Redjake

In honor of warrrreagl's post, I have a similar story to tell. This happened earlier this year in January. Still brings a cold shiver down my spine.

So me and Lasereth head out to the local Wal-Mart to do some last minute shopping. But wait, the previous sentence avoids the truth! Actually, we had taken back some video games that we didn't want that we had received for Christmas and we had store credit. So why not blow the store credit? After circling the parking lot which can only be described as Gargantuan, we find a parking space about 80 kilos from the store.

The male species of Homo-Erectus immediately drifts to the electronics section of Wal-Mart; this is the only reason one would come to Wal-Mart with the intent of buying something for oneself!

So we get back there, and look around, and nothing really stands out. Some DVDs maybe, but nothing worth spending money on. So we plan to head over to the automotive section and make fun of the rice-rocket shit they always carry and have in stock.

On the way, at the inside corner of the gigantic rectangle walkway that circumnagivates the entire store, sat The Couch.

Anyone who has attended or visited a university of higher learning knows that a Couch is the Shit to the fifth. Everyone needs a Couch. Better yet, this one was opened, looked to be returned. Super-glue was splattered along the top of the Couch, very reminiscent to Pollock's revered style of painting. A chunk of the right corner was missing because of what looked like a dog's bad day. Perfect! A leather couch, that is in sub-par condition...must be a dream come true!

Me and Lasereth sit down in it, and it's every bit as comfortable as the critics say. We didn't want to get up. It was even one of those fold-out couches - the kind that turn into a bed. But one thing that can always persuade Man to get his ass off the Couch: Money. How much did it cost?

So I stand up and look around for a price tag...and there, gleaming in the sunlight, or unnaturally bright halogens in the rafters of the store, stands the sign: "Special! Fold-out leather couch, 29.99!"

Lasereth and I immediately sit back down on the couch. No one will take this damn couch from under us. They will have to carry us out of the store on it. What should we do? We decided that if we went and asked the representative to take it to the front, someone would try to buy it out from under us. Besides, we were driving my Cavalier.. You can't fit a huge leather couch in a Cavalier. So we do what any warm-blooded American would do. Haul ass home and find a truck.

We ask around and it looks like the Grandpa's 1977 Cheyenne Super-10 Pickup truck is available. We blister down to my dad's shop, and get the Super-10. It has a full tank of gas, just enough to drive to Wal-Mart and back. We make our way down the expressway, weaving in and out of traffic. The boat was at full sail. "30 knotts starboard! Reel in the sail, upon the horizon sets a storm in our path!" I shout sailing terms that are complete bullshit and make no sense, for we were in the Boat! Wal-Mart ahoy, I shout! Drop ye anchor! My head sticks out of the side window of the truck, wind blowing through my hair as the sweet salty smell of....the nearby landfill fill my nostrils!

We arrive at Wal-Mart, dock the S.S. Super-10 at the loading zone, and run into the store. I ask around about the Couch and how I can get it to the truck. A manager in the front of the store said to go to the Couch and find a nearby sales clerk and for them to radio in for the guy that has the huge dolly that is made for Couches. I run to the back of the store, amidst the masses of Christmas shoppers, and make it to the Couch. 'Tis still there! W00t I said to myself. I find the nearest clerk and ask them to radio in for the dolly furniture guy. The soldier grabs the phone "This is Tango Five Seven we have a request for Anti-Armor support at coordinates four three niner!" The guy assured me that backup would arive shortly, and to sit on the Couch itself. He said they would have Five Five Sixers and Pineapples.

So after 15 minutes, a guy bursts through the double doors of the docking bay and pulls the gigantic Couch dolly over to me. "Are you the guy that wants the couch?" "Yeah, that's me." "We need to make haste, 'tis forsaken these lands." I nod with agreement. We load the Couch onto the dolly, and make our way to the front of the store. On the way sits a nice lady in an electric wheel chair in the middle of the aisle. This is one big fucking dolly with a Couch; we were stuck. "Can you please move ma'am?" asks the guy with the Dolly of Doom. The lady is asleep. In-fucking-credible. Her stewardess/daughter finally comes and wakes the lady up, and she fires on all four cylinders to another aisle to fall asleep. We navigate through The Shit, pushing people and items out of the way. Then it happened. A side of the Couch clipped the 100-foot high stack of gigantic remote control cars. "Mike! Take him out! Bring him down, Mike!" I shout as the immortal stack of remote control cars starts to sway back and forth. But it was too late. The stack crumbles, the cars making a racket that 747s envy. "I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me!" shouts Mike, the dolly operator. "A day may come when the courage of Men fail . . . when we forsake our friends, and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. On the Eve of Christmas Eve, we FIGHT!" And with a swift motion of his arms, he begins to stack the remote controlled cars back up to their original positions. I help, and within 10 minutes we have them restored to their original order.

