Went to Harvey Norman to waste some time in the afternoon with the little one.
Then I walked by one of those bargain bins and I almost died of laughter reading the tag. $78 for a Laser HDMI 3m cable.
Then I had another fit of laughter when I checked the website and the price on there was $79.95… For a saving of $1.95.
Needed to keep a straight face before I went to ask about hair straighteners for the missus.
TLDR Harvey is a rip off merchant for the uneducated.
Mod: UnBuzzfeeded the Title
Re-calibrate your sarcasm detector. ;)
I remember NwAvGuy had to do an article about CPU usage with .WAV vs .FLAC to show that it made no difference in usage to playback either. Also, on Stereo.net, people discussing which PSU for their PC made the sound 'more analog'. Some even had the gall to debate whether a PC could be a "high end transport" for audio. Blew my mind at the ignorance.
Crazy people out there, my dude.
But the name Harvey Norman is worth the extra $77. If you don't believe me just ask Gerry Harvey.
He's too busy lobbying the gummints and making up garbage for talk radio listeners to stop Amazon coming here because competition is so bad for everybody in Australia to take questions atm.
Nothing new here I have close relatives that buy monster cables.. eh if it is in the shop at a time they will buy it.. I guess they generally have no time to do the heavy research time is money and all that whereas I can spend years re analyzing and deconstructing its competitors and even its counterparts etc.. to each their own.. but yeah it's kind of scummy of hardly normal to prey on the "weak" and uninformed.
Some people really do believe that high price = high quality.
Fair enough to a point; I've had crappy cables fall apart when I've tried to unplug them, and then there's the USB leads with ultra-thin wire, but once you get beyond about the $5 mark…
I know it's like the nicest misconception of reality but we all literally buy into it because wealth is very very very desirable.
Everybody wants to be rich but we all broke af.
True that… this is why I come here but in real terms I end up being even more broke because I buy stuff I never knew I wanted before.
The way they so blatantly take advantage of less informed or tech savvy customers (who will often be old people or moms buying something for their kids) is one reason I never have the slightest bit of sympathy whenever Gerry Harvey has a cry about unfair competition from overseas websites or whatever.
but you might just qualify for free shipping
Not exactly the same, but a while back I bought a 3.5mm headphone splitter from ebay for 99cents… It was $5 from DSE!
Cheap for DSE. Must have been on special.
True - I used to work for Dick Smith 9 years ago and I still remember telling a customer to just get one online when they were looking at the TV wall mounts which started at $229 for a 32" compatible model…
That in addition to the 14 day change your mind and you get a refund guarantee, no surprise they went out of business
Harvey Norman is one of the last places I'd go to to waste time.
At What Stage Can You Go Buy HDMI Cables From Harvey Norman Financially?
Excellent topic. We must open a new thread and discuss!!!
Thanks! It deadset applies to almost every forum post…I've made the same comment for like 5 topics haha.
I might give it a rest now!
Could be the new "bikies"? Ha
If I coat Enelop Batteries with gold, could I sell them for $500, 50% off $999 ?
Bargain. I will take 10.
the title reminds me of those clickbait titles on youtube and other places. They are getting so old
" I can't believe this happened"
"you won't believe what happened"
etc, all for the views lol.
Judging by your title, the average person would think you're posting a unbelievable cheap item.
Check the revisions for the original title…
even worse then the revise one, some people would do anything to get views
I'll bet you almost died when you saw it!
Heh… well it was all done in a facetious way.
It was posted in the forums away from the deals so it wouldn't land incorrectly as a deal.
Anyone familiar with Harvey Norman would not assume cheap prices. :P
well I never shop there anyway, so I can't remember how inflated the prices really are :P
Got a 5 metre HDMI cable from Officeworks for under $10 the other day, though I'd be happier with my purchase if it actually worked.
