# Displayed price different to actual price



## murph21 (13 Dec 2007)

Last week I saw a watch I liked in Debenhams on display for €155, when I went to purchase it, it scanned on the till for €195, I had a debate with the sales assistant who eventually called the manager. My point was that by law I'm entitled to the watch at the displayed price. The manager said that it was human error and that if I wanted the watch I would have to pay €195 she also said that there was a law to this effect up until about two years ago but its is no longer there.
I didnt purchase the watch, 
Is she right?, 
If I'm right where/how do I go to make a complaint?.


----------



## 8till8 (13 Dec 2007)

The price ticket is considered an simply an indication and not a formal "offer", since you "offered" the retailer €155 and they declined, -- there is no agreement to purchase. Clearly you'd have to offer €195, they would "accept" and then you have a formal agreement.
Human errors occur all the time...


----------



## pinkyBear (13 Dec 2007)

I am not sure about that 8till8 - the consumer agencies are always tackling pubs for charging customers different prices than what is displayed.I would contact the national consumer agency http://www.consumerconnect.ie/eng/ - as I am sure that you are right OP that a retailer cannot display one price and charge another.


----------



## Purple (13 Dec 2007)

M&S in Dundrum display prices in GB£ only on many items. Is this legal? (I thought it wasn't)


----------



## jhegarty (13 Dec 2007)

pinkyBear said:


> I am not sure about that 8till8.



No , 8till8 is spot on. You could make a complaint for miss-pricing but if its a once off nothing will come of it....


----------



## roytheboyo (13 Dec 2007)

The displayed price is not an offer, but an invitation to treat, which means that the shop assistant MAY, (but is not bound to) accept your offer, if you are to offer what is on the price display.  The case with the overcharging of drink is a good one, technically there, the barperson assumes that the person handing in the €50 or whatever is offering the price the barman is charging, so if it came to it its a 'misunderstanding' - gouging.


----------



## Conshine (13 Dec 2007)

If I were in a shop and the label said 50c and was charged 60c at the till, I would certainly kick up some fuss- Never mind €40!


----------



## roytheboyo (13 Dec 2007)

By all means kick up a fuss if you want, but legally you dont have a leg to stand on.  The offer is made by the purchaser always, can be accepted or not.


----------



## MugsGame (13 Dec 2007)

It is an offence under consumer law to have no or misleading price displays. But they are not bound to accept the displayed price.


----------



## MrMan (13 Dec 2007)

Were all of the watches displayed at that price, or could someone have switched tags?


----------



## bacchus (13 Dec 2007)

murph21 said:


> My point was that by law I'm entitled to the watch at the displayed price.


 
Not sure....There was a post a while ago from Clubman (i let you find it in is 20billion posts!!) saying that the displayed  price was in fact only an invitation to trade at stated price.


----------



## ClubMan (13 Dec 2007)

ConsumerConnect - Prices



> _"Am I entitled to buy a product at the price shown on the price tag even if the till shows a higher price when I go to pay?"
> 
> _This may be a misleading price claim by the trader and this practice is prohibited by consumer legislation. The price displayed should include all taxes and other charges (delivery, postal, etc), if applicable, and should not mislead the consumer in any way. The National Consumer Agency has the power to prosecute offences in breach of this legislation. Other powers include the option to seek a formal undertaking from a seller that they will comply with the law and the ability to issue fixed-penalty fines "on-the-spot" where we find breaches of the price display requirements.
> 
> ...


----------



## murph21 (13 Dec 2007)

Thanks very much for all the inputs, its looks like I have no real options only to take it on the chin as it was an honest mistake as the other watches were priced correctly.


----------



## Maread (13 Dec 2007)

A few months ago in Dunnes grocery I was charged a higher price at the till to the price displayed under the item on the shelf.  When I queried it the sales assistant went down to check, said that the sign was meant for a different product, but then brought me over to the customer services desk for a refund of the difference.  This without me making any fuss.  She said "oh, we have to give it to you at that price" ie the lower price. 
This is probably just their policy though and not the law.  I'd imagine they have a different policy for more expensive items.


----------



## CCOVICH (13 Dec 2007)

Purple said:


> M&S in Dundrum display prices in GB£ only on many items. Is this legal? (I thought it wasn't)




Doesn't look like it-see this thread for previous discsussion, including an 'official' post from the National Consumer Agency.


----------



## Carpenter (13 Dec 2007)

I've often had reason to dispute incorrect pricing (price at till was higher than that on display) in the past and 9 times out of 10 the retailer has given me the item at the lower price, as a gesture of goodwill I suppose.  The amounts involved never amounted to more than a few euro though, still it's always worth querying I think.


----------



## ClubMan (13 Dec 2007)

Me - too. When this has happened to me I have queried the price and generally got the item at the shelf price. If I didn't then I'd probably forgo the purchase and complain to the manager.


