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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To expect to be treated with some level of customer service?

37 replies

AuntieMaggie · 29/12/2008 12:20

OK, soI have just come back from Asda where I bought some wrapping paper for next xmas. I picked it up out of a box which had a huge sign on it saying 50p but when I got to the checkout it went through the till at £1.

So... the girl on the til (who was lovely btw) pressed that button and spoke to someone on the intercom and asked her to come and check but the woman on the other end said "if it says £1 that's how much it is". So I asked if she could come over and look where I got it from - so the woman comes over and starts ranting at me about her colleague having priced all the paper yesterday and they're all half price so the stuff I had was a £1 (didn't want to tell her that half of £1.97 isn't actually £1...). I asked why they were in a box saying 50p then and she just repeated that they weren't they were reduced yesterday to £1 (basically called me a liar). I asked her to go check and even pointed the box out to her as the til was just infront of the aisle where the box was, but she refused. So I said that there were loads more in the same box and that if the price was wrong it might be a good idea to move them at which point she walked off IN THE OTHER DIRECTION.

I'm not even angry about the paper being proced wrong anymore, it was the attitude of the member of staff who acted like I was wasting her time.

So now I feel like complaining about her attitude. What do you think? Is it too much to expect be treated with some level of respect and customer service? Or am I just grumpy?

OP posts:

sunnygirl1412 · 29/12/2008 12:26

I think you'd be justified in complaining about her attitude. She was exceedingly rude, imo. I know that this might be a very busy and stressful time for shopworkers, and maybe she'd had a bad day with lots of horrible stroppy customers, but that does NOT give her the right to take it out on you!

mrsmaidamess · 29/12/2008 12:26

You are grumpy. Its 50p for crying out loud.

That poor womans probably had a crappy Christmas, working all the hours god sends and you are arguing the toss over that much money.

Sorry, but I am dispensing tough love as a New Years Resolution.

Original poster

AuntieMaggie · 29/12/2008 12:29

I am grumpy. I was buying about 10 rolls so the 50p's add up - if it was just one roll I wouldn't have bothered.

The place was really quiet - scarily so actually.

OP posts:

mrsmaidamess · 29/12/2008 12:31

Shops are under no obligation to sell ANYTHING to you. They have the right to remove things from sale if they have been marked up incorrectly. You do not have a divine right to buy it because it was in a box marked 50p. Shops with electronic prices are very rarely wrong, IME.

NAB3hundredChristmaslights · 29/12/2008 12:31

fact of life these days that very few shops give good customer service.

TheFallenMadonna · 29/12/2008 12:31

She was rude. You were grumpy.

TisTheSeasonToBeSunny · 29/12/2008 12:35

Message withdrawn

onepieceofbrusselssprout · 29/12/2008 12:37

mrsmaidamess do you mind me asking where you shop? The reason I ask is that in Tesco and Asda (only ime, obviously) I would say on average the electronic prices are wrong several times a month. I don't have enough money to regularly pay double for cereal or whatever which is clearly labelled as half price.

I fully understand that they are under no obligation to sell things, but (again, imo) it is not good business practice to frequently label items as half price/on promotion etc, then when one gets to the till the offer is found to have expired/not correct on computer etc.

OP the woman's attitude was wrong. I do a difficult job (in the NHS, not retail) there is no way that I would take it out on clients. I even worked Christmas Day which was no fun but I didn't feel the need to be unpleasant to anyone.

ReginaFelange · 29/12/2008 12:37

She was rude. I don't think you were grumpy, you were just trying to point out that the box had a different price on it. The fact that she wouldn't even look at it and stormed off is unbelievable. I would complain

cornsilk · 29/12/2008 12:40

She was rude. The amount of money is irrelevant.

compo · 29/12/2008 12:43

sorry but lol at this thread
so there really are people out there who stock up on wrapping paper before December is out

LazyLinePainterJane · 29/12/2008 12:44

Well, ASDA tills are well known for scanning through prices at the pre-reduced price. Whenever I shop there I watch the amounts come up on stuff that has been "rolled back" or reduced as it often scans at the higher price. Someone in HO is clearly rubbish at price changing on time.

