Just for information

[dhbookds]

Have no idea if this would apply on ebay...........

New story (google it) about Cartier having an ad for $13,000 pair of earrings......listed for $13..... guy from Mexico bought them for $13.  Cartier offered some stuff .......Champagne and something else.  Buyer turned it down and went to the Mexican Consumer agency.  Cartier ended up sending the earrings.  Doesn't say what pressure, if any, the Agency put on Cartier or whether Cartier simply decided the bad publicity wasn't worth it.......  Purchase was on Instagram, not Ebay.....

[ten_o_nine]

It was not on Instagram, the story goes like this,

In 2019, a Mexican man named José López purchased a pair of Cartier earrings from a Cartier store in Mexico City for 13 Mexican pesos (approximately $0.65 USD) due to a pricing error. The earrings were originally priced at 13,000 Mexican pesos (around $650 USD).

Cartier initially offered López a complimentary bottle of champagne and a discount on his next purchase, but he declined and filed a complaint with the Mexican consumer protection agency, PROFECO.

After the agency intervened, Cartier decided to honor the original price and sent López the earrings, worth 13,000 for the price he paid, 13 pesos.

It's unclear what pressure, if any, PROFECO exerted on Cartier, but the company likely wanted to avoid negative publicity and maintain a positive brand image.

[simba6]

That is not all that much money to a company like  Cartier.   They did not want bad press and it will only drive more to look at their site.  That may make some sales and it could turn out a win for them.

[onefootflippers]

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@simba6 wrote:

That is not all that much money to a company like  Cartier.   They did not want bad press and it will only drive more to look at their site.  That may make some sales and it could turn out a win for them.

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If they had $650 on them in the store than I imagine their real cost was far less than that. The Jewelry business is insanely high labor. 

[chapeau-noir]

$650 is chump change for Cartier - and might be value added because they can get a bit of good publicity out of it.

[mam98031]

We have similar consumer laws in the US.  But I've only seen it apply for B&M.  

For example I was shopping for a gift for my husband.  Money was tight.  He really wanted a certain Football Jersey.  Here they run around $125 or so at the time.  I went to a large local chain store to shop for some other stuff and I saw that the jersey my husband wanted was on sale for a good price.  So I grabbed one, but when I got to the cash register it didn't ring up right, it rang up for the full price.

I said no it was on sale.  She went and looked where I found it, which was among many other football items.  She said Oh no, that sign on the jerseys was meant for a different product.  But the sign did not say it was.  Anyway I ended up getting it for the sale price on the sign and my husband is a proud owner of that jersey.

Advertised pricing can be tricky if you don't get it right and can end up expensive for the person or company trying to sell the item.

[lux.ra_14]

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@dhbookds wrote:

New story (google it) about Cartier

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I did, and something doesn't add up. My first reaction was that the story has elements of an urban legend, and the $650 price of the earrings is suspiciously low for Cartier -- and especially low for a viral story of this type.

In the recounting here, it was $650 mistakenly discounted to $65, and it might have happened in 2019. Well, like the old game of telephone, the story seems to change with the re-telling ...

CBS and the NYT said the earrings were $13,000 and purchased for $13 instead. AP says $14,000 ($14), but PBS and other sources have it doubled to $28,000 ($28.) There are other versions, of varying amounts but always with symmetry in the supposed price paid. Just take a big number and lop off some zeroes, and that makes it plausible. Most versions also have this happening recently, by the way, not several years ago.

The story could be true in some form, but what exactly? It's clear that the name Cartier and the notion of a huge accidental markdown inspires instant credulity.  Little guy scores on luxury giant! Deal of a lifetime! Who doesn't want to believe?

[dbfolks166mt]

     I have had this happen multiple times as a consumer but as mam98031 mentioned only when shopping in B&M stores and the retailer has always sold me the item at the incorrectly marked price, and by no strange coincidence instantly changed the price of the remaining items. Without a lot of boring detail even though the item was incorrectly priced it is in essence part of contractual law (offer and acceptance). 

     You see this on occasion in postings on this forum where a seller has incorrectly priced an item or started an auction at $.99 and the item sold and the seller asks what they should do. Under contractual law the should sell and ship the item to the buyer but some simply cancel and take the ding for out of stock. If the seller were to relist the item the buyer could take the seller to court and would probably win the case but it's more trouble, in most cases, than it is worth. 

[slati_2013]

I don't know where you got your figures and story from but all the major news sites report the earrings cost $13000.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/26/world/americas/mexico-cartier-sale-consumer-protection.html  

[lux.ra_14]

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@slati_2013 wrote:

I don't know where you got your figures and story from but all the major news sites report the earrings cost $13000.

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$28,000 on PBS, via ITN:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/mexican-consumer-law-helps-man-snag-28000-earrings-for-28-after-ca...

As noted above, something doesn't add up here. Has Cartier confirmed or denied the story?

[nobody*s_perfect]

The $28K is because he purchased two pairs.  The $14K vs $13K is probably due to rounding, since 237 Mexican pesos trades at $13.81 today.

[dhbookds]

not that it matters.....but the story I read was sourced from a PBS News hour story.......which I consider pretty reputable......

Point was....we make mistakes in pricing on ebay.....could we be required to honor the price? 

[lux.ra_14]

Looks like the Mexican consumer agency confirmed the story.  But how is that only one customer jumped on the pricing mistake? No one else noticed? Or they were all bought off with the offer of champagne?

On the broader question, pricing mistakes happen and should be honored. The more it hurts, the less likely it will happen again.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@dhbookds wrote: ....we make mistakes in pricing on ebay.....could we be required to honor the price? 

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You know we're not.  Here's a thread from 2022, resurrected yesterday, which contains plenty of examples:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Made-a-ghastly-mistake-sendiing-an-offer-on-the-wrong-item/m-p...

[dhbookds]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

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@dhbookds wrote: ....we make mistakes in pricing on ebay.....could we be required to honor the price? 

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You know we're not.  Here's a thread from 2022, resurrected yesterday, which contains plenty of examples:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Made-a-ghastly-mistake-sendiing-an-offer-on-the-wrong-item/m-p...

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I agree........previously and right now.....we don't.......  But is there a possibility that some gov't consumer entity could put pressure on ebay to make us honor the mistaken price......or that a buyer could sue and win according to consumer laws?  That I don't know.......