Vue Cinemas - legal?

Flyboy152

Idiophreak wrote: »

I didn't have the opportunity to purchase the deal as advertised three feet above the guy's head, though?

There was no (sensible) reason that they could not provide me with a large serving of sprite, or whatever, as advertised - so in fact, they offered (in advert), I accepted, and they refused to complete the deal. It's been a long time since I did my contract law courses, so I'm sure you're right, but it just feels fishy to me.

Then there is the issue of false advertising and misdescribing goods.

robpw2

stone7 wrote: »

robpw2 will take half a dozen then.

Have you nothing better to do ...

relic

Idiophreak wrote: »

Went to see Transformers 3 in Oxford at the weekend (lots of fighting robots, but that's a different story ) and, for once, was actually hungry enough to pay the obscene prices for food. So ordered a large hotdog combo.

Maybe I'm being stupid, but I was quite shocked to hear that they'd run out of large cups - so I could only have a regular drink. I assumed they'd charge less because of this, but no...same cost. I asked if they'd give me the large serving, but in two regular cups, again no - because they have to be able to account for every single cup, apparently.

I was even more shocked when I spoke to the manager and he, too, repeated the same...and indicated that they were, in fact, doing me a favour by allowing me to still purchase the large combo - as it was saving me money over buying the large hotdog and a regular drink separately. Thankful as we were for his apparent generosity, my friends and I still declined to partake.

Whilst I think this is particularly poor customer service, and pretty stupid business sense (3 of us refused to purchase our combos as a matter of principle - £25 takings lost for the sake of 3 paper cups!?) - is it actually legal for them to try and charge the same for a smaller quantity? Just smells of a con to me...

I've got to say it is pretty ridiculous, but when I worked in a cinema we had to account for all cups, so we weren't allowed to give them away. Pretty stupid rule, but then again the people that worked there were pretty stupid too.

Idiophreak

Just in case anyone comes up against this in future, I've now got an email from Vue customer services stating that, in those circumstances, the manager should provide a price reduction on the combos to compensate. Apparently they're going to "retrain" (or "train", more likely...).

clarkey3262

Idiophreak wrote: »

I didn't have the opportunity to purchase the deal as advertised three feet above the guy's head, though?

There was no (sensible) reason that they could not provide me with a large serving of sprite, or whatever, as advertised - so in fact, they offered (in advert), I accepted, and they refused to complete the deal. It's been a long time since I did my contract law courses, so I'm sure you're right, but it just feels fishy to me.

Yes there was a (sensible) reason, they ran out of large cups.

Flyboy152 wrote: »

Then there is the issue of false advertising and misdescribing goods.

fales advertising yes, if they never sell that deal at the advertised price, but they didn't have a required element (ie a large cup)

The cinema then made a new offer which was different to the one advertised but at the same price, really rather stupid but legal as they can charge what they want for items they sell and the fact they were unable to provide the origianally requested offer.

Remember a seller can change the price of any item at any time up until the offer is accepted and money exchanged, it only becomes illegal to change the price if they keep the old advert up to draw customers in with the promise of a lower price than they intend on actually charging.
Pretty good explanation here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3277262

Idiophreak

clarkey3262 wrote: »

Yes there was a (sensible) reason, they ran out of large cups.

So, if you went into a pub and said "I'd like a half of lager, please" and they said "sorry, we've only got pint glasses" - you'd be OK with that...I mean they've given a (sensible) reason they can't give you a half, right?

clarkey3262

Well actually all they have done is say we can't serve it in a half pint glass, last time I checked half a pint was still able to go in a pint glass, if it was the other way round I would just have a half and be done with it, as halfs are already built into the price structure of the drinks on sale in a pub, changing the size of the drink as part of an offer in a cinema isn't, or isn't normally at least. Also if they said have the pint but at half price I would say ok anyway.

Idiophreak

clarkey3262 wrote: »

Well actually all they have done is say we can't serve it in a half pint glass, last time I checked half a pint was still able to go in a pint glass, if it was the other way round I would just have a half and be done with it, as halfs are already built into the price structure of the drinks on sale in a pub, changing the size of the drink as part of an offer in a cinema isn't, or isn't normally at least. Also if they said have the pint but at half price I would say ok anyway.

I imagine they'd come up with something about not being able to tell when they'd dispensed half a pint, but anyway, a pint is also able to do into two half glasses...so it's more or less the same thing.

I guess another way of looking at it would be if they said "we can't sell you a pint for £2, as we have no pint glasses left...but we can sell you two halves for £1.80 each" - would you still be happy to pay for two halves?

T_T_2

clarkey3262 wrote: »

last time I checked half a pint was still able to go in a pint glass, if it was the other way round I would just have a half and be done with it.

Yup, as you state this is the exact opposite of what the OP referred to. If we apply the rather daft comparison of going into a pub, a direct comparison would actually be ordering a pint and being told they only have pint glasses, they could fill up the half pint glass and then fill it up with another half pint, although the second half pint would naturally overflow and go all over your shoes. Thank god for small mercies

clarkey3262

If £1.80 was the price of a half I would pay that for just one (as I said in my previous post) and be done with it (I don't have to buy 2 you know) especially as in my local the 20 saved from not having a pint gets me 30 mins of snooker table time so i would be happy with that.

As others and myself pointed out, it was legal as they are allowed to charge what they want for what ever reasons they want.