Man snags $14,000 Cartier earrings for under $14 due to price error, jeweler honors price

Cartier jewelry can typically cost thousands of dollars, but a 27-year-old man spent under $14 on luxury earrings from the French brand after discovering a price error.

Rogelio Villarreal, a citizen of Mexico, posted April 20 via X that he was using the bathroom and going down a rabbit hole on Instagram on Dec. 12, 2023, when he noticed the 18-carat rose-gold Clash de Cartier earrings on the jeweler's website. Rather than the current retail price of $11,600, the earrings were priced at 237 Mexican pesos, which converts to $13.91, according to Villarreal.

“I was amazed to see how much the necklaces cost and so on and I said: ‘Someday,’ until I saw the earrings,” Villarreal wrote on social media. “I swear I broke out in a cold sweat.”

USA TODAY contacted Cartier but did not receive a response.

Price tag outrage:Texas retiree hit with $10,000 in cosmetics charges after visit to mall kiosk

Earrings 'were not at the correct price,' Cartier says

Villarreal bought two sets of the earrings, but he later noticed the price was adjusted on Cartier's website to 237,000 Mexican pesos, which converts to $13,890.93, according to another X post.

A week after Villarreal bought the earrings, Cartier tried to cancel his order and say the items were no longer available, he wrote on X. When Villarreal decided not to cancel the order, the jeweler's reps began calling him, the X post continued to explain.

Villarreal said the Cartier reps told him the earrings he "ordered were not at the correct price" so they "wanted to cancel the purchase." To remedy the "inconvenience," Cartier said they would give Villarreal a gift, which turned out to be a complimentary bottle of Cartier Cuvée champagne and a leather Cartier item, according to an email Villarreal received and posted on X.

Rogelio Villarreal filed consumer complaint

Villarreal rejected Cartier's gifts and used a contact form on the company’s website to cite a federal consumer protection law in Mexico which states that a goods supplier can be taken to court “by not respecting the terms and conditions under which” a product or service is bought.

The terms and conditions for sales on Cartier's website in Mexico say disputes can be brought to the Office of the Federal Prosecutor for the Consumer for “conciliation," which Villarreal said he noticed. He then filed a complaint with the Matamoros branch of the federal consumer protection agency.

Villarreal said the consumer protection agency summoned Cartier for arbitration and tried to mediate an agreement. If the agency found Cartier or any other company at fault, it could impose fines or penalties, Jorge López Zozaya, a corporate lawyer in Mexico City, told the New York Times. The agency cannot make businesses abide by a listed price, Zozaya added.

Even if a listed price was an obvious error, Mexican law does not extend protections to consumers under those circumstances, according to Zozaya.

“If this case had gone to a court of law, it probably would have resolved favorably for Cartier,” the lawyer told the New York Times.

'War is over': Man effectively wins against Cartier

Villarreal and Cartier did not have to go to court or get lawyers involved because the jeweler sent the Tamaulipas, Mexico native the two sets of earrings he paid around $28 for.

"War is over," Villarreal said on April 22 in an X post. "Cartier is delivering."

The earrings arrived on April 26, according to Villarreal, who shared a post on X the same day saying, "Once upon a December."

Villarreal said in a separate X post on April 26 that he was "excited" to give a set of earrings to his mother.

"Those earrings are for her," he wrote.

Villarreal would go on to show the earrings through various TikTok videos, including an unboxing of the luxury jewelry. He also confirmed to the New York Times that he planned on signing an agreement to settle his complaint with the consumer protection agency, officially ending the dispute with Cartier.