Re: Not Honouring Prices as Marked.

On Saturday September 11th, 2010 I visited your Active Electronics store at 3790 Victoria Park Avenue in Toronto to purchase an adapter for a project my son and I were working on.

After a pleasant half hour we approached the cashier with almost $100.00 worth of merchandise, including a small jewelers loupe marked at approximately $4.50.

The cashier, a Russian sounding fellow informed me the price of the item was actually over $8.50, and they wouldn’t sell it at the price marked on the item.

He called over a supervisor, who also informed me the price was wrong, and that they wouldn’t honour the price as marked.

I pointed out that ALL of the identical items on the shelf were marked with that price. They insisted there was nothing they would do about honouring the sticker price.

This of course if the primary mechanism that cashiers use to defraud customers. Tell the customer the price is wrong, ask for a higher price, and pocket the difference.

They would not show me the price in the computer, and they would not honour the sticker price.

At that point I proceeded to return all of the other items I had picked up, and placed approximately $80 to $90 of merchandise to the side which I indicated I would not purchase if the price on the sticker wasn’t honoured.

They would not budge. Even at a conservative 10% profit margin, the items I elected not to have purchased profit margin far outweighed the approximately $4 difference between the price marked and the price they claimed was in the computer for the jeweler’s loupe

The supervisor refused to provide his full name, and insisted he was “Shawn” and would not give a last name. He said his manager was “Brett” but again refused to provide a last name.

Clearly your staff would rather sell me $7.78 worth of merchandise and forgo the revenue of the nearly $100 worth of equipment I was going to buy, and take the time to restock the shelves with all of the purchases I elected not to proceed with due to the shabby treatment I received.

I will be making a special effort to relate this poor treatment I received at your store to as many of my peers and colleagues as possible. I will be posting it to facebook, to my blog and to as many Internet sites as I can find as well as the old fashioned bulletin board at work.

Clearly your staff would rather:

1. Not honour prices as marked contrary to the Canadian Scanner Price Code of Conduct. http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/eng/01262.html

2. Invent new prices and attempt to charge customers higher amounts without showing them what is in the computer.

3. Infuriate customers who insist that prices be honoured as marked.

4. Forgo the revenue and profits on nearly a hundred dollars and elect instead to sell $7.78 worth of merchandise.

5. Take the time and effort to restock shelves with merchandise that could have been sold.

6. Harm the reputation of the firm with a direct customer, and spoil the goodwill with all the indirect individuals that customer tells about the experience.

Tell Shawn, “Good Job Buddy, You saved us $4. Way to go.”

cc: Diane J. Brisebois, President & CEO, Retail Council of Canada.
cc: Better Business Bureau, Mid Western and Central Ontario

I came across your blog @ churchofthecustomer.com and couldn’t help but relate.

Currently I’m getting worked over pretty good by Lexus, it’s horribly frustrating.

Anyway, I enjoyed your post about Customer Service. And, I’ve shared my blog address with you in hopes that it may… just may move you to share with your audience.

Either way, take care and I’ll be following your posts.

Best Regards,
Nathan Pitzel