We finally make it to the Cash Register of Doom. What can only be described as....well, the Saruman of cashiers is waiting for us. "This couch can't be 30 bucks." I stare in disbelief. "Couch is with a capital C, ma'am!" I shout as Mike the dolly operator grabs the barcode-gun and rings up the Couch. Total? 376.29.

"That can't be right!" I say. It says right here it's 30 bucks! It's an opened item, and the sign was on it! The sign describes it! It's 30 bucks! Saruman calls in for reinforcements. 3 different store managers come, eventually bringing the manager of the entire store over. He explains that in no way would Wal-Mart ever sell a leather Couch that folds out into a bed for 30 bucks. "But the sign says 29.99! And it describes it!" I say. The guy messes with the register, and fixes the price. "I'm sorry, the price came up wrong." I breathe a sigh of relief. The store manager says, "we can give you 10% off! It's only 330 bucks now!"

"I'm poor. I'm in college. I need this Couch." The manager says, "well, I'm sorry son, but we can't sell this Couch for 30 dollars." I say I can't afford it and walk out of the store, and inform Lasereth, who was waiting in the docking area with the truck now, that all is lost. We leave, sans-Couch, in disbelief that we didn't get the Couch. Who made the sign, then?

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the_marq

Complain to the head office. I have a friend who is a Wal-Mart Manager, and apparently all Wal-Marties are afraid of "THE HEAD OFFICE."

Just a thought....

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#3 in a series

Lebell

I am not normally one to argue over a pricing error (such as the 00 priced dayplanners), but it seems like the couch was accurately described and properly priced.

I might be tempted to go to court over that one.

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aurigus

If it's too good to be true... then it probably is

Great story though, I love your prose!

aurigus

Except what law was broken?

Stolen unabashedly from http://www.saskjustice.gov.sk.ca/cpb/buyretail.shtml

It is about Canadian laws but US laws are set up the same way regarding this.

Vincentt

Yeah I think you'd have a case, I wouldn't have left with out unleashing hellfire.

Lebell

I would have to look up the laws, but there is there are laws addressing false advertising and the "bait 'n switch" that unscrupulous stores will try to pull.

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"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." – C. S. Lewis

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FL8ME

I don't care how nice something is if it has a dog bite and, ahem, "super glue" stains on it. WalMart is nuts to try to squeeze 330 bucks out of somebody for that mess. If the Mona Lisa was covered in mystery stains and had a bite missing from it, the damn thing probably wouldn't fetch fifty cents. I know that's a bit of an exageration, but they were only willing to cut ten percent off? The worst part about it is they can afford to be pricks. Some trailor schmuck is gonna cash in their food stamps and put that monstrosity right next to their big screen tv. People are always going to shop there, and even if they lose your business it doesn't matter.

/End angry, incoherent post

Rodney

Probably unrelated, but all is obviously not well in Wal-Mart-Land. The VP of Operations is generally the guy in charge of, well, operating -- making sure things happen in the stores and such.

Wal-mart has an electronic timesheet application for employees, and there've been lawsuits and firings over first-level managers removing hours from employees records (making them work for free) to meet their cost/efficiency targets. Wal-mart claimed that top management knew nothing about this. Maybe it did....

Superbelt

Well, that's what you get when you shop at Wal-mart.

My in-laws bought a used F350 4 years ago for 15,000 as advertised. When they got there the dealer said they must have messed up in the advertisment, the truck was supposed to be listed at 18,500.
They gave it to them for the 15k.

This isn't canada
The fact that you committed to it already (By enlisting the support of a truck), they advertisted the price and you got to the cash register with that price tag on it gave you a very strong case to argue shenanigans.

aurigus

False advertising laws are put out by the FTC, Federal Trade Commission. I'm no expert, but they deal mainly with Print, Radio, and Television ads and not in-store advertising. There are deceptive practices laws around too, but good luck getting a conviction on a "mistake" of mis-labelling a product. Just because you pick an item up at the store, and they tell you it is a different price at the register doesn't mean anything illegal happened. If you paid for it, took it home, and then they called you up and said, wait, you owe us $100 more for that, then I would say you have a case.

I agree that the store is crazy trying to sell a crappy couch for that much. But just because they are crazy doesn't mean they did something illegal.

billege

There are many different state laws regarding pricing mistakes, you'd have to look up your own to see what kind of legs you had to stand on. My home state gave you the difference between the advertised price, and the real price, up to five dollars. Big whoop there. It also specified you could only buy one item at the "wrong" price, and thus get the $5 only once. Thus, if a stack of leather coats was signed at $00.10, you could buy one at the real price, and get $5 off.

Depending on the store, the manager, and how customers deal with this kind of thing, I've seen incredible deals go out the door. I've also seen incredible deals remain just that, a deal, that would have been incredible had it happened.

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ICER

That is one well told story. Well done my friend. You need to send it (And I mean THAT story) to the home office. They will laugh so hard they would probably give you the Couch.