I use to work in the warehouse receiving goods at a Harvey Norman store. I saw the prices of things that were being purchased and then what we were selling them at. Back then, we got in hundreds of 4gb USB sticks at about 15 cents each and were selling them for $39.95. People would buy them, even though you could get them cheaper online or elsewhere. I suspect that's the deal with the hdmi cables. The floor staff would upsell with a TV and give it to them for 50% off, while still making a huge profit. I'm pretty sure their commission was on the profit part. The more high margin stuff you sold, the more commison.
That's generally how it works on commission based income in big box stores.
This is why warranties are pushed so hard. From memory they are treated as 100% profit or a nominal cost.
i do work at HN's sometimes installing some of their store gear, and have heard training sessions with new staff where the manager is teaching them "we make hardly anything on the Tv's, all of the money is in the HDMI cables and extended warranty, if you're not pushing them to buy a HDMI cable with their TV you're not doing your job" etc. So that's why they're desperate to sell HDMI, and same with antivirus on the laptops.
Is it just me, or is HN only surviving because of simpetons who dont have the internet and dont know how to check basic things ?
HN only surviving because of simpetons who dont have the internet and dont know how to check basic things
The customers I saw in HN were generally older Australians. One sales guy sold a more expensive computer to an older person by telling them that it was the only one that wouldnt give her cancer "from the screen rays". I'm so thankful I no longer work in retail.
Screen rays…wow, that is just wrong. Unethical HN staff member
That is correct. The only time I go into HN to buy something, is after I've done my research online to see what the current price is, and either know that HN has a special and it is offering it cheaper or the same or I do a price match, which they always did.
I think hardly normal will be the first one to shit down when Amazon steps in.
I really hope so!
Sadly no.
We already have Amazon alternatives, the average HN customer doesn't use them and won't use Amazon either.
No doubt Jerry will start waving his Aussie flag around so we can be patriotic buying our cheap Chinese junk from 'A true blue Oz retailer' rather than those filthy yanks.
The scene will slowly change. Australians aren't as rich as we used to be. The mining boom is over and we have a huge national debt.
When money is hard to come by, misguided sense of patriotism isn't going to linger for long.
Besides. We as a community on OzBargain are slowly changing the retail scene too. We call out companies that are trying to pull a fast one, we qualify our grivences with dodgy products and retailers and we are growing in number.
10 years ago, no one would have thought DS would go. To me, HN is the next DS.
To me, HN is the next DS.
DSE tried to be HN and failed, that's what killed them.
As nice as the thought is, Gerry isn't going anywhere in a hurry. HN doesn't need to worry about Amazon that much, certainly not as much as eBay does.
Gerry makes it easy and convenient to buy a TV or fridge, and that's not going to change. If you're on OzB, you're not a HN person so 'not easy' doesn't matter when saving some cash.
People will always buy from a brand, and Gerry is one of the best there is.
Years ago sharing a house we decided to ditch our multiple dial-ups and share an ADSL line. Flatmate hated Telstra, complained about them all the time, so I recommended who we should sign with. Got home and found she couldn't figure out how to connect with who I wanted so she signed up with… you guessed it… Telstra. Because it was 'easy'. Feck. Long live Telstra & Harvey Norman.
@D C:
DSE tried to be HN and failed, that's what killed them.
Anchorage Capital killed them. But not before making a killer profit and having the market think Dickies was on the up-and-up. Every move was planned and every move went exactly according to plan.
@cheepwun: Nah, Anchorage just kicked the still-warm corpse a bit so it looked like it was still alive. They did a very good job.
The flailing around with the Powerhouse stuff (HN clone) and trying to figure out who their target market was killed them.
They were an also-ran for years under Woolworths.
@D C:
Yeah, they saw the corpse and decided to make a nice profit before flogging it off. I don't think they tried to do anything except make a load of money and give the market the impression that all was good.
Interesting article about what happened:
https://foragerfunds.com/bristlemouth/dick-smith-is-the-grea…
I know you meant "shut down", but "shit down" also seems appropriate here.
It is a bargain for someone, just not the customer!
Its not Harvey Norman's fault! Its the ebay and the Amazonians, not having to pay GST
Gerry? Is that you?
