Wrongly charged in Sainsburys Pontypridd!! Anyone else had the same trouble ?

meer53

I don't understand why the OP still shops there ? All those mistakes

Mindless_Clone

WelshJennyWren wrote: »

Everyone makes mistakes, no one is perfect. But when mistakes are made I believe they should be acknowledged/ accepted, then the mistake can be rectified.

There's some irony.

While you might have a case to raise that the shelves were sloppily filled or the labels placement is misleading, from a completely legal perspective, the store were in the right. The item discounted was the smaller size which you did not purchase, and the label clearly stated this (it's not exactly small print either - I was in my local Sainsbury's earlier and it was clear enough to me). They don't really have any legal obligation to offer you anything.
That said, if it had been me on the phone to you from Sainsbury's end, I probably would have just told you to come in for a refund next time you were in and marked it in the diary/on the system (whatever method they use to make note of these things) but I would have done that simply because, offsetting the time and cost (rate per hour of staff time) taken to investigate and the amount involved, it would have been more cost effective to do so. It does seem somewhat bizarre that you've had to chuck the store manager's (I assume that's who David wositface is?) name about in some kind of name dropping way to make your point.... for the sake of a couple of quid. What a waste of everyone's time.

On the subject of misleading and rectifying mistakes; in light of the evidence presented in this thread, it would seem the title of the thread is misleading. You were not wrongly charged at all; you paid the advertised price for the item you bought. You were , however misled by SEL / product placement . So, in the spirit of correcting mistakes, which you so loudly applaud, perhaps you should correct yours and change the thread title to "misleading offer advertising" or something that actually reflects the issue?

I reiterate I have been wrongly charged on numerous occasions in the last 18 months at various Sainsbury's stores. I have the initialled reciepts to prove this fact. That is why I brought it to their attention, so that they could deal with this problem they have. Sainsbury's was very good previously in not doing this; wrongly charging.

This is a bit contradictory. Either they regularly make mistakes at several of their stores... or they are usually very good an accurate.
I don't understand?

SingleSue wrote: »

Personally, if you have to get all those buses, maybe internet shopping would be the way to go for you, it would be less stressy and quite possibly cheaper!

I have to admit, I am a huge fan of internet shopping. But in fairness to the OP though, they do normally have a catchment area and, if this store is that far from where they live, it may be they don't deliver to the OP's area. And before you say "shop more locally then" it maybe OP prefers Sainsbury's and this is the nearest to them and that's their choice.

I would definitely look into it though, OP. If you order over £100 it's usually free delivery between Tuesday and Thursdays. And as wrightk says, you can reject any substitutes at the door, you don't get issues with being overcharged at all (or any misleading advertising) and you don't impulse spend so I find it keeps overall costs down. I have had issues with home delivery (some frankly daft substitutes) but on the whole I find it a good service.

PennyForThem_2

I always check my till receipt before I leave the shop (whichever supermarket). If I have had a doubt I go to check the price at the shelf before I leave even if the shopping is in the car. That way I have had Dtd at Tesco and free purchases from Sainsbury or at least a refund.

I do this because in the 70's I was charged £28.99 for a loaf of bread!!!!

Not hard to do - about 5 mins worth of time.

Chrissie1958

I was just going through the forums looking for some money off codes and stumbled across this thread.

I had the exact same thing happen on Wednesday, I picked up the Tilda brown rice 500g pack and when I checked my reciept also when I got home, I was charged 2.99 instead of a pound. Now I am a bargin finder and always check the promo labels and the OP is right, it did not say what weight was on offer and as there was only a choice of pure basmati and brown 500g on the shelf so I too assumed it was that that was on offer. I went back in of Saturday and they apologised to me saying one of the assistants had placed it on the wrong shelf and gave me a refund and let me keep the rice.

As for Pollycat, retailXpert and Mindless Clone, I would be ashamed of myself having a go at someone who is quite clearly in the right, the fact that she has a busy life should not reduce her to your ridicule. If I had to deal with all that shopping, two buses, and a disabled person at home I would not think I would have time to double check something, especially when assistants are paid to do this !! NOT US.

This person ( i gather a woman by the username) sounds like an angel. You go girl :-)

Pollycat

Chrissie1958 wrote: »

I was just going through the forums looking for some money off codes and stumbled across this thread.

I had the exact same thing happen on Wednesday, I picked up the Tilda brown rice 500g pack and when I checked my reciept also when I got home, I was charged 2.99 instead of a pound. Now I am a bargin finder and always check the promo labels and the OP is right, it did not say what weight was on offer and as there was only a choice of pure basmati and brown 500g on the shelf so I too assumed it was that that was on offer. I went back in of Saturday and they apologised to me saying one of the assistants had placed it on the wrong shelf and gave me a refund and let me keep the rice.

