What do you think of this con

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

I think Trading Standards require the marked price to be honoured even if wrong I got some welding rods half price that way at Halfords. I often call it out at supermarkets that don't remove the '2 for 1' type labels when they restack. Recently Costco have had a sneaky surcharge on a box of crisps for mixed flavours which is not on the shelf label set for the single flavour box which they do not stock.

I sometimes think I might enjoy a post retirement part time job with Trading Standards but I think there are people who are way more observant and finicky than me.

[Michael HornerParticipant @michaelhorner54327]

Do shops have to honor pricing mistakes?

The shop may agree to honour the lower price, but they are not obliged to. If the mistake is noticed when you go to pay for the item, the seller has the right to refuse to take the wrongly advertised sum and withdraw the product from sale until they have remedied the error.

Pulled this from the tinternet, don't know how true it is. USA may have different laws.

HTH

Cheers Michael.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Bazyle on 22/09/2021 13:15:44:

I think Trading Standards require the marked price to be honoured even if wrong …

Not my understanding at all, though lots of people believe it. For a contract to be binding there has to be an 'offer' and an 'acceptance' by both purchaser and seller. How would you feel about a legal obligation to honour offer prices if your house was accidentally advertised with a zero missing off the end?

When a customer offers to pay at the till, the store has no obligation to accept. Stores can and do turn away customers away who appear to be underage, drunk, mentally ill, or are not legally entitled to buy the item.

To avoid being accused of conning customers, many UK stores do honour mistaken asking prices. It's voluntary though – they don't want to upset customers! In Old Mart's case I'm sure BrianG is right: it's illegal in the UK to sell alcohol for less than the duty + VAT price.

Mistakes can cause tricky problems. On a Contract Law course years ago we were told about this example. A Scrap Dealer bought a large number of wooden Stirling submachine gun boxes at a Government Surplus auction. At his warehouse he discovered about 20% of the boxes contained brand-new submachine guns. These he offered to sell back to the government at market rate. Ended up in court. The scrappy's position was he'd bought the boxes legally at an auction, the contract was fulfilled, and he was therefore entitled to sell whatever the boxes contained. The Army said the scrappy couldn't own or sell sub-machine guns because he wasn't a licensed Arms Dealer: therefore he should give them back before they threw the book at him. Scrappy pointed out it was illegal for the government to sell the guns to him in the first place. A right mess! Unfortunately I was sent home due to illness and never found out how it ended, but due to a mistake both parties had broken the law expensively.

Ought to explain for the benefit of US friends that possession of just one automatic weapon in the UK is a serious matter. British subjects have no constitutional right to bear arms which makes it much harder for our nutters to organise mass-shootings. And taking a hard line on the private ownership of firearms hasn't undermined democracy.

Dave

[Harry WilkesParticipant @harrywilkes58467]

Had similar problem but fortunately I had not paid so told them to keep it and walked away

H

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

What a can of worms I stirred up. I would like to point out to Bazyle that the 38 cans and bottles of beer that I bought represent over one months consumption. If everybody drank the same as me there would be no more arrests for drunk and disorderly ar any need for a drink driving law. I was told by the supervisor that she understood my complaint, but that the store manager was able to put his own interpretation on the voucher and it had happened more than once. I rather wish I had taken advantage of her offer to call the manager, just to take up more than £6 of his valuble time. Circlip knows what I'm on about, looking at his own voucher.

I will be taking my buisiness elswhere. Living in the edge of a town, I can choose the following all within a 3 mile radius: Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys, Lidl, Aldi, Waitrose, Marks and Spencer and CO-OP, so there's plenty of competition.

[Anonymous]

I agree the wording is deceptive.

That said, alcohol, cigarettes etc are commonly excluded from special offers simply because so much of the price of those items are taxes (of one persuasion or another). The store just takes the money and passes it straight through.

The store could, of course, allow a percentage of the price to count towards special offers but I'm sure the taxing authority would discourage that. After all, it wouldn't do to let the customer know just how much of the price is burnt up in taxes. Be unsettling for the masses.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

All in all, a good reason not to fall for any of the supermarkets' tricks like "special offers" and "loyalty cards"! I am probably the sort their advertising-departments fear: more literate than them, and often spotting what they have not written behind the slogans.

Alcohol and tobacco prices don't worry me because I buy very few drinks and then very rarely, in any shops; and never buy tobacco.

Even so I do try to be the Emptor who Caveats. (You are right – I am less literate in Latin.) A lot of my food-shopping is anyway ad-hoc, from independents and the smaller franchise chains; and these don't usually use trickery.

[CirclipParticipant @circlip]

Don't understand why the terms "Not available for ALCOHOL ONLY BASKETS" causes confusion to even MANAGERS?

Wording should be "Voucher will be honoured at OUR total discretion for reasons we dictate that you don't need to know but our word if final!"

