'Tis the Season ... To Mark Up Prices at Abercrombie and Fitch
This past Saturday, we loaded up the car and went to the Galleria in Birmingham in a futile attempt to finish all of our Christmas shopping. We brought the kids with us, so it was one of those shop, then split up and go back and buy stuff, carry it to car, then meet back up deals which, combined with the crowds made it particularly stressful.
While Renee shopped for herself in one store, I made the mistake of going with Morgan and Cameron to Abercrombie to pick out some clothes for Cameron. He found a pair of those ridiculously wrinkled and stressed pants that he wanted and a long-sleeve shirt that was on sale, so I took them up to the register to check out. After the three teenagers at the register argued with each other about who was going to stop goofing off long enough to check us out, the loser of the argument rang up the purchases. Shirt, $16. Check. Pants, $44.95. "Wait a second, aren't those pants $39.50?" I asked.
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.
For the same style of pants, there were four combinations of prices. Some (about 8 pairs) had the pre-printed, perforated price of $39.50. This is what I had seen and I'm pretty sure, but not positive, that he ripped the peforated price off mine while his back was turned. A few had a pre-printed tag that said $44.95. A few had the $39.50 ripped off and a price-gunned sticker that said $44.95. Finally, at least one pair still had the $39.50 and 
the price-gunned $44.95. So, basically, they had recently raised the price (presumably for Christmas) and they had been extremely sloppy about pricing them. Considering the staff, that's not surprising.
Either way, I brought back another pair with the $39.50 price intact (and no other pricing) and said that I wanted them at the advertised price, even if he had to ring up the pair in my hand (wrong size) and give me the now unpriced pair I wanted. He scanned the $39.50 pair, which rang up as $44.95 and said, "No, they're $44.95." When I said that he was supposed to sell them at the advertised price, he refused. I asked again and he refused, so I said, "Whatever. Keep them all" and walked out.
When I told Renee, she went back to the store and asked for a manager. The manager was a teenage girl who looked the same age as the reluctant cashier from before. She said "The store policy is that we sell the items for their actual price and I can't just mark things down." We said, "Standard store policy is that you sell items for whatever they are marked, particularly if the price is pre-printed on the tag and you suck it up, then fix your stock." She refused. She and Renee argued for more than fifteen minutes, in front of other customers. When another person came up to check out, Renee told her to watch the register prices carefully, because items were ringing up at higher than their marked prices. This made the "manager" mad, but, since Renee was telling the truth, there wasn't much she could say. I told her, "I have never seen a store that would argue with a customer for so long about a marked price and refuse to accomodate them." Renee said, "I can't help that your corporation wanted to mark up prices for Christmas and that your staff is too incompetant to do it correctly." Finally, the manager said she would sell us the pair that was marked as $39.50 for $39.50 (which was the wrong size), but would not sell us the right size which used to be marked $39.50 before the cashier removed the tag (he was hiding in the back by now). Renee said, "I can't believe you would make me buy the wrong size, then take them to the Abercrombie store in Huntsville and exchange them for the right size." She finally sold us the right size for $39.50, threw the bag on the counter and said coldly, "Have a nice day" and stormed off to the back of the store.
There are probably dozens of times when we have bought things at other retail stores that were mispriced or the sale had ended but the price tags hadn't been updated and the clerks (not even the manager) always said, "Oops, we need to fix that display" then marked the price down on the register and said "You got a good deal on that one!". I have never seen anyone argue for so long in a packed store full of customers.
Nice customer service, Abercrombie! Considering the flack they already get over their teen porn catalogs, you'd thing they would be trying a little harder. Cameron was even wearing an Abercrombie shirt that day (although it was one we bought at a yard sale).
26 comments:
What a joke. If I were the manager, I would have told you to go to hell. There's no law that says you have to sell a product at a mislabelled price. The only thing she did wrong was giving in to your stupid, self-absorbed tirade.
Shame on you.
Found you via the post over at http://www.consumerist.com/ and saw you were in Huntsville.
It really doesn't shock me that you had that sort of thing happen now.
Customer service is a thing of the past.
I think you would be surprised to find that most stores have a policy to sell at the register rang price, despite what the tag says, but for good customer relations, they simply make the extra effort to have you as a return customer in the future and mark it down to the advertised price. I have to agree though that normally if I buy something and it rings higher, even when its $0.50 I ask if the price is correct and point out the price difference. If they won't change the price, I just won't buy it and go on with my life.
