Friday Ethics Poll

[Turk]

A big-ticket item you crave is mislabeled in a store so that it is $100 cheaper than the correct price. You decide to buy it. What do you do?

"It's so hard to be a saint in the city..." or

[colchar]

Nice to see a poll has been pointed directly at me.

[knights68]

I voted "Depends".

[knights68]

I voted "Depends".
And it does... depends on my mood, day of week, the store itself and a time or two, depends on if Tilly is with me or not (she keeps me honest! )

[CameronBornAndBred]

I voted "Depends".
And it does... depends on my mood, day of week, the store itself and a time or two, depends on if Tilly is with me or not (she keeps me honest! )

I enjoyed their screwup and bought good beer with my savings.

[Turk]

Nice to see a poll has been pointed directly at me.

I beg to differ, it was not pointed directly at you. When I read your story (congrats by the way, I wish I had musical ability, let alone any instruments!), I wondered what I would do in the same situation, and thought I'd pose it to the group. Nothing more, nothing less...

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

This is an interesting dilemma. If the incorrect price was posted by the store as opposed to a customer moving a price sticker from one item to another, the store does have some legal obligation to sell for the posted price, otherwise it would be something of a misrepresentation of the price. Sloppy posting of prices is the store's responsibility to correct and deal with.

[CameronBornAndBred]

This is an interesting dilemma. If the incorrect price was posted by the store as opposed to a customer moving a price sticker from one item to another, the store does have some legal obligation to sell for the posted price, otherwise it would be something of a misrepresentation of the price. Sloppy posting of prices is the store's responsibility to correct and deal with.

I bought a $100 set of watercolor pencils at Michaels because it was marked 50% off. When they rang it up, it came up as 100 bucks, and I said that's not what you have it posted as. Turns out, that sale sign was 3 weeks old and had never been taken down. They still honored the sign though and I bought the set for $50. I thought it was pretty cool of them to do that, they sure didn't have to.

[colchar]

This is an interesting dilemma. If the incorrect price was posted by the store as opposed to a customer moving a price sticker from one item to another, the store does have some legal obligation to sell for the posted price, otherwise it would be something of a misrepresentation of the price. Sloppy posting of prices is the store's responsibility to correct and deal with.

And lots of stores around here adhere to a voluntary pricing policy (their is some sort of umbrella group that oversees this) under which, if they mess up the price or if the price that they scan in different from that on the shelf, regardless of whether the store or the customer would be benefiting, they automatically give it to you free (up to a set price).

Now, the store where I bought this guitar does not adhere to that but, as mentioned above, it is the responsibility of the store to correctly mark their prices. I did not, and would never, move the price tag myself - the store made the mistake.

And they are so misinformed that, when I asked their assistant manager about the difference between two guitars and the resultant difference in price, he went on to explain to me that the higher priced guitar had better hardware etc. What I had done was show him the price ticket on the one I ended up buying and asked him the differences between it and another that was hanging directly beside it. That was when he started to explain about hardware, electronics, etc. The problem is that the two guitars I was talking about, and that were hanging right next to each other, were the exact same guitar. The exact same!!!!!! The only difference is that the one I bought is black and the one next to it was blue (the blue one was marked with the correct price for that model).

The lower end model (the one incorrectly indicated on the price ticket) has a similar body to the one I bought but it has a pick-guard (mine does not) and lacks the shark tooth inlays that mine has on its fretboard. They are very obviously different guitars and anybody with even a remote familiarity with the brand knows this. To make matters worse, one of these lower end models was hanging five feet away and he wasn't familiar enough with his stock to realize this. When looking at two identical (except for colour) guitars, he wasn't knowledgeable enough to realize they were the same. He heard the model number and that was what he went by.

In a situation like that I feel fully justified in taking the lower price on the item because A) it was their mistake, I did not alter the price in any way and B) one of their managers was so uninformed about their products that he couldn't even tell that two guitars were identical to each other (someone walking in off the street who had no knowledge of guitars would likely have noticed this based solely on how they looked). Also, this guitar shop isn't a small Mom & Pop outfit - it is a large nationwide chain and, to them, $100 is nothing (whereas it might be to a smaller store). Also, the Canadian dollar is now hovering around par with the American dollar and many stores are (slowly) lowering their prices to reflect this. But this chain does not do that. They didn't do it last time the Canadian dollar was worth more than the American dollar (about a year ago I think) and I do not expect them to do it now. If they are willing to keep screwing their customers in that way then why should I feel obligated to correct their pricing mistakes for them. After all, if I had been overcharged do you really think that, had they realized it, they would have called me and told me to come on in and get my money back? I highly doubt it.

But, in other situation, I returned money to a store just last week. I was at Dairy Queen (mmmm, Blizzards!) and the girl at the counter gave me $10 too much in change. When I explained this to her she got flustered and tried to give me more change! I calmly explained to her that I wasn't complaining about getting too little change - I was trying to tell her that she had given me too much. I figure this poor girl (she was young) is likely in her first part-time job and is making minimum wage. I knew that any shortages in her till would likely come out of her pocket and I didn't want that to happen so I made sure to return the money to her.

[CathyCA]

This is an interesting dilemma. If the incorrect price was posted by the store as opposed to a customer moving a price sticker from one item to another, the store does have some legal obligation to sell for the posted price, otherwise it would be something of a misrepresentation of the price. Sloppy posting of prices is the store's responsibility to correct and deal with.

What she said.

And, I would point out the error to the store, but insist that they honor the price they'd incorrectly posted for my purchase.

[devildeac]

I voted "Depends".

I usually soil mine... :roll:

[rockymtn devil]

I went with choice number 1.

