Fake Deals , a Post to the Owners

The deals are posted by members and the team only have a few people in it. They can't be checking every single damn item to see if it can be bought cheaper elsewhere. That's not the point of the site. The person buying the deal should be the one to check first before purchasing.

The people posting the deals may not necessarily have looked for a cheaper deal and bought it at that price. Maybe some are fake deals but a lot are just people posting them to get points as well.

Yes its all about the "Flash Deals" part of the site, its just full of drop shippers that resell from Ali Express, of course LD will take there commission i guess so will keep the owners happy, they are not special deals as you can find them on Amazon

Just think its ripping off the members when its mostly cheaper elsewhere and certainly isn't a "deal"

Morning Deanos

Thank you for your feedback - we certainly aren't going to delete your post!

To give some history/context to Flash Deals:

• Flash Deals is a separate part of the website. Whilst the deals, freebies, competitions and vouchers are shared by members of the public the Flash section is reserved for brands to promote their own products.
• The section is new and we're still trying to work out exactly how it should work. We have, for now, limited it to Amazon so that everyone is protected by Amazon's customer service. In addition - in an attempt to ensure genuine bargains - we require that every post in Flash deals is discounted by at least 50%. We've also made efforts to try and clearly label and distinguish Flash deals from the other deals on the website - there is a notice at the top of the Flash Deals section and also on every Flash Deals post.
• One of the reasons we launched Flash Deals was because we were inundated with Amazon sellers wanting to share their products on LD. We don't allow self promotion and so it usually ended up with Amazon sellers creating fake accounts to share their products and like their own deals. The idea of Flash Deals is that far less sellers will do this if they have a legitimate, alternative, place to share their products.
• We actively chose to allow commenting on Flash Deals because we want to allow the community to provide the same great insight into the deals as we have across the whole site. If you do indeed spot something cheaper elsewhere then we'd encourage you to comment irrespective of whether it's a Flash Deal or a deal shared by a member of LD.

The "must have at least 50% off" rule does have flaws. Sometimes people don't adhere to it and, in those cases, we'll put the posts into moderation. Other times it can be more difficult, the RRP will be the RRP on Amazon but perhaps it is selling for significantly less elsewhere. This could be because it just sells for less elsewhere, or that another shop also has a sale. In these cases it's more difficult to enforce any rules as the post technically does comply with our guidelines. This is where members commenting and providing their expertise is really useful.

Sorry for the early morning ramble! Long story short, we welcome all feedback on Flash Deals and if you, or anyone else reading, has any feedback/suggestions as to how we could improve it we're all ears

Thanks for the reply, mine is genuine feedback and i want this site to succeed but if you are not careful you may loose the trust of your members , trouble is the sellers are marking up the RRP's to silly amounts, a example someone posted a razor handle and one blade RRP £15 and 80% off to knock it down to £3, this is just a run of the mill razor that can be found in poundshops all across the country for yep £1

Maybe the posts could be all moderated , a quick check on Ali Express usually brings up the items as the flash deal sellers are just drop shippers off Ali Express by looks of it as all coming from China.

If the "Flash Deals" part of the site could become like Vipon then it would be fantastic as they are mostly genuine deals with unique discount codes

I think there are some good deals in the Flash deal area.

Always the person can decide if they like the offer or not. It is not forced to buy it. Someone will think from an item it is a deal and other person will think it is far from a good deal, that is how we work. Just do not take it personally. People like to give more negative comments than positive ones.

The worst I have seen on here by far is the ag vintage "deals"

Basically, they advertise cheap chinese, fake silver tat.. put a fake rrp, then claim to give it away for "free" with an amazing £4.99 postage!!

When in reality, they are paying 99p or less from china, and having it shipped directly to the "customers" name & address.. easy £4 profit in their pocket from one gullible idiot that falls for it! And trust me, there's been a few on here lol.

The customer has to wait months for this "free" item coming from a UK based company.

Something we have considered is automatically including a price history graph on every Flash Deal to help with this. For example, on this Flash Deal - https://www.latestdeals.co.uk/flash/homgeek-electric-juicer-reduced-clear-amazon

This might help give more information to make a better purchase decision. Do you think this may be useful?

£26.99 really ??? This is getting silly now https://www.latestdeals.co.uk/flash/biuday-fun-baby-bath-toy-basketball-hoop-balls-playset-water-toys-bath-toys-amazon

I personally don't like the Flash deals section at all, the majority aren't deals at all and information is falsified in the hope people won't check, for instance there is a 'deal' on at the moment for something that generally retails for around £7, they inflated the RRP to £12, gave a code saying it took the price down to £1.89, where in fact it took it to £3.69 and despite several questioning the seller there was no response, although they did change the price. It also tends to get flooded by particular sellers, who will post about 20 'deals' at the same time. To me a 'flash deal' should be like the lightning deals, not items that are the same price on Amazon and just being advertised

I like the flash section and check it a few times a day , yes there are some deals on there which you roll your eyes at but I ignore the rpp prices and use mine own judgment on what I think is a good price or not

Well you know its bad when the Founders are now posting fake deals , https://www.latestdeals.co.uk/deals/wireless-bluetooth-headphones-399-amazon

I can totally understand the idea of flash deals and how this addition is a good revenue stream for LD. I do believe though it is a good idea for LD users to post cheaper deals for the exact same product in the comments if they find it. Then someone who wishes to purchase the item will have a choice. I would personally post these in a clear and polite fashion. If the flash deal companies recognise this often enough they may then reduce their prices further in order to compete with any obvious price difference. As I may have said before in a different post a "found cheaper elsewhere" button would really help if such a button created a new deal post that the original pointed towards.

