Wedding photography company refuses refund after bride killed.
What a disgusting bunch of grubs.
1 Like
From my reading however, McDonald’s has refused to provide the same hand sanitizer to their staff, instead opting for ‘budget’ options that don’t meet Covid-19 removal requirements. A cash grab, nothing more
Edit: It has been clarified below that the profits will go to charity
1 Like
During the COVID crisis Mosaic brands took the opportunity to engage in panic marketing in an attempt to sell hand sanitisers. Our investigation found many of those who put in an order are still waiting for their order to arrive.
6 Likes
I firmly believe that Choice should create a name & shame list of businesses that behaved badly during the coronavirus crisis so consumers can readily check for those to avoid like the plague.
3 Likes
We have no shortage of Shonky contenders this year, that’s for sure
3 Likes
To be fair with Maccas though, they are donating 100% of the profits to RMHC. Now, I’m sure RMHC is a lovely tax write off for them, but its also a fantastic charity and they are a godsend for country families who have to travel to the city with their seriously ill children.
No doubt they’re hoping it will help drive foot traffic, but its not a total cash grab like some other companies.
5 Likes
I agree, a name and shame for shonky traders ripping off consumers. It can only benefit consumers.
2 Likes
I am in the technology field. When the AUD plummeted on March 9th is started recovering almost immediately. Within a week, most of the losses had been recovered. Yet, within 48 hours retailers increased prices by 30% - 40% where they’ve stayed ever since. They blame their supply chains. We are now at a six month high and they are still using that excuse. I think supply and demand has something to do with it. Whatever it is - this is outright gouging and exploitation of consumers. technology companies, particularly computer stores have had the best year they’ve had in decades. With so many people forced to work from home they’ve taken the opportunity to completely rip off Australians. It’s disgusting. There is no reason prices should be so high. It’s bad enough Australians are paying more than everyone else at the best of times, but now, it’s enough to make you sick. I won’t name retailers - but I will say, there is no computer retailer that is doing the right thing. At least not of the 40 or so I regularly watch. Shame on you people! The dollar is fine - put the prices back to what they were at the end of last year.
4 Likes
Welcome to the forum @Yanta!
This is a classic case of supply and demand as you mentioned. Supply has stayed the same or dropped a little, but demand has risen as you pointed out due to working from home. More people want to buy tech than what is being made, so they raise the prices to balance supply and demand.
Does that make it right? Hell no. Supply and demand is used to maximise profit, whilst locking out people with less disposable income. If they kept prices the same sure they might sell out fast, but during the current crisis I think most people would rather pay a notably lower price even if some items sell out.
2 Likes
Hi @Yanta, It’s an common concern.
It might help others if you can share some of your observations further. In particular your observations suggest one retailer has acted fairly, while others have not. There may be more than one that has been even handed with pricing. I’ve used Umart regularly for computer technology, and several others in Brisbane or on line.
There may be underlying trends with certain products that are driven by the supply chain, rather than the retailer.
Are there particular product examples you are able to share? Price recently vs price in Jan 2020 post the Boxing Day - New Year sales. With the release of the Intel 10th Gen CPU’s it would seem reasonable to see their release ripple through to sales on superseded models and downward pressure on AMD product pricing?
P.S.
Also note the Aussie dollar took a dive too. It’s only speculative as to which product lines were impacted most. Stock can be held in bond stores locally or shipped direct as required from OS.
1 Like
@Yanta did make mention of the AUD rise and fall in their post and the price rise of tech gear not in line with that dip and rise.
1 Like
The $AUD is about deuce from December to June, eg $USD 0.70 although took significant hits along the way.
Most multinationals set an exchange rate for each financial year for the purposes of their accounting called their ‘transfer price’ or some similar terminology. Regardless what an xrate does during the year they use that in lieu.
Some years they get it close, and others they might miss but over a few years they expect it to be good enough when they move money between currencies. Atop that national tax offices have their own definitions of what xrates are acceptable for taxation purposes.
My observation is some companies in some industries price similarly to our petrol cycles. They use the current xrate as an excuse even when it is far from a valid reason as well as superimpose whatever they can to justify how they behave price wise.
2 Likes
I did not name retailers for fear of violating terms of this site.
I can tell you with absolute certainty that of the 40 or so Computer retailers I watch daily (Either by directly visiting their sites, or using aggregation sites such as staticice.com.au), that the prices went up very quickly. The only problem with aggregation sites is there is a lot of false advertising there (retailers advertise at low prices and don’t have stock… click baiting; And the price on the aggregation site is different to the actual price when you hit the website - Both dubious tactics).
The drop occurred suddenly but recovered half of the losses quickly. Too quickly for the market to react. Stock levels in warehouses, on shelves, in transit and at the distributor in Sydney should not have been affected. Given how quickly the dollar recovered and the fact that it is now at a 12 month high, the next wave of orders could not have been at 30% higher supply chain costs, so as others have said, this is supply and demand… At it’s absolute worst. I can’t see how this cannot be considered exploitation and gouging. Anyway, the ACCC has said it’s all above board.
