Should the shop sell the item at £10 or £20?

Mac21

Ok I Just experiened this today.

I walked into a shop, went over to the sale items area, I picked up a jacket under a sign saying £10 or less. But the label on the jacket had a £20 sale sticker.

I complained to a member of staff saying the sign was misleading.

My question is should the shop sell the jacket at £10 or £20?

Whats the shop rights and the customer rights?

JimArnold

The shop can charge you what it wants

You can complain to Trading Standards but they are in my experience unlikely to act

AmandaD_2

£20 I'm afraid- anyone could have put that item there. If shops did that for everyone, it would mean that anyone could say they got the item from a cheaper rail couldn't they?
A x

Mac21

I understand that any customer may have misplaced the jacket but there was a couple of the same jacket in the same place.

AmandaD_2

If the actual label said £10 then they would probaly give it to you for that price, but even then all they have to do is apologise and take it off the shop floor for 24 hours and put it back out again. This is obviously just an error and a very easy mistake to make.
A x

al.green_2

The pricing on the goods is an offer to sell at that price. They are not allowed to charge more, though they can withdraw the item as AmandaD said.
The signage in the shop is purely an aid to the customer and has no legal standing. If it appeared that you were being intentionally misled then this could be an issue for advertising standards, but in this instance it appears to be just a mistake.
You can always offer the £10 and the shop could accept that as a goodwill gesture, but to be honest I think you're unlikely to get anywhere as the item in question was clearly labeled at the higher price.

IvanOpinion

The contract is made at the checkout which is when you get the final choice as to whether or not to buy the goods. Shops are forever doing this unfortunately.

At the weekend I saw a sign in a shop selling polo shirts as follows

Polo shirts
Special offer buy 2 for £8
save £4

Seems quite good except that they were all labelled at £5 each .... I think somebodies maths left a lot ot be desired (maybe we should ask this query on blinkos maths thread )

Ivan

ag359

al.green wrote:

The pricing on the goods is an offer to sell at that price. They are not allowed to charge more, though they can withdraw the item as AmandaD said.
.

That's not true - the price on the goods is merely an invitation to the customer to make an offer - the shop doesn't have to accept it. Otherwise, 1000 could walk into the shop and accept the shop's 'offer' at the same time, and the shop would have to honour all 1000 contracts.

Queenie

ag359 wrote:

That's not true - the price on the goods is merely an invitation to the customer to make an offer - the shop doesn't have to accept it. Otherwise, 1000 could walk into the shop and accept the shop's 'offer' at the same time, and the shop would have to honour all 1000 contracts.

Precisely!

And to look at it another way (and leave on a positive note) .... because it is an "invitation ... that gives *us* the customer, the leyway to ....................... HAGGLE.

ben500

The shop has two options open to them, to sell at the lowest price displayed or to refuse to sell and withdraw the item from display, they cannot sell at the higher price without infringing on trading legislation. whether it be a mistake or otherwise, the fact that there were several items upon this rack at the higher price may indicate to the retailer that a restocking error has occurred and they can withdraw the item from sale but if they then go on to encourage a purchase at the higher price that is where the infringment takes place.

IvanOpinion

ben500 wrote:

The shop has two options open to them, to sell at the lowest price displayed or to refuse to sell and withdraw the item from display, they cannot sell at the higher price without infringing on trading legislation. whether it be a mistake or otherwise, the fact that there were several items upon this rack at the higher price may indicate to the retailer that a restocking error has occurred and they can withdraw the item from sale but if they then go on to encourage a purchase at the higher price that is where the infringment takes place.

I am not convinced you are correct here Ben ... as others have said, which is my understanding too, the price displayed on the shelves and on the product is only an invitation to buy, no contract is made at that point ... the contract is made at the checkouts.

There is however a different rule related to the deliberately misleading advertising which may come into effect here. However I am not convinvced in this example that anybody was deliberately mislead ... pricing errors happen all the time ... sometimes in our favour (which the customer never seems to notice) and sometimes in the favour of the shop (which the customer always seems to notice).

Is it not a bit like the £399 TV being mistakenly advertised on the web at £3.99 and then some saddos who try to exploit it get all up in arms when their opportunism is denied?

Ivan