A bit of a shock!

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Mar 14, 2005
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It’s different in Germany. A year or two ago a chain store advertised a special offer on a refrigerator “for peanuts”. A customer produced a bag of peanuts and asked for the fridge. The store refused on the grounds that the offer was never meant to be taken literally. The customer took them to court and won.
How many peanuts? Just two?
 
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Jun 16, 2020
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I recently purchased a large post in B&Q, £10 was shown on the racking. £24 at the till.

They did a quick check and could see I was correct, no problem £10 charged.

John
 
Jul 18, 2017
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I recently purchased a large post in B&Q, £10 was shown on the racking. £24 at the till.

They did a quick check and could see I was correct, no problem £10 charged.

John
Tesco are very good like that also and the person on the till presses a button which starts a flashing light and a supervisor comes over to resolve the issue.
 

Sam Vimes

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Sep 7, 2020
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Tesco are very good like that also and the person on the till presses a button which starts a flashing light and a supervisor comes over to resolve the issue.
There was a time when we thought that machines would work for us...robots etc. Now it looks like that when things go wrong the machines summon us and we do the work 🙄
 
Jun 6, 2006
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A guy I used to work with saw an offer on salmon in Sainsburys many years ago, he looked and thought that can’t be right, wandered off, then came back for another look, he picked up several packs.
Got to the till and they came up full price, so he pointed out there was an offer on them, a supervisor went to have a look at the offer, they came back with the offer and said he was entitled to the offer as thats what the advertised offer was. After the offer was applied they owed him money, only pence but it came off his bill.
 
Nov 16, 2015
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I done something similar, spotted a good deal, on salmon fillets, so bought 6, got to the till and it was 4 times the price I was expecting, I queried the price, and it was myself that had got it wrong, it was the price per 100grams not per fillet. Still very nice BBQ, with a mustard sauce.
 
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Jun 9, 2023
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As we needed to go by our caravan this morning we decided to do our shopping at Morrisons to pick up a few things not in our delivery. While wandering around the store we spotted a box of 240 Yorkshire tea bags for £4. Great we thought and added it to our trolley.

Anyway finished getting what we needed and went to the till. Imagine our surprised when the box of tea bags went through at £8.25. https://groceries.morrisons.com/products/taylors-of-harrogate-yorkshire-tea-240-tea-bags-113687011 I said to the person on the till that the price should be £4. I was given short shift and told if I have an issue I must go find a supervisor. I said to the person that it is for them to call the supervisor and not for us to hunt around for one. The person basically said if we don't want to pay the price we can take it off our shopping list.

At that point I was ready to abandoned all our shopping and walk out, but SWMBO insisted that we pay which I did and left. I guess we will not be shopping at Morrisons again unless really desperate! Not sure if this should be reported to TS?

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Legally, they have to sell at the advertised price. Morrisons are really bad for this. I've threatened to report my local store to trading standards several times. Funnily enough, I always win the argument. 😂
 
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Jun 20, 2005
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That may be correct, but Trading Standards can do them for false advertising plus the bad press.
Therein lies the problem.

Is an error, mistake ,false advertising ?

Imo not if the displayed price is a mistake. The price card displayed is not a contract.
It is an "invitation to the customer to make an offer to purchase . The Retailer doesn't have to accept that offer.
A contract is only formed when the shop accepts a payment, after which it can't make you repay any difference between the real and the advertised price.

Deliberately misleading or inaccurate advertising is punishable under Law. And now we turn to the Trading Standards as suggested.

TS will use the information you give them and may investigate any unfair trading or illegal business activities. They will not help you personally nor will they get you a refund but as you say they can do them for false advertising and give bad press.
I doubt very much the TS will take any action for erroneous price signs unless there is an orchestrated fraudulent campaign by the seller to cheat us mere mortals.
 
Jun 16, 2020
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An advertised price is NOT legally an offer, although it is very often stated as such which leads to confusion.

The advertised price is simply an INVITATION for offers.

