In the last few weeks, Staples.com appears to have begun misleading customers about the price of some of its back to school sale items. Here is one of their recent advertisements:
When one clicks on that thumbdrive, for example, it takes you to a page like this:
Wow, you think it must be your lucky day, it is actually only $7 instead of $8. You are promised “instant savings” of $12.99, so you add it to your cart.
Upon going to your cart to check out, you get a nasty surprise.
*MOUSE PRINT:
The price is almost three times what you expected. Why? It says you didn’t make the required $50 purchase. What $50 purchase? If you look carefully at the middle graphic above, you will see a box that states that the thumbdrive “special buy” only applies with a minimum $50 purchase. Where did that come from? It wasn’t in the original ad!
Similarly, the other paper items in the ad above are more expensive without the $50 purchase, as are a few others on its website.
That’s not all. Let’s say you had not seen the ad, but had just gone to Staples.com looking for a 16-gig Lexar thumbdrive. You search for it and find this product listing in the search results.
*MOUSE PRINT:
You were even smart enough to click the “see details” link, and you’re told the item is $7 and there is no mention of any required $50 minimum purchase. So, you add it to your cart. And just as above, when you go to checkout, you will see that you are being charged $19.99, the full regular price, because you did not make a $50 minimum purchase that you were never told was required.
In our view, this practice is reprehensible, if done deliberately. We can only hope it was a careless oversight on Staples’ part.
Under Massachusetts law, sellers are responsible for clearly and conspicuously disclosing all material facts in their advertising the omission of which might mislead a consumer. “A disclosure is not clear and conspicuous if any material terms of the offer that affect the price of an item, impose conditions on acceptance of the offer, … are not disclosed in the advertisement itself, but require reference to an outside source..”.
It is certainly misleading in our view to fail to disclose upfront that a particular sale price only applies when a $50 minimum purchase of other goods is required.
We asked the company to explain why they created these misleading price representations and whether they would automatically refund money to customers who bought these items and unknowingly paid full price during the sale period.
Staples’ senior PR manager responded late yesterday:
“Staples works hard to ensure our customers have the information they need to make informed purchasing decisions. In the examples provided, the terms and conditions of our Less List offers were clearly displayed prior to the customer checking out.â€
Staples indicated that it might update its comment today, so please check back here later today.
It might be misleading, but it wouldn’t cause anyone to accidentally spend extra money, unless someone is careless enough not to look at the price before authorizing a payment. This is assuming it’s an online only deal. If it were in-store, you might have an argument for wasting time getting there and finding the item, waiting in line at checkout, etc.
Staples’ response is quite disappointing. If I were the PR guy, I would have said something like. “I see your point. We’ll fix it right away. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.” But noooo– he responds with typical PR speak. It’s sad.
For the most part, I’ve found that Walmart has most of the things I might go to an office supply store for. “Big Lots” has 16GB flash drives normally for $12, at the check stand. No rebates, minimum purchase, etc. Pick it up as you check out. The office supply stores tend to be expensive for the same products. But, the supply stores usually have a larger selection.
They may have covered themselves on the print ad, but apparently not for the on-line purchase. You get to the point where you start looking for any sort of fine print that is going to change the terms of the deal. As discussed over the last few weeks, watch out for the “Free” offers.
Funny, I just checked out the current ad and saw it for $9.99 and when I added it to my cart it was still $9.99 but when I went to check out it was still $9.99 + $9.95 for shipping! What a rip off.
I guess I don’t get this one.
There was an asterisk next to the price and a “special buy” box description on the page. I would say they labeled the price as described. The instant savings only applied after the cart reached $50. The print isn’t even that fine on the page. It’s rather clear.
Unless you don’t actually read the price of the items in your cart before checking out the discrepancy is obvious.
Edgar relies: Wayne, the law requires key information to be disclosed from the outset — in the advertisement itself, not later. Staples did not do that in the first graphic above. For some reason, people think that as long as a disclosure is made anytime in any manner before you buy, that that is enough. It is not. You have a right to know in the ad itself that you can only buy that thumbdrive for $7 or $8 if you buy other merchandise totaling $50. This is the essence of consumer protection.
@ TR, Staples offers free shipping on any amount to Staples Rewards members. It’s free to join.
A business should always let a customer know when there are strings attached to a special offer and do it UPFRONT and not a checkout. This is a terrible business practice – one that Staples should change immediately. Thank you for getting the word out about this!
(1) Staples Rewards is not free. You pay for it with your
personal information (your purchases are tracked). That
may or may not be acceptable, depending on the individual,
but it is not the same thing as “Free”.
(2) You are not joining anything. A common frame for
tracking is that you are joining a club. It’s PR speak
for “Sucker”.
Although I like this blog/site, I have to agree with Wayne R on this one. The “spend $50” requirement is pretty clearly pointed out, including the initial use of an asterisk. If people couldn’t understand the sale conditions on this one, they may want to stick to buying goods at their corner convenience store.