Thread: Barnes and Noble has BC2 for $20

Originally Posted by Mcstrange

Originally Posted by BigHub

Well I bought it.. printed off the invoice... so they must deliver the product. Or I will sue for False Advertisement.

This comes up every so often, they do not have to honer that price if it was a clerical error. They may, but they are not required to take a 20-30 dollar loss simply because some data entry jerk flubbed up the price.

We do in my brick and mortar retail store. Different merchandise, but if we screw up and put a wrong price on it, we must honor that price.

Course that could be a local/state law and would vary place to place.

Edit - regardless the reason, my condolences for the affected. Might want to raise a stink and see if you can get a lil some some for the trouble.

There are laws against Bait and Switch and laws against other consumer price fraud; but I am pretty sure there are no laws forcing a company to honor a typo. Companies do it for customer service reasons not legal reasons.

Just think of the repercussions of such a law. You get a job at Walmart, intentionally mis-price all the high end electronics and call all your friends...

Originally Posted by Chronic.cough

EXACCCCCCTLY!

How so?

Originally Posted by Mcstrange

There are laws against Bait and Switch and laws against other consumer price fraud; but I am pretty sure there are no laws forcing a company to honor a typo. Companies do it for costumer service reasons not legal reasons.

Just think of the repercussions of such a law. You get a job at Walmart, intentionally mis-price all the high end electronics and call all your friends...

well then it would all come down to evidence, McStrange. If someone in your store was intentionally mislabelling things to hurt the business, then that's criminal, the store owner/business would have the burden of proving that, and the store usually isn't going to have to honor mis-priced things based on someone's criminal acts. HOWEVER, if you put a big sign up in the window, or signs on the aisle, and they are there, in plain view, for hours, with managers and store clerks and owners and customers walking by and buying the goods......then it's going to be pretty hard to say "oops, we didn't mean it". And you'll have to honor it.

Of course, if it was some online reservation you could simply cancel them all, and give people's money back NOW, well before the game is released. Then....they aren't really injured by your false advertising. What you CAN'T do is simply charge them more when they show up to get the game, or refuse to give them the product without paying the full price, when they already "paid in full" the game as advertised previously.

I was really trying not to derail the thread, lol.


BUT,

In the example given, the employee would be caught and prosecuted for fraud and embezzlement. The friends/accomplices would most probably be caught and prosecuted for fraud and theft.

High end electronics would be considered a felony over a certain price.

Yes, even Wally-world has this simple capability and personel who actively look for it.


I heard.

Uh, yes as I said there are laws against intentionally fraudulent advertising practices such as bait and switch, that do not apply to clerical errors and typos, either online, on the shelf, or in a printed advertisement.

This happens all the time, I was in Target and they had a big ass printout on the doors saying something to the effect that 'advertised price 1.99, on piece of junk thing was a typo, actual sale price is 19.99. sorry for any inconvenience'

Pretty much as always: If it sounds to good to be true it more than likely is.



{EDIT}
I do think they should have been clearing in their email. I would have like 'Sorry, someone mistyped the price for BC2 and your order will be canceled and your money refunded. Please feel free to reorder at the corrected price of 49.99.'

AND as a customer servicey gesture maybe offer everyone 5 bucks off.