When Does Negligence Transform into Theft

nobodiesfool

I was wondering how it stands in Law when a price change fails to be made in a supermarkets computer. We know that if a store prices an item (say) for £19.99, when it should be £199.99, they are not legally bound to sell it to you for the advertised price as this is only an 'offer'.
However, if I am attracted to an item and would not have bought it had I not seen that it had been 'rolled back' (I make no judgement as to which supermarket, as they ALL are guilty) and let us say it used to be £10.99, but the special offer price is now £5.99. Yet, unless I am particularly vigilant when I get to the checkout I do not notice that it rings up £10.99, along with the trolley full of stuff I am buying. Then owing to someones negligence I have been defrauded! The store has gained a pecunary advantage! Is it right to deem this as theft?
I know that quite a few years ago B&Q used to be automatically fined £10,000 by Trading Standards owing to the fact that their advertised prices where NOT getting logged at the tills. And unless you have a good memory and notice that you have been overcharged with items no longer being price tagged, it becomes so much a trust issue.
Tesco will refund TWICE the difference if you are overcharged, whereas ASDA refund the difference AND give you £2 on a saver card. If the item is overcharged 5p, then 10p is not much compensation, especially if you have returned to the store to complain, yet I wondered if ASDA's policy of the £2, was compensation for thier ineptness and to defer the fact that potentially they have stolen from us!!!
Any Solicitors reading this - I would be interested in their viewpoint.

Take_it_like_a_man,_sonny

No you have not been defrauded.

See here, all your answers in one place.

For the rest, it is called markeying, just like putting the 2lb bags of sugar on affer, but at the back of the stoire. That is because punter will buy more than one bag o0f cheap sugar.

somethingcorporate

No, because legally this is the process of the transaction:

i) Items on the shelf are "invitations to treat".
ii) You present the items you would like to buy at the till.
iii) A price comes up on the till and YOU offer to pay that amount for the items.
iv) They accept YOUR offer of payment.

The fact that you did not notice the price of the individual items is largely irrelevant - you had the opportunity to check the cost before offering to pay that value for the items.

No theft occurs here.

shaun_from_Africa

Another reason why it wouldn't be classed as theft is that for this to happen, the intention must be for you to have been permantely deprived of the money.

If you were to return any goods to a supermarket and show that you had been charged a different price to that shown on the shelf, I'm sure that you would get an immediate refund.

zaax

Actually I think it is wilful, as it a computer that holds the price shown at the check out, and it the same computer that prints the shelf tickets.

Shopping at Morrison my local supermarket I always take a photo of the discount price on the shelf, as I have been conned a number of times that way.

pickpocketlocket

zaax wrote: »

Actually I think it is wilful, as it a computer that holds the price shown at the check out, and it the same computer that prints the shelf tickets.

Shopping at Morrison my local supermarket I always take a photo of the discount price on the shelf, as I have been conned a number of times that way.

And it is a human being that changes those labels over - humans make mistakes!

antrobus

zaax wrote: »

Actually I think it is wilful, as it a computer that holds the price shown at the check out, and it the same computer that prints the shelf tickets.

What, you think the likes of Tesco only have one computer?

Besides it takes a human being to put the SEL on the shelf, and sometimes they don't do it.

zaax wrote: »

...Shopping at Morrison my local supermarket I always take a photo of the discount price on the shelf, as I have been conned a number of times that way.

Morrisons are fairly notorious for running out of discounted lines, and filling up the empty shelfspace with something similar that's more expensive.

mattyprice4004

Take_it_like_a_man,_sonny wrote: »

No you have not been defrauded.

See here, all your answers in one place.

For the rest, it is called markeying, just like putting the 2lb bags of sugar on affer, but at the back of the stoire. That is because punter will buy more than one bag o0f cheap sugar.

Bit early for the beer, isn't it?

Idiophreak

nobodiesfool wrote: »

And unless you have a good memory and notice that you have been overcharged with items no longer being price tagged, it becomes so much a trust issue.

Don't trust the supermarkets. As above, I don't think they do it deliberately, it's just that they stuff up their labelling so often that advertised prices are often incorrect.

You don't need a good memory to combat this, though...just a little time. I went through a phase of writing my shopping list as a spreadsheet on my phone, then writing down the label price next to the item when I picked it up...Then I just looked at the total of that column vs the total charge on the receipt to see if I'd been overcharged for anything.

EVERY week Mr T would have overcharged on at least one thing...but then I had to queue up at customer services...walk the bloke round the store to show him the label, watch him prattle with the till..and give me my 22p refund...So I don't bother with it any more...which, honestly, is what they count on.

This is further complicated, now, using scan-and-shop...Because, often, the price on the handset you scan with *isn't* the same as the price on the till...Very useful.

nobodiesfool

somethingcorporate wrote: »

No, because legally this is the process of the transaction:

i) Items on the shelf are "invitations to treat".
ii) You present the items you would like to buy at the till.
iii) A price comes up on the till and YOU offer to pay that amount for the items.
iv) They accept YOUR offer of payment.

The fact that you did not notice the price of the individual items is largely irrelevant - you had the opportunity to check the cost before offering to pay that value for the items.

No theft occurs here.

Whist I am packing I miss the item coming up on the display! I had checked the price and I TRUST that they have got it right - however, I am a victim of their incompetence to correct their computer. Why is it irrelevant?

Take_it_like_a_man,_sonny

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

Bit early for the beer, isn't it?

No, here have a decent one on me! :beer::beer::beer::beer:


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