Beware of supermarket fresh produce scales not applying promotional price advertised

Pollycat

Snooper1 said:

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. 

How do you think the supermarket could identify - and refund - those people who have already bought the item at the incorrect, higher price?
I walk into a supermarket, pick up a couple of carrots and pay cash.
If I've been overcharged, how would anyone know it was me?

Snooper1

I didn't consider customers who pay cash. So in that case.the misleading and deceptive practice which overcharged you by 20% goes unpunished/unrefunded. This is more reason to escalate the complaint in my view. To try and have ASDA implement better controls and checks to protect those who otherwise would be forever out of pocket because you paid cash. Highlighting it to the personnel in that one store does nothing to address potential systemic issues which may be affecting the loading of fresh produce discounts onto some scales at all 1,200 stores. So the cash customers of 1,200 stores are the most severely affected as there is no way to refund them directly.
  

voluted

Snooper1 said:

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. 

So per store, they're raking in an extra £6.67.

Given they pay their store colleagues £12.04 ph currently, if they end up spending more than 30 mins of the day dealing with unhappy customers who have realised they've been short-changed, they're going to lose money. In fact, it's almost certainly going to be less than that as the cost for an employee is going to be a fair bit more than just their hourly wage, so probably more like 20 minutes. And of course that's not taking into account word getting out that Asda are ripping people off etc etc.

There are much better ways of making money than leaving one price on one scale incorrect and pocketing the extra.

Snooper1

Ergates said:

Snooper1 said:
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?

You literally describe how it is probably a simple pricing error, right after suggesting it's not one.

Really? There is a lot of daylight between identifying one scale which has the wrong price, particularly if it is online like the others, and where in the system the error occurred to make it solely have the wrong price. Until the point of failure is identified it may not be able to be corrected without a workaround being applied. Doesn't sound that simple to me.

voluted

Snooper1 said:

Ergates said:

Snooper1 said:
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?

You literally describe how it is probably a simple pricing error, right after suggesting it's not one.

Really? There is a lot of daylight between identifying one scale which has the wrong price, particularly if it is online like the others, and where in the system the error occurred to make it solely have the wrong price. Until the point of failure is identified it may not be able to be corrected without a workaround being applied. Doesn't sound that simple to me.

By "simple pricing error" they mean it's just an error with the price rather than a grand conspiracy to pocket £3m a year by overcharging 20% on one specific root vegetable on one specific scale per store.

Snooper1

voluted said:

Snooper1 said:

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. 

So per store, they're raking in an extra £6.67.

Given they pay their store colleagues £12.04 ph currently, if they end up spending more than 30 mins of the day dealing with unhappy customers who have realised they've been short-changed, they're going to lose money. In fact, it's almost certainly going to be less than that as the cost for an employee is going to be a fair bit more than just their hourly wage, so probably more like 20 minutes. And of course that's not taking into account word getting out that Asda are ripping people off etc etc.

There are much better ways of making money than leaving one price on one scale incorrect and pocketing the extra.

Fair point. I am not saying it's a deliberate strategy. But what if it's widespread and happens often yet the store does nothing to effectively identify the cause nor implement systems, checks and controls to prevent it from happening in the future or at least reduce the incidence? Why should customers have to be policing the pricing forever in such an important sector? If an airline offered 20% off a million seats and a.known but ignored system bug meant anyone with an iPhone was charged full price, that would be taken seriously in my view.

Snooper1

Okell said:

Snooper1 said:

born_again said:

Snooper1 said:

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 incentive the supermarket to treat it as a serious issue and put in place systems and  controls to prevent a repeat. 

No, but it does give them chance to fix the issue straight away. Rather than a email to someone no longer working there. 
The offer might only have started that day.

1st rule. Make sure error is fixed ASAP. Then think about complaining is that is your bag 🤷‍♀️

T/S can't deal with the big rip off's, Let alone send someone to a supermarket to do a random check on scales.

Thank you. I wasn't aware Trading Standards was of such limited assistance in these circumstances. I will keep your 1st rule in mind, thank you.

Back in the 1980s I was a trainee Trading Standards Inspector.  I left because I was sure I could find better ways to spend my time.  By all accounts on this board, they are of no more use now that they were then.  In fact they are probably less use now as at least back in the 1980s it was possible for the public to contact them directly.

Out of interest, how did you manage to make a complaint to them this time?  I'm curious to know.

Incidentally, I always check all my receipts to ensure that offers etc have been correctly applied, and I also always check the instore scales before using them to make sure they are zeroed correctly.  (And I sometimes check purchases against my own scales)

 Apparenty T/S cannot be contacted by consumers direct. I discovered I needed to contact my local Citizens Advice Bureau by filling in an online form which I did and they would escalate to T/S if they saw fit to do so. As it happened I got an email back from CAB saying they cannot help online with this type of issue and I need to call them. Given CAB helps people with acute and urgent issues such as homelessness I am.not going to take up their time.by calling. More reason to escalate my issue to ASDA management in my view as TS will not become involved.

Snooper1

Ergates said:

Snooper1 said:

Well I thought Trading Standards might conduct a covert investigation to check whether it was a "one off" or more widespread. 

You contacted Trading Standards, not MI5

Maybe I need to get them on the case too

born_again

Okell said:

If you think the store manager can't be trusted, what makes you think you can trust the ceo?

Especially one of the brothers who brought the ASDA group using a loan secured against the group...

Snooper1

voluted said:

Snooper1 said:

Ergates said:

Snooper1 said:
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?

You literally describe how it is probably a simple pricing error, right after suggesting it's not one.

Really? There is a lot of daylight between identifying one scale which has the wrong price, particularly if it is online like the others, and where in the system the error occurred to make it solely have the wrong price. Until the point of failure is identified it may not be able to be corrected without a workaround being applied. Doesn't sound that simple to me.

By "simple pricing error" they mean it's just an error with the price rather than a grand conspiracy to pocket £3m a year by overcharging 20% on one specific root vegetable on one specific scale per store.

OK. I'm not suggesting it's a grand conspiracy, but it's hard to accept it would be happening with just one scale and one fresh produce item in one store out of 1,200 and involve just one promo discount. This is my first or second post on this forum.and I am quite surprised how much benefit of the doubt/latitude those who have responded have given to this massive business which should take absolutely seriously any report of any pricing anomaly negatively impacting customers, particularly a hard to detect one where the final.item.price differs based on weight and is meant to be a.promo bit isn't at all.