Johnny was pleasantly surprised when the $199 power tool he grabbed off the clearance rack rang up at the self-checkout for just $0.01. Home Depot, of course, stopped him before he could leave and asked for the item back, but Johnny wasn’t fast to part with his new toy.
I told the manager well that’s to bad because I ALREADY PAID FOR IT!!! and if you don’t return MY PRODUCT!!! that I PAID FOR!!! that I would call the cops because you are now stealing from me. I will call Weights and Measures. OH YEAH and my attorney.
Read the full story after the jump.
Well I never thought I would see the day when I would buy an item in a store, I have the item in my hands with my receipt and a Home Depot employee takes the item out of my hands because they are not sure if I can have this item. Sound funny, WELL, ITS NOT!!!
A few months ago I was in a Home Depot shopping and I saw a Power tool (worm drive) on clearance for 49.95 markdown from $199.99. I really wanted this item but did not have the cash on me at the time (just my luck) so I drove home got my credit card and drove back to the store but I was to late, someone had already purchased the item.
So just the other day I was in the Home Depot again and by lucky found the worm drive on the clearance rack unmarked. I took the item to self check-out and the item came up at a penny. I thought, cool I am getting a deal of a life time here. I then PAID for the item and took my receipt. I checked the UPC on the receipt and on the box just to make sure they were a match and they were.
Then a Home Depot employee came up to me from the self check-out and took the worm drive and said I need to check something I’ll be right back and walked away from me with the item that I just PAID for. So after waiting for 6 to 7 minutes a manager came up front and told me that I can not have this item because it is on clearance and once the price falls to a penny it is to be markdown and thrown away. I told the manager well that’s to bad because I ALREADY PAID FOR IT!!! and if you don’t return MY PRODUCT!!! that I PAID FOR!!! that I would call the cops because you are now stealing from me. I will call Weights and Measures. OH YEAH and my attorney.
So after all that, they finally wised up and gave me back the item that I PAID for. I have never had a retail store do something like to me. They made me feel like I was a thief. Like I did something wrong, when all I wanted was to buy a worm drive that I saw on Clearance. (WHAT HAPPEN TO TAKING CARE OF THE CUSTOMER) because you lost another one to LOWES.
Johnny was more than dramatic—he was right. Scanner errors are only worth a small discount in some states. Now, it would have been more ethical to tell the store about the error and to ask for an additional discount, but since Johnny already paid for the item, it was his.
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To everyone coming down on the saw’s purchaser, before you condemn him, what state was this in? Many states have LAW that says any discrepency between marked price (in this case, NONE), and scanned price results in the price that is most favorable to the customer. So if it rings up for $.01, then the customer is indeed entitled to the item at that price BY LAW.
Just as the saying goes “Let the buyer beware”, so should it go for the seller.
TTT
Johnnyboy: you are such an a-hole. A total cheapo, despite you being technically right. Your mommy upstairs needs to give you a good beating.
@sofasleeper:”tool that could cut your hand off one day”
Thats not called Bad Karma thats called MADE IN CHINA
I support Home Depot in this, because they only use the self checkouts sot they can have more people out on the floor. That’s why it’s always so easy to quickly find a competent and experienced person to help you when you have a question about something. Oh, wait….
@TinyBug: I’m not sure it’s as simple as that.
Given that the product was sitting on a shelf without a price tag and wasn’t intended to be sold, I’m not sure there was ever an offer made to actually sell the product – kind of important if you’re going to claim a valid contract was formed.
Besides, I’d say that the guy pretty clearly violated his duty of good faith.
I wonder if the idiot would feel the same way if his CC got charged for $1,990 instead of $199.
@guevera: I thought it was so they can avoid having more people on the pay roll and pocketing the change.
