Price Jacking Sales - Sparesbox

mrhugo on 19/03/2021 - 20:22
Last edited 19/03/2021 - 23:57 by 1 other user

I've been looking to get some oil for the car. Just the usual Penrite 5L bottle but only sold at a few stores as it's quite a niche spec. Anyway the going rate is $70 for 5L on pretty much all the sites.

For over a year now Sparesbox have been having oil sales every other week, but the price goes up by ~15% then comes down 20% via the advertised sale. So currently my oil is now magically $79.95 on sale for $63.96. The thing is, is was never never ever $79.95, it goes back to $70 when the sale ends.

I read the ACCC page on this, and I feel it's clear that in the last quarter this oil was never available for purchase at $79.95, so how can they get away with this.

I know this price jacking is common on eBay when sales are on, and maybe because it's a marketplace it's grey, but this case with Sparesbox seems clear cut to me.

Happy to raise this with the ACCC if I'm into something.

BTW: I'm sure this practice is happening with other products on their site.

P.S: I follow Repco prices and I've never seen this jacking, sales are genuine sales.

Automotive

Related Stores

Sparesbox
Sparesbox

Comments

  • Richardc on 19/03/2021 - 21:42

    Usually sale price are base on RRP.

  • oscargamer on 19/03/2021 - 22:20
    +1

    Not a fan of sparesbox. They do exactly what you say they do OP.

  • subywagon on 19/03/2021 - 23:16
    +3

    I normally buy oil from Supercheap when they have their sales. Vote with your wallet.

  • jono1971 on 20/03/2021 - 06:49
    +2

    Worst company! They spam the ebay listings with items they don’t have in stock and then they’ll tell you that the item you ordered is 1 month away!

    Luckily they refund pretty quickly but don’t say an item is available if you don’t stock it!

  • knasty on 20/03/2021 - 09:47
    +2

    They do some stuff cheap but for parts be careful. During a recent brake sale they were selling discs for my car for $1800 a pair - sale price. I got exactly the same thing from a US website for $US240, all in price shipped to AU was approx $AU500.

    • ATTS on 20/03/2021 - 13:12

      @knasty

      could you provide the US website you used?

      and did you have to use a parcel forwarding service?

      cheers

  • knasty on 20/03/2021 - 13:32
    +2

    FCPEuro. It specialises in Euro parts. They have their own very competitive freight deals to Aus using DHL I think.

    • mrhugo on 22/03/2021 - 13:12

      I currently use FCPEuro, as well as some other German sites. Things like my rotors are just way too heavy to post, so I get them here. I actually got them from Sparesbox during a rotor sale (which was actually a good price). I guess it's a case of plugging in the numbers and see if the saving is worth it. Also, some parts I use are not available in the Australian market, so I have no choice other than to go overseas. But I guess it depends. I guess if you needed some crazy composite rotors, yeah they might be cheaper OS even after the freight. I guess it depends, it’s a numbers thing.

      FCPEuro use UPS and its about 7-10 days from order to my door. Some part were special order, so it would usually be less days than this.

      • knasty on 22/03/2021 - 13:22

        My example was front steel rotors. worked out 1/3 of the cost even with shipping included. I reached a point where the cost of adding extra items barely affected the shipping price so I also included pads, oil, filters, suspension pieces etc to take advantage of the huge price differential vs buying here. Just checked freight was FEDEX and US140.

        I did get my rear rotors and pads from sparesbox as the price differential was low and I do prefer to support local.where it's not cost prohibitive.

        • mrhugo on 22/03/2021 - 15:56

          In my example my Zimmermann rotors are ~70 USD each (FCP list them as each, not a pair), so thats $140~USD
          $146 USD for Fedex (if I add QTY:4 then postage is 208 USD)

          Thats ~$370 AUD

          At sparesbox I got them for $235 delivered for a pair, and also got $11 CR lol!

          I think they are something 12kg each. When the parcel arrived I strugged to move them to the back room. hahaha

          Maybe this a Zimmermann Australia thing, maybe they are not gready or USA charge more for them, IDK, but this is my case and I'm sure other will have different outcomes.

          • knasty on 22/03/2021 - 16:04

            @mrhugo: I bought Zimmermans front and back. Fronts are 360mm and 15.6kg each. They are the ones that cost an absolute fortune here. The Zimmerman rears were OK here. Just horses for courses.

            • mrhugo on 22/03/2021 - 18:07

              @knasty: Thanks for sharing your experences; it's good to know that we can save on parts. Mine are much smaller 328mm, nothing special just the Z Coat.

              Slighty off topic, what pads are you using with yours. I'll be trying Akebono ceramic pads, mostly the avoid the dust the 40K life I get out of current factory rotors. Read good things that the combination is pretty good in multiple places on the web..worst comes to worse I can always go back to normal pads next time round…TBH, how bad could they be with so much positive experences out there

              • knasty on 22/03/2021 - 18:15

                @mrhugo: Have heard akebono are great. I ended up getting TRW semi metallic for the front and Zimmerman pads for the rears.

  • Catbert on 21/03/2021 - 08:29
    +1

    I don't buy from Sparesbox either for this exact reason. Check out RockAuto, their prices are very good, as are their freight costs and delivery times.

    • mrhugo on 22/03/2021 - 13:14

      Hmm, I'll check this out, thanks for this,

  • Tnetennba on 23/03/2021 - 08:48

    ACCC won't lift a finger for this unfortunately.

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