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Author Topic: Bait and Switch?  (Read 4347 times)

SeanPuckett

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Bait and Switch?
« on: January 30, 2008, 01:35:14 pm »

If you ordered from an online vendor that claimed in the shopping cart system that product X was in stock... and then the vendor later emailed you to say product X was actually not in stock and you'd have to wait 2-4 weeks for it... and you noticed that the online cart system continued to claim that product X was in stock... would you broadly classify that as "bait and switch" or simply "incompetence" ?

I read through the Competition Act and the situation is not completely applicable, although the saving proposed of substituting functionally equivalent product at the originally offered price would suit me just fine.

It's extremely unprofessional in any case.
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DarkPenguin

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Bait and Switch?
« Reply #1 on: January 30, 2008, 02:13:12 pm »

Depends on the place.  Not all places have their inventory system hooked up to their online store.
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Bait and Switch?
« Reply #2 on: January 30, 2008, 07:23:44 pm »

Quote
Depends on the place.  Not all places have their inventory system hooked up to their online store.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=171034\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
But places that don't have their inventory system hooked up to their online store shouldn't have anything on the website indicating that an item is either "in stock" or "not in stock".

Claiming that an item is in stock is certainly sending the message that their inventory system is hooked up to their online store.

So it may be either gross incompetence or "bait and switch". In any case, it's deceptive.
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Tim Gray

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Bait and Switch?
« Reply #3 on: January 31, 2008, 10:13:22 am »

Where's the "switch"?
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SeanPuckett

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Bait and Switch?
« Reply #4 on: January 31, 2008, 10:39:17 am »

An alternate product doesn't have to be proffered for it to be "bait and switch", at least in Canada.   The relevant section of the Competition Act is here.

I don't have a legal case as it doesn't exactly fit the definition, but I'm still upset.  It chafes because a similar thing happened in one of their retail outlets on the weekend: I pointed to product Y on the floor display and said "I want two of those" and the guy said he didn't have any to sell, but here's a product Z you might be interested in (which cost more and had stuff I didn't want included).  Of course I left empty handed and angry.
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Bait and Switch?
« Reply #5 on: January 31, 2008, 02:30:37 pm »

Quote
An alternate product doesn't have to be proffered for it to be "bait and switch", at least in Canada.   The relevant section of the Competition Act is here.

I don't have a legal case as it doesn't exactly fit the definition, but I'm still upset.  It chafes because a similar thing happened in one of their retail outlets on the weekend: I pointed to product Y on the floor display and said "I want two of those" and the guy said he didn't have any to sell, but here's a product Z you might be interested in (which cost more and had stuff I didn't want included).  Of course I left empty handed and angry.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=171246\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
Your retail store incident is exactly what "bait and switch" means, at least as I've always heard it described.
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