the right price

[ken c]

what is the legal standing when an item is labeled at a price but when at the check out it scans at a higher one, what is the correct one, could i have insisted on the lower one

[LeMarchand]

If the goods were labelled at the lower price (or displayed as at a lower price), yes you could have insisted on the lower price. It might be difficult to go back now and claim the difference, as they have probably altered the shelf price!

[Caladon]

by law you pay the price the item is displayed at. not what comes up on the cash machine. last week i was in a queue for the deli and a woman wanted a kilo of some cheese and the print out came at a different price, as this cheese has a %50 sign on it. the attendant said "woops sorry that should have been taken off" and proceeded to remove it from the display. well the lady went ballistic and i piped up, stood on my soap box, and told the attendant that that was what the sign said so that is what the woman pays

[smorodina]

If you kick up enough fuss in many stores you will probably get your way but, in fact, the display of a price is generally regarded as an invitation to treat and there is no obligation on the store to sell at the price displayed or even to sell the item to you at all if they choose not to. By attempting to purchase an item, the customer is making an offer and only after accepting this is the store legally obliged, by the contract then entered into, to sell the item at the agreed price. It's good customer relations for many stores to sell items at the price displayed when there is an error, but if the price discrepancy was large they would probablyprefer not to. After all, it is very easy to exchange price tickets in a lot of stores...

[LeMarchand]

smorodina is right in saying that the store doesn't have to sell you anything, and highlights the possible problem of price-swapping (when the store does not have to sell the goods at the lower price). However, I'm pretty sure that Trading Standards would have something to say if (to take things to a ridiculous extreme) a store advertised all it's goods as 50% off, but only gave a 10% discount at point of sale, claiming the signs were out of date. What were the circumstances surrounding your purchase?

[Greedyfly]

If the company 'feeds' off of customer satidfaction then they should charge you the price that is displayed. Where I work, wrong pricing happens fairly regulary but it is due to our stockroom there for we always charge at the price displayed. Its just right.

[BenDToy]

A well known supermarket (Tesco) seems to have the policy that you get the item free if the item is wrongly priced. I guess it is not easy to change prices in Tesco because the shelf has the price and item description. They do get it wrong a lot though.

[Bert]

There is a bit of legislation, Part III of the Consumer Protection Act 1987 which makes it an offence to give a misleading price indication. However, if accused of the offence, the defendant has a defence if he can show that the offence was caused by a mistake by another person (e.g. a member of staff) and that he took all reasonable precautions and exercised due diligence to prevent the occurrence of the offence. In practice, this means that it would generally be very difficult to successfully prosecute a respectable company for an isolated genuine mistake. What other correspondents have said is absolutely correct, the shop does not have to sell you anything, but as soon as they ofdfer you the goods at the higher price they run the risk of committing the above offence. Note that there is no requirement to take the goods off sale for 24 hours (as some people seem to think) before putting them back on the shelf at the correct price.

[dinoboxer]

Sorry to disappoint everyone but the legal answer to the question is this. If an item is on sale at say �4 and when scanned at a till it scans at �5 it is the scan at the till that is correct. There is no legal requirement on the part of the shop to lower the price to �4 just because it say so on the shelf. However some shops (not all) will do the decent thing and rather than cause a fuss let it go at �4. Yes ther is legislation to prosecute shops who consistently do this type of thing but if the shop can show it was a genuine mistake so be it. Remember this:- the price on any goods is only "an invitation to buy" legally the shop can charge more, conversley you the buyer can offer less, so even if an item is shown at �4 you can legaly suggest to the shop that you will pay �3 for the item, it is then up to the shop to accept or decline your offer.............Tou CANNOT insist on purchasing the goods at the shelf price