Displayed price different to actual price

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"??
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
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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 As I had received a full refund several times in the past I queried it and the manager told me that Tesco's had withdrawn the policy.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.
 
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.
 
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!
 
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.
 
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.
 
Marathon Man said:
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"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.
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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?
 
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.
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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.
 
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.
 
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?
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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.
 
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!

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.
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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.
 
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.
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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
 
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