The tech bargains that aren’t what they seem...

CONSUmeRS are facing wildly fluctuating prices for the same appliance at the same shop, according to research.

experts at Which? are warning shoppers to beware of ‘ bargain’ offers after they found that the cost of the same vacuum cleaner, fridge, TV or printer can vary by hundreds of pounds at a single retailer for no obvious reason.

The consumer group surveyed the prices of 32 of the most popular makes and models of appliances across five of the biggest retailers – Amazon, AO.com, Argos, Currys PC World and John Lewis – over 12 months.

It said: ‘Price reductions at sales times are to be expected, but we found several examples of products that had considerable price fluctuations in non-sales periods. The random pricing policy from retailers makes it much harder for consumers to plan when to buy the products that they’re interest in.’

For example, the Vax Blade 32v vacuum cleaner was priced as high at £299 on AO.com but also at £139 – a reduction of 54 per cent.

A Samsung fridge freezer sold by John Lewis saw a price reduction of 43 per cent, as did a Brother printer sold by Amazon.

Researchers found that Amazon, which pays relatively little tax compared to traditional bricksand-mortar retailers, offered the lowest prices more often than the other stores. The web giant had the absolute lowest price for 11 of the 32 products – but in some instances not for long – and also had the lowest average price across the year for 15 products.

Which? expert Alex Neill said: ‘While we expect price variation across the year, our research shows that shoppers are often faced with wildly fluctuating prices and not necessarily during traditional sales periods.

‘This can make it difficult for people to assess when a bargain is really a bargain, so we advise taking retailer hype with a pinch of salt, not feeling pressured by time-limited sales and doing your research before buying.’ Currys PC World, with its Price Promise, and John Lewis, with its Never Knowingly Undersold policy, both said variations were caused as they sought to match prices of rivals, while Argos said: ‘We run regular promotions and price competitively to offer customers the best possible value.’

Amazon and AO.com did not respond to requests for comment.