"What a joke. If I were the manager, I would have told you to go to hell. There's no law that says you have to sell a product at a mislabelled price."
And, if you had actually been the manager that said that, I would have called the corporate offices to get you fired.
Charging more for a product than the price is labeled before you buy it IS illegal.
I don't know what the law is in Alabama, but as I said, I've never seen a store that wouldn't just suck it up, mark it down, fix their stock and write off the loss.
It would have been different if it was a price-gunned sticker or an ink pen price that they might have suspected that we marked down the price -- these were pre-printed stickers. The manager said, "We didn't just mark them up for Christmas, they raised the price on those two or three weeks ago!" Hmm, that would have been right around the Friday after Thanksgiving, the biggest Christmas shopping day of the year...
to the other posts that say that "other stores" sell at the register price, that's hogwash. i've never had that happen at a store, and some grocery stores I've been to will give you the item for free PLUS another item at the price it rang up at, should an item ring up at a price different than what it was marked at on the shelf.
that's just horrible customer service all the way around.
When you're shopping in a store, Things have to be priced. They can either be priced on a shelf or they can be priced on the item itself. It's not your responsibility to make sure that the system the store uses is accurately reflecting the advertised price.
"Anonymous" was probably the manager with whom you got into the argument, or one of the employees.
It's an embarrassment to a company to treat its customers in such a manner, and it deserves to be heard. Bravo.
Most stores do not need to adhere to the price listed - it's an error, not in there favor, and it was caught. They don't have to say "Our bad, we'll give it to you free plus this stuff to" - that's just good PR and wanting repeat business (who wouldn't come back hoping to find something else marked wrong and get free stuff?)
A n' E has never been a pillar of affordability, honesty, or good customer service. Their rotating staff and over-priced items show they don't need to care about you, because you obviously feel the need to blow too much money on crap.
Ah, and for everyone that said "If I was the manager?"
You obviously will never make it in PR, customer relations, or in any business that requires interaction with your total lack of tact.
When managers belittle their customers, managers they will be no longer.
Plus, 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.
Maybe this kind of annoyance is why I haven't even started my shopping yet. Oh crap!
I am amazed that it took fifteen minutes. The store manager must really be: a) invested in her position; b) under pressure from her management to make those decisions for whatever reasons; or c) loves confrontation. I can't see where the store would profit by not making the customer happy over such a little amount. After all, isn't the customer always right?
Two years ago I had a HUGE argument with a manager at Best Buy over the same situation. I was buying over $200 of movies and CDs, and one CD rang up for almost twice what it was marked at. I pointed out the sticker on the CD, and the underling said that it was a floor pricing mistake, but that I had to pay the "real" price. I asked for a manager. The manager told me that I was being unreasonable. I told the manager that I couldn't believe that they would alienate a great customer (I'd spent tons of money at BB over the years) over $10. She told me to get out of the store. I called the 800 customer service number, and reported her - the guy on the phone called the store and then reported back that he was told I had threatened physical harm to the manager (which never, EVER happened). I wrote a letter to the store manager, the Best Buy HQ, and the BBB. Best Buy sent me a gift card for $25. I went and bought $24.87 worth of stuff, and then never went back. And I tell everyone I know about the story.
From what I recall from school, in most states, here's how the law works (no idea if this is the actual law in Alabama though): the price marked on the item in the isle (whether by printed ticket or by hand-written pen) is merely a "invitation to make an offer" to the store at the price printed on the ticket. It is NOT an "offer" to sell the item to you at the price listed on the ticket. Because it is an invitation to make an offer to the store at the "suggested" price rather than an offer to sell the item to you at the printed price, you (the customer) are in no position to "accept" the offer when you take it to the register. Rather, you can only offer to buy the item at the suggested price. The store, then, is free to reject that offer even though it is the price listed on the ticket. That is why from a legal standpoint the store may demand a price at the register that varies from the ticketed price.
That said, most states have laws against "deceptive" advertising and so-called "baiting and switching", both of which have to do with whether an "advertised" price (which, if certain conditions are met DOES constitute an offer to sell the item at the advertised price) differs from the price demanded at the register. Hence, generally a store may not legally place an advert in the local paper to sell item A for $10 and then demand $12 when taken to the register.
The critical distinction (as I recall) is that which is drawn between advertisements, which are "offers to sell at the indicated price", and price-tags, which are merely invitations to make offers to buy at the suggested price. Why this legal distinction should exist is beyond my tiny mind's ability to understand.
