A few weeks ago I went into our Sears store to purchase a Christmas gift. I was the 2nd customer to walk in the store that day. I picked up what I had went in there for, and on my way to the checkout, I noticed a big ad standing above one of their DVD players. I walked over to read it.
They had made an advertising mistake in the local paper and had printed the wrong price for this particular DVD player. The notice stated that because it was their mistake, they would honor the price until the DVD players were gone. With honoring this mistake, they were practically giving the DVD players away!
I asked a store clerk if they had any of the DVD players left. I figured they would, because after all, I was the 2nd person in the store that day, and had only been in there about 10 minutes at this time, and it was not busy yet at all, but then again, I asked because our Sears store never seems to have what they advertise in stock.
The clerk said that no, they did not have any of the DVD players left. I told him that there were MAYBE 6 customers in the entire store, that they had only been open maybe 10 minutes, and none of the other customers had a DVD player they were purchasing. Then half jokingly I said "Yeah, I suppose all the employees grabbed them all up right away".
I was shocked at what he said. "No. Management got them all. We never even had a chance at them. All the managers got them all". I may be wrong, but that doesn't seem very legal to me. I was the 2nd person in the store, and I bet I wasn't in the store a total of 15 minutes. I KNOW they weren't "sold out". I would think, their mistake or not, that they would have to issue a raincheck if the customer requested one, but they would not do that.
False advertising. Switch and bait. Call it what you want, but it doesn't sound very legal to me! Hope management enjoys their DVD players. I know I won't ever make any major purchases there anymore!
Oh, and my thanks to the young man that was so honest with me. He sure opened my eyes to that store. Nope! I will make no more major purchases from that store. "Management" is so eager to buy everything out from under the customer; let THEM do all the shopping there.
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