on Tuesday I went into a very large electronics store and wanted to use a coupon that gave me a lot of money off of the final bill if I used my credit card. unfortunately when I got there, and after I shopped for like an hour I went to the register and got abig surprise. They told me that they would not honor the coupon because they said there was a typo error. They didn't have any signs of anywhere in the store, no signs on the front of the building and no message anywhere online. I think this is bait and switch. is it? Can I do anything about this?
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Consumer Law, Warranties is this bait and switch?
- Thread Starter Jankly
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army judge
Super Moderator
I hope you chose NOT to purchase the product.
That is your best defense against people who fail to appreciate your custom.
That said, you can forget about it and move on.
I wasn't bait and switch.
People and companies are allowed to make mistakes.
If that fails to satisfy you, sue them.
Hire a lawyer, or waste your time in small claims court.
The takes the Honey Badger approach in most things, (which is better for all of us), "law just don't care".
The legal maxim, so to speak, is the "law takes little, if any notice of this".
I didn't buy anything. I looked in google and found out i am just one of many people who got baited by this company. I think somebody will probably do something like a class action because of it. I don't know but it was not right. It just doesn't pay to sue somebody in small claims court for this. They probably know it. But I think they are going to have a lot of problems. Thank you for telling me what I did not want to accept. But it looks like maybe I will have the last laugh even if I just get like $5 in a class action. Thanks
fredrikklaw
Moderator
Still have the coupon?
JANKLY:
It would be more in the realms of intentional misrepresentation just as a starting point and you let them off easy because what they did was and is actionable and I can think of at least four valid causes of action just off the top of my head.
If you still have the coupon, you might want to pay the store a return visit, pick up the item in question but instead of going to the cashier, ask to speak to the head honcho. You should then present him (or her) with the coupon and DEMAND, not ask, that the store honour the terms of the contract that has been formed and which was also formed at your previous visit, only for the clerk to opt to arbitrarily breach the contract. Let him also know that you are there to give them the benefit of the doubt as well as extending undue courtesy by your good faith dealing.
A coupon carries almost all the essential elements constituting a valid offer, and an irrevocable offer at that I might add, and an offer is said to invite acceptance, which acceptance when made, consummates a valid contract.
Similarly here, the store made a very specific and valid offer which included the merchandise, price, quantity, delivery, methods of payment, and, the offer was irrevocable for the period stated. By the same token, your conduct was a definite impression of agreement and assent to the terms and so a contract was formed and there are no ifs, ands, and buts about it.
fredrikklaw
JANKLY:
It would be more in the realms of intentional misrepresentation just as a starting point and you let them off easy because what they did was and is actionable and I can think of at least four valid causes of action just off the top of my head.
If you still have the coupon, you might want to pay the store a return visit, pick up the item in question but instead of going to the cashier, ask to speak to the head honcho. You should then present him (or her) with the coupon and DEMAND, not ask, that the store honour the terms of the contract that has been formed and which was also formed at your previous visit, only for the clerk to opt to arbitrarily breach the contract. Let him also know that you are there to give them the benefit of the doubt as well as extending undue courtesy by your good faith dealing.
A coupon carries almost all the essential elements constituting a valid offer, and an irrevocable offer at that I might add, and an offer is said to invite acceptance, which acceptance when made, consummates a valid contract.
Similarly here, the store made a very specific and valid offer which included the merchandise, price, quantity, delivery, methods of payment, and, the offer was irrevocable for the period stated. By the same token, your conduct was a definite impression of agreement and assent to the terms and so a contract was formed and there are no ifs, ands, and buts about it.
fredrikklaw
A fantastic, accurate response and excellent advice. Perhaps we are talking about Best Buy, which has made the news recently and it isn't exactly a stellar performance by their marketing department. Complaints and articles about what happened are all over the Internet. In short, they printed a very generous coupon and claim that they somehow overlooked errors including:
(1) The Best Buy Coupon Duration was for one day and not seven days as listed;
(2) The Coupon was not limited to one instance of use per purchaser
(3) All Mastercard cards could be used for discount benefits - even gift cards one could purchase in bulk.
Some articles that reported that some Best Buy stores were mobbed on Monday by numerous people exploiting the loopholes in #2 and #3. As a result, the company rescinded the offer but may have done so in a superbly slipshod fashion. Failure to provide timely notice on the home page of their website, in failing to use their email list (that I can tell), by failing to post a conspicuous notice in or around the store. Remarkable.
Betty3
Well-Known Member
Geez!
Your article was very well written, thelawprofessor!
Your article was very well written, thelawprofessor!
Thanks for the compliment. I wrote that article very quickly. Regarding the error... we are talking about several errors and on so many levels. Difficult to tell what happened here and why the follow up to shut down the coupon was so poor. I have sympathy for the in-store employees. They must have taken some serious heat from customers and had absolutely nothing to do with the mistakes that were made.
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