Retail sales legislation

[speedog]

We had an interesting discussion in our household this morning regarding retail sales and legislation that applies to such and I did some snooping and found the following in Alberta and this may be a nationwide thing as well...

1. There is no scanner code legislation, yes there is a voluntary Scanning Code of Practice but it is voluntary only for retailers and participating retailers should have some notice posted at their operation stating they are part of that voluntary practice.
2. Returning to a store later to get a refund on an item you bought earlier at a more expensive price and which is now selling at a lower price, on sale or not - there is no legislation regarding this practice, it is up to the individual retailer to set their own rules. It is suggested that that store's return/refund policy should be posted somewhere for the public to view but there is no law regarding this.
3. Return/refunds - there is no legislation in place regarding returns/refunds. Again, this is up to the individual retail operation and again, it is suggested that that store's return/refund policy should be posted somewhere for the public to view but there is no law regarding this.

I wonder how many people are not aware of the above three things in Alberta.

[Disoblige]

A lot, particularly #1 with the voluntary scanning code of practice. Bigger places like Wal-Mart, Superstore, London Drugs, Canadian Tire do it but there are also a lot that don't participate, like Liquor Depot. All from personal experience btw haha. I wouldn't use it on a small business but I have no issues bringing it up for a major retail chain.

[ExtraSlow]

I can't think of a way government could legislate anything that would be truly beneficial to the customer in this regard. This isn't the role or expertise of any level of government.

[Buster]

governments should stay out of private transactions.

[speedog]

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governments should stay out of private transactions.

In the three cases I identified below they are but there are many people who are under the false assumption that certain types of sales legislation exist.

[ExtraSlow]

Maybe I misunderstood your original post. I agree people are poorly educated about the law and the role of government.

[zhao]

1) dont care.
2) there is no law that says a retailer gets to summon you back if the price goes up after you bought it either. Sometimes it goes on sale after u bought it, sometimes it skyrockets and you lol and put it on kijiji and profit. Against this because people are stupid and I dont want to pay for their stupidity.
3) dont care we dont have this. It's illogical to think you can return a steak, or a tank of gas. Infact like #2, I am very against the government stepping in for this right now.

We have a fair trading act in alberta which governs a lot of what matters. bait and switch, different price on the till vs on the shelf, shady advertising, etc.

If you want to advocate for anything to be improved, think big. Advocate for stuff that actually affects people enough it could make or break them. Advocate for consumer protection surrounding building construction and renovations. Right now u can buy a condo, it can fall over, and because the company that built it changes its name every 6 days the company/owners/workers are untouchable.

[speedog]

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1) dont care.
2) there is no law that says a retailer gets to summon you back if the price goes up after you bought it either. Sometimes it goes on sale after u bought it, sometimes it skyrockets and you lol and put it on kijiji and profit. Against this because people are stupid and I dont want to pay for their stupidity.
3) dont care we dont have this. It's illogical to think you can return a steak, or a tank of gas. Infact like #2, I am very against the government stepping in for this right now.

We have a fair trading act in alberta which governs a lot of what matters. bait and switch, different price on the till vs on the shelf, shady advertising, etc.

If you want to advocate for anything to be improved, think big. Advocate for stuff that actually affects people enough it could make or break them. Advocate for consumer protection surrounding building construction and renovations. Right now u can buy a condo, it can fall over, and because the company that built it changes its name every 6 days the company/owners/workers are untouchable.

Alberta's Fair Trading Act does not address till/receipt versus shelf pricing - this is unregulated.

[CompletelyNumb]

If you pay attention, SCOPA can be a huge benefit to shoppers at Walmart (and others, but especially there).

Doesnt always work though. I watched a guy try to get an Xbox one s for $20 a few weeks back. Totally legit claim too, employee put wrong tag on the shelf. Manager came down, ripped off the price tag and said no. I believe he had pictures and said he would go to corporate. Good luck to him I guess.

[spikerS]

I remember that refunds or exchanges are completely voluntary by any store as well, and it is up to the store to decide if they want a returns/exchange policy. There is no law that says a merchant must return or exchange an item, no matter how long ago it was purchased. Can't remember where I heard that from, but it was a news story either on the radio or TV.

