Tesco Self-Service Checkout Fraud

3guesses

Hi all,

I recently did some shopping at my local Tesco and used the self-service checkout to pay for my goods.  However, when I arrived home and went through the receipt I discovered I had been charged for some items which I hadn't bought:

• I was charged for 4 packets of chicken fillets when I only bought 3
• I was charged for 2 packets of burgers when I only bought 1

I therefore returned to Tesco.  The "manager" refunded me the cost of the items for which I had been charged but not bought, but refused to compensate me for the inconvenience of having to return to the store without having first checked the CCTV footage.  On returning home again I subsequently discovered that I had actually also been charged for 2 ready meals when I had only bought 1, so in total that's 3 items I was charged for that I didn't buy.  I spent several weeks trying to get the manager at the store to contact me about compensation for the inconvenience, but they never did.  I have, however, obtained the CCTV footage of the transaction so I can prove that I only bought 3 packets of chicken fillets/1 packet of burgers/1 ready meal.

How is it even possible for a self-service checkout to charge for goods that you haven't purchased?  In my experience, they don't let you put items in the bagging area until you have scanned them, so how can it include "scanned" items that aren't then put in the bagging area?  God knows how many other people this has happened to who are just unaware that they have been charged for items that they haven't bought.  Given the fact that Tesco's self-service checkouts can do this, I fail to see how they are fit for purpose, and it seems to me to be a prima facie case of fraud by Tesco for their self-service checkouts to be able to arbitrarily charge customers for items they have not bought.

Any thoughts?

davidmcn

"Fraud"? I very much doubt that Tesco have deliberately set up their tills to overcharge everyone and hope that nobody notices. 

theonlywayisup

Self service = self scan.  Did you operate the scan correctly, does your acquired CCTV show this?

stragglebod

I think you were careless when you were scanning the items, just as you were careless when you didn't check the list of items before confirming payment, just as you were careless when you didn't check your receipt properly and missed the third duplicated item when complaining about the first two.

Why should Tesco compensate you for your wasted time, when in fact it's their managers time that has been wasted?

Aylesbury_Duck

Fraud?  No.  You should be more attentive when using self-service checkouts.  You can see on screen what you're being charged for, leaving it until getting home seems a bit silly. As for compensation, for what?  You've evidently mis-scanned goods so any time wasted is a consequence of that.

Pollycat

I think you probably scanned something too many times.
A lesson to check your receipt before you leave the store.

George_Michael

There's one thing that doesn't make sense to me.
Whenever I've used a self scan checkout, you have to scan an item and place it in the bag or in the bagging area where the recorded weight of the item will be checked against the actual weight of the item.
If the weight of the item is different to what is expected, the till usually requires a store assistant to clear it and if the item is not placed in the bagging area, a warning of "place item in bag/bagging area" (or something similar) and nothing further can be scanned until this is done.
It might miss a small light item but chicken fillets and burgers are fairly substantial items.

soolin

If the OP hadn’t been a regular I would be wondering about this. As above this seems a very odd things especially when weight is checked and hundreds of thousands of people use these checkouts every day without the sensational papers not carrying multiple stories about shops defrauding us. 

bradders1983

Why are Tesco giving CCTV footage out to customers? That doesn't ring true either 🤔🤔

shaun_from_Africa

soolin said:

If the OP hadn’t been a regular I would be wondering about this.

That's assuming that the account isn't being accessed by someone other that the person who originally started the account.
Before today, their account had been dormant for almost 4 years so this is a possibility.

I agree with the comments about the scanned weight. I sometimes pick up a newspaper at the weekend and when scanning it, there will be a discrepancy detected if the weekend supplement is heavier than expected or if I have chosen a paper that has this supplement missing. 

Manxman_in_exile

George_Michael said:

There's one thing that doesn't make sense to me.
Whenever I've used a self scan checkout, you have to scan an item and place it in the bag or in the bagging area where the recorded weight of the item will be checked against the actual weight of the item.
If the weight of the item is different to what is expected, the till usually requires a store assistant to clear it and if the item is not placed in the bagging area, a warning of "place item in bag/bagging area" (or something similar) and nothing further can be scanned until this is done.
It might miss a small light item but chicken fillets and burgers are fairly substantial items.

Not in my local Waitrose.  Once you've scanned an item you don't need* to put it on the bagging platform.  You can put it straight back into your trolley, or carry it in your arms or whatever, and the system allows you to keep scanning.  Whether it will likewise allow you to put something on the bagging platform without first scanning it, I don't know, but the system obviously isn't comparing weights.

Seems daft to me.

*Which is just as well as the self check out area in my local Waitrose is really badly designed.  The bagging platform is at about mid-chest height so if you put a bag on there, you can't see into it properly and run the risk of everything falling all over the floor when it topples over.