@randalotto: What about the stores duty of good faith? To not have unsellable, nib copies of normally sellable products on the floor without something saying it isn’t for sale? It’s not like he went in, took one of their pos computers and tried to buy that for 1 cent. He went into a store, took an item that he had no reason to believe was not for sale, bought it, fair and square. HD should have programmed the pos to not allow it to be sold.
The best part for me is that if he used a credit card, the transaction cost Home Depot at least 34 cents in merchant fees! Do y’all think the bank would waive the fee seeing as we all know that it is impossible for any merchandise to cost one cent?
Didn’t think so.
@bubuli: Please enlighten us on how you think it’s OK for the store to disobey the law. Fact is, the law says the item is his, so it’s his. They should have been more careful. If you don’t want stuff walking out the door for a cent, don’t price it at one cent! If you try to take it back after the sale, you are a thief and that’s a real crime, not civil-court “crime”.
Working for a big box retailer, here’s my thought. If the company puts a stupid system in place (clearance items are marked a penny), they paid some corporate jackass for that system. If a store has a lower advertised price for the item with no expiration date on the tag, they should keep track of who was suppose to replace the tag and, if he can’t keep up, get him some help or kick his ass out (I get yelled at for incorrect pricing from customers, but it’s not my job and management won’t give me time to double-check my department). With big businesses, my feeling is the more they lose, the faster they will learn to fix the broken system. I usually tend to think the world works differently then it actually does, but hiring people who want a good job and are willing to make things work should help avoid losses and fix the system without causing the company any pain.
@pine22:
If I were him, I wouldn’t be losing any sleep over it.
The REAL question is how much did Johnny pay for the English As A Second Language course he obviously failed.
I didn’t have time to read all of the posts, but… couldn’t Home Depot donate all of these “throw away” items to Habitat for Humanity or a similar charity and get a nice little write off and some good press at the same time.
Shitty disposable society
@FF_Mac:
definition of ethics: [dictionary.reference.com]
# 2 applies in this context.
definition of morals:
[dictionary.reference.com]
# 7 applies in this context.
So to get the obvious out of the way Ethics and morals are not the same thing.
That being said the store screwed up when they took the item and refused to give it back. They could have told him it didn’t scan correctly, refunded the 0.01 then charged the shelf price. That even would have been legal, advertised accuracy policies aside.
@crankymediaguy: Too true, too true. LOL
For all you whiners about “it shouldn’t have cost a penny,” I’ll make sure I NEVER go to any of your garage sales. Instead, I’ll go to the garage sales of people who actually understand the concept of “put a ridiculous price on it so it can go away.”
What the hell is wrong with you people? There’s nothing ethically or morally “bankrupt” about Johnny’s behavior:
1) He CHECKED the UPC for a match and found it.
2) It was NOT $150, in case anyone ignored the fact that it was on clearance for $49! So I don’t see how he “stole $150 from Home Depot”
3) I agree with the individual who stated that if you choose to have a self-checkout, you’re responsible for the results, as it’s your system of choice.
4) I don’t see WHAT was wrong with him purchasing it if they were planning to clear it off. The $0.01 he paid was the ACTUAL price, as has repeatedly been stated here and in the original email.
@smoothtom:
The mistake is when it seems “reasonable” and it is a very slippery slope. Because for some situations, a markdown from 49.99 to 5.99 can *most definitely* be reasonable. If the box is knocked around, the item maybe a little scuffed, an awful color (in the case of apparel), all kinds of “issues” can force a price to rock-bottom. So MSRP 199.99 down to bargain bin price of 4.99 a season or two later is not unheard of. Of course, it’s probably not something anyone would want, obvs., or it would have sold at a higher price.
But $.01, I would agree, is the kind of figure that would make me go “huh?” Knowing nothing about retail, I would guess that it doesn’t seem like a price, but more like some kind of administrative marker the store put on the item for some reason. I’d take it to the most inexperienced, bored, indifferent clerk I could find (and therefore hopefully the one most likely to want to help me “get away with it”), and try to get them on my side – “hey, is this for reals? Is it possible that this really costs only one cent?” If my timing is right and my hunch about the clerk is right, I just might get away with it. So I would alert the staff, but I’m sure as heck not going to apologize for trying to swing things in my favor by trying to do it in a way that might still let me snag that awesome one-penny find. Sometimes attitude is everything.
