Gearbest "chinaphonearena" coupon gets a price UP instead down

[Bacon_Puffs]

Calm down @nikstar .

Many products do this. Including mainstream ones. Advertise an absurdly high manufacturer suggested retail price and sell at a lower price.

This is not some new "trick" or "fakery".

You'd have to be pretty dumb to put the coupon in, see the price get more expensive, then buy the phone at the more expensive price :| .

The selling price is very obviously advertised on each product page, it's not like they're advertising it at $120 and then put it in your cart and you have to pay $200. Comon.

Gearbest's prices are some of the best on the net. Yes, if you go bargain hunting for the absolute most rock bottom price, then you might find some better prices sometimes, but generally they are excellently priced and in line with the rest of the market.

Man, some people just find something to complain about no matter what.

[nikstar]

First of all I am calmed, why you say that I am not?
Second, I am not saying to buy a product at higher price by applying the coupon. Off course you have to be stupid to do this!

My objection is different.
If all the products of a shop are supposed to be discounted (which the same price is "normal price" for every other shop), then what is the purpose to advertising here saying "10% discount to all the products" if this cannot be applied nowhere?
Probably to attract clients, right?
This is common trick at the sales season. If a product worth 100, then we'll tell that is worthing 150 and I 'll give you a HUGE discount of 35% and the final price it will be almost equal to the pre-sales time.


So, they are fooling us or they just playing with the words.

I think Gizbet must take a look at this issue.

PS. Explain better your last sentence. Are you talking about me?

[Trenzalore]

The coupon does work on regular priced items. it works perfectly, deducting the 10%. Perhaps it is just the whole Christmas season promo competition going on among these stores, which makes it seem like everything is on sale and such.

It is a combination of things, really. There is the already-made argument about how it is not an uncommon marketing strategy to advertise crazy high prices then "slashing" it by 50% or something.

Technically speaking, there is no issue with the coupon. The prices you see with the ridiculous 47% and such are the special prices they currently offer to everyone. when you apply the chinaphonearena coupon code, the real listed price at gearbest shows, and this is where they deduct the 10% from. Claiming that the non-discounted price is much higher than it actually is, THAT is the marketing strategy.

But noone is faking anything.

Take the Cubot S200 as an example. They claim original price is 201.55 with a 47% discount is $107.09 for all customers. If you apply the chinaphonearena coupon code, they become transparent. They show the true price which is $118.56. Applying the code gets you 0.9 of that: $106.7.

So essentially, right now, gearbest is offering the Cubot S200 at an honest-to-blog 9.6% discount for everyone. It's just really the current promo, and noone can question that. Noone can question either that the 10% off with coupon code works, because obviously it does.

You will find regular priced items somewhere. This for example: http://www.gearbest.com/cell-phones/pp_109005.html advertised as $169.99 "slashed from $216.66." But right now, there is no general discount, so when you apply the code, it gives you $152.99 (0.9 of the whole $169.99)

So, no. They are not lying. They just applied certain promo discounts on certain items. Claiming crazy high prices is just a strategy, but they aren't miscomputing any promised discounts from the true real price.

[nikstar]

The last 3-4 months I bought 5 phones for friends and two for me.
At NONE of them I could apply the discount coupon from chinaphonearena. So, what am I suppose to think about their policy?

They advertising here by saying: "10% off to ALL phones to chinaphonearena members", IS THIS TRUE? Apparently not.
Off course there should be some products that you can actually apply the discount coupon but those must not be the "hot" ones.
They found this trick so they can choose specific products for discount price. NOT ALL!
So to me, this advertise is just a trick not true.

[Trenzalore]

I'm not sure how much clearer my explanation can get. I believe I have justified the 10% discount and proved it works.
If you feel cheated, then there is nothing we can really do about it, that is your opinion.
But don't slam the Gearbest outfit if you can't accept the math.

[nikstar]

I think you didn't understand nothing of what I am saying.
Probably is my fault, cause English is not my native language but if this is all about math to you, I have no comment.
This is actually a nice marketing trick, hiding behind the words.

I am talking about facts (personal experience), you are talking about your opinion.
Are you employe of gearbest? How can you be so sure?
Do you know all the products that you can actually apply this coupon? Probably not.
So whatever you are saying is your opinion based at one example (or purchase).

I really want to hear gearbest's opinion. They did reply at the beginning of this topic, but, since then, silence.

[NexusTrix]

Because there's nothing left to say. It's already been explained several times. By Gearbest and multiple users.

Nobody is trying to trick you Nikstar.

If the item is already specially discounted/VIP discounted then the coupon won't work. Its not complicated.