It's the law!! I know my rights!!

[PuckishOne]

A couple of other threads reminded me of this... How often, and in what, *ahem* interesting circumstances, do you have SCs invoking "the law" in order to get what they want? I hear this an awful lot, mainly due to my line of work (insurance) but wanted to hear from others as well...

LEMME HAVE IT!!!

[bars.of.a.rhyme]

I get a LOT of complaints about "false advertising," including (but not limited to) the following:

-Not giving someone the sale price two months after the sale ends is false advertising. (Hollywood Video has a grand opening sale at every one of its stores. During this sale, every rental is 99 cents. We've been open for almost a year and a half and I still have people ask me about the 99 cent sale.)
-A sign stating that DVDs are "3 for $25" is false advertising if I won't give her the sale price on only one DVD.
-As if the above wasn't enough, the "3 for $25" sale is also false advertising because it rings up as $26.25 after tax.
-Not having a movie that's "guaranteed in stock" is false advertising, even though we give them the voucher to get the movie for free next time that it's in, thus fulfilling our part of the guarantee.
-Renting scratched DVDs is false advertising, somehow. If a new hire forgets to unlock the DVD cases and the customer has to come back to get them unlocked, that is also false advertising. Apparantly the fact that we rent movies implicitly advertises that the customer will be able to open them. Stupid.

Insurance, eh? I'd love to hear some of yours.

[Tuxian]

Ah, I was at the local Walmart one time, and the line was (as it always seems to be) very long. Some guy behind me started kvetching about how Walmart was breaking the law because they weren't hiring enough full-time employees. o.O

Yeah, I tuned him out, after telling him that he should do what I was going to do (and did do), call the store manager and complain about the wait time to check out. Being upset at the cashier does nothing.

[HawaiianShirts]

It's also "the law" to give the customer something they think they deserve because they misunderstood it. I had one just the other day.

I explained to the customer that our laptop service contract will get him one free replacement battery. "So, when your current battery no longer holds its charge like it used to (which is guaranteed to happen about two years down the road), you bring it in and we'll replace it with a new one."

The very next day, this guy came back asking why his extra battery was not in the box with his laptop. When I explained his misunderstanding, he claimed he thought I'd said he'd get a free battery as an extra. Then he wanted to talk to a manager because he'd understood differently and it was his legal right to get what he understood.

Does this mean I can call Publisher's Clearing House and demand my $1 Million because I misunderstood their "You May Have Already Won" mailer to mean that I actually did win?

I've also heard of people claiming it is against the law to ask for ID if they look over 40. It was also some guy's "Constitutional right" to haggle over the price of a laptop.

[PuckishOne]

Careful what you wish for...

Insurance, eh? I'd love to hear some of yours.

Oy...I could make your head spin. Just the COBRA laws alone bring all of the quasi-wannabe-pseudo lawyers out from under their various rocks. I'll scrape some together and share as soon as I can.

[Ryu]

we have YEARS old candy in our display case and when we run out of that candy people want the one in the display and threaten to sue for false advertising if we dont give it to them...

[ladodger34]

A little off-topic, but back in my city days, the common refrain was "but I'm a taxpayer"

I know it's not the law, but it is government related. Some people used the taxpayer line for really silly things.

[Kyosanshugi]

I once had a guy cite "the customer is always right law" in the most inappropriate situation. He had ordered a coffee or something for his friend, and my next customer wanted a cappuccino. The cappuccino machines get a bit loud, and as I was making it, I see this guy waving at me to stop all the noise. His friend was on her cell phone, and apparently I was disturbing her call. I informed him that I was making a drink for another customer, and he came at me with that infamous line. I shot right back, "yeah, that's why I'm making a cappuccino for this OTHER customer." I never saw him again after that. His friend, however, has become a very nice regular.

[Imogene]

It's the law to sell a movie before release date if you happen to find it out on the shelf (by accident, I assure you, as the AM who sorted clearly never pays attention to the release dates, and it just happened that whoever put out that section just missed it after finding thirty of his mistakes...)

It's the law that you have to buy back open packets of Magic the Gathering cards that turned out to be 'all land'.... an impossible occurence, or so I heard on a much earlier incarnation of our wonderful board.

It's the law that you have to take payment in pennies if that's all the customer has on them. Sure, for small purchases, but we can refuse that 'law' if the purchase runs into the tens or twenties, or, gods forbid, hundreds of dollars (for which I got a wad of singles once as payment...)

It's the law that you have to have this incredibly hot, Oh Em Gee greatest movie ever in stock on what was most likely the most anticipated release date EVAR! (Star Wars collection/Lord of the Rings...)

