American Swiss Canal Walk price mess up

On the evening of the 16th June 2018 I headed to Canal Walk with my girlfriend to collect a ring she had sent in for coating. Upon arrival while waiting to be assisted we decided to browse the selection and brands of watches in store. She came across a Michael Kors watch under Mark down, original price R4999 now marked down to R349, we literally tripled check and that indeed was the price it was listed with, picture taken and dated to prove it. My girlfriend asked the assistant if she could have a look at the watch and when she saw it was a Michael Kors she immediately tried to removed/ alter the price to which I stopped her and politely ask her to call the manager or supervisor on duty. Which she did.

After 10 maybe 15 minutes the shift leader came out, firstly not introducing herself in the slightest, This was at 19:20 roughly and, totally unprofessional manner, coming from a retail and corporate background of work myself having a client know who they are dealing with is rather important name tag or not. She went straight on to explain she understands that the price you see is what you want to pay but she had just gotten off the phone with her area manager about the pricing blunder they had made in the display before coming out to us and said in this case as the pricing numbers sometimes break or fall off or out of place. There was no extra digit laying in the tray of the watch or hanging loosely on the pricing bracket, so whose fault is that?

I mentioned this and again she could only repeat what she had before, further stating there are acts protecting them from situations as such and we can go online and lay a formal complaint.

If anything housekeeping in retail stores are the basis of everything and displays and pricing goes hand in hand with it, they made a blunder and that price could have been there for most of the day, not my problem.

We could have been more abrupt and made a scene about it but we didn't, yet the shift leader doesn't see the need to deal with clients a little bit more professionally, we would have been happy if she could offer a alternate watch then at a good price, she didn't even flinch at the thought, I'm positive just the kind gesture would have made them a sale for the night.

Myself coming from a retail background, agree but trying to cover up house keeping mistakes is not a way to go about it. The client is entitled to the price he/she sees displayed, or an alternate offering can be made by management. These are all ways and means to keep clients happy isn't it

Even with the pricing on the first initial item my girlfriend saw, being their mess up and not checking that their house keeping is in order. Even before leaving agreeing to send a formal complaint via email, the shift leader doesn't even bother giving her credentials. No worry as her staff had said it as she went to go and bring the matter to her attention in the start.

I'm a tfg account holder for a number of years and have received far superior assistance in smaller malls with smaller stores with smaller selections, tfg stores are my premium choice time and time again because they have great quality. Not only does this put a question mark as to should I go to the premium tfg stores in malls like Canal Walk it raises the question of should I even carry on supporting them.

I hope both the assistant and shift leader got a earful from higher management as it was their blunder to start with, not a case of a difficult client. Some response from a tfg representative on this matter would be great.