Help: Store refused to honour price on product.

cw67irl

Hi Guys

Can anyone advise me of my options here. I picked up a product (I'm not sure how much detail to use here?) In a high street computer shop today. Price on the front in "sale" banner type sticker 79.99.

Small price on top of box ( including accurate description of product 39.99)
This sticker is the same type of price tag on every product in the store so I assumed it to be an accurate price.


Proceeded to the till only to be told it was 79.99 and that was the "sale" price and basically take it or leave it.

Am I right in saying I was entitled to pay the stickered price ? It wasn't a mislabelled

cw67irl

Apologies for some reason i BBC can't edit my post.

It wasn't mislabelled as the cheaper price sticker was an accurate sticker with product details.

I didn't want to make a fuss in a busy shop but was I entitled to it at the lower price ?

challengemaster

cw67irl wrote: »

Apologies for some reason i BBC can't edit my post.

It wasn't mislabelled as the cheaper price sticker was an accurate sticker with product details.

I didn't want to make a fuss in a busy shop but was I entitled to it at the lower price ?

No you were not entitled to buy it at the wrong price. Search this forum for "invitation to treat"

dudara

In short no. This falls under a concept called "Invitation to Treat" but the shop basically does not have to sell to you at that price.

hfallada

No. A price is an invitation to treat. The retailer can still reject the offer (eg the price on the box). This allows the shop to resolve any mistakes the one you encountered. It's totally legal. It would be illegal if the store was constantly mispricing items

TheChizler

There's no entitlement to the price displayed on products, if you want the item you have to pay what the person selling it agreed to take in exchange.

Now if the shop was intentionally misleading people then that would be different and they'd be in trouble, but that's nothing to do with the particular customer.

joujoujou

Just walk away and never come back.

Peintre Celebre

I had a really intelligent lady the other day. Price marked as 75, she was told it was 95 at the til. I told her I'd check with a manager as sometimes out of goodwill the store will match the price. Unfortunately he couldn't and I said this to her.

She told me it was ''the law'' to sell it at the advertised price. I said 'with all due respect, it's an invitation to treat, which is an invitation for the consumer to make an offer to the retailer which may or may not be accepted''

Exact response ''That's not right, that's stupid, I'll offer 39 for it so''. She kept telling me how it was the law to sell it to her at that price. I said ''With all due respect that's incorrect''. She wasn't a bit happy.

Amazing how people just assume something is the law and goes with it despite zero knowledge to back it up.

jimbly

This is happening all to often, stores do not or cannot be bothered to update the prices or do not price at all on the shelf edge display, I find some of these do-it-yourself supermarket type stores the wost.

cw67irl

Update: I submitted an online query and received a phone call from the area manager today telling me to call in if I still wanted the product at the marked price of 39.99.

Called in and collected this evening,

Great customer service from gamestop! (Hope its ok to mention the store if not Mods feel free to edit)

theteal

I'll always remember when I managed an electronics shop in a relatively well to do area back in a previous life. All display prices had been updated one morning. A middle aged couple entered less than 5 minutes later, picked up their desired item and proceeded to the till. The till price was €10 higher than the displayed price, I raise an eyebrow of "you had one job!" towards the colleague who updated that display. As I then begin to approach the till trying to recall the discount pass code (automatic goodwill for staff member mistake, it happens, no biggie), the interaction gets interesting.

Middle aged well-to-do lady, transforms into snooty uninformed cnutface as she starts demanding of me what am I to do for her about this "disgrace". I've not yet arrived at the till, this has escalated very quickly in approx 2 seconds. Anyway, being the calm, awesome manager I was, I didn't take her bait and began to apologise explaining the error that occurred as I approached. I didn't get to finish a full sentence before her voice is raised informing me that I have to sell it at the "advertised price, IT'S THE LAW". Now, still not having completely dismissed the idea of the goodwill gesture (the item is in my hand now at the till, I'm in the process of applying the €10 discount), I explain that it was a mistake, its not in fact the law, "invitation to tr. . .".

At that, Mr well-to-do interjects, "do not throw legal terms at me, do you know who I am? I know the law, you have made the offer and we accept, we'll have it now at the advertised price".

I did an internal :rolleyes: and then immediately became fed up with the situation, placed the item underneath the counter and said,"No". "What do you mean, No?". I replied, "No" again and gave them a blank stare, that was the last word I was willing to exchange with them. They ranted on for another 20-30 seconds as they left, usual stuff about how I'd be hearing about this, disgraceful carryon yada yada bla bla. . . 09.10 of a Thursday morning!

Anyway, I know there's the idea of whether its better to lose a sale to win an argument but I just wasn't having that.

Moral of the story: people can be ignorant pr!cks, ignorant pr!cks shouldn't receive goodwill gestures. The OP does not fall into this camp having wisely opted to come here for advise rather than engage in an uninformed rant in the shop, the OP receives goodwill gesture.

All is good in the universe and I don't work in retail anymore

Mountjoy Mugger

theteal wrote: »

All is good in the universe and I don't work in retail anymore

Something good came out of it then?

rubadub

It is obviously not the law or you would hear countless stories of Anto & Deco going doing to the local BMW dealership. Anto goes up an hour before Deco and steals a few zeros off the advertised price tag and Deco gets a spanking new beamer for €90 and there is nothing the dealers can do.

I would ask them to ring the gardai if they kept insisting it was law.

Riamfada

Had a grown man in a shop I worked in demanding a product for 99.99 rather than the full price of 599.99 . We had recently repriced stock and someone had put the wrong price on display. I apologised and took the price down. He stood there shouting and bellowing his legal rights.

Its very difficult to stay patient with people like that.