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I think it might be laugh to share how Currys would try to squirm out of honouring their advertised Price Promise (Price Match)!
(Edit; Oops I left out a couple of emails)
Submitted a Price Match for an item sold by PRC Direct and got this reply from Currys:
I then replied with this:
Currys reply:
My reply:
Currys replied [quoted verbatim] (I really don't know what he was talking about!):
(Edit; Oops I left out a couple of emails)
Submitted a Price Match for an item sold by PRC Direct and got this reply from Currys:
- Thanks for your price match request. We are unable to match this company.
- This is because they display no company or VAT information meaning we cannot verify that they're a genuine UK retailer.
- Please do not reply to this email, as replies to this mailbox are not monitored. If you do find another retailer that meets our terms and conditions then please fill out the price match form online via the link below and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
- cws.secure-mobiles.com/emb…tch
- Thanks for contacting Shoplive Admin.
I then replied with this:
- This is blatantly dishonest.
- Their Company name and links to their address are found at the bottom of their webpage.
- If you don't want to price match then you could say least make up a better excuse!
Currys reply:
- Thanks for writing us back.
- With reference to the below email, we have reviewed the details via [PRC website link] and it appears they have not dispalyed the VAT details on their website. It is required and mandatory for legal process.
- You are absolutely right in stating that footer of the website have company details however does not have VAT details. The request had been declined due to non-display of VAT.
- This does not mean you can not request for price to promise match. If you do find the cheaper cost with some other competitor's, simply fill online form and we will be happy to take a look into that request.
- We do understand and know how you must have felt, at this point even words will be not enough to amend it. Let me re-assure you that if you share the other competitor's link and meet our terms for sure we will go ahead process price to promise match request.
- Hope it helps and answer your query.
My reply:
- Hi,
- I'm pleasantly surprised and grateful that you have replied.
- I do not believe that your advertised Price Promise T&C requires a competitor to be VAT registered. As you should be aware the VAT registration threshold in the UK is £85,000 per annum. Please advise why you are presuming that PRC are over this threshold and are required to be VAT registered in order to prove they are a genuine UK retailer? If they are not required to be VAT registered then they wouldn't have a VAT number to display.
- However, if you already have information that they are VAT registered then that would also mean that Currys have already verified that they are a genuine UK retailer and that all of this is just to avoid honouring a genuine price match promise request from a customer.
- Regards,
Currys replied [quoted verbatim] (I really don't know what he was talking about!):
- Thanks for writing us back.
- We do understand and aware how you must have felt. At this point words would be not enough to amend it. To be honest, we are not meant to serve our customer in that manner.
- Further, the update and feedback which we have from our concerned team who keeps monitoring the details for our competitor it is mandatory that competitor which is in question must have displayed the VAT information on their website. You are absolutely right in saying that threshold for VAT within UK is £85,000 and our team is aware about that fact.
- There must be something conclusive which has comes up with impression and VAT information dispalyed has been asked for. Any organization or business organization within UK have VAT and fter a business registers for VAT, it's able to reclaim any VAT paid on company purchases and becomes responsible for: Charging VAT on any goods or services sold.
- Also, any retailer within UK having online perstivity display the VAT which at some extent also helps in verifying the genuiness for them while they are operating.
- Hope it clarify and answer your query.
- Kind Regards,
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40 Comments
sorted byYou have complied with all their terms. currys.co.uk/ser…tml
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VAT Info on the website is NOT part of their terms. PRC is a huge company and I have previously price matched an OLED via John Lewis against this company.
No. Just Completesavings.co.uk. You could get £100 One4all card for £80 every month.
Or when Monese have their 80% giftcard promotions. I usually try to max out. Got 2 x £400 Asda giftcards a few weeks ago for £320 each. Could then buy any giftcards they sell including Currys.
For example PRC had the Samsung q900a soundbar for £749. If Currys pricematched and I claimed the Samsung £300 cash back then my net cost would be £236.79
£749
-£62.41 (10% Completesavings cashback)
-£149.80 (20% giftcard saving)
-£300 Samsung cashback
= £236.79
Probably even less because for me Currys cashback has always been calculated based on their original price before deduction of their price match code.
Without price match it'll be:
£849
-£70.75 (10% Completesavings cashback)
-£169.80 (20% giftcard saving)
-£300 Samsung cashback
= £308.45
Still cheap either way, but I just buy for the thrill of getting the extra discount and I don't actually really need another soundbar! (edited)
Seems reasonable for Currys to decline to pricematch a company that by its own declarations does not exist.
What is the name of the limited company selling the Samsung Q900A at £749? (edited)
VAT number isn't in their terms because it doesn't need to be. If a company is VAT registered then it must BY LAW state its VAT number. It has been this way since 1985.
