UKH

Hello.

Has anyone bought anything off of the Podsacs website recently? Here:

http://www.podsacs.com/

The reason I ask is firstly because as I understand it they've been bought out recently and secondly because the pricing on the website does seem very odd. For example, I'm looking to buy a Black Ice sack, which on the rucksacks 'front page' is priced at £69.99 (admittedly way cheaper than expected), but when you go through to the actual product, it's hiked up to the (admittedly more realistic price of) £99.99.

I've no issue with paying that price, but these sort of tactics or mistakes in pricing, whichever they are, don't really inspire confidence. The same thing happens with some of their other products like the waterproof bags etc.

So, has anyone bought from this website recently and was the service received what you'd been promised and what you'd expect from Podsacs as a respected company? Just don't want to get fleeced.

Cheers,
Tom

In reply to Tom Last:

Some time back they seem to be selling off stock and they had some real bargains, the Black Ice you quote being one of them. When you looked they had just a few of these in two of the sizes.

I bought one, didn't need it since I had just replaced my Black Ice, but knew I would replace it in the future. I was also concerned that they were selling off the line and would not make any more. but I assume they have since they now show loads of stock, albeit at the higher price.

Black Ice is awesome, simple, bomb proof.

Advertising £69.99 when now there is nothing at that price is dodgy, and may not be legal.

I got what I ordered without a problem.

Podsacs was bought out by Planet X

In reply to Tom Last:

They were bought out by planet X, an odd thing I thought for a bike brand to be buying a bag/climbing company.

Overall planet X seem to give pretty good service so hopefully that won't be an issue.

In reply to Tom Last:

I replied to a post about this a couple of months ago, as I bought a Black Ice off the site and everything was fine.

The pricing is a little odd, though it's not necessarily dodgy. The initial price shown does exist for a product, just not the specific one you want. i.e. there may be Size 1 packs in Blue at 69.99 but you need Size 3 in Red and they're 99.99 so you can't get that price - but someone else can.

It's a variable pricing that reflects supply and demand. I can understand why a business may like to do it, but I can see why some customers might see it as unfair. It's veering a tad close to the the con tactic of 'bait and switch' which is, in fact, illegal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bait-and-switch

But for me, though I would have preferred another colour, the price was good, the product good, it all arrived OK and the good price included international shipping. I don't know how they can do that, but I like that they can.

In reply to Tom Last:

Thanks folks. It is a bit odd, but I'll likely give it a shot then.

Cheers,
Tom

In reply to Damo:

Nope. I went and looked at the homepage the OP linked to and it offered the product at '69.99'.
When I clicked on the link the cheapest product in any size and colour was 'from 99.99'.

I suspect bad programming rather than deliberate bad practice, but it's still fairly shoddy and quite misleading


edit to add - If you click on the 'Show all available' link they are all priced at 99.99.

In reply to interdit:



OK, that was not what I found, but if you did find that now, it's bad - programming or otherwise.

Edit: Yep, just checked and their homepage has Pod Alpine 40 clearly advertised at 49.99 and on the product page they are only 79.99

In reply to Damo:
Same with the Crag Sac. Advertised for £60 but minimum is £80. Need to get their website sorted or you get the feeling they are doing a bit of bait 'n switch

In reply to Tom Last:

I bought a load of dry bags a few months back, I think I went through the Planet X website. Anyway I didn't have any problems.

In reply to Tom Last:

Same here as well:
http://www.planetx.co.uk/c/q/accessories/bags-and-luggage/backpacks

In reply to Tom Last:

Given that they previously cost £150 or more, the complaint seems to be that you've gone in expecting a massive bargain, but can only get a major bargain ...

In reply to Simon Caldwell:

No it doesn't. If you read rather than scan my OP, I make it quite explicit in fact that that is not the case, but thanks for the mis-representation anyway; I have in fact now bought one.

In reply to Tom Last:

They have been advertising that £69.99 price for a Black Ice for years - since I bought mine and that was 4 or 5 years ago. Great sac though!

In reply to Tom Last:

Just to follow this up as I don't want to cause undue suspicion about the website, I ordered a bag and it arrived in order and in good time.