WH Smiths - Does up to 50% off include 0%?

The_Watcher

I saw a book in WH Smiths in the 'up to 50% off' section. There was no discount sticker/price on the book, but the printed RRP on the back was £25. When I asked at the counter the assistant scanned the barcode and said the book was £25! I informed her that it was in the 'up to 50% off' section, and she scanned the book again and said it was £25 and reminded me of the 'up to' part!

Is this false advertising, a possible mistake, or can 0% off be included in 'up to 50% off'?

There were also several copies of the book on the shelf.

Any thoughts or advice?

cheltenham_dude

Did the other copies have stickers on them, because if they didn't the odds are that either the books were put on the wrong shelf or the 50% off label was - not really good practice in retail, but not illegal (technically under contract law a price ticket is an invitation to negotiate) - if you are concerned about WH Smiths potentially false advertising, you could raise a formal complaint with WH Smiths or Trading Standards - you cannot however force them to sell you the book with 50% off the price.

The_Watcher

cheltenham_dude wrote: »

Did the other copies have stickers on them, because if they didn't the odds are that either the books were put on the wrong shelf or the 50% off label was - not really good practice in retail, but not illegal (technically under contract law a price ticket is an invitation to negotiate) - if you are concerned about WH Smiths potentially false advertising, you could raise a formal complaint with WH Smiths or Trading Standards - you cannot however force them to sell you the book with 50% off the price.

Can't remember about the other books, but I plan to go back on Thursday to check and see if the book is still on the discount shelf

arcon5

A customer probably picked it up, saw the discounted books and placed it on a random shelf.

Happens all the time in most shops and can't be helped.

The_Watcher

arcon5 wrote: »

A customer probably picked it up, saw the discounted books and placed it on a random shelf.

Happens all the time in most shops and can't be helped.

No, there were several copies of the book on the discounted shelf, all neatly stacked.

Transformer

I went into waterstones and their audio books were three for two. As they are expensive that is a good deal, but out of about two to three hundred books, only two out of the entire lot had the stickers on, the offer was all around the store for normal books and was on audio books too I was told. So apart from buying two of the same book, haha, there was no way of getting the offer the teller agreed.

So I later asked to see the manager, was polite and said if I get this audio book as well, will you let me have it for free, and he said YES.

So sometimes does work

fluffnutter

I think the most likely explanation, as others have said, is that the book was on the wrong shelf. However, when arriving at the till why didn't the assistant say that? Why say 'it's up to 50% off' which is a ridiculous statement - no shop in their right mind would advertise a sale that deliberately included full price items with the caveat 'it's only up to <whatever discount we said>'. Whilst technically correct, it could still be deemed misleading and hence break trading standards/the law or whatever.

I think this is what makes the incident frustrating; not the original error (which is probably no more than an honest mistake), rather the dismissive stupidity of the sales assistant.

Esqui

Somebody will probably tell me I'm wrong, but I'm reasonably sure that at least 10% of the lines in an "up to x off" offer must have the maximum saving on them. But it's probably just a mistake of where the books were.

nomoneytoday

0% is within "up to 50%"

fluffnutter

nomoneytoday wrote: »

0% is within "up to 50%"

Indeed. No one's disputing that. I will argue though, that a shop that's advertising a sale with the words 'up to 50% off' then charges full price for everything arguing that '0% is within up to 50%' will fall foul of trading regulations.

Evilm

The other question is was it a 'normal' section with an offer sign over it? For example was it the Crime section and that section had selected up to 50% of deals? That might explain why some books wouldn't have a discount on them.

I know when the Sci Fi section does 3 for 2 its only stickered products but they do show the sign over the whole section.