As for Pollycat, retailXpert and Mindless Clone, I would be ashamed of myself having a go at someone who is quite clearly in the right, the fact that she has a busy life should not reduce her to your ridicule.

Not that you're the OP who's registered under a different username to stick up for yourself......:cool:

However, do read my posts (and everybody else's) before you start having a go.
I have not, in any of my posts, ridiculed the OP.
I have disagreed with her - but Hey! it's an internet forum and people are allowed to have different opinions.

And do you think the OP was fair in this post?

WelshJennyWren wrote: »

retailXpert ? What retail are you *xpert* of ?
Sainsbury's maybe!!!!

Always precise specifications, are you kidding ???

The sign might have been correctly repositioned/ modified while I was kept waiting 31.43 minutes on the phone. But by all means you go and have a nosey.

However, Sainsbury's staff/ managers have corrected their mistakes many times, usually with charm and apologies. I have a pile of the initialed reciepts to prove my point. So thats an end of it retailXpert.

And as for personal info; that was in reply to someone else's comment . However you seem to be taking my complaint personally.

retailxpert had done nothing at all to warrant that reply.
It works both ways, you know.

I'm still not convinced that the OP is in the right about the SEL and sorry but your post does not convince me of that.
That's my opinion and I am entitled to that opinion.

Chrissie1958 wrote: »

If I had to deal with all that shopping, two buses, and a disabled person at home I would not think I would have time to double check something, especially when assistants are paid to do this !! NOT US.

This person ( i gather a woman by the username) sounds like an angel. You go girl :-)

Assistants aren't paid to check receipts.
They are paid (probably minimum wage) to stack shelves.
Mistakes can and do happen, the OP has acknowledged that herself.

And maybe, just maybe another customer picked up that item and put it back in the wrong place.

The fact that the OP has a disabled family member plus others to cook for after nreturning from her shopping expedition and has a broken toe is totally irrelevant.

Most people have been suggesting the OP start checking her receipt before she leaves the store.
If she doesn't have time for that or (even after being 'done this way many times before')she still 'automatically assumes that everything works out correctly at the till' then our advice is in vain.

Whether the OP decides to take sensible advice is up to her.

I doubt she will as she has defended her inability to stand for a few seconds to check the receipt in more than one post.

She also had the suggestion to think about internet shopping in one post before her own last post - but she didn't even comment on that.

However, this is the Vent board and the OP has had her vent so I will leave it now.

Azari

WelshJennyWren,

As usual on this forum, anyone making a complaint or issuing a warning gets hammered by those who seem to live for the opportunity to stand up for businesses no matter what they may get up to.

The crux of the matter, in this instance, is that supermarkets in general are way to lax about making sure their pricing is unambiguous and accurate.

It should not be necessary for customers to have to spend their valuable time checking receipts to make sure they have not been defrauded by the places at which they choose to shop.

Whilst some of the points raised about how and when to check have had some validity, it does not detract from the fact that supermarkets are being way too careless in the way they price things, particularly where special offers are concerned and this is leading to a great deal of mischarging - usually, it has to be said, in favour of the supermarket.

One suspects that if the misprices were happening at the same rate in the customer's favour, it would focus the minds of those running the establishments on finding a way to ensure the errors did not happen.

Pollycat

Azari wrote: »

As usual on this forum, anyone making a complaint or issuing a warning gets hammered by those who seem to live for the opportunity to stand up for businesses no matter what they may get up to.

I've not hammered anyone on this thread.
I've not stood up for any supermarket.

I've said that I do spot a lot of mistakes on my receipt (much to your surprise), I've said I'm not excusing supermarkets about overcharging.

However, I do acknowledge that it does happen - even if, in an ideal world, it wouldn't.

I (and others) have suggested to the OP how she can make sure it doesn't happen again, although she doesn't seem to want to/is unable to take that advice.

Azari wrote: »

The crux of the matter, in this instance, is that supermarkets in general are way to lax about making sure their pricing is unambiguous and accurate.

I agree.
But what can I personally do to make sure that Tesco, Sainsbury's, Aldi, Morrisons et al do about it?
If you can offer any advice on how to stop this overcharging/mispricing, please let me know and I'll sign up immediately.
But I suspect there is very little I personally can do.

So I personally deal with it in the best way I can - by ensuring that any overpayment is spotted and rectified before leaving the shop.

Azari wrote: »

It should not be necessary for customers to have to spend their valuable time checking receipts to make sure they have not been defrauded by the places at which they choose to shop.

Of course it shouldn't be necessary to check receipts - but the fact is - it is necessary.

I'm not sure how big a shop you usually do and what hourly rate you're on, but the minute or less I spend checking my receipt hardly eats into my 'valuable time'.

