Consumer electronics discount retailer Mediamarkt has been accused of raising its prices substantially before sales, so that discounts look bigger than they really are.

Customers have alleged on the chain’s Facebook page that prices for the current sale which refunds 21% btw payments were jacked up enormously ahead of time, the Telegraaf reported on Friday.  The btw sale runs through Sunday.

One customer made a screenshot of a soundbar he wanted to buy. Just before the sale, the ‘Heos by Denon’ was priced at €599 but a few hours later it was listed at €699. The same soundbar is now for sale at €577.65 at Mediamarkt, a discount of 3.5% on the original price.

A spokesman  for consumers organisation Consumentenbond said it was a ‘rip-off’.  He said he checked the price of a certain item for an entire week as it went from €161 to €185. ‘Price increases just before a sale is a well-known occurrence.  It happened just before Black Friday as well,’ he said.

A Mediamarket spokesman said the company is very transparent with prices. ‘We work with a number of price formulae and prices are adjusted automatically on a daily basis,’ he said.

Mediamarkt offers to match the price of any product if it is sold for less at another store. Based in Germany, Mediamarket is the world’s second-largest consumer electronics retailer after Best Buy of the US.