I bought a 12TB Seagate Ironwolf NAS drive in Feb for A$503 new. That drive is now selling on average for $679, and as much as $899. RTX 2080 Ti Graphics cards went from sub 2K to $2499 - $3499. Memory, Power Supplies, cases all skyrocketed. Motherboards and CPUs… Massive increases. I bought a 32" 2K monitor in January for $305… The same one 3 months earlier I bought two of, Also at $305. They are now at $399. SSDs were one of the lower increases, as they are already very highly priced. A $299 970 EVO Plus 1TB drive is now $349 on average. One major retailer dropped their price by one (1) dollar in the last 24 hours. One retailer went from $349 to $310, and over the last 24 hours increased back to $329.
The biggest Australian distributor for such parts is Ingram Micro. They used to be Tech Pacific.
As to which retailers, You only need to do a search on them you’ll see.
EDIT: Even if supply chains do take some time to recover, it’s been 3 months since the dollar started recovering, and was back at pre-crash values almost a month ago.
5 Likes
It’s great to see your examples, and for sharing some further product details. Interestingly the Seagate IronWolf NAS HD range are available in three different versions. A more expensive ‘pro’ model with longer warranty, an updated standard model and the still listed by some previous ‘n0004’ model. The pricing on the ‘n0004’ models appears to be very keen on those sites still listing it.
Umart list the 12TB ‘vn0008’ at $598, the pro ‘ne0008’ at $699, and a surprise ‘vn0007’ with 5yr warranty $618.
There is no current pricing on their site for the superseded model, which can be found on on the Seagate web site data sheets. It appears to have a slightly greater power consumption in operation and standby the newer version.
It appears you did well with your Feb purchase. It obviously still pays to look around when you see some of the other pricing. It’s equally important to do some research on model variations. A discounted previous model may still be all you need if the improvement is minor. I simply chose Umart as an example as they are one of the outlets I use and find reliable.
Yes, it’s easy enough to seek out the current best price. I simply take the best price on the day from those businesses that give good service. In general the frequency of purchases I’d make precludes checking perhaps as often as you have the trends. It’s challenging enough to keep up with the hardware technology. Tom’s hardware has been my goto in that instance. I used to subscribe to four or five monthly publications, purely as a part time interest and some gaming. It’s a carry over from my youth when an IBM PC cost more than a small car, and it was possible to build your own. Think Motorola 6800 and Signetics 2650 from parts and kits.
Sorry, I should have been more specific. The drive is a ST12000VN0007, You’re right. uMart have come down under the $600 mark. Missed that one. I don’t buy from them since they closed their Melbourne store, but good catch.
I normally spend about $15K per year on PC Stuff with 10 PCs at home to look after. This time of year I’m usually at $7K spend. This year, solely because of the increased prices I’m at $1900. The retailers are enjoying greater margins than they have for a year, and the massive increases make it insane to spend at this time (unless you’re forced to work at home - but I’m retired). Until they pass on the savings they are now enjoying as a result of the surge of the AUD, I won’t be doing any more upgrades, which I’m sure means nothing to them given the current demand.
They do ship nationally from their QLD/NSW stores. The postage is also reasonable and often the total delivered price is cheaper than local competitors. If one has a few days to wait for the delivery, it is worth investigating as an option. If it is a urgent replacement part to keep a device/storage functional, then a local retailer would possibly be worth the extra cost.
If there is a warranty issue, one has the option to go either back to Umart or to deal directly with the Australian distributor.
A grubby landlord has been charged after holding a tenant hostage and assaulting him.
The disgusting bottom-feeding price gouging grubs at GadgetCityAustralia have “slashed” the price of the Omron HFS 1000 from $999.00 to a mere $99.88.
Boycott them.
And the rip-off merchants at Livingstone have “slashed” the price of their face masks from $786.00 for 20 to a mere $492.80 for 20.
Fred123Scam Stopper Champion
An absolutely disgusting example of a medical supply company blatantly ripping off health professionals on PPE products.
Medical supply company charging $786 for a box of 20 face masks
Health professionals are incensed by dramatic price increases for face masks and other protective equipment by one of Australia’s largest medical supply companies.
Livingstone N95/P2 Face Mask Particulate Respirator, Discounted Price, LEVEL 3 Barrier Protection, Duckbill Shape, Adult Size, NIOSH, for Non Therapeutic Use, Single Pack, 30 per Box
Item No.: FMN95DNT
Status: Available Now
| Qty | Prices (Inc. GST) |
|---|---|
| 1+ | AUD 492.80 |
| 5+ | AUD 438.90 |
| 10+ | AUD 394.90 |
An article on the ABC News website regarding Choice investigated pandemic price gouging.
And the article on Choice’s website.
And Woollies re-instates product limits in expactation of another wave of panic buying.
They obviously expect that the idiots have learned nothing from their stupidity earlier this year.
6 Likes
It did not work well last time, and this time being ahead of widespread problems it will do little except reinforce the need to panic buy, even if only 2 items at a time. I must be off for my giant economy sized 48 roll pack of TP, x 2
5 Likes
