Displayed price different to actual price

M

murph21

Guest
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?.
 
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...
 
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.
 
M&S in Dundrum display prices in GB£ only on many items. Is this legal? (I thought it wasn't)
 
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.
 
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!
 
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.
 
It is an offence under consumer law to have no or misleading price displays. But they are not bound to accept the displayed price.
 
Were all of the watches displayed at that price, or could someone have switched tags?
 
murph21 said:
My point was that by law I'm entitled to the watch at the displayed price.
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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.
 
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.

...

But if a shop makes an honest mistake - for example, a few labels are wrong and the marked price is lower than what the price should be - you don't have an automatic right to buy the goods at the marked price.
Click to expand...
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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