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

[Vausch]

If there are any artists that use traditional media here, you probably heard about this. For everyone else:

Staples recently held a deal on their online store where Copic markers, which are usually insanely expensive, were going for nearly 95% off retail prices. The 72 piece sets, which usually run $350 or more were selling for between $15 and $36 each depending on the package type.

Many people (myself included) purchases these because this is a deal too good to pass up. However, Staples has refused to honour any of these purchases. People have been refunded, or the orders simply never went through and no money was taken out after the order was placed.

Personally, I'd rather have gotten my markers than I would a refund. However, despite the massive backlash at this, nobody is getting them for the listed prices and Staples has removed all Copics from their site for the time being.

What do you all think? Should they honour the deal for those that placed the purchase or are people out of luck?

 

[TWRule]

This really has nothing to do with ethics. Corporations can't make 'promises'. Either they are bound by law to honor the deal or, more likely, this was just a mistake and Staples is within its rights to reverse it.

Honestly, it's pretty obvious the way you describe the situation that this was a 'too good to be true' thing, indicating it was just a mistaken listing on their online store, so even by common-sense standards it wouldn't make sense for Staples to be in any way obliged to honor the deals. 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?

 

[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.

 

[lacktheknack]

That's a LOT of loss they'd take for a mistake someone in marketing did. It's such a large loss that I'm not surprised that they'd rather risk customers than lose all that money.

I think that at least an apology coupon is in order (although not for savings that major), but I can't blame them for putting their foot down on this one.

 

[lacktheknack]

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.

 

[FalloutJack]

Actually, I have to ask how in the heck anyone made a mistake quite like that. If that's a mistake, then someone there is REALLY bad at their job. I feel as though Staples should take the hit and then go through a downsize to remove whoever was responsible. Generally, that's what companies do anyway when they lose money, they trickle down the loss until it cuts some leaves off of a branch.

Snip

Given the circumstances, I think I would believe what these gentlemen and women were thinking: "Oh, this is a really nice sale." No reason to believe otherwise, so no question of conscience.

 

[Vausch]

This really has nothing to do with ethics. Corporations can't make 'promises'. Either they are bound by law to honor the deal or, more likely, this was just a mistake and Staples is within its rights to reverse it.

Honestly, it's pretty obvious the way you describe the situation that this was a 'too good to be true' thing, indicating it was just a mistaken listing on their online store, so even by common-sense standards it wouldn't make sense for Staples to be in any way obliged to honor the deals. 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?

At Walmart, we HAD to honour the deal if someone put something back in the wrong spot and the price indicated it was cheaper where it was stored. So, yes. I would make a big stink, especially if the price was LISTED as the huge discount on the product I wanted.

 

[Vausch]

If for no other reason than protecting their reputation, they ought to honor the deal. However, they are, of course, well within their rights to not do so, provided they refund in full the amount people paid.

I'm curious, and I'm never curious; have they released a statement of any kind related to this incident? It seems like something you'd want to get out in front of.

They have. Their facebook pages are littered with comments on it and they've issued apologies to people that bought them, including me.

 

[Vausch]

Wait wait wait wait.

This sounds like a mistake. You're making it sound like Staples legitimately lowered their prices and then withdrew it.
I'd wait for an official statement, because there's no way they'd lower the prices by 95%.

They're claiming it was a mistake. It was listed as 15 to 36 for the sets, which are usually 350. The sets then ran out of stock, but then came back up with the same prices in tact.

 

[mitchell271]

In Ontario at least, it's a provincial law to follow the ticket prices, even if it's incorrect. So yeah, follow it.

The only other time I've ever referenced that was a a con when a customer was saying that a poster was ticketed for $15 when it should have been $30 so I stepped in and told my boss about the law, saving that woman $15. It got us lots of publicity though!

 

[Voulan]

If it was a mistake, then they have every right to withdraw the sale. After all, as you say, they cost far more than they were selling them, so they would have made a huge loss in that respect.

