“Lowest prices are just the beginning”, “Fresh food people”, “Make bigger things happen” are all common and very recognisable phrases associated with large organisations here in Australia. You see the phrases stated boldly in ads, in store and in catalogues with reality being it gets in your head.
I could say that yes Bunnings Warehouse offers more than low prices with a huge range and “customer service”. Woolworths whilst you can find stale and unsavoury foods in store… (most of) the food is fresh.
Shop with confidence. Those 3 words made obvious and clear in a TV ad associated with a big retailer. It’s on their website and is no mistake, it is Harvey Normans go to line. Their strategy and part branding, make the consumer feel trusted and they are getting a good deal, making the right purchase.
I found it pretty funny actually and think it is massively overstating. Harvey Norman 74 reviews on Trust pilot at 1.7/10 You can’t really get worse than that and it is things like this
Worst customer service of my life, will avoid at any cost. It all started with the fact that the product I ordered online was delivered in 2 (!!!) months after the placement of order, and during all this time it was really hard to get in contact with the store.
Placed an order to get an Apple watch for my husband’s birthday. Got an email a few hours later telling me that my order is not accepted despite that my money was deducted from my PayPal immediately.
Went onto live chat and was told to email instead and got kicked out of live chat without even had a chance to say anything else. Tried calling the hotline at 9:20 am and the system was saying that it’s outside of their working hour please call from 9 am onwards…
It goes on and on. Essentially the reviews are the opposite of shopping with confidence. The confidence is shot for these consumers.
The reviews aren’t good
Productreview.com.au has Harvey Norman at 2.3 stars (out of 5) from 3,116 reviews.
Consumer who never had their item shipped, Consumer denied refund because they purchased at different Harveu Norman store, Consumer had instore pickup given to someone else and Preying on the elderly. There is a lot of reading on Harvey Norman making consumers NOT have confidence.
Harvey Norman franchisee fined $52k for false or misleading representations about consumer rights (2016) and 9 franchisee’s in total fined $234k for misleading consumers (2014)
Ironic that fines for misleading consumers has now transitioned into a misleading slogan. I would have thought that your slogan should be truthful.
Just a tough sector?
Harvey Norman is not alone though, most retailers have bad experiences on the daily to which these effects can be different. JBHIFI’s reviews arent massively better than Harvey Normans and they suffer the same issues.
It genuinely seems a struggle to appear positive in online reviews for bricks and mortar retailers.
Maybe its just the Franchises pulling the whole operation apart and making parts look bad? understandably it is harder to have everyone on the same page and no one going rouge with franchises.
The point is JBHIFI isn’t trying to hide behind a slogan which holds no strength. Would I shop with confidence at Harvey Norman? Perhaps so, I wouldn’t go in there and rely on what the salesperson has to say. Online research is key and as is online shopping.