Misplaced signs at sales aka Buy 1 get 1 for $1.00

[luv2nascar]

they tried to pull that crap on my DH and me in TDS once with a Mickey toaster
there were two styles at the time played two different songs
all were on shelves marked 25% off
manager insisted it must have been placed on the wrong shelf by a customer.
I then proceeded to tell her the same customer must have put three more in the wrong place then too. I asked her if she wanted to take a look and of course she did. She snottily told the cashier to give it to me for 25% off and proceeded to take all the older style toasters off the sale shelves.
Not my mistake it was the stores and I wasn't paying full price.

 

[HauntedMansionGeek]

Originally posted by Blondie

But they are continually forgetting to remove the security tags on certain clothing lines!

That's what got me back in the store today! Ha ha, maybe that's their marketing strategy, don't remove the tags, and the customer will have to come back in, and buy more things when they get there!

Hm.....not a bad marketing ploy when you think about it.



It's a businesses business to be accurate in their signage. It's appropriate for that business to honor that signage when it's discovered by a customer.
This is WHY store employees should open their eyes and remove or replace all misleading signs. I've worked with far too many slobs who just shrug their shoulders and assume someone else will do it.

I think getting the discount was fair.

 

[Serena]

Now this is something I know about.

Blondie, you did nothing wrong. If the sign wasn't clear, then you had every right to challenge it.
A lot of our signs aren't very clear, and when a customer asks about it, I always take care of the sale for the customers' benefit.
It's what we are told to do by our managers, it's the ethical thing to do, and it is good for business, as opposed to costing the store money. Yeah it may have cost the store $20, however, if the customer had been unhappy, then she would have told everyone about it, just like she is telling everyone about a sign confusion and how they took care of her like they should have. They also should have been more polite about it.

The customer would not have gone back to the store, and most likely several of her family and friends would not have either. So, by taking care of this one customer, the store saved a lot of money.
AND, it taught the cashier to be more careful in the future of where the signs are.

We have cashiers where I work that give the customer a hard time in things like this. I don't know why, it's not their money and we are told to fix the situation.
It's just good business.

 

[BHFan25]

I agree with HMG's post. Good to see JCP did the right thing in your case.

Our Proffitt's has these "great" sales. But the list of exclusions goes on forever. I just never shop there anymore because of this. Too hard to figure out what is on sale and what is not. I realize this was only a bit of what your problem was tonight though. They had the sale sign on the wrong item.

 

[Kallison]

If the sign was on the table with the shirts, then she should get that sale price. Stores try and pull that crap all the time. I would have argued it also.

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

With what little info and not seeing the sign itself, it almost sounds like the sale was for a pair of shorts for $1.00 if you buy either a shirt or a pair of shorts at full price.

What really bugs me, Blondie, is your comment that

most people don't read the fine print at the bottom of the sign.

So, does this mean that if someone doesn't read the fine print in a contract that those terms don't apply? That argument wouldn't fly in a court of law.

Could it have been worded clearer? Of course. Even so, you admit there was print -- fine or otherwise -- that the promotion was for the shorts.

As for the sign placement -- what makes more sense, placing the shirts on the top tier or the shorts? I say the shirts. Top tier for the top half of the body. Of course, the sign belongs at the top so people can see it. The table was probably set up according to how marketing said it should be set up.

 

[DISshopkeeper]

As for the sign placement -- what makes more sense, placing the shirts on the top tier or the shorts? I say the shirts. Top tier for the top half of the body. Of course, the sign belongs at the top so people can see it. The table was probably set up according to how marketing said it should be set up.

What really makes sense is to have only sale merchandise under the sale sign. That's just a reasonable expectation to which customers are entitled!

 

[nuke]

I've seen signs like that with the small print on the bottom that was covered up by the stack of shirts so all that was visable was buy one get one for $1.
They were absolutely right to give you the second shirt for a dollar. Their merchandisers need to make things easy for the customer not confusing and not a hassle.

 

[janette]

It would be interesting to know whether the table was done correctly. I'm sure they have instructions on where the items & sign were to be placed.

I've always found that sale signs are with the items that are on sale. If something is on the wrong rack that is different. When the sign is on the wrong table that is the retailers problem.

 

[momm2four]

BHFan,
I totally agree with you about Proffitts.

I went in the other day, picked up three items all which had a percentage off sign (along with an extra 20% off sale). The first shirt was on a rack that said 25% off markdown price, but rang up reg. price. I showed her the rack, where there were two other shirts like mine hanging with other garments. Saleslady said, "Not on sale, b/c it's 25% off of the markdown price and this particular shirt is not clearanced priced like the others". She told me that one shirt wasn't marked down, just the other things. I showed her that this shirt was part of the group that was on sale. She just chuckled and said, "Yeah, that makes no sense" I said "No, thank you"

2nd shirt rang up correctly.

Third item, a pair of slacks, was on a rack that said 30% off of reg. price. Of course, they didn't ring up correctly. Once again, we walked over to the rack where I showed her the sign and the fact that were other pairs just like mine hanging there. Her excuse this time? These pants were from a different line of that designer. These were white slacks, hanging with about 8 pairs of other white slacks. Two other pairs were the same line as mine, the others were a diff. line, but looked almost identical to the ones I was wanting.

