Will a store honor a mispriced item? *updatein post 1*

[Andy B]

I believe in English Common Law the prices in advertising Etc are an 'invitation to treat' the price subject to amendment or negotiation until, the contract is made. For a contract to be made there must be 'consideration' from each side ie each must give someting , the store would give the product and you would give the cost, if there were not cost they could claim no contract, the shipping cost going to the shippers for a separate service.

Let us know what happens.

 

[momof3disneyholics]

Well, without going into the ethics of this, I think that stores do not have to honor the price. I know in my business which is ticket sales, I will not honor old prices or price match. That is why they have the old "prices subject to change" clause.

 

[rie'smom]

If your item is shipped, I don't see what they can do. They can't charge your card w/out your O.K..

 

[rgf207]

I have had the same experience with this. The store does not have to sell you the item at that price. They cannot change the price once you ordered. What they will most likely do is cancel your order and offer you the item at regular price. They are, in no way, obligated to sell you that item.

I have had this happen on more than 1 ocassion from Amazon.com. They had a misprint and when I bought the item for a drastically lower price, they cancelled my order and offered it at the regular price.

Check out your local retail store's Weekly Flyer. In small print on the bottom of some pages you will see "Not responsible for Typographical errors." Meaning they are not required to sell you the item if the price or description is incorrect. Sometimes the store will in order to avoid the negative PR but most of the time they won't

 

[Carl]

How large is the item? How much would you expect it to cost? It could be that they are making their profit (like so many places do) off the shipping and handling. In that case, the $8.00 shipping took care of them. I see lots of stuff on TV advertised for less than $10.00 and the shipping and handling is more than $10.00 in addition to the cost of the item. This is NO deal.

 

[lemondog]

I guess it just depends on the store and their customer service policy. I know Publix always gives you the item for FREE if it rings up incorrectly -- excellent policy, methinks.

I was in Toys R Us the other day and they had a sale price on the Dora/Diego Aquadoodle of $34 (regular price was $44). It had expired, but they still honored the price because it was their mistake for not taking the sign down.

I don't want this to sound snotty. I don't begrudge you a "deal", but a $0.00 price isn't a deal - its a mistake. I hope that they don't honor it because that just gives people more of a feeling of entitlement. I don't mean you - I don't know you - but so many people feel they "deserve" something for nothing

I have to disagree. If they have an item priced incorrectly due to THEIR error, then they need to honor it. JMHO.

 

[rgf207]

I have to disagree. If they have an item priced incorrectly due to THEIR error, then they need to honor it. JMHO.

Well this is touchy. When I worked for a major retailer I learned something very interesting. Sometimes it's easier and less expensive to lose a customer than to honor errors. This holds true even more for online retailers. A price error of $0.00 most likely will cost more than not having the OP as a customer especially if this retailer has millions of customers. 1 person not shopping with them is no big deal to them. 9 times out of 10 an online retailer will not honor a price error no matter what we think they should do.

We used to have customers that would try to play the system all the time and finally our District Manager told us to tell them No. They fought and we still said no. We lost a customer but it costs us a lot less to lose them than to constantly give into them.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

Stores cover themselves in two ways:
1) Does the phrase "Prices subject to change without notice" sound familiar? It can be found printed widely in catalogs and promotional materials.
2) Generally speaking, legally business' aren't required to honor printing errors in such materials. Retailers also often put "Not responsible for printing errors" in promo ads too. So there's no "law" that they don't think applies to them. If you were a business owner, would you like to held liable for a printer's error? Normally, the only prices retailers are required to honor (depending on state law) is the sticker price on the shelf.

I get what you are saying but do they not have a proofreader? Also- when a store - say Target for instance- has a mistake in their flyer they put signs up all over the store. If a store is not responsible for honoring their advertised prices then basically they can charge you whatever they feel like when you get to the register. That is wrong imo.

 

[rie'smom]

Sonya, did you order the item? If you did, let us know how it turns out. On the budget board, people post a pricing error and then there's a mad dash from DISsers to the website to save money,especially around the holidays. I have no problem with anyone getting lucky with a pricing error.

