in

me: actually im not gonna buy the computer off you, id rather give the business to your nearest competitor but i need you to bend over anyway and tell them your selling this for x amount.
you: (think to yerself, who is this guy and is he serious) erm go and f**k.

now obviously the convo wouldnt go down like this, but bluntly its what prob happened. a matter of interest have you ever worked in sales.

by the way had a pretty bad experience today with photos, was a young girl working there though. been honest i dont think she has a clue. my pics came out kinda distorted, looked like the paper was worn or something, asked could she redo them, she kinda tutted me and then tried to charge me for em, the manager (nice bloke) came out and gave the whole lot free of charge and was apologetic.

like i know i stand up for the shop alot but i just cant fault em, most people that do fault em are listnin to jimmy down to road who prob got declined finance and has a chip on his shoulder

drog5920

drog5920 wrote: »

kkv, please pretend im u, your a sales guy.

me: can u beet a price
u: yeah no prob

i arrive in

me: actually im not gonna buy the computer off you, id rather give the business to your nearest competitor but i need you to bend over anyway and tell them your selling this for x amount.
you: (think to yerself, who is this guy and is he serious) erm go and f**k.

OK, that would be fine if it went as you said. But if they had no intention of giving me the laptop at €480, then why did they agree over the phone that I could purchase it whenever I wanted at that price?


I could just as easily have bought the laptop, brought it over to D.I.D, showed them the receipt, got them to beat the price, and returned it to Harvey (which, in retrospect, is what I should have done). I chose to be honest with them and the mention of their competition had them back-peddling and breaking their agreement with me. I could understand their side of it if they didn't straight out guarantee the price over the phone.

If I was told "we can definitely reduce the cost of the laptop for you, but you'll need to come into us before we can settle on any price" then none of this would have ever happened. If they're going to refuse customers a price they agreed on over the phone, then they shouldn't give prices over the phone.


Besides, I never said I was going to D.I.D to buy it there. I said I wanted to check D.I.D to see if they could compete with their (Harvey's) price. At the end of the day, I must do what's best for me.

A matter of interest have you ever worked in sales.

Yes, but never with commission involved.

drog5920

did ya have a quote from the 1st place you asked. like i can see where you are coming from. i just cant understand why they wouldnt price match a quote from their nearest competitors like. maybe ya shouldnt have been so honest, like i can see where the sales guy is coming from too. like basically had no intention of buying off him by the sounds of it. like im getting bored argueing for and against places, its evryone to their own. im a fan of customer service, i get it where i shop, same with evryone else, if that wasnt the case then evryone wud shop online or at argos