She still didn't offer the discount. She said that the night workers weren't careful when they put things away and would just stick things where they wanted in an effort to hurry and get through.

I didn't argue, just bought the second item and left. I had to go and pick up my children from preschool, or I would have asked for a manager. Now that I think about it, it does irritate me since the first shirt was one that I had been watching for a while and it was part of the line that was clearanced out. Oh well, saved me $35.

Lori P.

 

[Kermit]

I agree that the sign should be next to the items that are for sale. And when items are grouped together and the sale only applies to some of them, the lettering for the specifics should be in large letters. Yes, people should read more. However, people who make signs and plan for item placement know that people don't. I used to be a tech writer. One of the first things you learn is how to make important information noticable because people aren't going to read most of what you write.

I had an issue at Macy's a few months ago where I bought something that was marked down and then realized on my way out to the car that they hadn't given me the discount. I took it back to show the lady, and she said, "Well, that sign was supposed to be taken down yesterday." She really expected me to let it go at that. Normally, I would have been more polite, but I wasn't in a good mood, and I said, "How exactly is it my fault that you messed up?" She gave me my money back.

 

[Kirby]

Once, a long time ago (back in the 80's) I found a sweater at Mervyns that was on sale. When I got up to the cashier to pay for it, it rang for the regular price. When I told her that it was on sale, I was told that the sign was wrong, should not have been placed where it was. It was one of those signs that are attached to the rack and the sale card inserted. I firmly held my ground and a manager was called in. He told her to give me the sale price even though it wasn't on sale. As I was leaving I saw him go over and remove the sale card.

I have learned over the years you have to be very careful with sales, especially the good ones, to always read everything even the small print.

Just like at Linens N Things. They send you a flyer with a discount and then tell you what you can't use it on. What's the point then? I only go there for Yankee Candles and they are one of the things I can't use the discount for.

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

In the last two posts, the stores should have (and did) give the sale price as was posted on the signs.

Mistakes happen. In general, I'd have to say that stores are not trying to scam you. There are more and more audits at stores (by the state) to make sure that the signs do in fact match the point of sale. If they don't, they can be fined for it.

Speaking from the back-end of the department store, and responsible for my area's PLU (system of placing sale pricing in the computer) detail, I can only ask you do this when shopping:

As clerks ring your sale, ask for the price returned in the register, it should match the sign. Chances are that the register price is correct and the sign is wrong, but there is a chance for error and an item could have been overlooked or the store simply may have it merchandised wrongly. If the sale price does not match the sign notify the department manager or lead salesclerk in the department (not just a cashier), or contact store management. They will do what's right, pull the sign, make the adjustment to your bill, contact the person(s) in charge of putting the correct sale prices in the computer. Sales prices are generated by humans, not machines. Errors will continue to be overlooked if the proper people are not notified.

 

[Pin Wizard]

I'm a sign reader. If it says shorts and is with the shirts, I certainly wouldn't push the issue. Either I'd leave or I might tell them that their sign is in the wrong place.

I was in JCP last night and bought a mattress pad and sheet set at 40% off! And that was on the gorgeous 400 thread count sheets!

 

[jfulcer]

Sorry, I go against the majority in that I think that if you didn't read the sign completely(even though it technically was in the wrong place) that it is not the stores responsbility to give you the discount - once it came up wrong you should have just apologized and either payed the full value or not bought the items.

Still, having said that, I agree it was the right thing for the store to do in giving you the discount in the name of customer service, but there still has to be a little personal responsibility in what you are doing.

Remembering back to my last 'retail job', they considered sale sign 'moving' a big problem - enough to call it a loss to the store, but in the interests of customer service you *had* to still give the customer the discount. (of course I'm NOT saying you moved it - just that it happens)

 

[CJMickeyMouse]

I will question the signs, but I don't push it. They decide what they will sell it for, and I'll take it or leave it. Usually they will give you the discount to make the sale.

If I missed something in the fine print, my mistake... I don't expect them to lower the price for that.

 

[HoneyPooh]

Pet peeve of mine. Ever see the 20/20 piece on this? Makes you want to barf. Many people don't know they didn't pay the price they thought they were. You may have a cart full of items and may not be paying attention as each item rings up (I watch each thing come up ever since the 20/20 piece). Some people don't notice till they get home and decide it's not worth the drive back to the store for $2 or $3 dollars. Times that by maybe 1000 customers and the store made a nice extra profit. Might still seem small but keep multiplying it by customers and items and the number gets big. 20/20 estimated in the millions every year. Grocery stores were particulary bad but they only were overcharging by 2 or 3 cents an item (you probably wouldn't notice even if you were watching). It was just so many items and so many customers that the end profit was huge. 20/20 sent undercovers with hidden cameras into the department stores to purchase, I think it was five items. They checked to see how many items were incorrectly priced. I think Sears had like 3 wrong out of the five. JCP was a close second in problems to Sears. The 20/20 crew would inform the cashier and manager that the pricing/sale sign/computer was incorrect and they would promise to fix the problem. 20/20 would then return two or three times and buy the exact same items and EVERY time the items were still incorrectly priced and incorrect signs were still in place. Of course, after 20/20 revealed who they were the problems were fixed . I had always just assumed it was honest human error but after seeing that piece I had to wonder how many times it was truly that.