Tesco out of date offers.

[pastoralguy]

But nothing quite beats the Real Chopin deal a good few of us got a few years ago.



Around £11 if I recall correctly.

Wow!

[Serial_Apologist]

But nothing quite beats the Real Chopin deal a good few of us got a few years ago.



Around £11 if I recall correctly.

You had a truly successful Chopin spree there, Bryn!

[Lat-Literal]

Very nearly right, Bryn! Until a customer goes to the till there is no contractual offer at all. The customer may think that the price on the shelf is contractually an "offer for sale", which he can accept by tendering that sum so as to create a binding contract. No. It's more that the customer presents the item at the till and the cashier only then announces the price the shop is willing to sell at. If it's what the customer was expecting he then agrees that 'offer to sell', and a binding contract is formed. The position is clearest with a ridiculously low price-ticket on an expensive item, say a telly for £2.50. The customer cannot force the shop to sell it at the price because no contract has yet been formed. Some shops, particularly on less gross errors, will honour the displayed price. That's where Bryn makes his savings, especially if it's 'Double yer money'.

The position is different in trading standards law. A misleading price indication is a prima facie criminal offence, a misleading trade practice, though the shop may be able to establish a diligence defence if they have done their reasonable best to prevent such errors. That is where Tesco has so singularly fallen down, all over the country it seems.

Forum members with powerful French, or with memories of previous consumer-law issues on this forum, may spot where I'm coming from in relation to the Tesco story

On that basis, anything in a shop could be displayed for £1.75 pence by mistake or mismanagement and 19 items could end up costing £47. That the receipt is only provided after payment means that customers are unable to complete the contract while knowing the pricing detail. In other words, they are required to pay virtually in the dark. The answer is to establish a culture whereby the receipt is provided before payment and each customer looks at every detail while others queue up behind. That would take as long as is required to know whether it is a contract that is wanted. So the public must immediately insist on receipts first and time for appropriate scrutiny to end this unacceptable corporate "fleecing".

There is no generosity. To honour what it says on the label is to avoid a reputation for fist fights between customers and delays that would guarantee shoppers leaving in droves.

[Dave2002]

There is no generosity. To honour what it says on the label is to avoid a reputation for fist fights between customers and delays that would guarantee shoppers leaving in droves.

I have complained in Tesco about some tickets, and had the price on the ticket honoured. Sometimes this happens in different parts of the stores, so that if you go to the checkout you will be charged more - so refuse the item. Usually someone will go and check the label, but on one occasion i went back to the part of the shop with the items, and bought there - I think it was a memory stick. I noticed the label being removed as I bought the thing.

Sometimes the labelling is just plain misleading though - and although I can't be sure it's deliberate, it's very misleading. Trivial stuff really, but if you see a whole shelf of stuff with labels underneath declaring 35p, then when you get to the checkout are charged £1 for each item, there are grounds for complaint. This happened to me twice in one Tesco store, and I challenged it on two separate days. I was told that there were indeed many labels for 35p - but somewhere in the middle there was a label for £1. This seems very unreasonable. The item in question was a roll of Christmas wrapping paper, "reduced" by January. I think in the end the rolls were reduced to 50p a few days later - and someone else I know bought them at that price. One should not have to go round with a Sherlock Holme's magnifying glass to pick out one label. The argument that the shelf "clearly marked" the price was patently false, though it probably was true that there was a label with the price applied on the day. So the price was actually only "marked" - but hardly any reasonable person would consider that to be "clear".

It wasn't a big deal though, and overall I still like some Tesco stores. Tesco isn't the only store with bad labelling. Quite often in Sainsbury's it's hard to actually find the price for milk, even though it is clearly a big seller. Many people buy semi skim milk in 4pt or 6 pt plastic bottles. These are clearly large in the shelf spaces, but trying to find the price of those particular items is often hard, because the labels are small, and there are usually many other varieties of milk and yoghurt which each have their own label in the same area, so actually picking out the price of the large containers is difficult. Usually I have to ask the staff - and as this has happened several times perhaps we can infer it's deliberate.

Again, no really big deal - but it is useful to know when comparing the prices between shops.

[LeMartinPecheur]

On that basis, anything in a shop could be displayed for £1.75 pence by mistake or mismanagement and 19 items could end up costing £47. That the receipt is only provided after payment means that customers are unable to complete the contract while knowing the pricing detail. In other words, they are required to pay virtually in the dark. The answer is to establish a culture whereby the receipt is provided before payment and each customer looks at every detail while others queue up behind. That would take as long as is required to know whether it is a contract that is wanted. So the public must immediately insist on receipts first and time for appropriate scrutiny to end this unacceptable corporate "fleecing".

There is no generosity. To honour what it says on the label is to avoid a reputation for fist fights between customers and delays that would guarantee shoppers leaving in droves.

All we need is compliance with the law. It requires clear marking of prices at the point customers select the item, and that exact price charged at the till. A small allowance for one-in-a-thousand mistakes, but no allowance at all for the total, repeated shambles exposed by Inside Out.

[Bryn]

Never mind "out of date offers". How about out of date food?!

https://www.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/news/2020/09/tesco-fined-%C2%A3160000-out-date-food

[Serial_Apologist]

Never mind "out of date offers". How about out of date food?!

https://www.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/...-out-date-food

In the words of Frank Zappa, "It couldn't happen here"*.

(Freak Out, 1965)

[Barbirollians]

What annoys me about relying on supermarket deliveries is things arriving on their use by date - Sainsburys kindly delivered some smoked haddock last week at 6pm that needed to be eaten by midnight

[Serial_Apologist]

What annoys me about relying on supermarket deliveries is things arriving on their use by date - Sainsburys kindly delivered some smoked haddock last week at 6pm that needed to be eaten by midnight

There was a time - not so long ago - when supermarkets would leave post use-by-date items out the back of their premises for Freegans to collect and distribute around the street homeless, this being reasonably seen as essentially safe consumables if dumped that day - but someone, possibly following government fiat, deemed such practices no longer acceptable.

[jayne lee wilson]

What annoys me about relying on supermarket deliveries is things arriving on their use by date - Sainsburys kindly delivered some smoked haddock last week at 6pm that needed to be eaten by midnight

Maybe freeze it and have something else that night?

I find there is usually a few days' grace about use-by dates if you keep the food in the Cool Box (that handy halfway house between freezer and fridge) - I guess fish could be more date-sensitive, but I can't eat any of it anyway...

[Serial_Apologist]

Maybe freeze it and have something else that night?

I find there is usually a few days' grace about use-by dates if you keep the food in the Cool Box (that handy halfway house between freezer and fridge) - I guess fish could be more date-sensitive, but I can't eat any of it anyway...

Really, jayne?????

[jayne lee wilson]

Really, jayne?????

Nasty Colitis in my 20s/30s, 5'10 and 45 kilos once, had to be careful ever since, IBS now....
And strictly no fish!

[Serial_Apologist]

Nasty Colitis in my 20s/30s, 5'10 and 45 kilos once, had to be careful ever since, IBS now....
And strictly no fish!

May I offer my commiserations.