Poll: Ethics on Stores Honouring A Mistake Deal (The Staples Copic Fiasco)

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

A mistake isn't a license to get an insanely low price on an item. Shit happens, people make mistakes. Maybe giving buyers who still want said item a higher than normal discount would build goodwill but by no means expect a company to honor a mistaken sale that could mean a large profit loss.
Think about it like this, if said company honored a large order of items sold at a 95% markdown mistake, and that item sells pretty high initially, that could mean not only a loss of profit for said company but a trickle down effect of loss of jobs for the lower end workers. Why? A company has to make up for that profit loss to keep investors/stockholders happy and sometimes that means laying people off in order to compensate for the profit loss. Sad but true. Thats why there are laws in place that prevent companies from having to honor stupid-low pricing errors.
If I ordered these things I wouldn't have any issue if I found out a too-good-to-be-true price turned out to be exactly that, business is business. And the customer isn't always right. Thats not a law

 

[Another]

If it was a small discount I would say yeah they should honor it. But at 95% off, losing 300 or so dollars a person? And they sold out? No store would take that loss, so no they don't have to honor it in my opinion.

 

[Alfador_VII]

I agree with most people here. legally the shop didn't have to honour this deal, as it was clearly too good to be true.

I'm not an artist but I've heard of Copic, and a big brand like that is not going to be discounted by 95% unless there's something really fishy going on.

 

[drthmik]

Well before you think too badly of the store, ask this question of yourself. Have you ever been in a situation where after having paid for your items from a store you discovered that something you bought rang up at significantly lower than the listed price, or you just weren't charged for something?
If you have had that happen, did you point out the mistake to the store and offer to pay the difference or pay for the item you weren't charged for?
Would you in those circumstances?

Now there are some places that will pull bait-and-switch tactics (which are *despicable*) or similar, but this situation doesn't sound like that.

Yes I have been in that situation, several times, and yes I do tell the cashier and/or manager and offer to pay the difference. Most times they thank me for my honesty and send me away with the "discount" intact and a couple times I payed for the item.

But what does that have to do with anything? the Honesty or Dishonesty of an individual customer should have no bearing on what the store does.

Now I don't know what the law is for online purchases
but here in Michigan state law says that a store MUST sell an item for what it is labeled as being, if it is labeled. I remember back when I worked as a clerk for a grocery store someone from another shift had labeled all the vegetable cans as the sale price. When the sale ended my boss sent me over to pull every single can off the shelf, check for and remove those price stickers and relabel them with the normal price because the law said that those labels were legally binding.

 

[CriticalMiss]

Hmm, this is a tricky one. I would normally expect a store to honour the listed price even if they made a mistake, but considering how huge the discount would have been I can see why they didn't want to and I don't hold it against them. That said they really should be checking their prices before publishing them and accepting orders, especially on relatively high cost items. Maybe they could offer a slight discount to people who were affected by this and everyone can move on?

 

[Little Woodsman]

Well before you think too badly of the store, ask this question of yourself. Have you ever been in a situation where after having paid for your items from a store you discovered that something you bought rang up at significantly lower than the listed price, or you just weren't charged for something?
If you have had that happen, did you point out the mistake to the store and offer to pay the difference or pay for the item you weren't charged for?
Would you in those circumstances?

I had a situation where the machine reading bar codes did something wrong and printed wrong item up, which was cheaper. i did point that out to the cashier, she called in her supervisor and the item was switched back. the actual document actually read that i buyght 1, then "-1" of these wrong products, and then went on as usual, i ended up paying more than if i were to stay silent.
So what was your point again?

My point is that the overwhelming majority of people happily accept a mistake in their favor and don't feel a need to point it out to the retailer.

 

[Little Woodsman]

Well before you think too badly of the store, ask this question of yourself. Have you ever been in a situation where after having paid for your items from a store you discovered that something you bought rang up at significantly lower than the listed price, or you just weren't charged for something?
If you have had that happen, did you point out the mistake to the store and offer to pay the difference or pay for the item you weren't charged for?
Would you in those circumstances?

Now there are some places that will pull bait-and-switch tactics (which are *despicable*) or similar, but this situation doesn't sound like that.

Yes I have been in that situation, several times, and yes I do tell the cashier and/or manager and offer to pay the difference. Most times they thank me for my honesty and send me away with the "discount" intact and a couple times I payed for the item.

But what does that have to do with anything? the Honesty or Dishonesty of an individual customer should have no bearing on what the store does.

It has to do with personal standards. If a person believes in honesty, then an honest mistake isn't something that they should hold a store accountable for. If a person is dishonest and will happily accept a mistake in their favor said person really can't blame a retailer for having a similar standard.

 

[Grach]

Maybe I'm not the first to ask this, but, have they stated something about it? I remember a company in my country did this, but it was ultimately because of a programming error that put everything on a 99% sale, which they later corrected.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

If you went into a brick and mortar store and some clerk mistakenly labeled something in the same way, would you make a big stink when the cashier informed you it was a mistake, or would you just pay the new price or put it back?

Dude, people have screaming fits because the eggs are $3.79 instead of the $2.99 in last week's flyer. The answer to your question will depress you.

sadly this is fucking true, had a lady in front of me last week throw the biggest ***** fit in hy-vee history because the deal was for last week and so she couldn't get her extra 2 cents off per gallon of gas at the station outside, holy hell she had veins popping and everything.

