Awesome GTi? Awesome GiT more like....

[JJFukkard]

So it’s a Monday afternoon and I’ve decided to buy myself a set of RS6 replicas for my Leon (yes I know, not very original). After visiting Awesome a few months back and getting a healthy discount on my recirc valve and CAI I decide to give them a ring and see what their prices are like.

I tell the guy on the phone a place in Manchester is selling a full set of 18 x 8 with tyres for £530 fitted. He says the Awsome price is £575 fitted, but the place in Manchester will sell me cheap rubbish from Japan. So I book a day off work to go pick up this good set of alloys, fitted with Awesome’s budget tyre which I’m told is “pretty good”.

So I arrive this morning greeted by a friendly gent who I question about the VW centre cap. He makes some calls but tells me it’ll be weeks before he can get me any. “Fair enough, it’s not that important”, I think.

So I ask the guy as I had done on my previous visit, “Do I get any discount for being a club member of SeatCupra.net?”, to which he replies “Um, well not really, they’re pretty heavily discounted already and we don’t do anything more on wheels and tyres”. ”Ah, ok just thought I’d ask, I’ll take them anyway” I say.

Then he adds the VAT on which someone on the phone conveniently forgot to mention. “£675 please?” he says.

So with one phone call to Awesome GTi, I was given a NON VAT price by a guy who clearly knew I was quoting the full price from the other dealer, and then claim another dealership is selling rubbish (names mentioned). Awesome will sell you non branded tyres also which none of them seem to know anything about.

So then I go to the ‘other’ dealership who fit the same wheels with Khumo tyres (not the best tyres obviously but at least they have a brand name), with new stubs and locking wheel nuts for £530.

I told the guy at the counter what Awesome thought of their wheels, at which he laughed and told me they all come from the same place in Europe. Maybe they do, maybe they don’t, either way it’s rather unprofessional to make unfounded accusations in my opinion, as is misleading a customer with a quote.

[Saul]

edited above to add point about "free advertising"

[JJFukkard]

Comment revoked.

[Ant FR]

i have voiced my opinion on this stupid thing of not quoting including VAT,
Surley English companies have a higher percentage of Englih customers then over seas. As overseas customers is the poor excuse most give.

Least you got your wheels, and did'nt do what a lot of us would and just pay the money to avoid a scene.

[Empi5]

I seem to remember the Rolling Road days prices were quoted without any mention of VAT, and only when you come to pay was the dreaded figure added. Its a difficult one, but im sure it wasnt done intentionally to deceive.

[Mitchy]

I doubt awesome will change there policy on the VAT structure but i agree that the price should be in full when quoted.

Seriously what is the point in telling a customer the price without VAT? Its confusing and misleading as you then need to get the calculator out and do the calculation! I too have been mislead into some of the prices quoted by awesome so your not alone.

I remember they used to offer a 10% discount for SCN users but something happened to that when they set up there new premesis!

Unfortunate you wasted your day but hey you got your wheels

[rich1068]

One of my little irritations too!

I've only used Awesome once and they were excellent but this whole 'plus VAT' thing is only one step away from a scam. And Awesome are not the only one! It seems that more than one VAG specialist has a habit of assuming we're all VAT registered companies.

Let's be honest, it makes the quote sound cheaper. Nothing more, nothing less.

[JJFukkard]

This 'irritation' cost me a days holiday. The guy on the phone at Awesome knew I was quoting a VAT inclusive price. It also meant I had to drive home again and then back to oldham which was a 50 mile trip altogether.

Yes I should've made certain it was including VAT but as far as I'm concerned I was knowingly misled.

[F2 Stu]

Sounds like a simple misunderstanding.

I does irritate me when companys give you +vat prices. seems they is too lazy

[Awesome_Andy]

Hello everybody....

Just thought i'd try and give a response to this thread. I was the "friendly gent" that greeted you yesterday. First of all I would like to apoligise if you have been mislead in any way shape or form, I can guarantee you this was not our intention. I have tried to assertain exactly who quoted your price so i can get to the bottom of this, but unfortunately nobody can recall, all our prices on our website are plus V.A.T and we always quote plus V.A.T over the phone, so I am sorry if for some reason you were not quoted on this occassion.

To Quote....I've only used Awesome once and they were excellent but this whole 'plus VAT' thing is only one step away from a scam. And Awesome are not the only one! It seems that more than one VAG specialist has a habit of assuming we're all VAT registered companies.

V.A.T. is not something we have an option in putting on, Vat has to be charged on all products whether you are a vat registered company or not, god bless Gordon Brown for that.

I do feel it is slightly unfair on your part though to make it out that VAT was only mentioned to you, when saying you would purchase the wheels. I worked out the total price with VAT when chatting about possible discounts. I mentioned that we couldnt do any discount on them as they were already discounted, as you mentioned above, and then confirmed the price with a college of mine and quoted it to yourself at £575+VAT. It was at this point that it was mentioned about your previous phone call regarding the price and how you had apparently been quoted an all in price. At no point did you say you would take the wheels and then charged even more as we were about to take your money.

Once again I am sorry you have been caused this inconvenience and I hope you will accept my apoligies on behalf of Awesome, I have had a discussion with our General Manager about this and he has discussed this issue with all staff and has not taken this matter lightly, and has instructed that all staff to make clear over the phone that plus vat is clearly quoted or a fully inclusive price if required to all our customers.