 

[Lieju]

This really has nothing to do with ethics. Corporations can't make 'promises'. Either they are bound by law to honor the deal or, more likely, this was just a mistake and Staples is within its rights to reverse it.

Honestly, it's pretty obvious the way you describe the situation that this was a 'too good to be true' thing, indicating it was just a mistaken listing on their online store, so even by common-sense standards it wouldn't make sense for Staples to be in any way obliged to honor the deals. 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?

At Walmart, we HAD to honour the deal if someone put something back in the wrong spot and the price indicated it was cheaper where it was stored. So, yes. I would make a big stink, especially if the price was LISTED as the huge discount on the product I wanted.

I'm assuming the person making the mistake would have to pay for the loss? Because otherwise you'd have a situation where employers move stuff to give discounts to friends.

 

[Fireface]

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?[/quote]

In Australia if this happens in a super market you actually get 1 of the product for free so

 

[Abomination]

Hell no they shouldn't have to honour what is clearly a mistake that is too good to be true.

Selling those products at that price would be an act of charity.

 

[2xDouble]

This really has nothing to do with ethics. Corporations can't make 'promises'. Either they are bound by law to honor the deal or, more likely, this was just a mistake and Staples is within its rights to reverse it.

Honestly, it's pretty obvious the way you describe the situation that this was a 'too good to be true' thing, indicating it was just a mistaken listing on their online store, so even by common-sense standards it wouldn't make sense for Staples to be in any way obliged to honor the deals. 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?

At Walmart, we HAD to honour the deal if someone put something back in the wrong spot and the price indicated it was cheaper where it was stored. So, yes. I would make a big stink, especially if the price was LISTED as the huge discount on the product I wanted.

That's not exactly true. There's a hard limit on how big a hit the store, even Walmart, will take on an item. They will not sell an item for below 50%-60% of it's listed price, unless the item is of low value (typically less than $20). There are times when "good customer service" simply isn't worth the loss, and this scenario is one of them.

Furthermore, there is an expectation of customer interference in shelf pricing. If an item was obviously placed in the wrong spot by a customer, and can be proven as such (i.e. clear shelf labels), the store is not obligated to honor the lower price. Otherwise customers will just pick a price they like, move the product they want to that spot, then demand the store honor it. This has happened and continues to happen everywhere people are dumb. ...or rather, "everywhere. People are dumb."

 

[LegendaryVKickr]

Ethically, no. I think it would be wrong for them to pretty much let money walk out of their pockets for a small clerical error. It's a small error that would have forced potential layoffs or problems for the Staples employees.

So, is it ethically proper to get your bargain if it means even one person can't put food on the table for their kid? Is this discount worth a child going hungry? Not saying that's the definite result, but it's a possibility.

If there was something in their store policy like "we honor all mistake deals!" Than it would at least be ambiguous in terms of morality. If there's nothing about it in their store policy, they have no reason to do so, and certainly shouldn't.

 

[Icehearted]

Small businesses used to treat their customers like guests, and would often go out of their way to be accommodating. They took nothing for granted, and if that meant getting called out on a mistake, they would honor it, because they honored their customer, their reputation, and they understood that sometimes they had to eat it to remain in good standing.

The attitude about the customer is always right, about honoring their agreement in a transaction has seen a messed up reversal. For every one mistreated customer (whatever that means in any given context) there are double or more that will continue to do business anyway. These acceptable losses coupled with store loyalty, which is in and of itself an idiotic attitude, mean that they can pretty much do whatever they want, and all issues are typically on the consumer rather than on the company.

There are exceptions; I've never been disappointed by Newegg or by Amazon. They're always good at making things right, even when it's a matter of honoring a price mistake, because the agreed upon transaction stated they would honor the price as advertised, believing customer satisfaction came first, and that they were responsible for the error, not the customer.