And if they say “no,” and won’t sell it at $.01, I wouldn’t create a scene, because I’m not stupid.
It comes down to this.
There are 2 types of people in this world. Ones who do the honest thing, and one’s that do not.
For instance, I found a giant ribeye roast (normally like 70 bucks) the other day that the supermarket had mislabeled the weight on it somehow so it was labeled 12 dollars. Now, I could have jumped on the deal and fed my family like a king for cheap…but I returned the item to the meat counter to be repriced. Who wants to guess what the author of this article would have done. Hint: The answer includes the word “mine” multiple times.
People, if we expect (and we do) businesses to be 100 percent ethical and fair…we as consumers need to do the same.
I read through a bunch of comments and wtf people do you even RTFA? It clearly states the ITEM WAS PRICED CORRECTLY, it then states it shouldn’t have been available for purchase off the floor regardless of the price. That is not his fault they placed an item that was schedule for the dumpster on the clearance rack (or left it there)
I’m actually impressed Home Depot did the right thing and gave him his purchase. This if anything only encourages me to continue shopping there and be sure to watch for that clearance rack or dumpsters…
@FF_Mac:
And if a mom and pop screws up this badly, they deserve the kind of treatment Johnny gives them.
Pricing errors happen. It’s your cashier’s job to prevent them. Why was the self-checkout not adequately monitored?
@randalotto: Given that the product was sitting on a shelf without a price tag and wasn’t intended to be sold
Do you see the inherent contrasiction between “product was sitting on a shelf” and “not intended to be sold”?
If it wasn’t intended to be sold, it should not have been on the shelf.
I’m not sure there was ever an offer made to actually sell the product
Well, fist of all, it was a product that they carried, it was on the shelf, it was recognized by the scanner, and the computer showed a price for it. It doesn’t seem the least bit unreasonable to interpret that as an offer to sell.
But regardless of whether or not they made an active offer to sell it, HE made an active offer to buy it, which the store accepted. The fact that they took his money is the really the defining factor here. It really is that simple.
And I’m not sure what makes you think he acted in bad faith – he offered a penny, the store accepted his offer, and then he paid it.
I don’t get it. They were going to get rid of it anyway so why try to take it away from him?
Yes, the way he wrote of the incident makes it sound like he acted like a jerk. However, it is not unethical to buy something for a penny if that’s the price the business set it at.
HD really needs to fix their system. Items to be thrown out, for any reason, should be marked as such and their scanners should be programmed to not allow the sale.
1) The cashier who was supposed to be in charge of the self checkouts probably should have noticed something wrong when it rang up, but depending on how busy it was and being human, may not have had a chance to react quickly enough before Johnny paid for the sale (which, after seeing it ring up at $0.01 he probably did with great speed instead of inquiring.). He didn’t have to be an ass about it.
2) He’s an ass. Speaking as a former big box home improvement center customer service manager, he’s the kinda of customer we will gladly do without. And the threat that he’s only going to Lowe’s from now on? Absolutly hillarious. We never gave a damn or were intimidated by those threats, since A) we don’t get paid enough to deal with people like that, B) we’re glad to let him be someone else’s problem, and C) more than likely, he’ll have a bad experience at another store and he’ll be back.
3) As for the possibility of him having taken the item from a bin going back to D&D- perfectly likely. We had people pull that crap all the time, worse yet was when they’d nab something going back that was damaged or defective, then a day or so later, they’d come back and return it for a full refund. Yeah, we marked them before they went back, but sometimes cashiers didn’t catch it. Same goes for heavily discounted merchandise or stuff that was set to be pulled from inventory.
