Your rights: pricing disputes How to complain

To complain about misleading prices

If you think that a business is misleading customers about the prices of items, it could be breaking the law. You should report it to your local trading standards department.

Trading standards have powers to force retailers to change their behaviour, but they can't help with individual cases or force a retailer to sell you something for a certain price.

To complain about a wrong price that the retailer refuses to honour

1. Contact the retailer

Write to the retailer to ask it to reconsider its decision. Say that you believe that you are entitled, under the Consumer Protection Act, to get the goods at the price originally agreed. Give the retailer a reasonable time in which to respond to your letter and resolve the problem.

2. Find a lower price

If the retailer doesn't resolve the problem (by giving you the goods that you want at your agreed price) you have two choices:

• You can buy the same product elsewhere, as cheaply as you can find it and, if the price is higher, claim the difference from the original retailer. Before doing this you must give notice to the retailer that you plan to do this.
• You can pay the higher price, making it clear that you are 'paying under protest'. Write a letter to that effect, and write 'paid under protest' on the back of your cheque or on your credit card slip. You can then pursue a claim against the retailer for the difference between the 'agreed' price and the higher price you had to pay.

3. Make a claim

If the retailer refuses to reimburse or refund you, you can take it to small claims court.