A woman who took a Christmas gift to a Hamilton store for repair was shocked when she returned to pick it up and found it back on the shelf at a cheaper price.

Calling herself a "concerned shopper'', the woman made her complaint known in a Letter to the Editor.

"I bought a bike from PriceBusters for $300 and the back wheel was crooked,'' the woman said, "so I took it back to the store.

"I asked if the $300 could be credited back to my account.'' She said the store's owner and manager Mr. William Smatt told her he could not credit her account, but he could give her a $300 credit for another store item.

"I told him I did not want that,'' she said, "and he told me that he would fix it (the bike).'' She recalled that Mr. Smatt called her on a Sunday to tell her the bike was ready. And two weeks later, she said, she went to the store to pick it up.

"When I entered the store my bike was on sale for $200,'' the woman said.

"(Neither) Mr. Smatt nor the saleslady could tell me why the sales tag was on it.

"They would have sold my bike for $200, when I bought it for $300. Would they have given me my money back?'' But when contacted by The Royal Gazette , Mr. Smatt, who was away during the mix-up, denied that there was any wrongdoing on his part.

"It was a special bike, a black Pioneer,'' he said. "She wanted the best bike that we had, so I had to go to the warehouse to get it.

He said there was a problem with the bike and that the customer was "very patient'' with him.

"There was a wobble in one wheel and it was a little stiff,'' he said. "So I told her I would fix it.'' However the bike really cost $325, Mr. Smatt pointed out. PriceBusters charged the woman $300 because there was a mix-up in prices due to the fact that the business was in the process of moving from its Mills Creek location to Reid Street.

"I phoned her back and told her it was ready,'' he said. "It was at the front waiting to be picked up.'' He also said the bike was probably put on a shelf by an employee trying to tidy up the store.

But he admitted the bike had a tag with the customer's name on it.

Asked how he thought the mix-up could have occurred, Mr. Smatt said: "It was Christmas time. It was a madhouse around here because it was when we first opened up here (on Reid Street).

"We had people in the store just for pricing. Where they got the price from, I don't know.''