Pricing problem

pokerface_me

Hi guys quick one for you. Was in a large computer game shop today and had a weird one. Picked a game that had a sticker saying 14.99, big sticker that cannot be removed its under the skin of the case got to the counter guy scans it and says sorry that was mispriced and should be 29.99, i said ok i will look for something else as i hadn't planned on spending that much.

So i find another game up i go to the counter game is priced 11.99, guy scans it and says sorry about that, its mispriced and should be 19.99, i said are you for real , and the cheeky little fecker says yep i'm deadly for real looks over my shoulder and says next, to the next customer.

Talk about taking the you know what.............but where do you stand if this happens for future reference??

amdublin

The price tag is just an invitation to treat. They don't have to stand over it.

Generally they do as a gesture of goodwill, but legally they don't have to.

TheIrishGrover

amdublin wrote: »

The price tag is just an invitation to treat. They don't have to stand over it.

Generally they do as a gesture of goodwill, but legally they don't have to.

You are, of course, correct. As we know, this kind of thing turns up on CI every few days or so.

However, there really should be SOME kind of legal return for the customer. Obviously we are not talking about a shop accidentally misplacing a decimal point or forcing a shop to commit to a price that's obviously a mistake. But what's to stop a shop advertising, say a console, for a tenner on their window only to then inform the many customers drawn into the shop for the offer that it was a misprice and it's only an invitation to treat?

There may well be a law already or one coming up in the new EU regulations coming up. I haven't checked.

itsallaboutme!!

ive heard of this happening before to a friend of mine. he was in a very well known store in dublin and saw a designer watch he wanted to buy for his OH. it had a price that he thought was reasonable and went to pay, but when the cashier rang it up it was quite a bit more than advertised.he spoke to the mamnager and was given the whole invite to treat story and ended up leaving empty handed. now fair enough they are not legally obliged and whatever but is that not some kind of false advertsing??? i mean its advetised as one price to you but when you go to pay its another, more than likely ,dearer price????

John Mason

ah you see false advertising is completely different to invitation to treat.

if the shop had ran an advertising campaign in newspapers / on the tv to say that the designer watch was 200€ and when your friend went into the shop to purchase the watch and was then told it was a mistake that in fact it was 2000€, that would be false advertising.

the price tag on a item is only an invitation for you to purchase that item and the contract is not completed until you hand over the money

subtle but big difference

Sponge Bob

irishbird wrote: »

ah you see false advertising is completely different to invitation to treat.

if the shop had ran an advertising campaign in newspapers / on the tv to say that the designer watch was 200€ and when your friend went into the shop to purchase the watch and was then told it was a mistake that in fact it was 2000€, that would be false advertising.

Totally correct . In that case people should complain online to ASAI.ie as often as possible .

dudara

The odd instance of incorrect pricing is acceptable. But if a shop is consistently and repeatedly mispricing items, then you can complain to the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs

More information here.

boardswalker

So essentially, what we have is a store with a couple of pricing mistakes (at least).
The store is obliged to show correct prices. However it is understood that mistakes do happen. Once the mistake is brought to the attention of the store it should be corrected promptly.
If you were to go back to the store later - say a couple of days or a week - and found the same errors then that would be an offence and should be reported.
If you think this policy is deliberate rather than human error, keep an eye on it and report them with the facts i.e when it was first brought to their attention.