Automatic Price matching at till. Advertised price goes up

Whatdo

Hi,

Went into a retail outlet that also has a web presence, was shown and discussed several items with an assistant I agreed to purchase one of the items with a price tag attached for £24.99. The assistant collected a new boxed version from store and when rung up on the till I was informed that the item was in fact £25.99.

I felt uncomfortable and queried the process, I was informed that this was a system known as "price checker" and was part of their new epos sytem. Basically they say it checks the price of the item against their competitors and adjusts the price accordingly up to the RRP or down to price match. So therefore prices fluctuate.

I had quite long discussion with several members of staff and introduced the principle of price fixing and similarly "ringing". They were adamant that this price raising was legitimate because I was still purchasing the product cheaper than anyone else in their chosen group was able to supply.

I am still exceedingly unhappy about this new method of retailing, it would seem to me to be fundamentally flawed, taking no account of price breaks, stock levels etc and therefore open to abuse within a group of retailers. There seems also the be a blur between online and premises outlets.

Any thoughts anyone?

cheers

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Guardsman

Can you name the shop ?

molerat

They are talking b*ll*cks. They failed to change the price ticket on the one you looked at after it increased. Any decent retailer would sell at the ticketed price or simply admit it was a mistake and flatly refuse at that price not make up some absurd story. Yes they may have some sort of dynamic pricing system but not in the way those idiots think it works. Report them to trading standards.

Whatdo

molerat wrote: »

They have the one you looked at wrongly priced. Report them to trading standards.

I had understood that the "contract" was at the point of agreeing to purchase, however I always had the opportunity to decline to purchase when the contract was changed, however I decided to enter into a long discussion, I was given a flyer which explained the introduction of "price checker"

...." At ***** **** we want you to feel confident when shopping with us that you are getting the best value.To ensure this we check 1,000s of products against our competitors each day and update our prices accordingly...."

I would wish to consider approaching the relevant authority in this regard but would wish to make sure I was not wasting valuable time for a department. hence the post.


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mo786uk

If the price labels are never accurate because their computer is always changing prices then its almost certainly against the law. Report it to Trading Standards via The CAB Consumer Helpline. They may or may not do somehting about it.

Wat retailer is it?

wealdroam

Angling Direct maybe?

Here's their newsletter introducing their Price Checker Service...

Introducing Our Price Checker Service...

Introducing the Angling Direct Price Checker: At Angling Direct we want you to feel confident when shopping with us that you are getting the best value. To ensure this we check 1,000s of products against our competitors each day and update our prices accordingly.
<snip>

No mention there of prices being matched upwards though.

Whatdo

wealdroam wrote: »

Angling Direct maybe?

Here's their newsletter introducing their Price Checker Service...No mention there of prices being matched upwards though.

This is exactly the point which is this issue. The newsletter you linked clearly shows the use of RRP, which formed a major part of the discussion. A counter promotional flyer advertising "our best selling price checked items!" describes (with a photo) each product as "our price from £xx.xx" with no mention of RRP. It would appear then also that this "our price from" is not a price break for volume purchase but the price the epos will calculate at the till.

If I knew which Item I wanted I would then have to phone to find out "epos price" and secure that price before travelling 30 odd miles to go to the outlet.

I had been in previously and noticed the policy of pricing items on the shelves, equipment/hardware generally yes but consumables not at all.

There are a number of other consequential issues were raised, another is the fact that I am faced with having to make decisions at the counter after the items have been scanned, with customers behind and as many as six members of staff behind the counter: i feel i lose the ability to make an informed choice.

Is not a retailer permitted to use this style of selling? After all I can not use the shop if I know that is how they operate, a bit like a car boot. After all thay are saying "you are buying it today at the cheapest (by a penny) of anywhere else in the country so what are you complaining about"

Thanks for all the replies

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dacouch

Vote with your feet.

This may apply to the items they do not say "Price from"

"5. Special offer – not in stock
Making an invitation to purchase products at a specified
price, without disclosing the existence of any reasonable
grounds the trader may have for believing that he/she
will not be able to offer for supply or to procure another
trader to supply, those products or equivalent products
at that price for a period that is, and in quantities that are,
reasonable having regard to the product, the scale
of advertising of the product and the price offered.
This is known as bait advertising."

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/cpregs/oft979.pdf

Whatdo

dacouch wrote: »

"5. Special offer – not in stock
Making an invitation to purchase products at a specified
price, without disclosing the existence of any reasonable
grounds the trader may have for believing that he/she
will not be able to offer for supply or to procure another
trader to supply, those products or equivalent products
at that price for a period that is, and in quantities that are, reasonable having regard to the product, the scale
of advertising of the product and the price offered.
This is known as bait advertising."

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/cpregs/oft979.pdf

Thankyou, this is certainly a conjunctive paragraph and needs an amount of concentration to get up to speed.

I need to take the dog for a walk, and will study this later, it would seem at first reading that this is a consequence of this particular method of retailing, there may well be other sections that are also possibly applicable.

thankyou again for linking this


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david39

Vote with your feet, but tell them why before you start walking.

Follow it up with a letter / email to a suitable department of the company.

prowla

The price tag is an offer to sell you at that price.
If they try and get more money from you by increasing the price on a spurious basis, then offer to give them nothing and walk away.
Presumably they'll then start complaining that customer numbers are down.