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Until then ... a little Tetris?"
The website of home appliance specialist Darty was to expect a full day on Black Friday.
However, for a large part of the afternoon, and still at the time of this writing, it was inaccessible due to the too many connections linked to this long-awaited clearance day, and offered its customers the opportunity to get started. in part of the legendary game of the 80s. Not to be outdone, his rival Boulanger also placed consumers on a waiting list before being able to access his site, and that of Fnac was particularly slow to open.
Read also: Black Friday: French terroir comes to your table for these inexpensive celebrations
All these brands would probably have gone well without such a quack, especially since at the same time, the consumer association UFC-Que Choisir alerted in a press release on the tendentious commercial practices of giants of mass consumption giants or household appliances such as Amazon, CDiscount, Conforama or Darty.
Indeed, during this promotional day, the original prices are sometimes very greatly inflated, to reveal more attractive promotions.
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Victim of its own success
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“
Our site is unfortunately a victim of its success ... Due to a large number of connections, we suggest you wait to access our offers.
Stay on this page, it will refresh soon and you can access our site.
“To accompany the Tetris made available to its customers, the Darty site presented this message this afternoon to invite patience.
At the same time, its competitor Boulanger also warned its customers that "
due to a large number of connections, the loading time is longer than normal
".
To read also: “Blue Friday”, “Noël Design”, “Beauty Days”… Has Black Friday really been postponed by all the brands?
“We are doing our utmost to resolve the situation,”
explains the Fnac-Darty communication department.
The teams are focused to make it work well and that we can keep up with the load, but there is a huge demand for Black Friday.
These are situations that happen very rarely, but in 2020, we had a lot more web activity than normal.
So when you combine it with a day like today, it can cause some problems like this.
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Fake promos
These small technical hiccups, finally quite usual in these big periods of promotions, were not the only stone in the shoes of the behemoths of mass consumption this Friday.
Indeed, the website of the UFC-Que Choisir has therefore decided to list some “
false promotions
”, based on inflated base prices.
So today we found on Amazon an iRobot Roomba vacuum cleaner sold for 329 euros instead of 649 euros.
“Except that during the month preceding Black Friday, Amazon sold most of the time this vacuum cleaner at 369 euros,”
notes the UFC-Que Choisir.
At Amazon's main French competitor, CDiscount, an Electrolux oven was now sold for 299 euros instead of 629 euros.
“Except that this price of 629.99 euros does not correspond to anything, since it was not practiced by any merchant during this period,
notes the UFC-Que Choisir.
What's more, this oven was most of the time sold by Cdiscount around 330 euros during the month preceding Black Friday.
The site has even already posted it at a price of 299.99 euros from November 12 to 14. "
Read also: Black Friday or a fair that has become shameful?
Another example at Conforama, where a Rowenta stick vacuum cleaner was sold today for 229 euros instead of 359 euros.
“
In November, this vacuum cleaner was sold for a long time at 249.00 euros before going to 229.99 euros from November 26 to no longer move,
” notes the consumer association.
One thing is certain, on this Friday, it is better to inquire before rushing on the so-called good deals.