Word of Advice

12 January 2009

Summer bargain hunting

Did you come home from your holiday to find your letterbox bursting with catalogues, fliers and special offers? Is your eftpos card ready to bounce back into action after a few weeks at the beach?

Summer sales are looking bigger than ever and there will probably be fantastic bargains out there this season. But what if you get to the store and you can’t find the bargain you came for?

The Fair Trading Act prevents stores from misleading customers about their products through advertising on TV, radio, fliers, signs in the store, and anything they tell you when you are in the store.

What you should find at the store

A sale advertised as “50% off everything” should mean everything in the store is half price. A sale advertised as “up to 50% off” should have a reasonable number of items at half price, not just one or two.

The advertised price and quality need to be the same as what you find in the store. The store can’t advertise something as $40 when it is actually $50 or tell you that something is blue when it is actually red.

Any other information they tell you about the product has to be true too, including how big it is, what functions the product can do, and where you can use it. It can be helpful to take the flier or catalogue to the store with you so you can compare what was advertised with what is available.

Check how long the sale will last. The store can’t decide to cancel the sale before the advertised end date. So if they still have the sale item in store before the end of the sale you should get it for the sale price.

If you can’t find it

Stores aren’t allowed to advertise a cheap price on an item if the store will have difficulty supplying it. So they shouldn’t have run out of a product when you arrive early on the first day of a sale. If they have run out of an advertised item, ask if you can get a rain-check – this means you can get the same item for the sale price when they get more stock in.

If you think a trader has breached the Fair Trading Act then talk to them about it first. Point out the difference in quality or price to them, you may be able to get the item for a cheaper price.

For more information about your consumer rights, visit our website or your local Citizen’s Advice Bureau. The Commerce Commission enforces the Fair Trading Act. They can investigate and prosecute a trader who has breached the Act.