Beware of supermarket fresh produce scales not applying promotional price advertised

Snooper1

At a large national supermarket chain which i will not currently name as I have approached Trading Standards, the scale i used near the fresh produce area used an incorrect price for the item. The item was showing as discounted but the discount was not programmed into the scale I used so it issued a sticky label at the standard price: 20% higher. More concerningly, a differnent scale located in another part of rhe store did use the correct pricing information meaning the two scales I was using were not accessing the same central pricing information. If just 20 of this root vegetable were purchased every day in every store nationally the rip off is more than £8,000 per day or nearly a quarter of a million if the price promotion runs for a month. A nice earner for the supermarket indeed. Imagine if it is happening across multiple fresh produce lines? Check the scale you use issues a pricing sticker which has the promotional price £/kg. 

powerful_Rogue

Snooper1 said:

At a large national supermarket chain which i will not currently name as I have approached Trading Standards, the scale i used near the fresh produce area used an incorrect price for the item. The item was showing as discounted but the discount was not programmed into the scale I used so it issued a sticky label at the standard price: 20% higher. More concerningly, a differnent scale located in another part of rhe store did use the correct pricing information meaning the two scales I was using were not accessing the same central pricing information. If just 20 of this root vegetable were purchased every day in every store nationally the rip off is more than £8,000 per day or nearly a quarter of a million if the price promotion runs for a month. A nice earner for the supermarket indeed. Imagine if it is happening across multiple fresh produce lines? Check the scale you use issues a pricing sticker which has the promotional price £/kg. 

What did the store say when you highlighted the issue?

user1977

Snooper1 said:

At a large national supermarket chain which i will not currently name as I have approached Trading Standards

That doesn't make much sense. Why not just name them?

Snooper1

Well I thought Trading Standards might conduct a covert investigation to check whether it was a "one off" or more widespread. But given that might take time or they may not get involved, yes, it's probably better to name them. ASDA. I came across the issue at the Clapham Junction / Battersea and the item was butternut squash. Normally £1.20/kg but advertised on the crate the items were in "Save 20p per kilogram. Price dropped to £1/kg." But the first scale priced and weighed it at £1.20/kg. A 34p overcharge on my.squash which weighed 1.688kg. Both scales agreed on the weight but not on the price.

Snooper1

Okell said:

Why have you started two identical threads?

I'm new. This is my first post and I was trying to correct the title and did not realise it would result in a duplicate post. Forgive me.

Snooper1

powerful_Rogue said:

Snooper1 said:

At a large national supermarket chain which i will not currently name as I have approached Trading Standards, the scale i used near the fresh produce area used an incorrect price for the item. The item was showing as discounted but the discount was not programmed into the scale I used so it issued a sticky label at the standard price: 20% higher. More concerningly, a differnent scale located in another part of rhe store did use the correct pricing information meaning the two scales I was using were not accessing the same central pricing information. If just 20 of this root vegetable were purchased every day in every store nationally the rip off is more than £8,000 per day or nearly a quarter of a million if the price promotion runs for a month. A nice earner for the supermarket indeed. Imagine if it is happening across multiple fresh produce lines? Check the scale you use issues a pricing sticker which has the promotional price £/kg. 

What did the store say when you highlighted the issue?

I emailed non - executive director Zuber Issa at ceo@asda.co.uk on 8 November. I've not yet had a response. I since learned Mr Issa stepped down from his role on 5 November but I do expect a response to the email in any event as it is the executive team which responded to a previous complaint I sent to that email address.

la531983

I mean, talk about going nuclear, this is clearly a simple pricing error that could have been rectified there and then, on the day.

Cube123

Snooper1 said:

At a large national supermarket chain which i will not currently name as I have approached Trading Standards, the scale i used near the fresh produce area used an incorrect price for the item. The item was showing as discounted but the discount was not programmed into the scale I used so it issued a sticky label at the standard price: 20% higher. More concerningly, a differnent scale located in another part of rhe store did use the correct pricing information meaning the two scales I was using were not accessing the same central pricing information. If just 20 of this root vegetable were purchased every day in every store nationally the rip off is more than £8,000 per day or nearly a quarter of a million if the price promotion runs for a month. A nice earner for the supermarket indeed. Imagine if it is happening across multiple fresh produce lines? Check the scale you use issues a pricing sticker which has the promotional price £/kg. 

