How much Compensation should I get for being Wrongly Accused of stealing a week before in Sainsbury

iyhr

I was publicly humiliated and embarrassed in my large,local Sainsbury's recently when a member of staff (shop assistant)
accussed me in front of the Public and Staff of leaving the week before without paying for my shopping.
He said my card had been declined, that they (he and Security man) had run after me but I had disappeared. 
He wanted me to go and wait at the desk by the check-outs while he fetched the Security Man who had the 'unpaid' receipt.
I continued shopping until he returned onlyfor him to tell me they had lost the receipt so they would
                       "HAVE TO LEAVE IT"! 
Which, as far as I'm concerned was not the same as being innocent. I complained and received an apology and £2.50
(that's two pounds fifty pence) on my nectar card.) which I told them was inadequate/

In short, it took some weeks and insistence on my part, until Sainsbury found the transaction on the CCTV footage which
showed me at a self-serice till inserting my card and inputting pin number. The payment had not gone through but there
was no way for me to know that as the card reader merely showed a message 'Remove your card', exactly the same as
it does when a payment has gone through.

It transpires that this is not a rare occurance - it has happened to me again on 5 different occassions since but on each
case I was using a check-out with a cashier who knew the payment had not gone through.

In short, I have spent hours sorting this out and still feel humiliated, not just by the event but the 'couldn't-care-less attitude
of the Staff except when I eventually spoke to the Store Manager who investigated the case. He has admitted that there is
a fault with some of their Card Readers and apologised profusely for what happened.

I am 73, shop at that store almost daily since retiring in 2009, prior to that I shopped there regularly since the store opened
in 1983, 40 years ago. I am known to most of the staff there. I still feel humiliated not just by the event but by the failure of
the Staff to deal with this. I spend hours of my time dealing with this.  I am reluctant to shop there and feel bad whenever
I do.I know I did not do anything wrong but the staff and members of the Public don't know that. The Cash Machines have not
been changed and there is no signage to warn Customers of the problem.

THE STORE MANAGER HAS OFFERED ME COMPENSATION BUT I DON'T KNOW HOW HOW MUCH TO ASK FOR?

Anyone know what I might be entitled to legally/

p00hsticks

iyhr said:

In short, it took some weeks and insistence on my part, until Sainsbury found the transaction on the CCTV footage which showed me at a self-serice till inserting my card and inputting pin number. The payment had not gone through but there was no way for me to know that as the card reader merely showed a message 'Remove your card', exactly the same as it does when a payment has gone through.

Whenever I've made a card payment, either via contactless or by inserting it and typing a pin, it come backs to say either 'approved' or 'declined'. (If it's a contactless transaction it may then ask me to insert my card and enter my pin).

It's unclear to me if you did actually pay for the shopping or not - what does you bank statement say ? If you didn't (even through no fault of your own and beingunaware that you hadn't) then I'd suggest you need to include the fact that you've ended up getting all your shopping for free when considering what compensation you are owed. 

screech_78

Legally, you’re entitled to nothing unless you can demonstrate a financial loss. 

What they’ll be offering you is a goodwill gesture. No amount of money will change what’s happened. 

diystarter7

Btw - OP and others - this self serive thingy - i dread them and treble check and always go for a recipt but at times one does not come out

Again, sorry re what happend to you and you did well to pursue this as I would have

Good luck

Altior

You did leave without paying OP.

People use these kind of tactics and claim ignorance all of the time. 

How you'd handle it from the store perspective depends upon instinct really, whether you thought this was likely to be an oversight, or deliberate attempt. And they might be repeatedly getting 'hit' by this tactic

We would usually ask the individual to accompany us to a holding room, and not overtly discuss it in public. But this was many years ago, nowadays people are much more inclined to create drama. They asked you to wait at the service desk, but you didn't comply with this request and carried on with your shopping.

Anything to see here? Not much. Perhaps they could have handled it more delicately, perhaps you could own up to your error more readily. Swings and roundabouts. 

bris

You should have known it was declined, tbh I'm surprised you missed it, you wouldn't have got a receipt either.

Bottom line is you are the one with the free goods so  you owe them?

screech_78

I actually missed that OP didn’t even pay for their shopping. In that case, the £2.50 you got is extremely generous. You owe them, not the other way around. 

molerat

If a payment had not been accepted it would be clear that it had not.  I have had it happen a few times and it is obvious and the checkout screen would not clear and would still be asking for payment.  Take the £2.50 as a bonus and consider yourself lucky the police were not called.  Pay more attention in future.

powerful_Rogue

It's very clear on the screen as it happened to me last week. Shop was for over £100 so I put my card in the machine to pay. After entering the PIN it came up on the machine as declined and on the main screen 'There was an issue with your payment card, please try again or contact a member of staff'. I tried a further 2 times with the same issue. In the end, I got a member of staff to remove an item to take it under £100 so I could use contactless on my phone, then purchase the other item seperately.

After speaking to First Direct, appeared somehow Chip&PIN had been disabled on my card.

Manxman_in_exile

I always make sure I have a receipt showing that I've paid before I leave any supermarket.  Especially whan using self-service tills.

If the till doesn't produce a receipt I ask for one.

sleepymans

Think yourself lucky….then use the staffed checkouts in future, for your (and the shop’s) benefit!