Supermarket warning

[glojo]

Just been speaking to my sister who has just returned from a shopping spree at Tesco's.

When she checked her receipt against the shopping it disclosed a number of discrepancies.

First off there were a number of items advertised at a special price on the shelves, but when she examined the till receipt she had been charged a much higher figure.

Then when she had bought loose items of fruit she had been charged for more than the quantity she had purchased. eg 4 grapefruits in the bag.... SEVEN on the receipt.

Why did she check the bill?

Because she has been diddled by this shop before.

The problem though is that we don't have any idea how much the price on the shelf is unless we can specifically remember each item. My sister could only recall THREE incorrectly charged items, but fruit wise there were three different fruits that were overcharged including the grapefruits.

Strange how it is always over-charging and not the other way!

Tesco's have offered to refund the excess charge but I wonder how many customers do not realise they have been ripped off!

Regards
John

 

[Natalie]

How interesting is that factoid! Makes me realise that I should find time and check receipts. OUr local Waitrose introduced scanners some time ago and although I've never used them, at least that would be one way of checking the price of produce v. the shelf price. WOnder how much more money they've made from the unsuspecting punter.

 

[pammy]

I always do a random check of my receipt and have never had a problem. We use self scanners inour Saino's and it works really well. Would be very very unhappy though if I was being overcharged in this way. I think I'd be onto Trading Standards

 

[jaymanek]

its very common... tesco's are notorious and i used to queue up every other week on the customer services till to get refunds..

We have a shop and I have to say maintenance of shelf price labels, prices and special offers on the tills etc is a full time job.. but tesco's have no excuse as they should have people checking and correcting these things.

 

[maddog]

How interesting is that factoid! Makes me realise that I should find time and check receipts. OUr local Waitrose introduced scanners some time ago and although I've never used them, at least that would be one way of checking the price of produce v. the shelf price. WOnder how much more money they've made from the unsuspecting punter.

the scanners dont show saving ie the buy one get one half price etc , thats only shown at the end

 

[LastMinute]

4 grapefruits in the bag.... SEVEN on the receipt.

Finger trouble on the till keypad - or a miscalibrated touchscreen? (4 is just above or below 7.)


I can't believe this is wilful fraud on the part of the supermarket. As Jay mentioned, keeping all the price displays and till systems in sync must be an enormous task for a operation the size of Tesco, but you'd think they'd have figured it out by now...

 

[glojo]

Finger trouble on the till keypad - or a miscalibrated touchscreen? (4 is just above or below 7.)


I can't believe this is wilful fraud on the part of the supermarket. As Jay mentioned, keeping all the price displays and till systems in sync must be an enormous task for a operation the size of Tesco, but you'd think they'd have figured it out by now...

Good point about the '4' and '7' although it happened with three lots of different fruit.

How interesting is that factoid! Makes me realise that I should find time and check receipts. OUr local Waitrose introduced scanners some time ago and although I've never used them, at least that would be one way of checking the price of produce v. the shelf price. WOnder how much more money they've made from the unsuspecting punter....

Hi Natalie,
It is certainly factoid, my sister has no sense of humour and as stated it is not the first occassion.

I understand what is being said about the marking of prices but if something is advertised at price 'x' then surely it should be sold at that price? I wonder how few people noitiuce this 'deception'

Tesco's are very quick to reimburse anyone that complains

John

 

[Rory]

its very common... tesco's are notorious

http://tescoripoff.com/

 

[Will]

Strangely, this happened to me at Sainsbury's last week - something that I bought one of was charged for twice.

But to be honest, I'm sure I've had it the other way round over the years - ie, they've put something through the till which might not have scanned properly, it's probably an innocent mistake in my case, but your Tescos example does sound very suspicious - definately take that further if it's happening regularly.

Will

 

[glojo]

http://tescoripoff.com/

Thanks very much for the excellent link. I have past it on to my sister.

Regards
John

 

[scumbag]

I know its not an acceptable practice but it is one of the reasons you get an itemised bill!

To be honest, I am not impressed with the self service till. Although I can see an argument that less staff, means less costs and that you can use them if its busy, but I have seen numerous people not being quite as honest with these things as one would expect.

Thus meaning an increase in price to make up for the loss of business. Same as uninsured drivers!

We only have a choice of Tesco's here, but I can't say I have heard of this happening to any of the 9000 people who live here. And if it happened, I would hear!

 

[HughJarse]

Dont Tescos have a "get the product free if we overcharge you policy"...


I seem to remember this.

 

[glojo]

Just been speaking to my sister again and she was saying how she complained the last time, the manager apologised and gave the explanation that has been suggested here, but seven days later the items were still wrong!

 

[Parrotman]

This is generally a glitch or non communication between the computer and the human operative. All prices on the system are generated from the respective Head Office but the shop floor may not yet have got round to changing the SEL ( shelf label ) to the correct price. No excuse I know but it does happen quite a lot.

If the SEL price is lower than what comes up at the checkout then generally that lower price will be honoured. However, and I stand to be corrected on this, the retailer might maintain that the price at the checkout is the correct price and could stand by that regardless of what the SEL price is. As said, I don't know if this legally correct.

And on the subject of retailers, when making your grocery / produce purchases, do check the sell by date and always select from the back, even if it means moving a tray, because if the stock rotation is correct, that at the back will be fresher with a longer sell by date. This is regardless of who the retailer might be.

 

[Mercedes cozy]

Well

This was my experience, happened before Christmas time.

My bill cam to about £125, normaly it come to about £100.

I checked my bill and it showed the asparagus £££ / kilo.
I was shocked as I didn't even buy that product.
I believe i bought Aubegine instead. So they must have pressed the wrong button.

Anyway I went to a tesco store and they said "go to the store where you did your shopping".

So I went back to the store and they just refunded my money.

 

[jaymanek]

Thanks John,

I have just spent the last 3 hours putting out updated price labels on the shelves due to this thread

 

[glojo]

Thanks John,

I have just spent the last 3 hours putting out updated price labels on the shelves due to this thread

Glad to be of assistance

regards
John

 

[jaymanek]

and about 10 years ago my dad said "getting a degree from LSE will mean you wont have to do this anymore" hmmm...

We have put out hundreds of new labels this afternoon and our shop is only 2000 sq ft... imagine the task it must be for a big supermarket...

They should have a systematic approach to it as prices vary almost daily.. i bet a lot of it is the spotty teenagers not actually changing the tickets and just throwing them away..

 

[glojo]

Is it not possible to somehow just have the price above the product and associate this with the product bar code if there is such a thing?

I have never served in the retail trade so my idea may well be stupid.

regards
John

 

[Rory]

Is it not possible to somehow just have the price above the product and associate this with the product bar code if there is such a thing?

I have never served in the retail trade so my idea may well be stupid.

regards
John

There are trials going on with electronic shelf edge displays that are linked by wireless radio into the computer system holding the price information so that the shelf edge pricing and the till pricing will aways match. However buying millions of the displays is quite expensive and they need to be very low power so they can run from batteries.

I forget how it works now, but supermarkets get into a lot of trouble (inc being fined) if they charge different prices from the ones on the shelves, so they are quite keen to get the pricing right. This seems to be different to other shops where if the price is wrong they don't have to honour it.