[zhao]

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Alberta's Fair Trading Act does not address till/receipt versus shelf pricing - this is unregulated.

Just because there is no specific line worded with till/receipt/shelf pricing does not mean it does not fall under the fair trading act under a more general violation.

It could fall under the deceptive advertising regulations of the fair trading act, and as a backup it could fall under the 'estimate' regulations which is exactly what i think it would fall under (ever wonder why the estimate rule says exceeds $100 or exceeds 10% if less than $100?). That's my non-lawyer interpretation though.

But another interesting point is the retail stores i've worked at all made it a point to to state in training that you always defer to the lowest price listed anywhere in the store in any dispute as to what the correct price is. Even the most soulless company i ever worked for (bestbuy) who routinely practiced bait and switch at the location I worked at and numerous other hard to prove trading act violations still educated their employees that price discrepancies were serious business.

[Xtrema]

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I wonder how many people are not aware of the above three things in Alberta.

I'm aware all 3 are voluntary. I don't believe we need regulation on it. In North America, if you don't take at least exchanges, you can be out of business very quick.

[J-hop]

After a few bad experiences I always read the fine print for returns policies.

Definitely don’t support government intervention on any of those points, that would be a nightmare and would be hyper socialist policies

[rx7boi]

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If you pay attention, SCOPA can be a huge benefit to shoppers at Walmart (and others, but especially there).

Doesnt always work though. I watched a guy try to get an Xbox one s for $20 a few weeks back. Totally legit claim too, employee put wrong tag on the shelf. Manager came down, ripped off the price tag and said no. I believe he had pictures and said he would go to corporate. Good luck to him I guess.

Guys like that can get fucked IMO. If you're going to cry about scanning practices, at least have the decency to be reasonable about it.

I' can't recall having any pushback when a sale period is over and the price tag is still there. I'm well aware that the price is for the indicated dates and is now out of said date. I just politely ask if they'd be willing to honor the price. Most times managers just agree and no big fuss has been made.

[Xtrema]

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Guys like that can get fucked IMO. If you're going to cry about scanning practices, at least have the decency to be reasonable about it.

I' can't recall having any pushback when a sale period is over and the price tag is still there. I'm well aware that the price is for the indicated dates and is now out of said date. I just politely ask if they'd be willing to honor the price. Most times managers just agree and no big fuss has been made.

If I recall, scanning practice compensation tops out at $10. So you would get $10 off at best.

[relyt92]

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If I recall, scanning practice compensation tops out at $10. So you would get $10 off at best.

It's to be charged what the shelf price says, minus up to $10 or the item free. So he'd be getting an Xbox One for $10 in that case. Definitely not reasonable.

[Masked Bandit]

I can't see why any government fingers would be needed in this pie. I'm sure there are a lot of commonly held misconceptions out there in the general public but as in other areas of life, I find the general public (myself included) to be mostly idiots.

[Disoblige]

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It's to be charged what the shelf price says, minus up to $10 or the item free. So he'd be getting an Xbox One for $10 in that case. Definitely not reasonable.

This is not how it works. The item is free if it is $10 or under or up to a max of $10 credit if over. So that Xbox would only be $10 off the actual price it is supposed to be, not $10 for the Xbox. So it is very reasonable.

[D'z Nutz]

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It's to be charged what the shelf price says, minus up to $10 or the item free. So he'd be getting an Xbox One for $10 in that case. Definitely not reasonable.

Yeeeah... no. You got it wrong.

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This is not how it works. The item is free if it is $10 or under or up to a max of $10 credit if over. So that Xbox would only be $10 off the actual price it is supposed to be, not $10 for the Xbox. So it is very reasonable.

And it only applies to the first item. If you're buying multiple quantities, the rest are sold at the correct price.

[relyt92]

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This is not how it works. The item is free if it is $10 or under or up to a max of $10 credit if over. So that Xbox would only be $10 off the actual price it is supposed to be, not $10 for the Xbox. So it is very reasonable.

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Yeeeah... no. You got it wrong.

If the item is more than $10, the customer is entitled to $10 off the lowest advertised or displayed price