one item - two prices

[josephdale]

I'm new to the forum because i ran into a problem i don't have and answer for. I own a small retail shop and a customer came to the counter with an item that had my retail price on the front, unfortunately the wholesale price was still marked on the back of the item. He demanded i sell him the item at the wholesale price saying that "legally" i had to. Even after explaining it was left on by mistake and i would actually lose money selling him the item at that price it didn't matter to him. He persisted. What is the law on this situation ? Can anyone help me find the correct way to handle this in the future ?

[billbenson]

I see no reason why you legally had to sell it to him at the wholesale price. I've never heard of that. Items are mismarked all the time. Furthermore, if he was belligerent I would have taken the product from him, put it behind the counter and asked him to leave the store or I would call the police and have him arrested for for trespassing.

[Paul]

It depends on the local consumer laws. We had an issue with that in a furniture store. We had to be extremely careful to mark items correctly. The local laws considered price labels "advertising".

[huggytree]

you screwed up and put the wrong price on the item....you should have sold it to him at that price...

when i make mistakes i eat the mistake....i cant see anyone being happy with paying more than what the product is marked at....its not like you would have even lost money on it

you definitely lost that person as a future customer...which i wouldnt have done

[Business Attorney]

It is generally governed by state law. For example, California Business and Professions Code section 12024.2(e) states "when more than one price for the same commodity is advertised, posted, marked, displayed, or quoted, the person offering the commodity for sale shall charge the lowest of those prices."

[Paul]

Very similar in our county in NY. Besides the state very strict local laws including regs on return policies, bait and switch tactics (supposed to have enough inventory to accomodate all who respons to an ad) and certain forms of 'going out of business" and liquidation sales advertising. Had a time limit on how long a liquidation sale could be advertised.

Even certain regs about window display signage. In furniture even had to be careful about inventory claims, if you advertised a " 2 million dollar blow out sale" they could (but never did) verify the claim.

[Harold Mansfield]

I agree with Huggy. It was your mistake, you should have eaten it and kept a customer, not blame them for it and loose a customer. I'm assuming we aren't talking about a big ticket item.

We've all done it. Under bid a project or miscalculate earnings. Especially in the beginning. But we can't go back to the client with "I under bid your project, I need to add another $500 on it". Hopefully it's something you only do a few times at most, learn, adjust, and move on to never do it again.

[billbenson]

It is generally governed by state law. For example, California Business and Professions Code section 12024.2(e) states "when more than one price for the same commodity is advertised, posted, marked, displayed, or quoted, the person offering the commodity for sale shall charge the lowest of those prices."

Does he in fact have to sell it? I'm thinking of someplace like a bar who has a sign up that says we reserve the right to refuse service to anybody. Can't that apply to material goods as well?

[Business Attorney]

I can't say for sure, but given the potential for bait-and-switch, it seems to me that the CA statute requires that if you have a price on the article, you must sell it at that price.

The situation in a bar is entirely different. Bars, by law, are required to determine whether they should be serving alcohol to a patron. Even a bar might have a problem if it posted a special price and refused to honor it solely because of the price and not because the patron seemed impaired or was causing trouble. Simply posting a sign does not allow a merchant to overrule the state statute.

[bjay99]

Agreed.

Take the one time loss and create a happy customer through your service. Obviously explain that it was a mistake but offer it to them anyways!


you screwed up and put the wrong price on the item....you should have sold it to him at that price...

when i make mistakes i eat the mistake....i cant see anyone being happy with paying more than what the product is marked at....its not like you would have even lost money on it

you definitely lost that person as a future customer...which i wouldnt have done

[alwaysinterested]

Agreed.

Take the one time loss and create a happy customer through your service. Obviously explain that it was a mistake but offer it to them anyways!


I don't agree with this entirely, theres plenty of reasons to not sell the item at listed price.

1. The customer could have switch tags from another item(not saying this happend but it could of)
2. Who says this customer will come back for sure? This customer may never come back because he feels like he got over on the store owner and would not want to confront him again, you may say that this person would just try to do this again and again but some people would not com back again.
3. Who says he/she is coming back!
4.Disgruntled employ may have done this on several items and could count as a major loss across the board.

All that being said if it was an honest mistake and its not a big ticket item and the customer isn't being super difficult I would probably just eat the difference and or say something like I will honor that price coupled with the sale of something else and reach a compromise.

There's plenty of ways to go at this argument thats just a few views.

[Paul]

It's more than just that particular customer coming back. Negative word of mouth for retail is just as damaging as positive word of mouth is good. Just a a few comments to a few friends of the customers can have a negative impact that you will never even know about. People don't pay attention to the details, they just remember "oh..I heard bad things about that store". They don't shop there and they pass along the negative.

Issues like this one are actually wonderful opportunities to get some good publicity. You want the comments to be " oh yeah that store, nice store once they made a mistake on pricing and still honored it for me" . Again, people won't remember the actual circumstances but they will rember they heard something good and they'll repeat that to others.

Think about what you pay for advertising to get just one customer.

[huggytree]

I don't agree with this entirely, theres plenty of reasons to not sell the item at listed price.

1. The customer could have switch tags from another item(not saying this happend but it could of)
2. Who says this customer will come back for sure? This customer may never come back because he feels like he got over on the store owner and would not want to confront him again, you may say that this person would just try to do this again and again but some people would not com back again.
3. Who says he/she is coming back!
4.Disgruntled employ may have done this on several items and could count as a major loss across the board.

All that being said if it was an honest mistake and its not a big ticket item and the customer isn't being super difficult I would probably just eat the difference and or say something like I will honor that price coupled with the sale of something else and reach a compromise.

There's plenty of ways to go at this argument thats just a few views.

yes, these things could have happened.....but in this case it didnt

[billbenson]

It is generally governed by state law. For example, California Business and Professions Code section 12024.2(e) states "when more than one price for the same commodity is advertised, posted, marked, displayed, or quoted, the person offering the commodity for sale shall charge the lowest of those prices."

Still does a merchant online or offline have to sell goods they advertise? Can they just not sell that product to that customer.