In legal terms, it is not until the buyer says they will pay that the offer is made. So, it is the BUYER that actually makes the offer.

Example:

Advertisement is an invitation to purchase for £100.

Buyer offers £90. (This is the begining of a contract).

Sellar accepts, The contract is formed, so long as there is:

Capacity. (Buyer is of age and mental ability).

Consideration. (payment in cash or kind).

Most sellers will accept an offer for the advertised price, even if the advert is a mistake. But they do not have to.

This is from a legal study sight for students. (Even this is incorrect, sadly).

This is the correct interpretation of contract law in this respect. (It also agrees with what I did at college).



John
 
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Jul 18, 2017
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You are correct with your analysis and not arguing about it. I can understand mistakes, but in our cases the small label was at floor level making it very difficult to read an d secondly there was another sign in the middle of the shelf and on the 4 shelves a huge "£4" sign.

Definitely misleading in our case and not the first or second time we have come across this at the Morrisons we use. Also that Morrisons make it very difficult to complain to a supervisor as they cannot be found as the customer desk has been removed which is why from our perspective we think that they are deliberately misleading consumers.

Just to add if you are lucky enough to find a supervisor to complain they quickly reduce the price to the advertised price. I wonder how many pensioners and other consumers are caught out by this shady practice?
 
Nov 6, 2005
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I think it would be very difficult to prove in court that 99.9% of pricing anomalies are anything other than a genuine error.

In the case of Morrisons we regularly take pricing errors to the cigarette/lottery counter in the foyer as they dealt with customer service issues nowadays - so it's not a big issue IMO.
 
Jul 18, 2017
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I think it would be very difficult to prove in court that 99.9% of pricing anomalies are anything other than a genuine error.

In the case of Morrisons we regularly take pricing errors to the cigarette/lottery counter in the foyer as they dealt with customer service issues nowadays - so it's not a big issue IMO.
Although a big store if you go to the cigarette counter after standing in a long queue, you are told that they will call someone which is fair enough, but then you wait and wait before someone eventually appears. Then they wander off to check your story and come back and give you the refund. A lot simple to tell them to stick it and then shop elsewhere. Much better customer service at Sainsburys and Tesco.
 
Nov 6, 2005
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Although a big store if you go to the cigarette counter after standing in a long queue, you are told that they will call someone which is fair enough, but then you wait and wait before someone eventually appears. Then they wander off to check your story and come back and give you the refund. A lot simple to tell them to stick it and then shop elsewhere. Much better customer service at Sainsburys and Tesco.
I've not noticed Tescos any better than Morrisons - although every store at each brand will be different.
 
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Jun 20, 2005
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The real issue I have with the labels is the ”Special Offer” £2.00 off.
But it doesn’t show the price £ per 100 grams. often the smaller packets are better value!

Recently I’ve noticed more self service checkouts which makes it harder than ever to find a member of staff. They all seem to be on a tea break🤪
 
Aug 24, 2021
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The real issue I have with the labels is the ”Special Offer” £2.00 off.
But it doesn’t show the price £ per 100 grams. often the smaller packets are better value!

Recently I’ve noticed more self service checkouts which makes it harder than ever to find a member of staff. They all seem to be on a tea break🤪
Beware as well the 'bargain' offers on shelf end displays. Almost always a different size can be found elsewher in the store at a significantly lower price.
 
Nov 11, 2009
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The real issue I have with the labels is the ”Special Offer” £2.00 off.
But it doesn’t show the price £ per 100 grams. often the smaller packets are better value!

Recently I’ve noticed more self service checkouts which makes it harder than ever to find a member of staff. They all seem to be on a tea break🤪
Our two relatively new Lidls are removing the self service outlets to give a better customer experience. My wife stood in a checkout queue for 15 minutes yesterday when normally for a small shop she would use self service. The real reason the self service are being removed isn’t anything to do with enhancing customer experience. It’s because of the sproats who think walking out without paying is the norm. Earlier this year both Lidls placed restrictions on the number of school pupils allowed in at any one time. Same reason……..shoplifting.
 

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