Apparently – THERE IS a price tag law in the the Philippines!
And
for some strange reason (thanks to repetitive radio ads) – their ads, specifically the DTI Consumer Act laws, stuck in my head like a bad
case of LSS. The voice over was done by Alvin Elchico, who is one of
the hosts (the other being Usec Zenaida Maglayon) in DZMM’s Consumer at
iba pa segment every Saturday morning.
He says in one
of the voice overs that – there’s a price tag law. This law states that
whatever price is written on the item’s price tag – must be followed,
and that the store cannot be sold at a higher price.
I know for a fact (for the longest time) that it didn’t exist, that it is only is applicable in the US. And how I envy that! But apparently, it does exist here in the Philippines! Last weekend, my ‘factual’ assumption was proven wrong!
We spent Holy Week in Subic – and since there’s a new mall – Harbor Point, we went to take a look. There I saw an M&S Outlet – since I’m a huge fan of their undies – I secretly hoped that they were selling them at a low low price (since its an ‘outlet’) and to my surprise – they did! Imagine the original price for a pack was P795.00 and the price tag said that the outlet price was P415.00 and if you have a Citibank card – they will take an additional 10% off the sale price! A pack would come out a little more than 50% off! 🙂 So I got 2 packs – and had my Panget pay for them (since I had long ago cancelled my Shittybank card). Good deal right?
When we got home, I inspected my purchases – and there I noticed the receipt. It was written that the items were P475.00/pack and that my Panget paid a total of P855.00, I immediately looked at the price tag – and to my surprise, it was just P415.00 on the sticker tag. I then decided to go back the next day to try my luck and complain on it.
When I entered the store, I first went to the counter to inform them of the wrong price, I told them that they overcharged me for the items I got. I said that I will be buying some more stuffs and that they sort it out and call me (since I will do more shopping) when they’re done. I picked up another pack with the P415.00 price tag and saw that all of those items on the racks were really priced at P415.00 – I then saw another batch that had the price P275.00 per pack! I asked for certain sizes and when I got them, I went to the cashier.
I was entertained by a male manager who was really nice. He informed me that when they scan the item’s bar code the price P475.00 really comes out, but since the price tag says P415.00 they will really honor the price, thus he started to prepare a credit memo of some sort. I was shocked – I mean, I didn’t expect them to honor it! I was expecting to hear an earful from them informing me that the staff erroneously put the wrong sticker and all – but I never heard anyone utter otherwise. I just heard ‘Madam, we’re sorry for the inconvenience. We will just honor the price on the price tag’ I was floored! Wow – what great customer service! The bad thing was that – i was holding three more items – and he just smiled and said that I can still get the items without them contesting on the price. WOW. Now, I was really floored.
The downside was that it took them quite a while to figure out how to process the credit and the new purchase. My Panget was already complaining because we were already late for dinner – but I told him to let the staff figure it out, besides – they’ve already honored the price tag law. I told him that we should be patient enough – because, they honored it without resistance! 🙂
So there – the Price Tag Law does exist here in the Philippines. And we shouldn’t be ignorant about it anymore.
Kudos to Rustan’s Marketing and most especially the staff of M&S Outlet in Harbor Point Mall in Subic Freeport. You amaze me, I wish all establishments were like you!!
THANK YOU for honoring the Price Tag law..
