Back in 2021 I wrote of how retailers were misleading in their advertising sale items in their great Black Friday sale deals. Fast forward two years and nothing much has changed. Here’s this years experience.
For a while now I’ve been considering buying a new action camera to replace my aging Go-Pro. For a while, Go-Pro were the only quality name in the market, but I’d been hearing poor reviews about their latest models. Conversely I’d been hearing good things about the DJI Osmo Action 3 and was about to buy one when I had my accident and broke my hip. With me being out of action, there was no rush to pick one up, especially when I heard that DJI were bringing out a new model themselves.
When the DJI Osmo 4 arrived on the market I checked out a number of comparative reviews, and found that for me as a user there was no real significant difference in the two models. So it was just a case of price watching for the best deal. After being out of stock across a number of outlets, around late August the DJI Osmo Action 3 Adventure Combo dropped considerably in price at Currys, to £320. I then watched in case other retailers followed suit and none did. Instead after a few weeks the price jumped back up to £399, and there it stayed. Until the Black Friday sales…
I had kind of anticipated that this item would go on sale and sure enough it did. It came up in the Currys Black Friday Sale last week, dropping from £399 to £339 a saving of £60. As you can see from the picture above, Curry’s noted that the higher price was charged from 24th September until 11th October, and the saving is based on that period – but the new, super Black Friday sale price is still £20 higher than what it was before they bumped the price up. All perfectly legal, but it does leave a sour taste in the mouth at how these prices, sales and offers are manipulated. Incidentally the new £339 price is now the same “sale” price offered by DJI, WEX, Jessops, Argos and others. It’s amazing how these price rises, falls and offers are co-ordinated, being identical to the penny.
I’ve now picked it up for the new, higher sale price, as it’s unlikely it will drop again for a while at least. Review to follow, and in the meantime, just because a retailer say they are giving you a bargain doesn’t mean they aren’t trying to pull a fast one at the same time. Happy shopping…
The Airdrie Rambler 
Yep – it’s definitely what they always do. I generally stick with older gear as I find it easier to operate and usually more reliable! I suppose you could end up with software compatibility issues though…
Much as I’ve always been a “gearhead”, I do like to browse. I seldom replace equipment which works well though. In this case my Go-Pro, while older and still functioning, has always suffered from appalling battery life and has annoyed me from the get go.