Abercrombie & Fitch Tag Rip-Off
If there's one thing we can all agree on, it's that those little fuckers at Abercrombie and Fitch should be hung by their charm bracelets and have all the faux gay overtone spanked out of them. (Actually, that sounds sort of hot.)
The clerk had put them on the table behind him, so he turned his back to me for a minute, then said, "No, they're $44.95." When I had handed them to him, the store tag had a printed price (on the little perforated strip at the bottom) that said $39.50. Now the tag was gone. I told him to hang on a second and went back to check the display.It's a freakout at the Fitch when prices vary.
But it makes us wonder a real, science question: Does having the wrong price tag on something really mean a retailer has to sell it to you at that price? We were under the impression that price mistakes, while often honored, were at the store's discretion. (Tearing off tags to cover up a mistake, though, is terribly lame.)
'Tis the Season ... To Mark Up Prices at Abercrombie and Fitch [CMPalmer.Blogspot]
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Comments:
My understanding was that online price mistakes and printed (ad) price mistakes were covered by some type of legal clause in the printing of the ad or online. However I was under the impression that what something is labeled as in a store either signage or pricetag, was the price that it "needed" to be sold at.
It is poor policy to argue over $5 in front of a bunch of Christmas shoppers.
I don't get it. Why does the minimum wage teenager that spends his day carefully folding sweaters really care if the shirt is $45 or $25? If there's a lower price on it and it makes the customer happy, just let it go. It would give me a much better reason for coming back rather than just jilt me.
Not an expert on consumer law, but, as a matter of basic contracts, the A&F's store price tag is its offer and they are obligated to sell it at that price.
It would be in the consumer's best interest to refer to their state's Attorney General for guidance on issues like these. Some states deal with things like barcode scanner pricing error differently (and more severly) than others. For instance, I believe Michigan imposes a bounty after the sale when it's been discovered a consumer was overcharged for a good.
(I realize this article wasn't about a barcode scanner error, but I was just mentioning the above as an example of a favorable consumer law.)
The fact that the manager relented to sell us the wrong size at the marked price showed that (a) she did have the power to discretionally price items, and (b) she would only do so in a way to further inconvenience us. If my son hadn't wanted the pants, I would have taken them to another store without the receipt and traded them for $44.95 worth of other merchandise.
I seem to recall my contracts prof saying they don't have to honor, but that its obviously bad form to refuse to do so.
Anyone who is over 19 years of age and still shops at a place like A&F is an idiot. Only teenagers and parents who want to buy their teenagers love shop there.
Oh, and there was a story on 60 minutes a few years ago about them 1. refusing to hire minorities or 2. putting all the minorities in the back stockrooms and keeping the sales staff nice and Aryan.
I think the laws regarding retail pricing vary from state to state.