Not only that, as I said in my first post on this thread, I end up in pocket if Tesco overcharge me (sorry that that doesn't happen to you as you've never been overcharged even though you do check your receipts).

I'm not sure I'd class the mistake of not taking down an offer that ended the day before or staff putting the wrong SEL under items as 'defrauding' customers but that's your prerogative to view it as you will.
I'd say it was a mistake/ommission by staff or poor staff training or poor management.
Sloppy? Yes.
Fraud? No.

Azari wrote: »

Whilst some of the points raised about how and when to check have had some validity, it does not detract from the fact that supermarkets are being way too careless in the way they price things, particularly where special offers are concerned and this is leading to a great deal of mischarging - usually, it has to be said, in favour of the supermarket.

Yes, supermarkets are careless about pricing (but not defrauding, imho).

One way to make them realise this is to keep Customer services busy by pointing out pricing errors.

As above, if you have any other suggestions to make them more perfect in their product display, please let me know.

Azari wrote: »

One suspects that if the misprices were happening at the same rate in the customer's favour, it would focus the minds of those running the establishments on finding a way to ensure the errors did not happen.

I'm sure it would focus the minds of those running the establishments if the misprices were happening at the same rate in the customer's favour.

I'm sure someone was in trouble when I bought a TV wall bracket that had been on offer that ended the day before I bought it but nobody had removed the SEL.

Not only did I get the shelf at less than 1/3 of the full price, I also got DTD.
Offer price £30, should have been £100 when I bought it.
So they charged me £30 and gave me £140 back (£70 overcharged x 2). Nice, eh?

FWIW, I think posts like this one do serve to make people aware of the advisability of checking receipts regardless of whick store they shop in.

Azari

Pollycat wrote: »

I've not hammered anyone on this thread.
I've not stood up for any supermarket.

You're taking this very personally, but it was not specifically directed at you.

I'm not going comment on most of your points as they are (and have been in previous posts) perfectly sensible.

Two things, though.

Firstly, I agree that it is odd that I don't seem to get overcharged in Tesco. It's a very large Tesco Extra and I wonder if the difference between my experience and that of others is down to the manager concerned.

Secondly, on the subject of 'fraud'.

You, along with most other people, seem to hold the supermarkets to completely different standards to those that supermarkets hold customers.

If you mistakenly didn't pay for an item just one single time and the supermarket caught you, it's perfectly possible that you would end up with a criminal conviction for theft. "Oh, it was just a mistake, mistakes happen" simply would not cut it.

On the other hand, supermarkets routinely charge people the incorrect price and when it happens the error is overwhelmingly in their favour. And yet if you call it fraud, people will come crawling out of the woodwork to ridicule the assertion. It seems it's OK for a large supermarket to repeatedly 'accidentally' overcharge their customers and that's just unfortunate but if a customer underpays just once that can become a criminal matter.

And before anyone comes up with the "well, they obviously don't do it deliberately because of the 'double the difference'" argument, consider the fact that most people do not carefully check their receipts and if less than 50% of overcharges are spotted, the supermarket is quids in.

wrightk

lets all get real for a minute. IF it was a mistake by the supermarket/shelf stacker. how would you feel if it was you who was stacking shelves and made a genuine error only to be sacked for attempting to defraud customers. human error exists, like the others suggested noone is suggesting defrauding or deliberatly misleading customers. all it takes is a couple of minutes in the car park to scan through the receipt, they even provide seating in the supermarket and have seen on a number of occasions people looking through their receipts.
im sorry but i just dont get this sob story that comes with the OP's post. we all have troubles and strife, no excuse

Azari

wrightk wrote: »

lets all get real for a minute. IF it was a mistake by the supermarket/shelf stacker. how would you feel if it was you who was stacking shelves and made a genuine error only to be sacked for attempting to defraud customers. human error exists, like the others suggested noone is suggesting defrauding or deliberatly misleading customers. all it takes is a couple of minutes in the car park to scan through the receipt, they even provide seating in the supermarket and have seen on a number of occasions people looking through their receipts.
im sorry but i just dont get this sob story that comes with the OP's post. we all have troubles and strife, no excuse

I'm afraid this is an incredibly poorly thought out response.

It isn't the shelf stacker/labeller who could be considered guilty of fraud. It is the supermarket for allowing to continue a systemic failing that results in it repeatedly charging more for products than the customer thought they were being charged.

But, again, the different standards that someone will hold a supermarket to compared to their customer almost beggars belief.

Here is someone who, rather than expecting the supermarkets to get their acts together and eliminate erroneous pricing, expects every customer to check every receipt every time they shop. And, presumably, thinks this is an acceptable way for things to be arranged.

And to make it even more laughable, starts this off by saying: "lets all get real for a minute." :rotfl: