getting a place to honor a price

[mtkst19]

just tossing this out there to see what you guys think.

Last week i purchased a used scan tool. I am trying to upgrade it to modern specs. everything is like 8 years old on it.

As a result, i go to purchase a Asian/Domestic/Airbag/ and software version 4.0 upgrade. I see them for 750 on ebay. yet i found a reputable tool vendor who had it for 370. I found this while researching should i buy my tool.

I go and order the update yesterday, only to receive and email today that they wont honor it as they made a mistake. They said it was a typo error on the website.

I can understand a mistake--it happens. Yet i feel they should still honor it. It is not like im getting greedy-- I could see if i ordered 10 of the item. Yet this has been well over a week more like 2 weeks at this price. In addition, that tells me that they obviously don't sale them that it took his long to catch it.

In my opinion, i feel they should honor their price. Am i wrong for thinking that?

 

[atari]

I dont know if its the same online but if you walk up to the register and the shelf was marked a price then thats what you pay by law.

 

[chadster1]

I am sure that there is a legal disclaimer somewhere where they are not required to. It would be different if they had shipped it and billed you for the lower price but since they caught the error before the order was shipped, I doubt that you will have any luck.

 

[lipadj46]

I dont know if its the same online but if you walk up to the register and the shelf was marked a price then thats what you pay by law.

by law, I've never heard that. I don't think any retailer has to honor a price if it was a mistake. It used to be accepted as common practice, stores would honor the price, but not any longer. No online stores are going to eat 2 or 3 hundred bucks period.

 

[scott37300]

by law, I've never heard that. I don't think any retailer has to honor a price if it was a mistake. It used to be accepted as common practice, stores would honor the price, but not any longer. No online stores are going to eat 2 or 3 hundred bucks period.

In Wisconsin if you are AT the store itself and you pick something up from the shelf to buy and the price reads x.** and you get to the register and it rings up higher they are required by LAW to honor the price listed on the shelf. If they forget to take down advertised specials they have to honor that special until they take the sign down. Happens all the time, I watch the prices the whole time the cashier is checking me out and then I check my receipt.

I'm not sure about online "laws". I would expect them to honor it since it was the posted price when you ordered. Weather they have to honor that price or not I don't know, but I do know that I would send them an email stating that due to them messing up the price you do not feel comfortable ordering from them anymore because you don't want to find out what else they will mess up on. And order from someone else. I know that if I was running a business I would be double and triple checking my pricing to make sure it was right. And I would honor the price if it was my mistake.

 

[chadster1]

In Wisconsin if you are AT the store itself and you pick something up from the shelf to buy and the price reads x.** and you get to the register and it rings up higher they are required by LAW to honor the price listed on the shelf. If they forget to take down advertised specials they have to honor that special until they take the sign down. Happens all the time, I watch the prices the whole time the cashier is checking me out and then I check my receipt.

I'm not sure about online "laws". I would expect them to honor it since it was the posted price when you ordered. Weather they have to honor that price or not I don't know, but I do know that I would send them an email stating that due to them messing up the price you do not feel comfortable ordering from them anymore because you don't want to find out what else they will mess up on. And order from someone else. I know that if I was running a business I would be double and triple checking my pricing to make sure it was right. And I would honor the price if it was my mistake.

Given the thin margins that most online stores operate on. No online store is going to eat a $300 price difference to "save" a customer.

 

[Underdog]

Another Angle, Most all these tool shippers never see the merchandise. It is all dropped shipped from the manufacture or distribution center. The salesman never See's the tool, only a number on a computer. Everyone enters wrong numbers so they can't eat all mistakes.They also I think work on very low margins and to make up $200 to $300 would take a ton of sales.

 

[wantedabiggergarage]

by law, I've never heard that. I don't think any retailer has to honor a price if it was a mistake. It used to be accepted as common practice, stores would honor the price, but not any longer. No online stores are going to eat 2 or 3 hundred bucks period.

Around here, B&M stores are quite similar to that, BUT printed ads are not (printer may have made a mistake), as well as websites (webmaster may have made a mistake, etc).

 

[gkring]

I would ask for a discount but by no means expect an obvious error to be honored. I like to build relationships with vendors and forcing them to lose money is not right especially if I know going in they are making a mistake. Be reasonable and ask for free shipping or a smaller discount and if they are a good company they should give in.

 

[back2class]

I recall back in CT the law was a brick and mortar store had to honor price as marked. Even if a mistake.

 

[Garage_Mahal]

In PA there is a reasonableness test. If a price is outside of what a normal person would consider reasonable. The store does not have to honor the displayed price.

