prices on till not matching price on shelf

24

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  • Marty82
    Marty82 Posts: 195 Forumite
    I work for Sainsbury's and on our Retail Law training workshops we are told that by law shelf prices are only "an invitation to purchase".

    It is not illegal for us to sell it at a different price however if the customer is not happy we will take the product back for a refund.

    In practice though we would never argue over selling the product at the shelf price unless there was a huge difference.

    Hope this clears up the legality or pricing.
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  • Freddie_Snowbits
    Freddie_Snowbits Posts: 4,328 Forumite
    I went into JS once and bought a 4 pack of bouncing bitter. My local Co-op was selling a little cheaper at the time and the girl at the checkout immediately matched their price.

    If you are polite, youe will always get what you want, if you are ignorant, ...
  • moonrakerz
    moonrakerz Posts: 8,650
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    Marty82 wrote: »
    I work for Sainsbury's and on our Retail Law training workshops we are told that by law shelf prices are only "an invitation to purchase".

    It is not illegal for us to sell it at a different price however if the customer is not happy we will take the product back for a refund.

    In practice though we would never argue over selling the product at the shelf price unless there was a huge difference.

    Hope this clears up the legality or pricing.

    I think you may be unwittingly causing more confusion here. I would say that what you are being told by Sainsbury's is incorrect or you are misunderstanding what you were told.

    You correctly say that the shelf price is an "invitation to purchase", however, the customer has a right to expect that the price charged at the checkout is the same as that on the shelf.

    Shelf pricing is covered by Part lll of the Consumer Protection Act 1987 and The Price Marking Order 2000.
    Trading Standards are entitled to visit a supermarket and request that a till, in training mode, be made available to their officers so that they can check that shelf prices tally with those at the checkout. If a high percentage of "errors" is found or if the store has a history of "errors", prosecution can follow.

    In short:- it is illegal to sell at a different price to that on the shelf !
  • kr15snw
    kr15snw Posts: 2,264 Forumite
    I used to work in comet and on an average day we had over 300 prices to change (and it was normally small annoying things like batteries). But as you can imagine it took ages to do and yes sometimes we made mistakes with matching the wrong product to the wrong ticket. Trust me if you are putting out 20 tickets for batteries that are all the same brand just slightly different models, its quite easy to get confused!!

    But as the law states its the managers discretion whether to sell at the lower price, normally we did. As long as the ticket was wrong. Sometimes customers would put items back in the wrong place and so people didnt realise that was the correct price, but the tag was somewhere else in the store.

    We used to say we were sorry but not to worry as Im sure we can sort it out.

    To be honest Ive never had this happen to me in Tescos...
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  • red_devil
    red_devil Posts: 10,793 Forumite
    The issue you have raised potentially infringes the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act regarding misleading price indications

    When a mistake like the one you have described happens, the trader is not obliged to sell you the goods at the lower price. He is entitled to withdraw the goods from sale until the problem is rectified. You cannot insist on buying the goods at the lower price.

    However if a trader tries to charge you more for goods which are advertised at a lower price, then a misleading price indication could be given, which is a criminal offence


    Your complaint has been passed to Trading Standards who will assess all the relevant information and may investigate the company.

    This case has been referred to Trading Standards with no commitment to contact you.

    Thank you for the information you have provided

    This is a copy of the e mail I received. I was right its wrong to mislead.
    :footie:
  • red_devil
    red_devil Posts: 10,793 Forumite
    advent1122 wrote: »
    So if the price on the shelf edge said £14.99 and when you went to the till it was £9.99 would you kick up the same fuss?
    The prices are change automatically on the till but then some poor, overworked, underpayed shop worker has to trapse around the store changing the prices.
    Where I worked, which was a stationers we used to get price changes daily and sometimes it was pysically impossible to change them all when you have a manager telling you to "pop on the till for a few hours" - but I havent done my price changes.
    "Never mind - do them later"..... BONG
    End of shift.
    Home I trot without doing the price changes and then have the same amount the next day PLUS the ones I didn't have time to do.

    Its not the customers problem if you are an undepaid shop worker and nine times out of ten its me the customer who has to go to the shelf and check it out.
    :footie:
  • uktim29
    uktim29 Posts: 2,722 Forumite
    red_devil wrote: »
    Its not the customers problem if you are an undepaid shop worker and nine times out of ten its me the customer who has to go to the shelf and check it out.

    I'm sure if you tell us your location of work we could all follow you around all day spotting mistakes you've made then see how you like that.

    You seem to have quiet a robotic mentality.
  • red_devil wrote: »
    Its not the customers problem if you are an undepaid shop worker and nine times out of ten its me the customer who has to go to the shelf and check it out.

    You're not the woman who annoyed my mate in Savers are you?

    The price on the till either didn't match the one on the shelf or the woman had read it wrong, and she volunteered to go and check what price it was, and somewhere inbetween there and actually getting to the till she ranted at the supervisor.

    Anyways, go shop in Poundland, our prices are never wrong ;)
    "Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, But beautiful old people are works of art."
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  • achtunglady
    achtunglady Posts: 1,459 Forumite
    What would you rather, queue up for a long time while staff that should be on the till are making sure prices are correct on the shelves or accept mistakes can be made and be served quickly? And would you be prepared to pay more for your goods so the shop can employ more staff??
    And yes the lady in the avatar is me

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  • timberflake
    timberflake Posts: 1,623 Forumite
    red_devil wrote: »
    i have taken advice from trading standards its illegal to be advertising two different prices they can visit the shop and investigate.

    RUBBISH! There is no way that TS have told you that! It is common knowledge that an advertised price is only an invitation to buy and IS NOT legally binding!
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