WHSmith pricing policy

hollydays

I suspect walt twerp is actually the most lowly member of staff.Wonder why he cant get promotion?What stops a customer swopping the price and demanding the lower price is actually the law.The store can withdraw it from sale.Of course,a Manager would have known that.Of course ,you can refuse admission to anyone,but unfortunately this is only civil law,and not actually workable or enforceable.You can ban a person 100 times,and you cant really stop them coming in and taking it to a civil court would involve a Barrister and several thousands of pounds.

walterp

Everything I have said is right.
You know that and I know that.
Nobody has been on here and questioned the "legality" of selling the mis-priced item since I posted.
I rest my case and only got this ID to post on this thread.
Bye and happy shopping.

Me_Myself_2

He's gone. Great.

amosworks

lol yeah, what a freak show.
WHSmiths just lost another customer for several months at least.

It amazes me that working in an environment surrounded by literature and education, walterp still has yet to get to grips with the common understandings of respect and politeness.

I wonder if we can recommend any books for him? :rotfl: :rotfl:

tonyivb

Poppy9 wrote:

Can I just point out you originally expected to pay £18.98 for both goods. When the till scanned them up the cost would have been £17.98.

Was the £5.99 price sticker the same on all the goods or was the price only on the shelf?

A little bit drawn out but just to clarify things...

Earlier that week I was in the Uxbridge branch where the DVDs were half price at £6.49... I didn't buy them then as I wanted to check online to see if this was a good deal (in the past some WHSmith half price offers have still been considerably more expensive than other sources).
As they were priced at £12.99 I asked an assistant to confirm the price, he check-scanned them and they came up at £7.99 and he would say that was the price I would be charged.

As for the boxes, they were merchandised in two places... a full shelf display of varying sizes and a stack at the end of an aisle. In both places there were two types of boxes mixed together, a single 9 litre and a 4 pack with smaller boxes packed inside the 9 litre.
On the shelf there were two types of price ticket (both having £5.99 as the price), one stating 'Really Useful Box 9l [and then a colour, Blue/Pink etc]' and the other stating 'Really Useful Box 9l 4pk'.

As we are all well aware, manufacturers like to have offers like '1 extra free', when I worked for Safeway these were called 'Flashpacks'. Given the two price tickets I assumed that the multipacks were a 'flash pack', and as the 'Really Useful Boxes' were on 3ftpo2 I thought this was a good deal so I picked up three (there were only four on the shelf). I then saw two more multipacks on the stack so I took these as well as the remaining one on the shelf.

I imagine that if I was only buying one then they may have let it go, but as I was buying six the Manager thought that they had more to lose, therefore she refused to sell them to me at £5.99

So to summarise, I was expecting to pay £31.95 but was being charged £47.95

Poppy9

tonyivb wrote:

A little bit drawn out but just to clarify things...

Earlier that week I was in the Uxbridge branch where the DVDs were half price at £6.49... I didn't buy them then as I wanted to check online to see if this was a good deal (in the past some WHSmith half price offers have still been considerably more expensive than other sources).
As they were priced at £12.99 I asked an assistant to confirm the price, he check-scanned them and they came up at £7.99 and he would say that was the price I would be charged.

As for the boxes, they were merchandised in two places... a full shelf display of varying sizes and a stack at the end of an aisle. In both places there were two types of boxes mixed together, a single 9 litre and a 4 pack with smaller boxes packed inside the 9 litre.
On the shelf there were two types of price ticket (both having £5.99 as the price), one stating 'Really Useful Box 9l [and then a colour, Blue/Pink etc]' and the other stating 'Really Useful Box 9l 4pk'.

As we are all well aware, manufacturers like to have offers like '1 extra free', when I worked for Safeway these were called 'Flashpacks'. Given the two price tickets I assumed that the multipacks were a 'flash pack', and as the 'Really Useful Boxes' were on 3ftpo2 I thought this was a good deal so I picked up three (there were only four on the shelf). I then saw two more multipacks on the stack so I took these as well as the remaining one on the shelf.

