Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Flaky Friday
Experts: Steer clear of poor quality ‘bargains’
IT’S Black Friday but shoppers have been warned a whole host of goods on offer are actually duds.
After running tests, consumer group Which? has slapped a “don’t buy” label on a slew of products, from TVS to washing machines.
It said a Hisense 55A7100FTUK TV, though down from £559 to £419.99, had “one of the worst 4K pictures we’ve seen”. Testers found the sound quality was equally shoddy.
A Haier HW90-B14959S8U1 washing machine, down from £450 to £409.99, was slated as uneconomical and “ineffective at getting rid of stains on cotton clothes”.
A Shark Wandvac WV361UK vacuum cleaner, down by £30 to £169, was “terrible at cleaning carpets, only removing around a quarter of dust”. It failed on pet hair.
Kenwood’s KMD70X19 fridge-freezer, slashed from £629 to £579.99, was “too slow to cool”.
Lisa Barber, Which? head of home products and services, said: “A product that doesn’t do what it is supposed to is going to be a terrible deal, no matter how cheap it is – and this year we’ve found some absolute duds in the Black Friday sales.”
The report comes after Which? also found nine in 10 products in Black Friday offers were the same price or cheaper in the six months before. A survey by Hotukdeals found shoppers might feel pressured into purchases by worries about availability.
The website’s money-saving expert Dan Plant said: “The uncertainty regarding whether items will even be available has added a new element into the Black Friday build-up.”
Despite all this, research by insurer Direct Line found one in three Brits plan to bag a Black Friday “bargain”.
Anita Naik, lifestyle editor at Vouchercodes, said: “Black Friday can be overwhelming and, with retailers heavily promoting competing offers, it can be difficult to know if you’re getting the best deal.”
The total spent over the Black Friday sales period is predicted to be a record-breaking £9.1billion this year, £3.4bn of it today.
Figures from analysts Globaldata for website Vouchercodes say bargain hunters will splurge £3.28million a minute in the first 24 hours. ruki.sayid@mirror.co.uk
@Rukisayid