[JJFukkard]

Originally Posted by Awesome_Andy

I do feel it is slightly unfair on your part though to make it out that VAT was only mentioned to you, when saying you would purchase the wheels. I worked out the total price with VAT when chatting about possible discounts. I mentioned that we couldnt do any discount on them as they were already discounted, as you mentioned above, and then confirmed the price with a college of mine and quoted it to yourself at £575+VAT. It was at this point that it was mentioned about your previous phone call regarding the price and how you had apparently been quoted an all in price. At no point did you say you would take the wheels and then charged even more as we were about to take your money.

Andy, I walked into your store and told you I’d called about the RS6 alloys. You showed me them and I mentioned the centre cap to you. You nipped off to the phone to see if you could source me some.

When you came back I asked you if you’d give me a discount as I was a club member. You told me they were already discounted and you couldn’t do anything with regards to alloys. You DID NOT mention VAT at that point. I then asked you about the tyres and the speed rating.

Then I asked you about the RS4 alloys and you told me they were £549. I pondered for a few minutes at which point you went away and worked out how much the alloys would be including VAT. You may not have said ‘£675 please’, but your response was short and to the point and included the VAT price which is the important point in this post.

At that point I told you about the details of my phone call and you told me you personally always mention VAT on the phone, then you conferred with your colleague about the website prices and VAT.

I told you I understood what was mentioned about the quality of your stock, and again told you that no one had mentioned the quoted price on the phone included VAT. I told you I was pissed off because I’d booked the day off to come to Awesome. You said little after that so I left the store.

Originally Posted by Awesome_Andy

Once again I am sorry you have been caused this inconvenience and I hope you will accept my apoligies on behalf of Awesome, I have had a discussion with our General Manager about this and he has discussed this issue with all staff and has not taken this matter lightly, and has instructed that all staff to make clear over the phone that plus vat is clearly quoted or a fully inclusive price if required to all our customers.

Your website is a little less than clear with regards to VAT. Using VAT as an example:



Maybe adding 'All prices are exclusive of VAT' in visible text would be a good idea to avoid this kind of annoyance for customers.

I’d like to add that I don’t think I’ve been unfair at any point. As a customer I walked into a store with a price I believed to be inclusive of VAT. I do believe you may have the conversation mixed up somewhat. As soon as I heard the VAT price I was no longer interested in buying these alloys from Awesome GTi.

I would also like to raise the point with regards to putting me off buying elsewhere. If Awesome isn’t as competitive as other companies I’d suggest revising prices rather than resorting to slander.

[kajdean]

It does seem a bit of a fiddle adam, at least you have your wheels sorted now. Got any pics yet?

[JJFukkard]

[kajdean]

Looks smart

[ZBOYD]

As ive recently outlined in another thread. SCN isnt a club, we don't charge for membership etc etc. Sponsors help us pay for the costs of running the site.

Awesome are a sponsor. It is entirely upto them as their own policy not to offer a discount to SCN users, as host's we don't stipulate they should offer discounts or not, that is purely upto them. Just to make that clear.

I do agree in some respects about the clarity of VAT pricing, and this is in no way aimed soley at Awesome, as many companies in the UK, do the same thing.

As Andy has explained, Awesome do regard that as an important point, and have apologised for their mistake. Don't turn this into an online argument, as i'll simply bin it. So remarks about fiddles, or dodgy dealing etc, are not constructive or valid. The grievance was lodged, and answered, I think that pretty much summed it up.

[JJFukkard]

I've aired my views now. I feel it's a lesson for more than just myself in this case.

[Forbez]

I'm not going to get involved in this, debate, but It does actually state in the top left, that All prices are + Vat, if in the EU.

Now personally, i'd prefer it if the prices qouted were the prices you paid, then + delivary, and dont understand why some people do and some dont, but i always make sure to know which is which before i order.

[rich1068]

Originally Posted by Awesome_Andy

V.A.T. is not something we have an option in putting on, Vat has to be charged on all products whether you are a vat registered company or not, god bless Gordon Brown for that.

I do understand how VAT works!

The point I was making was that I would imagine the vast majority of your customers are private individuals who have no option other than to pay VAT. My company deals exclusively with other VAT registered companies so if I quote eg £350, they know and I know it means £350 plus VAT. If I dealt with the public I would quote £411.25 There's no point not doing so.

If I am wrong and the majority of your custom is with other companies then fair enough but I would be really interested to hear a reason for quoting plus VAT prices. Why not go the whole hog and stop the practice altogether?

[awesomeade]

Hi

I thought i would respond to clarify the showing VAT etc situation since i deal with all our pricing and our website in particular.

Firstly, on a regular basis we get new price lists from our suppliers of which some can have literally thousands of products. These price lists dont show VAT, we then have to merge these price lists with several areas:
1. Our accounts + stock software
2. Our main website - individual car sections + application guides
3. Our online shop
4. Our trade price lists
As you can imagine, its a lot of work to do all the calculations in all the areas here.

When we had a smaller range and smaller website a few years back we did infact show prices with VAT on our website and online shop. This resulted in a huge drop in overseas sales, simply being that overseas customers thought they had to pay this price with VAT therefore the parts looked expensive to them, generally americans dont understand the European VAT system.

And to clarify the breakdown of our customers:
Approximately...
50% are private Europe based customers
30% are trade Europe based customers
20% are overseas outside the scope of vat
.... So we have a 50/50 split of those that pay vat and those dont...

Hope this clarifies the issue a little...

[JJFukkard]

I work as a catalogue manager and I know all about online catalogues.... manual calculations for VAT? LOL

As for overseas customers? Either you’re giving excuses or you’re woefully inept with regards to e-trading.