Right most discount stores work on the principal of make 1p profit on any item I assume Bid do too but the P&P means they make more. They might sell an item at £2 plus £7.99 p&p plus telephone call and have bought it in bulk for £8.98. So they have still sold it for less than they paid for technically I think they can get away with it on those grounds.
I would imagine this is how they get around it. Yes they quite possibly paid more for the actual item, and whilst the money we have to spend on the P&P (which they never mention anyway) gives them the profit they need to keep afloat, they could argue that is has nothing to do with the cost of the product. Let's face it folks if they REALLY did sell everything at a loss, they'd have gone under many moons ago!
I have also noticed how every show these days seems to be "running behind" hence we've got to shift these items for a lot cheaper than we'd have liked to in order to catch up! NO YOU DON'T. If you're were really running late, then you'd cut a couple of products from the hour,no one would be any the wiser, it's not as if they have a strict schedule like the other channels where you have an hour or two of a specific brand or type of product and guest presenters to factor in. With the Sit ups it's pretty much a case of "same shite - different presenter".
Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't like to see these channels go under, I would just like to see them smarten up their act a bit. Imvho they need to lose a lot of the gimmickry especially the way that they completely "oversell" (probably wrong word) cheap tat...Tanzanite, Swarvoski Crystal etc....We don't need a history lecture, anecdotes about the royal family for 15 minutes before something gets flogged for £6.99 (If the product had any kudos to begin with, it's gone now!) Say it looks posh, say the neighbours might think you've won the lottery...that's about the right "sprinkling" of bullsh*t any shopping channel needs to keep it entertaining!
They need to be upfront about the p&p. Yes, it might seem a lot, but the goods are so cheap, that we reckon you'll still be getting a bargain, and if you agree "buy it buy it buy it!" I also don't think it would hurt them too much to cap the p&p at say two items, it might encourage people to buy more. There's absolutely no way I'd spend £16 to have to small items sent to me, no way, and I'm sure there are many others who agree.
On P&P again, they simply should not be allowed to make a statement such as "You're getting this home for £2" cause you're not, it's a lie, it's not even bullsh*t, it's a downright untruth" It's bad enough them us telling how they paid treble that amount for the same product but of inferior quality, or that they spent the same money on a bacon sandwich and a packet of cheese and onion, but some of the blatant porkies they come out with, i'm surprised their noses don't start growing on air (now that would be funny, wouldn't it?!)
These channels have definitely deteriorated in the last couple of years, and people are noticing!