Compassion vs. Principle

After work today, I went to the local department store to buy a couple of things for my trip to Cebu tonight. I stopped by the school supplies section to buy a highlighter, which I cannot function without. I always must have one handy whenever I read a book or a magazine. I’m a compulsive “highlighter”- I have to mark every passage that I find interesting. (Granted of course that I own the book or the magazine I happen to be reading).

So I picked the Faber-Castel neon green highlighter. The price tag said 23.50. I went to the counter to pay for it. When the cashier swiped the item, the price that popped up in her computer said P24.90. She then explained that the price must have changed. “Well, how come the price tag says 23.50 if the price has changed?” I asked. “They weren’t able to change the price tags yet,” she concluded, referring to the salesgirls in charge of the said items.

Now, I work for a government agency of which the main task is to inform people of the laws. I wasn’t about to let this pass. “Okay, Miss, there’s a law called the Price Tag Law, and that law says that in cases like this, where there are two differing prices for the same item, the price that is marked on the price tag should be the price that the customer will pay for,” I insisted. (I’m not really sure if that’s what the law stipulates as I might have confused it with the “lower price prevails” clause, but I know it was somewhere along that line).

So the cashier huddled with a salesgirl who then waved over another salesgirl and pretty soon the huddle became a group of blue and white-clad salesgirls furiously whispering among themselves about, and I assume, who’s to be blamed for not changing the price tags right away.

Pretty soon, they called another lady, who I presumed was their supervisor and she confirmed what have already been obvious from the beginning. “Oh, Ma’am, the prices were changed today as you can see on the computer,” she announced.

Wow, thanks for pointing that out. “Yes, I can see that. But the price tag clearly says 23.50,” I said patiently.

“The price tag hasn’t been changed yet,” she said, again, pointing out the obvious.

“So? I’m only going to pay according to what’s on the price tag. That’s what the law says,” I replied, hiding the fact of course that I wasn’t that sure that that’s what the law actually says.

“Bitaw, bala-od na (Yes, that’s the law),” she muttered, and turning to the guilty salesgirl, said “The price difference is going to be deducted from your pay. You will be given a voucher for this.”

When I heard that, I was a little taken aback. She’s going to pay for it? But why? I looked at the price again as the supervisor said to the salesgirl “Your deduction will be P1.50.”

At this point, I was about to retract my earlier stand as I pitied the salesgirl. But on the other hand, it’s only P1.50. Now, if the difference in the price were, let’s say, 100 pesos or more, then maybe I would have acquiesced and just let it pass with a stern warning to the salesgirl to avoid committing the same mistake.

However, money is not the point here; it’s the principle of the thing. Consumers have rights, and stores, especially one as big as this (dare I name it? Lee Super Plaza), should do some sort of mitigating measures to ensure that situations like this must never happen. Like, maybe, whoever was in charge of changing the price tags should have pulled out all the items from the display and put them back only after the necessary changes have been made.

So I gritted my teeth and held my ground. My father has always been after me to stand up for my rights so this is a perfect time to listen to him, I thought. So without another word, I paid for the item and walked away.

When I was out of the store though, I started having second thoughts. I admit I don’t have nerves of steel and most of the time, my emotions shoot down my logic. I can’t stand being responsible for something unpleasant happening to another person, even if I’m the one in the right.

So maybe I should have just let the whole thing pass. What if the girl gets into trouble because I insisted on not paying P1.50? What if she loses her job? But heck, nobody would get fired over P1.50, surely? Besides, it’s going to come out of her pay. Now, that’s another issue too. Why should the employees pay for that? Shouldn’t it be shouldered by the store? I find this policy quite unfair.