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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think they should have sold them to me?

31 replies

nahla321 · 23/12/2012 16:29

I was shopping in Next today and spotted the baby grows on the shelf were half price to £8.00. However when I took them to the till to pay I was told that they weren't supposed to be on the shelves and I couldn't purchase them until Boxing Day. So am I being unreasonable to think as they were out on the shop floor they should have sold them to me?

OP posts:
LucieMay · 23/12/2012 16:30

No shops don't have to sell you anything if they don't want to, legally.

DublinMammy · 23/12/2012 16:31

YANBU, they should have sold them at the advertised price, not your fault if they have put them out early - rather tough shit for them.

HECTheHallsWithRowsAndFolly · 23/12/2012 16:31

They don't have to, legally.

click here

that explains it far better than I could.

wonkylegs · 23/12/2012 16:32

Shops don't HAVE to sell you anything
It's usually good policy to swallow a mistake and correct it after that but to big firms that's often harder than smaller ones due to computerised systems.

MurderOfGoths · 23/12/2012 16:32

YABU. Legally they don't have to.

HorraceTheChristmasOtter · 23/12/2012 16:34

They have 24 hours to remove and re price, so they are nbu. I'd have sold them at the cheapy price though Xmas Grin.

Floggingmolly · 23/12/2012 16:34

I don't think shops are actually legally obliged to sell you anything that's on display; it's an invitation to treat only. Ditto items incorrectly priced, they can amend the price at the till.

catkind · 23/12/2012 16:46

Legally they don't have to, but in terms of good practice and customer service they should have. So YANBU.

bradywasmyfavouritewiseman · 23/12/2012 17:19

Its not always as simple as 'they should have' Bing chains don't always leave things like this to discretion.
They are not legally obliged to and may have had to justify why they reduced them early to hq.

I spoke to an area manager at dominos and the store have to give reasons for all refunds and be able to justify it.

Sallyingforth · 23/12/2012 17:27

If the item has a bar code that's scanned at the till, it will be simply impossible for the assistant to sell it at any other price.

TidyDancer · 23/12/2012 17:33

While they could have and should have sold them to you, legally they were absolutely correct in not doing so.

Tis a bit crappy on the customer service front though.

TidyDancer · 23/12/2012 17:33

Sallyingforth - are you being sarcastic? I can't tell. That's incorrect though, either way.

DIYapprentice · 23/12/2012 17:39

It depends on what the NEXT policy is. Some stores have a policy that if the price on the shelf is lower than the scanned price, then you will sell it at the cheaper price even though they are not legally obliged to do so. It's to prevent exactly this sort of ill feeilng.

Floggingmolly · 23/12/2012 17:43

Is it, though, Tidy? I was thrilled to find two lipsticks in a colour that had been discontinued at Boots, and they refused to sell them to me because they were no longer on the stock system. They certainly gave me the impression that the stock information on the till couldn't be amended at shop level.

TidyDancer · 23/12/2012 18:07

Yes it is. I have worked in retail, we could override a price if we needed to. It would usually only be done in cases of damaged stock, but it would be spectacularly stupid for a retailer to not have this facility. I can't imagine any of them can't override the price if they want to.

Not too sure about the specifics of your situation, I would think there was a misc code they could use and specify the price themselves. Would think that a supervisor would have to do this, rather than assistants.

JustPondering · 23/12/2012 18:13

I worked at NEXT and you can adjust the price at the till, think we needed a manager to do it though.
In the store I worked in if things were advertised at sale price we sold them at sale price, but I guess that is down to the manager at individual stores.

ForbiddenFruitt · 23/12/2012 18:15

I was in Lasenza sale shopping. One sales assistant priced down the wrong lingerie set to 50% off.

Even though they knew it was an error, they still sold it to one customer at that price.

HappyTurquoise · 23/12/2012 18:37

I thought they had to sell them at the advertised price, unless it also says on the shelves 'Boxing Day Sale'?

StuntGirl · 23/12/2012 19:14

Shops don't have to sell anything to anyone for any reason. They do, obviously, or else they'd go out of business. But if that product was mistakenly put out on the shelves they could refuse to sell it.

PurpleTinsel · 23/12/2012 19:30

They may not be legally obliged to sell them if they've been put out in error, but speaking as a customer, it seems wrong for them to put things on the shelf and then refuse to sell them. Same if they've put the price down wrong on the shelf.

IME, most shops will sell the product at the advertised price if there has been an error of this sort, although they usually have to get a manager to sort it out on the till.

YANBU to find this extremely annoying and frustrating.

StuntGirl · 23/12/2012 20:32

I would imagine there was some sort of Do-Not-Under-Any-Circumstances-Sell-Boxing-Day-Sale-Products-Before-Boxing-Day email that went round to all stores. Or perhaps that stores discount figures are too high so they refuse all uneccessary discounts now. Or perhaps they have a manager who follows the rules to the letter so doesn't authorise discounts. Or perhaps there are a dozen other reasons.

YANBU to be annoyed, YANBU to think it would be nice if they did give you the discount, but YABU to think they have to do anything.

marquesas · 23/12/2012 20:39

I'm really pleased to see that so many posters know that legally shops don't have to sell you anything at all. It's a bit of a bugbear of mine that there is a widely held misconception that a customer has any kind of right to buy something as any price.

It's obvioulsy not the case or everyone would just unpeel price tickets from the cheapest items and stick them on the most expensive ones.

Geeklover · 23/12/2012 20:40

Boots can so over ride the till at shop level. Only managers and senior sales staff but the can do it.
It has to be done regularly for loads of reasons the main one bring damaged stock at a reduced price.

It was poor customer service not to sell it and probably had a manager been called then you would have got them.

OhTheConfusion · 23/12/2012 20:48

I was in NEXT tonight and the same thing happened to the woman next to me. She had picked up two packs of vests and a pack of sleepsuits. She was told no and she requested to see the supervisor. They sold her them in the end.

HappyTurquoise · 23/12/2012 21:49

"It is against the law for a trader to deliberately give misleading or wrong prices, and they can be prosecuted for doing this.

However, if the price of a product is just simply wrongly labelled you don't automatically get to buy it for that price. For example, if a TV worth £599 has accidentally been labelled as £5.99 you don't, unfortunately, have a right to buy it for £5.99."

[[It is against the law for a trader to deliberately give misleading or wrong prices, and they can be prosecuted for doing this.

However, if the price of a product is just simply wrongly labelled you don't automatically get to buy it for that price. For example, if a TV worth £599 has accidentally been labelled as £5.99 you don't, unfortunately, have a right to buy it for £5.99. According to this.]]

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