New to site. Ripped off?

[anneebate]

Hi I'm new to the whole forum thing, hope I'm in the right place.

I went to the local locksmiths/shoe reapaire shop as my key fob to unlock my car stopped working.
I told the man behind the counter 'I wanted to buy new batteries, did he by any chance know which size I might need?'
He said 'its ok we fit loads of these car fobs' and gave me a ticket for £9.99. I foolishly presumed the car fob required a specail type of battery due to the cost.
Before returning to collect my key fob I discovered it takes only a minute or two to change the battery and the batteries retail at £1.50 for a pack of 2.
Upon returing to the shop I asked why they were charging me so much, as I originally asked just for the batteries but was only offred the service of having them fit it for me.
I was told by one member of staff they didnt sell the batteries.
By another member of staff if I didnt like the price I should have only bought the batteries.
That their batteries last longer than any other batteries (the £1.50 quote was for duracell).
I offered to pay £3, double the retail cost of the batteries, but they forced me to pay the £9.99 because thats what is said on my ticket.

I feel totally taken advantage of and know the staff knew they were not behaving fairly as they were tripping over their excuses, going bright red in the face and getting really cross.
I wish to point out I am a 5ft 28 year old woman and these were two fully grown men.

I have a wriiten recipt, which states they chrged me £9.99 for a battery change.

Can I do anything/report them? It's not the money, more the principal that they treated me badly and ripped me off and will probably do it to other people (proabably women).

Thank you in advance for your views/suggestions.

 

[ALewis]

Hi, this area of the forum is fine.

Anyway, unfortunately there are no laws limiting the price that a company can charge for its goods/services . If there were, things would definitely be cheaper! (I think I read that to buy the parts to make an iPhone 4S would cost around £90? And they're sold for £400-500 ... )
Anyway back to the point, unfortunately if you've agreed to pay £9.99 , then that's what is owed, regardless of the cost of the materials + time.
With the whole anger / bad treatment issue, unless the locksmiths is part of an OFT regulated traders scheme (which I doubt they will be), there's not a lot you can do. By all means you can complain, but that won't really get anything done.
There's been no consumer laws broken here I'm afraid.

If however you felt threatened in any way, that's a matter for the police, and I suggest you call your local police stations non-emergency line.
I'm sorry it's not the news you were after,
Adam

 

[anneebate]

Thank you very much for your response.

Not the answer I wanted but I'm pleased to know where I stand.