Zara, dubious pricing policy or genuine error?

[darksideofthestudio]

Purchased a pair of jeans in Zara today, label price was £29.99 and I bought a top too. Was with my MIL so wasn’t really paying much attention when I paid for my purchases. But when travelling home, noticed the transaction notification on my phone screen and realised I had been overcharged.

Indeed, the jeans were charged at £35.99. Have contacted Zara Head Office via WhatsApp and they were at first dismissive and advised the till is always right. Of course the till is right, but I didn’t expect a 20% increase on the label price. They’re investigating, assume I won’t hear for a few days.

Now I am torn - love the item, fit is great etc, but on principle I think I should return them. It’s not the monetary difference, although I am not convinced I would have purchased them at the higher price

AIBU, or is this more common than I realise and it’s a sign of clothing inflation and retailers being unable to keep on top of accurately price checking labels?

Have you sent them a photo of the label?

The main thing to remember is that they dont give a crap if you return them or not, so youre punishing yourself. By all means tell HO youre returning them though

Interesting. We live in Germany and my DD recently bought something from Zara which was priced at EUR 23 but charged at EUR 28. We queried it and were told that EUR 23 was the price for Spain only and it was a "labelling error". They didn't seem to care at all.

Yes, photo of label and receipt, I checked that the item codes match etc.

I’ve experienced this. Shoes were £10 more than the price label at the till. They were not apologetic or concerned at all and I decided not to buy them.
I know some people say they have to honour the price label but I’ve also heard they can refuse to sell you anything too.
It would be good customer service if they at least offered to refund you the difference or send a voucher so you can keep the jeans.
If it’s the Marine jeans I’m convinced I bought those at about £30 last year and noticed they’d gone up in store last week?

What's the price online?

I’ve experienced this with a different Spanish retailer though. I asked them to honour the price advertised and after a lot of arguing they finally did. Wonder what’s going on.

I don’t understand why you contacted head office rather than just taking them back and they would refund you the difference?

That’s a fair point, and in returning I would be ‘cutting off my nose to spite my face’. Perhaps I will just need to be much more diligent going forward… I won’t be going near a Zara store until mid-April so don’t need to rush my decision regarding a return.

I bought them in Bluewater, and didn’t realise until I got home (Essex). I am
going to London in a few weeks (but within 28 days) so can return them then. I wish I had realised before I left the store though, and queried it at the time of purchase!

For a £5 I wouldn't care

Just checked the app, they are indeed £35.99 online

I had this happen in JD the other week when buying my daughter a pair of trainers, i realised at the till and queried it, and they honoured the labelled price.

If you haven’t paid when the error is noticed then they have the right to not go through with the sale at the lower price.

However, if you’ve already bought the item and then notice the price difference, they should refund the difference. Getting them to enforce it is a different matter of course.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/somethings-gone-wrong-with-a-purchase/if-something-is-advertised-at-the-wrong-price/#:~:text=If%20you%20take%20an%20item,one%20on%20the%20price%20tag.

This is true. More often than not these days a company will refuse to sell

That’s super helpful, thank you!

It’s not so much the £6, but the principle. I don’t think it’s reasonable to pick items to buy but then need to do a price enquiry at the till to make sure the label price is the actual price being charged… the queues would be lengthy, and they’re bad enough already!