Went into the local Giant store today for a browse. A 2015 Giant Defy Advanced SL 1 in my size £2090 RRP £3499

Just about to get the CC out, when I spotted that this years bike does have carbon wheels and is £3499. I left the shop to think about it and found out that the shop had taken off the carbon wheels and stuck some Giant alloy wheels on. So now I get why it had such a discount.

I thought it was a bit sneaky that the sales guy did not mention the reason why it was so heavily reduced.

If the ticket said reduced from £3499 to £2090 then I’d call it dishonest

if the original RRP was £3499 with the original wheels then yes that’s proper naughty, if they’ve not pointed that out. You can probably pick it up elsewhere with the original wheels for £2500 now anyway

No mention on the ticket or anything. I suspect Giant themselves wouldn’t be best pleased with an official dealer adopting that practice.

Here’s the 2015 spec https://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-gb/bikes/model/defy.advanced.sl.1/19190/77286/#specifications

If they are changing components then its not cheeky it is dishonest and probably illegal (false advertising)

Buy bike, immediately complain the wheels don’t match spec, contact Giant if/when no deal from bike shop. 🙂

Buy bike, immediately complain the wheels don’t match spec, contact Giant if/when no deal from bike shop.

I was thinking that same thing too.

Dealer by the sea by any chance?

Don’t specifications tend have a “Subject to Change” clause somewhere?

It would only be truly dishonest if they stated it had carbon wheels and sold it as so. What they have is last year’s bike with cheaper wheels on for sale at a price to reflect the downgrade

I thought it was a bit sneaky that the sales guy did not mention the reason why it was so heavily reduced

But did you not ask why it was reduced?

Isn’t it simply a case of Caveat Emptor? If it was online, it’d have a description, but it’s right there in front of you…surely the shops is free to do whatever it pleases with stock that it has already bought.

Not to claim a discount on RRP for an item that had more expensive components fitted at that RRP

so you walked in ….you saw a bike on offer and thought looks like a good bike for the money that.

you looked it up online and discovered that at full price it had carbon wheels.

now it does not but its significantly cheaper.

professionally offended or what ? im not seeing the issue , you see the bike before you buy it , you have the right to turn it down based on the price and spec you see before you.

Actually I see now. The key point is if it stated

RRP £3499

If it didn’t and was just marked at £2090, then there’s nothing really wrong with that.

It was RRP £3499 now £2090

Yes it was £3499, but when it was it had carbon wheels and not alloy ones.

Discounting is fine, but don’t try and hoodwink a potential customer into thinking it’s a great deal. If you had to purchase the wheels it came with the bike would be £3000.

professionally offended or what ? im not seeing the issue , you see the bike before you buy it , you have the right to turn it down based on the price and spec you see before you.

A little honesty regarding the discount wouldn’t have gone a miss. Imagine buying a discounted car only to find the garage had switched out the V6 engine for a V4 and not told you. I think you’d be rather annoyed.

It can be discounted if it was on sale for 6 weeks prior to the price drop.

It depends on if the ticket has a specification on it or if it is just a tag as to whether it is misleading or not.

flanagaj – Member

A little honesty regarding the discount wouldn’t have gone a miss. Imagine buying a discounted car only to find the garage had switched out the V6 engine for a V4 and not told you. I think you’d be rather annoyed.

That depends upon whether the OP asked the sales guys about the bike (the opening statement implies that he might have) and whether the sales guys knew the wheels had been swapped. Indeed we’re assuming the swap is a permanent one, there could be any number of reasons why the wheels are different, warranty, demo, tyre change…anything.

Spec subject to change without notice is one thing, but the honest approach to that is a change to equal or higher value.

If you bought something based on spec and then they promptly removed all the XT and replaced it with Deore, and then pointed to the small print you’d be p’ed off. The counter is that it is there in front of you.

I’d get the card out, buy it, and then immediately return it on the basis the wheelset is not as advertised and hence the RRP is irrelevant and misleading. They can either put the original wheels back on, or discount a few hundred more to compensate, or refund you.