Morrisons - misleading shelf price

Bogof_Babe

I am only posting this as a matter of principle as the overcharge was only 50p, but I was very annoyed at the attitude of the assistant I advised.

Last week I saw an offer in Morrisons houseware section "Pyrex bowl with lid, half price £1.49" so I took one, but it went through the checkout at £1.99.

As I was there again the next day, I went back to double check, and the shelf barker definitely said £1.49 under the two rows of these bowls, so I asked an assistant who was working nearby what I should do, and gave her my receipt to prove the overcharge. At first she just shrugged and said "if that's the price that scanned, then that's the price".

Granted she was probably extremely hot and bothered, but she was also very sullen and didn't seem interested at all. Then she turned over one of the bowls and read the label, which said "0.8 litre", and with some satisfaction told me that the shelf barker described (in very small print) the item on offer as "0.75 litre", so it was obviously a different product!

Now for one thing I cannot believe that Pyrex would make two lidded bowls with a mere 0.05 litre difference in capacity. But even if this was the case, the fact that the shelf price shown was £1.49 under the bowls that they did have displayed should surely have meant that this price should be honoured.

Eventually she grudgingly accompanied me to the customer services desk, and muttered to the assistant there in such a way as to imply that she was stuck with a right one here :rolleyes:, and the assistant just backed her up and said "that's the price, what you were charged".

I said well your shelf display is very misleading, and she grumpily said she'd "just have to remove the shelf ticket I suppose". I left her to it at that point as I really didn't see any point pursuing the matter in the face of such a stonewall attitude.

As a matter of principle, should they have honoured the display price of £1.49, given that there were no 0.08 litre bowls anywhere to be seen, nor a space where they might have been had they sold out? I am not sure whether the shelf price is just "an invitation to treat" as the technical term goes, or whether they are obliged to honour it.

Any which way, the 0.75L/0.8L size differential smacks of shady practice.

hjb123

The shelf price is as you say 'an invitation to treat', the shop doesnt have to sell it at this price though many shops will honour it as a gesture of goodwill.

From the Trading Standards website:

Under law, a retailer is entitled to decide the price he wants to charge for his goods.

The price on display is simply what the law calls an 'invitation to treat'. In the same way you don't have to buy goods from anyone, a retailer is under no obligation to sell you anything.

You cannot insist that a shop sells you anything at a marked price, whether or not they have made a mistake.

Bogof_Babe

Thanks hjb - that is slightly scary as it implies that we need to watch every item as it goes through the checkout, and be alert enough to say "whoa, stop, I don't want that tin of beans at that price".

What's the point of displaying shelf pricing if it isn't binding?

hjb123

I agree partly with you there but the majority of the time the prices are right and when they arent the shop honours them - its a small amount of times that they dont!

executiverocker

if the items goes thru the till, and the shelf price was lower, then you can have a refund on the difference!!

but if the sticker said a different size bowl for the price..then that could be treated differently

rollergirl1507

i would write to the store manager as that is just a wee tad cheeky for the difference in size and the fact they were stacked on the shelf with the ticket directly below. I worked for morrisons (well safeway) and our store manager would have refunded and the removed ticket.

Bogof_Babe

Thanks both. My point is that I very much doubt whether the size of bowl stated on the shelf sticker ever existed (given that it would be less than 1/10th of a pint difference from the advertised capacity). There is absolutely no evidence that such a size exists or was ever on sale at Morrisons. In other words, they are offering a good price on a product that they do not stock, while selling something that is not correctly priced.

I am pretty sure this is a mistake rather than deliberate deception, but multiplying the 50p by the number of bowls sold in every store throughout the country on this offer, it's going to amount to a substantial bunce for Morrisons.

Also there will be hundreds of people like myself who do notice the difference and may flag it up, costing the stores quite a bit of fruitless time arguing the toss or giving refunds.

zappomatic

I've found Morrisons to be very tight fisted and while sometimes complying with the letter of the law, not complying with the spirit of it. Are the people on their customer service desks trained to be grumpy and dodge giving any money back? (Had an experience which took 20 minutes to sort out where the woman claimed BOGOF doesn't apply to reduced to clear items. Won in the end!)

SaraSeahorse

yes I had similar hassle with bogof items in morrisons

the packaging was preprinted BOGOF and I stood labouring the point - I had two reduced pizzas in boxes printed with BOGOF.
They muttered about they were going to put up a notice to say offers do not apply to reduced items and I explained that the printed packaging meant they had to honour BOGOF. Who would want to buy an end of life product for more - the idea of reducing the items is to make the cheaper not more expensive <roll eyes>

hollydays

I agree with zappomatic-i have found the same attitude,unlike any other supermarket i have shopped at,however i found the sales staff friendly.

Contains_Mild_Peril

SaraSeahorse wrote:

yes I had similar hassle with bogof items in morrisons

the packaging was preprinted BOGOF and I stood labouring the point - I had two reduced pizzas in boxes printed with BOGOF.
They muttered about they were going to put up a notice to say offers do not apply to reduced items and I explained that the printed packaging meant they had to honour BOGOF. Who would want to buy an end of life product for more - the idea of reducing the items is to make the cheaper not more expensive <roll eyes>

I've found it's quite common at Morrisons to find "reduced" previously BOGOF items at more than half the original price, which of course means that they're actually more expensive than fresher "full-priced" ones.
I've been overcharged several times in Morrisons, and each time I've asked for a refund, I've had to wait for ages at the customer service desk: there's usually nobody there so I have to wait for a member of staff to turn up (or pass by close enough for me to draw their attention to the fact that I'm waiting there), then I have to wait minutes more for them to go and check the correct price.
I encountered a very similar situation to the OP's once in Kwik Save, involving Xmas puds. When I went back to check the price, found that a different weight was specified but there were none of that weight nor any price displayed for the one I actually bought, I took the offending price ticket from the shelf edge with me along with the pudding, to show the shop assistant and to avoid any other customers being misled by it in the meantime. She seemed very annoyed that I had dared remove their price ticket from the shelf edge without permission, and would not refund the difference in price, so I returned the pudding and got a full refund instead.