[Closed] The Price on theshelf is not the price at the checkout

Firstly, it's 'an invite to buy', so the retailer can refuse to sell you anything I believe.

However, if the item is advertised, and it's clearly not a mistake (i.e PS5 for 50p is a CLEAR error), then I think they either have to sell at reduced/marked price, or remove item from sale..

DrP

You have no rights they can just simply refuse.

Would you argue it the other way round?

See Invitation to Treat. If the price is unreasonably low and clearly a mistake, there is no compulsion to honour it. Get your legal arguments on "unreasonable" and "clearly a mistake" ready...

If I remember correctly, back in the mists of time when I studied Business Studies at college, the price on the shelf was simply "an invitation to treat" or in other words a suggested price at which to open negotiations. It doesn't represent a offer so isn't contractual and you have no right to buy at that price if the vendor decides to change their mind.

Most supermarkets do honour a lower shelf price but it's frustrating when the first you know about being charge more is when you spot it on your receipt later.

However, there have been concerns raised that some supermarkets have deliberately left special offer tickets in place after the offers have ended, hoping that folk won't spot the higher price at the till.

There have been a few occasions when I've been shopping where things turn out cheaper at the check out which is always a nice surprise.

-- Edit --

Beaten to an invitation to treat.

Nothing is worse than Innerliethen Co-op. Their meal deal is a pain in the hoop. Whatever you pick, when you get to the till one of the items you have is not included in the meal deal, even when it's on a shelf emblazoned with the bloody offer.

But no, you have no legal right to incorrectly priced items.

'ah, yes, you see sir you've picked up the 340g tin of tuna where clearly the inch square label 36 feet along the shelf in the other aisle states the special offer relates to the 360g tin of tuna'

Where does the 'invitation to treat' stand with something like a menu, night in a hotel, car parking where the service or goods have already been consumed when it time to pay?

I had a altercation with a carpark (in Sheffield I think) that had a large banner on the top saying 'all day parking for £5' but discovering on exit that the 'day' in 'all day' wasn't 'today'. They did actually climb down quite readily - I guess the alternative is a hostage situation.

But if you're charged more that the advertised price for a haircut - because 'the vendor has changed their mind' if you don't have the right to buy at the advertised price whats your right to refuse?

Every time I have been in this situation I've said well it says £x on the sticker, employee has gone to check and if they agree they've rung it through at the sticker price.

Wasn't it Tesco that gave you the item and the difference in price if the ticket didn't match the till? This would of been 15-20 years ago..

I had someone complaining we’d overcharged her on an avocado the other day. 89p on the ticket, scanned at 90p. She came back 3 times that day to moan about it to different staff 😁

Boots are great for this, if you go on sales plan changeover (check the date at the bottom of the ticket) they will always honour the lower price when challenged.

As others have said, you don’t have to honour any price shown, an explanation that it’s a mistake and the item is withdrawn from sale at that price will suffice. Lots of retailers will honour it if you abide by rule 1.

Wasn’t it Tesco that gave you the item and the difference in price if the ticket didn’t match the till? This would of been 15-20 years ago..

Tesco at one stage used to give you double the difference. I remember being charged £9 for some wine that was on offer at £6 and I'd bought 3 bottles so got £18 returned to me.

When I used to manage a wine shop we'd always honour the shelf price because it just wasn't worth arguing with our gammon clientele. It was very frustrating though because usually the issue was with head office not correcting the prices on the weekly updates.

The few times when I did refuse to sell at a certain price (due to the fact that we would lose a lot of money on the sale) usually resulted in said gammon customers suddenly becoming legal experts and throwing massive tantrums in the store, blabbering about trading standards, BBC Watchdog, letters to head office / CEO etc.

I no longer work in retail btw, partly because of stuff like this.

I had to return some shoes once because the sole had come undone after a few months. The shop replaced them with a new pair - but because the shoes were now in the sales the till in the shop wouldn't process the transaction  without giving me 70% of my money back too. 🙂

I no longer work in retail btw, partly because of stuff like this.

Did they fire you for using racist terms to describe the customers ?

But if you’re charged more that the advertised price for a haircut – because ‘the vendor has changed their mind’ if you don’t have the right to buy at the advertised price whats your right to refuse?

