Super Valu wouldn't sell Beer at price in advert

copacetic

Just went down to super valu to pick up christmas beer. 25% off 20 bottles
of Heineken €17.24 a pack reduced from 22.99 was the offer in Sundays Indpendent, valid from 18th to 24th of Novemeber while stocks last. Nice I said and off I went.

It was still priced €22.99 in the shop, normally I wouldn't have bothered but I queried this with the one staff member on, he said he would check and rang a couple of people and said someone else was coming. Eventually after about a 10 minute wait another guy arrives and says the price is correct and basically he didn't know or care about any ad. Now neither of them had the best english and at this stage I had wasted enough time on it so I left it, as I hadn't got the ad with me as proof. I'm fuming now after making the effort to go and query the price to help them out that they are advertising an offer that isn't available in store just to be basically told to feck off, it was pretty embarrassing too as the shop was very busy.

I checked just now and the super valu site has no phone number or email address for customer service, anyone know how to contact someone to complain about this?

Mr. Presentable

Supervalu are owned/operated by Musgraves. contacts:

http://www.musgrave.ie/contactusa.php?id=48

tvnutz

Since it said a date when the offer ended,it probably would be good practice to stick to that date. But with magazines like that,there are always conditions. The fine print will say prices are correct at time of print,so they can basically change it later if they want. I also think it will say they retain the right to withdraw the offer if they want. So nothing illegal I think,just bad service because if they gave an actual date of Nov 24th,they should stick to it.

jahalpin

Most Supervalu are franchises and are not run directly by Musgraves.

The ad. specified "While Stocks last" and maybe they had had run out of the special price beer and had gone back to the usual stock

Beer specials usually fly out the door as soon as they are released for sale and so it is not impossible that they totally sold out within a few minutes

copacetic

tvnutz wrote: »

Since it said a date when the offer ended,it probably would be good practice to stick to that date. But with magazines like that,there are always conditions. The fine print will say prices are correct at time of print,so they can basically change it later if they want. I also think it will say they retain the right to withdraw the offer if they want. So nothing illegal I think,just bad service because if they gave an actual date of Nov 24th,they should stick to it.

The fine print doesn't say that or that they retain right to withdraw offer, the terms are only what I said above. The offer is only available for a week and it looks like it never started in this super valu.

jahalpin wrote: »

Most Supervalu are franchises and are not run directly by Musgraves.

The ad. specified "While Stocks last" and maybe they had had run out of the special price beer and had gone back to the usual stock

Beer specials usually fly out the door as soon as they are released for sale and so it is not impossible that they totally sold out within a few minutes

just to clarify, they had piles of the exact case of 20 bottles with seasons greetings graphics on them that are at the original price, so no question of not having stock (the picture was in the ad).

mickoneill30

I've had that before with SuperValue. I was buying wine that was reduced from €9.99 - €7.50 (sign was beside the wine). When it came up on the till it said €9.99. When I queried it I was told (by a manager) that the offer was over (and he still left the sign beside the wine).
Frequently when they mark offers on the shelves you have to watch them. They had some sliced pan recently at €1.40 for 1 or €2 for 2 (approximatly). Guess what price came up on the till.

Nowadays I just use them for emergency stuff (milk & the paper), the super valu seems to be the value they're getting from the customers that don't watch their receipts.

squibs

I've had that before with SuperValue. I was buying wine that was reduced from €9.99 - €7.50 (sign was beside the wine). When it came up on the till it said €9.99. When I queried it I was told (by a manager) that the offer was over (and he still left the sign beside the wine).

Me too - 3 for €5 on Staropramen. I stuck to my guns saying the sign should have been taken down if the offer was open. It was the only pricing on display for the beer. As the queue began to accumulate behind me they somehow started to see things my way and gave me the deal...

I can see that in a franchise operation, when you are trying to run your shop locally and tie in with the franchise system things can get... confused. But still, it's sloppy practice.

nava

mickoneill30 wrote: »

I've had that before with SuperValue. I was buying wine that was reduced from €9.99 - €7.50 (sign was beside the wine). When it came up on the till it said €9.99. When I queried it I was told (by a manager) that the offer was over (and he still left the sign beside the wine).
Frequently when they mark offers on the shelves you have to watch them. They had some sliced pan recently at €1.40 for 1 or €2 for 2 (approximatly). Guess what price came up on the till.

