O/T Wrong price under item - should you get it for that price?

sherbie28

I've just been into Toys R Us and was looking at buying an umbro football goal. Underneath the shelf there were two price stickers, both stated umbro set. One was 14.99 one was 19.99. Took it to the till and she told me it was £59.99. I asked to speak to the manager showed her the mistake and she tried to fob me off with the excuse that the price stickers were for completely different umbro items. There wasn't a 59.99 sticker anywhere on the shelf. I asked her for her name and head office number. Walked off went back to the aisle a few minutes later and they were clearing the shelf, took the price stickers off and told me that they were honouring their mistake by taking the product off the shelf for 24 hours. How do you tell an 8 year old who was with me that he can't have it, I told her that they should give me it for that price but she said the sticker didn't actually describe that product. Am I in the right regarding the law or are they? Thanks

clerks6899

unfortunately they are i have had a similar problem and they dont actually have to sell us anything if its wrongly priced put in front of the wrong label etc it is their stock and they can sell it at any price its usually just good customer service to offer it at the lower price and usually the larger companies do, they removed the product from sale thats all they legally they have to do, obviously this is just in my own words from what i was told from trading standards,

mattbee12

Hey,

AFAIK Any shop can refuse to sell any product to anyone (regardless of the price or misprice). Most places are willing to honour prices but in this case it would be at considerable loss to them. I guess you could try head office but doubt you'l get any luck Without descriptions on the labels they can squirm their way out of it. xx

zorber

should have bought the item and then complained you were overcharged the label said umbro set so you would have had a case as it was their mistake. worst case you could claim a full refund and get you money back in exchange for the goods.
if you point it out before you purchase they have a right to withdraw from sale.

C_Ronaldo

but isnt what the OP described in breach of trading standards, a product was on the shelf with the wrong price on the shelf

Softstuff

I own a small shop, and sometimes customers move stock, accidentally or otherwise... or move price labels to other items. So I can see why not every company is eager to honour misprices.

rafalfc

The same thing happened to me a while ago. Went to JD Sports with my son and he saw this pair of Reebok trainers that were supposed to be 59.99 reduced to 39.99. But on the price tag (which was a preprinted sticker with the .99 already on) they had forgotten to fill in the pounds bit. Anyway my son convinced me to buy them for 99p. Went to the till to pay and the assistant scanned the trainers and asked for 39.99. I showed him the 99 sticker and he started to panick. Anyway to cut a long story short - after 20 mins of arguing with him and nobody in the shop having the headoffice number - I saw a post-it note stuck on the side of the till with the head office number. I called head office and explained the error and said "according to trading standards" you have to sell them at that price. The guy at head office put me on hold while he checked - next thing you know the manager at JD sports has come to the till to say head office have called her to say she has to sell them for 99p. So I got a pair of 59.99 trainers for 99p. Very happy bunny!!!!

I don't know if this is the law but it worked for me.

carlyh69

technically a sotre does not "have" to sell you anything, we reserve the right to withdraw a product from sale at any time. However as said above, many stores will honour the misprice as a goodwill gesture, to keep your future custom. I'm unsure as to what rights the customer has if they have already been sold the product?? Anyone enlighten me?

deanos

Yes as mentioned a shop does not have to sell you anything so they can refuse if they wish, i would have thought you would be in a stronger position if you bought the product as long as you can take photos of the shelf label for proof .

cheekyweegit

Hiya folks,

This arguement comes down to the law of contract im afraid.

For a valid contract to be made we need to look at the following:-

The people concerned (at least two) must be seen to have the ability to enter into a contract i.e. have no mental disabilities and / or are of the age to enter into the type of contract at the time for example.

There has to be a valid offer made by one party (offeror) to the other party(s) (offeree), who in turn have to accept this offer without any qualifying conditions. i.e. i accept but or unless...........

For example, Johnny offers to sell Simon his car for £500, Simon accepts and says yes i will buy your car for £500. This is a valid offer and acceptance and thus a legally binding contract.

BUT .................if Simon said, I will buy your car if you put 2 new tyres on and reduce the price to £450. This changes it to a counter offer by Simon turning Johnny from offeror to offeree and in turn Johnny does not need to accept the new offer by Simon.

Furthermore if there has been a counter offer, the original offer is no more and can't be reverted back to if the counter offer is not accepted. There are no contracts in progress at all in this situation, where an offer has been subjected to a counter offer which has been refused. A new contract would have to be constituted by a fresh offer / acceptance process.

The offer is often in exchange for goods or services and must not be for anything illegal or immoral such as a contract taken out to kill a person or for prostetution. Such contracts are deemed unenforceable at the onset.

In this instance its the umbro goal in exchange for £59.99 at the checkout as per the price scanned.

In a shop it is you the customer who makes the offer to the shop assistant, who is an agent of the shop to buy the goods on display. Not the shop who makes an offer to sell the goods to you by displaying them on a shelf for your perusal and choice. This is known as an invitation to treat. Other examples include goods in a catalogue of any kind or even dare i say goods on web pages. They are simply to entice you into making an offer to buy the goods from the merchant and their willingness to do business with you by showing you what they have offer.

The shop was, as is any shop perfectly entitled to refuse to sell you any item it feels like to you for what ever reason and doesn't even have to justify it.

In this situation it was you the customer who made the offer to the shop to buy the goods at £19.99 as per the SEL you saw even though they came up as £59.99 at the checkout which was considerably different to the SEL on display beside the goods. As aforementioned, the shop refusing your offer which it was within its remit to do and could be argued to have made a counter offer at £59.99 for the goods which you inturn refused.

Note, no valid offer or acceptance by any of the parties here!

To cut a long story short, a shop doesn't have to sell you anything it doesn't want to no matter the price on it at the time hence why so many companies pull out on deals which a lot of us on here have tried for which are clearly a misprice. If they do honour them, which they don't have to its purely on their merit and for good customer relations not because the law is on our side. It definitely isn't at this stage.

Further information on Invitation to treat can be found at :-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invitation_to_treat

Hope this helps and if anyone has any questions please say and i'll try and help if this is not clear.

ben500

In short where two or more prices are displayed the vendor must sell at the lower price or withdraw the item from sale, much as I don't like to say it because I despise this company they have acted correctly as required under current legislation.