4) Wouldn’t put it past this guy to try and return it at Lowe’s or somewhere else without a receipt to get the full price (minus whatever they won’t give him for not having a receipt) back. I hate people like that.
Also- I’d put money on it that Johnny knew something was up with the item since the clearance price was not marked, so to avoid possibly being stopped and having to pay more (possibly) at a cashier, he decided to self-checkout, thereby giving himself the opportunity to possibly get it for less and not raise a flag immediately.
I hate Home Depot’s self check-outs and only use them when I have no other choice. At the store near me they seem to only have one cashier working at any given time so I’m forced to either wait in a long line or use the damn thing. This one is a matter of Home Depot screwing up and they should have had some kind of safeguard up to not allow the transaction to go through. I think the guy is a thief but at the same time he did pay for it so Home Depot is out of luck. 50/50
I don’t know what the laws are there but the cops can’t even prosecute if the item isn’t $20 or more. Since the item rang up for 1 cent I don’t know what legal action he could take other than being an asshole.
Interesting thread. A lot of you are saying the customer was wrong because he acted childishly when denied the sale. While he could have been the biggest ass in the world, the law doesn’t care. It was either a completed sale or it wasn’t. It was either a gross pricing error or it wasn’t.
My suggestion for inventory items like this: set it to an impossible price, like $.0001. When the machine can’t make change, an associate will have to come and fix things.
This guy is a douche who misuses capital letters and overindulges in exclamation marks. I think on that we all can agree. I would have been okay with him getting screwed on this one for those reasons alone.
Even so, the advent of self-checkout means that entire transactions are handled by automated systems. Both parties exchange consideration and all terms are agreed upon and committed in writing. Regardless of any computer error, the contract is executed and documented. Companies need to take responsibility. Hopefully the efficiency of automation offsets the disadvantages introduced by occasional errors.
Lol. Everyone who is calling the author names is pissed off because they couldn’t score a deal like him! Morally and legally,the author did the correct thing. Power to him! I hope you have great use of that drill. You deserve it.
@Falconfire: Dear Home Depot, To prevent this situation from occurring again, for items you intend on discontinuing, instead of marking them down to a penny, how about marking them UP to $1,000,000.
Thank you. Now where can I pick up the check for my consulting services?
I think it is a horrible argument to make that customers have a right to return an item that was not intended to be sold at $0.01 because it was an error. I am sorry, but if HD made a mistake, then it has to pay for that mistake. And to imply that it should be returned because companies fix pricing errors that happen in their favor is crap. If the company does not fix the pricing error, it will eventually catch up to them and they would lose business. They don’t fix it to be nice, they fix it to keep you coming back.
@TinkishDelight: As stated it was a SELFCHECKOUT. There was no employee ringing up the product for him to purchase. I don’t see what the big deal is. If they were going to just end up throwing it away then why not just give it to the man for a penny.
People are evil. Companies are super-concentrated evil. Everyone’s clinging to the false veneer of civilization mitigated only by the force of law. I say score one for the consumer.
Selling the item for $0.01 was not a scanner error. When HDepot decides a product should no longer be sold, they lower the price to $0.01 in the computer and, as the manager said, destroy/toss the items. One of my friends is employed there and takes advantage of this on a pretty regular basis.
It seems alot on here say “since they (HD) were just going to throw it away, whats the big deal”. However I think because they were going to write it off…it could not be sold…it had to be disposed of/destroyed. I may be wrong but hey, I’m not an accountant…..
@guevera: You don’t know squat about Home Depot. They don’t have unmanned registers to increase floor staff, they have it to DECREASE cashiers. There has been zero increase in floor staff since they started installing these things.
@silentluciditi: Again, assuming facts not in evidense. First off, Home Depot doesn’t always tag all of their clearance stuff. It is not uncommon to see items missing the clearance tag and he KNEW that it had been $49 previously.
