A question about consumer rights?

ronano

I walked into xtravision, i saw the pink panther collection for 30 euro. I went up to pay for it, the girl behind the desk said it was labelled wrong and that it is infact 70 euro. If the label says it's 30 euro should i have got it for 30 euro ?

monkeyfudge

As long as they inform you of the error, then they are covered I'm afraid.

I had the same problem while trying to buy a scanner in Dixon's a few years back.

But I think if you had paid and then realised that the advertised price was less, then you'd be able to do something. At least that's what the department of consumer affairs told me, when I rang them.

ronano

thanks

eoin_f

the price displayed is only an invitation to purchase not a contractual agreement

Rabies

Worked for me. I got a cool pair of Ralph Lauren jeans for $6 last year in the states. Should have been $100. Wrong price came up on the till when it was scanned

Miss Mann

You should've walloped her over the head with it and ran out of the shop.

xx

gonker

it is only "an invitation to purchase" ................................................... but in Tesco once you have paid and you discover that the price is wrong you can claim the amount you paid back.. i have gotten dvds, beer, ink cartridges, food etc free under this rule. If the price on the shelf does not match the price you paid they will give you the article free . Once saw a couple get 3 crates of budweiser free under this rule

missy me

but isnt it false advertising?they got u to want the collection because it was supposedly 30quid then they tell u its 70,i wuda argued it.

bp_me

missy me wrote:

but isnt it false advertising?they got u to want the collection because it was supposedly 30quid then they tell u its 70,i wuda argued it.

Argueing it would have done no good if the policy in the store is not to sell below what the computer says once the consumer has been told of the correct price.

The rules on this are very clear.

If you are told about the price BEFORE you pay for an item, you are agreeing to pay that price for said item, if however you purchase an item believing it to be one price, and you pay a higher price, then you are entitled to claim the amount the shop overcharged you back.

You could try to claim false advertising, but the shop in that case will simply laim it was an innocent accident, and so you end up nowhere.

It's much easier just to say no thanks and go spend your money elsewhere, in this case places like http://www.play.com or http://www.cdwow.ie.

seamus

The Code of Advertising Standards applies to commercial advertisements, i.e. those which promote the sale of a product or service. The Code defines an advertisement as a paid-for communication addressed to the public or a section of it. It is characteristic of an advertisement that the advertiser engages media to communicate a commercial message.

So technically, it doesn't apply to shelf edge labels, since their purpose isn't to promote a product, rather inform the person of the price of it.

At the end of the day, even if it can be construed as false advertising, the company still don't have to sell it at the cheaper price, and as long as they make an attempt to rectify the incorrect advertisement, there are no ramifications.

tribble

It goes a little something like this.

Offer > Accptance = (Agreement) > Consideration > Intention to Contract > Capacity to Contract.

Consideration = money (usually)
Intention to contract means you weren't pissed and nobody held a gun to your head (no, you still have to pay for the drink that made you pissed)...
Capacity to Contract means you are actually allowed to enter into said contract (you're over 18 or the item/service is an essential)

A sign, sticker label etc != (does not equal) an offer.
It is an invitation for you to make an offer (aka "invitation to treat)".

Once the first two are met (you've both agreed a price for an item) then you have an agreement - while not a contract per se it does have legal significance.
With out the first two you have nothing.

Victor

eoin_f wrote:

the price displayed is only an invitation to purchase not a contractual agreement

The term is invitation to treat. In certain circumstances there is no actual purchase.

missy me wrote:

but isnt it false advertising?

Point of sale isn't advertising as you can compare. However it is against consumer regulations http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=79725

Once the "seller" is aware of the problem they should fix it. Not doing so is both disingenuous and probably illegal.

pickarooney

Surely a case for Inspector Clouseau.

Makaveli

tribble wrote:

It goes a little something like this.

Offer > Accptance = (Agreement) > Consideration > Intention to Contract > Capacity to Contract.

Consideration = money (usually)
Intention to contract means you weren't pissed and nobody held a gun to your head (no, you still have to pay for the drink that made you pissed)...
.

It's more like Intention to create legal relations.
Your explanation of Intention to contract would fall under duress and undue influence more so.

Kêrmêttê

I've had this problem many times in Xtravision. They seem to always forget to take the sale stickers off the display boxes when the sale is over.
Every time this happens I argue that I'm only prepared to pay what's on the sticker, ie. the reduced price, and they always cave in.
A few times I've shoved the box back on the desk and said that I don't want to pay a price that's not even displayed anywhere... and I've always been called back by a sheepish looking manager apologising.
I suppose they just don't want to loose a sale... either way they're making a profit, even if it's a slightly smaller one than they had intended.

