Tesco misprice discussion area part 17

taxiphil

cheapskate58 wrote:

Defend what? The twisted logic of people who believe it to be morally justified to abuse a genuine consumer benefit to the point where it is withdrawn – sorry I can’t defend that!

I also find it bizarre to read that you and others think Tesco is “stealing” consumers’ money through mis-prices. There will be a balance of probabilities that Tesco will be under-charging as much as it over-charges through the same pricing errors and inefficiencies.

Undoubtedly, Tesco needs to sort out how it manages price display versus the processing of individual transactions at the till. However, to suggest that Tesco, (or indeed any other supermarket or major retailer) deliberately sets out to defraud its customers in this way is simply ridiculous.:p

I notice you've completely side-stepped the question I asked you.

Here is the question once again:

They are aware they have taken money unlawfully from thousands of people, and that it doesn't belong to them. They even know who most of the money belongs to. Why don't they give the money back?

Please stop waffling and throwing insults around, and have the balls to just answer the question.

spa2k

foreignshopper wrote:

I must bow to your greater knowledge as I'm certainly not a computer 'expert'. However, a similar situation occurs many times every day i.e. bogof. The computer is set to recognise that if a 2nd item is bought which qualifies then either the 2nd item is reduced or a credit given to make the bogof price correct.

I would have thought this was similar i.e. if a certain barcode has already been scanned then another would be 'disqualified'. A simple "If .... Then ..." statement. I find it hard to believe that a company the size of T does not have a top-notch I.T. dept - thereagain perhaps it doesn't.

All I know is that if it were my business being hit in this way I would try very hard to make this 'abuse' (if indeed that's what it is) extremely difficult to continue. The clothing coupon fiasco ran for nearly six weeks without any problem for the customer.

So, for the problem to not occur with the coupons for an example you must tell the system the barcode of the particular coupon and then ALL the coupons that it must not work with....therefore you need to know all the numbers of the coupons that it shouldnt work with in order for it to be programmed that way. This means that the programmer needs to know all the coupons that are out there in order to know which ones it should and shouldnt work with. If you look at the clothing ones they came from several different leaflets, probably produced by different departments.

The amount of time and effort it would take in order to get this to happen in a technological way probably far outweighs the money lost through the till. However IF the checkout assistants were doing their job properly then the coupons would have been queried at time of presentation while the chancers at the self scan would have got themselves a bonus.

To use your example, a bogof requires the purchase of a set number of products from a very limited number, there is however a vast number of coupons and coupon codes that one may need to programme into an if...then command.

foreignshopper

leadhead wrote:

But is it illegal.

Tesco offer to take other stores coupons, some store supervisors told me that the £4.50 uniball coupon was ok to use, some said I hadnt bought "sinex" but would accept my coupon, some said "this is only valid in Somerfield, but if it scans you can use it", it scanned.

So if there is all this confusion between operators, supervisors and other staff, how is the public to know, what Tescos will accept.

This hits the nail on the head - one of my local stores will take ANY 5 coupons (even Asda etc ones) - even if you only buy 1 item. Another will take 1 coupon per item.

Another says only 1 coupon per type i.e. only allow the use of 1 plax coupon even if you buy 6.

Policy - they haven't got one. If unsure, make it up as you go along !

cheapskate58

Odd_Fellow wrote:

I'm sorry, but how can you defend an organisation that reports profits in terms of BILLIONS when it's more interested in what it's shelves look like (see previous posting on "rumbling") than it is in pricing integrity. It can hardly claim that it would be too expensive to sort out or that it dosen't have the financial backing to deal with it. It's pure and simple, it does not have the WILL to do anything about it.

If it took any notice of the seemingly pointless "reports" that are filled for every R&R - if it took any notice of the forum posts on here, there would be so many fewer overcharges that these forums would dripple with life, not swarm and multiply as they do.

The fact that Tesco generates profits is neither here nor there although people seem to regard that as a good reason to fleece them.

Given the thousands upon thousands of product lines sold by a big supermarket, it’s daft to think that they will get everything right all of the time – particularly when Local versus National versus tactical pricing will be, by its very nature, dynamic and fast-moving.

When you take into account Tesco’s total sales versus whatever mis-prices people here and on other sites have found, the proportion will be tiny and certainly would be considered reasonable when measured against any other standard. People do make mistakes after all and technology is not perfect – even this site crashes from time to time!

Furthermore, when you take into account Tesco’s total sales versus what their R&R policy has cost them, the amount is insignificant. The point is that some forums, (and it must be said this forum in particular), have rubbed their nose in it to the extent that they believe it better to withdraw the policy than continue to be shafted by a bunch of chancers. Taking the p*ss by effectively nicking XBOX 360s and then boasting about it on a public forum was never gonna be a good idea was it?:p

spa2k

taxiphil wrote:

I notice you've completely side-stepped the question I asked you.

