No deposit on sale items

tfitzgerald

Today myself and the wife went into Pamela Scotts in the crescent in Limerick she saw a dress there on sale from €160 to €90 but I had left my wallet at home and she did not have enough money on her. So she said to the shop girl could she put a deposit on it the assistant said no deposit on sale items I was shocked I thought that in this day and age a sale was importent . I was just wondering if this was common occurrence .

christmas2010

Shops are under no obligation to accept a deposit on any item, it's purely a goodwill gesture. As the item was reduced I presume the shop wanted to clear it as soon as possible to make way for new spring stock.:)

RachaelVO

That's a pretty poor show in customer services, especially as in these days they are selling less and less! I wonder if maybe you should have asked the manager if they could bend their rules! Sometimes a common sense approach is sorely missing from shops!

tfitzgerald

No obligation fine, but When I was working in a shop I was told always take money never refuse it and in this day and Age I would have thought any and all sales count

davo10

OP could I ask what you would do if she had accepted the deposit and then tomorrow your wife decided she did not want the dress after all?, the shop may have had another person who would have bought the dress in the mean time and you may feel that you were entitled to have your deposit back, it's a tough call either way for the shop.

My opinion is the shop should have accommadated your wife by accepting the deposit but you should accept that you were not entitled to a refund if you changed your mind.

tfitzgerald

No I would not have expected to get the deposit back unless there were exceptional circumstances a cancelled wedding or something then we would have giving a deposit back but for a change of mind there would have been no refund . But as I say we would never have refused money for the till

davo10

A cancelled wedding is not an exceptional circumstance which would entitle the purchaser to a refund, and a deposit is not a sale until the full amount is paid for the goods. But again I think the shop was silly unless they were pretty confident they were going to sell the dress today to somebody else.

wmpdd3

I worked in a similar shop, we had to stop deposits from the 1st week in Dec until after the sale, as prices were always changing.

If not customers would just put something on deposit until it was 85% off, or put something on deposit, then the sale price would be less than the amount they put it on deposit and they would want a refund of the difference.

During a sale, I would hold it for 24hrs max, if another customer was interested in the item I would take there number and call them if the original person didn't come back.

I think they are right. Sale items are offered at a low price and its 1st come, 1st served.

You wouldn't be too happy to arrive at a DID sale to find the 10 TV's they advertised were all on hold in the stockroom with a €50 deposit.

Zab

I'd say it's down to their reasons for having a sale or the amount of stock they have in the particular item you're trying to buy. There are obviously both upsides and downsides to taking a deposit, but if they have a chance of selling the item to somebody else on the day it'd be much easier for them. I'm sure it could be argued that they'd generally be better off taking deposits all the time rather than none of the time but in the end of the day it's their decision and both are fair to the customer.