Nerd News

***Update***
Harvey Norman Broadway came through with the goods.
See http://nerdynigel.com/?p=24

I was flipping through my recently delivered copy of the October 2007 edition of the Atomic magazine and happened to come across a 2 page spread from Harvey Norman advertising that they have the Gigabyte 8800GTS 320MB video card for $259. I though this was a great deal and phoned my local Harvey Norman store in the Queen Street Mall in Brisbane at 10am on Friday 14th September 2007 to confirm the price. Unfortunately, that is where my troubles began. I was told the person that could help me was busy on the phone and he would call me back as soon as he was free. We never received a call.

Lunch time came around and a colleague at work was also very interested in purchasing the video card at this price. We decided to go for a walk to try and order the product directly over the counter.

Upon entering Harvey Norman and asking to purchase the video card, we were immediately told that Harvey Norman didn’t have any stock. Quite funny considering the Atomic magazine advertising the deal has only just been released. I know that the Department of Fair Trading will require Harvey Norman to prove that they had sufficient stock at the time of advertising due to previous experience. I then asked the young sales person if we could order the video card. The sales person seemed to be rather surprised that we would order the card and wait for delivery of approximately two weeks.

After the sales person took our details and confirmed our order I asked to see which card he had ordered. To my surprise the video card on the order was a nVidia 8500GT. I suggested to the sales man that the card he had ordered us was incorrect and re-enter the correct details for the Gigabyte 8800GTS 320MB video card. He stated that he was unable to do this and called over his supervisor. The supervisor said he would talk to his manager and see what the problem was. When the supervisor came back, he stated that the advertisement was printed in error and Harvey Norman would not honour the advert. I said that was not good enough and I would like to speak to the manager. Apparently the manager was in a meeting and therefore unable to talk to us. We were assured the manager would contact us as soon as possible.

I do not believe the advert is just a print error and it has the specific model, description, box and card picture on it. See below.

I waited till 2:45pm to call Harvey Norman back again to try and speak to the manager, and was told the manager was still in a meeting and would call back as soon as possible. Once again, no phone calls were received.

I phoned again at 4pm and spoke to David from the computer section and was told that this was the first he has heard of our problem and assured me that he would get either the second in charge, Michael or the manager, Sacha to call me back as soon as possible. He sounded more believable that the previous staff we had spoken to.

At 6:19pm, I received a call from Michael who rudely stated that the advert was a print error and refused to sell the video card at the advertised price. I suggested that this was not good enough and once again said I would like to order the video card at the advertised price. Michael then started a story that staff knew of the misprint and they had notices in store that had not been put up. This was news to me as all of the staff I spoke to were not aware of the advert. I told Michael that I was not happy with just forgetting the advert as Harvey Norman have falsely advertised the video card, and my next step is to submit a formal complaint to the Office of Fair Trading. Michael said he had no problem and promptly hung up. I cannot believe how large corporations can get away with this. I am not sitting around and taking it. I will submit a formal complaint against Harvey Norman as I have done again Officeworks before.

I suggest Harvey Norman go and read the Fair Trading Act 1989, and more specifically the sections:-

• Part 40 False and Misleading Representation.
• Part 46 Bait Advertising

Fair Trading Act 1989

Harvey Norman Advert

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The G9 group propose a Fibre Access Network Operating Company (FANOC) that would provide a range of different wholesale broadband products.

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