Hillingdon Electricals Ltd (a case study) Coursework

Hillingdon Electricals Ltd (a case study) - Coursework Example This has eventually helped the company in building an appreciative reputation for itself in the market. However, in the recent years, the company has failed to deliver its services as per expectations, which resulted in its declining market share further affecting its competitive advantage. Contextually, the top level management of the company has decided that each of its stores situated all over the UK market needs to have a particular sales target for its various categories of goods. The scenarios highlighted and discussed below therefore deals with certain situations that the company is dealing with, post its approach of enhancing its performance. Scenario A (Tony and Ursula) In this scenario, it has been noted that due to a manual error, price of certain products of the company were advertised in websites and newspaper at a much lesser price in comparison to the present market price for the same. Subsequently, a customer named Tony bought the same product from the company website in a usual procedure as per the advertised price. However, in the following day, the customer received a mail from the company stating that the website was in total error which depicted a false price of the product and hence, the product can only be sold at its original market price. However, the company offered certain discount as an effort to maintain goodwill with the customer. In this regard, Tony denied to pay the present market price and demanded the product at the committed price in website advertisement. Correspondingly in another case, Ursula went on to buy a product from a retail shop of the company in accordance to the price advertised in the newspaper. However, similar to the condition of Tony, the store manager her that the actual price of the product was more than the price disclosed in the advertisement in the newspaper. Ursula too refused to pay the extra amount and demanded the product in the advertised price. It is apparent from the above scenario that human error is mainly responsible for the false advertisement of the company, which can be assumed to be unintended on the grounds of good faith. Despite of such considerations, the case can be considered as breach of the UK tort law. A tort is a crime that involves the use of unfair means in conducting activities that harms or results in loss of others. The harm or injury, as per law is not limited to physical injuries; rather, it covers emotional and reputational injurious as well (Findlaw, 2012). Correspondingly, the approach of the company, despite of the fact that it was owing to human error can be considered as a tort against the customers and competitors. It can therefore be classified as a clear case of negligence of the company in its advertising, which is illegal under and punishable under the tort law (Lawskool, n.d.). Conceptually, the tort law in the UK is applicable for several activities, which primarily includes activities related to negligence and duty of care. In simple terms , negligence can be regarded as carelessness of people in their work, which results in unfavourable impacts on others. According to the tort law, individuals or a body of individuals (companies or organisations or associations) should not depict negligence attitude