My TV got damaged last week and my contents insurance covers it on a “like for like” basis.

Well it’s pretty hard to get large size analogue TV’s now if not impossible, so the insurance company found a similar spec LCD TV and gave me a budget of £400. Not a huge amount of money for a new TV, but then I’m not fussy and not after a monster.

A quick scout round the web brought me to the Panasonic TX-32LXD80 for a budget beating price of £391.47. The newer model of it, the TX-32LXD85 was £430 or so. A few more clicks and I was satisfied that the Panasonic was the best bang for buck out there as well as being the most reliable. So off to the shop to have a little look and a chat with a member of staff.

All looked good and I just needed the money from the insurance company to arrive. I was stunned when that arrived the following day so I took a jaunt back to the shop to spend it.

Imagine my surprise, no lets call it shock when I saw that the price was now £499.99 – an almost £110 increase. Found same member of staff from the day before and was told “that happens all the time” which I had no grounds to challenge but doubted very much. I very nicely asked if she could go check with the manager if I could have it at yesterdays price or at least with a significant discount. Just as she prepared to go find the manager I added that I had the cash and was looking to spend it now and that their sister company still had it at the old price (I didn’t add that it was out of stock).

Not surprisingly the answer was no I couldn’t have it at the old price. I then asked why the replacement for it was cheaper and again they couldn’t answer.

Here’s my take … under UK law a product has to be listed at a specific price in a certain number of shops for a certain period of time (I forget the exact details) before one can legally state it is now on sale and the original price was XYZ. Or 30% off, etc … So what I think they are doing is paving the way to advertise the model as having 30% off in the near future, because and lets be honest here, how many of us actually check the original price when see a sale one? Or do we just see the 30% off tag or the seemingly large reduction?

I’m in the process of writing to the company to express my distaste at the price increase especially considering we are mid credit crunch, jobs being shed and leading up to Christmas. One would think they’d be desperate to find sales …

Oh, and the name of the company – Currys.co.uk and it’s sister company PCWorld.co.uk

More anon if my letter produces any tangible result.