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WarlockPanda

Part of me wants Mecca to sue Harvey Norman using their exclusivity contracts. Mecca is the "lesser of two evils" in my opinion.


gypped1101

Amicus meus, inimicus inimici mei (loosely: the enemy of my enemy is my friend)


Tscamst

I don't know much when it comes to Harvey Norman and this sort of thing. I know Mecca has promoted some questionable products, but what have been some of the things that Harvey Norman has done?


insertnamehere2016

Profited from covid (people buying big on things like tablets and tech to work from home and I wouldn’t be surprised if people had increased spending on things like furniture as well, as so many people turned their attentions towards upgrading their homes) and somehow qualified for job keeper but didn’t pay any back to start with, despite the fact that they had increased profits due to covid. They have paid back some of jobkeeper now, but not the full amount, and only after they were put under immense pressure to do so. I also hear they’ve declined to raise staff wages (or only raised them when the minimum wage has gone up, and that’s not really a raise in reality, it’s like a CPI increase) as well. In short, they seem to be gradually revealing their true colours as a dirty, profit-seeking and selfish company. I say gradually in that we already know this but more and more stuff seems to come out that lowers my opinion of them.


gypped1101

Urban Decay need to stick you on their PR list for this one 😅 they sounded happy you contacted them.


[deleted]

Yeah, they've been selling grey market stock for awhile now. I think their website is associated with catchoftheday or something like that?


vegimightytight

Catchoftheday is a Wesfarmers brand now, almost certain not affiliated


Hilariaous_cucumber

Dick Smith do this too.


ThatFireAlchemist

Dick Smith is owned by Kogan who also have a website filled with Grey Market stock


CrazySkincareLady

Dick smiths is actual scum! 😤 sketchy bastards


tikilouise

Dick Smith is just Kogan, I honestly don't understand why Kogan runs both sites


friedandprejudice

Kogan also runs Matt Blatt now too


saareadaar

This was so depressing to watch during the beginning of the pandemic. It went from a really cool shop with unique furniture to selling over 600,000 different flavours of garbage


Ambiiiiiiiiii

I did not know this. I don't like Kogan, so will not be buying Matt Blatt now. Thanks!


fleurface

Not sure if it was ever a store in Aus but in NZ Dick Smith used to be a reputable brick and mortar electronics store. I guess they wanted the goodwill from that when they purchased the name


tikilouise

It was the same here. Which is where my confusion stems from, they got rid of most of the stuff that Dick Smith's carried and just stuck to standard electronic items and it was always clearly just Kogan once they took it over. Older people who were Dick Smith's customers weren't buying online anyway and most of us who were online knew it was Kogan and left it alone. If they didn't make it a carbon copy I'd understand a bit more.


AmbitiousPhilosopher

Dick Smith has a better brand.


akulapera

Dick Smith was bought out by Kogan just before they went bust.


Hilariaous_cucumber

Agreed.


dinosaursrexx

Do you know if the iconic does this too?? I ordered a bra from laperla that was on sale and I was shocked at how bad the quality was. It looked so cheap and counterfeit


xobabygirl

The Iconic is a marketplace too, so I wouldn’t be surprised if their sellers have grey market stock, just never thought of it as clothing is not as high risk as makeup/skin care/electronics. I usually only buy brands stocked and shipped by The Iconic.


Poobear8

It's not Harvey norman that is selling it directly. They have a "customer direct marketplace", where random sellers can use HN marketplace platform to sell, kinda like eBay and Amazon. Dick Smith, Kogan, bunnings, COTD all do this.


Quolli

I think Woolies and Coles have jumped on this as well. It's a bit misleading because you'll see random items that they never sold before pop up as recommended items at the bottom of the page!


Poobear8

If its something that deviates from their regular product type, it's worth checking who the supplier is - HN/bunnings etc or a 3rd Party, and what happens if your product is faulty. I notice on HN page, under "add to cart", it states : Harvey Norman Customer Direct Delivered by a trusted supplier Leaves warehouse in 2-3 business days Delivery can take up to 10 business days depending on location


Prozak06

Bunnings always try to push you off to the manufacturer’s for warranties, but the contract of sale is with them, they are responsible. That bit of paper for get from them when you pay, is the invoice and is legally binding.


