GST'ing online purchases discussion

[odysseus]

But this is a rare exception for me. Yes everyone is not the same (hence why people choose to use very expensive options for the same items as other option), but this set of people is not infinite - and retailers need to realise that.

I'm sure they do; hence sales, price matching as a couple of examples against competition... and the latest example being this campaign.

Oh - and as been discussed in this thread, buying locally does not increase the after sales service by any stretch of the imagination ... Certain online stores have excelled in this type of customer care (eg Amazon, try reporting a lost package - and they bend over backwards to help)), in general terms, once you walk out of a store in Australia you are on your own.

We can all find individual examples to support either side of the argument - you can't say online is always better, particularly when the practicality will show it not to be for many.

FWIW, I may as well give you an individual example the other way though, lest people think the above is definitive. I ordered a book that was substantially cheaper and showed in stock, online, from a US retailer in late November. I received a note very soon after confirming the order and saying I would receive another e-mail message when the book had been sent.

I then waited a couple of weeks - but no e-mail saying it had been sent. Wondering what was happening, I then wrote one e-mail message to their address. Didn't hear anything, waited a couple of days, tried their online form, didn't hear anything, so tried a few more, still no reply. Then, at the end of that week - the book showed up! (And I still hadn't received that promised dispatch e-mail or any replies aside from confirmationautoreplies.)

So now we're in January. I didn't bother contacting them as there seemed no point and they hadn't gotten back to me. Two days ago I get an e-mail confirmation that the book has just been sent??? (Does this mean I'm getting another book soon? Who knows.) And then yesterday I get an e-mail message saying they had a problem receiving e-mail but it's been resolved now. (Didn't they think it was kinda odd not to hear anything at all for about a month? in retail's busiest season?)

Great service...

However, my previous point was not about who's better - my view is it's an individual thing rather than just saying online or offline. Just that there are a whole lot of reasons you may shop one vs another, with price being the only factor in a proportion of circumstances. However, some of the commentary against Gerry does appear over the top, and I'm not sure of the cause. I'm not even a fan of him... but turning it into a bag-Gerry fest doesn't really achieve much.

 

[Sprucegoose]

It's a political issue and Harvey and co lost the political impetus !?

Simple you lose,,,,,,,

 

[Mal]

Could someone please tell Myer that launching a website that ships from Hong Kong/China actually needs more work than finding expensive toff, reducing it by 10% from your usual marked up price and pretending it is a steal...

myfind: Home

Luddite meet technology!

 

[samiam]

Could someone please tell Myer that launching a website that ships from Hong Kong/China actually needs more work than finding expensive toff, reducing it by 10% from your usual marked up price and pretending it is a steal...

myfind: Home

Luddite meet technology!

Agreed - I could probably waltz into many retailers in Australia and have a better bargain for the prices advertised on that site.

Not even close to the competition!

 

[odysseus]

Could someone please tell Myer that launching a website that ships from Hong Kong/China actually needs more work than finding expensive toff, reducing it by 10% from your usual marked up price and pretending it is a steal...

Seems to be through their usual sourcing channels so not a big deal extra. A bit like Woolworths homeshop used to be (but with more manageable volume and centralised!).

Reports are it may be more political/testing than for operational purposes at this stage anyway.

 

[Jleno]

Sounds like Gerry Harvey's decided if he can't beat them, join them (by setting up his own online retailing store selling games out of Ireland to avoid the GST for consumers). Or maybe he was always going to do this anyway.

Here's betting that his prices even after deducting GST will still be more expensive than other overseas online retail shops posting to Australia. Wonder what he'll blame then?

 

[The Rok]

I think this has more to do with supporting Harvey Norman Ireland than the GST thing. GH has publicly stated that entering the Irish market was a massive mistake.

I suspect he is trying his best to boost the revenue there with the overall plan of disposing of the Irish stores.

Or I could be wrong and it's about GST

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

I do worry that at some point we hit a tipping point where the cut to GST will be so great that other taxes are going to have to rise to compensate. You only have to look at how much GST revenue has declined over the last few years.

I wonder if it would be legal under WTO rules for the Govt to start some sort of price comparison service that would hopefully shame the companies into not ripping us off as much as they do.

We only have to look at flights. If flights from A to B is higher than B to A, then I say lets get the fish mongering red head to do a please explain on to it :mrgreen: