cost plus sofa sale delivery charge??

ha-ya-said-what · 07-04-2010 2:27pm

On another point, we were sold sofas from cost plus sofas & assured that they were interest free for 12 months, after which interest would be charged, in reply to the sales assistant "so we don't pay any interest for the 12mths or pay it after the 12 months, we only pay interest on the remaining amount of months it takes to clear the payment, let it be 2 or 3 months we only pay the interest on those months & you don't add on a lump sum of interest for the 12mths that were interest free" .. to which he said yes, paperwork had no mention of it either

12mths pass, letter arrived from UK office informing us that we were to pay the interest for the 12mths ... nice amount that added up to aswell!

So be very very careful of the info they give you when taking out credit agreements!

bongi69 · 07-04-2010 3:18pm

All this has reminded me of an argument I had with a co worker a while back.

I believe, that if a customer requests delivery for an item regularly stocked in store, they should be charged. This used to happen when I worked in Dixons. Say we had a 42" TV on sale, and ample stock in the store room to take home today. A tv this size will fit in an average car if the seats are folded down. So if you come and buy it, you can take it home in your car, no extra fee.

However, if you wanted this home delivered, there would be a charge, anywhere up to €60. This is to cover the item coming from the warehouse in a delivery truck. If this cost was assimilated into the selling price of the TV, it would be a little more expensive, and hurt the pockets of the people who want to take it home themselves.

What I think is wrong, is retailers charging delivery for items that are home delivery only, and you having no other option to get the item home. Any delivery charge for these items should be assimilated into the selling price. Or give customers who have access to a van or the likes the chance to go collect the item from the warehouse themselves, without charging extra

jimmycrackcorm · 10-04-2010 2:22am

bongi69 wrote: »

What I think is wrong, is retailers charging delivery for items that are home delivery only, and you having no other option to get the item home. Any delivery charge for these items should be assimilated into the selling price. Or give customers who have access to a van or the likes the chance to go collect the item from the warehouse themselves, without charging extra

Home Delivery is exactly that however getting a non-stocked item to be dropped to the shop for pick-up should be free for said home-delivery items. Consumer should have that choice....

ch750536 · 10-04-2010 9:18am

Joey the lips wrote: »

However.... I always thought these campagns dirty and they should advertise that collection price only....

The point being that you can't buy the sofa for the advertised price at all, even collecting from the store has a surcharge.

Thoie · 10-04-2010 6:01pm

From what the OP is saying, IMO if they're currently saying the sofa costs 200, but it's 30 to get it to the store, or 75 to get it to your house, I would prefer to see them advertising the sofa as €230, with a €45 surcharge for home delivery. I expect that the cost of getting something to the shop is factored into the price.

Cost Plus Sofas · 13-04-2010 1:40pm

Thanks for all comments - and can see the point.

Candidly, for the 30 euro charge for collecting this at the store, this charge is not always charged, it is at the Manager's discretion. It was introduced over the last couple of months to try to discourage collections - as collections tend to be difficult for the store team, with people arriving unannounced to collect often at the busiest times for the shop.

At Cost Plus, we always try to look after all customers as best we can, as reflected in independently collated customer service scores. We do try to discourage collections, so that store teams are not rushed and can give all people the best possible service.

One bit of positive news on the delivery charge front. We do not charge any extra for deliveries when people buy one of our 42" TV + room packages. Even though D.I.D. charge Cost Plus for delivery of the TVs, Cost Plus swallows this and there is no extra delivery charge for customers over the standard 75 euro when buying one of our TV room packages including a TV, sofas etc.

astrofool · 13-04-2010 2:12pm

Surely for a collection, you book a time with the customer.

€30 to pick something up from a shop is ridiculous, I can see what it's trying to do in encouraging buyers to use delivery, but there has to be a better way to do it.

Cost Plus Sofas · 13-04-2010 2:47pm

Understand your point...

For a pair of sofas, please bear in mind that the vast majority of people want Cost Plus to deliver. This is firstly as it a pair of sofas is not something that most people have transport for and secondly the delivery charge of 75 euro is reasonable - others have mentioned in this thread 145 euro for delivery by Ikea, although we have not verified this. Cost Plus also then take responsibility for delivering the sofas in perfect condition, unwrap the goods fully, put in the legs and remove all the rubbish to give what we call a 'red carpet delivery service'.

For those few people that want to collect their sofas, we do not book times. Good point and we should think about booking times! We'll discuss with others in Cost Plus to see if this would help all concerned.

Also, as above, the 30 euro charge for collection is at the store Managers discretion and so can be waived. It is just that we are trying to discourage collections for the reasons mentioned in our last post. We'll also discuss this charge further at this end.