YANBU, regardless of whether it was 50p, 5p or £5, you should have been treated better and for someone to say you are miserable over 50p is ridiculous. I am aware that stores have no legal obligation ('tis my trade) to sell at the shelf price but in reality if stores did this they would have no customers.

The answer? stay away from ASDA, they suck.

curlygal · 29/12/2008 12:45

In those circumstances I would expect the staff to apologise and charge you the price advertised for your goods.

I often buy things that are marked as special offer only to find that I am charged the full price at the till. I check my recipts and generally will go back and point out the error. Usually they will refund you the difference, even if the item is no longer there.

She was rude, I would have been annoyed too

AtheneNoctua · 29/12/2008 12:53

Isn't it illegal to advertise a product at one price and then charge another at the til?

Original poster

AuntieMaggie · 29/12/2008 12:57

Sorry compo but it co-ordinates with the other paper I've got left from this year and I might make cards with it next year. Sad I know.

It's happend to me plenty of times in various shops where things have scanned at the wrong price but I've never been treated like that.

OP posts:

onepieceofbrusselssprout · 29/12/2008 12:57

Athene I think they can get away with it, no idea why.

Obviously if HO "accidentally forget" to reduce items by even one pence, that adds up to thousands of pounds. Customers generally don't notice or are a bit to queue up at customer services and ask for 1p or 2p back!

feelingbitfestive · 29/12/2008 12:58

AN - I agree, I though if you advertised something at a certain price (correctly or not) then you are legally obliged to charge that price and no more.
IME also, bar code prices are often wrong. I think I point out errors about once a month. ASDA being the worst offender too.
YANBU 50p is 50p and she was VERY rude!

onepieceofbrusselssprout · 29/12/2008 13:00

In this case the 50p was more like £5 as OP had planned to buy 5 rolls. If there were say 40 rolls in the box, that's a nice £20 profit for the store after cheating the customers.

littlerach · 29/12/2008 13:02

I had a similar experience in Smiths where they hadn't stickered books that were in a promotion. I tried to use a coupon to discount and they wouldn't because of the promo. The manager was so rude and disregarding of what I was saying, I left.
And she couldn't add up to understand what I was saying.
YANBU if she was rude.

AtheneNoctua · 29/12/2008 13:09

Supermarkets make a lot of money by "accidentally" pricing things wrong wither on display or in the register. They say it isn't intentional. Bu tI am given the frequency of the error.

blueshoes · 29/12/2008 13:39

Athene, in the mists of my memory from studying contract law at law school, if a supermarket marks an item at at particular price, that constitutes an offer (not invitation to treat) and the customer accepts the offer by their conduct in going to the till and paying for it. So the shop is no longer legally entitled to back out of the contract at that price ie they cannot argue the price was wrong because the contract is already made.

I am not sure if any consumer legislation might have altered the position at common law.

Whatever the legal position, it does not stop shops like Asda from wriggling out, if they can get away with it.

mrsmaidamess · 29/12/2008 16:16

onepiece,I shop at Asda, and I never have problems with wrongly priced things

completelyabsolutely · 29/12/2008 16:34

In Tesco if they charge you a higher price at the till than the one advertised on the shelf then you can go to the customer sefvice desk and get a refund so you get the item for free. This has only happend to me once however!

CrackopentheBaileys · 29/12/2008 16:43

They can refuse to sell it to you, however they must the remove the item from sale for 24 hours.
The OP's point is the rudeness though, and you generally find that the lower priced the supermarket is the worse the service gets. I know thats a bit of a generalisation but it's true IME. Go to farmfoods and be lucky to get a grunt, go to Waitrose and they'll stick their neck out to help you.
Asda don't pay as much for their staff as waitrose, and knowing a few people that work in these stores, Waitrose/Sainsbury's etc will invest a bit more in training.
I bloody hate Asda

MsG · 29/12/2008 16:47

She sounds horrid.

I hate Asda...they're part of Walmart, aren't they, who have a terrible reputation for the way they treat their staff.

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