What Are Your Thoughts about This Article from Trevor Long on His EFTM Website about an $8000 Pricing Error at The Good Guys?

I personally think he's just miffed that he didn't get what would have been an amazing deal and decided to vent on his page. Clearly he's not a member of OzBargain or he would have seen this many times.

edit: I have removed the link and used the copy and paste from davidmwilliams below. Next time I will do better

THE GOOD GUYS $8700 DISCOUNT ON SAMSUNG NEO QLED TVS LEAVES CUSTOMERS WISHING
Posted by Trevor Long | Jan 27, 2022 | Tech
The Good Guys $8700 Discount on Samsung NEO QLED TVs leaves customers wishing

I knew from the get-go it had to be a mistake, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not entitled to the deal.

That’s how I see the stuff up at The Good Guys today, which has surely left some poor employing crying in the corner in the fetal position.

This morning, just before 8am, the intrepid team of EFTM Man Cave moderators were made aware of a cracking deal on Samsung NEO QLED TVs at The Good Guys.

For context, this is the TV that took out our Best Award just last year – it’s stunning, and to top it off, the deals were on the 8K version.

New TVs for 2022 are due soon, so we do expect to see deals to clear stock, but was this one too good to be true?

Of course, but does that mean it’s right? Hell no.

I got the credit card (actually PayPal) out and ordered one pronto. An 85 Inch Samsung NEO QLED TV for $1,285 plus delivery. At JB HiFi that’s a $9,995 TV.

Boom, order placed.

Order Confirmed.

There it is, In full colour in my email.

And then, nearly four hours later, the joy came crashing down.

Now, at the time of writing, I’m still yet to receive any instruction in my inbox. Poor form Good Guys.

UPDATE: Just got an email:

$100 voucher for missing out on the deal of a lifetime?

So, given I knew it had to have been an error, but wondered about those who legitimately were shopping for a TV this morning. Where do we stand?

On the website, these TVs were in fact listed as “ADVERTISED” which made me think – well, maybe it’s some awesome snap deal. Limited quantity or something.

So I asked the NSW Department of Customer service where we stand.

A spokesperson for NSW Fair Trading told EFTM “Retailers can refuse to accept orders made online or to cancel orders in accordance with their terms and conditions, as long as the terms and conditions do not contravene Australian Consumer Law or other laws.

“Consumers may seek independent legal advice on rights and obligations regarding any contractual disputes.”

And yes, if you go back and search for their T&C’s which no buyer in the history of online shopping has ever read – it says this:

We have some of the best consumer laws in the world. They offer ongoing protection for the buyer way past any warranty, and they hold businesses to account.

But in reality, this really isn’t fair.

In this case – it’s clearly and error – but in reality, it shows that a retailer could simply cancel a bunch of orders at their own whim – what’s the point of advertising a price if you can’t be held to the price?

Do I think The Good Guys should be forced to deliver all these orders? Probably not.

Would it teach them a valuable – in fact very costly lesson about why prices should be checked and double checked all the time? Hell yes.

Would it be fascinating if all the “buyers” in this instance took out a class action in defence of our rights to get a product at the advertised price – shit yeah. I wonder.

Regardless, it’s another great reminder that if it looks too good to be true – it most probably is.

Comments

  • +30

    Pricing errors are hard to control if the inventory list is massive. How would you even check it?

    Retailers should have the right to cancel orders this expensive. Why would they honor. But is fun nonetheless for the consumer if it goes through.

    • +4

      Surely they set up a system where any automatic price differences that are outside a certain parameter (like 20%) then they are referred to a human to double check. It's not that hard. TGG have a record of these pricing errors but still suffer from them. Meanwhile it just annoys their customers and they just hide behind their T's & C's

      https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/643737

      https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/507583

      https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/353003

      • Ah interesting. Thanks

      • +5

        No idea why you got downvoted for that comment, this is a very valid expectation to have. Pricing errors are going to happen no matter what, but this isn't TGG's first rodeo. You would have thought they might investigate the logic that lead to the issue in the first place in order to prevent it by now.

      • +1

        But what happens when they want something more than 20% off? If you have a bunch of stuff on clearance then suddenly you have dozens and dozens of exceptions.

        A mate of mine works at a large retailer and he's told me stories of similar price error mistakes and apparently it sounds easy in theory but isn't as easy in practice. Even when they have processes like Person A sets the prices and Person B reviews all the prices and ERP system has warnings about low prices - they still get through.