This is clearly something that excites you to a degree, you refer to this as if this as if the supermarket is doing it deliberately, this is nonsense.  Highlight it to them so they supermarket can correct it rather than making yourself feel important by reporting it to trading standards.

Okell

Snooper1 said:

powerful_Rogue said:

Snooper1 said:

At a large national supermarket chain which i will not currently name as I have approached Trading Standards, the scale i used near the fresh produce area used an incorrect price for the item. The item was showing as discounted but the discount was not programmed into the scale I used so it issued a sticky label at the standard price: 20% higher. More concerningly, a differnent scale located in another part of rhe store did use the correct pricing information meaning the two scales I was using were not accessing the same central pricing information. If just 20 of this root vegetable were purchased every day in every store nationally the rip off is more than £8,000 per day or nearly a quarter of a million if the price promotion runs for a month. A nice earner for the supermarket indeed. Imagine if it is happening across multiple fresh produce lines? Check the scale you use issues a pricing sticker which has the promotional price £/kg. 

What did the store say when you highlighted the issue?

I emailed non - executive director Zuber Issa at ceo@asda.co.uk on 8 November. I've not yet had a response. I since learned Mr Issa stepped down from his role on 5 November but I do expect a response to the email in any event as it is the executive team which responded to a previous complaint I sent to that email address.

Didn't you point it out to staff instore?

I noticed yesterday in my local Waitrose that they had a product recall notice up against the wrong product.  Yes it was a similar product but it wasn't the one being recalled.

I pointed the error out to staff instore.  I wouldn't think of emailing the ceo

Snooper1

la531983 said:

I mean, talk about going nuclear, this is clearly a simple pricing error that could have been rectified there and then, on the day.

You are very trusting. I don't agree it is "clearly a simple pricing error". If it was a simple pricing error both scales I used would have used the same wrong price. If you think about the staffed conveyer checkouts, would you expect the same item to scan at different checkouts at different prices? No. You'd expect if the pricing error was simple each checkout would scan at the same wrong price. In that case, a simple rectification could be made in the system to correct it at all checkouts quickly and simultaneously. Different prices in different scales suggests "manual processes" are involved which are prone to error and therefore this sort of error is unlikely to be confined to one scale in one store, one item and one promotion. Had it been rectified on the day who is to say that a busy staff member would have taken the time to convey to a higher up that they needed to identify how many customers (possibly hundreds or thousands) had been overcharged and refund them? 34p for each customer is nothing (for most but a canned meal for some) but having it rectified on the day misses the bigger issue that the supermarket would likely just say "sorry" and keep the money they overcharged prior customers which could be a substantial amount. When banks are found to have overcharged they are eventually forced to refund customers. Why should supermarkets be any different?

Snooper1

Cube123 said:

Snooper1 said:

At a large national supermarket chain which i will not currently name as I have approached Trading Standards, the scale i used near the fresh produce area used an incorrect price for the item. The item was showing as discounted but the discount was not programmed into the scale I used so it issued a sticky label at the standard price: 20% higher. More concerningly, a differnent scale located in another part of rhe store did use the correct pricing information meaning the two scales I was using were not accessing the same central pricing information. If just 20 of this root vegetable were purchased every day in every store nationally the rip off is more than £8,000 per day or nearly a quarter of a million if the price promotion runs for a month. A nice earner for the supermarket indeed. Imagine if it is happening across multiple fresh produce lines? Check the scale you use issues a pricing sticker which has the promotional price £/kg. 

This is clearly something that excites you to a degree, you refer to this as if this as if the supermarket is doing it deliberately, this is nonsense.  Highlight it to them so they supermarket can correct it rather than making yourself feel important by reporting it to trading standards.

I don't think my level of excitement or feelings of self importance are relevant. Highlighting it to the supermarket at the time does little to reimburse those who have already been overcharged nor does it incentise the supermarket to treat it as a serious issue and put in place systems and controls to prevent a repeat.