Froogle and PC World in cahoots?

Maybe its in the terms of Froogle but follow me down this path of mystery ;)

Mr Customer wants to buy a Sony VAIO SZ3XWP/C Laptop.

Sony Laptop
So, he checks on PC World business and see’s that it costs Â£1345 for that model.

First Image
Not wanting to be out done on a bargain he checks the prices of other sites by using Froogle.

Second Image
He sees that this laptop is listed on Froogle as being the cheapest at PC World business, but wait!! Wasn’t that laptop just Â£1345 at that same place?!

After clicking on the link to check that this is true he goes back to his other PC World Business screen and refreshes the page only to find this:

Second Image
If you then clear your cookies though, its back to the lower price!

You can check this yourself using these links:

First Use This One
Then Click This One
Then Refresh the first page.

4 comments

Matthew Revell January 4, 2007 11:34 pm

If you mean, “Are they allowed to display the price excluding VAT for people who visit their business targeted site” and then to fit in with Froogle’s policy of using VAT inclusive prices, when someone has visited from Froogle, then yes I imagine they are :-D

lee January 5, 2007 1:50 pm

I accept that I am a complete tit (only with regards to this) although I will be questioning the calculator of a collegue as when I suggested that one was inc VAT he said that they don’t work out.

Although, its still not nice that a revisit to that site shows the inc VAT price still.

David SEO Exec – pcwb.com May 11, 2007 9:09 pm

Hi guys,

Thought I’d add something here as I run our SEO and digital marketing (e.g. Froogle) here at PC World Business.

Matthew is right, it’s a difficult decision for us to make… do we display inc.VAT and risk losing our business-customer focus? Or do we display ex.VAT and risk looking like we are not being fully transparent about our prices?

We do try to be as clear as possible with our prices to avoid this kind of message, but trading in an predominantly ex.VAT sector does mean we have to be ex.VAT focused. We use cookies where possible to try and guess which price suits you best – ex.VAT prices will always have inc.VAT displayed next to it so we’re being honest about pricing.

You don’t have to be a registered business to buy from http://www.pcwb.com, but it may be easier to visit http://www.microwarehouse.co.uk instead, as it’s our professional consumer website and is less business focused.

Anyway, I hope I’ve gone some way to showing you we’re concerned about our customers’ opinions.

David Lindop
Search Engine Optimisation Exec,
DSGi Business

lee May 14, 2007 12:52 am

Thank you for clearing that up David. Its nice to see that some businesses and people go out of their way to clear things up. Even though it does appear that I was slightly (ok considerably) off the mark with this one.

Thanks again

Lee