Here is the question once again:

They are aware they have taken money unlawfully from thousands of people, and that it doesn't belong to them. They even know who most of the money belongs to. Why don't they give the money back?

Please stop waffling and throwing insults around, and have the balls to just answer the question.

Edit: Actually, lets make it simple. AN Other walks into tesco and sees 2 cases of coke on the shelf, one marked at £6.95 and 1 marked at £7.25. He buys the £6.95 one and is charged £7.25. Overcharge. BN Other walks in and buys the second case. Clubcard sees 2 cases of coke sold, not who bought the £6.95 one and who bought the £7.25 one. They have the same barcode. Who then does the clubcard dept refund?????

Now lets say that after the first overcharge was noticed the label was corrected, how would you identify that with the clubcard data? All that would be recorded is that 2 cases of coke were sold at £7.25 each, not what the price label or product flashing said.

What you propose is simply impossible.

Further edit: Its not about having balls to answer, its realising how rediculous your suggestion is and not giving it the time of day.

cheapskate58

taxiphil wrote:

I notice you've completely side-stepped the question I asked you.

Here is the question once again:

They are aware they have taken money unlawfully from thousands of people, and that it doesn't belong to them. They even know who most of the money belongs to. Why don't they give the money back?

Please stop waffling and throwing insults around, and have the balls to just answer the question.

I haven’t sidestepped the question at all. The point of principle is that errors occur – both in their favour and not in their favour. There is no precedent or reasonable expectation that they should refund or seek additional payment should errors occur.

The principle of caveat emptor is well accepted.

Please think through the full implication of what YOU are waffling on about.

Thus I do have the balls to answer. Unfortunately, your point appears to be simply balls.:p

spa2k

cheapskate58 wrote:

Furthermore, when you take into account Tesco’s total sales versus what their R&R policy has cost them, the amount is insignificant. The point is that some forums, (and it must be said this forum in particular), have rubbed their nose in it to the extent that they believe it better to withdraw the policy than continue to be shafted by a bunch of chancers. Taking the p*ss by effectively nicking XBOX 360s and then boasting about it on a public forum was never gonna be a good idea was it?:p

Dont agree with the nicking part but the rest is something that i have been saying for a long time. Indeed i remember many warnings from consistant non Tesco posters to the thread along the lines of not killing the golden goose. The fact is that Tesco do make mistakes and procedures do need tightening / systems overhauling but peoples greed has got the better of them and a good thing for the customer has been spoilt.

Coupon-mad

Don't give up do you cheapskate....do you think we will end up agreeing with you if you repeat yourself enough times? Errr, no.

And whilst I consider myself something of an expert on coupons (yes I use loads but they are either lots that Tesco can redeem or lots that Tesco let me combine as I have bought their clothing or toiletries) can we keep that discussion to the Discount Codes & Vouchers Board now?

If anyone wants to know how to use lots of toiletries (Health & Beauty) vouchers you need to just search the forums for 'Tesco Health & Beauty coupons'. To find discussion on multiple clothing coupon use (although most have expired now) search for 'Tesco clothing coupons'.

Back on topic, I am interested to see if any newspapers this week actually investigate the overcharging issue properly....rather than just using the glib Tesco-orientated version published so far. Somehow I doubt it unless Watchdog get involved.

ben500

spa2k wrote:

Edit: Actually, lets make it simple. AN Other walks into tesco and sees 2 cases of coke on the shelf, one marked at £6.95 and 1 marked at £7.25. He buys the £6.95 one and is charged £7.25. Overcharge. BN Other walks in and buys the second case. Clubcard sees 2 cases of coke sold, not who bought the £6.95 one and who bought the £7.25 one. They have the same barcode. Who then does the clubcard dept refund?????

Now lets say that after the first overcharge was noticed the label was corrected, how would you identify that with the clubcard data? All that would be recorded is that 2 cases of coke were sold at £7.25 each, not what the price label or product flashing said.

What you propose is simply impossible.

An excellent explanation of the difficulties in identifying the individuals that have been overcharged, however a morally upright company would simply refund all customers purchasing that item at the offending store during that particular misprice period. But then again we are talking Tesco.

Coupon-mad

spa2k wrote:

Edit: Actually, lets make it simple. AN Other walks into tesco and sees 2 cases of coke on the shelf, one marked at £6.95 and 1 marked at £7.25. He buys the £6.95 one and is charged £7.25. Overcharge. BN Other walks in and buys the second case. Clubcard sees 2 cases of coke sold, not who bought the £6.95 one and who bought the £7.25 one. They have the same barcode. Who then does the clubcard dept refund?????
QUOTE]



Spa, I normally agree with most of your posts but I don't think the 2 boxes of coca cola do have the same barcode? IMHO price-flashed products have a different barcode, that's how they can go through at a cheaper price isn't it?