Harvey Norman once upsold my father from a cd player to an internet radio even though he didn't have internet. I asked him why he bought it and he said he liked Bose…what he had actually bought was a Sonos component. Didn't even have speakers.
Retail markups are around 1000% in general, this is just taking it to the next level. (over 9000!!!)
I got a PS4 for $201 last year thanks to Harvey Norman and the $100 cashback amex deal, so I like them :)
Great savings! Now you can afford to spend your savings on the HDMI cable from HN for $78 which is about 40% of the price for you PS4? :-)
Happy gaming!
I remember years ago I was helping my sister pick out a new TV from HN. The salesman was pushing for her to get a Monster HDMI cable for some ridiculous price. My sister looked at me and I said I can get her one from Ebay for under $10. The salesman argued that the quality wouldn't be the same as a Monster cable. Told him I use the same cables on my home theater setup and there is no difference in quality so we'll give the Monster cable a miss. He gave me the dirtiest look.
Then when my sister was signing the paperwork, he tried to flog it to her again whilst telling her that "he doesn't know what he's on about". She still declined and the $8 cable is still working fine to this day :)
It's digital - two states - it either works or doesn't work.
Not entirely true. The internet is two states too but you can still get packet loss and HDMI does have error correction codes. Ref - hdmi.org. It's somewhere in there but common knowledge and wikiable so I won't dwell.
I don't buy into the notion of expensive digital cables and most of mine are from spacehifi (no affiliation). Just a robust cable and okay price for moderate suppleness. Moderately neatly finished under the sleeves (I pulled one apart before buying bulk for my AV system).
Cable lengths of >10m, I have found signal degradation so those cables I pay a little more. Not $75/m price (lol…) but ~$30ish/m back in 2013 (may be more now. Who knows.. price of copper..).
Just in case anyone read that…. meant to type $75/3m(standardizing against HN price/length) and $30/3m respectively.
I'd count packet loss as 'not working' if it caused the occasional glitch.
You don't need much copper to get a signal over a few metres, and so long as the cable doesn't fall apart when you look at it funny, then eh, good enough.
Power is different which is why some USB cables charge better (more copper) than the cheap ones. That said if you're just transferring data then the cheap ones will almost certainly work just as well as the good ones.
@D C:
You'll find most cables do not work then. Packet loss is more frequent than you believe but the ECC on HDMI does a good job at stitching so you don't notice any tearing or colourful screens.
I've bought HDMI cables that are binned after first use. It worked but every so often, it starts calibrating my aspect ratio and resolution because of heavy packet loss. These were cheap and nasty $0.01 to $2 cables that I needed in a pinch.
Overall, I don't spend much on video cables as our brains have an amazing ability to correct for visual irregularities. Analog audio components OTOH…
You'll find most cables do not work then. Packet loss is more frequent than you believe
The point was if it looks like it's working, then it's working. Good enough.
Most dodgy stuff I found was due to crap connectors, poor build quality basically.
(I once came across a TV that had QoS stats in its diagnostics. That was fun to play with while jiggling cables. Dunno how common that is, but there's plenty of software out there that'll do the same if you can capture the stream.)
All my $2 HDMI cables suck. They break within a month.
What are you using them for? Do you move them around much?
Mine just sits there behind the tv untouched for a millennia… Or until the next big thing comes along (waiting for holographic tv sets before I replace my LED TV).
For lassoing bulls and mustangs > 300kg, I recommend display port (version 1.3 or newer).
lol. Who negged me! It's true! I use them to plug my laptop into my TV. I think I will upgrade to $5 HDMI and see if that helps lol
Probably manufacturer of $2 cables.
Ya gotta a pay a little bit more money to buy a cable you can use more than once.
To be honest the only difference between the $2 & and $5 cable will better glue or plastic on the plugs. Possibly soldered or crimped better as well.
Currently $2 HDMI cables at Coles New Farm in Brissy.
I have a dozen from dicksmith clear outs that worked out to be 20 cents each, they work fine.
I've had about 6 HDMI cables have problems and be replaced. MSY have just about the worst cables in existence.