----------



## ang1170 (14 Dec 2007)

If you think aout it, the only really workable situation is the current one. If they were obliged to accept whatever price was displayed, what's to stop people coming in and swapping labels etc.?

There's a bit of a grey line allright between "honest mistake" and "deliberatley misleading", but how would any other system work?

Obviously, most places interested in good customer relations (surprisingly few in practice) would probably accept the displayed price on something that was mislabelled, but they're not obliged to do so.


----------



## Killter (14 Dec 2007)

price is an "invitation to treat"-8till8 is right.


----------



## storm (18 Dec 2007)

invitation to treat is correct. _However the retailer must correct the error immediatly_. If they leave the error on display it can be seen as misleading advertising.


----------



## biggerry (20 Dec 2007)

I bought a box of Fox's biscuits in Dunnes (Leopardstown) tonight.  Advertised price was €4.99 and price charged at till was €5.99. I went to customer services and got €1 back.  I asked the girl if she was going to change either the advertised price or the price that's associated with the bar code - she said she would (didn't say what she was going to change though).  It made me wonder how many people bought these biscuits thinking they were being charged €4.99 when they actually paid €5.99.

Should a thread be started where people can give examples of where they were charged a different price at the till compared to what was displayed so other people can look out for these "mistakes"??


----------



## sam h (20 Dec 2007)

You were done!! Dunnes actually have a policy to refund the full amount of the product so she should have given you €5.99!! Tesco have the same policy. 

Most of the rest of the stores will just refund the difference. It's well worth checking reciepts every time. Superquinn are probably the worst (well our local store anyway) - have to head back to cust service, who has to call someone to check, assistance eventually writes out credit refund (of the difference) and then you are ment to go back to a till just to get your money back. It can take 15 mins! Put us off shopping there.


----------



## biggerry (20 Dec 2007)

Hi sam h,  are you sure this is Dunnes policy? Is this posted in their shops?  I had a look at their web site but couldn't see any mention of it.


----------



## Sylvester3 (20 Dec 2007)

sam h said:


> You were done!! Dunnes actually have a policy to refund the full amount of the product so she should have given you €5.99!! Tesco have the same policy.



The last time I had this happen, Tesco's only refunded the difference (an embarrassingly small amount for the time I spent in the queue waiting to complain). As I had received a full refund several times in the past I queried it and the manager told me that Tesco's had withdrawn the policy. I think she may have been lying, but I couldn't see the sign that states the policy in that particular store (I was in Bangor at the time) so it might be a store by store case rather than a general policy.


----------



## sam h (20 Dec 2007)

I heard an assistant in Dunnes tell someone just last Saturday that she could refund the difference, but if the customer went to the cust service desk they would refund the full amount....so I assume it is still in place. 

Got a full refund from Tesco about a month ago. Maybe up North is different or maybe they changed the policy....I hope not as I find stores that have this policy then to be more accurate with their pricing.


----------



## gipimann (20 Dec 2007)

I was interested to see a sign in my local Xtravision yesterday explaining that the prices displayed were an "invitation to treat" and that staff should advise the customer if the till price was different before completing the purchase (to allow the customer to withdraw from the sale).   

As for non-matching shelf and till prices, in my experience, the worst offender is SuperValu (several branches).  I recall querying prices for items in my weekly shopping for 5 weeks in a row.   As recently as Monday, a work colleague was overcharged when buying chocolates (advertised as 2 for €9, was charged 2 x €6.79) in our local SV.   She was refunded €6.79 by the way!


----------



## bond-007 (22 Mar 2008)

I do notice that alot of products in my local Dunnes do not scan at the checkout which results in the farcical situation of the the operator leaving her till and going off to find a similarly priced item to scan instead. 

In tesco you would get the item free at this point. Is what Dunnes are doing right or proper? Also you get glaring looks form all the people queueing behind you.


----------



## Marathon Man (25 Mar 2008)

I bought two clothing items in Debenhams yesterday. One was marked £10 and €15, while the other was marked £20 only - no Euro price. The total at the till came to €63 euro. 

As the items were needed, more or less, immediately (for someone going into hospital), I bought them but told the cashier to tell management that items must be marked in Euro, that their Sterling-Euro conversion is very, very poor and, finally, that this was the first and last time I would be shopping in Debemhams.

Todays Sterling conversion rate is 0.7802. Debenhams rate on the £10 item was 0.6667, while the conversion rate on the second item was 0.6349. 

Based on today's rate, the £10 item would be priced €12.82, instead of €15, while the £20 item would be €24.94, instead of €31.50. 
I reckon that either Debenhams customers in Ireland are being massively overcharged, or else we are subsidising UK customers.

"Quick fix" sterling conversions of adding 50% are easy for the retailer - don't have to be a rocket scientist to work it out. However, "Mr. Debenham", please note that you have lost this customer, who feels that he has been grossly overcharged.


