Half of Black Friday ‘deals’ last year were ‘bogus’ and you could have been ripped off
SHOPPERS are being warned to watch out for Black Friday deals - as a probe reveals a HALF of last year’s “offers” were bogus.
A staggering 49 per cent of products ‘on offer’ were actually cheaper in the months before or after Black Friday.
Researchers tracked deals on 20 popular tech gadgets and home appliances on Amazon, AO, Argos, Currys and John Lewis for the three months before and two months after Black Friday last year.
The results show that only 51 per cent of the products were cheapest on Black Friday itself, with the remainder cheaper before or after the day.
Even with the ones that were actually cheaper on Black Friday, stores exaggerated savings.
Less than one in ten (8 per cent) discounts were one-day only offers - where the Black Friday price was cheaper than on any other day.
Around one in ten (12 per cent ) were cheaper at some point in the three months leading up to Black Friday and four in 10 (38 per cent) were cheaper in the weeks after Black Friday.
In addition, Which? uncovered numerous examples of offers by retailers AO and Currys that appeared to inflate the “was” price to make deals look better than they actually are.
When promoting a discount like “was £100, now £50”, the “was” price should be the most recent price the item was sold at for 28 consecutive days or more. It must noe be a price that is more than six months old.
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Which? found examples where this had not been done. As a result, Which? believes that these retailers may be breaking government guidelines.
Pete Moorey, from Which?, said:“Shoppers might be surprised to learn that only half of Black Friday deals are actually cheapest on Black Friday. If you’re thinking about starting your Christmas shopping around Black Friday, do your research as some ‘deals’ may not be all they’re cracked up to be.”
Which? investigated 178 deals from Black Friday 2015. The investigation involved tracking deals on Amazon, AO, Argos, Currys and John Lewis on 20 popular types of tech gadgets or home appliances.
The prices were tracked every day for three months before and two months after Black Friday. The results showed that only 90 out of 178 deals tracked were cheapest on Black Friday
In response, Currys explained that keeping prices low after an event like Black Friday is good for shoppers.
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Likewise, AO said that some products may remain on promotion beyond Black Friday, adding that this gives customers ‘great deals beyond just the one day a year’. Both retailers claimed that they had followed the regulations and guidelines with regard to displaying discounts.
Examples of Black Friday discounts
Currys did drop this TV’s price for Black Friday – by a pound. It had been £749 since 30 October, before it was cut to £748 on 24 November.
Yet Currys claimed this was a saving of £101. Even worse, for 18 days in late August and early September you could have bought it for £699.
This vacuum cleaner cost, on average, £96.50 in the three months leading up to Black Friday.
So while it’s £99 Black Friday price tag was reasonable, it wasn’t as good a deal as the claimed saving of £200 suggested – especially as it had been sold at only £69 the day before.
This soundbar was £239 on Black Friday, which Currys said was a saving of £110.
While this was cheaper than it had been for the previous 50 days, you could have bought it for less at any time in September – from 28 August to 2 October, it was £230.
AO listed this model as £399 (‘was £529’) on Black Friday 2015. Its website said that it had been sold at £529 for 19 days, in 2014.
Which? was baffled as to why it used a ‘was’ price from a year go, rather than ‘was £499’ – the price it had been selling it at for almost three months prior.
The Black Friday price of £579 for this Samsung television was only slightly less than the price it was going for just days before Black Friday – £599.
It had been sold at £599 for months, making Currys’ decision to use a ‘was price’ of £699 both mystifying and, in our opinion, misleading.
Anyone buying this model for £1,149 on Black Friday must have been pretty happy with Currys’ claimed saving of £450.
Let’s hope they didn’t check back three days later when the price was cut to ￡1,079 – where it remained throughout January.
If you bought this TV on Black Friday, you would have paid £1,999.
It was still selling for that price on Christmas Day, but the real bargain was to be had in the post-Christmas sales, when the price was cut by £200 to £1,799.
This tumble dryer was £200 on Black Friday, with the Currys website proclaiming: ‘When they’re gone, they’re gone’. But this ‘offer’ – really a permanent discount – remained at £200 for two more months, until the end of January.
This TV was being sold for £359 (‘was £399’) on Black Friday.
But that wasn’t really a discount at all, considering that it had been sold at £359 continuously since 10 October, and for 71 of the previous 90 days.
Another TV with an out-of-date ‘was’ price – this time it was £1,649 and dated back to July. In the three months prior to Black Friday, Currys was selling it for £1,199.
By choosing to show the ‘was price’ as £1,649, it was able to artificially inflate the discount on this TV from £204 to £654 when selling it for £995 on Black Friday.
Despite AO advertising a £500 discount, this TV’s £1,499 Black Friday price wasn’t much of a special offer. It had been at that price since 3 November.
In fact, you could have bought this TV for £1,499 on 73 out of the 90 days before Black Friday.
The £299 Black Friday price of this TV – listed as ‘was £499’ – wasn’t much to shout about. It was often available for £289 during November and late October.
For the rest of the three months leading up to Black Friday, it was £299, £309 or very occasionally £319.
This fridge-freezer was sold for £749 (‘was £999’) on Black Friday, but that massively exaggerated the discount you would have got.
It had been sold at £849 for almost every day in the three months leading up to Black Friday, so the actual discount was £100 rather than £250.
AO claimed that this tumble dryer’s £469 Black Friday price represented a £90 saving (it ‘was £559’). In reality, it was selling it for £479 during the three months before Black Friday, making the true saving just £10.
AO’s website indicated that it hadn’t been sold at £559 since January – and then, for only eight days.
Currys listed this TV as £449 (‘was £899’) on Black Friday, but this apparently stonking saving wasn’t worth the virtual paper it was written on. It hadn’t been sold at that price since August.
The TV was going for a much more modest £499 from late August until early October – so this should have been the ‘was’ price instead.
Advice from Which? on smart shopping this Black Friday
Do your own research - look at the price on previous days to make sure you really are getting a good deal.
If you are not convinced by an offer or discount, hold off for a better one - Which? found 38 per cent of products were cheaper after Black Friday.
Shop at retailers with price promises, ensuring you can get a refund if your item drops in value in the weeks following your purchase.