A VAT number is required by law on any vat registered company website. If Currys don't have that then they cannot guarantee it is a UK seller. Therefor their response is correct. Also if it is cheaper elsewhere why not just buy it from elsewhere. Why do you have to buy from Currys? (edited)
You may be missing the point and relevance of the missing (sic) VAT number.
The organisation that runs the PRCD website claims a company that does not exist is selling the products.
As the company doesn't exist, it does not have a VAT number (nor a registered office, nor a registered number, nor a country of registration, etc).
Companies are legally obliged to state these disclosures on websites. The operator of the PRCD website chooses not to comply.
No rational PM check will validate against a website that does not cite credible company information, and certainly not against a website where the stated company does not even exist.
No. Every single page of the website specifically states "PRC Direct Ltd". The inclusion of "Ltd" within the name on every website page is significant and goes beyond any degree of minor mistake, typo, or casual error. It is not even a previous trading name.
The website operator also chooses not to state any mandatory disclosures of any company.
Has it accidentally forgotten to state VAT No for 20 years and other mandatory disclosures for 6+ years?
Epic fail? Gross negligence?
It is simply unreasonable to expect an employee performing PM to dig through wades of what appears to be deliberately misleading info to ascertain if a company / website is legitimate or not.
However, OP could present the content of this thread to Currys.
Will Currys PM against a company that doesn't claim to sell any goods? Unlikely.
If the "Ltd" was removed from all website pages and full mandatory disclosures were presented: definitely.
You still appear to miss the point and labour on the VAT context.
The VAT issue is the distraction.
Look at the very first response from Currys:
"...they display no company or VAT information meaning we cannot verify that they're a genuine UK retailer..."
This is a factual statement where the critical element is "no company... information", because the company stated simply does not exist. Instant PM fail #1
Nowhere on that website does it state the name of a legitimate seller, a VAT no, reg office address, reg number, country of registration, etc, hence the legitimate Currys statement:
"meaning we cannot verify that they're a genuine UK retailer."
Currys should actually be given some respect because it hasn't simply binned the PM based solely on the non-existent company, Currys has actually spent time to look for and / or attempt to check VAT data for the company, but obviously the company has chosen to flout legislation by not bothering to state its VAT number, plus the stated company will not appear in any VAT database as the company does not exist. Instant PM fail #2.
Anybody performing a 60 seconds pre-purchase due diligence check would immediately discover these catastrophic fails and the potential customer would appropriately walk away.
Same with the PM check.
The other observation is that the organisation must lose business due to this ineptitude because quite frankly it comes across as any other scam / cloned site with close-to-real-but-ficticious presence.
Even a half-competent chancer could easily register a similar domain name, clone the site and have exactly as much (non)legitimacy and (non)credibility as the current website operators, which Currys would again legitimately decline to PM.
If they won't price match (and from comments above they seem like they've been fairly diligent) buy from the other place.
If you don't want to buy from the other place then why should Currys Price match.
Seems fair enough to me. They have to draw a line (or circle) somewhere.
If they match at 31 miles for you, why not 32 miles for me? and why not 33 miles for the OP? and eventually you end up price matching with that little shop on some remote part of the UK that you'll never actually travel to to buy in-store. (edited)
Tonight a John Lewis lamp deal was refused as I mentioned an extra discount was available (they honour these according to their ads), but not this item as you need to be a MyJohnLewis member. But they would not honour the initial cheaper price.
I think their “Cheapest Price. Full Stop” policy is false advertising as, in my experience, I have NEVER been able to get them to apply the promise. Ever,
I’ve gone through a similar experience where an agent on the phone looked up their list of competitors they match and said that one of them was listed (a U.K. coffee website), but when requesting the match on webchat I was told: 1st time) they don’t include free delivery and something about U.K. law saying this is required so Currys won’t match. 2nd time) same thing about VAT not displayed. But the Currys agent on the phone has previously said they price match that competitor.
Not to mention, they don’t match Costco but have Costco on the their website under the price match section for the product. Why list it as a competitor if you don’t match it?
In-store they say that they don’t match companies where membership is needed, including Amazon, but then the manager let it slip that they have matched Amazon. I told him you don’t need to be a Prime member to shop on Amazon; he still says they don’t match Amazon.
Long story short, I’ve reported them to the ASA and also BBC watchdog for false advertising and misleading customers.
"We have reviewed you price match request and the link you have shared. Unfortunately, to place the order on competitor's website first it requires to login to your account. Also, I am afraid can only price match with the online order even if it is for click and collect, but to check the future details we need to make sure that the website allows a guest checkout for everyone. "
"Unfortunately, your selected retailer only provides delivery dates after purchase. This means that we are not able to match their price as it goes against the terms of our price match policy."
