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The one that annoys me is blatantly fake RRPs. There is a Chinese watch maker behind the brand "Thomas Earnshaw", capitalising on the London watchmaker who was
by PaulRobinson 11y ago
The one that annoys me is blatantly fake RRPs.
There is a Chinese watch maker behind the brand "Thomas Earnshaw", capitalising on the London watchmaker who was a pioneer in the field centuries ago. They claim their full RRP is somewhere in the region of £600 for one of their automatics. I don't think they've ever sold one for that price - they sell them in the £150 range on the basis it's "so cheap!" to so many consumer.
They're not awful watches, but really, they're £50 automatics, and should be sold as such. By insisting that they are £600 watches, and the constantly offering deep discounting, they are basically playing games with the consumer and almost tricking them into paying 3x their true worth.
If you're not that educated about automatic watches, you're not sure what the difference is between movements and which ones are worth money and which are not, it's hard to not be hoodwinked.
I think for a while certain PC and laptop manufacturers at the lower end of the OEM market played the same games, especially on bulk account deals going into education and healthcare markets, especially in the UK. Go look inside a Viglen or RM machine and tell me that they are worth the list price. They aren't, but it looks good on paper when somebody "negotiates them down because of the size of the order".
- DanBC 11y agoHave you told Advertising Standards? They'll investigate how often the product was sold at various prices points. For example, see this recent ruling: https://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudications/2016/3/Argos-Ltd/SHP_ADJ_319643.aspx#.Vt10b1T47To https://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudications/2016/3/Argos-Lt...
- sosuke 11y agoInvictafication is a word I've seen used to describe this as well. Invicta watches are at a constant 80% to 95% off retail!
- bluedino 11y agoFar worse are Stauer and Daniel Stieger, you can see their cheesy ads in magazines, comparing their watches to the name brands and sale prices of $69 USD with a retail of $499
- jdietrich 11y agoThat sounds like a marginally legitimate form of the old white van speaker scam. A guy in a parking lot approaches you, offering some hi-fi equipment under a ruse like "the warehouse ordered too many" or "it was left over after an installation job". They show you brochures or fake invoices with high list prices. The equipment is of course cheap garbage, worth far less than the supposedly discounted price. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_van_speaker_scam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_van_speaker_scam