Check Your Receipts!!!!

mech_2

smcaul wrote: »

Yep they made the odd mistake, but our customers/clients very rarely knew about it, and if they did they were not expected to have to pay for the mistake - in fact they would not have tolerated it and we would have probably lost them.

We would also learn form that mistake and make sure that it was not repeated. What you are saying is that the system you used is floored and as customers we should just accept that and accept that the consequences of such is mis priced goods.

It is just laziness on the part of the stores, either by the staff or by the management - no doubt head office believe it should be able to be accomplished within the time scale - which means the store management have to take responsibility.

So because there's someone to blame, mistakes can't happen?

Honestly, what would you change to make the system foolproof? Removing the human element is not possible. Every price ticket is placed by a human. Every item of stock is placed by a human. You've got supermarket staff on the lowest wages possible handling huge volumes of stock and customers passing through the store every day. Customers love leaving things in random locations. Prices change all the time and it happens instantly on the tills - you can't change all the tickets instantly even with the best staff in the world. Add to this external merchandisers coming in and changing whole displays behind the supermarket staffs' backs and I'm amazed mistakes are as uncommon as they are. Judging by other peoples' experiences elsewhere, my local supermarket is pretty good, but I accept the occasional mistake as inevitable.

No one expects the customers to "pay for the mistakes", but if a customer doesn't spot the mistake and complain, a refund can't be offered and one has to assume tacit acceptance of the till price.

If we're going to infer what head office expects, what should we conclude from the existence of a customer services desk in large supermarkets?

taxiphil

mech wrote: »

Honestly, what would you change to make the system foolproof? Removing the human element is not possible.

Simple.

Electronic Shelf Edge Labels.

Proven technology that really works, and has been around for over 12 years.

Before you say it's a fanciful idea, Electronic SELs are now used by most of the major supermarket chains in Europe, primarily because consumer legislation is tougher over there and overcharging carries a stiffer penalty, which has given them the incentive to come up with a proper solution to the problem.

mech_2

taxiphil wrote: »

Simple.

Electronic Shelf Edge Labels.

Proven technology that really works, and has been around for over 12 years.

Before you say it's a fanciful idea, Electronic SELs are now used by most of the major supermarket chains in Europe, primarily because consumer legislation is tougher over there and overcharging carries a stiffer penalty, which has given them the incentive to come up with a proper solution to the problem.

I thought of that, but disregarded it as prohibitively expensive. I expect we will see more of these in the future, but they're unlikely to be every ticket in the store for some time. Regardless, I don't see this as a complete solution. Stock still has to be located with its ticket. Sweeps for missing tickets still need to be performed. Promotional tickets will still need putting out and removing. Plus it introduces new technical problems. Batteries run down eventually. How do you know if they are all updating as they should? When ESELs fail you have to have spares and prepare them for the product. New stock items also need new ESELs. How quick is that compared to printing out a paper label? The problems will persist.

smcaul

mech wrote: »

So because there's someone to blame, mistakes can't happen?

Honestly, what would you change to make the system foolproof? Removing the human element is not possible. Every price ticket is placed by a human. Every item of stock is placed by a human. You've got supermarket staff on the lowest wages possible handling huge volumes of stock and customers passing through the store every day. Customers love leaving things in random locations. Prices change all the time and it happens instantly on the tills - you can't change all the tickets instantly even with the best staff in the world. Add to this external merchandisers coming in and changing whole displays behind the supermarket staffs' backs and I'm amazed mistakes are as uncommon as they are. Judging by other peoples' experiences elsewhere, my local supermarket is pretty good, but I accept the occasional mistake as inevitable.

No one expects the customers to "pay for the mistakes", but if a customer doesn't spot the mistake and complain, a refund can't be offered and one has to assume tacit acceptance of the till price.

If we're going to infer what head office expects, what should we conclude from the existence of a customer services desk in large supermarkets?