All feedback appreciated...keep it coming!

astrofool · 13-04-2010 4:39pm

The €30 charge if waived, becomes a discount on the sofa. The €30 charge leaves you open to false advertising, as you cannot officially buy the item at the advertised price, unless a further discount is applied.

Imagine being charged 50 cent to collect your milk in a supermarket.

I really see what you're trying to do, but your manager needs to go on a course on human psychology before he makes more decisions like that.

Cost Plus Sofas · 14-04-2010 10:26am

Understand your point about milk in a supermarket.
Equally, a pair of sofas are a much bigger purchase - e.g. if you are buying a car, delivery will often be quoted separately

Only about half the stores are mentioning about this charge, mainly those that are far from the central warehouse. And really this is to discourage people collecting and the charge is frequently waived...most people want their suite delivered.

We will look into this some more at Cost Plus, we work hard to have happy customers. Thanks.

lip · 14-05-2010 11:25am

We were in cost plus 2 weeks ago and decided to get finance on a 3 and 2 seater room package with the free tv.It was advertised for E1853.When everything was totted up,bearing in mind i took out insurance at E250,the total cost was E2194.
I had no bank statement so was told the forms would be posted out and to return them with my statement,which I still have not recieved after 3 phonecalls and promises that I will be phoned back in 10 minutes.Anyway,looking at the invoice,the sums just don't add up.The package is broken down into individual prices,for the 2 seater,3 seater,coffee table,2 side tables and 2 lamps,it adds up to E1603,so obviously the insurance is included,but I was charged again.
So with the E75 delivery charge,it should only be costing us E1928.Thats an overcharge of E266.
I am going in tomorrow to first question it and then cancel it,I'm sure I can get a decent 2 piece and 42'' tv for less than that.
Sorry,post is a bit long winded,moral of the story,check the figures and make sure they add up.......Thankfully I hadnt paid for it.

Cost Plus Sofas · 14-05-2010 11:53am

Hi Lip,

Am sorry to hear of any confusions. If you can give me your "customer order ID" which is on our invoices, we will happily check this out for you.

We suspect the reason this may not add up is that finance charges can add to the cash price shown, as with all retailers. Equally, we're only speculating. If you can give us your customer order ID ideally, we will check this out for you and let you know via Boards.ie. Or, please ask in your local Cost Plus. Either way, as you prefer!

Our pricing should be pretty straightforward. We do not do phoney 50% off sales and the like, we've year-round low prices. Am sure any confusions can be cleared up without too many problems

Kind regards,

Cost Plus Sofas

dudara · 14-05-2010 12:37pm

@Cost Plus Sofas

Have you contacted the Admins of Boards at hello@boards.ie yet? I believe that I previously requested that you do so if you wished to continue posting in an official capacity on boards.

dudara

knighted_1 · 14-05-2010 12:46pm

lip wrote: »

We were in cost plus 2 weeks ago and decided to get finance on a 3 and 2 seater room package with the FREE tv.Q

where does it say free tv ? dont think it does ,people are just assuming its free but its just included in the price and did electrical deliver them for 25 euros -

lip · 14-05-2010 1:36pm

Thanks for reply cost plus sofas. I decided to ring and was given the reason.Knighted you sound like the salesman i talked to. Apparently it doesnt say that the tv is FREE,and it is NOT included in the price. It is actually given at a discounted rate when you purchase the room deal.
Now,unless my ears decieve me,but does the advert not say that a 42'' tv comes with the room?I will stand corrected,but I do not recall it saying that the tv is given at a discounted rate.In my case it was costing E266.
I will not be getting my suite there,I really feel swindled on this one.Maybe it doesnt actually use the word FREE but it definately gives the impression that it is.Clever advertising????Or just totally misleading?I would love to see the ad again to make sure I just didn't miss something.

And re not recieving the forms in post,apparently the woman just forgot.

tipptom · 14-05-2010 2:27pm

yes, this is typical of what i was saying starting the thread,its all just put in in when you are about to pay and hope you rollover and pay,there is an underlying sneakiness there the whole time that cant do a companys reputation any good.

Cost Plus Sofas · 14-05-2010 6:13pm

Dudara - did email hello@ or admin@ after you requested last time. Will email again tomorrow to get us set up officially.

