Where do I stand when you are under charged?

Backbiter

I agree that honesty is the best policy, but it does depend who's 'overchanged' you and in what circs.
A few years ago in Florida we had a lovely meal that was exceptional value - around $50 all in for five. I paid by travellers cheques - one $50 and one $20 - but was given change for $100! I had no hesitation in telling the waiter as I felt sure he'd have had his pay cut to cover the losses, plus the ensuing arguments/ breakdown in trust between his boss and him etc. - and all because of an innocent mistake from which we would have undeservedly profited.
If, say, a garage owner had given me poor service and massively overcharged me in dubious circs, I don't think I'd have too many qualms about hanging on to some excess change.

donstermonster

RufusA wrote:

Legally I would imagine it's a very grey area that possibly doesn't have any case law! It depends exactly when the "acceptance" occured:

two scenarios:

1) Seller provided invitation to treat (goods displayed with a price of £50), you take them to the till (offer), and cashier rings them through and says that will be £50 (acceptance).

or

2) Price displayed on goods / till irrelevant. Invitation to treat is the 5p keyed in by the cashier on chip and pin machine, you entering in your pin is the offer, and them handing over the goods is acceptance of 5p offer.


However as any contract should be a meeting of minds then (on this basis) the acceptance was at the till, scenario 1. Therefore the 5p paid on the credit card hasn't fulfilled your side of the contract, so in theory you still owe them money, and they can pursue you.

In reality the retailer may not spot the issue until trying to reconcile accounts at year end, and may decide to write the money off, along with the shop lifting losses, and damaged goods. If they spot the difference they could either charge you for the difference on the card (cardholder not present), or write to you asking politely to pay up (if they have your address). If you refuse they could take you to court, or ban you from the shop for life!

Morally, you know the right thing to do!

Personally if it was a small store, or a shop I was happy using and wanted to keep using I'd approach them with the receipt and cc slip and explain. With luck they might praise your honesty, and not charge you the difference anyway, and either way you'd start the new year with a clear conscience.

If it was a large national chain, I might be more inclined to keep silent and wait (the up to 6 years in contract law).

HTH - Rufus.

Rufus

Great reply and VERY helpful, but jeez man lighten up a little its a chat board not a lecture board

Please take this as it is intended - light hearted , not a pop at you
Keep up the great work

DonsterMonster

ti1980

This has been a really interesting thread. It is good knowing what other people would do in certain situations.

Jorichrose, if you do go back to the shop and tell them the mistake, please post back and let us know how they handled it. Could help others in the future if they have a similar dilemma.

khizman

think of it this way,
If they over charged you by £45 will they try to find your info and refund you?
I dont think so.

TheHacker

A few years ago I bought about £175 worth of sports equipment.
The trainee rang it through and gave me a CC slip to sign.

I duely signed and left the store.
Upon getting home, I noticed that the slip I had signed was actually a cancellation slip( trainee had pressed cancel by mistake)

So what do I do? - keep the goodies? or go back and pay?

I chose to go back and pay, Upon getting to the store and tellling the manager, they were shocked that I had returned, but also very thankful. They had noticed the error and were in big trouble as they could have lost all the money.

Got a FREE sports kit as a thank you for returning, but the relief on their faces was payment enough!

Honesty is always the best policy!!!

RightRevBod

ti1980 wrote:

This has been a really interesting thread. It is good knowing what other people would do in certain situations.

Jorichrose, if you do go back to the shop and tell them the mistake, please post back and let us know how they handled it. Could help others in the future if they have a similar dilemma.

Whatever you decide, we would be interested to know what happens.

If you do decide to keep it, then that is your decision, and we will not judge. If you decide to tell the shop, we would like to know how they react.

lush_walrus

purplegirluk1 wrote:

On one ocassion I did faulter from this on a visit to pizza hut. We were served by a young man who appeared to be new, he had no idea what he was doing and made a million mistakes (which I did compalin about and that were all sorted out) We could see that he was getting a lot of agro from his boss and he must have been so nervous that he have us too much change. I counted it up outside and then ran back in and gave him the difference back, bless him he looked so shocked and pleased, it made me feel pretty good. I was worried because they have their own money and it is counted seperatly at the end of the shift, he would have lost his job by the end of his first night at that rate!