My buddy found a 3-year-old E46 BMW at a dealer with windshield paint indicating a price of $15,900. He went into the dealership with cash in hand and was refused the car. They said a lot boy had made a mistake painting on the price, and they wanted $23,900. My buddy's lawyer said he could try to take them to court to get the car, but there was a good chance he would not get it due to the reasonableness test.

 

[Danglerb]

just tossing this out there to see what you guys think.

Last week i purchased a used scan tool. I am trying to upgrade it to modern specs. everything is like 8 years old on it.

As a result, i go to purchase a Asian/Domestic/Airbag/ and software version 4.0 upgrade. I see them for 750 on ebay. yet i found a reputable tool vendor who had it for 370. I found this while researching should i buy my tool.

I go and order the update yesterday, only to receive and email today that they wont honor it as they made a mistake. They said it was a typo error on the website.

I can understand a mistake--it happens. Yet i feel they should still honor it. It is not like im getting greedy-- I could see if i ordered 10 of the item. Yet this has been well over a week more like 2 weeks at this price. In addition, that tells me that they obviously don't sale them that it took his long to catch it.

In my opinion, i feel they should honor their price. Am i wrong for thinking that?

Lots of luck getting money out of a typo. You did a search and found everyplace else it was twice as much, and its a typically non stocked type thing, that should have been a BIG hint the price was wrong.

Gambled and lost, move on.

 

[padronanniversary]

slickdeals.net man those people find all kind of pricing mistakes ! well, me included

 

[usdemt]

According to law, I know for sure here in SD and I thought nationwide, if you advertise a price you are required to honor it. Usually though people will just barter a bit and meet in the middle. It might be worth checking into what the law does say but don't forget if its online, you have to go by the laws in the state that they are located, not you. The other big issue is that laws have not fully caught up to the internet so there is still a lot of gray area.

 

[filtered]

There are very few online retailers that will honor price mistakes. I have yet to see one honor a $300 mistake. In store the way I see it is if they made a mistake i'll point it out when they ring the item up. I then get asked to show them, which I do, if they honor it great, if they don't i'm not buying it. Mistakes happen all the time. I don't expect something for nothing or close to nothing. These people have a business to run and mouths to feed. I don't expect them to take a loss just for wasting a few minutes of my time.

I will say if they do honor the price mistake it's guaranteed i'm a repeat customer.

 

[mtkst19]

well, i am more or less sol. i didn't think the price was to far from the norm based my my conversation w/ the oem who said new 2010 software is coming out. so that would tell me to dump the 09 while you can. or at least that's how i took it. because realistically in a month to two, your product is inferior.

either way i need it, so i gotta buy it. i couldn't even get a price off the place for what it should cost.

 

[Stuey]

The online store is NOT obligated to sell the item to you at the lower misadvertised price.

Somewhere in their terms & conditions there will likely be a clause saying they are not responsible for price errors or mistakes of any kind, and that by placing an order you automatically agree to those terms.

 

[Skin]

According to law, I know for sure here in SD and I thought nationwide, if you advertise a price you are required to honor it. Usually though people will just barter a bit and meet in the middle. It might be worth checking into what the law does say but don't forget if its online, you have to go by the laws in the state that they are located, not you. The other big issue is that laws have not fully caught up to the internet so there is still a lot of gray area.

there is no law for online pricing, if they honor it, its a courtesy. expecting them to is very nieve as well, especially so because its the internet and the exposure any pricing mistakes can grow so rapidly. Take the 50 cent drill press or whatever it was posted a few days ago, say they got hit with a few hundred orders, would you really expect them to take tens of thousands of dollars in losses? Put yourself in their shoes, its a ridiculous expectation.

 

[Danglerb]

Maybe you should wait until the 2010 version is out, or see if there is some date where purchase of the current software entitles an upgrade to the next version.

Chances are the vendor, was more of a store front and just posts what the manufacturer sends them.

 

[mrholeshot]

Not a leg to stand on on this one.

 

[Az Scooter]

I had that happen once in a 7-11, where something on the shelf was still on sale, and I guess it was not supposed to be. The clerk went and pulled the ad, said it isn't marked that price any more. I tipped over the large bladder buster on their counter...oops, and walked out the door.

That was in my young, impetuous days...

 

[Danglerb]

Policy for a $3 box of cereal isn't going to work for a $800 software upgrade.

B&M retail stores have a special set of rules due to bar codes and shelf vs individual item pricing. FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has a strict set of rules a retail store has to follow if they want to skip individual item pricing, which costs them a lot of money to do, and lacks flexibility for sales and changes in cost. Most retail stores adopted some kind of consumer friendly policy when they made the switch to bar code pricing, which may actually be more a method of tracking employee shelf pricing mistakes resulting in employee discipline. Online is different.