The 42" Samsung HD TV is not free, it is about 250 euro extra when buying the sofas and tables. Still, 250 euro for this TV is not a bad deal

Lorettasm · 14-05-2010 7:14pm

Just in reply to this comment from cost plus sofas, I ordered the "room" on the 4th of April and was informed by the sales assistant that they would give me a code and that I would have to collect the tv from the shop myself. I called into the shop the following week for the code and was told that DID would deliver the tv to me at a delivery charge, Three days later DID rang me to say that they would deliver the tv on the fri which they did, when I asked how much the delivery charge was the delivery man told me that delivery was free. It seems that sales assistants have not been briefed properly about this matter. Incidently my two sofas and 3 tables, which were promised faithfully by the sales assistant for 3 weeks still has not arrived and basically the shop cannot give me a delivery date, even an estimated one! Not a great customer service guys. Just one other thing my delivery charge from cost plus sofas was 80 euro. I have paid in full for everything and still nearly two months later I have seen nothing from them. At least DID were able to deliver when they said they would

Cost Plus Sofas · 15-05-2010 8:36am

Dear all,

Lip - our full page newspaper adverts use the following words in the main headline. "Buy the room. Get the TV" and "Get the ultimate room package including a 42" Samsung HDTV". We are trying to get over that the room package includes a TV, not that it is free. It actually works out at about 250 euro extra for the TV part, which is not a bad deal. As previously, we try to be quite straightforward in our advertising. E.g. Cost Plus are one of very few furniture retailers who do not do phoney 50% / 60% / 70% off sales

Loretta - for the delivery for the DID TV, all rings true. We are new to working with DID and there were some gremlins on the Cost Plus side. DID do charge for delivery, equally when we sold the TVs in stores, we often did not tell customers, due to unclear training. So, to avoid any bad feelings, Cost Plus has taken the hit on this cost and not passed it on, even though we are making less than nothing on the TVs. We are happy as looking after our customers is our key company goal. Most of our customers come in because of recommendations from friends and family.

On your sofas not having arrived after 3 weeks, we are sorry to hear. Not one of those 16 week or 20 weeks for a sofa horror stories you sometimes hear, we do aim to offer a very quick delivery, but really sorry if you have been let down on what you were told, not good.

On the second part you mention, the reason your sales executive may not have been able to tell you when your goods would be delivered is that deliveries are now managed directly by our central distribution facility. They can be contacted via our central number, 01 484 5633 and should be able to help you. Or, if you prefer, please let us know here your customer order ID and we will get someone to contact you and let you know. Thanks for all the feedback.

lip · 15-05-2010 9:30pm

i got a copy of the ad and imo it absolutely suggests that the tv is free with the package. All the rooms are that are shown have the package deal price,and beside it th says ''YOU GET'',and what the package includes,and the tv is in bold writing. Definately false advertising.
The cost of the tv would have been E266,and thats a lot of money to pay for something that i thought was free.

dudara · 15-05-2010 9:37pm

Cost Plus Sofas wrote: »

Dudara - did email hello@ or admin@ after you requested last time. Will email again tomorrow to get us set up officially.

No problems - thanks for letting me know

dudara

ch750536 · 16-05-2010 8:28am

Costplus, if I came in to the store on the back of that advert I would be going home with a free TV one way or another. Not sure if it is illegal but it's damn close. I don't buy your story for the wording, you're a high cost retailer and footfall is everything. You're wording is purposely misleading in my opinion.

ch750536 · 16-05-2010 8:29am

"Buy the room. Get the TV" and "Get the ultimate room package including a 42" Samsung HDTV"

"Buy the car. Get the Insurance" and "Get the ultimate car including insurance"

Cost Plus Sofas · 16-05-2010 8:31am

Hi Lip, as you mention and to explain, this is a package deal. So, no part is free, but overall there's a bargain to be had for getting the package. The 42" TV is around 260 euro, as you say.

The script for our TV advert, done by our Mullingar TV production company, is "You get a 3 seater sofa, 2 seater sofa, a coffee table, two end tables and a 42 inch Samsung HD TV". In the national papers, the explanation next to each of our roomsets is the same. As you point out, we have put the TV part of the deal in bold in the papers. This is to make sure customers have understood, to get a TV with sofas is surprising. We haven't put this into bold to mislead people...there is no small print. All the main points in our newspaper adverts are in the headline part and next to the sofa photos in big text

Let's also not forget the big picture. It is a pretty nice deal for people to be able to buy all the items in the room, the sofas, the coffee tables and a 42" TV all from 1,299 euro!

Cost Plus Sofas is a low cost retailer and our catchphrase is "high style, low prices" and these package deals are an example. Same as the budget airlines have helped open airline travel to all, we are similarly constantly driving costs down. Most of our customers come into the shops through word of mouth. While being a low cost company, we do not have the same customer service philosophy as the low cost airlines.

