Apparently the customer is not always right!

[crispykreme]

I was shopping the other day and my ds spotted a LEGO pack. A little bag with a Disney character in. As he's been really well behaved and never usually asks for anything I said he could get it.

The price on the shelf ticket said ' Disney blind bag £1.20' .

He spend the rest of the time I shopped looking at the bag and feeling to see if he could guess what one it was. He was so excited.

Got to the till, scanned LEGO bag and it comes up at £4.50!

I knew LEGO can be expensive but there was no way I could pay that much as we are low on money at the moment.

I asked the cashier if she could get someone to double check the price as I was sure it was £1.20.

Someone came back with the ticked that said Disney blind bag £1.20. Apparently as it was still scanning at £4.50 that is the price it was.

Now usually if that happened the shop would sell to me at the ticketed price. Customer always right ?

I had to refuse the item and leave poor ds near to tears. I promised I would get him one for his birthday or at least when our money situation is better.

Aibu to have expected it for the price clearly stated on the ticket?

to give them the ins and outs of a cats arsehole to get my money back

Treasuring this phrase @emilybrontescorsett !

The shop is right because it isn't legally bound by the price displayed on the shelf (invitatio ad offerendum). It would be bound if you had "offered" to buy the toy for £1.50 and it had accepted your offer. Equally it would have been bound to sell it to you at £4.50 if you had accepted their offer.

Hang on - so a shop could have all their items marked on the shelves for £1 then when the customer goes to pay charge them any amount and say oops it's priced wrong

There's a disconnect between two lots of law.

The first one is that you don't make the contract with the shop when you pick up the item and go to pay - you make it when they say "yes we'll sell the item to you for that price".

BUT consumer protection law says that prices have to be accurate.

So the shop can refuse to sell but you can report them to trading standards for misleading price indications.

Haha 90% of the time the customer is totally WRONG but their entitlement tells them otherwise. Gotta love the public

'Invitation to treat' is correct. Technically the labelled price in the shop is merely a starting point for price negotiations. Obviously in practice you would seldom get very far in a supermarket if you began to haggle at the till, but neither you nor the shop is obliged to buy/sell at that price - if you cannot agree a price you can walk away from the 'negotiation'.

It's just custom and convention that dictates how we transact in a shop. In an antique shop, say, it's quite normal to haggle over the price. In a supermarket, it's not (unless perhaps the item is damaged) but the laws are the same irrespective of the type of shop.

Posted too soon
In your case - I get your frustration with having to let down your DC though

It happens the other way around, though - I’ve often been pleasantly surprised to have a till price lower than the ticket and haven’t felt the need to point out the discrepancy.

haven’t felt the need to point out the discrepancy

I always do, im so stupid

Its like my mouth drops open and i say ‘please charge me more’ before my brain engages

YABU. The shop does not have to sell it to you at that price.

And the phrase “customer is always right” does not mean what you think it means. It means that if a customer is unhappy about a product (ie. fabric too thin, colour too dark, sizing not right etc.) the business would do well to listen and take it in. Similarly, if there is demand for a product that’s not yet on the market businesses would do well to try and make it happen.

It does not mean that the customer should get whatever they want, whenever they want, and that they can never be wrong because they are the customer, which is what the majority of people seem to think it means.

@Dutchesss

It seems crazy that you can advertise one price and not have to sell it for that much. Imagine people doing their weekly shop, they probably wouldn't notice at the time if a few of the items scanned at 4 x the price. I bet some shops would try that deliberately.

They really, really wouldn't. The onus is on the customer to check their receipt and query at the time, but shops won't deliberately charge more and 'hope you don't notice'.

YABU

I was shopping and the trolley had a board at the end advertising goods at 2 for the price of one, so I picked up two. At the till I was charged full price for both so I showed them the offer on the trolley. Even though it wasn't an offer anymore, they allowed to have one free of charge as the board should have been changed, but had been missed. It's shocking that they wouldn't let your son have it at the reduced price.