Nowadays I just use them for emergency stuff (milk & the paper), the super valu seems to be the value they're getting from the customers that don't watch their receipts.

Hi

the same happened to me a few times in Super Valu Aylesbury over the last couple of years, but they always give me the item for the price in the sign.

Regards

BeansMeansHynes

SuperValue are know for having special offers but when you get to the checkout they charge the full price. Happened me on many occasions. One of my friends actually brought down the special offer sign to the checkout girl and they still denied it and tried to charge her full price!! Musgraves/SuperValue were fined a huge amount of money a few years ago for non display of prices and displaying special offers and charging full whack. Pity they don't get fined a bit more often. They might clean up their act.

morgana

Happens all the time to me too. The times I've spent waiting in Supervalue for somebody higher up to arrive to verify the special offer clearly displayed on the shelf!! Check your receipt immediately and do bother to follow it up if its not right - they are really bad in charging the correct price as displayed. And mostly half of the special offer items are not in stock anyway. I usually avoid Supervalue because of that

Gary ITR

All Super Valu's are owned independently, I'm sure the ad would have said, 'offer available at participating outlets'. The individual stores can use their discretion when it comes to promotions

TheDriver

Super Valus are the worst for pricing errors, you really have to remember all the offers and check it at the till. What annoys me evenmore is that you get thesame errors 2 days later, d lazy cows!
AFAIK, if a sign is up, its obligatory for them to give it to you at the advertised price.

Mitch Connor

TheDriver wrote: »

Super Valus are the worst for pricing errors, you really have to remember all the offers and check it at the till. What annoys me evenmore is that you get thesame errors 2 days later, d lazy cows!
AFAIK, if a sign is up, its obligatory for them to give it to you at the advertised price.

No, as long as you are informed of the price difference before the sale is made, they don't have to go by the displayed price.

englander

I only have experience of the SuperValu in Kilkenny and they are very bad for mispricing items.

Every week I have to go back with at least one item and claim the difference in advertised price with charged price back from them.

Very rarely do I get an apology and usually the money is thrown back at me.

They don't rush to fix the mispriced item either - as I have found out on a few occasions when going back for same item a few days later and still charged incorrectly.

They must make a fortune from it.

TheDriver

Maybe we should collate the amount of complaints here and forward it to the comsumer agency as its plain robbery as in a big shop, u don't notice not getting the bargains

ChuckProphet

mickoneill30 wrote: »

I've had that before with SuperValue. I was buying wine that was reduced from €9.99 - €7.50 (sign was beside the wine). When it came up on the till it said €9.99

i've gotten this loads of times in supervalu and costcutter with wine. each time they've admitted their mistake and given me the reduced price but still it's a pain in the ass waiting for it to be clarified. it happens way too often for it to be an honest mistake

BeansMeansHynes

Yep I agree with TheDriver

MGrah

Tauren wrote: »

No, as long as you are informed of the price difference before the sale is made, they don't have to go by the displayed price.

This is correct - an advertisement is considered as something called an 'invitation to treat' and does not constitute an 'offer' in the contractual sense, meaning that they have no obligation to sell it at the price displayed in the same way as you are not obliged to sell you car/house to the first person who offers the asking price.
It is on the other hand a matter for the advertising standards authority. Unfortunately all they can do is fine SuperValu rather than force them to fulfil the ad.

jor el

MGrah wrote: »

It is on the other hand a matter for the advertising standards authority. Unfortunately all they can do is fine SuperValu rather than force them to fulfil the ad.

I don't think they can even do that. The ASAI has pretty much no powers at all except to ask advertisers to obey the advertising code of practice. Airlines do the false advertising thing all the time, and they're in just about every ASAI bulletin, but still they don't stop.

