Database error put $0.00 on price for item

People truly are ridiculous. He might be justified if the price was off by a few dollars, but anyone with common sense should be able to tell that $0.00 was an error. Silly customers. When will they learn to think?

When will they learn to think?

They DO think. They constantly think about how they can rip-off businesses. The manta about "the customer is always right" has been hammered into them so much that they actually believe they ARE always right, even in the face of mountains of evidence otherwise. Think lawsuits against McDonald's because coffee is hot.

What customers don't realize is that when they click purchase, contractually they are merely making an offer--you still have to accept this offer (by charging their card and shipping) before anything becomes binding.

LifeinAsia, don't get me started on the McDonald's coffee lawsuit. The fact that you are even mentioning it in this thread means that you do not truly understand that case and what the issue was.

I agree though, the OP's customer is being ridiculous.

[edited by: MWpro at 11:19 pm (utc) on Mar. 4, 2009]

Think lawsuits against McDonald's because coffee is hot.

Nope, because McDonald's coffee was FAR hotter than just about any other restaurant's coffee... scalding hot. Hundreds of their customers (and employees) had suffered. Still McD kept paying out small compensatory claims, a few hundreds or thousands of dollars a time.

They knew coffee was often passed thru cars, over the laps of passengers including the old woman who suffered pretty severe burns. Even McD didn't contest the severity of her burns.

This was a perfect use of punitive damages. I understand they now serve coffee at about 175 degrees not 195 degrees. Coffee coming from my home machine is about 150 degrees, I'm guessing.

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It's well established in law that when a newspaper, for example, misprints a car price, the seller isn't bound, "The law doesn't like windfalls" is a phrase that comes back from my long-ago career in that profession. Otherwise a simple typo could destroy a car dealer while giving sharp-eyed readers an undeserved windfall.

The subject comes up about every two years here.

It's well established in law that when a newspaper, for example, misprints a car price, the seller isn't bound, "The law doesn't like windfalls" is a phrase that comes back from my long-ago career in that profession. Otherwise a simple typo could destroy a car dealer while giving sharp-eyed readers an undeserved windfall.

Absolutely, because advertisements are rarely found to be offers, but merely invitations to make offers.

One exception to this rule is where the advertisement was part of a "bait-and-switch" scheme... courts, in these situations, sometimes bend the rules to punish manipulative merchants.

If it wasn't for employees or customers, business would be really fun :)

Good thread and it reminds me of a recent event in my local supermarket.

I was at teh checkout and this guy at teh other till passed a pack of ham to teh cashier, only this pack was adjoined to another pack, so two packs that hadnt been split.

She pointed this out to the man, who went from zero to mental in 3 seconds flats screaming and shouting claming that its one pack and he demands the right to have it.

Supervisor came over and ruled against him splitting the packs, as a result the security team had to become involved.

I stood and watched this and noticed he was well dressed and middle aged 50+, not the sort of scabby customer id expect to try this on as he obviously was.

eventually he accpeted the fact and refused to buy one pack, how low can some people go ?

In a previous recession, between IT jobs I worked as a bouncer in a club (mostly 25 - 45 age group). The occasional youngsters might try and blag their way in but paid up with good grace when invariably spotted. Smartly clothed city types were a pain in the a*** always expecting something for nothing. I remember one very well dressed lady screaming at me, calling me a fascist, because I dared to suggest that she might like to pay to come in.

Well got an answer from him he cussed me out. Not gonna waste my time answering him but I think he acted as Essex_boy example.

People act plain stupid over nothing just hard for me to go there and even wonder what goes through their mind.

Its simple. When you think like your customer you have to think of that guy you know who is always trying to scam stuff for free. Then just imagine it is that guy on the other end. They know you were not offering them for $0.00. On my terms and conditions page I have prices are subject to change.

That's a funny story. I had the same thing happen a couple of years ago. When they emailed demanding the items for free or they would report me, cussed me out... yada, yada, yada. I emailed him and told him to pound sand, and if he ever tried to order our products again they would be quickly refunded, regardless of what it was. Go ahead and report me for refusing to fill your order for 1k worth of product for $0. The BBB would laugh in his face.

When a car dealer mistakenly advertises a luxury car for $5,000 instead of the intended $50,000 he would probably not be bound.

