by eskil Sun May 29, 2011 5:47 pm
I work in sales, and although I feel sorry for your inconvenience, I feel I should explain.
Legally speaking, at least in my country, you have zero right to purchase the product at the price that was advertised, and for multiple reasons. First, it happens from time to time that people forget to put down old price signs, there's no way to guarantee that the employees can keep up with the very frequent price changes. Second, and this doesn't apply to your situation, it's ridiculously easy to fake price signs and especially price stickers. And third, some customers like to steal price signs at the time when something is half-off, and then come back at their convenience, sometimes weeks or months after the special offer, put the sign back up and demand to purchase the products at the "advertised" price. This happened to me three times over a year when I was working at a home improvement store. At one point, the customer was arguing over a €300 price cut.
Again, I don't mean to upset, but I just thought I'd explain. Of course, you were right to leave, and the associate had no reason to care. Speaking from experience, you acted like an ideal customer, not making much of a fuss and instead taking it up with the management.