This ad should have stated the the offer was at participating stores only, so a complaint could be made to the ASAI.

copacetic

Onkle wrote: »

All Super Valu's are owned independently, I'm sure the ad would have said, 'offer available at participating outlets'. The individual stores can use their discretion when it comes to promotions

sweet jesus people. as I said above the ad said what I quoted. Nothing more, nothing less! It doesn't say offer available at participating outlets.


Also it is a bit different from what people are saying above, it wasn't that the displayed price wasn't correct but that the displayed price wasn't as in ad.

Sully

Meh, id stick to my guns and demand the advertised price. If they refuse, and I had a big shop, id say I refuse to pay and just walk out without the stuff.

JohnC.

mickoneill30 wrote: »

I've had that before with SuperValue. I was buying wine that was reduced from €9.99 - €7.50 (sign was beside the wine). When it came up on the till it said €9.99. When I queried it I was told (by a manager) that the offer was over (and he still left the sign beside the wine).
Frequently when they mark offers on the shelves you have to watch them. They had some sliced pan recently at €1.40 for 1 or €2 for 2 (approximatly). Guess what price came up on the till.

It's a bit different from the OP's situation with a newspaper ad, but with in-store stuff such as this, matters can also be treated seriously. As others have said, it's only an invitation to treat, yada, yada, probably been done a million times in this forum. However, if an incorrect price remains after the shop is aware of it, like you state above, they certainly can be fined. I know from working in Dunnes where someone (I don't actually know who) occasionally does audits for incorrect or missing SELs. They can be fined €3,000 for each incorrect or missing SEL or sign, so it is taken seriously. Looks like Super Valu don't. Dunnes will also give it at the marked price rather than denying it exists.

Slice

The ASAI has pretty much no powers at all except to ask advertisers to obey the advertising code of practice

This is true. However, the National Consumer Agency has plenty of powers investigate in this area so perhaps you should complain to them?

http://www.consumerconnect.ie/eng/

copacetic

just an update on this, went in today to sort them out big style with the actual ad in hand but no need, the beer was now marked correctly. Needless to say I probably won't bother complaining now, but there ya go..

Goldenquick

Had something the same happen to me at SuperValu with washing powder, the price on the shelf was different to what came up on the till, the till was dearer of course. The girl had a right snotty attitude and insisted the till was right. I stood my ground until she went to the office to check it out, came back and gave me some money back but wouldn't apologise of course.

Happens all the time in there, my sister pulls them up on prices at least twice a week if not more, she gets a very big shopping. I always check my receipts now from there, especially when they have special offers. Half the time they don't seem to put it on the computers.

msg11

copacetic wrote: »

Just went down to super valu to pick up christmas beer. 25% off 20 bottles
of Heineken €17.24 a pack reduced from 22.99 was the offer in Sundays Indpendent, valid from 18th to 24th of Novemeber while stocks last. Nice I said and off I went.

It was still priced €22.99 in the shop, normally I wouldn't have bothered but I queried this with the one staff member on, he said he would check and rang a couple of people and said someone else was coming. Eventually after about a 10 minute wait another guy arrives and says the price is correct and basically he didn't know or care about any ad. Now neither of them had the best english and at this stage I had wasted enough time on it so I left it, as I hadn't got the ad with me as proof. I'm fuming now after making the effort to go and query the price to help them out that they are advertising an offer that isn't available in store just to be basically told to feck off, it was pretty embarrassing too as the shop was very busy.

I checked just now and the super valu site has no phone number or email address for customer service, anyone know how to contact someone to complain about this?

In fairness to the store, I can see were there coming from. They are displaying the selling price in store, which confers to price you see, price you pay. The newspaper is void at this stage; you might also find in the small print. "selected stores only".. There basically protected. Not been smart, but this is what you will be told.

TheDriver

ASide from the newspaper price, Super Valu obviously doesn't have good control systems for their pricing and will always charge the dearer price it appears and its only a small minority like ourselves that complain about this which singles us out and makes us feelthe criminal at the checkout. TBH the consumer agency needs to investigate this whole thing as Tescos etc have good controls in place to ensure this doesn't happen