That being said, what a store may legally do is very often not in its better interest from an economic standpoint. The people at A&F should have their heads examined.
What was the Managers Name?
Did you e-mail this link with detailed info to Abercrombie and Fitches head quarters?
They might not do anything to help you, but they may do something to prevent anyone else from having the same confrontation with that very same manager later on.
judderer - let me guess. You're a first year law student just finishing your first semester of Contracts right? Quoting "offer" and "acceptance" so much gives you away. Why not create a whole new hypo out of this, turn it into a Torts exam question on negligence, and delve into duty, breach, causation, and damages? haha.
It seems silly to continue to purchase items from a store that sells over priced garage sale rejects. I can tell you from past experience that the larger companies really do not care what you think. Your only recourse is to not purchase there. I am anti large corporation for the most part because once they get that large, they forget who put them there. A&F is a perfect example.
plain and simple, having a tag on an item for a lower price than it rings up at the register, and refusing to adjust the price afterwards -- is false advertising. and that, my friend, is illegal.
Are you Kidding? I believe this story is made up. First of all, there aren't any long sleeve shirts for $16, and there deffiantly aren't any pants for either $44 or $39..If I were you I would have been pleased to get a pair of pants at Abercrombie for $44. I don't see what so many people have against it..If you can't afford a 5 dollar difference you shouldn't be in that store anyways, take it from me who works there. We get enough business without scrubs like you..
To the last Anonymous:
I'm not sure if you're being subtly witty or insulting. The pants prices are correct, the shirt may have been $19 instead of $16 (I'd have to check the receipt). This was kids/early teen clothes (then again, aren't they all? - I don't know why an adult would want to wear anything from A&F). Personally, I find the "Look at my stressed, quirky clothing from A&F. I'm a unique person, just like every one of my friends" notion to be amusing.
They can easily do without my business, which is a good thing since they won't have it anymore.
Companies are out to make a buck; they'll bribe you with kindness if they think they can squeeze more out of you in the long run.
The manager treated you rudely. If the manager had treated you kindly, it wouldn't have meant anything, just that she tagged you as a mark who'd blow more money in the future.
Do your best not to take it personally, and do what I do: buy less. It's the only way to reduce these kinds of interactions. Steering away (and steering your kids away) from overpriced chain stores that sell image, not quality, is another, if smaller, step.
I agree, but as I posted, I was only going to buy a few items that were on sale or seemed to have reasonable prices.
Hi, found you via google while looking for my rights dealing with an obnoxious manager at Rio Grande Ace Hardware in Santa Fe. I saw the post from "judderer" and had to reply. According to the FTC, "For another, it is against the law to charge more than the advertised shelf price. Stores that do may be subject to civil and criminal fines."
From:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/scanffb.htm
Well, in the UK, you have to sell at the price on the label (and if there's a conflict on various identical items, at the lowest labelled price). But the store can choose to take an item off sale for 24hrs and then reprice the next day. But most stores choose to sell at the discounted price and then price change after that. No point pissing your customers off for the sake of a few quid/bucks.
On a related (ish) note, I'm just cross that Abercrombie seem to think it sensible to charge £70 for a shirt in their London store, which in the US would cost (I think) about half that. I can't check, as they have blocked their US site to UK visitors now. I'm SO never going back... grr.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/consumer/article.html?in_article_id=419017&in_page_id=5
So does anyone know anything about online laws? Like when you go to a store and put tons of stuff in your cart and than you go to ebates.com and or another site offering coupons or rebates and when you get back to your cart clicking on all these links and it makes your Total 00.00
and their website says you do not owe anything, and you click submit because you wanted the stuff and even if you try to X the coupon to see if it goes to normal and it does not and stays 00.00
what. who, why.
Like what is the law? they ship the stuff and than say they will be by to pick up sending fed ex or ups to pick up stuff and never do and then they file charges as in felony charges, what laws are there for online shopping? And the coupon in the coupon said my discount was 6,000.00 , the coupon code in the coupon section said 6,000.00. not the point the point is how am I at fault and being charged when they refuse to fix their website? and they keep emailing me with coupons and telling me to ome back. this was not at AF. By the way UK person women t-shirt in the US was 24.50-29.50 just in case you were wondering. also go to US ebay to purchase. it may be cheaper. anyways I DO NOT SHOP AT AF just thought i would look at AF real quick to get the UK person a shirt quote.
anyways back to my problem does anyone know anything about online store laws and such.
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