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MikeyChalupa

I was watching Alien: Resurrection, the Director's Cut from the Quadrilogy box set the other day. There was a funny line that wasn't in the theatrical edition. Ripley's Clone is learning about what's happened in the years since Ripley died. She expresses her fear that the evil and all-powerful Weyland-Yutani corporation will again attempt to capture and study another Xenomorph with the usual disastrous results.

Dr. Wren tells her, "They went under decades ago. Bought out by Wal-Mart."

Oddly enough, I bought the box set at Wal-Mart.

-Mikey

Dostoevsky

I disagree with aurigus on this one. I think Redjake has the law on his side on this one. He could threaten to litigate, but for a $300 couch Wal-Mart would just laugh at him. They may also give him the couch to make him go away.

The reason I say this is because of what I learned in the business law classes I took in undergraduate and graduate school. In order for a contract to be binding, there must be offer, acceptance and consideration.

Wal-Mart posting a price on an item is definitely an offer. There is no way they can dance around this. They must sell merchandise at the prices they advertise. The FTC has been cracking down on this type of shit for years.

Redjake finally making it to the cashier with the coach and eagerly attempting to pay definitely shows his acceptance.

The fact that Redjake is an adult, not mentally challenged (I don't think ), and aware of what he is getting for his money means that he has displayed consideration.

In my eyes, there was definitely offer, acceptance and consideration here. I will email this link to my buddy in law school at Pitt later and see what he thinks.

Sorry about the bullshit Redjake, I feel for ya. You should have gotten loud and belligerent in there, you were in the right.

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It is not advisable, James, to venture unsolicited opinions. You should spare yourself the embarrassing discovery of their exact value to your listener.

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Fremen

Damn, Red, that sucks. Sounded like a good deal, too. Perfect couch for a student.

Storywise, you're up there with fhq and clavus, imho.

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bendsley

dammit, now ye have me talking pirate for the rest o' the day ye bastard! aaarrrhhhggg.

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vox_rox

Okay, this is true, but not binding. But more importantly to the store is that false representation of price is punishable by fines, EVEN IF THEY ARE MISTAKES.

That's right, they can refuse to sell you something at the price posted, but then Consumer and Commercial Affairs (a Federal agency), as well as the Competition Bureau (a Federal Retail Policing agency), can both swoop in and levy enormous fines, drawfing the cost of the inital error.

In such a case, if you remind the store manager of such possibilities, they will often sell you the item, then quickly make adjustments on the corporate side rather than face the wrath of the Comp. Bureau, a rather nasty and unscrupulous bunch if you have ever had dealings with them (I have).

So, are they obligated to sell at a mistaken price? No. Could it cost them $100,000 or many times that amount just to prove they're right? Yes. You still wouldn't get your item, but things would certainly change at the store level, and there'd be a few clerks and managers posting their resumes on Monster.ca!

Peace,

Pierre

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Janey

Very interesting thread. and Pierre, I got my recent gig via Monster.CA, so it does work.

Redjake, your prose is excellent. I like your use of hyperbole. My dad has an Olds Delta 88, circa 1979. It has a 4 bbl carb, and I can make it downtown and back on a single tank of gas too. Yes he still has it. It's a year younger than me. A very lovely light creamy rust colour.

merkerguitars

Damn, alot of effort for nothing. At least you wasted an employee's time. I don't see why they wouldn't give an open box not in mint condition couch. Used furniture is a tough sell, they would almost have to sell it for $30, if its there in a few weeks try bargaining with them again.

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Dostoevsky

Well I just talked with my buddy in law school about the offer, acceptance, consideration shit and he told me that legally, Wal-Mart doesn't have to sell you items at the advertised price. He told me that it isn't actually offer until you get to the counter and begin making the transaction with a person. So as much as it sucks, I have to admit I was wrong about this one. You could have leveraged what vox_rox said against them if you had known about the fines during the incident, too bad. Bastards.

Not to hi-jack your thread, but I have a similar account that ended well for me. Basically, I was in a Finish Line and noticed a really nice pair of jeans marked $10. What the fuck you gonna do? Pick 'em up, pick 'em up. So, as I was checking out, the cashier/manager told me that my total was $58. I was like "naw, these are $10, check the tag cuz." He got a little pissy and tried to wiggle out by explaining how they'd been mis-marked, yada yada, but I held firm and got some kick ass jeans for $10. Too bad your Wal-Mart drama didn't end like my Finish Line story.

__________________
Pride is the recognition of the fact that you are your own highest value and, like all of man’s values, it has to be earned.


It is not advisable, James, to venture unsolicited opinions. You should spare yourself the embarrassing discovery of their exact value to your listener.

Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

vox_rox

Yup, I know, got my current gig via mosnter as well. It's a perfect example of technology actually working for people insteas of the other way around.

I know this is way off topic, but I had to say something.

Peace,

Pierre

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There is no such thing as strong coffee - only weak people.
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StormBerlin

"bait and switch" would only apply if they used the couch in advertising (advertising it for 30 dollars) and then not having any for that price to begin with. The purpose is to get people into the store.

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