"This is because the items are sold on different terms. The competitor’s returns policy states that you are responsible for the cost of returning the goods to them, which contradicts our returns policy."
"This is because the items are sold on different terms. The competitor’s returns policy states they will refuse a return if the package has been opened or used which contradicts our returns policy." (edited)
Agreed, I try to avoid price matching as the money should go to the company with the deal itself (unless you are gaining on warranty for instance).
They demand the competitor must have a VAT number displayed in the footer of their website and falsely state it is legally required in order to prove that it is genuine retailer, but Currys themselves don't show their VAT No. on their own website footer. As I stated in my reply a business with less than £85,000 turnover would have no legal requirement to register for VAT and they are presuming that PRC Direct is VAT registered while pretending it is to ensure that it is a genuine UK retailer.
For some reason these "requirements" are omitted from their own Price Promise T&C and it appears to be obvious that they're made up on the fly by whoever is unlucky enough to have to deal with a Price Promise request.
Yeah, but since I usually could get Currys giftcard at 20% off and then also 10% cashback it is worthwhile on occasion they do price match! (edited)
My days, 20% off Currys vouchers?! Your work scheme must be pretty generous?
I bow to your knowledge...
This company earn a lot more than 85k per year. Their rent alone for the premises is 55k per year based on their own accounts. And also Currys didn't state it should be on the footer it just said their is no VAT info which their isn't. Currys VAT number is in the terms and conditions linked at the bottom of the home page (edited)
Lol, the limited company that the OP is attempting to PM against doesn't exist. That is why Currys legitimately declined the PM.
PRC Direct were selling it for £749 earlier today. There was a deal posted on HUKD
Looking into it, you're correct "PRC Direct Ltd" does not exist and most likely never existed. "PRC Direct" appears to be the trading name. After googling, the actual company should be "PRC HiFi & Video Ltd" and has been incorporated since 1980. Their vat number is GB250184388.
It's disappointing that such a well established independent retailer could make such a huge mistake on their online presence.
However, I don't think these are the reasons why Currys have not honoured the price match!
It's just pot luck otherwise they would've just said "oh sorry, it appears as if PRC Direct Ltd doesn't exist".
It appears that PRC Direct is a known independent retailer to Currys since they already assume the competitor must be vat registered with greater than £85k turnover otherwise they would not be insisting they must have a vat number on their website.
Maybe the competitor have breached The Electronic Commerce Regulations 2002 by not showing their vat number, but how does this affect the Price Match? Are Currys responsible for policing competing companies? Maybe next time they would say, we couldn't price match because the competitor company filed their annual accounts at Companies House late by 1 day!
ok, you can get 20% off on one4all but how can you spend £700 with 7 different cards? i am sure you can do it in store, but how do you use online...? just thought to check...
Another store agreed then once they heard the tesco price then backed out and said no.
You could take the One4all into a Currys and use each £100 card to top up a Currys gift card.
As I stated in my post that you had originally replied we are in agreement on their "mistake":
"It's disappointing that such a well established independent retailer could make such a huge mistake on their online presence."
I don't think it is deliberate that whoever they paid to create their website mistook their trading name "PRC Direct" as a non existent "PRC Direct Ltd" company. However I do agree the Director is grossly negligent and did not specify what statutory information is required.
It is unlikely that they would've had deliberately decided to use a fictitious company name to avoid showing their vat number on their website! I don't see how they would benefit in that way. Any sales generated via the website should already be declared via the VAT Return for their real Ltd company otherwise I don't see any payment processor letting them collect payments for a company not listed on Companies House.
Cool. That does make sense, I m just topping up Argos Card now a days as I am just having some balances left on the One4all all the time and not sure what to do with these... May be I'll walk into currys and ask them to topup each card with £4 £2 etc...
Can you explain about Monese please... (edited)
You could search for any recent Monese gift card deal on HUKD for further details.
Thanks, so I guess I need to open the monese account to qualify buying these giftcards then...
Exactly. I find Tesco's "same price as Aldi" price match pathetic. I would be impressed if they beat Aldi rather than just match the odd items.
Yes, you would need to have an account open and a HUKD keyowrd alert setup since whenever they have one of their discounted giftcard promotions they get sold out quite quickly.
Wierd cos it say free delivery on all games but it still charges me! (edited)
It's so random I get price match one day the next day they say no price match for this retailer lol
Literally 1 day later xd (edited)
I wanted to ask if anyone knows how many times you can do a price match request on a purchase.
Say you found a £10 reduction , and got that matched , but then you found a £20 reduction elsewhere afterwards?
This may be an issue this time round as Currys are doing a 14 day price promise for Black friday