Mothercare selling practices

little_bexly_2

Hiya,

I'm new to all of this but just after some advise.

On Friday we bought a pram from Mothercare, which we were told was normally only available online, but this one had been returned to the store as the original buyer found it wouldn't fit in her car. I was told by the sales assistant the pram would be £350 if we bought it online today, but this one was reduced by 10% and sold as "ex-display". It came with all the parts etc, but no box and would be non-returnable. We also wanted to buy the car seat & carrycot, but were told that again these were only available on their website. We bought the pram there, and when I got home I logged on to order the other bits, only to find that the pram was actually £350 less 15% on the mothercare website, reducing a brand new one to £297.50, not £350 as we had been told. £17.50 CHEAPER than we paid for the now non-returnable "ex-display" model.
Understandably I was a bit peeved about this and I wrote to their complaints department asking for the difference to be refunded, plus the additional 10% we had received for it being effectively second hand, or the option to return the pram to the store and purchase a new one at the lower advertised price, to which they very helpfully responded saying that it wasn't anything central office could help with and I'd have to speak to the branch manager, who told me there was nothing they could do and they wouldn't take the pram back as it was "sold as seen"

Does anyone know if I have any legal standing with at least getting the £17.50 difference back? Mothercare have a price match policy, so it seems absurd that they are basically refusing to match their own prices!

Thanks in advance for your help.

B

custardy

different price online for the same company is typical around the world
The RRP is as you were quoted
you chose to accept the price offered,so what changed?

bris

You have no legal right to the difference, any goodwill would have to come from the branch manager who is not going to do anything.

Pretty bad CS maybe see if you can escalate it higher up the chain, area manager perhaps, most retail outlets like this have area managers who look after a few stores.

MamaMoo_2

Email the CEO. I had an issue with a pram I bought about 14 months after purchase, and having had no luck with the CS people, I sent a polite email to the higher ups...
The lady I dealt with in the CEO's office was AMAZING and did far more than I could ever have expected.

RosiPossum

I used to work for Mothercare, and was never told to use selling techniques other than 'get the product into the customer's hand because they're more likely to buy'. I wasn't even comfortable with that!
It's very possible the sales person was not aware of the price difference online or made a genuine mistake. I don't think at shop level they would try to mess you around

unholyangel

bris wrote: »

You have no legal right to the difference, any goodwill would have to come from the branch manager who is not going to do anything.

Pretty bad CS maybe see if you can escalate it higher up the chain, area manager perhaps, most retail outlets like this have area managers who look after a few stores.

I disagree. Well....kind of. Dont think theres a right to the difference but I do think OP has a strong case for a refund.

Info you are told at the time of sale forms part of the contract. It would be covered under the CPR's as a misleading practice - which can be by providing false information or even by omission - as (imo anyway) the average consumer would be likely to make a different decision as a result.

If the manager did utter the phrase "sold as seen" then they are a moron as you cannot contract out of your rights as a consumer. You can only not return it for any defects which were brought to your attention at the time of sale.