I imagine that if I was only buying one then they may have let it go, but as I was buying six the Manager thought that they had more to lose, therefore she refused to sell them to me at £5.99

So to summarise, I was expecting to pay £31.95 but was being charged £47.95

:rotfl: Sorry I shouldn't laugh but I had to read the post twice as I had an image in my head of you overloaded with "Really Useful Boxes". This is something that happens to me all the time. I spot a bargain, have to have, balance them all in my arm to get to the till. Only after I've paid do I think "do I really want all these".

Now I can see why the manager was awkward though because you bought 6. If that was the price clearly marked on the shelf then they should have gone through IMO as else they were misleading you.

taxiphil

walterp wrote:

Everything I have said is right.
You know that and I know that.
Nobody has been on here and questioned the "legality" of selling the mis-priced item since I posted.
I rest my case and only got this ID to post on this thread.
Bye and happy shopping.

That's because nobody is questioning the legality of it! This is a question of customer service - don't you understand that?

The store makes a pricing error. Do they risk losing a loyal customer by throwing the rulebook at them, or do they show some goodwill, common sense and good business sense by honouring the lower price?

You're forgetting the golden rule. The customers (or irritating scumbags, as you see them) who walk through your door are the people who put money in your pockets to put food on your table. If you carry on with your contemptuous attitude towards your customers, you deserve to lose them all.

Poppy9

It doesn't matter what Walterp thinks of customers as I'm sure the feeling is mutal towards him in store:p

walterp

I apologise to the OP.
I was in a mood yesterday and to see someone basically saying my staff are incompetent got my back up.

they don't care if they overcharge you as it is really inconvenient for them to do their jobs properly and price things correctly!

Look at it from a managers point of view.
We are given a budget for staffing and must stick to it religiously, not allowed to go over by a penny. The staff cost are being cut every year and the workload is the same.
We get hundreds of price changes to do DAILY, not to mention promotions to price and display on top of the everyday replenishment that need doing. That is before a customer is served.
Today we had 1 person on the till and 1 to look after books and 2 upstairs for DVD/Music and stationary.
As an example the book person must unpack the delivery, put them on the shelves, tidy up, DO PRICE CHANGES, find stock for returns, serve customers, check for replenishments from the stockroom and answer queries. All for £5.05 a hour.
If a member of staff goes sick we are in the poo as I dont have the budget to call anyone in.
Last week we even run out of carrier bags because of budget cuts.

So try to look at it from a staff members point of view. They are not incompetent, but run ragged. I honestly dont know why they put up with it, must be my boyish good looks and charm.

A question one of my staff was asked today.
"How long will the ink last in this pen?"

hjb123

walterp wrote:

I apologise to the OP.
I was in a mood yesterday and to see someone basically saying my staff are incompetent got my back up.

Look at it from a managers point of view.
We are given a budget for staffing and must stick to it religiously, not allowed to go over by a penny. The staff cost are being cut every year and the workload is the same.
We get hundreds of price changes to do DAILY, not to mention promotions to price and display on top of the everyday replenishment that need doing. That is before a customer is served.
Today we had 1 person on the till and 1 to look after books and 2 upstairs for DVD/Music and stationary.
As an example the book person must unpack the delivery, put them on the shelves, tidy up, DO PRICE CHANGES, find stock for returns, serve customers, check for replenishments from the stockroom and answer queries. All for £5.05 a hour.
If a member of staff goes sick we are in the poo as I dont have the budget to call anyone in.
Last week we even run out of carrier bags because of budget cuts.

So try to look at it from a staff members point of view. They are not incompetent, but run ragged. I honestly dont know why they put up with it, must be my boyish good looks and charm.

A question one of my staff was asked today.
"How long will the ink last in this pen?"

ahh the joys of working at whs!! so glad i left!!!!!