Check Those Receipts

silverwhistle

Maths was my weakest subject at school but you don't need to be too careful or a mathematical genius to at least have some idea as to what the bill might be at the check out. Not sure how big the OP's final bill was but for most of us it would have to be pretty big not to notice £17. At the very least I can normally tell if I'm going to be under the £30 (or now) £45 wave a card limit. It's a question of orders of magnitude.

To all those saying it's such a difficult task to be aware, do you not have an idea of what you are putting in your baskets? Surely for regular items you know what the price is, plus unusual purchases (that French cheese, that special dessert) you buy bcause it seems like good value because you've noted the price.

I rarely use Tesco because I've found it so bad for confusion marketing, even if most supermarkets occasionally get it wrong. If it is deliberate you can see why they do it as so many people think it rocket science to do basic arithmetic.

Takmon

MalMonroe said:

Lip_Stick said:

Takmon said:

Tippytoes said:

Thanks for all your comments.  I passed all my maths exams back in the day when they counted for something.  I went shopping with my other half, who paid as I packed.  Other half actually commented that the Lidl total was cheap!  I paid in Tesco and identified the overcharge before leaving the store.  Once bitten, twice shy.  Guess the maths geniuses on here have never been caught out but I hope I have helped someone.

All I'm suggesting is simple rounding and addition. Even if you had rounded everything up the nearest pound and added it together in your head as you went along you would have easily spotted a £17 overcharge because it would have been more than your expected amount when it should be less due to the rounding up of every item.

It's much easier to spot the mistake before you pay rather than checking receipts after and then having to go back.

Yes, because everyone can be arsed to do that, or don't get distracted, on every shop they do. 

There's always someone who never makes a mistake, though. We should all be so lucky! 

Well the people who check their receipts afterwards are the one's who must be the geniuses and never make a mistake because there i no way i could remember exactly the price of every item i buy in a large shopping trip and then check this against what the receipt says afterwards. I don't know anyone who can do that actually but people seem to think that is the most sensible idea and adding up as you go along is apparently the more difficult thing to do?. That seems backwards to me!

Pollycat

I'm one who checks my receipts before I leave the shop - but I only do a basket full at a time so I don't find it too hard to do.

I think you should just do what works for you.

The message is 'check your receipts'.

Silvertabby

It's an age thing.  I do round tally in my head as I shop, mainly to see if I can use any money off/extra loyalty points coupons.

My late mum, however, could run an exact tally - to the last penny! - in her head, even back in pre decimal days.  Oddly enough, she really struggled with the transition to 'this stupid newfangled money'.

Uptown_Boy

20s to the pound, 12d to the shilling, so 240d to the pound. (I was 6 when decimalisation came in).

Mnoee

Unless you're comfortable with 4D vectors and the other complicated mathematical concepts that go into making modern video games, I wouldn't be so disparaging of today's youth. There's always been people who are bad at maths, but 'kids these days' are just as bright as older generations. They just have a different skillset for more modern times. 

Silvertabby

Mnoee said:

Unless you're comfortable with 4D vectors and the other complicated mathematical concepts that go into making modern video games, I wouldn't be so disparaging of today's youth. There's always been people who are bad at maths, but 'kids these days' are just as bright as older generations. They just have a different skillset for more modern times. 

Mr S bought several small things that came to £8 something.  At the checkout, he handed a £5 note and the exact amount of shrapnel (this being pre covid) to the youngster manning the till. 

With a look that I can only describe as sheer panic, she handed the cash back to Mr S and demanded  a £10 note instead " because the till tells me how much change to give you".

Too reliant on technology?

Mnoee

Silvertabby said:

Mnoee said:

Unless you're comfortable with 4D vectors and the other complicated mathematical concepts that go into making modern video games, I wouldn't be so disparaging of today's youth. There's always been people who are bad at maths, but 'kids these days' are just as bright as older generations. They just have a different skillset for more modern times. 

Mr S bought several small things that came to £8 something.  At the checkout, he handed a £5 note and the exact amount of shrapnel (this being pre covid) to the youngster manning the till. 

With a look that I can only describe as sheer panic, she handed the cash back to Mr S and demanded  a £10 note instead " because the till tells me how much change to give you".

Too reliant on technology?

That's like me pointing at the multiple posts per day about old people being convinced by a man on the phone that Microsoft need to fix their ipad, or silly parents who put their bank details on their tablets then hand them to children. There's always extreme examples.

I was listening to David Bowie while washing up, and back in 1971 he was singing about 'these children that you spit on as they try to change their world' - So hating on the youth is clearly nothing new!. I wonder what was wrong with them back then, they were doing O-levels and must have been familiar old money so surely they can't have been THAT bad. 

Pollycat

Silvertabby said:

Mr S bought several small things that came to £8 something.  At the checkout, he handed a £5 note and the exact amount of shrapnel (this being pre covid) to the youngster manning the till. 

With a look that I can only describe as sheer panic, she handed the cash back to Mr S and demanded  a £10 note instead " because the till tells me how much change to give you".

Too reliant on technology?

A number of years ago, my sister and I were Christmas shopping in Woolworths ( yes - that long ago ) and they had an offer on toys buy 2 get one free.

We bought 6 items between us and I worked out the total (in my head) and had the exact money in my hand.

When we got to the till, the assistant put them through in the wrong order so instead of paying for 2 expensive ones and getting the 3rd expensive one free (and the same with the cheaper ones), she scanned 2 expensive ones and one cheap one and one expensive one and 2 cheap ones.

As an example (the individual amounts weren't exact £s) 3 @ £12.00, 3 @ £3.00.

I expected to pay £12.00 each for the 2 and get the £12.00 free = £24.00 and pay £3.00 each for the cheapest and get the £3.00 one free making a total of £30.00.

The till showed £12.00 + £12.00 and £3.00 free = £24.00 and £12.00 + £3.00 and £3.00 free = £15.00, making a total of £39.00.

Of course the total was more than I expected so I queried it.

She couldn't understand my point so I told her to void all 6 items and then handed her the items in the order I wanted her to scan them. (I'd been under the impression that the till would have done this).

The total came to exactly the amount I'd got in my hands and I put it all down on the counter, notes and coins.

Both her and my sister looked at me as though I'd invented a cure for an incurable disease when it was - to me - simple addition.

My sister confessed that she wouldn't have known she had been charged too much.

Takmon

Silvertabby said:

Mnoee said:

Unless you're comfortable with 4D vectors and the other complicated mathematical concepts that go into making modern video games, I wouldn't be so disparaging of today's youth. There's always been people who are bad at maths, but 'kids these days' are just as bright as older generations. They just have a different skillset for more modern times. 

Mr S bought several small things that came to £8 something.  At the checkout, he handed a £5 note and the exact amount of shrapnel (this being pre covid) to the youngster manning the till. 

With a look that I can only describe as sheer panic, she handed the cash back to Mr S and demanded  a £10 note instead " because the till tells me how much change to give you".

Too reliant on technology?

So one young person who doesn't know how to do their job properly (because the till is certainly not set up too not accept exact amounts!) is an example of all young people being too reliant on technology? 

Like Mnoee says there are always going to be stupid people and clever people of all ages.