I’ve been wanting a new comforter for a while, and when a local department store was having a sale, my husband and I went shopping.
While he browsed in another section, I chose the comforter I wanted. From the chart on top of the shelf, I saw that the cost would be $89.99. I took the comforter to my husband, and told him to go pay for it while I went next door to another shop.
Later, in the car, he said that I should have gotten two comforters since they were such a great bargain. “Well,” I said, “Forty percent off is pretty good, but I didn’t want to spend that much.”
He gave me an odd look. “But it was only thirty dollars. The cashier asked me if that was the correct price, and I said that I thought you had gotten it off of the sale shelf, so she just went ahead and rang it up.”
When I got home and looked at the receipt, it said “Sheets” instead of “comforter” or “blanket.” I doubt if this store lumps all of its bedding under one category, so it had to have been a mistake.
I sort of feel bad about this. In no way did I intend to “rip off” the store. When I told my mother, she shrugged and said that it was their fault because it’s not like I switched the tags, or tried to decieve them. “Anyway,” she concluded, “What are you going to do? Go back and give them the difference?”
Well, honestly, probably not, but I still feel a little guilty about it. What do you guys think?
Go buy a comforter at the listed price. You’ll have two comforters and a clear conscience. And less money, but hey. Nice comforters.
On the other hand, you could argue, “That’s what they get for not using a bar code scanner.” Kicking and screaming will the foolish be dragged into the 21st century.
Lissa are we twins? I would have had that twinge of guilt also. However, the cashier rang it up and surely she knows what kind of merchandise the store sells. Who knows, maybe they were having a super secret you gotta be here right now sale at just the time you were in the store. Lucky you!
I wouldn’t worry about it. If it looked like the price was weird, the clerk should have checked, not just asked your husband. So it’s pretty much her fault. Sheer laziness. Enjoy the unexpected discount!
I’m one of those Abe Lincoln-ish people who would walk 5 miles to return an overpaid nickel in change. I see no problem with it at all. Snooze you lose. It’s either the store’s bad, or there was a discount you didn’t know about…
If you really can’t stop feeling guilty, I’d call and talk to the manager. It may very well have been a mistake, but he or she might just tell you not to worry about it–As in, the customer is always right.
A few weeks ago I was overcompensated while cashing a check, by a full eighty dollars. I wanted so badly to keep that money…I’ve been so broke…but guilt kept me up all night that night and back to the store I went in the morning. Good thing too. That cashier would have had to pay out of her own pocket on payday.
Of course that’s how it works with misticketed items though.
Why would her conscience be any clearer? She still did not purchase the first one at the right price. I’d say it depends on how flexible her conscience is–good she has one, I suppose. If it bothers her, she should go back to the store and get it cleared up. If it doesn’t, then she can party on. What WE think is irrelevant.
Forget feeling guilty about the comforter. Where’s the comfort in that? If you still need to feel guilty, you can feel badly about the fact your ancestors didn’t enslave mine a few hundred years ago.
I feel guilty about not writing something a bit more absurd than that. Dreadfully sorry, old chum. Oh, dear! Now I’ve called Lissa chopped fish guts. I’d better quit before it gets worse.
Call the manager, set out the situation, and ask. Is your honesty worth $50? I think the really honest thing to do would be to point this out to the store and let them make the call; if the cashier didn’t notice the label of ‘sheets’ instead of ‘comforter,’ she just made a simple mistake which the owner will have to pay for. The chances are (I think) about 50/50 that they will ask you to pay the full sale price; they may well decide to take the mistake upon themselves. Either way, it’s better to be upfront about it and know yourself to be an honest person.
I have the most actively nagging conscience of anyone I know, and I recently had a similar situation. I called the store and they told me that the item had been placed on clearance starting the next day…they had started updating the bar codes early. I felt better, they thought I was some sort of idiot, and I got my item on clearance instead of on sale. And I have to say, even though they couldn’t believe I was reporting the discrepancy, they seemed to think I was some kind of aberration…a NICE one. I probably made their day. From what I can gather, retail isn’t an area where you expect honesty. Now THAT is sad.
I would think that what happened to you was probably the same thing that happened to me. (Except for the idiot part, that is… )
Well, I would feel guilty and I think you should too–that is, I think that even if you’re not legally at fault for anything you’re morally responsible to reconcile the problem. (The guilt shouldn’t be for the mistake, but for not correcting it.) If the error were not in your favor, would you go back to the store? I’ll bet you would.
As honest as I am about certain things, honest mistakes like this in a big store do not twinge my conscience at all. It was not your fault and what the store ‘looses’ makes up for it in spades on other over priced items and people who are overcharged but do not catch it. ( I am pretty good about reading my receipts before I leave the store.)
Maybe that was the actual sale price & you were looking at the original retail price on that chart? I’ve had that happen a couple of times with different merchandise & gone back to the shelf & sure enough, I’d either looked at the wrong chart or missed a sign that said “take 40% off these prices!”