    • +1

      There are many data quality tools a lot of big businesses employ - especially within a data pipeline, that can identify transactions outside of the 'standard' and notify somebody (whether this is actioned or not in a timely manner? Who knows) or run an external work flow to block future transactions (I.e remove from a website)

    • i think that is fair but also should offer like some credit $5 for your time wasted (could be doing other thimgs on a sunday arvo)

  • +93

    Q. What is the male term of a Karen?
    A. Trevor

    • +24

      As someone who has a Karen married to a Trevor in the family, it’s hard to disagree with this.

      Damn accurate.

    • +9

      I hope this doesn't take-off

    • +1

      I personally know Karen who partner of Darren

  • +65

    Who is Trevor long? What is eftm? Why do I care about either?

    Ok, I had a look. His website is an advert riddled pile of crap, and he is whining about a price error.

    Confirmed - I don't care about him or his ads.

    • +26

      Trevor is winning here because "troll bait" and "click throughs". What OP should have done is summed up and quoted the article here and not linked to the site and starved it of the oxygen it needs to survive.

      We needed to laugh at Trevor and his tanty without giving him the click throughs to feed his advertising revenue.

      • +3

        naughty op

        • +2

          Maybe op is Trevor Long?
          (he played us like a fiddle)

      • This is true. He'll make enough off the visits to want to do it again.

      • +2

        Yeah, rookie mistake. Sorry, but fixed now, albeit a bit late.

  • +8

    All of the internet sites have a pricing error voids attempted purchase clause…

    How does the stupid article where the guy has NFI about the web site order condition change the way OZ bargain users buy or crowd buy on an error and hope they get the order, but know it may get cancelled?

    • +3

      But, like, no one every reads those conditions, so it totally shouldn't apply to Trevor. He missed out on the deal of a lifetime!

  • +33

    I'd cop a $100 store credit for a pricing error any day of the week.
    Better than nothing.

  • +39

    Holy shit, the guy still got a $100 gift voucher for what they would have known was a blatant pricing error. Salty over something he wasn't entitled to in the first place, placed an order knowing it was definitely a pricing error and now all sooky they didn't let him have a TV he knew was almost $10k for $1.3k.

    I hope TGG's finds his article and cancels his "we're sorry" voucher as well.

    Cry harder, Trevor, you greedy, whiny shit head.

    • +4

      entitled

      Sums it up

  • +3

    This reminds me of David Richards the plagiarist over at Channel News who posts whole articles abiut Telstra when they over charge him or Harvey Norman cause he blames Gerry Harvey for him being excluded from industry events (it def doesn’t have anything to do with him being a hack)

    • +6

      I blame Gerry Harvey for a lot of things too. Mainly for Gerry Hervey…being Gerry Harvey

      • Auto correct lol.

  • It would be interesting if one of these situations ever got to court. I don't expect that they'll be forced to honour the advertised prices, but I would like to see if the court takes into account how many "price errors" a certain vendor has advertised recently etc when handing down their decision. And also what frequency the errors occur for the court to consider it to be "too frequent".

    • It's interesting,
      A certain online bike shop i worked for had a guy buy a helmet which was a price error (price was below cost price which they showed the judge).
      They cancelled and the guy took them to court.

      He won…

      This is why everywhere now chucks the wording in their T's & C's and no doubt TGG would have this to protect them so i doubt it would go very far.

    • +3

      It's a commonly taught in business law that advertised prices are treated as an "invitation to treat"
      Look up Fisher v Bell [1961]

      Pricing errors are not be enforceable
      But once the retailer payment it becomes another matter

      • it seems like online purchases are being considered an offer until they are verified and finalised. i wonder if that has been tested in court. how is payment being taken not considered final for online purchase?

        • +1

          I believe the contract is not complete until title of the goods has transferred to the buyer.

          Until then the contract remains conditional to the T&Cs of the shop/site which usually gives them the right to cancel.

          With consumer law it is a question of if it is misleading and deceptive conduct. A genuine error doesn't fit this.

  • +4

    Like - who cares ??

  • +7

    I knew from the get-go it had to be a mistake, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not entitled to the deal.

    Sounds like a typical entitled ozbargain whinger to me.

    • +2

      At least he didn't try to Broden the deal.

    • doesn't mean I'm not entitled

      No mate, you're definitely entitled

      No shortage of entitlement mentality for you

      No sir

  • +3

    What are your thoughts about this article

    My guess? Trevor knew it was a price error and TGG wouldn't deliver, but went for it, not for the chance that they would get a tv, but because they knew they could write a fluff piece to get clicks for $$$. The store credit was just a bonus.

  • +6

    Another entitled dick, why should I click on your link?

