PB Tech Increases Prices for Their Boxing Day Sales

neil on 28/12/2014 - 19:14

A user on Reddit has compared some of the prices on items before Boxing Day (via Google cache) and during Boxing Day sales at PB Tech.

They cite a couple of examples where the price went up:

Intel NEW Haswell Unlocked Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz 8MB LGA1150 Unlocked Processor(pbtech.co.nz)

Current Boxing Day Price: $484.15
Price (25/12(webcache.googleusercontent.com)): $483

Crucial 8GB DESKTOP DDR3 1600Mhz DIMM 240pin Non ECC PC3-12800 Desktop RAM(pbtech.co.nz)

Current Boxing Day Price: $96.60
Price (25/12(webcache.googleusercontent.com)): $95.45

They also cited a number of examples(imgur.com) where the price was the same.

ASRock H81M-HDS Socket 1150 Intel H81 Chipset,mATX,2 X DDR3 DIMM, VGA/HDMI/DVI, SATA3, USB3(Front & Back), Gigabit Lan(pbtech.co.nz) sells for $72.45 in their current Boxing Day sale however they were selling it for $74.75(webcache.googleusercontent.com) on December 21.

Users in the Reddit thread are calling for blood from PB Tech but is the company obliged to price their items lower in a Boxing Day sale?

The Commerce Commision's fact sheet on pricing(comcom.govt.nz) states:

All sales, however, imply that a lower price than usual is being charged. Any goods or services a business promotes as part of a sale must be priced below normal levels.

They also reference specials:

Businesses advertising "special offers" or "specials" must be offering something genuinely special - such as lower prices or additional features - or they risk misleading consumers.

The statements are vague and don't specifically address sales where some prices increase, some prices decrease and some stay the same.

Is this a regulatory matter or is the onus on the consumer to be more savvy? A smart consumer could track prices via techniques such as Google cache. Using price comparison sites(choicecheapies.co.nz) can also help you find the best prices. The biggest lesson here is that a sale doesn't equate to a bargain.

Via Reddit(redd.it)

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Comments

  • Kiwi on 28/12/2014 - 22:06

    What I find more interesting is that they change the RRP(i.imgur.com)… now that is dirty!

    • neil on 28/12/2014 - 22:18

      That is interesting. Didn't notice that.

      • Kiwi on 28/12/2014 - 22:20

        Will look over some stuff on my next night shift and see if I can find many other cases of it.

  • kiwijunglist on 29/12/2014 - 23:39

    RRP dropped, around the time of the sale, that seems fine. It's not like it went up.

    • Kiwi on 29/12/2014 - 23:46

      Just FYI, you can hit 'reply' below a comment above to reply within the thread.

      Yea, you are probably right, but it happened at a very timely moment, and also the discount is now less too, after the RRP drop.

  • Toddy47 on 28/05/2015 - 19:59

    A bit late to the party, but.. A few years ago I received an E-mail from PBtech about a sale and decided the next day to buy one of the products on sale. Long story short the product was not discounted as advertised and the excuse was they had sold out (Same sku was available but at full price) It didn't take me long to realise that they were illegally advertising a product on sale but limiting the sale quantity to a few units (without specifying this in the promotion) to draw people into the store (website showed product was also out of stock, but physical stock was available). They knew exactly what they were doing because as soon as I quoted laws they were more than happy to sell me at the advertised price.

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