Undercharged $100 for a bottle of Armagnac. WWJS do?

[Craig_G]

Buy the rest of the bottles and demand the lower price. Then when they don’t honor it, post an angry message here and “out” the store.

[larry_schaffer]

@Craig G

Buy the rest of the bottles and demand the lower price. Then when they don’t honor it, post an angry message here and “out” the store.

[john_stimson]

@Ron Slye

It sounds like you did the right thing, and for a variety of the right reasons. I would also go back, given the large discrepancy. I would hope to at least create some goodwill if not get a free bottle of something out of it.

I had a different situation recently where I took a paper bag at the local QFC but forgot to pay for it (I was using self-checkout). I realized as I was walking out and did not want to go back in to figure out how to pay 5 cents. So, since I got there at least once a week, the next time I went in with my own bag, I just paid for a bad and did not take one.

On the not noticing the discrepancy because of the use of a credit card. About ten years ago I bought three suits from Nordstrom for a job I was just taking. They were having a bit sale and the sales person told me all of the suits I bought were on sale – so they were roughly $500 a piece if I remember correctly. I went to the shoe department to get shoes and probably because I was bored waiting for the shoes, looked at the receipt. I noticed one of the suits was about $1200. After buying the shoes I went back to the suit place, and found the woman who had been helping me. I showed her the receipt and said that I thought the suits were on sale. She left to check; came back and apologized as she had misspoken to me (that suit was not in fact on sale). I was going to be fine if they took it back and I would just get another one. Instead she gave me the discount price for the suit. That and other similar experiences means I will always shop to Nordstroms for nice clothes – though usually during their sale.

PS. John, where is this QFC? If nearby I might stop in and give them some business.

U village QFC–the liquor store not the main store. only one bottle left, and the boingeres is gone.

[Larry_Link]

@Peter Petersen

Btw I just finished a second bottle of that Armagnac last night. It is really amazing. $80 at K&L. Probably not available anymore after the Vinous review though

K&L still has several available at $80. I hope it’s as good as advertised, as I picked up a couple. Thanks for the tip.

[Peter_Petersen]

@Larry Link

@Peter Petersen

Btw I just finished a second bottle of that Armagnac last night. It is really amazing. $80 at K&L. Probably not available anymore after the Vinous review though

K&L still has several available at $80. I hope it’s as good as advertised, as I picked up a couple. Thanks for the tip.

Not sure how you can go wrong with this purchase if you like Armagnac. Enjoy!

[Mark_Golodetz]

I am glad the OP returned to deal with the discrepancy

.
Slight thread drift.

What I am getting out of this thread is that thanks to three tier system, an idea of how expensive wines are in most states, and the lack of choice. If an Armagnac costs 30% more in one state than another, the system is broken.

[Tim_McCracken]

Jancis would let them know about the mistake.

[Anton_D]

@alan weinberg

@Barry L i p t o n

I point out overcharges and undercharges.

I only explain the undercharge one, at most twice. If they still don’t get it, I accept the error in my favor.

+1

+2

[Kevin_Porter]

You did the right thing, but to I can’t answer your question as I have no idea James Suckling would have done. I suspect he would say he never has to pay for wine.

[T_Welch]

@Kevin Porter

You did the right thing, but to I can’t answer your question as I have no idea James Suckling would have done. I suspect he would say he never has to pay for wine.

James Suckling? I thought he meant Joe Schmo.

[Ian_Sutton]

@Kevin Porter

You did the right thing, but to I can’t answer your question as I have no idea James Suckling would have done.

“I’m $100 up on that one”

[Larry_Link]

@T Welch

@Kevin Porter

You did the right thing, but to I can’t answer your question as I have no idea James Suckling would have done. I suspect he would say he never has to pay for wine.

James Suckling? I thought he meant Joe Schmo.

I thought he meant Jesus. . .but he turned water into wine and not Armagnac.

[T_Altmayer]

Not sure why anyone would want to screw a small business owner because someone at the store made a mistake. If you dropped a $100 bill, wouldn’t you want the person behind you to tell you instead of pocketing it?

[Rauno_E_NZ]

What is you saw Montrachet mis-priced at $45 or so?

[S_Stevenson]

@alan weinberg

@Barry L i p t o n

I point out overcharges and undercharges.

I only explain the undercharge one, at most twice. If they still don’t get it, I accept the error in my favor.

+1

This.

[Dennis_Borczon]

WWWJD? He would have turned the Armagnac into Louis XIII, and insisted on the original price…

[Matt_Snow]

Yeah, underpriced on the shelf is one thing – there’s at least a sincere reason to think it could be the store’s choice – but when they key it in wrong at the checkout, that is a sales clerk’s error and you still owe the store the money. You go back and fix it. No different than if they hand you too much change.

– Matt

[Tom_Reddick]

@Poppy Davis

This is even a question?

After some of the things I saw working in wine retail- sadly, yes it is a question where you will get plenty of outcomes on both sides.

Just two notable tales for me,

Way back in the mid-90s when I got into wine, Spec’s in Houston put a case of 1993 Lafleur on the shelf for about $13 a bottle. I was new enough to wine that I thought it must be a different Lafleur and left it there. Over the weekend I did some label research and found out that in fact it was THE Chateau Lafleur they had on the shelf.

So I went in first thing Monday morning and told a clerk I wanted the case, but wanted to confirm the price since I thought it was about $100 too low. He rolled his eyes and said it was right. I persisted and a manager came over, shrugged and said it was fine. So I took the whole case. At that point I had not met the two guys who ran the wine show over there- so I did not have any basis to ask higher up the chain and took the entire case without guilt.

A few weeks ago, I picked up some 2015 Jadots at a Dallas wine store. It was a big enough purchase I did not notice anything wrong at the register, but when I got home and sat down with the receipt to update CellarTracker I noticed that I had been charged for 8 bottles of Beaune instead of a mix of their remaining 8 bottles of 3 different premier crus. It was about a $200 error.

I went in a couple of days later with the receipt to explain and hopefully use their inventory records to show them the miscounts (I had cleaned them out of all 3 wines)- and when I went in there, the manager was gathering up a number of Jadot wines because they had just discovered the error (possibly prompted when I called ahead to say I was coming.)

He told me that there had been a computer glitch and several Jadot SKUs were ringing up as either the Beaune or an even less expensive white (a Santenay I think he said.)

He also told me I was the only one who had come back to report the error and pay up.

That is sad in and of itself- but what really upset me was the fact that these kinds of errors also happen sometimes at the checkout stand when you present several very similar bottles, but the checkout person just picks 1 and rings them all up using that 1 bottle.

And so if that had been a checker error, and if management had traced it back at inventory time- someone could have lost their job. But that evidently does not stop many people from stealing (let’s just call it what it is- stealing) and patting themselves on the back for having a “lucky day”.

[Tran_Bronstein]

I agree, the discrepancy was too large and it might’ve gotten somebody else into some serious trouble. You did the right thing. I would have done the same.

[Philip_N_Jones]

I agree. When you have several similar bottles, it always helps to give the clerk a heads up that they are actually different. Then you don’t have to stand there and wait while he fixes his error. And you get good karma.
Phil Jones