  • +2

    Wait till he finds our about the free coffee deal

    • Was wondering who was gunna say it 😂

  • Content is King.

    • +4

      Trev doesn't seem very content

  • I can understand one off price errors but has there been a case where a business was fined for this practice of doing it often?

    Otherwise, what's to stop a business from doing 10% RRP for first 100 orders or 2 weeks and then cancelling all the orders with store credit?

    • +4

      This isnt "bait and switch". They did not lure Trevor with a too good to be true price and then say at the last minute, "oh, we dont have any of them left, but we can sell you this Chingwah ZOL3D FREO instead" or sell Trevor a TV and then replace it with an inferior model (ie: Buying a Kia Stinger and getting given a Picanto because that's all they had left")

      This was just a pure pricing error and someone in the field of high end audio visual equipment who reviews equipment for a living would have known this. Trevor is a spoiled brat who tried to game the system and got shut down. Now he is crying on his website about how they wouldn't honor a price error they he, of all people, would have known it was.

      It's essentially Trevor being childish and chucking a little tanty.

  • You took four minutes of my life and I want them back.

    Oh, I'd only waste them anyway.

  • OMG it's a scam, should report it to police, or NATO

    • +3

      Call Dennis Denuto pronto!

      • +1

        Someone needs to tell Trevor he was dreaming.

  • He should have gone and picked it up right away instead of using delivery. Once he had it in hand it would be to late for TGG.

    • +2

      Agreed. Rookie error. Or did he know exactly what was going to happen and wanted that to fill up his content for the next couple of weeks?

  • -1

    He be a (profanity)

  • Glad he cleared up TGG t&G. This guy is the tech guy on Nine. Not getting his free tech TVs hey. Still getting junkets to US tech fairs tbough

  • A brief window existed for an Officeworks Pricematch and were missed… lol

  • +1

    i stopped reading after the first sentence because he sounds like an entitled douche who clearly has nfi what he’s talking about

  • +1

    Ozbargainers: "oh yea we tried, most likely to be cancelled. We had fun"

    Trevor: "F TGG, they didnt honor the deal. F them. Whine whine whine!"

  • +1

    Copy-and-paste here (excluding pictures)

    ~~~

    THE GOOD GUYS $8700 DISCOUNT ON SAMSUNG NEO QLED TVS LEAVES CUSTOMERS WISHING
    Posted by Trevor Long | Jan 27, 2022 | Tech
    The Good Guys $8700 Discount on Samsung NEO QLED TVs leaves customers wishing

    I knew from the get-go it had to be a mistake, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not entitled to the deal.

    That’s how I see the stuff up at The Good Guys today, which has surely left some poor employing crying in the corner in the fetal position.

    This morning, just before 8am, the intrepid team of EFTM Man Cave moderators were made aware of a cracking deal on Samsung NEO QLED TVs at The Good Guys.

    For context, this is the TV that took out our Best Award just last year – it’s stunning, and to top it off, the deals were on the 8K version.

    New TVs for 2022 are due soon, so we do expect to see deals to clear stock, but was this one too good to be true?

    Of course, but does that mean it’s right? Hell no.

    I got the credit card (actually PayPal) out and ordered one pronto. An 85 Inch Samsung NEO QLED TV for $1,285 plus delivery. At JB HiFi that’s a $9,995 TV.

    Boom, order placed.

    Order Confirmed.

    There it is, In full colour in my email.

    And then, nearly four hours later, the joy came crashing down.

    Now, at the time of writing, I’m still yet to receive any instruction in my inbox. Poor form Good Guys.

    UPDATE: Just got an email:

    $100 voucher for missing out on the deal of a lifetime?

    So, given I knew it had to have been an error, but wondered about those who legitimately were shopping for a TV this morning. Where do we stand?

    On the website, these TVs were in fact listed as “ADVERTISED” which made me think – well, maybe it’s some awesome snap deal. Limited quantity or something.

    So I asked the NSW Department of Customer service where we stand.

    A spokesperson for NSW Fair Trading told EFTM “Retailers can refuse to accept orders made online or to cancel orders in accordance with their terms and conditions, as long as the terms and conditions do not contravene Australian Consumer Law or other laws.

    “Consumers may seek independent legal advice on rights and obligations regarding any contractual disputes.”

    And yes, if you go back and search for their T&C’s which no buyer in the history of online shopping has ever read – it says this:

    We have some of the best consumer laws in the world. They offer ongoing protection for the buyer way past any warranty, and they hold businesses to account.

    But in reality, this really isn’t fair.

