On Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:10:25 +0000, MM wrote:
>Earlier today I was told by staff at one of the discounters that if
>the price at the till is higher than the shelf label price, the store
>is entitled to charge the till price and not refund the difference as
>has always been the case whenever I have queried a wrong price at any
>supermarket. The only recourse the customer has, I was informed, is to
>request a refund of the price charged for the item and relinquish the
>item.
>This "clarification" was, I was told, in light of a training course
>that staff had recently attended. The manager informed me that the
>lower price on the shelf was due to an error for which the store
>cannot be held responsible (despite the fact that it is the store's
>staff who apply the shelf price labels). When I pointed out that any
>of a dozen or a hundred shelf prices might be wrong (i.e. lower) "by
>accident", he would not offer an opinon.
>I thought it is the retailer's responsibility to advertise the correct
>price, else this could be a recipe for sharp practice, especially
>because busy people (mothers with pushchairs, people in their lunch
>break) do not have the time to check receipts
If there were so many "mistakes" as to make it likely that the store
was being deliberately misleading, trading standards could take
action.
You have received correct information. The store is not *obliged* to
sell you anything at any price. Swapping price stickers is a common
shoplifting scam, and who's to say that an incorrect shelf price was
due to a mistake by a store employee?
On the other side of the fence, if you could find a sufficiently
senior person in the store and offer a price *below* the shelf price
for an item, in certain circumstances your offer may well be accepted
- e.g. sell-by date just about to expire, cosmetic or packaging damage
etc. I've done it at the bakery counter when the only cake left of a
certain type had been partially crushed and the icing was cracked -
the baker agreed to mark it down by a considerable amount and applied
a "reduced" sticker for the checkout.
Tell me, if you were to advertise your car for sale in the local
paper, but due to a typing error you advertised it at £200 instead of
the intended £2000, would *you* feel obliged to give it to the first
person who was willing to give you £200?
--
Cynic
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