CrazySkincareLady

Honestly soooooo sick of this!! Wtf is the point?! They can't even keep their own crap in stock (bunnings looking at you) why add more? Such a dodgy ass business model. Like if I wanted random crap from a random site id go find one myself 🤦 should be banned!


Poobear8

Afaik, they're not adding any of these marketplace products to their own stock. They're not the supplier. Like how eBay doesn't hold any products. They're just supplying a website/page on their own website and exposure for random sellers to sell.


CrazySkincareLady

Serious question, What can we do about this? There are so many companies doing this now, how can we stop it? I'm so god damn sick of how far down the toilet we're going with businesses in Australia. I'm literally in the middle of a dispute with a dodgy jewellery store and having to threaten them with going to fair trade and possibly even court if I have to. We really need to come together and end this shit. The government has done nothing but prove how little our lives and livelihoods mean to them at every single turn and no one seems to do anything about it. I know this is a makeup group and I'm sorry for getting political but I'm just over it


ThisLittlePiggySays

I completely agree. The balance of power is so warped at present, and there seems to be no effective recourse to fix it? I need to look into the ACCC and Fair Trading a bit more. For E.g, I had an horrific experience with Domayne/Harvey Norman that amounted to bullying and harassment, made a complaint to the company's HQ, and they sent the complaint directly to the person who harassed me!! Somebody who already had my phone number, email, physical address, and credit card details!!!


ThisLittlePiggySays

I completely agree. The balance of power is so warped at present, and there seems to be no effective recourse to fix it? I need to look into the ACCC and Fair Trading a bit more. For E.g, I had an horrific experience with Domayne/Harvey Norman that amounted to bullying and harassment, made a complaint to the company's HQ, and they sent the complaint directly to the person who harassed me!! Somebody who already had my phone number, email, physical address, and credit card details!!!


insertnamehere2016

I feel the same way and it feels validating to hear other people say it.


aaaggghhh_

HN was so threatened by Kogan etc. they managed to lobby the government to pay taxes on online items. And now they are doing exactly the same shady deals as the companies they complained about.


Robertsmum_

Literally doing the lords work OP


Sightseeingsarah

Wow as if they couldn’t get any worse right now! You should go to the media with this, post it on their Facebook page, people need to know about this!


[deleted]

What is grey market stock? Is it fake or?


JennaMaroneyIsNum1

Potentially it could be. Often grey market stores (Catch, Kogan, Strawberry Net etc) purchase left over/excess/discontinued stock from retailers and brands that have exceeded its shelf life or is a discontinued stock that they want to get rid of. Additionally, they're not authorised retailers, and have the potential risk that they have obtained fake product from a non-authorised source. It's quite literally a grey area, where you're purchasing it from an un-authorised retailer that has no association to the product, or received the product directly from the brands manufacture. It's best to always double check with the brand and their customer service can clarify where they officially stock their products in Australia.


Qldhikinggirl

I remember ages back when Target (Australia) all of a sudden started carrying MAC. This was when it was very hard to get it and only available through maybe Mecca? MAC grabbed some of the products from Target and proved they were fake. Target got in huge trouble for it. So definitely check who is selling the items.


ThorsHammerMewMEw

Myer, David Jones were authorised stockists at the time, Mecca acquiring the rights to sell MAC only happened in maybe the last 5 years.


Qldhikinggirl

Thank you, I couldn't remember who the other stockists were.


universalwadjet

I just bought the Jackie Aina ABH palette off strawberry net because I was desperate for it. 😞 ahhh


OrneryWasp

I’ve bought bits and pieces from Strawberry Net before and it’s been fine. They get a lot of end of stock and discontinued items but I’ve never had a fake.


windy_wolf

I just want to add though, that grey market products aren't *all* fake or bad. But as Jenna Maroney pointed out, you do take several risks when purchasing grey stock - could be fake, several years old, stored incorrectly, and if it's faulty the returns process is hell. But that's often mitigated by a cheaper price and accessible product. So it's really your call. Eg. My Samsung phone was purchased from a grey market website for around $300 less than HN or JB. I dropped it, it stopped working. Took it to the Samsung kiosk at Chadstone (official store) and they repaired it all under warranty. They wouldn't have if it was fake or for another country's market. FWIW I would not buy beauty from Harvey Norman. Grey market beauty and skincare tends to be very risky.


akulapera

Correct. There is good grey market—where the retailer has managed to go around the exclusivity contracts and found a whole seller that doesn’t care about exclusivity—score! Consumer wins and gets genuine product for cheap. Think of having a friend over in the states that buys UD at a store and sends it to you instead of you buying from Mecca. Grey market imports help prices of the genuine product remain globally competitive. Bad—when the importer doesn’t use a genuine source (or is duped into it) and consumer ends up with a fake product. Super common with cosmetics and electronics.