Well done Deanos for raising this!!!

I hope people realise that that Deanos’ criticism is constructive and clearly aimed at helping the site improve.

I agree with Deanos‘ concerns - I do appreciate that the site needs to make revenue but there’s a real risk of losing credibility and visitors when the “deals” in the Flash section are so incredibly nonsensical at times.

And there‘s a clear conflict of interest due to the conflict between the site gaining extra revenue from the advertise and commission versus effectively ripping the end customer off.

Thank you dss and nnnnnnnn for you feedback, we will certainly take this on board.

Thanks everyone for the continued feedback and input

With respect to the "main" part of the site, we pride ourselves on being open and unrestrictive and allowing as many deals/retailers to be shared as possible. We'll typically only remove something if it is appears illegitimate, unsafe or suspicious. However, this openness can have downsides - we let everything (the good and the bad deals) be shared on LD and leave it up to you guys to like the stuff that's good and leave the subpar deals to fall to the bottom of the pile.

The points system is intended to reward all the members of LD for their contributions. However, we understand that some people may get a little carried away and share low quality posts to up their point balance. One idea that we've been mulling over for a while is to make points for sharing deals dependent on receiving a certain number of likes. The idea being that we reward high quality, good deals. However, there are potential pitfalls to that too - with perhaps some hidden gems going unrewarded. We're continuing to brainstorm over what the best approach might be and welcome any suggestions

Flash Deals is a different kettle of fish - unlike the rest of the site, we actively restrict what can be shared and stipulate certain rules (e.g. a minimum discount of 50%) to try and ensure high quality posts that are useful to the members of LD. That said, the presence of a post in Flash Deals doesn't necessarily mean its awesome - we don't individually check each deal to verify if it's actually good value and perhaps this is something we need to be clearer about? We do however inform the sellers that LD is a deals community and, if they don't share decent discounts, no-one will buy their products. Whilst the idea of a "cheaper elsewhere" button is good and can definitely join our to-do list this is hopefully something members can do already. If someone spots a product cheaper elsewhere, share it as a new deal yourself (and earn some points!) and then comment on the flash deal with the link (do try and let the original poster know nicely though! Just because John sells something for more than Bob doesn't make him a terrible guy) This way, over time, we'll hopefully create a network of sellers that understand the LD community and share the right sort of products.

I'd be very grateful to hear all and any ideas on how we can mould Flash Deals more into what you guys want - whilst, yes, it is a source of revenue for LD our primary motivation was actually to create something like VIPON. We'd seen how useful it was connecting sellers with deal hunters to get great bargains and so wanted to replicate it on LD. I'm confident we'll get there but appreciate you all bearing with us whilst we go through these growing pains

I've looked at a couple of the flash “deals” that have appeared this morning ... a quick check on amazon and AliExpress and it’s blatantly obvious that it’s a total and utter scam with massively inflated prices and the “discounts” taking the price to above the normal RRP.

I guess if you’re drop shipping then the extra markup makes it worthwhile to justify the advertising cost if enough volume.

There do seem to be some legit deals (below genuinely normal RRP or below normal price with Prime delivery available) though which is a shame for those that are paying you for the advertising but yet getting grouped in with the iffy ones.

I’ve looked again today and its difficult to find many genuine deals in that flash section. It’s getting worse daily.

It seems this is continuing, and the owners are even posting these fake deals on Facebook, seems commission and site traffic is more important than looking after your users, whats the saying "dont bite the hand that feeds you" comes to mind , careful you are slowly but surely losing your good reputation

It’s only a deal if you really need it

I can see both sides of the argument on this one. I remember a documentary a while back on TK Maxx selling clothes dressed up to look like reduced designer gear when they were in fact own brand. I think the bottom line is regardless of markdown, if you think it’s a good price for that particular item, you are happy to pay it and you don’t spend the time researching then a, it’s a bargain to you and b, on your head be it

So these are now appearing in the newsletter "up to 90% off" , we definitely now know where the owners stand, commission over genuine deals , think of the bigger picture not the short term gain.

Unfortunately the obscenely large discounts are obscenely falsified for the majority of the time, to entice people they inflate the RRP, offer an amazing discount but the offer price is still higher than the actual RRP. Out of 100 posts I would guess at only 20% being a genuine deal and offer. The sellers are banking on people not actually checking if it can be bought cheaper elsewhere and it is giving them the green light to, what is in effect, scam people, yes it is down to the individual to make up their own minds but negative feedback gets spread a lot faster than positive.