BBC Watchdog Scaremongering

[Adrian Caspersz]

Number of programs watched this season: 5
Number of shoes needed to be retrieved from behind TV: 5

--
Adrian C

[Mark Carver]

On 29/12/2016 12:15, Adrian Caspersz wrote:
> Number of programs watched this season: 5
> Number of shoes needed to be retrieved from behind TV: 5

It's an awful programme, I gave up with it yonks ago


--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

[David Wade]

On 29/12/2016 12:15, Adrian Caspersz wrote:

> Number of programs watched this season: 5
> Number of shoes needed to be retrieved from behind TV: 5
>

Looks like I am doomed to ignorance, having never watched it! Go on give
us a clue?

[tim...]

"Mark Carver" <mark....@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:eckeec...@mid.individual.net...

> On 29/12/2016 12:15, Adrian Caspersz wrote:
>> Number of programs watched this season: 5
>> Number of shoes needed to be retrieved from behind TV: 5
>
> It's an awful programme, I gave up with it yonks ago

Oh, I understand now

(I missed the significance of the capital W)

tim

[tim...]

"Martin" <m...@address.invalid> wrote in message
news:qb3a6ctgmtco8rhp5...@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 29 Dec 2016 12:38:33 +0000, Mark Carver
> <mark....@invalid.invalid>

> wrote:
>
>>On 29/12/2016 12:15, Adrian Caspersz wrote:
>>> Number of programs watched this season: 5
>>> Number of shoes needed to be retrieved from behind TV: 5
>>
>>It's an awful programme, I gave up with it yonks ago
>

> It improved with the departure of Anne Robinson.

Despite the fact that I don't like the woman (as a presenter)

the quality of investigation never recovered after Fauld-Woods and Hubby
left

tim

[Johnny B Good]

On Thu, 29 Dec 2016 12:38:33 +0000, Mark Carver wrote:

> On 29/12/2016 12:15, Adrian Caspersz wrote:
>> Number of programs watched this season: 5 Number of shoes needed to be
>> retrieved from behind TV: 5
>
> It's an awful programme, I gave up with it yonks ago

I gave up on it during the mid eighties when they did a piece on Sony's
practice of "Grey Import" marketing that allowed Dixons to grossly
inflate their retail prices such that even with a "60% sale price
reduction", their competitors could still undercut them using so called
"Grey Imports" on a camcorder that was quite obviously designed to work
worldwide.

There were several reasons why I swiftly realised that this programme
was a monstrous waste of the airwaves. Firstly, they hadn't recognised
that they were actually exposing Sony for the bunch of shits that they
are for even creating the "Grey Import Market" situation in the first
place and secondly for totally missing the bleeding obvious story about
Dixons' gross profiteering and fraudulent pricing practice that allowed
them to still make grossly inflated profits even after offering a 60%
sale discount on the goods they were selling. And, to rub salt into the
wound so to speak, even going so far as to recommend Dixons against the
more honest traders simply because it would save warranty issues with
Sony arising due to the "Greyness" of their purchase.

So, instead of the headline being about Sony and its partner in crime,
Dixons, ripping off the British consumer with advice that if there
*really* was no alternative to that Sony camcorder, the consumer would
have no choice but to pay through the nose if they didn't want to be left
high and dry with regard to Sony servicing their warranty obligations
despite the fact that the initial first year's warranty at least lay with
the shop the camcorder had been purchased from in any case (this was well
post SOGA).

When that particular programme was aired, my ghast had been well and
truly flabbered and I realised then and there that it was simply just
another "entertainment programme" to fill a half hour or so slot in the
schedules on the cheap. Since it failed to offer any worthwhile or
effective consumer advice it failed to meet not only its intended purpose
but also its effectiveness as entertainment. IOW, there was simply no
point in its existence.

However, to put that into perspective, all TV broadcasters, including
the Beeb, just use such so called "Consumer Advice" programmes as cheap
schedule fillers with no useful end purpose whatsoever other than to
provide prurient entertainment at the expense of 'rogue traders' who it
seems, by and large, remain largely unaffected by their "bad experience"
at the hands of these so called consumer orientated shows.

--
Johnny B Good

[Norman Wells]

"Johnny B Good" <johnny...@invalid.ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:S2n9A.722975$kM7.6...@fx44.am4...

No manufacturer is obliged to sell its goods at the lowest possible price. They are
free to charge what the market will bear, and richer countries like the UK can
usually afford to pay more and will.

Grey imports are those bought in cheaper markets that are imported into the UK for
sale here. If they are sourced from outside the EU, even if import duties are paid
on them on entering the UK, they still cannot be freely sold here because of trade
mark infringement issues. The trade mark owner, eg 'Sony', is the only one entitled
to put the trademarked goods on the market first in the EU, not a parallel importer.
That is established law and is a consequence of the EU being a free trade area that
excludes those not in it. It is a protectionist measure. Without it, such goods
would never be sold in poorer countries at all.

So, while it is understandable that you would have liked to buy the camcorder at
rock-bottom price, the whole economic structure of the EU would have had to be
abandoned and a global free trade area put in its place.

Somehow, I don't think it was in Anne Robinson's power to do that, and I think your
ire towards Watchdog is somewhat misdirected.

Besides, you weren't forced to buy the legitimate product. If you did, you chose to
do so at the price it was offered, and you can hardly complain.