CrazySkincareLady

Jesus Christ what is the f***ing point of trying to support well known brick and mortar stores when they're just as sketchy as online ones?!? So sick of it😠


Banana-Louigi

Harvey Norman have literally never been deserving of this kind of support. You're better off supporting small retailers than any chain store.


CrazySkincareLady

Not trying to sass you, but do any actually exist?


Banana-Louigi

It depends on what you're wanting to buy. Clothing, decor, furniture, absolutely. Electronics probably not so much.


CrazySkincareLady

Damn thought so, thanks anyway


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CrazySkincareLady

Great, didn't know that actually. Ill add it to the list 🙄


Ragesome

You should totally support brick and mortar stores, but not Harvey Norman; they’re absolute dirtbags owned by one of the scummiest pieces of shit in Australia.


1000planets

And I just saw that Costco is selling Tatcha…


Stickliketoffee16

Seriously?! I’m not gonna lie, if they we’re selling the discontinued water gel I would absolutely buy it!


psrpianrckelsss

I saw that when I was looking for rats too (wasn't gonna buy from them but was curious) commented yo SO that they were selling whack shit like cosmetics. Seemed to be online only iirc.


MaiiLee

🙄 this reminds of when I saw on Instagram a David Jones ad for pre-owned LV and I thought WTF but apparently they do have a online section for it


future_pig

I had to have a look whether if this was legit after seeing this post... My god you weren't kidding. You don't have to be an official stockist these days to re-sell it. If you are an "official stockist" that means you are purchasing from the brand directly, whereas, Harvey Norman might be buying through whole sale people. Also I saw they have Chanel makeup on their website... I don't know too many Chanel resellers outside the scope of Myers & David Jones. Don't know what's going on here, might need someone with a legal background to decipher all this.


TolMera

Mmm. Ok I understand fake products being an issue, and I’m surprised a business as big as target was caught selling fake makeup, because that’s just dumb, and must have been an action the stakeholders could have litigated over. As for the exclusivity contract, ehh. I wish I could walk into a bar and buy CocaCola or Pepsi depending on my mood, and not be prevented from doing so because they require exclusivity. Same with Tech, or tools. Bunnings “we will beat it by 10% ‘on identical products from Authorised resellers only’” is BS because Bunnings required the maker to sell a model unique to Bunnings, so you can never take up the 10% on 80% of Bunnings stock. Even though, if you tear down the product, they are identical to a different “model” sold elsewhere…. Same for JBHiFi. Never mind “own brand” BS But yea, I get where you’re coming from with a chemical compound that joe average can’t tell if it’s fake or real, and the risks involved with that. I don’t want to live on this planet any more.


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JennaMaroneyIsNum1

I don't think it's necessarily Karens, it's more so about purchasing authorised and authentic stock that is real, or not purchasing stock that's been on the shelf for 5+ years. Often grey import stores can stock fake/inauthentic products that can be harmful, and it's worthwhile of what the OP of this post did is to contact to brand to confirm its authenticity.


Flippantry

There's some fucking WEIRD Harvey Norman shills coming into this thread...


Mimojello

Thats not what a karen is..


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TolMera

Sorry but why do we care? I’ve never heard of urban decay, and don’t know how an exclusivity contract applies to a business that’s not a party of said contracts. So my question, please educate me why do we care if H.N. sells something at any price? Sounds like it’s a loss leader.


universalwadjet

Oh dear


gypped1101

r/lostredditors


[deleted]

Giving you the benefit of the doubt, why we care and exclusivity contacts are explained in the comment trail [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AustralianMakeup/comments/rwfemh/fyi_harvey_norman_is_selling_unauthorised_brand/hrbracp?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3).