Who has mentioned blame? I was inferring that people take responsibility, either the shop workers or the management. As for making it foolproof, I do not, and have no intention of, ever working in retail, so I certainly do not want to spend hours pouring over a system that currently does not work and then trying to make it work.

If the legislation and penalty's were tougher you can bet your life that the mistakes made would be minimal, if any at all.

Whilst you may not be able to take the human element out, you can put in checks and balances to ensure that their mistakes are highlighted and rectified - many businesses have to do that - why should retail be any different!

facingthefuture

sweep9 wrote: »

OK... I've got my flameproof suit for this one...

How come nobody complains when it happens the other way? "It said £1.99 on the shelf but they only charged me 99p". Or even on this forum, 'Get down to xxx quick, they have a TV at £200 but it scans at the till at £20'
.

I have done exactly that twice recently in Sainsburys. Both times they refused to take the extra and instead made sure it didn't happen again.

I check all my receipts and certainly 25% of the time they are wrong. That is just far too often. It really annoys me because people like my mum who find it difficult to read the receipt must be getting swindled often. For the staff it may be an oversight, for the customers it can have a serious financial impact on such a sustained level. If the stores need more staff to maintain correct pricing then they should employ them.No excuses.

mech_2

smcaul wrote: »

Who has mentioned blame? I was inferring that people take responsibility, either the shop workers or the management.

What's the difference? And who says they don't?

As for making it foolproof, I do not, and have no intention of, ever working in retail, so I certainly do not want to spend hours pouring over a system that currently does not work and then trying to make it work.

Well exactly. It's easy to be all high and mighty from an armchair. However it's not even clear to me that any system needs fixing. That's my point.

If the legislation and penalty's were tougher you can bet your life that the mistakes made would be minimal, if any at all.

"If... but... if... but".

If shops get fined, the costs get passed onto the customer. If a complicated system of failsafes and double-checks are implemented by the supermarkets, the costs again, get passed to the consumer. If a government body has to deal with complaints/audits, the cost of that bureaucracy gets passed to the taxpayer. If the cure is worse than the disease then all you end up doing is replacing an imperfect system with one with imperfections designed into it from the outset. Problem "solved", but it's not clear who benefits except for the people paid to reorganise everything.

Whilst you may not be able to take the human element out, you can put in checks and balances to ensure that their mistakes are highlighted and rectified - many businesses have to do that - why should retail be any different!

It's all about the bottom line. A certain amount of error is acceptable if the solution costs more than the problem. A supermarket isn't a nuclear reactor or moon mission. An error just means someone gets overcharged (or undercharged) 50p or something, or a BOGOF doesn't get recognised at the till. The errors are likely to average to zero unless you are someone who goes for a lot of BOGOFs (in which case you're probably falling right into a trap of imaginary savings anyway, even without any billing errors).

On the other hand, if a particular supermarket makes as many errors as some people on here suggest then either there's something wrong at that branch or some people have exceptionally bad luck, but it's not the system as a whole that's at fault.

However great the system in the shop, I would still check my receipts for errors as a matter of course. In fact I add up everything in my head as I go around the supermarket so I know how much I'm expecting to pay before I get to the till. I've only spotted 3 errors in my local Tesco in 9 years. All the other surprises tended to be my own fault for misreading tickets etc. It seems to me that the system works better than I do.

Rosemary7391

taxiphil wrote: »

Simple.

Electronic Shelf Edge Labels.

Proven technology that really works, and has been around for over 12 years.

Before you say it's a fanciful idea, Electronic SELs are now used by most of the major supermarket chains in Europe, primarily because consumer legislation is tougher over there and overcharging carries a stiffer penalty, which has given them the incentive to come up with a proper solution to the problem.

What happens when someone rams a trolley into the bottom shelf? Or puts the product in the wrong place? Or creates a new display? (Especially an outside merchandiser...)

It is just as likely someone will get undercharged as overcharged; but it's only the overcharges that get reported and fixed! The vast majority of price changes go through correctly; of the times I've had an error reported to me, it has been a misread rather than an error most of the time.