Dear Rocio,
Are Black Friday deals really worth the hype?
Name and address provided.
Rocio says: There was a time when Black Friday was a once-in-a-lifetime event: a day when you could score a few deals. The celebration lasted for almost a month, with shoppers bombarded with offers on a wide range of goods and services.
For consumers, this can be both exciting and scary. The prospect of a good deal is tempting. The thought of missing out on a great limited-time deal by starting your holiday shopping early is too much for some.
But Black Friday has a dark side and potential pitfalls that consumers should be aware of.
Firstly, despite the flow of “good deals”, many of them turn out to be anything but. This year, Which? analyzed more than 200 Black Friday deals from eight major retailers over the past 12 months, including Amazon, Argos and Currys, and found that only 2 per cent of items on sale had a better price on the day of sale.
This doesn’t mean Black Friday is a waste of money. If an item you want or need is on sale at a discounted price, it might make sense to buy it. However, there are some steps consumers can take to avoid getting caught up in the hype. One tip is to compare the price of an item on several websites. Another tip is to check price history on sites like PriceSpy and Pricerunner to see how long the products have been offered at that price.
The second danger is that the product is, at best, not as described, and at worst, dangerous. A recent report from the Office of Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) found that more than 80 percent of substandard goods sold through online marketplaces fail safety tests, including toys that pose a choking hazard to young children.
I’ve previously written on these pages about the wide range of faulty or dangerous products available on some of the world’s largest online marketplaces, from established giants such as Amazon and eBay to China’s up-and-coming Temu – sites that many consumers visit on Black Friday. will likely move on to deals.
However, the fight against these unreliable products and the damage they can cause is still moving very slowly. The government’s 2021 product safety review finally led to a consultation on reforms this summer, but tough decisions to protect consumers won’t be made anytime soon.
The government likes to talk about cutting bureaucratic and unnecessary red tape for businesses, but the OPSS operates through the Department of Trade and Industry. To ensure that consumers feel well protected and free from the threat of dangerous products when shopping online, the government needs to make OPSS properly independent and with real teeth to punish rogue companies with hefty fines.
The third and final danger is fraud. Fraud is a year-round phenomenon, but events like Black Friday are like gold dust for scammers. TSB Bank recently reported that purchase fraud, where victims are tricked into paying for a non-existent product or service, is the most common reason for fraud they encounter. Banking industry trade body UK Finance said there were 77,000 cases of this type of fraud reported in the first six months of 2023 – more than 400 a day.
To protect yourself from scammers, it’s best to completely avoid offers that seem too good to be true (there’s a reason why that’s a cliché). If the website you’re visiting is full of spelling errors, blurry images, or missing contact information, these are all clear signs of a scam. Finally, avoid paying by bank transfer (the method the scammer is more likely to insist on) as you will be less protected if things go wrong.
Rocío Concha is director of policy and advocacy at Which?. If you would like your request to be listed on this page, please send an email to [email protected]
Source: I News
I am Moises Cosgrove and I work for a news website as an author. I specialize in the market section, writing stories about the latest developments in the world of finance and economics. My articles are read by people from all walks of life, from investors to analysts, to everyday citizens looking for insight into how news will affect their finances.