Any other comments, we will always do our best to answer here

Lorettasm · 16-05-2010 3:25pm

Can you please confirm for me something that the sales team told me when I rang to ask where my sofas and tables that were ordered on the 4th of April with a promise of a 3 week delivery date and now 6 weeks later no sofas or tables and from what your sales assistant tells me now there will be no delivery untill the second week in June, The question I would like to ask is when the container containing the furniture arrives in Ireland, just how long does it take to clear customs?

Thank you for the number supplied in your reply to me, I will ring them tmw to see just whereabouts my sofas and tables are. Just another point of interest, has your delivery charge gone up? because I was charged 80e where as I have read here on page that the delivery charge is 75e

Cost Plus Sofas · 16-05-2010 5:34pm

Hi Loretta,

The time to clear customs and get containers to the central warehouse varies. It is normally about a week. When quoting customers, we also normally allow an extra week from the expected arrival date in port, for this. So, overall the date you have been quoted should be about right. Equally, it is not an exact science as the containers come long distances via Rotterdam port, on multiple ships over the high seas and through pirate infested waters. The warehouse, who will have the latest exact information for you, will be able to clarify tomorrow. Fingers crossed. Normally at this stage the dates from our shippers are accurate to within a few days.

On the delivery charge, this is normally 75E. There are exceptions though, for long distance deliveries and some Cost Plus stores are franchises and they change a tiny amount the delivery charge. Am sure if you ask in the store you made the purchase, if it is not a long distance delivery and no other exceptional circumstances, they will correct this error. Or, just let us know you're customer order number and we'll send you a cheque for 10E to apologise for the error.

Lorettasm · 17-05-2010 10:51am

Thank you for your reply , I rang the number you gave me yesterday and the lady on the phone informed me that the sofas will not be in Ireland untill the 28th of May and that delivery hopefully will be a week after that . When she read out my order she seemed to think that there was one end table one coffee table a three seater and a two seater sofa on the order, but at the time of purchase the "room" that I bought had two end tables and a sign saying what was in the package which was two opus end tables, a coffee table and the two sofas and the tv of course . Also there was no customer order number on my invoice and she had to go look for it. I dont know why the salesman at the time of purchase could not be honest and just tell me that I would be waiting almost 10weeks for my furniture to arrive instead of telling me that there were 16 in stock and that it would be 3 weeks delivery

Cost Plus Sofas · 17-05-2010 7:52pm

Hi Loretta,

We are concerned about this!
1) That there is no customer order number, as all our company paperwork has a customer order number. There can be exceptions when the store is very busy and the paperwork can be posted to you next few days
2) That the items on your invoice paperwork do not match what you remember asking for
3) There are also the lead time issues that you mention

It should be fine to get all corrected, so that the correct combinations and quantities of coffee tables, sofas etc are delivered to you. To correct this, given your paperwork - without customer order number - is different to what you wanted, it will be best to sort this out with the store direct. You can either stop into the shop. Or, phone them - if you dial the central number and just asked to be put thru to the store you bought from.

On the lead times issues, we are sorry to hear about this. At this point the main issues seem to be the ones in the para above to ensure the right items are delivered to you when they come in over the next 2-3 weeks, as per your conversation with the warehouse. So, please do stop by or call the store where you made the purchase. If necessary, so ask to speak to the Manager and we are sure all will be straightened out. Hope this helps.

krpc · 17-05-2010 8:22pm

ch750536 wrote: »

Costplus, if I came in to the store on the back of that advert I would be going home with a free TV one way or another. Not sure if it is illegal but it's damn close. I don't buy your story for the wording, you're a high cost retailer and footfall is everything. You're wording is purposely misleading in my opinion.

ch750536 wrote: »

"Buy the room. Get the TV" and "Get the ultimate room package including a 42" Samsung HDTV"

I must agree. It seems that the advertising is misleading.

I understand that the retailer still suggests that the TV is still available at a bargain price, but this does not diminish the fact that the advertising implies that it is free to begin with. The retailer also states that there is no reference to "free" in the advertising. However, in the advertisement, is there a little asterix or something beside the text to indicate to the consumer that the TV costs extra?

If not, a consumer is going to feel aggrieved at having to dish out cash for an item that, per the advertising, that s/he believes to be free.

The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland is the organization to send a complaint to if a consumer feels that an advertisement is offensive, misleading, inaccurate, false etc .,.

Cost Plus Sofas · 17-05-2010 8:35pm

The headline is very clear "Get the ultimate room package including a 42" Samsung HDTV". This makes it clear - in the headline part of the advert - not in the small print that the TV is part of the package and is not free.

This is Cost Plus's first foray into boards.ie and we are trying to see if communicating with Boardsers helps us get closer to our customers.

cost plus sofa sale delivery charge??

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