Tesco Self-Service Checkout Fraud

cymruchris

This seems a big hooha over nothing. To the OP - how hard is it to look at a screen with those words that come up showing what you've scanned? It's not like you scan things - and it doesn't show you what they are?

1 x loaf bread £0.95p
1 x carrot £0.12p
1 x marmite £1.76

You scan - you look - you scan - you look. 

Then you pay.

Unless you spot an error - like scanning the same thing twice - and then call for assistance.

You must know what you've just bought as you've just picked it up off the shelves. You obviously know you only have one loaf of bread and not three.

If there's any reason you have a visual impairment (which could be a plausible reason for missing out the mis-scans) which prevents you from looking at the screen, it might be better to go through the human operated checkouts instead. (Although that does mean you might have to actually say hello to someone and even break out a smile).

photome

cymruchris said:

This seems a big hooha over nothing. To the OP - how hard is it to look at a screen with those words that come up showing what you've scanned? It's not like you scan things - and it doesn't show you what they are?

1 x loaf bread £0.95p
1 x carrot £0.12p
1 x marmite £1.76

You scan - you look - you scan - you look. 

Then you pay.

Unless you spot an error - like scanning the same thing twice - and then call for assistance.

You must know what you've just bought as you've just picked it up off the shelves. You obviously know you only have one loaf of bread and not three.

If there's any reason you have a visual impairment (which could be a plausible reason for missing out the mis-scans) which prevents you from looking at the screen, it might be better to go through the human operated checkouts instead. (Although that does mean you might have to actually say hello to someone and even break out a smile).

And of course if all that fails, check the receipt before leaving the store, unless your last paragraph applies

3guesses

Aylesbury_Duck said:

3guesses said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

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.

And how exactly have *I* *EVIDENTLY* mis-scanned the goods?  How exactly is it possible for you to categorically rule out a fault on the part of Tesco?

Unbelievable.

I can't, but I'm going on the balance of probabilities that a national retailer with thousands of identical self-service tills that it's been operating for years is probably quite confident that the vast, vast majority of transaction problems are customer error.

What's unbelievable about that?

You asserted: ">>>You've<<< evidently mis-scanned goods" without any grounds whatsoever for such an assertion.  I find it pretty unbelievable someone would seriously do that and by implication that Tesco were completely beyond culpability.  Now you've acknowledged that IT WAS NOT EVIDENT.  Thank you.

3guesses

davidmcn said:

3guesses said:

davidmcn said:

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

Fraud by negligence.  

I don't think that's a thing. 

Then just negligence I guess.  A very quick Google, however, produced:

"Secondly, the claimant’s counsel suggested that, although the pleaded claim was primarily one of fraudulent misrepresentation, it would be sufficient for the claimant to show that the representations had been made “negligently”, relying on section 2(1) of the Misrepresentation Act 1967 (the 1967 Act) [8].  The 1967 Act provides that the same remedies (having the contract set aside and seeking unlimited damages) are available where the misrepresentation was made negligently as if it were made fraudulently, unless the person making the misrepresentation proves that they had reasonable ground to believe and did believe up to the time the contract was made that the facts represented were true."

(https://www.walkermorris.co.uk/publications/righting-civil-wrongs-commercial-fraud-deceit-bribery/)

3guesses

LilElvis said:

As you scan the details of the items appear in big letters on a screen right in front of you. Scan. Look at screen to check item has scanned correctly/ correct price charged. Place in bagging area. It's right there in front of you so that you can check that you are being correctly charged and that you haven't inadvertently scanned an item twice.

Right.  And what would have come up would have been THE CORRECT ITEM.  You would have to be extremely fastidious/anal also to check FOR EVERY SINGLE ITEM that the checkout hasn't mistakenly scanned it twice, especially when you are fully accustomed to the checkout's standard modus operandi not permitting this to happen.

3guesses

gettingtheresometime said:

3guesses said:

gettingtheresometime said:

theonlywayisup said:

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.

We have two areas of self scan in our local store.  One is the scan and bag scenario as you describe, the other is the scan and bag yourself as you walk around the store.  I took the OP to be the second situation.  Other than the occasional spot check, the customer is left to pretty much their own devices with no checking of goods against the scan/payment and certainly no weighing of anything. 

Edit - I see they call it scan and go.  

But if that was the case then in fairness it could be considered to be operator error rather than tesco fraud which are two completely different things.
Hopefully the OP will return and clarify which type they used....though you'll forgive me if I don't hold my breath for that to happen

Hopefully I have satisfied your requirements in previous replies.  Again, I'm not really sure where there is scope for "operator error" when taking an item from the shopping basket, scanning its barcode, and then putting it in the bagging area.  Perhaps you can explain that one... or not, I rather suspect.

As has already been said if it was the scan & go sort then operator error could easily be explained by you 'sapping' the bar code too many times.

however as you've kindly clarified that it's the other sort then I have no idea as, others have said, as every time I've used these tills, I have to put the item in the bagging area before I can proceed with another item

Thank you, that is precisely my point.

3guesses

cymruchris said:

This seems a big hooha over nothing. To the OP - how hard is it to look at a screen with those words that come up showing what you've scanned? It's not like you scan things - and it doesn't show you what they are?

1 x loaf bread £0.95p
1 x carrot £0.12p
1 x marmite £1.76

You scan - you look - you scan - you look. 

Then you pay.

Unless you spot an error - like scanning the same thing twice - and then call for assistance.

You must know what you've just bought as you've just picked it up off the shelves. You obviously know you only have one loaf of bread and not three.

If there's any reason you have a visual impairment (which could be a plausible reason for missing out the mis-scans) which prevents you from looking at the screen, it might be better to go through the human operated checkouts instead. (Although that does mean you might have to actually say hello to someone and even break out a smile).

No, I don't "scan, look, scan, look".  I pick up, scan, place in bagging area, pick up, scan, place in bagging area.  If the item doesn't scan, it doesn't allow me to put it in the bagging area.  If I scan and don't put it in the bagging area, it complains and won't let me scan another.  Why should I have to check that every single item has scanned once and only once?  That is the responsibility of the retailer, not the customer - and the standard modus operandi of the self-service checkouts effects this.

3guesses

A quick question for some of the posters here: have you ever heard of the phrase "victim-blaming"?

Just curious.

giraffe69

I think you should have your licence to use these machines withdrawn. Use the manned tills or the swipe as you go round if your supermarket offers it and then you won't have to suffer these problems. You could switch to another supermarket.
Whatever the cause the accusation that Tesco is engaged in fraud is preposterous.

davidmcn

3guesses said:

davidmcn said:

3guesses said:

davidmcn said:

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

Fraud by negligence.  

I don't think that's a thing. 

Then just negligence I guess.  A very quick Google, however, produced:

"Secondly, the claimant’s counsel suggested that, although the pleaded claim was primarily one of fraudulent misrepresentation, it would be sufficient for the claimant to show that the representations had been made “negligently”, relying on section 2(1) of the Misrepresentation Act 1967 (the 1967 Act) [8].  The 1967 Act provides that the same remedies (having the contract set aside and seeking unlimited damages) are available where the misrepresentation was made negligently as if it were made fraudulently, unless the person making the misrepresentation proves that they had reasonable ground to believe and did believe up to the time the contract was made that the facts represented were true."

(https://www.walkermorris.co.uk/publications/righting-civil-wrongs-commercial-fraud-deceit-bribery/)

So you're not alleging they've committed a crime after all?