It's not shocking it's good business. What if something had a sign near it saying £5 and the till scanned it at £100. If you knew the lengths some people go to in order to get any discount you would understand why they take such a hard line.

In this case, the OP wasn't trying it on but someone else would quickly buy the LEGO at £4.50 so why would they need to sell it to her for less? It's not a charity.

I am surprised they didn't offer to sell it to me at that price as the description was identical to the product. It wasn't just the odd one put there either it was a box full.

It has made me realize that I do need to check my receipt from now on as quite often I've come out of shops thinking my shopping seemed expensive.

Oh hear we go with the ‘you have to be charged the price on the shelf or it’s false advertising...blah bloody blah!’ The amount of times you face that shit in retail is unreal!!!!

The customer isn’t always right most of the time they are arseholes who seem to have no intelligence at all. I’m bloody glad I got out of retail it has given me a real hatred for 95% of the population.

@IwishIhadaMargarita

Oh hear we go with the ‘you have to be charged the price on the shelf or it’s false advertising...blah bloody blah!’ The amount of times you face that shit in retail is unreal!!!!

The customer isn’t always right most of the time they are arseholes who seem to have no intelligence at all. I’m bloody glad I got out of retail it has given me a real hatred for 95% of the population.

That made me laugh! So often, at the end of a shift, my co workers and I look at one another and say 'I just lost a little more faith in human nature'.

You're right, work in retail should be obligatory. Six months for everyone, like National Service.

Email them and explain what happened and how upset DS was and maybe they'll send you a voucher?

@Hileni it's no point, it would just seem petty. Ds has forgotten about it now. It's just me who's still annoyed about it.

It works both ways..the amount of times a customers has returned an item and whilst indentifying the item in the receipt via the barcode the customer says no I paid xyz because the markdown was not obvious at the time of purchase..but they have not checked the receipt. Also when an Item has been voided because the customer changed their mind at the till...because they see the item they assume they've been charged despite 10+5(voided by manager)+2 and the bill total was £12...queing up to complain...I love that when it happens 😁

Why are you still annoyed about it? Mistakes happen. That’s a great life lesson to learn and one you can easily explain to your son; “everyone is capable of making mistakes and unfortunately this time it means we cannot afford this toy. But that’s okay, we’ve got X to look forward to!”.

If he is still disappointed you teach him the life skill of how to manage disappointment.

I don’t buy these Lego toys, but I’m used to seeing them at nearly every till point in every supermarket, newsagent and toy shop, so I’m well versed in that they are £4.50 and I would have queried the price if I saw such a huge drop as you. These particular items don’t get marked down in this way.

What shop was it ? a shop with a good customer focus would normally honor it as they value their customers. If they don't bother - then just don't bother shopping with them again !

This is interesting that shops aren't obligated to sell for incorrect price. Many years ago I worked in a clothes shop. I incorrectly marked down a dress to £2.50 instead of £12.50. My supervisor had a right go at me for making that mistake!

No stores dont have to honour it at all. And no the customer is not always at all

@dicksplash

This is interesting that shops aren't obligated to sell for incorrect price. Many years ago I worked in a clothes shop. I incorrectly marked down a dress to £2.50 instead of £12.50. My supervisor had a right go at me for making that mistake!

Same thing happened to me when I worked in retail - I got a right bollocking

I studied law as part of my banking exams. ( Obviously someone with a proper legal background will know better) but I’d learned that a ticket price, be it on an item or in the shop window was “ an invitation to treat.”
Merely an inducement.
The contract between the seller and customer is made at the till.
Decades ago, most shops sold items according to the actual price list , irrespective of the price on the actual item. So, if a tin of beans was 15p but at the checkout it said 20p , it was up to you to accept it. That is the actual contract.
M&S , in the 70s and 80s bucked the trend by selling the item at a lower price for goodwill . purposes.
Most big shops will do this now but they don’t have to.
The contract is at the point of sale. So if the cashier says £12.50 and you don’t like the price, then you can leave the contract.
Like I say, I’m prepared to be put right.