A little over a month ago I bought a nice living room set. This store happens to use handwritten order slips/receipts. The sales guy who had been helping me at the store wrote out the order. I signed the order slip and payed by credit card. This week my furniture was delivered. The day after delivery I got an email from the guy saying that he had misquoted the price on one of the components of the set. He laid out the quoted price, what it should have been and the difference after taxes and delivery charge. The difference ends up being about $300. He closes the email with “I apologize for my error and the inconvenience to you, if there is a way to correct this, please let me know.”
What would you do? Would you call they guy and tell him to charge the difference to your card? Would you take the approach that a price was quoted and you paid it so you’re not paying any more?
The transaction is complete. I’d also do my future furniture shopping there to see if I can get further inadvertent discounts, and I would watch the accounting on the hand-written receipts very carefully.
Sounds like a scam. I’ve heard they do this with cars, too, to try to wring more money out of people. I personally would say, “Oh, no I didn’t want to pay that much, you better come pick up the furniture.” Even if it is a mistake, they probably prefer to take the loss rather than pick up the furniture (and lose the sale + commission.)
No. Even if it’s an honest mistake. Furniture sales being what they are, the salesman might lose his job, but $300 is real money. For my standpoint, there’s no “way to correct this.” You bought furniture at an agreed-upon price. Nothing needs to be corrected.
the difference is that with cars, there’s usually third-party financing involved. It’s called “spot delivery” or “yo-yo” financing.
“Often, if you are allowing the car dealer to handle the financing—which is a bad idea—the Finance manager will put together some bank papers for you to sign. After you leave, he will then try to get the deal approved at the bank. If for some reason he can not get the deal put together with the bank whose paperwork you signed, he then has to go to another bank. He will then have to get you back in to sign new paperwork.”
Happened to me with a car. I think it was an honest mistake, but I went back to the dealership, turned the car in, and picked up my old one. By the time I got home they had already left a message on my machine apologizing and confirming the original deal.
Add another that the deal is done and the store should basically consider itself SOL. Maybe next time the salesman will be more careful or the owner will come up with a better form or system.
I would not pay. I wouldn’t tell them to pick up the furniture either - it’s mine, fair and square. There are circumstances in which I would be willing to pay the difference, but a month after the contract was made, with no evidence that it is not a deliberate bait and switch? Not a chance.
If I paid what was on the receipt, and I received what was on the receipt, they’re out of luck.
I might be willing compromise and pay the difference if the receipt said 1800, but the cashier misread it as 1500. I don’t want to take advantage of anyone if I had information to know they were wrong, but it is ultimately their responsibility to set prices and collect payments.
Yeah, the store had a month to realize their mistake. They could have contacted the OP any time before the furniture was delivered and the OP could have cancelled the order. But the furniture has been paid for and delivered by now. The store should eat its mistake.
No way would I pay the $300 ! This was the store mistake and they have to take the lost if there was one , I agree this sound like a scam and you should keep a watch on your credit card . The store could try to take the money plus more. What is the name of this joint anyway ??
I had a somewhat similar experience when I was having a set of couch cushions reupholstered. Only difference is they claimed an error as I was picking them up.
I’d call them and tell them it was an amazing coincidence. I had just been going over my end of the month bills and I realized I had made an error in my household budget. I spent more money buying furniture than I should have. And the amazing coincidence was that it was the same amount. I paid three hundred dollars more for the furniture than I now realized I wanted to pay. I was just about to write them a letter asking them to give me back that three hundred dollars I now realized I didn’t want to pay them.
I’m sure they would accept my explanation that I had accidentally paid $300 more than I should have every bit as bit as much as I would take their explanation that I had accidentally paid $300 less than I should have. In which case, the two amounts would cancel out and we’d be even.
Nope. If that is what was written and agreed upon, and paid, it’s done. As a vendor, I’ve done this once or twice where I put in a discount worth $150-$300 that I didn’t mean to, confusing them with another customer, and I’d never even think of going back to my customer to say “whoops, sorry, that wasn’t meant for you.” That said, I have also once or twice overcharged the customer, and in that case, I did go back to correct my error, even though they had signed the contract and never said anything to me about it.
Both parties agreed to the deal as it was. However, if I want to piss them off I would tell them to come pick it up and refund my cc, I will be home between 2 and 3 this afternoon. You could also call the store manager, maybe he doesn’t know what is going on.
I voted “something else,” and this is it. I don’t want to rip them off, so, if they made a mistake, let’s reset back to the status quo ante. We’ll make it all never to have happened. (They, by God, have to do the transporting!)
I also might negotiate with them. “You realize, I could just tell you to go walk. But let’s talk. I’ll give you $150…and you give me $150 in store credit.” Let them make a counter-offer. The drop-dead position is, as above, they take the furniture back and give me a full refund on what I actually spent.