I actually had a somewhat similar situation arise a few months ago. Although it wasn't on a big ticket item, I had taken a friend out to a somewhat nice dinner as a thanks for watching my dog for a couple of weekends (and therefore saving me a lot of money in boarding fees). We ate at a relatively new, somewhat pricey restaurant. We had a few drinks, an appetizer and each had an entree. When I got the bill, I had been under-charged by about $40. I pointed it out to the waitress, who thanked me and promptly charged me full price.

Now, I figured they would thank me for my honesty, but nonetheless charge me the discounted rate (new restaurant, probably trying to generate some good will--seemed like a no-brainer to me). And maybe they would have happened had I told the manager instead of the waitress. I still feel like I made the right call--especially since, had it been discovered, it probably would have come out of the waitress' pay.

[duketaylor]

We (Kroger) honor shelf tags and signs, whether it's our mistake or not, but if it appears another customer or the same customer is trying to get over on us it's my call. A lot depends on the attitude of the customer and where I think the situation might go. I agreed to buy a car this year and was charged $1000 less when I took delivery. I waited to see if they would catch the error, the deal was already done. A month later they caught the error and I paid the difference but it wasn't my fault they screwed up. To me, onus is on them.

[Miles]

Hmmm if I take the pedantic approach and read your options, then I'm going to say I'll just let the error slide. Consumers rely on stores to advertise their prices so we can make well-informed decisions. If they mislabel the price then it's their responsibility to honor that price; it seems like the decent thing to do. I'd also back them up and say it's well within their right to say "that's not our policy, give us the $100 please." If you don't like it, then exercise your vote and walk the hell out of the store and take your money elsewhere.

That was my initial thought.

Your poll and options imply that the consumer is aware of the error. In this case, I think the only right thing to do is identify the error to the salesclerk. Anything less is kind of shady; you are knowingly and willingly cheating someone out of money. That sucks.

[DevilAlumna]

Hmmm if I take the pedantic approach and read your options, then I'm going to say I'll just let the error slide. Consumers rely on stores to advertise their prices so we can make well-informed decisions. If they mislabel the price then it's their responsibility to honor that price; it seems like the decent thing to do. I'd also back them up and say it's well within their right to say "that's not our policy, give us the $100 please." If you don't like it, then exercise your vote and walk the hell out of the store and take your money elsewhere.

That was my initial thought.

Your poll and options imply that the consumer is aware of the error. In this case, I think the only right thing to do is identify the error to the salesclerk. Anything less is kind of shady; you are knowingly and willingly cheating someone out of money. That sucks.

I was in a conference this week, where one of the speakers was talking about core personal values. She said, "Integrity isn't something you can turn on and off. You either have it, or you don't, whether it's telling the cashier she gave you too much change, or telling your boss she's flat-out wrong." That kind of stuck with me.

But I have to say, I can see Colchar's side of things, that if the store doesn't know its product well enough to know that they've mispriced something, then who are we to argue with them?

[DukeUsul]

Buying and selling is a game. How much do I know and how much do you know. The way to win is information asymmetry. If I know something is mispriced .... a mislabeled guitar, an undervalued stock, a gem of a vintage car that's priced low at an auction .... I can win by buying it low. It's not my problem if the seller doesn't know what they're doing.

How's that for pure unadulterated capitalistic evil? I kinda believe it though. Unless like I think colchar said - if it's a mom and pop, someone I know, someone who looks like it would affect them individually, then I'd point it out.

If it's against some nameless faceless corporation? Absolutely. I'd take the deal and relish in it. Would they treat me any differently?

[ArkieDukie]

Sounds like colchar gave them an opening to notice that their guitar was mispriced and they blew it.

[colchar]

Sounds like colchar gave them an opening to notice that their guitar was mispriced and they blew it.

You're quite right, I did.

When I originally spoke to the assistant manager I did so because I had previously looked at the same model as mine but in a different colour (a colour unique to this chain as they had it made specifically for them). When it turned out that one had been sold (luckily for me as I found out it had a ding on the underside that I hadn't noticed) I started talking to him about the other guitars (the one I bought and the blue one next to it). He knew the characteristics of the two models (probably knew features unique to each model from reading manufacturer's info) from memory but simply couldn't identify them when he was looking right at them.

Also, if the manufacturer doesn't include a case with their guitars most guitar stores will offer you a case (a carrying case as opposed to a hard case) in not for free, then at least at a discounted price when you buy a guitar - and some will offer you discounts on hard cases as well. At the very least, they will offer you a free guitar strap (the average one costs less than $20) and some free guitar picks (the normal models of these sell for six for $1). But, when a customer ahead of me in line asked about a free strap, he was bluntly told no, that they simply do not throw items into the deal - and this guy was buying a Gibson SG. While generally not as expensive as a Gibson Les Paul, the SG still retails for $1500-$3000 depending on the particular model (my roommate has one and his cost $2200). I am not sure how much this guy's model cost as I didn't want to seem like I was snooping but, at minimum, it was $1500 - and this store was too cheap to throw in a strap that retails for less than $20 (which means they probably paid $5 for it themselves).

If they are that bloody cheap then I have no qualms about not mentioning the pricing mistake on my guitar.

[DukePA]

Just before I started college at Lake Forest College in Illinois, I needed to buy a TI-83 calculator. I went to the campus bookstore and found one. It was only $10. The clerk and I had no idea the price was wrong. A few weeks later, I was browsing the Sunday newspaper and noticed the same calculator on sale at Best Buy for $100. My conscience wouldn't leave me alone so I pointed out the error to the bookstore manager. He told me that the error was theirs and thanked me for pointing it out. Pretty neat that I got an amazing deal and kept a clear conscience.