consumer rights

[Gib]

does anyone know what my consumer rights are regathing the purchasing of an item on display.
I entered a shop in my local town centre and saw a garden table and chairs on display with a for sale sign including the price.I approached a member of staff and offer to buy it as I have been looking for this particular design for a long time.The lady explained that although the item was on display,it was not for sale,as the supplier are no longer able to supply this particular garden set.I then offer to buy the one on display,and again was told it was not for sale,untill head office gives instructions for its disposal,sometime at the end of the season.My question is.can I demand to purchase this item,or are they in the right to refuse to sell?

[Ethel]

The shop does not have to sell you anything at any time at any price.

Your rights kick in only when they accept your offer to buy (they ring it up on till for example) and try to charge a price different to the one displayed.

So no, sadly, you cannot insist they sell the item to you.

Daft, isn't it?

[Gib]

thanks Ethel it makes sense,gib

[heathfield]

Ethel's right, but even if you see something in the shop with a mistakenly low price attached to it, they needn't sell you it - they can simply refuse to let you be a customer.

[wildwood]

Just as the shop has no right to insist that you buy something when you enter the shop, they have the right to refuse to sell you anything. Rights work both ways.

The probable reason for not selling you the table/chair set may be that they wait until they have a 'sale' and get rid off their shop soiled goods all at once. This is a common practice.

There is no contract until you are requested to pay for an item. If you are asked to pay more for an item than it was listed or advertised for you have the right to refuse to fulfil the contract (not buy it) but you can not demand that they sell it for the cheaper advertised price. You are however perfectly within your right to report them and their fine for misleading advertising will be manyfold the item's price, so a shop will always let you have it for the cheaper price. The bad press from such a offence can easily cost a large firm many tens of thousands in lost business.

Don't give up bargain hunting though. The price on articles is an offer to sell only. If you want, say, four garden chairs which are advertised as separate articles, you should expect your offer of '10% discount if you buy 4 of them' to be excepted.

Good luck.

[Gib]

thanks to all that offer me an answer.
however,I was not quite happy with the fact that I was not able to buy the table and chairs. Today I decided to have another go,and went back to the same shop to see if the manager would give me a better explaination as to why this shop had such a silly policy regarding goods on display but not for sale.
I never got to see the manager.but a member of staff was able to convey my grievance to him.Five minutes later he instructed the staff to sell me the table and chairs.Today I have learned that persistants works.