The other day a customer wanted to purchase an item that had been priced incorrectly. The question came up about consumer laws and whether the customer had any legal right to demand we sell it as marked.
My understanding is that there are laws against false advertising and the bait and switch practice. If you put adds in the media they cannot willfully misrepresent the item. Even them misprints and mistakes occur and if that happens you must put up correction notices in the store.
If something is marked incorrectly most companies have a policy or guidelines in dealing with it. If it’s a fairly minor difference then many stores will sell it as marked as good customer service. This has led many consumers to believe that there is some consumer law stating so or it falls under false advertising.
So what say you Dopers? What is the law concerning pricing within the store? What are your experiences?
A store can always refuse to sell an item to anyone (as long as it isn’t for a prohibited reason, like refusing to sell to a class of people based on race, religion, gender, etc.). So the store can simply refuse to complete the sale.
Otherwise the crooked price-tag-switcher customers would be able to get away with their scam anytime they wanted.
I’m sure a real attorney will come along soon as prove how much I’ve forgotten / never knew since my one class in law back years ago.
The attorney teaching the class beat into our heads the conditions of a contract, one of which that there had to be an offer and an acceptance. If you offer to sell me your car for $3,000, and I accept, then we clear this condition.
IIRC, he explained that the price tag is an invitation by the store for people to make an offer at that price. The price tag itself is not the offer. Hence, if there is a mistake on the price tag, if you want to purchase the product at the written price, the store is not forced to accept your offer.
I’m sure someone will come along soon who can give the complete story.
Consumer protection laws vary among states, and even among municipalities. It is therefore possible that your state or city might have an ironclad law saying that a merchant must always sell for the price marked, no matter what the circumstances.
Odds are, it doesn’t, though.
Although my state (Illinois) has various consumer protection statutes, I’m not aware of any provision that specifically deals with mismarked prices. That said, if the merchant is shown to intentionally mismark prices, or there are systematic errors that the merchant makes no effort to correct, there are a couple more general statutory provisions that this might fit under.
Isolated occurences as a result of mistake that are quickly corrected, though? I’d be very surprised if any judge (or attorney general) would support a costumer claim.
Note: there is a somewhat unusual Chicago ordinance that deals with price scanner technology, and delegates quite a bit of authority to a city consumer protection agency. I’m not current on that agency’s regulations, but at one time, that agency would hassle shops that didn’t mark individual prices on goods, and made scanner price mistakes. That’s not exactly what the OP asked about, so I’ll say no more.
Usual Disclaimer. This is general information and not reliable legal advice. I’m not your attorney and you are not my client. If you are faced with this situation in real life, see an attorney licensed in your state for a more thorough analysis.
costumer? Sheesh.
Despite the date, this was not a Hallowe’en specific reference. I meant to say either customer (or maybe consumer), and screwed it up.
Exactly! I’ve seen a manager get so exasperated with a customer that he caved and sold the item at a greatly reduced price. What a wussie.
I certainly understand customers being disappointed and even a little upset but there seems to be a widespread misunderstanding among those who don’t switch tags themselves. Many really believe that if they find something mispriced the store is somehow obligated to sell it at that price. They cry false advertising or something. Then there’s the few who believe if they throw a hissy fit in the store they’ll get what they want and they don’t mind doing it. It’s like some childish game. Then managers like the one I mentioned reinforce that belief.
What makes some sense is that if it’s a minor difference and obviously the stores fault you might give them the price break as good customer relations. I suppose that reinforces the belief to. You’d be surprised how people will argue over a few dollars. One young man insisted that I had to sell a CD that had been misplaced and put in a discount bin with an older CD by the same band.
“You HAVE to sell it to me for that price that’s where I found it”
“Um …no I don’t. It’s obviously not the same album title listed on the discount tag”
“Yeah but I didn’t notice that before”
“I realize that , but you do see it now don’t you?”
“Well, it’s not my fault it was in the wrong place”
“I know that…but that doesn’t mean we have to sell it at that price”
“I need to speak to a manager”
“Will one more no make you feel better?”