Shoppers at high street clothing store Primark have been warning each others about apparent 'hidden' charges on items. Some say they have been finding that products are more expensive when they go to the till than the price that is on the label.
It came to light in the Extreme Couponing and Bargains Facebook group, which has two million members. BirminghamLive reports that a member called Jocelyn Carter was first to highlight the issue.
She said: "Warning to all who shop at Primark. They are increasing their prices on a lot of their existing stock. Some have had their price tags blacked out, whereas others go through the till at a higher price from that on the tags."
Others have said they'd noticed the same thing. One shopper said: "Had this a few weeks back. Noticed the prices on our receipt were much more than the labels, like £4 an item more! We got the money back, but were told we were lucky the items still had price tags on otherwise we would have been charged the higher price."
And another complained: "I can't believe the leggings have gone up to £4 from about £2.30. I was shocked when I got some today but I'm not going to complain, they are still cheap."
A third also experienced something similar. She said: "20min debate about this at the till yesterday. Nevertheless I paid the reduced price on the trousers. To which they had 8 - yeah 8!!! Members of staff RUN to the rail where they where to change all the stickers."
Many people complained saying that Primark should honour the price by law. However, consumer law states that if you take an item to the till and are told the price on the tag or label is a mistake, you don’t have a right to buy the item at the lower price.
A Primark spokesperson said: “We’re really sorry this has happened. We are committed to providing the very best value on the high street – and that has not changed.
"However, in response to rising costs, we took the decision earlier this year to implement selective price increases across some autumn/winter products. We know how important our great value pricing is to our customers, and we’ve committed to honour the lower price on our labels so customers are never charged more than expected. It appears that in this case the label wasn’t updated properly."