Second, who the hell goes to a cashier if you can complete the simple transaction at the self-sever? Why waste the time, if you don’t need to.
Third, a very good portion of the time, you can go to many Home Depots and have absolutely not cashiers working. Only the head-cashier overseeing self-serve and calling for someone if necessary…
@ben1711: Nope. No difference between a $.01 destroyed or sale.
@e_cubed99: If your friend is emplyed at HD, then getting the $.01 deals are the only benefit for their employees left- although they’d get fired if it was found out. I think it would be worth it though, sine they treat their employees like crap. I’m just sorry Bob Nardelli didn’t develop a horrible painful cancer and die…
Its not a matter of Home Depot screwing up or the system being wrong. When they take a markdown of a penny, its because the vendor has absorbed the cost of it. At that point Home Depot can not sell the product. As far as throwing away perfectly good merchandise, well if you have ever been a manager at a retail location you know that if you receive credit for the merchadise from the vendor and they instruct them to throw it away they can not sell it because it no longer belongs to them.
Did Home Depot screw up by not pulling from the shelf? Probably, im sure thats not their biggest concern when they have hundreds of thousands of products to deal with. I know Home Depot would have made it right, not for a penny but would have done the right thing for the customer!
As the economy continues on its downward spiral, I know where I am going to be dumpster diving!
@laker: I find it amusing that you’re telling other people what the price was not (199) and then quoting an incorrect price yourself (49 was several months ago)
@stinkingbob: Yeah, jealous of some saw or whatever that I don’t’ know what it does, and clearly don’t need (if I can’t figure out what it’s for, what do I need it for?)
One thing that’s bothering me..a lot of people are saying home depot is accepting his transaction. But in this case, it’s a computer that’s at fault (and when I say at fault, I mean not behaving as a human would and questioning the price). All the time when humans screw up and misprice things on websites, those deals get rescinded; why is this different? Because he was physically there?
@coren:
All the time when humans screw up and misprice things on websites, those deals get rescinded; why is this different? Because he was physically there?
Yes, because all the elements for a completed transaction are present. With websites, the transaction isn’t completed until the item is shipped. There are plenty of cases where e-commerce companies tried to charge more after the fact to correct an error, but it would usually be considered too late (or the consumer would be able to return the item without penalty).
Something to be said about the people that follow this site… not one person said I’m getting one, thanks for the lead!
What mistake?
Last time I went to Home Depot and got something for 0.01$ at home depot (orig. price 70$), they said that’s part of the system….
They even said, don’t worry, we do that with items that will be discontinued/are not being sold…..
@jaysonjaz: Dollar General has the same practice. We’ve had individual clearance items that were to be disposed of the in exact same way, but for whatever reason, some items were left on the shelves. Nobody would know that they were to be discounted until that item was scanned for purchase. Much of these items were seasonal items that had already been discounted 50-90% off a few weeks before.
Trust me–if one ‘discontinued’ item still remains in store and rings up $0.01, Dollar General is NOT losing out, as they originally discounted the stuff to move it in the first place. Home Depot basically tried to screw the customer by taking his item away.
@unknownheadfeelings: 100% AGREED. They’d have had drama to simply let the man have his purchase, then quietly and quickly pull the rest of the clearance items to inspect them. The fact that our dollar store had several items ring up 0.01 started a mini-frenzy for a few days, as old ladies and redneck women walked in asking to be shown the one-cent toys and flower pots.
@greenpepper: What do you think this is, fatwallet/slickdeals? Besides, no way in hell those would still be on the shelf.
@TinkishDelight:
Hey, how about you chill the fuck out? I never defended the guy’s actions, but I’ve got *serious* reservations about the little ‘bait and switch’ the store employees pulled in order to get the device (which fucking belonged to the customer at that point) out of his hands. ‘Oh, yeah. I need to check something out on this.’ and then ‘No, you can’t have it back.’ Total and undefendable bullshit.