----------



## lightup (25 Mar 2008)

Marathon Man said:


> .
> 
> "Quick fix" sterling conversions of adding 50% are easy for the retailer - don't have to be a rocket scientist to work it out. However, "Mr. Debenham", please note that you have lost this customer, who feels that he has been grossly overcharged.


 
It is not just a straight Sterling to Euro conversation.  The retailer's operating cost may be (and often are) higher in Ireland than the UK and so this is also taken into account on the Euro price.

If you feel this is not justified maybe write to 'Mr Debenham' directly?


----------



## Towger (25 Mar 2008)

lightup said:


> It is not just a straight Sterling to Euro conversation. The retailer's operating cost may be (and often are) higher in Ireland than the UK and so this is also taken into account on the Euro price.


 
That is a copout excuse. I had a go at the staff of Maplins over the very same issue and they have that excuse, but could not answer he when I pointed out that they charged the 'Main Land' STG price in Northern Ireland and it was even futher a way from their main distribution center and the post of doing business in London was far greater than Dublin.


----------



## mathepac (25 Mar 2008)

Regarding Sterling / Euro conversions, remember that in some cases (electronics, CD, DVD, car-parts, furnishings, etc) the Sterling price displayed or advertised already includes UK VAT @ 17.5%. To do a meaningful conversion to Euro, reduce UK price by 17.5%, convert result to Euro and add 21% Irish VAT to that.

For an eye-opener, look at the dual-priced labels on Dunne's stores items.

OT, but background - At the moment I am compiling a price comparison of OE automotive service parts in the UK and Ireland and the results so far are astoundingly bad for the Irish motoring public, north or south of the border.


----------



## Marathon Man (25 Mar 2008)

lightup said:


> It is not just a straight Sterling to Euro conversation. The retailer's operating cost may be (and often are) higher in Ireland than the UK and so this is also taken into account on the Euro price.
> 
> If you feel this is not justified maybe write to 'Mr Debenham' directly?


 
I have emailed 'Mr.Debenham' - I can't find a complaints section on their website and a search using their own site search doesn't show up anything close to it either.

I know it's not a straightforward conversion, but when an item marked £10 is also marked €15, it IS, more than likely, a quick-fix. Converting the £10 item from 17.5% to 21% VAT brings the price to £10.30. Converting it to euro at the current rate (0.7801) brings this to €13.20. The super-normal profit earned is, €1.80 (13.64%) ON TOP of their normal profit. 

Bottom line for me is that I reckon I paid 'over the odds' for these items. It is clear to me that Debenhams is benefitting from an appreciating Euro and appears not to have passed this on to the Irish consumer. I won't buy from Debenhams again. Full stop! 

Regarding excess overhead in Ireland, that was not apparent a year ago when the Euro traded at approx. the 0.68 mark, and had done so for quite some time. If the overheads were built in at that stage, either they are now out of control or the consumer is losing out on exchange rate benefits. 

I used to buy a fair bit from the same store before Debenhams took over the premises.


----------



## batty (26 Mar 2008)

Marathon Man said:


> I know it's not a straightforward conversion, but when an item marked £10 is also marked €15, it IS, more than likely, a quick-fix. Converting the £10 item from 17.5% to 21% VAT brings the price to £10.30. Converting it to euro at the current rate (0.7801) brings this to €13.20. The super-normal profit earned is, €1.80 (13.64%) ON TOP of their normal profit.
> 
> Bottom line for me is that I reckon I paid 'over the odds' for these items. It is clear to me that Debenhams is benefitting from an appreciating Euro and appears not to have passed this on to the Irish consumer. I won't buy from Debenhams again. Full stop!
> 
> ...


 
That's why i buy from many UK retailers websites e.g. Monsoon, Karen Millen,  even with adding on P&P items are still mostly 30% chepaer buying this way.


----------



## Marathon Man (26 Mar 2008)

batty said:


> That's why i buy from many UK retailers websites e.g. Monsoon, Karen Millen,  even with adding on P&P items are still mostly 30% chepaer buying this way.


In the context of the present focus of this thread, that's not comparing like with like.  

I also regularly buy online from Ireland/UK/continent/States - whereever is cheaper.  I too find that most of the purchases I make on line are in the range of 30-50% cheaper for high value items, along with books & music.  The type of items I bought in Debenhams are commodity items and you won't get such a discount online on them...except maybe versus Debenhams. 

On Monday, I had to buy some items for someone, on an urgent basis, from a retail store and the point I made was that the store in question is making super-normal profits, largely on the basis of exchange rate movements.  the general word on the streets is that Debenhams is not doing well.  I, for one, am not surprised.  They'll get away with this only for so long.

To date, I haven't had a reply to my email from 'Mr. Debenham' 

Finally I've just done an online search and sourced (in Ireland) the 31.50 Euro item for 22 Euro, inc delivery


----------