Good move, I can tell you from someone who had a stint waitressing at Pizza Hut, that if you hadn't gone back in he would not have lost his job. Indeed what would have actually happened is that HE would have paid for the mistake. When cashing up, if you are under then the money has to be paid by you. If you do not have the money in tips, then the money is taken straight out of your wages. So if the mistake is big, you basically have just worked for free.

stratford_2

cjb1971 wrote:

Last year got the son some trainers from soccer sports -they put them behind counter for me-took some other clothes to counter and collected trainers,later on i realised they handnt charged me the £30 for the trainers.Just b4 xmas went to another branch of soccer sports and they did exactly the same with a £90 pair of trainers-was only charged for the jeans and belt i purchased (£17)-both times the trainers were not scanned so the till will not showing short and cashier will not get in trouble.
The moral of the story-
Go to soccer sports for your trainers!

The moral of the story - don't let cjb1971 into soccer sports!

Btw, don't you think that the staff of the stores might get into trouble when a stockdate shows that the trainers were missing...

jorichrose

Hi there

I went back yesterday and followed the suggestion posted about saying there was mistake with my payment etc without indicating under or over charging. The cashier was interested to help and was to quote "flabbergasted" the I had come back and owned up. She was very pleased and was completely lost for words. she said that in all her time in retail no one had ever come back before. She was really amazed.

She asked what I wanted to do........huh, and so we charged the card £49.
In the end I have paid £49.05, so she let me off the 20p!!!!

I was thanked and that was that. I will use the store again and I can now do so with a clear conscience.

However, funnily enough I then went into another small shop who upon handing me the chip and pin thing, said that he always checked the amount twice before handing it to the customer. I mentioned my experience in the other shop and he said that he knew them well and what a hard working lovely couple they were. He too though said that he had never had anyone come back undercharged in all his experience in retail.

I then went into Boots and as I was using a different card for which I cannot remember the pin, I ask to sign the slip. As I was doing so the cashier said that since the chip and pin she rarely looked at the amount as she was so busy trying to make sure no one could see her pin, however when signing she always checked the amount!!! I didn't mention my other experience but noted what she had said.

Weird coincidence that both shops I subsequently visited yesterday made reference to the amounts and chip and pin!

Thanks again to all the replies!

Glitterari

In my opinion as it is a small independent shop and the money is quite a lot, I mean we're not talking a few quid here, i would return and pay for it. Like someone else said, you might even get a 'reward' for it although that's not why you should do it or expect it!!

I give to charities, I volunteer my time to work for charities for free too. However, if it was a big chain store and I knew at the time that I had been undercharged, I would keep quiet without a doubt.

One of reasons I say this is because I have previously worked for one of the big supermarkets and I have never heard of anyone having to repay out of their wages for their tills being down. I have also worked for a high street shop, that prior to starting work with them, I realised they hadn't scanned all my shopping so I ended up with some for free. When I went to work for that shop (one in another city) I found out that it would never come back on the shop assistant or manager for various reasons. I know of course this isn't necessarily the same for all large chainstores. And I have found a £10 note on the street, which I have kept.

However on the otherside of the coin, I have taken a mobile phone that I found on the ground to the police station (did I get any thanks? Nooooo - the police officer was actually pretty shocked that I had handed it in). I was once in queue for the cash machine and the bloke infront me walked off without taking the money. I could have had that and legged it...but I called him back. He just said 'oh!'. But my Mum told me what a good girl I was - LOL. And in December, i was walking down Oxford Street (crazy, I know) and we walked past a cash machine, which was reading do you want more time? <press button> do you want to cancel and return the card? <press button> I thought the screen was frozen and it had broken down. So I pressed the cancel button to see if it was broke and out popped the card! I was totally shocked and took it out. I tried to take it into the bank but they'd just shut, so we posted it through the letter box. I can do all this - but the *sshole that found my Mum's purse when she lost it, took all the money out first, before someone handed it in.

I've not had any rewards for my 'angelic' behaviour, but I doubt that will stop me in future. I weigh up each situation as it comes.

Sorry for the long one...
C x