 

[Jennifer S]

I get what you are saying but do they not have a proofreader? Also- when a store - say Target for instance- has a mistake in their flyer they put signs up all over the store. If a store is not responsible for honoring their advertised prices then basically they can charge you whatever they feel like when you get to the register. That is wrong imo.

There is a big difference IMHO between putting flyers up all over the store and what happened to the OP.

The flyers all over the store should be honored but w/ the OP I think that should not.

 

[Geoff_M]

I get what you are saying but do they not have a proofreader? Also- when a store - say Target for instance- has a mistake in their flyer they put signs up all over the store. If a store is not responsible for honoring their advertised prices then basically they can charge you whatever they feel like when you get to the register. That is wrong imo.

You're blurring legality with ethics. You're also adding in-store signage into the mix. Legally, stores aren't liable for errors in ad circulars. In the era of digital graphic design, it's not hard for errors to happen, even with proof-readers. Stores are usually smart and will post errors they detect at the front door of the store in an effort to minimize customer complaints at the cash register.

On the flip-side, I also think that there are ethical issues in taking advantage of obvious gross pricing errors. I'm not talking about a store that allows a sale price to linger past its expiration, or pricing that gives you 20% off instead of the advertised 10%.... I'm talking about major errors. Ones where you know taking the price will take the retailer "to the cleaners" financially in the process. Years ago our local Sam's Club sold Apple Computers for a time. Someone I know worked there and one day discovered that the pricing for the computers in the store computer was off by a digit. They were priced at something like $300.00 instead of $3000.00. He alerted his friends to rush over to the store and buy as many as they could before the error was discovered and several succeeded. In this case, being a brick-n-mortar store, state law required Sam's Club to honor the price. Personally, I think such actions on the part of consumers pushes the ethical envelope in the other direction. Many people think "Well, I get cheated by scanner errors.... so what!", but I don't feel that justifies the behavior. In this case, Sam's Club found out about my acquaintance's involvement in the run on the Apple's and he was fired.

 

[Piecey]

If you go ask this on the Budget Board you'll probably get a ton of answers from experience. When ever someone finds a mispriced item, they post it over there & they all go crazy buying up the stuff. Then they keep each other posted on the turnout.

It gets quite entertaining sometimes.

Like the Mickey TVs from Sears last year? Oh man, that was a riot!

 

[wishspirit]

It all depends on the company.
I work for a big supermarket in England. If we leave a sign up advertising something for a certain price, we have to stick to it. We deliberatly take them down at the end of the sale, and they all have dates on saying when it expires, but if we get a customer complaining that they were left up and they thought they were that price, we always give it to them at the reduced price or even free!

We value our customers, and go the extra mile, but some companies wont, esspcially internet ones, where there is no face to face transaction.

 

[Sonya]

Sonya, did you order the item? If you did, let us know how it turns out. On the budget board, people post a pricing error and then there's a mad dash from DISsers to the website to save money,especially around the holidays. I have no problem with anyone getting lucky with a pricing error.

Yes I ordered it, I wanted to see what would happen. So far I have tracked my order and it says payment status has finalized. However on the website the price has changed again. (3rd price since I have looked at the item)

There are some interesting thoughts on this thread. Morally and ethically I shouldn't have done it, but from a consumer standpoint it is an excellent deal. I agree that they will probably cancel my order and offer it to me at regular price. It is too expensive an item to loose the money, they would rather loose me as a customer.

I will keep you updated.

 

[SeeVee]

. There's a law that says they can't advertise one price and then charge another. Don't know about online stuff, though.

Good luck!

That does not cover mistakes.

Now, for everyone one who thinks the store should honor it, what if the shoe was on the other foot. Say, you wrote a check for $100 when you actually meant $10. Would you expect to honor your check to the store?

 

[allison443]

Yes I ordered it, I wanted to see what would happen. So far I have tracked my order and it says payment status has finalized. However on the website the price has changed again. (3rd price since I have looked at the item)

There are some interesting thoughts on this thread. Morally and ethically I shouldn't have done it, but from a consumer standpoint it is an excellent deal. I agree that they will probably cancel my order and offer it to me at regular price. It is too expensive an item to loose the money, they would rather loose me as a customer.

