Edgar (aka MrConsumer) – Page 221

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J.C. Penney Now Restickering Goods with Higher Prices

May 20, 2013May 20, 2013 by Edgar (aka MrConsumer)

Following up on our story last week about J.C. Penney putting new higher “fake” regular prices on goods on their website (most likely so they could offer them “on sale” in the near future), consumer reporter John Materese of WCPO-TV in Cincinnati did his own hidden camera investigation at J.C. Penney stores.

He visited two JCPs and found that many goods were restickered with higher prices. How did he know that? He peeled off the new stickers to see what price was below!

*MOUSE PRINT:

In the above example, a new $18 sticker covers up an old $13 price.

Click picture to watch story or click here.

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“Fake” Regular Prices Return to J.C. Penney

May 13, 2013May 13, 2013 by Edgar (aka MrConsumer)

Poor Ron Johnson. He became J.C. Penney’s CEO a little over a year ago and promised to get rid of the admittedly “fake prices” that the company slapped on goods to make their many sales seem more deeply discounted than they really were. The public didn’t take well to his elimination of sales and coupons, and the company lost millions.

In April 2013, Ron Johnson was ousted, and the company is now apologizing to customers in a commercial acknowledging that they made mistakes. They are asking customers to “come back to J.C. Penney… we heard you.”

How are they going to get customers back in the door? They are probably going to reintroduce deep discounting. To start running 50% off sales again, however, they will first have to raise their regular prices to an artificially high level. To see if this was happening, Mouse Print* undertook a little spotcheck of their prices. Here are five examples of the regular everyday prices the company charged during Ron Johnson’s tenure, and how they have now been jacked up as a possible prelude to being offered “on sale” again.

*MOUSE PRINT: Example 1

*MOUSE PRINT: Example 2

*MOUSE PRINT: Example 3

*MOUSE PRINT: Example 4

*MOUSE PRINT: Example 5

In some of the cases above, the new “sale” price is already in effect showing seemingly significant savings, but it is virtually the same as the previous everyday regular price. In other cases, the item has not yet gone “on sale,” but the higher regular price has been established which could facilitate the company offering a seemingly deep discount from it.

Shoppers will likely flock back to their stores because, unfortunately, everyone loves a bargain even if it is a phony one. Lucky for J.C. Penney too, state Attorneys General will probably let them get away with it because of lax enforcement of local laws that prohibit fictitious discounts under certain circumstances.

Note: It is not known how many of JCP’s items have had their regular prices marked up.

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If You Don’t Read the Fine Print of Cable Ads…

May 5, 2013May 5, 2013 by Edgar (aka MrConsumer)

If you don’t read the fine print, particularly in ads from cable companies, you could get snookered.

Example 1:

Cox advertised high speed Internet for only $19.99 per month for two years.

*MOUSE PRINT:

When you clickthrough, you realize that you have to buy cable TV service for an unstated price, but if you only want Internet service, it is $10 higher — $29.99 but only for three months.

Why couldn’t Cox simply advertise in the first place: “Buy cable TV service, get high speed Internet for only $19.99/mo for two years” ?

Example 2:

The promotion of triple plays (TV, Internet, and telephone) is common among cable companies so one always seems to try to outdo the other. Here’s a deal from Charter: HDTV, Internet and Phone for only $29.99 a month. Wow, sign me up.

*MOUSE PRINT:

If you look carefully, in tiny print, you can see the word “each.” So the real price is $89.97 a month. Word has it that Comcast in the recent past had a similar ad that conveyed the impression to some people that you got all three services for only $29.99 a month.

Example 3:

It is common to see triple plays advertised for $99, but during special promotions you can sometimes find even lower prices. Just last week, Verizon FiOS advertised a really low price — $69.95 for all three services.

When MrConsumer clicked through, he discovered there was no such price.

*MOUSE PRINT:

The lowest price shown was $79.99, and the $69.99 was nowhere to be found. Now it is possible that the $69 price was only for certain parts of the country, but there was no fine print in the original ad suggesting that.

The bottom line is that these companies should play it straight. Tell the consumer what the real offer is upfront, without having to resort to fine print or trickery.

Disclosure: MrConsumer is a member of Verizon’s Consumer Advisory Board.