Argos staff are they deliberately misleading?

mighty_hammers

My elderly parents went to Argos to buy a lap top advertised in the sun newspaper. Sale price £229. from £299. £70. off. P:(lus a big piece about 2 x £10. vouchers if you spend over a £100. One to be spent in Nov and one in Dec. When they took the slip up with the stock code they were told it was £249. My father questioned the price, but was told well your getting £20.00 in vouchers.
They paid the price and received two coloured vouchers, one green and one gold. They used the green one today and are left with a gold one printed with the date to use by 30th Nov but hand written to use in December!!!
I told my father to go back tomorrow with the advertisement, and get a refund of the difference but my mother doesn't want to bother in case they demand the Lap top back. Obviously this will not happen, but no wonder they were totally confused and why did the member of staff not check the price.

texranger

well if you read the advert it will state the same as on their website or if you phone to reserve. " the price you pay will be the price instore at the time of purchase" which means that even though the ad may say £229, instore it may be £249 when you went to purchase.
regardless of the £20 vouchers (which i think is a rip off as you get 2 £10 to spend in 2 diff months) i would take the advert into store and ask to speak to the manager as now they will have a lot of temp staff take your receipt and ask for the difference back in CASH or on a card if paid by card as they may try and fob you off with an argos voucher

visidigi

if its a press advert then show the store manager and ask for the difference - they don't have to do it, but it is your best chance if you are going to try...

mighty_hammers

how can you advertise a price and then refuse to sell it at that price, illogical.

visidigi

its not illogical - price change between buying add space and selling product - its usually the same but sometimes things cause prices to change, advertisers cover themselves with all the small print...

somethingcorporate

Plus a shop are of no obligation to sell anything at any price to you. Although doing this kind of thing regularly would eventually fall foul of advertising laws.

Flyboy152

But, with such a big adverting campaign, it could be considered to be misleading.

texranger

Zandoni wrote: »

To have a newspaper campaign and only have a small amount at that price would be misleading, you guys accept the dodgy small print practice far too easliy.

I'd be on to Argos head office and ask for an explanation.

the mention of 30 was only an example. they may have 5000, but if you spread that accross all their stores and the online centre, they can go quick.

how would it be misleading that they have an advert to get rid of stock and they only have a limited amount of that stock. that is what adverts are about. if it is misleading then that means 100% of adverts are misleading

but yes the best solution is to go instore and ask and then demand thay give you an item they no longer have.

Companies usually run these adverts when they get a special deal on a certain amount of a product from their supplier, if this product sells out then thats it they are gone and their is nothing you can do thats why they have the words

*while stocks last*

or

" the price you pay will be the price instore at the time of purchase"

even if you look in tesco/asda or any supermarket you will see on most price lables on their offers *while stocks last*

bod1467

I think the area of uncertainty is this example ...

* Retailer advertises offer on Product X at £100 (normally £150)

* Whilst the advert is still current (e.g. same day as advert appears in newspapers), Consumer picks Product X off shelf, goes to till.

* Till say Product X is £150 - the offer has finished.

How can an offer be current and finished at the same time if the Retailer has Product X in stock? (Which I think was the OP's parents' situation).

texranger

bod1467 wrote: »

I think the area of uncertainty is this example ...

* Retailer advertises offer on Product X at £100 (normally £150)

* Whilst the advert is still current (e.g. same day as advert appears in newspapers), Consumer picks Product X off shelf, goes to till.

* Till say Product X is £150 - the offer has finished.

How can an offer be current and finished at the same time if the Retailer has Product X in stock? (Which I think was the OP's parents' situation).

its either
1)they had little stock or
2)that someone had not updated the system with the sale price or
3) the advert was placed in the paper on the wrong day.

but the best thing is to take the advert (whole page with the date displayed) and the receipt into the store and speak to the manager.

texranger

bod1467 wrote: »

How can an offer be current and finished at the same time if the Retailer has Product X in stock? (Which I think was the OP's parents' situation).

this can happen if you have a large chain like Argos. it could be a case of having each store allocated 100 items to sell at the sales price after that the full price applies.
so you see this advert and think oh i will like one of them, but decided to go to the shop at 4pm in the afternoon so at that time the store has sold out of its allocation of the item at the sales price