 And don't be conned by the "Two for" and "Three for" prices, check the price labels on the front of the shelves for "Price per 100g" Recent purchase from "Uncle Kens" local emporium (and equally applies to other giants) would have been three boxes of minced steak for £10 BUT this week was minced BEEF so I thought nexr week will be steak, so wait. Went round display corner and boxes of minced STEAK was £2.59 per box. Similarly,  £7.40 box of "Lindors" is cheaper piece part price than Three for £10. I DID go to specksavers, also attended Skool the day they did Maffs.

Regards Ian.

Edited By Circlip on 28/09/2021 12:24:18

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Our local supermarket prices bags of onions etc as per kg, but loose items as each, and as there are no scales you can't compare. I think SWMBO would blow a gasket if I took my own weighing apparatus. Also watch out for giant boxes of washing powder being more expensive pro rata than small.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Just returning to show the Conditions on the back of our latest Waitrose vouchers:

These each give £18 off a spend of £90 and the Terms and Conditions are stated very clearly

.

.

So come on, Morrisons …

Stop using Weasel Words, and pale green ink : Just tell it straight.

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 04/11/2021 20:29:51

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Concurrent with that voucher, they have an in-store offer of 25% off six bottles of wine

The resulting bill for my shopping this afternoon was :

.

and, as you will deduce, I paid the grand total of £80.43 for that.

MichaelG.

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

The following is tongue in cheek:

I see we have wealthy forum members. I was arguing with my daughter about her 'waitrosing' while constantly complaining about money. Evidently model engineers have refined palates which may explain my lack of ability at this hobby
I'm cheap enough that I cross-check prices on regular commodities and shop accordingly. Example: last time I checked bread flour was 59p at Aldi and Lidl and £1 at Waitrose. On the occasions I buy butter then it again comes down to price and the butterfat percentage – frustrated you can't buy professional butter in supermarkets and that would mean 10Kg mail-order which would be the only time I’d buy a French butter and then specifically from Normandy. I’m also one of those annoying people who checks countries of origin and avoids produce from those I dislike or long-distance airlifts.
OH just goes and buys whatever she fancies without looking at the price…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkkKZWeoCWA

It is correct that a retailer can refuse to sell a mispriced item. Most will have E&OE (errors and omissions excepted) somewhere in their terms.

pgk

[roy entwistleParticipant @royentwistle24699]

I remember one of our local supermarkets offering 30p bottles of mineral water at 3 for £1

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

At one point Tescos 3 for a reduced figure could not due to the computers be removed so that if you were lucky and found 3 of said item on the marked down shelf, you got the reduction, they ACTUALLY PAID YOU TO TAKE IT AWAY ! The check out girl called for help and the manager just told her to let it go ! then there was the slip up where they took the VAT off the full price that resulted in low energy bulbs being about 11P

Several female friends think it's quite funny to send me shopping, no telling what I'll come home with – but it won't have cost much !

Noel.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by pgk pgk on 04/11/2021 21:34:10:

The following is tongue in cheek:

[…]

.

Just to be clear, pgk …

My post wasn’t about the affordability of shopping at Waitrose, or about the price of a block of decent butter … it was just a demonstration that Waitrose both clearly states its Terms and Conditions, and honours them.

… Morrisons, it would appear, does neither.

MichaelG.
.

P.S. __ fired-up by the savings made at Waitrose, I then bought Qty.4 600g boxes of Nestlé Cheerios at Morrisons [on offer at £1.99 per box] , and then popped into Aldi for some very reasonably priced loaves of bread.

[File HandleParticipant @filehandle]

I remember years ago seeing someone outside a Tescos giving away bananas. vague recollection now but they had put on offer on their card points that meant that they were paying you to buy them. I did wonder if someone was sacked over it.
I must admit to cross checking prices, sometimes multibuys are more expensive and smaller sizes can be cheaper..

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

The price on an object is merely an "invitation to treat", if the price is wrong, the seller does nt have to let it go at that price.

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Posted by roy entwistle on 04/11/2021 22:23:15:

I remember one of our local supermarkets offering 30p bottles of mineral water at 3 for £1

When I used to sell raffle tickets at work they were 20p each or 4 for £1. Lots of people didn't notice, doesn't say much for numeracy

[Tim StevensParticipant @timstevens64731]

Don't forget that different rules apply in different countries. The whole basis of the law itself varies from country to country, and it may even change from US state to US state. And even from England to Scotland – eg in house purchase deals.

Cheers, Tim

[CirclipParticipant @circlip]

So the big M is now to be taken over by the country that owns the other big M I wonder which rules will apply if (when) their US imports hit the shelves? Since the American owners screwed the big four with their insistence on the shelf prices permitted for a "Bitter" soft drink product, Can't understand Uncle Joe's "No special trade deals with the UK post Brexit" attitude, they seem to be buying big lumps of Britain. Beware Chlorinated chicken, no doubt the big M will get some. Strangely enough, they've just had a smacking for "Non EU salt and pepper" dressings on same product.

Regards Ian

PS. Big box Lindors down to £6 this week.

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