Mismarked Items: Your Experiences

[em 692]

my mom and i were in calvin klein the other day, looking at a leather jacket.
she looked at the price tag and it said $28! just a normal sticker, identical to the other price tags, except that all the other jackets were marked $385- i mean it wasn't written in red marker or anything.
the jacket was my size, and my mom tells me that she could argue and convince them to sell the jacket for $28, but me being the easily embarassed and insecure teenager that i am said "no, don't do that!"

well, the saleswoman comes up and asks us if we would like to try it on.
my mom said no, but told her that the jacket was marked $28.
the saleswoman looking baffled, obviously, and told us that "it was most definately not $28, but thank you for bringing that to my attention."

what would you guys have done?
would the store have had to sell the jacket for $28?
should i have let my mom buy it?

i think i missed a good opportunity

 

[Hebden]

i think i missed a good opportunity

I'm sorry to say that so do I. It's always been my understanding that, legally, a retailer had to stand by the ticket price. At least, that's what I've always gone by and, anytime I've found something incorrectly priced, it's worked .

 

[notmanons]

^ My mum would've screamed down theirfaces to give it for $28, seriously

 

[Jenner8675309]

^ I agree, yearssssssssss ago when I worked retail before college I always heard that too. Fairness in advertising or something. But thats not my area of law!

 

[jun3machina]

i've experienced that similar with a return...by law, they have to give you the item at the priced marked, and i believe also that if the items are identical, and they have 2 separate prices, they have to give you both items at the lower price. at least that's what i understand from working retail...

 

[Deborah]

I was shopping with my mum and she was borrowing my credit card because she had blocked her pin by accident and she bought some jeans that went through the till at 10 pounds. That was a nice surprise.

 

[fashion_boi_01]

I've seen a Gucci belt for $15 at the boutique, all the others were $150. I dared my friend to buy it but he didn't think he'd get it for that price.

I know that Loblaws (a grocery store chain) has a policy that if the marked price and the price that shows up when it's scanned are different, then they'll give you that item for free. You have to go through customer service though.

 

[chaneladdict]

yeah I think that if it was marked that, definitely ask for that price. I used to work retail and it was always a big deal that things were marked correctly and if they weren't the customer should get it at that price!

 

[em 692]

yeah, i wasn't sure if stores like calvin klein would have to follow the same rules as, say, a grocery store.

i still can't believe how they could have marked the jacket at $28! i mean what is even $28 in that store that they would have put the wrong sticker on?

 

[Meg]

yes I'm quite sure legally they have to sell it at the advertised price. Thats fair game. I mean, if they didn't things could be marked at any price and when you got to the till it'd be a complete surprise. Once when I was at eddie bauer buying a suitcase they had the suitcase marked, I think $100 less all the other ones of the same style/size and we bought it at the mismarked price. They have to sell it at that price.

 

[DandyWarhol]

now im excited and want to go find mismarked things!!

 

[snowqueen]

i work in retail and have done for years .. in the uk the law states

if they choice to sell you the product then they have to at the ticketed price .. if not they can remove the item from the shop floor for 24 hours and not sell it too you. they can then legaslly mark it up and put it back on shop floor.

In my shop if its a case of say £15 or less well just discount it down and let them have it .. if they notice and or argue .. seiously you get people kicking off over 50p as its much easier to keep customer happy, not cuase a scene etc.

If it wa hundreds of pound like your case then we would have took it off shop floor and explained that we dont need to sell it, and showed them the legal legislation around this too back us up if they kick off.

me personally as a customer not a employee would have kicked off big style and demade they sell me jacket for that price. And if they didnt id cause the biggest fuss until they sold it me at marked price just to shut me up lol

 

[masquerade]

yeah, im pretty sure they have to sell it to you at that price. otherwise its bait and switch which is illegal. My mom definately has gotten stuff that way.

I think i remember hearing something about this on the other end of the spectrum though, things being overcharged accidentally at Macys. They got into a bit of trouble a couple years ago. am I remembering correctly?

 

[quimby]

I bought a new suit jacket last week from Club Monaco for $19. It was supposed to be $199, but the SA rang it up twice, pointed out to me that it was coming up as $19 (I hadn't noticed) and said "oh well, that's what the computer says" and sold it to me for that amount! It was marked at full price, but I don't think the SA cared, and I wasn't going to argue.

But in similar situations, I have pointed out discrepancies, like when I was charged $100 for $250 Theory pants. I feel that as long as the SA knows, I can get it at the "reduced" price with a clear conscience. So Em, I wouldn't feel too bad about it...

 

[quimby]

Though nowadays I feel like it's the store's responsibility to properly train their employees and mark their merchandise.

 

[jun3machina]

especially with larger stores! /\ I would think calvin klein has a computer system that scans the barcodes and whatnot, and the computer does discounts based on seasonal garb and whatnot. then it's the employees job to put the correct stickers on the tags... even target has this. you can often find clothes at target, that scan for less than the tagged price because the main computer has marked them down, yet the employees have not gotten around to it yet. large chain stores that have mistakes like that better damn well give you the lower price! they make enough $$ with the mark-up, and get things dirt cheap to sell because they order in bulk from overseas factories in most cases. I only ever catch it and care, in a small boutique or family owned place...

 

[hedur]

this happened to me just this past friday:

i was in nordstroms and happened to see some shoes i had seen online many times for $120. i had thought about getting them but was still undecided. i was surprised to pick up the shoe and see a tag that said $99 on the bottom. i couldn't believe they were on sale...no one else has them on sale, so i pointed it out to the manager. sure enough, someone had marked them wrong. without hesitating or blinking, the manager said "we will of course give them to you for the lower price". now maybe that's what he is expected to do but it still caught me (pleasantly) off guard and it gave me the nudge i needed to buy the shoes i had been eyeing. not a huge savings but still....

 

[aris]

this happened to me too. I was in LA with a friend in South Cost Plaza and one velvet black jacket at MAXMARA was marked 250 and the others were 550 down from 1000 something.
I didn't expected but the SA said that it was their mistake so she sold it to me at 250!!!!!
she even gave us some evian water!!!

 

[tigerrouge]

It depends on how much you wanted that particular jacket - you probably could have argued them into giving it to you at that price, but on the other hand, if you weren't that in love with it, then why create a scene just to buy cut-price clothing?

Just because you can get money off an expensive item doesn't mean the item is worth having. There'll be other opportunities.