Cactus Col

gonker wrote:

it is only "an invitation to purchase" ................................................... but in Tesco once you have paid and you discover that the price is wrong you can claim the amount you paid back.. i have gotten dvds, beer, ink cartridges, food etc free under this rule. If the price on the shelf does not match the price you paid they will give you the article free . Once saw a couple get 3 crates of budweiser free under this rule

that's because they have to tell you before you make your purchase, if they don't then they are in the wrong.

snappieT

missy me wrote:

but isnt it false advertising?they got u to want the collection because it was supposedly 30quid then they tell u its 70,i wuda argued it.

It is only false advertising if they are luring people into the shop or to buy this product at this price. If the clerk put the item back on display / didn't do anything with the rest of them (put on new labels or take them off the shop floor) then, since they have been informed of the error, it would be false advertising: KNOWINGLY making an incorrect claim about a product.

Kêrmêttê

gonker wrote:

in Tesco once you have paid and you discover that the price is wrong you can claim the amount you paid back.. i have gotten dvds, beer, ink cartridges, food etc free under this rule. If the price on the shelf does not match the price you paid they will give you the article free . Once saw a couple get 3 crates of budweiser free under this rule

They also do this in Dunnes Stores. Recently I bought a 12 pack of pepsi cans and realised the price on the receipt was more than the price that was displayed on the shelf. I went to the customer service desk expecting to get re-imbursed the difference... but the manager gave me back all my money and told me the pepsi was free! I was well impressed.
Apparently this is store policy... but they don't advertise it anywhere :eek:

Dave

It's the same in supervalu too.

seamus

Kêrmêtt&#234 wrote:

Apparently this is store policy... but they don't advertise it anywhere :eek:

It's store policy almost everywhere. Superquinn advertise in-store that if it scans wrong you get it free (it doesn't even have to scan at a higher price, just if it either won't scan - i.e. it's not in the DB - or the scanned price is different, you get it free).

There was a big scandal a few years back when a huge amount of Tesco goods were found to be scanning at a higher price than was on the shelf, so most stores changed their policy to give the item away free. Tends to stop people reporting an incident, and is a reasonable recompense. I was working as a price controller in Superquinn at the time, and had to check and doublecheck a few thousands shelf edge labels for accuracy. We missed just one......Painful week.

Victor

seamus wrote:

It's store policy almost everywhere. Superquinn advertise in-store that if it scans wrong you get it free (it doesn't even have to scan at a higher price, just if it either won't scan - i.e. it's not in the DB - or the scanned price is different, you get it free).

It's down to the EAN code of practice - it either gets sold at the displayed price or it doesn't get sold (i.e. its free).

http://www.ean.ie/

There was a big scandal a few years back when a huge amount of Tesco goods were found to be scanning at a higher price than was on the shelf, so most stores changed their policy to give the item away free. Tends to stop people reporting an incident, and is a reasonable recompense. I was working as a price controller in Superquinn at the time, and had to check and doublecheck a few thousands shelf edge labels for accuracy. We missed just one......Painful week.

???? How come they didn't spot it first / second / tenth time it scanned / didn't scan?

seamus

Victor wrote:

???? How come they didn't spot it first / second / tenth time it scanned / didn't scan?

There are a lot of products. 4 of us had 2 days to go over the whole shop, twice. Missing just one is extremely good. It could be anything from just glancing at the readout too fast, to a floor manager sticking in an expired shelf edge label after that section had been checked (they did stuff like *that* all the time).

For all but the popular products, it's rare that a customer would notice the difference between the scanned and shelf edge prices (particularly when price changes weren't more than a few pence).

Alana

Seamus, i feel your pain, good dam stickers... and people who have never worked in retail have be the bain of my life this week...grrr...people and silly questions :rolleyes: and they'd nearly murder you over a silly sticker and start spouting off "civil rights" and "rights" crap...do y'kno what ye are talking about....im generally quite approachable, and i understand that cos i work ther i kno whats going on and sum1 who doesnt obviously wont so i will get some seemingly silly questions, but for some people when it just seems like its their first day in the outside world...

anyway rant over with...

next time ye are in a shop take into account that it isnt a piss easy job, and that the people behind the till are not there for you to get your ya ya ya out on, also xtravision while its a fairly cushy job the dudes there av to put up with a lot of crap- ie open late-drunk ppl&annoying kids with nothing better to do, a good few are in dodgy areas-ie leonards corner, clondalkin village, nutgrove,(not saying i've anything against these areas just sum of the clientel are a bit dodgy) and these two combined sometimes not gud, a gud few have been robbed lately too.


No its not illegal to tell you at the till that the wrong price was put on it, people make mistakes, stock turn over now a days in most stores is quite hi so ther is liabilty for mistakes.. and stores that give it to you at that price are doing you and them a favour to a)keep you as a customer b)stop you writing to joe duffy complaining c)to stop you spreading bad news about X store..why only say when a store is bad, y not talk to ur mates about a nice shop or something.

bad day in work.

grr.