The more complex situation occurs when a travel auction site offers $5,000 airline seats for $500 or even $50. Nowadays, who is to say what an obvious error is on those sites?

I remember some airline screwing up about 8 years ago and almost giving away seats for a few hours. Word spread quickly via the web.

LifeinAsia wrote:

They DO think. They constantly think about how they can rip-off businesses. The manta about "the customer is always right" has been hammered into them so much that they actually believe they ARE always right, even in the face of mountains of evidence otherwise.

Sadly true.

Trade is the basis of capitalism, but trade involves a value for value exchange for both parties.

If it's about either party getting knocked over the head, then it's not trade but something else.

And selling to these people, can be dangerous for the bottom line, with a minority of those, that just will not stop...

On this theme, readers might find this thread [webmasterworld.com] interesting also.

My wife is a operations / customer service manager at the largest food /retail store in town. Let me tell you how wrong the customer is... selfish, demanding, rude, inconsiderate, you name it.

The worst part is the same people week after week complaining about something, trying to get something for nothing.

I'm not surprised at all. Many years ago my first job during college was for one of the big discount retail stores (think "Bullseye".. heh). It's a daily routine for some people to come in and try to get away with something. I remember this one gal was a practitioner of "sticker swapping" - she'd take the tag off of something cheap and stick it on something expensive. I was alerted to this by one of the stock managers and I refused to sell her the item (I eventually won some sort of award because of the dollar amount). Her life was to basically go around to all the stores and do this same scam. They see the same people over and over doing the same thing. If they're lucky they get an inexperienced kid to ring them up and they do whatever they can to try and get away with it.

On the flip side, I have often been on the receiving end of what I feel are dishonest practices by retailers, or they just plain don't give you what you paid for. I think some honest people just get fed up and start complaining - they're not scam artists, they just want what they paid for.

bwnbwn - If there are bugs in your system, customers will find them. Some of those hot deals web sites make it a sport! College kids with little funds but lots of time to browse and play video games. Its partly the shopping cart's fault too that even allows a $0.00 item to be added in the first place. Need better validation and exception reporting.

Anyway, creating an uncomfortable or confrontational situation is often a tactic fraudsters use to get customer service to make an exception to the rule.

[edited by: lorax at 4:04 pm (utc) on Mar. 16, 2009]

Nope, because McDonald's coffee was FAR hotter than just about any other restaurant's coffee... scalding hot.

Would you rather have a hot coffee or a cold coffee? I'd rather have mine hot. If I burn myself it's my fault because I sipped it to fast or I squeezed the cup to hard.

Kicked the dog for ruining my breakfast again.

The story about sticker fraud reminded me of when I worked for a retail chain. Our managers were required to "buddy" with store managers and my manager's store had a nice instance of that.

Woman actually forged the stickers for end of day price reductions (not barcoded). If she had stuck to stuff which a short shelf life she could have got away with it but she got greedy and tried it on with wines and spirits which were NEVER reduced like that.

Your cart software is deficient in letting you enter a wrong price. There should be some extra logic that alerts you if the price is above or below some value, or deviates by more than some percentage from the average for that department.

g1smd
Good thought I am looking into now the cart software to not allow any orders processed below a certin price $0.00 being one of them. Why didn't I think of that jeeze sometimes me wonder about meself.

It also doesn't hurt to have something along the lines of a sales may be canceled at the discretion of the management in your policy.

Many B&M stores have a notice saying that if the price at the checkout system differs from that on the shelf, you pay the lower of the two. If you are sure of your systems, you are able to eat the risk... but that all depends.

The other alternative is that old favourite: E&OE

The guy probably thought he'd found the deal of his life, told all his friends about it and was waiting for his loot when you spoiled his fun. Now he just feels stupid, so obviously he's not going to like you very much. :)

Last time I moved house, we had to unload the van as quickly as possible because of traffic regulations, then started bringing everything in bit by bit. I was watching my stuff when some guy walked straight up to my aeron chair and started pawing it, thinking someone must have left it on the street (on a main road, next to boxes upon boxes of stuff, a bed and, oh yes, a very angry person!).
Same thing - he did not react well when I told him to leave my chair alone!

Sometimes people are just blinded by greed.