    In this case – it’s clearly and error – but in reality, it shows that a retailer could simply cancel a bunch of orders at their own whim – what’s the point of advertising a price if you can’t be held to the price?

    Do I think The Good Guys should be forced to deliver all these orders? Probably not.

    Would it teach them a valuable – in fact very costly lesson about why prices should be checked and double checked all the time? Hell yes.

    Would it be fascinating if all the “buyers” in this instance took out a class action in defence of our rights to get a product at the advertised price – shit yeah. I wonder.

    Regardless, it’s another great reminder that if it looks too good to be true – it most probably is.

    • +3

      ”I knew from the get-go it had to be a mistake, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not entitled to the deal.”

      Says it all really.

      • +1

        Knew it was a mistake means that Trevor was not entitled to the deal, as there was no deal.

    • +1

      Thanks davidmwilliams. I have replaced the link with your copy and paste. I see no reason for EFTM to get unnecessary clicks and will not make this mistake again.

  • It's as dumb as people who complain at the registers when an item was put in the wrong place on the shelf and it costs more than the tab said.

    • Not quite - we had one local chain of supermarkets that would consistently lower the price of one variety of items where the difference between the varieties was hard to spot, like the one line listing the flavour in the same colour, length and font as the cheaper version, where the higher priced item would invariably spill into the space above the reduced sticker.

      Only to be expected - but not when I made a point of going to the supermarket first thing when they opened and find that the restacker had " accidently" jumbled up the items on the shelf, consistently, over the whole week…

  • +1

    He comes across as a self-entitled jerk and his writing reeks of self-importance. People make mistakes. Seems to me he thinks it's totally OK to bankrupt a store just to appease his ego.

    (OK I exaggerate - it wouldn't bankrupt TGG but it was a mistake, not clickbait, obviously).

  • +2

    i cant really glean any thoughts about Trevor Long, the person but it sounds to me like he knew this was a pricing error and he would be refunded but he set out from the outset to write an article based on this.

    So its nothing more than a cheap article setup on nothing.

    There's lots of mis-pricings all the time.

  • +1

    howcome this deal never made it to ozbargain?

    • +5

      Trevor Long is one of the OB members who doesn't post a deal until he gets his item first.

  • +1

    i think if something like this happens you expect your order to get cancelled but if it goes though and you pick up the item then it is on the store until it is in your hands and you have walked out the door you cant expect anything.

    only issue i have is if 'refunds' take 3-5 business days if the store stuffs up the refunds should be instant

    • A refund is usually instant as far as businesses are concerned. It takes banks a few days to process it, and TGG can't do much about that.

  • Entitled brag is what he is..

  • +6

    He’s an amateur, should have done click and click and collect and got down to his local.
    9am - log into ShopBack and buy 5 x 85”
    9:10am - Go to Buunningz and buy meself a 2m cleet and get their free trailer
    9:30am - Rock up with Click & Collect and load on 5 Monsters
    9:45am - Get to house and realise I can’t get them through foyer area
    10:30am - With the rain we decide to drive back tostore and swap them for 75”’s.
    11:00am - Receptionist needs manager to over ride return and sales and will come see me once done
    13:00 - Manager appears and after reviewing says he will refund us but we will have to wait 5 days. Totally understand with technology these days and we shake hands as they are Good Guys and go on our merry way.
    13:15 - Return trailer to Bunnings and ol mate gives me an earful for taking 4 hours with his trailer for a small cleat
    13:30 to now I’m at Bunnings Powerpass counter trying to get a refund on my cleat but said I have to wait 5 days which is really really frustrating. Now I see red as I’m reading this Trevor bloke got a $100 voucher for 1 TV and I got a handshake for 5 of em. I’ll go back and see those Good Guys shortly.

  • +1

    Trevor thinks of himself as a "journalist" because he writes for some random website that no one has heard of before, and probably thought that with his massive influence, TGG will give him a free/discounted TV just to shut him up.

    the truth is, Trevor might have a better chance if he made a tik tok video about it.

  • +2

    Bought a retail $12k TV discounted 90% and waited 4 hours to get a rejection?

    …. A true ozbargain member would have gone to the nearest available store to pick up the TV immediately once he has got the confirmation before any of TGG staff realized there is an error.

    • +1

      Sounds like google nest hub Max:)

      • I missed out on that… But I did used my Telstra points to redeem a hub Max 😁.

        Still waiting for Mark Cerny to give a free PS5 game…

        Viva Ozbargain

  • +2

    Who?

  • My issue with him is that he knew or suspected the price was wrong, but did not pick up the phone to check. That would have been the ethical thing to do. Instead, he did not want to alert them to the fact they had made an error in the hope that he might score a massive bargain. If he had managed to get one, I bet he would not have written an article about how he took advantage of a genuine mistake.