The contract becomes binding as soon as anything of value changes hands. In this case, as soon as the barber's scissors touch your hair they've committed to honour the agreed price, because their work has value. In a Supermarket, nothing of value changes hands until you reach the till, so the contract can still be re-negotiated.

Set my wife on them

She'll will never, ever back down from a situation like that. Their very good arguments will be completely ignored by her and she will go around and around until they have enough and give in/wanna get rid of her.

She works on the basis that it's not in the interest of the poor person on the till to get into an argument (they don't get paid enough to care) and any manager is probably over worked and has better things to do.

I find it embarrassing and would rather just give the extra 2 quid over.

Almost a similar issue happened to me a couple of years ago:
Ringing around for some quotes for new tires for my car, a local chain came back with the best price per tire by some margin so I said book her in, I’ll be round in the morning.
Dropped the car off the following day, spoke to the chap I’d spoken to on the phone and told him I was popping up town I’d be back in a couple of hours (left my details etc.)
Got back to the tire fitters and they called me up, said all done no problems, that be such and such a price please, £30 more than we agreed on the phone!
When I challenged them they said that the price from the wholesalers was different when they unloaded the truck that morning (before I got there). I challenged them as to why they hadn’t told me before they fitted them and they started getting a bit shirty with all sorts of excuses (bearing in mind I’d been in the shop to drop the car off, they had my phone number etc). so I said in that case take them off and put the old ones back on! Didn’t go down too well, but in the end we split the difference and they tracked all 4 wheels as a good will gesture.
Cheek!

Most supermarkets do honour a lower shelf price but it’s frustrating when the first you know about being charge more is when you spot it on your receipt later.

However, there have been concerns raised that some supermarkets have deliberately left special offer tickets in place after the offers have ended, hoping that folk won’t spot the higher price at the till.

There have been a few occasions when I’ve been shopping where things turn out cheaper at the check out which is always a nice surprise.

Because I'm sad, and used to work in retail, I tend to look at the special offer price on the shelf and see when it ends, it's usually printed in small print at the bottom. Morrisons near me are absolute shits for not removing them when the offer ends and who's going to noticed on a 'big shop'? The fact my Kid brother is a Duty Manager there and I use it as a stick to beat him has nothing to do with it, honest.

M&S on the other hand, it seems about 20% of the stuff I buy (which ain't much in fairness) is cheaper at the till. I don't know why.

One of the many benefits to self scanning.

When I used to work in a sports shop (remember Olympus Sport?!), the lower price would be honoured if there was a genuine mistake on the label in the item; normally on shoes as the sticky label in the shoe was manually written.
I think it was more hassle that it was worth to argue the toss about.

We used to get some people trying it on by taking the plastic shoe former out of a cheap shoe & placing it in a much more expensive shoe. They would then claim that we had to give them the shoe at the cheap price - Nike Air 180s with a Hi-Tec Squash liner in, for example.
We'd point out that the name of the shoe was clearly written on the liner & it must have been incorrectly replaced by another customer.

But if you’re charged more that the advertised price for a haircut – because ‘the vendor has changed their mind’ if you don’t have the right to buy at the advertised price whats your right to refuse?

When i get a haircut price on the board is usually 7,50 to 10.00 yet they all usualy charge me a fiver, because ive not got much hair, or they feel sorry for me arriving by bike.

The shops still have to have the correct price on the shelf. They can't put the wrong prices up on purpose. Everything also has to have a price IIRC.

Supermarkets will generally give you at the price (assuming its not an obvious mistake like mentioned above).

As P-jay , a Morrisons near us are the same , good looking price on the shelf, at the till it's miraculously increased, wife is the same about kicking off at till or service counter before we leave. Sometimes they climb down but occasionally not, in which case wifey asks to return said items for a refund as she refuses to buy at a wrongly displayed price.

the things people will argue about! if folk are arguing about incorrect prices “on principle” and demanding the lower price, then their principles are incorrect.

when you consider how good consumer law is in the UK and how little retail workers get paid arguing over a mistake with the person who didn’t make the mistake really is something.

each to their own, i guess.