From Black Friday to Cyber Monday, shoppers across the globe unite for the weekend to find the best deals they can from their favourite clothing stores. While the holiday used to be an American exclusive, it's clear the Black Friday craze has extended to Canada and even the UK.
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Though when it comes to scoping around for deals, the last thing that's on a shopper's mind is that the store you're buying from could be deceiving you with their Black Friday discounts. Unfortunately, several online clothing companies have recently been caught in the act and shoppers are not impressed.
@jebevanIt all started when one shopper in the UK was browsing popular online clothing store, Pretty Little Thing. She noticed that prior to the Black Friday sale, one of their coats was priced at £50, about $84 CAD. But when Black Friday came, the site claimed the jacket had initially been priced at £60 and was now on sale for £54.
How is it that the same jacket from a few weeks ago is now more expensive in the Black Friday ‘sales’??? @OfficialPLT 👀👀 pic.twitter.com/72j0ZXluMA
Unfortunately, it seems Pretty Little Thing isn't the only culprit as other shoppers quickly realized, showing examples ranging from popular online stores such as Missguided and BooHooo to other well-known sites:
Missguided are just as bad 🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️ pic.twitter.com/Ll91jXxCAu
Two weeks ago I bought trousers for £15, looked today and they were ‘on sale’ for £22.50 😂😂
This happened with ohpolly! Raised it by $15 literally RIGHT before Black Friday sale. Absolute rubbish
@boohoo is even worse! Im shocked🙃🙃 I bought it for £42 just over a week ago and now its on SALE for £61!!😒 pic.twitter.com/JvurBMG6pL
As of now, Pretty Little Thing is the only company who has publicly addressed the controversy and claimed it was a result of their "pricing fluctuations:"
This is due to fluctuations in the current market which unfortunately is out of our control. Our teams closely monitor pricing to ensure PLT remains competitive, we have additional offers running over the Black Friday weekend - Jess B
One customer was quick to correct the brand, pointing out that it's actually illegal to change up prices that close to setting a sale price, to which Pretty Little Thing never responded back to.
“Under Trading Standards rules, pre-sale prices should be the last price at which goods were offered – and the goods should have been at that price for 28 consecutive days in the previous six months” 👀
While everything went down in the UK, Missguided, BooHoo, PrettyLittleThing and Oh Polly all have the same pricing for Canadian customers, the only difference is the conversion.
Meaning that while you are shopping today and racking up deals for Cyber Monday, you may want to consider that the deals you are scoring aren't as great as they seem. It also may be worthwhile to do your homework the day before a big sale weekend such as Black Friday next year to make sure the deals are legit.
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