    • +1

      Funny, when i read this I thought about Harvey Norman pricing doing essentially this exact thing in reverse - preying on customer trust to get them to overpay when a quick google for the same item would often net it much cheaper

  • -1

    I’ve been on Ozbargain for a few years and find it very amusing reading these comments from people bagging him for this, when literally everyone doing so would be on here looking to have the CEO of GoodGuys hung in a city square if they had tried to buy this TV and had it cancelled like he is whinging about.

    • +4

      Try again

      Every pricing error post has those sort of comments from anyone new to the site. Anyone that's been around longer than 5mins knows otherwise

      • -1

        Even the Bunnings drone post?

        • You're picking a needle out of a pile of hay with that example.

          I've seen so many good guys price errors

          • -2

            @Sammy Boi: How many examples am I required to provide to satisfy your idea of providing an example?

            Am I supposed to pick a whole grouping of pricing errors that occurred at the exact same moment in time by multiple retailers across a diverse range of goods and services that return a balanced proportion of negative to positive comments representative of Ozbargainers of ever level of experience?

            It was just an example.

  • +3

    Trevor Wrong

  • I feel like this article was meant to be interpreted in a sarcastic tone, but he didn't quite manage it.

  • Get educated and then get a real job. You wont have to resort to this type of nonsense to buy your dream items.

  • +1

    We should start a GoFundMe to get Trevor a TV.

  • Purely a promoted post to direct traffic to whatever garbage site that is to get ad revenue.

    • Nah. Just a rookie mistake, which I have now rectified.

  • +1

    I’ve always felt that once it’s paid for, the deal is done. Apparently not.

  • I’d tell this numb scull that it’s an invalid transaction based on od of 8 contract laws in this case take ur pick of

    • due consideration
    • unjust enrichment
    • capacity - possibly
  • -1

    when I studied contracts at uni law faculty I was told that an advertised price was an 'offer to deal' and not binding on the seller

    some businesses may try to attract more customers by offering more refunds or 'honoring' mistakes - beyond 'Australian Consumer Law which requires businesses to refund the difference between any overcharged amount and the correct price of the item' - https://www.coles.com.au/customer-care (note 'overcharged' is AFTER the exchange of goods for money/consideration, not before)

    it appears any old code of practice about 'free if wrong price' seems to have been discreetly removed from Colesworth websites - like the WOW policy change of refunds for mistaken purchases during COVID as you 'might have touched it'

    like they care so much about sustainability that they stopped giving away single-use plastic bags - so now instead you have to pay 15c for much heavier plastic which will sure as hell stick around in the environment for longer …

    reading the OP - 'NSW Fair Trading told EFTM “Retailers can refuse to accept orders made online' - guess the OP didn't like to hear that from the gov't - anti-vaxx anyone ?

    • like they care so much about sustainability that they stopped giving away single-use plastic bags - so now instead you have to pay 15c for much heavier plastic which will
      sure as hell stick around in the environment for longer …

      I mean, exactly, imagine a store complying with the law. Outrageous. They must only do it to destroy the environment, we all know that is the actual reason the lizard people are all on the board of the big supermarkets.

    • appears any old code of practice about 'free if wrong price' seems to have been discreetly removed from Colesworth websites

      You need to look harder, it's still there.

      • If I recall correctly the Supermarket code of conduct had this introduced to encourage customers to trust the scanning system rather than anything else… and as far as I know, they still honour it as I had this happen to me recently and they just gave me the item for free without any questions (I didn't ask for it to be free either, I just said it came up differently, someone in Woolies went and saw the price tag was still there from a previous promotion, and so they removed it).

  • that doesn’t mean that I’m not entitled to the deal

    Yes, yes it does. What a dipsh!t.

  • Should have done click and collect.

  • I think this is entitlement.

    If someone made a mistake regarding the sale of an item, the owner of that item has all the rights not to sell it or sell it at a different price. It's his/hers until you paid for it and you took possession.

    I knew from the get-go it had to be a mistake, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not entitled to the deal.

    I keep meeting more and more entitled people. Sick of it.

    But in reality, this really isn’t fair.

    In this case – it’s clearly and error – but in reality, it shows that a retailer could simply cancel a bunch of orders at their own whim – what’s the point of advertising a price if you can’t be held to the price?

    Yes, because they are the owners of the item, not you. Not until paid for it AND took possession, sometimes not even then.

  • Most advertising has protections built in, E&OE, covers them in most situations of errors like that

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