Moral to "demand" deal?

[Gina B]

This link: http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/07/16/sears.ipad/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Sears made a mistake. It happens.

Some are upset, some have sob stories over how it's negatively affecting them, etc..

Even if Sears had no disclaimer of reserving the right to not honor prices given by mistake, would it be moral to insist they honor the price?

It just makes me sad that people are getting upset that Sears is not honoring this. It was an obvious mistake and people appear to be taking advantage of that concept and thinking it's "fair" that this company should lose money to the customer's advantage over it.

Now if you're talking about something minor, a few bucks or even more that would still allow the company to make a profit, I could understand it better and it would probably be in the company's best interest to honor it, even though it was a mistake, just for the sake of customer relations. But this? Crazy.

On the other hand, if I were Sears I'd take a list of everyone who ordered and hold a random drawing to give away a couple free ones to the names drawn. They are already getting attention, so why not turn it into positive attention?

 

[Salty]

Gina,

Excellent post!!

 

[annsni]

I've seen this happen a lot of times online. I'm sorry but it was a mistake and Sears has the choice to either honor the price or give a full refund. They made their choice. I know it will tick a few people off but honestly I don't believe it will hurt their business much, you know?

 

[Arbo]

It just makes me sad that people are getting upset that Sears is not honoring this. It was an obvious mistake and people appear to be taking advantage of that concept and thinking it's "fair" that this company should lose money to the customer's advantage over it.

They're victims of Big Retail. :smilewinkgrin:

 

[billwald]

It has standard practice and case law for 100 years that stores are not responsible for typos in published ads. Anyone who thinks a new popular electronic product might sell for 90% off list is soft in the brain.

 

[freeatlast]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=+0]I do not believe that anyone should benefit from another's honest mistake if caught within a reasonable amount of time. Since this was clearly a mistake sears or any company should not be required to ship the product once they catch the mistake. However if the transaction was processed towards the purchasers account and then canceled by sears then they should be responsible for any cancelation charges if there is any, that are credited to the consumer from their credit card or how ever they paid for the item. Beyond that I see no liability.

[SIZE=+0]Above I mention a reasonable amount of time so let me give an example. Several years ago I ordered some DVD family movies on line. The total purchase was about 300 dollars. They required pre-payment at time of purchase and I paid with a credit card. Some 6 years passed and I got a notice that I still owed the bill. I called them and asked them what was up. They said the transaction did not go through. I asked why they waited so long and they did not know. I told them IF I could go back that far in my records and show that the transaction did not go through I would pay them, but I could not find or get to the records as my bank had closed that the credit card was on so I did not pay, I think re-pay, and they stopped sending bills.[/SIZE]
[/SIZE][/SIZE]

 

[Jon-Marc]

Mistake or not, they should have honored the price at which it was advertised. One time I bought some cookware (not sure exactly where). When the cashier rang it up, it was more than the price that was on it. I mentioned that fact to her, and she said that had been the sale price, and the sale was over. However, she sold it to me at the sale price since that price was on the item.

 

[sag38]

Jon-Marc decides to sell his car for $10,000.00 and posts an ad in the classifieds. But, the newspaper makes a mistake and lists the car at $1000.00. Then again, maybe Jon-Marc's handwriting looked like 1,000.00 instead of 10,000. A man shows up at his door with the $1000.00 in cash and says he wants to buy the car for his handicapped daughter who will be starting college next month. He can't believe he has found such a nice car for such a low price. Should Jon honor the mistake the newspaper made? After all that was the advertised price and the man's daughter deserves special consideration because she is handicapped and going to college.

 

[Walguy]

Mistake or not, they should have honored the price at which it was advertised. One time I bought some cookware (not sure exactly where). When the cashier rang it up, it was more than the price that was on it. I mentioned that fact to her, and she said that had been the sale price, and the sale was over. However, she sold it to me at the sale price since that price was on the item.

The difference there is that the price in question was a legitimate price that had not been properly changed back at the end of a sale. That happens at my Walgreens once in a while, and we too honor the outdated price under those circumstances. In the Sears case, however, the advertised price was never correct at any time. We have also had an occasional instance of a typo in our weekly ad, and in those rare cases we simply post a correction on the rack where the ads are found and on the shelf in front of the item.
Anyone who would really want to hold Sears to this wrong price needs to ask themselves if they would want to be held 100% accountable for every honest unintentional mistake they ever make. Understanding of our common human imperfection and giving each other slack because of it is a wonderful thing.

 

[mandym]

Seriously, who has lost anything by this. This woman sat at home and ordered it on line. Not even gasoline was spent on this. And then she throws her sons condition( which is irrelevant) in for more sympathy. Just because Sears made a mistake does not make anyone entitled.

 

[carpro]

It has long been an axiom in retail adveritsing that if you make a mistake in pricing, you suck it up and honor it. I've done it and seen it done many times.

But a retailer is not responsible for, nor required to honor, errors made by printers, 3rd party advertisers, or others that may misrepresent their product or pricing. The third parties are responsible for their own errors and/or omissions.