Rant: Mothercare and pricing.

Sponge

We were in Mothercare this afternoon and there was a display full of large, cuddly toys: Pepper Pig, George Pig, Hello Kitty. It was an end of shelf display, with 3 or 4 shelves. There was a large 50% off sign at the top and 50% off strips on all but the bottom shelf. We picked up a Pepper Pig from the bottom shelf (it shared it with George and Kitty) for our daughter thinking the ticket price of £20 would be discounted to £10. We paid for the pig, and a few other items, and left the store.

It wasn't until we'd left the retail park and were half way home that my wife suddenly thought, 'Hang on. That bill was a bit high.' She checked the receipt and we'd been charged £20.

(Yes, I know we should have checked the receipt in store.)

A bit miffed, she called the store and they basically said, tough. The bottom shelf didn't have a 50% off label on it and the toy we picked wasn't in the offer. We can advertise how we like and the offer wasn't being advertised in an at all misleading way.

We'd take it back under their return policy (back of receipt), but we removed the label from the toy as we left the store so my daughter could play with it. And one of the conditions of return is it's unused and with all labels/packaging, etc.

shellsuit

I don't understand.

You already knew the 50% off signs and strips weren't on the bottom shelf, but you purchased a toy from the bottom shelf and are now complaining because it wasn't half price?

Sponge

It wasn't something we conciously picked up on at the time, due to the lack of any shelf labelling other than the 50% off ones. (No item prices.)

The bottom shelf housed toys that were on the higher shelves also and there may well have been a Pepper Pig on one of the higher shelves too.

There was no shelf edge label on the bottom shelf, at all. All items were individually ticketted, but at their pre-sale prices; so I regarded the whole display to be housing items that were in the 50% off promo and that they wouldn't have placed items not in the promo on the display.

I guess I'm being unreasonable.

skintchick

I don;t think you;re being unreasonable. But you took the tag off so you're on shaky ground now.

I once got a discounted duvet cover set because it had a sale sign literally sitting on top of it and then they tried to claim it was not part of the sale! I just insisted they honour their sign until they did.

It's harder now you have left the store and taken the tag off but I'd still write to head office and go back and take a pic of the display to send with it.

If nothing else it is deliberately misleading, which is disgusting. You could also mention that if you are not happy with Mothercare's response you will pass the issue on to Advertising Standards. I did that recently with something (I forgot what) and they caved.

I quite like complaining!

ThumbRemote

Mothercare do this a lot. Big signs on the top of shelves saying 25% or 50% off, no further information on the signs themselves, and then only a select number of items actually included. Sometimes the ones included in the sale have reduced stickers on, but these then sell out leaving nothing reduced. Or they sticker a few of the reduced item but not the entire stock of it, so you have no idea what is and isn't included.

Another example of a company trying to put short term sales ahead of long term customer loyalty.

skintchick

ThumbRemote wrote: »

Mothercare do this a lot. Big signs on the top of shelves saying 25% or 50% off, no further information on the signs themselves, and then only a select number of items actually included. Sometimes the ones included in the sale have reduced stickers on, but these then sell out leaving nothing reduced. Or they sticker a few of the reduced item but not the entire stock of it, so you have no idea what is and isn't included.

Another example of a company trying to put short term sales ahead of long term customer loyalty.

In which case I would definitely report to Trading Standards.

I don;t shop at Mothercare for a number of reasons; I'll add dishonest to the list!