Why don't they just display the right price???

[Jemmajamjar]

I hate it when the prices in shops are shown from £--.... I went into Pandora today to get a charm as a present. There are lots of trays with different charms and prices from £20, from £30, from £40 ect. I went to the from £30 tray and chose the charm I wanted ( I expected it to be between £30-£40 as the next tray was from £40) When the shop assistant wrapped it for me she said £60 please. My heart sank, it was a collection gift for a work colleague so I had to pay the difference. I know I should have asked the price in the first place but I just assumed. I was too embarrassed to say I didn't want it then, Why can't they just have exact prices.... Arrrgh 😤

The law is stupid over this.

If they park an item at £2 but actually they meant to mark it at £3, they can refuse to sell it to you - as someone said above, it's an invitation to treat.

HOWEVER, misleading price indications are a criminal offence so if they mark something and try to charge you differently, that's a matter for trading standards. But you can't force them to sell it to you at the lower price.

Prices are often very ambiguous. You see a price and it does not relate to the item above it, or items that are not part of the promotion are (deliberately) mixed in with the ones that are (not by lazy customers, this is how the shelves are stocked to start with). One time I actually took a photo of the display because I was so annoyed. But I didn't report them.

Well Koala, technically the OP did think that. £40 was collected so she couldn't spend less than that.

No, she couldn't spend more than that. And, obviously, not too much less than that. Although presumably could have spent any leftovers on a card or wrapping.

She needed an 'under £40' tray, not an 'over £30 [but could be anything up to £infinity]' tray.

OK it would be simpler to label them better, but surely it should be clear what FROM £30 means? It means that the cheapest are £30 and some are more expensive. Assuming it won't be more than £40 is a bit daft. I'd never buy something without checking the price.

When there are other trays that say "From £40" etc, it's totally reasonable to expect something that costs £60 to be in the "From £60" tray. What I don't understand is how the assistant knew it was £60 if the price wasn't on the item in question? If there was a label with a bar code it would normally also have the price. And in OP's shoes I would certainly have said there was a mistake and swop it for something else.

OP, I think you need to man up on this one! You should just have said it was a work collection and you didn't have that much to spend. The shop assistant won't judge you for it! Just take it back, say you need to swap it as the recipient has that one already.

Violet I hope she loves her doll, I'm not going to be caught again.
Thanks to all who suggested I return it saying she already got one, I did just that this morning, I didn't make the same mistake of assuming the price and asked for one under £40. I wouldn't call a £60 charm cheap however, tat maybe but who am I to judge.

well done on being brave enough to exchange it.

and at all the unnecessary posts about Pandora being tatt and tacky etc, any need for it? obviously lots of people disagree due to the amount of stores there are. Some people just like to judge other people continuously.

I don't understand why you didn't query the price.

There is no shame in saying something like - "I thought I picked a charm from the £30-£40 tray, could you just check that for me?"

Have you checked the online price of the charm to check that you haven't paid £60 for a £40 charm?

I could be wrong, but I thought if a shop displayed an item for a price, then that is the price they have to accept
Although it is a common belief, a shop DOES NOT have to honour a displayed price.

However many shops will honour an incorrect price but there is no legal obligation for them to do so.

Well done, OP. You got your money back, with no loss of face.

Shops like that are often intended to be a bit intimidating, which does mean people spend more than they intend to. Remember, though, it's just a shop, and you don't have to justify your financial choices to the staff there.

As a general principle, it could be worth pointing out to the shop that their pricing practices are potentially illegal. According to this website:

"Retailers must display product prices clearly, either on the label or nearby (for example, with a price indication on the shelf under the goods). ...

More generally, failing to display prices could constitute unfair trading if the omission is likely to affect how customers behave. For example, customers might not choose to use your service if they knew in advance how much it would cost."

I've previously caused shop staff to go and change the shelf edge label when the pricing is unclear. It's awkward when someone just misreads it - eg 500g is on special at £1 and they pick up the 250g pack which is £1.47, or the 500g bag at £2.99.

Sorry, I've insisted on a label change when the label read "up to half price" and they meant "up to 50% off".

Smiggle does this kind of pricing - no labels on anything, just lists of prices near-ish to the items so you have to guess what description applies to the piece of tat your child is petitioning for.

DD once asked me why they do it, I told her "so we agree to buy it for you thinking, it's only a rubber / pencil / pen, it can't be that much, then have to pay up at till when it turns out to be £4.50, because we've already said yes.".

The assistant nearby looked slightly sheepish.

Assuming this was intentional and not a mistake ie another customer hadn't picked up the charm out of the £60+ box, rejected it in favour of something cheaper and dropped it back in the £30+ box (although not labelling each charm facilitates this mistake in the shop's favour):
This type of bait-and-switch marketing relies on most people not having their cynical bullshit detector on high alert all the time. It relies on the person only realising when they are at the till, having already mentally committed to the purchase and with their wallet out, making a split second decision.
That split second decision is influenced by

• our social conditioning not to make a fuss in public
• our natural inclination to want to stick to our original decision, even in the light of new information (confirmation bias?)

There is very little cost to the company- just some staff time to deal with the percentage of people who say no thanks- and decent money to be made (an extra £20-30 in this case)
The fact that many customers who encounter this will leave with a vague negative feeling (or outright conviction) that they've been duped and not go back is a loss to the company, but as it's unquantifiable the practice will continue.

Smiggle worked the other way for me. I went in and couldn't work out for the life of me how much anything was or what was included in each offer and gave up and bought nothing.

Good work Jemma!