We Pay Your VAT!!

[Over The Hill]

While I am quite happy for someone to give me a discount on something I buy, the present crop of "We pay your VAT" offers are really annoying me.
Am I alone?

They just don't make sense.

Item is £100 plus vat so is £120.00

They pay the vat so I get it for £100

Firstly they all say that is a saving of 20% IT IS NOT it is only 16.666% off.

Secondly, it is really silly to "pay my vat" instead of giving me the equivelent discount.
Paying my vat - I pay £100 to shop, shop pays vat man £20 and ends up with £80

Giving me £20 discount - I pay £100 to shop (same) they pay vat man £16.66 and end up with £83.34. (83.34 plus 20% vat)

So they are in fact telling me I am getting a 20% discount and am not giving me it. If they actually gave me the 20% discount then they save the extra in vat.

 

[tyred]

These type of ad campaigns sound good to people who don't think things through.

 

[I like Skol]

I suspect if you read the small print they are in fact just giving you a discount equivalent to the amount of the VAT. Your receipt will still show the amount of cash handed over the counter including the VAT element (which, if you are a VAT registered business, you would reclaim in the usual way).

Much more annoying than that though is the 50% sales such as from Halfords who regularly run scams worded like this-

'MASSIVE 50% sale with upto 50% off all satnav systems'

What they actually mean when you bother to go into the store is that they have given 50% off 1 type that they otherwise can't sell and everything else is a much smaller or actually no discount on ones like the popular Tomtoms. One day I will actually be bothered to complain to the ASA about this practice as surely they cannot say UPTO xx% off ALL and then not actually discount some of the products?

 

[Dan B]

The ASA have previously ruled that the word "unlimited" in "unlimited broadband" doesn't actually mean there are no limits. So I wouldn't pin much hope on them

 

[CharlieB]

I suspect if you read the small print they are in fact just giving you a discount equivalent to the amount of the VAT. Your receipt will still show the amount of cash handed over the counter including the VAT element (which, if you are a VAT registered business, you would reclaim in the usual way).

Much more annoying than that though is the 50% sales such as from Halfords who regularly run scams worded like this-

'MASSIVE 50% sale with upto 50% off all satnav systems'

What they actually mean when you bother to go into the store is that they have given 50% off 1 type that they otherwise can't sell and everything else is a much smaller or actually no discount on ones like the popular Tomtoms. One day I will actually be bothered to complain to the ASA about this practice as surely they cannot say UPTO xx% off ALL and then not actually discount some of the products?

Totally agree with the sentiments, but on the last sentence, technically the b@5t@rds could discount nothing, as up to xx% could as easily mean from 0% to xx%.

 

[thomas]

They probably put their prices up appropriately sometime last year anyway

 

[Roadkill]

We run price comparison sites and we get them every day... ridiculous, worthless deals designed to get attention.

Retailers have learned that Voucher Code sites will list any offer so they do the minimum to get on the site - 50p off of a single product can get them listed... marketing job done.... for both parties.

Another 'marketing technique' that we face is the slashing of prices on out of stock products, they list a stupid price because they know they'll never have to sell any at that price but they get a huge amount of traffic in the interim... of course the price reverts when it comes in to stock.

On the VAT issue, we usually see this offer from the retailers who have the margins to start with.... it's all a free lunch thing

Sorry, rant over

 

[Davidc]

The "up to 50%" slogan can mean no reduction, as 0 < 50. It could mean a price increase. A negative reduction is less than 50%.

Basically "up to" an amount is advertising bull poo.

So is "we pay the VAT". All it means is that the item has been discounted by 1/6 (16.7%)

Advertisers frequently take advantage of the population's generally low level of numeracy and arithmetic understanding. So does the lottery. No chance of this changing, we just have to look out for it.

 

[Over The Hill]

I am glad it is not only me then!

I get annoyed at "Free Gift"

What other sort of gift is there??

 

[Roadkill]

Argh "free gift" - we serious upset a retailer by relabelling theirs as "conditional gift"

 

[Davidc]

Another one that really annoys me is the BOGOF offer. It encourages waste.

Why not just half price?

I can't be the only person that ignores the BOGOFs (unless it's something that keeps indefinitely and I'll use the second or if I wanted two in the first place) but I will often buy something that's half price if it's a sensible substitution for what I'd otherwise buy

Free gifts aren't free gifts if they're conditional on another purchase. I read that in some American states they have to be described as "included in the price", as do the things we see as "25% extra free" and so on. About time it applied here too.

 

[asterix]

What about those offers on sofas: interest-free credit!

But if you ask for a reduction for cash, there isn't one.. .. the price is the same.

Fact is they want to give you a loan and presumably can claim there is no interest because the price is the same without a loan. I suspect there is commission involved for someone, somewhere.

 

[PBancroft]

Sales annoy me generally. Just offer your best price. If you need to mark stuff down because it isn't shifting, so be it. But stores of the likes of Stead and Simpson which perennially look as if they're closing down with window signs announcing "EVERYTHING MUST GO!" and "MORE LINES ADDED" do nothing but encourage me to go elsewhere and, yes, perhaps pay a bit more.

 

[Norm]

They cannot "pay your VAT", they are just giving you an equivalent discount. Checking any invoice which you receive from them will confirm the VAT breakdown.

 

[dodgy]

While I am quite happy for someone to give me a discount on something I buy, the present crop of "We pay your VAT" offers are really annoying me.
Am I alone?

They just don't make sense.

Item is £100 plus vat so is £120.00

They pay the vat so I get it for £100

Firstly they all say that is a saving of 20% IT IS NOT it is only 16.666% off.

Secondly, it is really silly to "pay my vat" instead of giving me the equivelent discount.
Paying my vat - I pay £100 to shop, shop pays vat man £20 and ends up with £80

Giving me £20 discount - I pay £100 to shop (same) they pay vat man £16.66 and end up with £83.34. (83.34 plus 20% vat)

So they are in fact telling me I am getting a 20% discount and am not giving me it. If they actually gave me the 20% discount then they save the extra in vat.