Pricing Errors - My Rights

[Salu]

I went with my wife yesterday to buy a ring for her.

She found one and set her heart on it.

I went to the counter to pay for it and the assistant scanned it in. She then scanned it in again and frowned.....she then went across to her colleague who came to the till and typed in the barcode manually. The price had more than quadrupled.

Apparently someone had put the wrong label on the ring and put it in the wrong tray in the wrong counter. They muttered something about having to withdraw it from sale.

My wife's heart sank and we left the shop without anything.

Now. I know I could have stood there and argued and made a fuss but to be honest the most important thing to me then was my wife's feelings and not the error.

My question is "who has what rights in that situation?"....has a verbal contract been formed? Is the retailer compelled to sell me it or can they withdraw it anytime?

I don't particularly want opinions. I know it's unfair etc...I'm more interested in facts and law etc.

Thanks

[Raistlin]

You have no rights there unfortunately.

Advertising something for sale, with a price, in a shop is nothing more than an invitation to treat.

You take the item to the counter, they tell you the price, you agree to the price and hand over the payment. If you don't agree to the price then you don't pay, you can't force them to sell at a specific price and they can't force you to pay.

The owner of the item (the shop) is under no obligation to sell it to you at any price, just as you are under no obligation to buy it.

Some shops will honour an advertised price if the discrepency is small, in this case though it sounds like they simply couldn't afford to.

It's this system of selling that allows us to 'haggle' in shops.

[Russ]

When I worked for Tandy years ago we were notorious for this and it caused no end of hassle for us in-store.

Unfortunately you don't have any rights. The retailer can do one of 2 things, either sell you the item at the marked price or take it off display for 24 hours before returning it correctly marked.

That was the law up until 2001 when Tandy got bought out, I don't think it has changed since.

[cookie_365]

You can report them to trading standards if you think it's more than a one off - it's a common form of bait and switch - but in any case what Rob said. No contract.

[Salu]

Fair enough.