OT: it's clearly a misprint, if they honor the deal or you happen to get a set sent to you, then awesome, if not, then a refund is exactly how i would expect most business's to handle it, otherwise you could just resell those same sets to a different store for a massive profit and staples is out a shit ton of money.

 

[Jamieson 90]

If you were in a store and you took an item to the checkout and say it was priced as £10, and then the checkout assistant stopped you before you had purchased it, and said "I'm sorry but there's been a mistake, this item is actually £20," then the store is completely within the law, it's only after you've purchased a wrongly listed item that they can't do anything about it, so I guess the same applies to online shopping too; you don't actually own the item until they confirm your order and dispatch it.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

What if upon selling out they put it back up when restocked, unchanged?

Why would they sell something for an amount that is likely less than what it cost to manufacture?

 

[thethird0611]

Honestly, if the store had priced it maybe 5%, I can see there being some actually reasoning behind honoring it.

95% off though? With that 95 being about 300 dollars, cmon. At some point you have to think "Ok, I knew this was probably a mistake and I was just trying to get something for near nothing, but oh well, it was worth a try." Hell, I would of tried to, but its 300 dollars per pack. If 30 people tried to buy 1 each, thats 3000 dollars, about 2 minimum wage employees monthly earnings. Thats a -lot- of money.

So, I think the store was ok with just refunding the money.

 

[Agayek]

Why would they sell something for an amount that is likely less than what it cost to manufacture?

Because they make more money that way. That's how most sales work, to be honest. It all but eliminates the store's profit margin (and in some cases it even goes negative), but it gets customers in the door, where they will be more likely to buy stuff that isn't on sale, and generates interest in the product such that people will hear good things about it and buy it after the sale ends. It's a short term loss of revenue for a long term gain of profit.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Because they make more money that way. That's how most sales work, to be honest. It all but eliminates the store's profit margin (and in some cases it even goes negative), but it gets customers in the door, where they will be more likely to buy stuff that isn't on sale, and generates interest in the product such that people will hear good things about it and buy it after the sale ends. It's a short term loss of revenue for a long term gain of profit.

That might hold true if they choose an item that wasn't specialized. You'd do that with TV's and Blu Ray players, not art supplies.

 

[RedDeadFred]

No. Yes they fucked up but they gave out the refunds which should be all that is required.

 

[Strazdas]

Well before you think too badly of the store, ask this question of yourself. Have you ever been in a situation where after having paid for your items from a store you discovered that something you bought rang up at significantly lower than the listed price, or you just weren't charged for something?
If you have had that happen, did you point out the mistake to the store and offer to pay the difference or pay for the item you weren't charged for?
Would you in those circumstances?

I had a situation where the machine reading bar codes did something wrong and printed wrong item up, which was cheaper. i did point that out to the cashier, she called in her supervisor and the item was switched back. the actual document actually read that i buyght 1, then "-1" of these wrong products, and then went on as usual, i ended up paying more than if i were to stay silent.
So what was your point again?

My point is that the overwhelming majority of people happily accept a mistake in their favor and don't feel a need to point it out to the retailer.

Thats called egoism and thats why we have laws to keep it fair. a false price is still a false price even if it was a mistake.

What if upon selling out they put it back up when restocked, unchanged?

Why would they sell something for an amount that is likely less than what it cost to manufacture?

Why does consoles sell at a loss?

 

[Lono Shrugged]

I have seen this happen before with camera lenses and it happens. A company is under no obligation to have to sell you anything and technically the deal didn't go through the system fully. (You did not receive your item) It's the same kind of thing that defends you if they lose your product in the post that defends them in case of mistakes like this. I don't see anything unethical about making mistakes. It's how you deal with it afterwards. And it would be financially unfeasable to honour all the orders. They don't have to take your money.

On the other hand, when you saw it. Your first thought must have been "this is a mistake" but yet you chose to jump in and get something at a price that makes no earthly sense. It would be cheaper for a company to dispose of stock at that price. (if they needed to for some bizarre reason) And if they are selling so expensive at normal market price they would chuck them rather than selling them that low. It makes zero sense other than "it must be a mistake." Which if you had this this deductive reasoning it would have led to contacting the company and double checking as opposed to hitting "buy" on a greedy impulse and hoping that by kicking up a fuss you can have your cake and eat it.

So you saw a weakness in a business and tried to exploit it. Ethically, you tried to de-fraud them. You must have known it was a mistake and if you honestly thought it was the real sale price and hand on heart were too naive to guess that, then you should understand exactly what it is like to make an honest mistake.

That's just how I see it.

 

[clippen05]

Anyone who is seriously miffed about this needs to have a reality check. Businesses by law, are allowed to refuse a transaction in the case of errors like these. Back in the days of Brick-and-mortar shops, a store would likely honour the price and create some goodwill between the customer and themselves because it wouldn't be so much of a hit. But today, in the internet age, when one mistake gets found, the entire internet knows it. With sites like Reddit spreading things around, hundreds of people are gonna find the mistake and Staples can't afford to honour everyone's transaction. The only reason someone would be mad at this is if they themselves tried to purchase it and didn't get the deal. No rational, functioning human would see fault in Staples decision. Why should a company lose significant amounts of money because of one lowly employee's mistake?

 

[Queen Michael]

Nah, we should understand that sometimes people will make mistakes.

 

[Xeros]

which are usually insanely expensive, were going for nearly 95% off retail prices

Something very similar happened a while back on Overstock.com. They were mistakenly selling DS, 360, and PS3 bundles for $8-$25. I rolled the dice knowing full well I wasn't gonna get shit, but hey, what if? My money was promptly returned.