Refusal to sell item because "we only have that as our display one"

[IanSpadger]

Hi there, I wonder if anyone can tell me if I have a right to feel a little aggrieved please?!

 

I wanted to buy a washing machine today, saw one at £329 and my wife and I decided, yes, we'll go for that one. We informed the member of staff who started talking about delivery. I explained that it would fit in my car but they said they don't usually have any in their very small warehouse so I'd have to have it delivered. I asked if I could take the display one as we need a replacement quite urgently, no can do. Surely if it's there, with a price on it, then it's being advertised for sale and I should be able to purchase it?

 

What's more the minimum they charge for delivery is £10. So in actual fact there is, by their own admission, no way I could actually get the washing machine for the price advertised; they won't let me take the one they have but want me to pay £10 more and wait for them to deliver it!

 

Can someone tell me if this is right please?

 

Many thanks,

 

Ian

[perplexity]

Surely if it's there, with a price on it, then it's being advertised for sale and I should be able to purchase it?

 

There is no such right unless a seller's terms especially promise that there is.

 

Google for "invitation to treat".

 

8)

[buzby]

Very seldom do electrical shops sell off display stock - only when end of line or discontinued. This is because the last thing they need is disruption whilse identical models are taken out and replaced. As you say, the irems are normallt delivered from from a central store. The OFT did look at this, but nothing concrete was done. The implication being if you;re happy to collect it from their distrivution depot, it should be made available at no cost for collection. Sometimes you just have to factor in this cost, then attempt to negotiate the unit price reduction so its back to the same - it's all about negotiation!

[2Grumpy]

If they aren't selling it why are they advertising it as for sale?

[buzby]

Who says what your looking at IS for sale? You must have a pretty unrealistic expectation if you want to buy a product that hasvbeen kicked prodded, pressed doors open/closed for months. I'd rather take a new one, boxed that I break the seal and know it is fresh stock.

 

As to your question, ever visited Argos? Following your logic, they're not selling anything!

[2Grumpy]

If I see an item in a shop with a price on it then I expect that I can buy it there for the price advertised. I don't expect the display item.

 

If they are out of stock they should remove the "for sale" sign

 

If they will only deliver & that costs extra, then there is an additional issue here - look at how the motor industry was hauled over the coals for displaying vehicles at a price that you couldn't buy them for because delivery etc were extra - not to mention advertising ex vat prices that were misleading

[buzby]

You might expect it - but then you can be disappointed. THe Law states that is it only an 'invidation to treat' so the retailer chan choose to sell it to you, or decline for any valid reason. Because of this, I would doubt retailers anxious to trow dust sheets over items they have removed from sale, because their ultimate sanction is to decline to trade - their ultimate sanction.

[Surfer01]

The delivery charge really annoys me as it is compulsory when buying white goods unless old stock. Even if you live around the corner from the shop you still have to cough up the £20 or whatecer they want to charge you. I now mainly use the Internet for shopping, get the item at a lower price and delivered the next day for free in many cases. For a slight surchareg you can even get a time slot!

[Yorky2008]

Ask them where their distribution point is, I have collected from the warehouse before and saved the delivery fee.

 

Also they may not want to sell the 'display' item as it may be incomplete or even non-working.

[perplexity]

Who says what your looking at IS for sale?

 

 

Strangely enough an "invitation to treat" says that an item is for sale.

 

The invitation to treat is of course an offer to sell, except that it happens to be a rule of precedent (not a statutory law) that the offer is not of itself an offer that binds the offeror as a unilateral contract would.

 

8)

[mattyprice4004]

I think you're being a little unreasonable, no contract has been formed so they don't have to sell it to you.

 

This is the reason I left retail!

[Annoying Twit]

If the OP is feeling particularly bloody minded, he could try complaining to trading standards that the retailer is applying bait and switch tactics by advertising goods for sale with no intention of honouring the stated price.

 

Whether Trading Standards would consider the described events as bait and switch is another question, and depends on things we don't know. E.g. did the shop only just realise that they couldn't supply the cooker and immediately remove the price card/mark out of stock. Or, are they continuing to advertise the cooker in their window even though they can't supply.

 

I believe that in law it is illegal to advertise goods and services at prices if there are hidden compulsory extras which mean that it is impossible to buy the goods at the advertised prices. Travel agents have run foul of this law a lot.

[perplexity]

A commercial practice may be prosecuted as a criminal offence in so far as it "materially distorts or is likely to materially distort the economic behaviour of the average consumer with regard to the product" but in the given circumstance the conviction of the trader is not an ambition that would I risk the time on.

 

8-)

[ashmk]

ejit