I will keep you updated.

Was this an item you would have paid the regular price for? If they cancel it and offer you the regular price, will you buy it? I'm interested to see what happens.

 

[SeeVee]

.



I have to disagree. If they have an item priced incorrectly due to THEIR error, then they need to honor it. JMHO.

Well, since you are so righteous on principle, if you sent them too much money, would you honor it?


I didnt think so.

 

[cteddiesgirl]

I bought something from Red Envelope a few months back and whenever I checked out it came out to 0.00 for whatever reason. I let it ride because I really wanted the item. Three days later my visa was charged the correct amount of 42.90 so maybe that's what will happen in this case as well, I wouldn't worry about it.

Sorry, but If I went through the checkout and the system still said I was being charged for X amount, then that's what had better show up on my card's account. If it wasn't, then I'd be doing some contacting of people. If they didn't fix it, then the item would immediately go back. I don't do business with places that say I'm being charged one amount then they charge another.
That seems like it would be illegal to me.

Well, since you are so righteous on principle, if you sent them too much money, would you honor it?


I didnt think so.

I agree with lemondog.

As for me paying too much money, I take more care with my money. I don't write checks unless it's to pay a bill. And then I'm extremely careful with how I write them.

I'm not as careless with my money than many businesses are. I can understand printing mistakes on a flyer as that's going thru other hands. But a computer system (and the person behind it programming it) should be a little more precise.

Their mistake, they need to honor it.

 

[Mr. & Mrs. Smith]

I don't think the OP did anything wrong. She wanted to buy something. She put it in her "cart" and checked out. She paid what they asked for it. On the same token, I don't think legally they have to honour it but it's certainly worth a shot. I respect the companies that take ownership for their mistakes a lot more than those that don't.

It might not be a mistake. As someone else said, companies often offer things for free and you just have to pay the S&H. I do that with business cards online all the time. I've never paid for a single one and I use a lot of them. Sometimes companies do it so that while you're there getting your free whatever, you might look around and buy something else.

Years ago our local Sam's Club sold Apple Computers for a time. Someone I know worked there and one day discovered that the pricing for the computers in the store computer was off by a digit. They were priced at something like $300.00 instead of $3000.00. He alerted his friends to rush over to the store and buy as many as they could before the error was discovered and several succeeded. In this case, being a brick-n-mortar store, state law required Sam's Club to honor the price.

While what your friend did was wrong since he was an employee, I can't help but laugh when you say that people were ethically mistreating Sam's Club which is owned by perhaps the most unethical company of all time - Wal-Mart. I can't help but smile that finally they got the bad end of the deal.

Now, for everyone one who thinks the store should honor it, what if the shoe was on the other foot. Say, you wrote a check for $100 when you actually meant $10. Would you expect to honor your check to the store?

If they cash that cheque, I don't think you can do much about it. However, you could always stop payment if you realize your error. Regardless, it's your mistake and you should have to take ownership for it just like the company when they make mistakes.

 

[SeeVee]

Sorry, but If I went through the checkout and the system still said I was being charged for X amount, then that's what had better show up on my card's account. If it wasn't, then I'd be doing some contacting of people. If they didn't fix it, then the item would immediately go back. I don't do business with places that say I'm being charged one amount then they charge another.
That seems like it would be illegal to me.


I agree with lemondog.

As for me paying too much money, I take more care with my money. I don't write checks unless it's to pay a bill. And then I'm extremely careful with how I write them.

I'm not as careless with my money than many businesses are. I can understand printing mistakes on a flyer as that's going thru other hands. But a computer system (and the person behind it programming it) should be a little more precise.

Their mistake, they need to honor it.

You did not answer the question. You simply reframed the question so that you could not be wrong.


What is it? Despite the fact that you are the most accurate check writer in the world, and despite the fact that you would never make such a mistake, , but you did and wrote the store a check for too much money, would you expect your money back?

I always count my change. Not just to make sure I recieved what was mine, but to ensure I did not receive what was not mine.