(slightly related to the topic) Putting up your hand to give you a moment to finish chewing the bite of cookie you just got in your mouth as the customer walked up is 'disgusdting'. "Don't you get breaks here?"
"Yup, thirty minutes, just got back from it, and it wasn't long enough to eat my cookie in, plus, it's not like we work with food here. We deal in shrink wrapped plastic discs. No, I'm not going to pass you my germs by spitting on your movie. And, if you'd prefer, I could be spitting little chunks of Snickerdoodle at you as I tell you your total, and your change, and to have a good day, and whatever. It's payday, lady, I haven't had any money to get a cookie in weeks now, I deserve a splurge.

Not selling those posters that have been up in the store forever is against the law. Even though they're store fixtures, they don't exactly come down easily, and they get recycled through the company.

Taking $5 to reserve a title for them is against the law. Yeah, a movie everyone and their mother loved in theaters, and more than likely will sell out the day we get them for sale... you want your copy held? Pony up the $5 out of the $21 it's going to be selling for, otherwise, I get to play Movie Nazi. "No DVD for you! Next!"

[Dawnchaser]

Does this mean I can call Publisher's Clearing House and demand my $1 Million because I misunderstood their "You May Have Already Won" mailer to mean that I actually did win?

Actually I'm pretty sure this particular lawsuit has been done with Publisher's Clearing House or maybe some similar company...figures, right?

[bars.of.a.rhyme]

(slightly related to the topic) Putting up your hand to give you a moment to finish chewing the bite of cookie you just got in your mouth as the customer walked up is 'disgusdting'. "Don't you get breaks here?"

I don't get breaks when I work the morning shift at Hollywood...corporate is too stingy on labor to give me a GSR, even on Sundays (the busiest morning shift) when I have to pull, transfer, unsticker and resticker upwards of 100-150 DVDs. Closing the store is of course out of the question, so I can't leave, I can't sit in the office and eat my sandwich, and unless we're very dead I can't even go to the bathroom.

The one upside of this is that when customers tell me it's unprofessional for me to be eating at the till and ask why I can't eat lunch on my break, I can say "I don't get one." That about shuts them up.

</hijack>

[Kiwi]

I had to deal with a guy who wanted a manager (he had spoken to 2 already and was trying them all to get the answer he wanted)

he had a cliped portion of our DATED catalogue sales, date neatly clipped off I might add, he said that as we had the item still in stock we HAD TO BY LAW sell it to him for the sale price.

Little did he know our anal (but wonderful) DM kept a copy of each catalogue in order of date and I was able to find it, point out the date which was out by six months. That was the end of it right....

nope. He said that because we still had it in stock we HAD TO BY LAW sell it to him, this was after me explaining that it was a permanent item, like say bread in a supermarket, and "you know when bread has a sale for this brand from sunday the 7th to sunday the 14th" then it goes back to its REGULAR price, the blinds he wanted were like the bread, back to their regular price.

4 times I explained it before he finally left saying he was calling Fair go (a New Zealand scam busters show) and have me arrested for false advertising.... sureeeeee you do that buddy.

[Rapscallion]

Each catalogue is a contract between the vendor and the customer. Ours is, which is why some members of the public desperately try to get hold of ours to force us to sell to them even though we supply to a shop next door to them.

However, any catalogue worth its salt will say that it is only valid from one date to another, and it isn't valid outside of that time. If you ever have the misfortune to meet this guy again (unlikely, I know), sneer at him for me?

Rapscallion

[Darkmage]

This one was real

Actually I'm pretty sure this particular lawsuit has been done with Publisher's Clearing House or maybe some similar company...figures, right?

That was a valid false advertising claim. It used to say in big font "YOU HAVE WON $1,000,000!!!!!" and then underneath in very small print it would say "This could be what you see if you buy lots of overpriced magazines from us", or something like that.

[dragonflygrrl]

Two "illegal" activities:

1. The cellular carrier I sell phones for is currently running a promotional rate plan. It will expire at the end of the month, and increases the number of anytime minutes on one of our popular plans. Again, it goes bye-bye at the end of the month, so corporate didn't bother to send out new collateral. Therefore, our store collateral still reflects the normal number of minutes. This woman came in, looked at a poster advertising said non-promotional plan, and said, "but I thought I could get [larger bucket of minutes]." I said, "You totally can, if you sign up by the end of the month. After that, the promotion is over and anyone who signs up will get [original bucket of minutes]." She looked me right in the eye and said, "That is false advertising." Hello? The sign advertises a worse plan than what you can actually get and that's a bad thing?! Talk about looking for something to complain about!

2. Our phone prices change at the beginning of every month. Sometimes a prosepective customer will come in, ask questions, get price quotes on a couple phones, and then come back a month later clutching a pamphlet with prices written on it from the previous month. Apparently, we are required by law to sell them a phone for the month-old quoted price, even though our brochures clearly say, "prices subject to change." So far, we haven't heard from all these lawyers customers seem to have. *shrug* Wonder why.