Coles has HDMI cable for sale in it's latest catalogue for $2.
A far cry from $78.
enough said?
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/this-australian-billionai…
$14 http://www.harveynorman.com.au/amicroe-4-on-the-go-usb-to-mi…
(routinely found for $1 on ebay, delivered…but you miss out on that all-important packaging)
Harvey is a rip off merchant for the uneducated.
This was evident to me as soon as they opened up. 99% of retailers do the same ripoff accessory pricing. Whether it be Big W or whoever, you can often get better deals buying in ones and twos from China yourself. Only when they have genuine sales do you get what could be considered reasonable prices.
Please don't tell Gerry Harvey that Amazon sell them cheaper - lol
Gerry and other Australian retailers are counting on Amazon failing in Australia,rather than taking any action to become competitive and improve their service.
That's my strategy for getting Labor elected
Why would they until they are forced to do so? According to Wikipedia Harvey Norman have 280 stores of which 194 are Australian franchised. So, despite Gerry's rants, how are these franchises managing to stay in business - by sales to the gullible Australian buyer, that's how.
Every time I visit Australia I always stop by at least one Harvey Norman Store, because you might be surprised to learn, I can still find items cheaper for sale there then I can buy them for in the UK, even at 'sale time' over here, so it is possible for Australian business' to make a good profit without ripping people off.
This is 2017, not the 1960's, and the average Australian could benefit from stop listening to, and acting upon, the chant of 'support Australia, it's manufacturers and Australian jobs' as the only people who win from that philosophy are the people who are ripping you off. Why do you think that UK, American, European and Chinese companies are all 'chaffing at the bit' to start up a business in Australia - its not because they are charities but can see a way of making huge profits there.
So, you may ask, do you start to bring down prices - with your pocket is the answer. There's nothing better to sharpen a sellers mind then for him to find his sales are falling or to find that he has to throw rotting veg away. Once they get past an Accountants (the person who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing) view that to combat falling sales one should raise prices then you might see some sensible order being brought to the market place.
Needed a display port urgently and HN was the only place that had besides online, which would take a few weeks to arrive. I paid a nice $60 when online is less than $20
Well that's Hardly Normal!
whats it at now? 100 months interest free?
Next time, take your little one to the park
Lol if only it wasn't raining. The park is far more fun than looking at hair straighteners.
The first thought popped up inside my head when I read the title: "Who's in their right mind would walk into Harvey Norman?".
Welcome to 2002.
I use amazon basics hmdi
Best Buy in the US has some as well.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/audioquest-coffee-26-3-hdmi-cabl…
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/audioquest-carbon-65-6-hdmi-cabl…
Should read the reviews LOL…
I like the mod comment :D unbuzzfeeded the title …hilarious
seems normal for hardly normal
I can
Keep seeing people mention a 'HDMI 2.0 cable' when there's no such thing. It's just a high speed HDMI 1.4 cable.
It's to get all the 1.4 people to upgrade to the 2.0 version for another $80.
Then they will chuck out the old cable only to get picked up for $1 at the recycling centre. :)
upgrade to the 2.0 version
The x.0 version always sucks.
Wait for HDMI 2.1 to come out, that'll have all the bugs fixed.
Sydney is EXPENSIVE!
Not surprised. I worked for a company who was helping to release a product that was going to be sold at HN and in other markets the box included a HDMI cable for connection to the TV.
It was removed from the Australian version, as HN flat out told them that if there was no way to upsell the HDMI cable they wouldn't be stocking the product.
The company should have refused, but the sales they'd lose from not being sold in HN were too much, I guess. Or at least did a deal to supply HDMI cables everywhere else but the ones delivered to the special snowflakes at HN
Since you are anonymous and we do not know which company you work for, do you mind informing us of the product which has had the HDMI cable removed from packaging?
I do not believe that you would be in breach of any agreements or confidentiality by naming a product.
Used to work for them. Doesn't really matter who, it was a while ago (2009) and I just thought it was crazy when I heard about it. I don't think they sell them here anymore.
He's kidding.