Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

Original poster

to expect a store to honour the pricing on its merchandise?

24 replies

Noseynoonoo · 27/08/2013 22:51

My DS has just discovered Skylanders and has a bit of birthday money so I thought I'd go to my local GAME store and buy him some figures.

I'd seen online that they had several packs of 3 reduced from £24.99 to £12.50 - frankly still too much for a bit of plastic tat but there you go. I asked to see the triple packs and I was talking to my DD about which discounted triple pack we should get for her brother. The man behind the till noticed we were looking at the reduced packaging and whipped them away saying we couldn't have them at that price because the sale had ended.

Now I know that they do not legally have to honour the price but I still think this is a bit cr@p. When I got home I checked online and the packs were still reduced.

I've spoken to customer services who just said that the packs were no longer reduced in store and they didn't have to price-match their own website.

AIBU to think if the label has 50% off, that's what the customer should pay, especially if you want a first time customer and her young son to spend the next decade coming into your store.

OP posts:

WeAreEternal · 27/08/2013 23:10

If they are still reduced online why not buy them from the website?

StuntGirl · 27/08/2013 23:21

Well, that store's staff are clearly shite because the sale ended about 3 weeks ago. A discount of that amount requires regional manager authorisation before proceeding, so they wouldn't have wanted to call him/her and explain the situation!

That said they don't have to honour any price, they can just remove it from sale instead. Sucks, but its the luck of the draw with these kinds of errors.

Order off the website. It's free delivery.

Shakirasma · 27/08/2013 23:21

YANBU

Whilst what they did was legal, it is shit customer service.

Wibblypiglikesbananas · 27/08/2013 23:28

The thing is, if they'd honoured the price, they'd have kept you as a customer and you'd have told people about their great customer service. Cutting off their noses to spite their faces if you ask me.

Original poster

Noseynoonoo · 28/08/2013 10:51

We wanted to buy on the day rather than waiting for delivery and going forward, DS will want to go into a shop and use his notes and coins. As it is they have lost our custom which over the next decade is probably an eye watering amount.

OP posts:

Tuon · 28/08/2013 11:06

Game have done this to me before. All shirts half price. Went to get DH a Halo one, alongside the game guide, game and a few other bits and bobs. Was told I couldn't have it at that price, all shirts were half price excluding size S which apparently had been wrongly included. Fair enough.

Asked manager nicely if given that it was a mistake and I was spending quite a bit he could honor it. No he couldn't (he was rather rude about it so I took my custom elsewhere), he also couldn't manage to update the prices by the next day when a friend had exactly the same thing!

They're within their rights but it leaves a bitter taste. YANBU.

BrokenSunglasses · 28/08/2013 11:11

YANBU.

If shops don't want to lose money by selling at the advertised reduced price, then they should get their shit together and re price things properly at the end of their sale.

Original poster

Noseynoonoo · 28/08/2013 12:10

Tuon, that is interesting. Perhaps they use not still in the sale items to lure people in as a matter of course.

OP posts:

Sparklingbrook · 28/08/2013 12:17

GAME have terrible customer service. They let you grab an empty box, take it to the till after queuing then say the game is out of stock.

When i queried it with HO they said they have to keep the boxes on the shelf to show the customer what is available to buy.

EntWife · 28/08/2013 12:38

that is appalling! I have lived in the UK for 13 years now and never knew this!

in oz, where I am from, a store is legally required to honor the advertised price and if they don't, for instance a supermarket has it listed on the shelf for a lower price than it scans through the register at, you get it free. otherwise what is to stop unscrupulous retailers deliberately advertising a discounted price to get you in the door then demanding a higher price.

StuntGirl · 28/08/2013 12:59

Tuon, that is interesting. Perhaps they use not still in the sale items to lure people in as a matter of course.

No they don't. More likely that the store you went to is managed by an incompetent manager. The sale ended 3 weeks ago, all sale items should have been removed but a poorly managed store will not manage the task on time, or will remove all sale stickers on the shop floor but not on items from the stock room, and so when the display is replenished a 'sale' item will appear.

The games are displayed even when not in stock because the displays are paid for advertising by the publisher. The stock is replenished daily too, so replacing entire bays of display items (a good half a days work in most stores) only for it to come back in stock 12-24 hours later is an unnecessary task anyway.

beamme · 28/08/2013 13:25

Tesco have the Skylander figures on offer in store

TheLostWinchesterWife · 28/08/2013 13:50

Do you have a smyths toy shop near you? They have the skylanders on offer and the triple packs are £11.50

Original poster

Noseynoonoo · 28/08/2013 21:39

Thanks for the tips on Tesco and Smyth's.

StuntGirl, what is your link to GAME?

OP posts:

YoureAllABunchOfBastards · 28/08/2013 21:51

Also going to recommend Smyth's - I hate the place but Skylanders are cheap there ATM.

MollyBerry · 28/08/2013 22:45

I don't have any link to GAME, in fact I've never even set foot in a GAME, but I agree with StuntGirl.

However, I do think if that is the case they should honour their mistake in not putting all the sale stuff away.

StuntGirl · 29/08/2013 00:10

I used to work for them. They're not the greatest company in the world but they're also not out to get you. It just sounds like poor management to me. I'm sorry you felt ripped off though. Did they not offer to order it in for you? They can't match the online prices in store but they could have ordered one in at that price for you.

Which store was it out of curiosity?

soapboxqueen · 29/08/2013 08:47

While they don't have to honour a price that was a genuine mistake, they can't take the piss.

They can't intentionally mislead customers. Leaving sale prices up for 3 weeks is not a mistake.

I would report to trading standards.

Original poster

Noseynoonoo · 29/08/2013 10:16

That's a very good point soapboxqueen.

OP posts:

TwoAndTwoEqualsChaos · 29/08/2013 10:24

Shows what the shop's ethos is: I have been in both John Lewis and House of Fraser when something was advertised at the wrong price and, whilst they changed the labelling, they honoured the lower price for me. That's why (and now I feel soooo old) I return to them, again and again.

BatwingsAndButterflies · 29/08/2013 11:40

I reserved something online at Argos to pick up and buy the next day. When I went in the price had gone up by £20 overnight. I asked one of the staff about it and they just immediately discounted it for me back to the reduced price. I was very impressed and do tell people so customer goodwill is worth a lot.

littlemisswise · 29/08/2013 11:48

You were very lucky with Argos, Batwings. It is in their terms and conditions that the price you pay for reserved items is the price in store on the day of collection.

StuntGirl · 29/08/2013 12:16

Not any more littlemiss, you pay the price it was reserved at now :)

To be fair here I am assuming that there were a few rogue sale items still on rather than entire bays of sale, hence the staff member swooping in immediately when he saw you looking at them. Individual figures are still on sale, triple packs are not, so it's entirely possible a team which isn't very thorough could miss it. Although without being there and seeing how the store was merched I wouldn't be able to say one way or the other.

I generally assume things like this in shops are genuine mistakes rather than malice, I worked in retail for a long time and I only ever met one person who knowingly did things like that wrong (not at Game I hasten to add). For the most part it's simple oversight.

Original poster

Noseynoonoo · 30/08/2013 11:45

I had another response from GAME today say,

"Under law, a retailer is entitled to decide the price he wants to charge for his goods. The price on display is simply what the law calls an ?invitation to treat?. In the same way you don?t have to buy goods from anyone, a retailer is under no obligation to sell you anything. You cannot insist that a shop sells you anything at a marked price."

I don't think this customer services rep understands the concept of customer service. I am feeling they'd rather not have my custom.

I'll survive.

OP posts:

Flip