Consumerwatch Xtra with Wendy Knowler
It’s a question which crops up in my inbox virtually every week: do I have the right to demand that I be given a product at the advertised or shelf-marked price if the shop says it’s a mistake?
So I summarised three of the most common scenarios, and asked Ombudsman for Consumer Goods & Services, Neville Melville, to give us the legal position.
1. You see a print advert - one of those glossy brochure inserts or a splash advert in the newspaper itself - for a big screen TV at a great price. You check the validity, and the offer is valid from that very day, so you drive to the store, only to be told that the price in the advert was a mistake, and the actual price is R1000 more.
Do you have a right to demand that the TV be given to you at the advertised price?
NM: Tricky one, this. In short, if the advert - on TV, radio or in a newspaper - imposed a limit on the number of items available, then yes. If communicate via a circular - email, for example - and the error was corrected, and the customer informed, then no.
If there is no limitation on the number, which is the most common scenario, and if the price was obviously a mistake, you can’t insist on being sold the item at the wrong price. But you should claim your petrol for the wasted trip. "We have had success on getting stores to refund transport costs if the consumer made a special trip,” Meville says.
2. You are shopping online, see a designer toaster advertised at a great price, you immediately do the deal and pay by credit card. Then you get a call from a company rep to say that the price was a mistake and they will refund you. Do you have the right to demand that the transaction be honoured, and that you be sent the toaster, given that you have already paid?
NM: This is covered by the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act which does not deal with the issue specifically. It will depend on what the contract provides, failing which the legal consensus is that the price is not binding.
3. You see jars of your favourite brand on coffee marked at a good price - on the shelf barcode price - and you decide to buy two of jars. But at the till point, each jar scans as R8 more expensive. Can you demand that you be given the coffee at the price displayed on the shelf price?
NM: Our understanding is the transaction is concluded when the consumer reaches or places the goods on the check-out counter and at that point the sale at the advertised price is binding even if the price is an inadvertent and obvious error, but not if reasonable steps had already been taken to inform the consumer the error.
Take a listen to the full show here: